Boardgaming Q3 2025

 

I wrote earlier in the year about how one member of my regular boardgaming group had been named Lemon Curd champion of Otley. Subsequently one of the others has been crowned Fruit Scone king of Addingham. What a talented bunch they are. I'm pleased to say that when we are not stuffing our faces with their baked goods we are still able to find time to play a few games. Here are some of them:

Azul: A very good game, which I have played remarkably few times.

Bomb Busters: I really enjoyed this cooperative deduction game in which players seek to collectively defuse a bomb by 'cutting' various wires using mechanisms that are a bit Hanabi meets Trio. I've only played a couple of the training scenarios, but apparently there are 66 in all. It's much less frenetic than the similarly themed Fuse. Do you know, I might actually have to put my hand in my pocket and buy this one.

Calico: A tile laying game where the aim is to lay out patterns and colours in certain combinations in order to create a quilt which cats can lay on. Like many such games it gets really annoying when the right piece doesn't turn up at the right time and I spent the game thinking that it was all luck However, the two players who had played before absolutely thrashed the two who hadn't, leading me to believe that there must be some strategy in it. I'd certainly play again.

Canvas: A drafting game in which what the cards drafted are mostly transparent, but with a small amount of screen printing. Three of these are combined in a special sleeve with a background card to create a 'painting'. It's a gimmick in search of a game, but plays very quickly so doesn't particularly outstay its welcome.

Distilled: Highly thematic and way too complicated game about making various types of spirits. There are something like half a dozen rounds. As we completed scoring for the first of these the person teaching the game gently told me that I had misunderstood what I was supposed to do and had in fact ended up with nul points. "Never mind" I thought, I understand it properly now. However, the same thing happened again at the end of the second round when I once more didn't trouble the scorers. I did manage to break my duck later in the game, but ended up being so far behind the eventual winner that, despite my being teetotal, I was sorely tempted to turn to one of the drinks we had been distilling.

Flamme Rouge: Astonishingly it had been eight years since I last played this excellent cycle racing game, although I have played the closely related Heat: Pedal to the Metal many times since. Nothing about my performance had improved and once again both my riders failed to cross the finish line.

The Gang: A cooperative version of poker. Just think about that for a moment. It's as terrible as you would imagine. The worst game I've played in a long time.

Lancaster: I had to teach this again, and once again that wasn't ideal. Still, this time it had only been 18 months rather than ten years. It's a good game, but I need to find someone who owns the expansion. Apparently that introduces a mechanism which can penalise those players who don't do their duty and  fight the French.

Let's Make a Bus Route: The Dice Game: I've never played the original, so can't say whether this matches my usual rule of thumb: dice/card versions of games are usually worse than the game they are based on. I thought that this was over-complicated, but possibly repeated playing would make things clearer. There are two maps to choose from. One is a random city (in which every tourist attraction is the Eiffel Tower) and the other is Mars. Odd,

Mountain Goats: A perfectly fine filler about climbing up mountains and pushing other goats off the top.

Northwest Passage Adventure: Clever enough game about racing through snow and ice. The rule book is terrible so I'm not clear how correctly we were playing it.

Prey Another Day: Eat or be eaten in  a sort of Citadels combined with Love Letter. Quick and fun.

Project L: A polyomino tile layer where you get to choose difficulty level of the puzzles you try to solve. It was OK.

Scythe: I had a disastrous first game of this a couple of years ago and it's taken this long for me to be persuaded to try it again. It went much better, but I still don't see why it is so highly rated. 

War of the 3 Sanchos: When I mentioned this last year I said that, while obscure and probably hard to find a copy, many wargamers would enjoy it. I still think so. Hopefully it won't be as long before El Cid rides out again in Otley.

Western Legends: Another game that might appeal to wargamers is this one. Take on the character of a famous figure of the old west and swan around either rustling cattle, robbing banks and shooting people or alternatively arresting those who do so. Add in prospecting for gold, playing poker and visiting the bordello and you have all the ingredients for a lot of fun. I got arrested more times than I would have wished by the NPC sheriff, but perhaps I'm just not cut out to be a black hat. Great fun.

