"Do you know what my favourite part of the game is? The opportunity to play." - Mike Singletary
The amount of gaming rises and falls to its own rhythm and seems to be on the up again. I have just finished marking up my opening dispositions for James' latest Seven Years War scenario, which kicks off tomorrow. Full details are naturally enough available on his blog although you'll have to dig back past the terrain porn. I have also written up a draft set of amendments to 'For, Lords, Tomorrow is a Busy Day', although I imagine that it will be some time before we go back to it. I wish that I had done the same when we had finished playing 'Romans in Britain' as all I have in that case is a set of unintelligible scribbles in the margins of the first draft. Painting has been suspended due to the table being needed for other purposes, but I had completed six stands of 15th century light horse, nine Roman auxiliaries and yet more Roman civilians.
And then there is boardgaming, with yet another new venue making its debut. Games played were:
- Princes of Florence - a first play for me although it's about fifteen years old. It has many features in common with the much newer 'Castles of Mad King Ludwig'. I thought it was good and I'd play it again.
- Euphoria - which struck me as being very similar in mechanics to 'Alien Frontiers' although I preferred the latter. The theme - exploitation of workers in a dystopian future - is completely irrelevant and superfluous.
- R-Eco - another neat card filler, apparently about recycling although one would never guess.
- Evolution - I enjoyed this yet again, although I really cocked up the last round and suffered my own personal mass extinction.
- Condottiere - this is a good game that doesn't get played enough and is another with a war theme that go down well with the wider boardgaming community. Oh, and I won.
- Red7 - we played this a bit more extensively this time round, moving on to the second level of rules which I think made it even better. Oh, and I won.
The Singletary quote caught my eye. Singletary also said a number of other things about the importance of winning, which is indisputable but not so comfortable to those of us who scrape the occasional draw on life's battlefields.
ReplyDeleteThe quote in point puts me in mind of the general issue of potential vs reality - the excitement over being about to do something which could be great somehow survives repeated (habitual?) disappointment. Discuss.
My maternal grandfather was a great man in a weird way - some of his greatness lies in the fact that I only met him a small number of times. For reasons which I never understood, he spoke like Robert Morley, and his occasional, very genteel profanity added an amusing spice to his wisdom. He once said to me, "I love the early morning - I always get up early - it is the best time of the day, when things have not yet turned into the inevitable shit", which - I now realise - is something I feel too.
I always check your lists of boardgames with interest; I like the idea of boardgames, though I rarely play them these days. It's the same sort of thing - I think boardgames would be a terrific way to spend some time, but mostly I lack the opponents, or the patience to learn the rules, or even the actual game! The idea is still good though.
Good points, to which I shall respond in a future blog post. I do envy you having a grandfather reminiscent of Hamilton Black.
DeleteI adore Florence but didn't know about this game. I wonder if Princes of Florence is still in print?
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to have met your mat grandfather, Foy. Sounds like a wonderful fellow.
There are no real references to Florence in particular; rather there is a thinnish general Italian Renaissance theme as a hook for the mechanics. It's still a good game though. Many years ago I played Princes of the Renaissance and that has a much more developed theme. There is also of course James Roach's Italian Wars Game 'Pike and Plunder' which is available for download from Vexillia. I was a warrior Pope when the game was first played - a role for which you are far better suited than me.
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