V

 I need to mark the death of Leeds born poet and translator Tony Harrison, a working class boy made good who kept his radical politics his whole life. 

Let's have a few lines from his most famous poem, which are sadly still as valid today as they were in 1985:

These Vs are all the versuses of life
from LEEDS v. DERBY, Black/White
and (as I’ve known to my cost) man v. wife,
Communist v. Fascist, Left v. Right,

class v. class as bitter as before,
the unending violence of US and THEM,
personified in 1984
by Coal Board MacGregor and the NUM,

Hindu/Sikh, soul/body, heart v. mind,
East/West, male/female, and the ground
these Fixtures are fought out on’s Man, resigned
to hope from his future what his past never found.

The prospects for the present aren’t too grand
when a swastika with NF (National Front)’s
sprayed on a grave, to which another hand
has added, in a reddish colour, CUNTS.

There is going to be a reading of the whole poem on October 12th at Holbeck cemetery, site of his parents' vandalised grave which prompted the writing of the poem.

We Wear The Mask

 We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

       We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

       We wear the mask!

                  -Paul Laurence Dunbar

Broken Nose

 Regular readers will understand that I am always on the look-out for excuses as to why I haven't posted for a while. Well, I have found a new one. I think I have broken my nose. The circumstances need not bother us here; suffice it to say that they weren't as exciting as the last time I did it, a mere fifty years ago. On that occasion interventions were necessary from the London Ambulance Service, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the Metropolitan Police, and I was by no means the most injured person following the, er, incident. As a good indication of how tame my life has become in the meantime all that seems to be required now are a cup of tea, some paracetamol and an early night.

Here's some music from the mighty Family:

'Rhythm in her arse' indeed. This next one is most certainly not suitable for work:

 

Accipiter nisus

 Poetry has been somewhat absent from the blog recently, so let's rectify that. The spark for this is a sparrowhawk who decided yesterday that my garden was the ideal place to eat his prey, a chaffinch I think. It's the circle of life.

It's a bit blurry, not to mention showing that the wargaming annexe could do with a coat of paint.

This is what Ted Hughes had to say about the visitor:

Slips from the eye-corner - overtaking
Your first thought.

Through your mulling gaze over haphazard earth
The sun’s cooled carbon wing
Whets the eyebeam.

Those eyes in their helmet
Still wired direct
To the nuclear core - they alone

Laser the lark-shaped hole
In the lark’s song.

We find the earth-tied spurs, among soft ashes.
And maybe we find him

Materialised by twilight and dew,
Still as a listener -

The warrior

Blue shoulder-cloak wrapped about him,
Leaning, hunched,
Among the oaks of the harp.

PotCXXVIIIpouri

"Nowadays Roman numerals only exist for things which powerful people want to look permanent, but which are actually very impermanent indeed." - David Boyle

Firstly, I'm still getting twenty thousand hits a week, and it's still annoying me; much more so that if none were being registered at all, and that would be substantially closer to the truth. I saw a statistic yesterday that 80% of all website hits on the whole internet are currently being made by bots of one form or another. However, that figure came from an AI source, so who knows.

Secondly, there has been some wargaming, so hooray for that.

It was game of To the Strongest! using James's Crusades figures. He thinks it's his best painted collection, which means it's very, very good indeed. The plan is to switch next week to possibly his least colourful period - although they're still lovely models - with some early WWII North African action. Will it be Sidi Rezegh? Let's hope so.

Various cultural activities have started up after the longish, hottish summer. I went to the Proms, something I had never done before. Also uncharted territory was a visit to a Rugby League match. I went to see the Leeds Rhinos, courtesy of Leeds Building Society who are their main sponsor. The pre-match meal etc was all rather good; the game itself left me uninspired and I didn't come away with any regrets for having given it a miss over the decades during which I've lived in the North. The outcome wasn't in doubt once the legendary Leeds ex-player brought on before the start to tell the assembled corporate guests what he thought would happen forecast that Rhinos would win at a canter by thirty or forty points. Inevitably the Catalan Dragons took an early lead and pulled steadily away as the game progressed. 

George Macaulay Trevelyan

 I've been doing a little bit of research about the collection of model soldiers at Wallington in Northumberland. Unsurprisingly perhaps I discovered that this wasn't the first wargames blog in which the figures have featured. There's a bit more detail and a lot more photos on a post on Tom's Toy Soldiers from October 2013. The eponymous Tom seems to have found some notes about the collection, which is more than I did. Maybe he was extravagant and bought a guide book. It's interesting to note that the Trevelyan brothers seem to have bought whatever figures happened to be available and then used them to represent whatever they needed them to be; it seems nothing much had changed between the 1880s and when I started wargaming in the 1960s. It also explains why I thought there were figures from the Risorgimento.

I hadn't come across Tom's blog before, but it looks like it will be worth reading. In another of those happy coincidences which always intrigue me his post from last Monday also concerned model soldiers at a National Trust property.

The George mentioned solely by Tom in terms of his role as a substitute for dice rolling grew up to be the distinguished historian George Macaulay Trevelyan. This fact was picked up by an even earlier, and with all due respect to Tom, even more celebrated wargames blogger. In his Wargames Newsletter #114 (*) from September 1971 the late, great Donald Featherston says that Trevelyan credited this early study of war games with his ability to so vividly describe battles in his own writing. Among Trevelyan's major works is his trilogy about Garibaldi; I wonder if that interest was also inspired by the figures in the collection.

* This edition also contains a letter from Gary Gygax and the exciting news that Airfix are to release a set of French Napoleonic Infantry.

The Spur in the Dish Warns the Border Chief that the Larder Needs Replenishing

 Well, another month nearly finished and not many posts, but let's see if we can squeeze one more in before September starts. In any event I continue to attract thousands of views a day without bothering to write anything. The blog's stats page tells me that the most popular article yesterday was that from a few weeks ago complaining about the constant trawling by AI. Coincidence? I think not; these LLMs seem to be as vain as one of the blog's previous, and much missed, followers, who had a strict policy of only reading posts in which she featured.

And speaking of coincidences... I have been in Northumberland for a few days and finding myself in Alnwick I obviously popped in to Barter Books. I didn't stay long as it was hot and crowded, but I did buy a book almost at random just to show willing: "The Adventures of Speedfall" by John Fuller, which I didn't enjoy and don't recommend. I would describe it as a mediocre mashup between P.G. Wodehouse's Mr Mulliner and Tom Sharpe's Porterhouse Blue and, having put it to one side, I found the latter of those on my Kobo (*) and started to re-read it. I quickly came on a passage in which one character, as part of a diatribe against the feckless working class, mentions a painting that he once saw in which a wife served her husband a spur on a plate rather than the dinner which he was expecting. That struck a chord with me because I had myself seen that very painting - it's by William Bell Scott - the day before at Wallington. Also seen there, and of somewhat more relevance to the blog, were these:

As well as the Napoleonic figures there were what looked to be some units from the Risorgimento. Unfortunately the hand written labels seen in the first photo were all the information displayed, so I don't know how old they are. In terms of scale I would judge that they were in height a small 20mm, think Irregular or Tumbling Dice, but they were very slender. Let's end with a photo of Dunstanburgh Castle as approached from Craster:

No kippers were harmed in the taking of this picture.

* I have, not before time, kicked Amazon into touch.

PotCXXVIIpouri

 It's the summer and, relatively unusually in the UK, it has been summery. I have therefore been out and about, but, finding myself briefly back in the Casa Epictetus, here's a catch-up.

I have been in Glasgow for the second time this year. I still can't understand a word that the natives say, but they seem friendly enough. I went inside a tenement building for the first time and found it to be disconcertingly up-market. Also for the first time I tried a haggis pakora, these days just as traditionally Scottish as tenements. Probably more noteworthy was that I travelled up via the Settle to Carlisle railway, which I had never been on before. It is every bit as scenic as I had been led to believe it would be.

Two things about that photo. Firstly, you can't really see that view from the train itself; for that you're much better off walking the area, which I have done many times. Secondly, I didn't travel on a steam train. I did do so however when I went to see 'The Railway Children', part of the ongoing Bradford 2025 City of Culture programme. The film, the original with Jenny Agutter rather than the remake, which confusingly also featured Jenny Agutter albeit in a different role (*), was shot on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (**) and so the day started with a trip from Keighley to Oxenhope on a train pulled by the very same engine saved from disaster by Jenny's red bloomers. Then, in what I assume is an engine shed with a few tiers of seats installed on either side, the performance took place. The action took place mostly on small platforms being pushed backwards and forwards along the track by stage hands. At the climactic moment a steam locomotive suddenly shot into the theatre. Most impressive.

You won't be able to see that because the entire run is sold out. You may however be able to catch 'The Ceremony', although I don't expect it to get a particularly wide release. In my previous post I observed that I had never been to a première; lo and behold, I now have and a Gala Première at that. The shine was slightly taken off things when we reached the end of the red carpet to be greeted by an officious lady with a clipboard who told us, quite accurately, that we weren't on the guest list and should have used the side entrance with all the other ordinary punters. However, by the time she had finished speaking my companion for the evening had already liberated a glass of fizz from a passing waiter and so it was all a bit moot. I very much enjoyed the film, most of which took place not very far from the Ribblehead viaduct pictured up above. It was extremely well acted, visually striking and quite tense. What is it about? Fair question; possibly the fact that there is good and bad in all of us. If you do go and see it then I'd be interested in your view of what all the quasi-mystical stuff with the goat (***) is about.

*      The sequel to the original was also shot on the KWVR and, inevitably starred Ms Agutter, who apparently thereby claimed the record for the longest gap between playing the same character in films.

**    Both Keighley and the Worth valley are part of Bradford

*** It might actually be a ram, reviewers are divided on the subject. 

There's A Bright Golden Haze On The Meadow

 It may astonish you to learn that your bloggist has never been invited to a film première, never walked the red carpet in his dinner jacket and black tie. One side effect of this is that I had never sat in a cinema alongside those actually appearing on the screen. Until, yesterday that is. 

As part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture I attended a screening of 'A Bunch of Amateurs', the 2022 documentary about the travails of the Bradford Movie Makers club, going since 1932, but possibly not going for much longer. I hadn't managed to see it when it first came out and was happy to take the opportunity to catch up with the film and the promised director's Q&A. It's a lovely film, both joyous and moving, full of pathos and comedy in equal measure. One implicit subtextual message - which may or may not be relevant to this blog's readership - concerned the mutual support and companionship available to men of a certain age from sharing in a common hobby. 

Watching it, however, turned out to be an odd experience. The Q&A was actually not just with the director, but also with the club members featured in the film, all of whom took their place in the auditorium. There is a scene early on in the film in which club members sit and watch the opening of 'Oklahoma', and sing along to 'Oh What a Beautiful World'; it eventually transpires that there is a rather poignant reason why they are doing that. So I sat there, flanked by people watching themselves in a film watching a film, whilst they sang along to themselves singing along to Curly McLain. Surreal.

Here is some Nice Jam:

All Over By Christmas

 Big technical problems at the Casa Dojo Mojo House Epictetus, which have been affecting all sorts of things. There has been a very brief bit of wargaming though. We're still in the Great War and using Square Bashing, but now it's 1914.

These are 28mm figures from Mark's collection. I think they're Renegade, but don't quote me on that.

Cavalry as well. The infantry which look as if they are French, are in fact French; Mark didn't have enough British.

The game is going well, but its conclusion has been repeatedly delayed. I am, however, confident that it will all be over by...

Do You Read Me?

 A few years ago, I complained about the lack of legibility of the Warbases' tokens  for Square Bashing and mentioned how I had made some of my own. Only now, after the usual long period of delay attached to anything which I do that is related to wargaming, have I got round to doing something about making the purchased ones usable.

It certainly would have been cheaper to do this in the first place rather than spending money on buying sheets of laminated acrylic and  laser cutting it, not to mention the extended rounded corners saga.

Come Hither, Come Hither, Come Hither

 I've been away. of which more in due course. But some wargaming action awaited me on my return.

Firstly, the tanks advanced at Amiens once again. It's the only scenario in the Square Bashing book for which I have the forces, and so when short of time it's the one which gets put on. It was a victory for the British on this occasion. I obviously don't mean to criticise the good people of Peter Pig, but which side wins is entirely down to how high the die rolls the Germans make in their countdown phase at the end of their turn; nothing else actually matters at all. Still, it passed the time very pleasantly.

Then there is some Cruel Seas news. Not progress, you understand, just news. It would probably be impossible to overstate just how much wargaming crap Peter had accumulated and, while continuing with the task of sorting it out for his widow, James has turned up some more relevant bits and pieces. The most pertinent were a couple of freighters, shown above with the 3D printed one which I bought in an early burst of enthusiasm, that's the one at the back. Now I have a convoy worth sinking it almost seems churlish not to paint a couple of MTB's up and do so.

Gladiators

 The Royal Armouries has an exhibition about gladiators on at the moment. I was pleased to see it was rather busy when I went, although that may have had something to do with the building having highly effective air conditioning on an extremely hot day.

There were some fascinating exhibits, not at all well represented by the photos I took. (I didn't compensate very effectively for the low light levels.) For example there was lots of detail about how they built the Colosseum and also how they marketed the shows.

The personal and professional lives of the gladiators was well covered. I was most surprised that they ate a mostly vegetarian diet, less so that their average age of death was thirty.

The headgear of the chap on the left doesn't at first glance seem very well designed for combat; his peripheral vision would appear to be somewhat restricted. 

Bash That Square

 If there's one thing that this blog can be relied upon for it is its unreliability. I said two weeks ago that we would be playing Square Bashing last week in the annexe, and we didn't. However, this week we did.

If there's a second thing that this blog can be relied upon for it is that I never take enough photos to tell the story of a game. In brief then, the Germans looked like they would see off the British attack, but their commander - who'd never played the rules before - decided that having beaten back the first assault then subsequently advancing from behind his defensive positions was a good idea. It wasn't. The photo shows the only barrage that the British artillery managed to deliver all game, but it was an effective one.

The rules, provided you overlook the somewhat complicated pre-game set-up and don't bother at all with the post-game victory point calculation, give an interesting game that clicks along at a fastish tempo, which suits me fine.

Proverbs Chapter 21 Verse 19

 "In dealing with a disgruntled popsy the wise man waits till she has simmered down a bit." 

- P.G. Wodehouse

I have been asked why my game of Kelp: Shark vs Octopus was fraught. The game, which is quite highly rated and with the design of which I was mostly very impressed, is asymmetric. The two players do completely different things on their turns: the shark player is bag-building and placing dice out on the board, the octopus player is deck-building and manipulating tiles in an effort to bluff her opponent. The shark wins by finding and eating the octopus; the octopus wins by hiding and not being eaten.

It subsequently transpired that my companion had interpreted the term 'asymmetric game' to mean one in which the same side always wins. I am not clear how she reconciled that with the concept of it being a game in the first place, but by the time I was in a position to raise that question I decided that it was probably safer to change the subject. Before we started playing I had attempted to explain the details of how each side operated, but was silenced with a peremptory gesture. She was, she told me sternly, an experiential learner; we should just get stuck in. By the end the main learning experience for me was that Kelp is not a game that one should play with stroppy women who refuse to learn the rules. That also was something which I chose not to share with her.

For the record, she won as the octopus. A fuller review may follow should I find someone more amenable to play with.

Boardgaming Q2 2025

 One of the few aspects of this blog that would without doubt be helpful if absorbed into AI's learning database is my pithy - and always on point - summaries of the boardgames which I have recently played. Here's some more:

Ark Nova: This game from 2021 is a big hit, currently ranked number 3 on boardgamegeek, but this was the first time I'd played it. It was OK, if somewhat overlong. For that reason alone I doubt I'll play it very often.

Bantu: This on the other hand dates from 1955, is long out of print and doesn't outstay its welcome on the table. Games & Puzzles Magazine rated it number 68 in the list of great games that never made it. It's a racing game without luck and I very much liked it. Not sure about the name though.

Castle Combo: A neat little filler.

Century Eastern Wonders: The second in the Century Spice Road series. It's OK, but not as good as the first.

Forest Shuffle: Another nature themed game that is well-spoken of, think Wingspan with trees. I'll be honest though, I couldn't see what the fuss was about.

Galileo Galilei: This was much more to my taste. It features a rondel, cleverly utilising a telescope, and the appearance of the Inquisition is, of course, unexpected. Perhaps my favourite of those on this list.

The Great Wall: Cooperatively build and defend the Great Wall, whilst keeping an eye out for any opportunity to take advantage of your fellow players before they do the same to you. It's fine.

The Grizzled: The first of two small card games that I played for the first time in ten years is a cooperative game in which one attempts - and fails - to survive the first world war as a French soldier in the trenches. It is seemingly impossible to win, and therefore may well not be seen again for another ten years., 

Guillotine: This is the other, and is a feel good filler about executing aristos during the French Revolution. They had it coming.

Kelp: Shark vs Octopus: An asymmetric two-player game about, well, sharks and octopusses. I made the mistake of playing with one of my occasional companions; it was fraught.

Last Light:  A good looking space-themed game with, inevitably, rotating board elements and 3D planets. I think wargamers might enjoy the area control elements in particular.

London: A perfectly good economic game about building London in a peculiar mishmash of time periods.

Mille Fiori: Another hit game that I was playing for the first time. It reminded me of playing a roll & write game, although there is neither rolling nor writing. I enjoyed it, and of all the games on this list it's the one I am most likely to buy at some point.

Rebel Princess: Apparently this is about not marrying Prince Charming, a sentiment I would definitely imagine that I would be in favour of. I can't recall a single thing about it.

Rebirth: A rather peculiarly themed game from the prolific Dr. Knizia. Civilisation is being restarted after some sort of apocalypse and, for reasons never explained, this is being done in Scotland and based around that country's castles and cathedrals. If you treat it as an abstract then it's actually pretty good.

Ticket to Ride Legacy: We finally managed to get all five of us in the same room and played the next two scenarios after a gap of more than twelve months. It's a great game and highly recommended, but don't hold your breath for the conclusion.

Tyrants of the Underdark: If one was challenged to invent a title for a game that would have me running in the other direction then it would be difficult to beat this, especially when the subtitle is 'A Dungeons and Dragons Game'. However, appearances can be deceptive and I thought it very good. It's another one that wargamers might enjoy.

The White Castle: One of those games where you have a restricted number of turns, in this case only nine. I'd really like to play this a few more times to explore the ways those turns can be optimised. It has random set-up and plays quickly, so I don't think one would get bored. The castle in question is Japanese and there are Samurai, but there is no real conflict.

Who Are You?

 I've been writing this blog for almost thirteen years without bothering overmuch about whether anyone read it. I write it for myself, and only do so when I feel like it. Over the years I may have had a couple of specific readers in mind from time to time when I wrote particular posts, but one of them's husband found out and the other one died. Obviously, being my own target audience means that I am not particularly concerned with telling the truth and any stray passers-by who read posts would do well not to take what I write too literally. 

Why am I telling you this? Because suddenly I have readers, "Fousands of 'em". It would seem that 10% of all the views that the blog has ever had occurred in June 2025. Now, clearly these aren't proper sentient people. They aren't even wargamers. I'm assuming they're AI bots expanding their 'learning' to cover my ramblings. Don't you find it worrying that our new overlords will treat all this made-up tosh with a much seriousness as they do a serious thing on a serious subject written in a serious way by the Scottish philosopher Jock 'Serious' McSerious? I know I do.

James Was Right

 Now there's a headline that you don't often see. He said there wasn't another night left in the game, and there wasn't. Even feeding in a new Union unit every turn couldn't fend off the Confederates for very long.

I do rather like Fire and Fury, but experience suggests that if the men in grey charge in column and keep charging then they will sweep all before them. The issue seems to be that Union brigades are all very brittle, whereas Confederate ones retain cohesion much longer. I've never read the rules for myself so I'm not really sure if that's a central feature of them, or just something specific to the scenarios which we have been playing.

There has been some slight forward movement in the set-up of the Square Bashing game, with attackers and defenders now deployed. However, whilst I had intended to fight this solo it has, in an unexpected development, been decided that it will be next Wednesday evening's game instead. This will allow James to 'spray his cloth'; not a euphemism.

The Bees Have Ceased To Be(e)

“What is a hobby anyway? Where is the line of demarcation between hobbies and ordinary normal pursuits? I have been unable to answer this question to my own satisfaction. At first blush I am tempted to conclude that a satisfactory hobby must be in large degree useless, inefficient, laborious, or irrelevant." 

                                                          

                                                       - Aldo Leopold

The bees having left us for higher planes access to the annexe has once again been possible. For no real reason at all my thoughts have turned to the first world war (*), and I have set up a Square Bashing scenario (**). I haven't yet run through the typically extensive Peter Pig pre-battle routine, so things will definitely change before the game starts.

Meanwhile, in the legendary wargames room, we have continued our exploration of the Slaveowners' Rebellion and the highly entertaining Fire and Fury rules.

It currently looks like a walkover for the Confederates, but James' wishes have been over-ruled and we are going to carry on playing next week.

* OK, it was the sight of things being gassed. 

** I can't remember if I've mentioned this before. but although the cover of the rulebook states that they are for the period 1900-1928, the OED dates the first use of the term itself to 1943.

Noisy, Fast, Massing In Hundreds

 “Surround yourself with bees even if they sting.” - Bhuwan Thapaliya

The wargaming annexe has been out of bounds for a while because of apian invaders. But their nemesis has arrived.

However, professional looking as this chap is, the effect of his actions seems only to have been to annoy the bees, and now the whole garden is out of bounds and I can't open the windows at the back of the house.

There has been some wargaming elsewhere though, with some Fire and Fury taking place in the legendary wargames room.

I rather like these rules, especially the mandatory manoeuvre roll for all brigades each turn. Good fun. 

Who'd Have Thought It?

 "A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn't enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong."

 - Lewis H. Lapham

"If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us." 

- Hermann Hesse

Deal or No Deal

 "When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus."

 -Turkish Proverb

Wargames Bloggers' Hats

 "I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life' - Wellington

David over at The Ragged Soldier (*) has wondered aloud if bloggers should wear name badges to wargames shows so that we could be identified by one another and presumably by our adoring fans as well. Obviously I am always dressed in the chiton and sandals befitting the philosopher and therefore tend to stand out in a crowd, but his suggestion makes sense for all the others. My proposal is that they agree to wear a specific and recognisable wargames bloggists' hat. This being 2025, and me being up with the latest fads as well as the eternal verities, I asked AI for suggestions as to what type of hat that should be. This is what it came up with:

"For a wargames blogger, the hat they wear can be a fun way to lean into their niche, show off their personality, or even subtly hint at their preferred wargame era or faction. Here's a breakdown of considerations and hat styles:

Key Considerations for Wargames Bloggers:

• Era/Faction Alignment: This is perhaps the most unique aspect for a wargames blogger. Do you primarily focus on WWII, Napoleonic, Sci-Fi (like Warhammer 40k), Fantasy, or historical periods? A hat can directly reference this.
• Humour/Inside Jokes: Wargaming communities often have their own memes and running gags. A hat with a humorous wargaming-related phrase or image can be a great way to connect with your audience.
• Practicality for Content Creation: If you're filming or taking photographs, consider if the hat will cast awkward shadows, obstruct your view, or be uncomfortable during long sessions.
• Branding: Like any blogger, you might want your hat to feature your blog's logo or name.
• Comfort: Wargaming sessions can be long! Choose something comfortable for extended wear."

Very much sitting on the fence there I think, and also way off the mark when referring to humour being found in wargames blogs. My twopenny worth is that the choice should be flat caps as worn by Edward 'Callan' Woodward's sidekick Lonely. Callan is the wargamer and hero. Lonely, perhaps like we bloggers, is the low-life assistant, involved only on the fringe, but nevertheless compromised by the moral ambiguity of it all. Oh, and he smelled terrible.

* Which title, of course, bears no resemblance to the internet address of the blog

Still A Good Game It Is

 "If no mistake you have made, losing you are. A different game you should play." - Yoda

We're just about to have both yet another break and a change of period, so we needed a pick-up game to tide us over. X-Wing it was.

Considering how much money James must have tied up in models, at current second-hand prices rather than what he paid for them, we don't play it as often as perhaps we should. And despite all the reasons I shouldn't like it, I rather do. We had a complete novice playing, and after he had made the comment we all do on our first outing - i.e. "Shouldn't it be, you know, more three dimensional?" - he really enjoyed it. 

Zinnfiguren

 After a month of drought there has been a week of feast. I have had my third and fourth wargames in seven days, and in addition of course I went to Partizan. I played two shortish games with Mark's German 30mm flats.

I had never seen thm in action before and found them aesthetically rather pleasing. You don't get the best view of those directly in front of you, but the ones on either flank look anything but flat. And naturally one doesn't stand rigidly in the same place all the time anyway.

Rules were the 7YW version of DBN. I'd only played DBN once, a couple of years ago, so don't remember enough about it to tell you what the differences are. I do remember enjoying it and certainly did so once again. It's quick and entertaining, and what else does one need. It was one win each for both Austrians and Prussians, with the defenders coming out on top both times.

Can Epictetus keep up this punishing hobby pace? Watch this space (pun intended).

Shows, Shows, Shows

That's a bit of an exaggeration; it's actually shows, shows (*). First up was the 214th Otley Show. I know that regular readers will be expecting action photos of the Young Farmers Ladies Tug-of-War competition - which was as engrossing as ever - or at least of some sheep, but you'll have to make do with this instead:

One of my regular boardgaming group is the Otley Lemon Curd King for a year. We are an eclectically talented bunch.

And then on Sunday it was off to Partizan. Regular readers will not be expecting anything much in the way of a photographic record, and indeed there is none. Fortunately other, more diligent, bloggists have already started to post image-rich accounts of the day for your viewing pleasure. Suffice it to say that there were lots of games (too many? I've certainly seen photos of at least one game that I simply don't remember.) and they all looked very nice. In a slightly annoying development a couple of them had added scenic endpieces to the tables, which no doubt made it look prettier if one was sat at the table playing, but rather got in the way of the enjoyment of the paying punters. I hope this doesn't become the fashion.

I didn't buy much. I picked up a copy of the Northampton Battlefield Society's wargamers guide to Edgecote and had a short chat with co-author Graham 'Trebian' Evans. Anyone familiar with his blog won't be surprised that he managed to turn the conversation to Towton, very much a bee in his bonnet. I bought a laser line thing at the Warbases stand. I had one which I bought very cheaply when Woolworth's went bust, but it went the same way as its vendor some time ago. I managed to have a word with Early War Miniatures and establish how to order stuff given the current state of their website. I felt a bit bad about raising the subject of their IT problems because it clearly touched a raw nerve and elicited a very pained look. Will I now progress the Mexican Revolution project? Maybe.

I also caught up with my old schoolfriend and wargaming opponent Don. He had news of another old friend (and bandmate, about which the less said the better) who, judging by the pictures Don had, has signed some sort of pact with devil because he looks exactly the same as he did when we were young men. Bastard.

* Note the semicolon, which will not disappear here while I'm in charge.