We ourselves must walk the path

So, what happened this year then? I should first apologise for the content of the blog, which was consistently neither relevant nor interesting. If it's any consolation, the comments that I have left on other people's blogs have generally been even worse; bloggers must wince when they see my username appear. All I can do is quote Rudyard Kipling: "You must learn to forgive a man when he's in love. He's always a nuisance."

Anyway, on to the much sought after Epictetus annual awards:

• Opera of the year:  'The Flying Dutchman' with an honourable mention for  'Tales of Hoffman'
• Theatre of the year: 'Beryl' with an honourable mention for 'The History Boys'.
• Gig of the year: I've seen an awful lot of excellent gigs, but it's a toss up between  Nils Lofgren and Tom Russell with an honourable mention for Gigspanner (which good as it was I don't seem to have posted about before), plus of course the Ilkley Blues Festival for sheer value for money.
• Film of the year: 'Lunchbox' with a dishonourable mention for 'Spectre'; once again I haven't actually been to see that many films.
• Book of the year: City of Wisdom and Blood, the second in the Fortune of War series by Robert Merle, the first volume of which was my book of the year for 2014. There's a pattern developing.
• Wargame of the year: There's been a lot of Seven Years War this year and I'm going to go for the large game in the summer where James got all his Prussians and Russians out on the table.
• Boardgame of the year: Quartermaster General, no doubt at all, but there have been a lot of very good ones among the 265 plays of 134 different games that I've managed this year.
• Cake of the year: I think pear and chocolate although the elder Miss Epictetus is a firm champion of the spiced fruit loaf.
• Event of the year: I'm tempted to cheat and choose every time that the big, bouncy woman came and sat on my lap; or possibly the Otley Wool Fair (I really enjoyed that day); or perhaps a truly memorable afternoon in the Victoria Hotel (definitely my pub of the year). However, instead I'm opting for a walk up to Top Withens that I took at the end of August, during which we got wet, the past was laid to rest and the future mapped out. As Christina Rossetti wrote in the poem of the year:

I loved you first: but afterwards your love 

Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song

I'm Free

When I bought my first box of Hexon terrain a couple of months ago I set up a Command & Colours game just to see what it looked like. Unexpectedly this got played pretty much immediately and so I set up another one. Less unexpectedly this one didn't get played as instead we took an axe to the morale section in James' Seven Years War rules. However, everything comes to those who wait and so there was a sudden flurry of activity in the wargames annexe last night. You may recall me mentioning some months ago that I had introduced a boardgaming partner to wargaming via a Romans v Celts go at To the Strongest!. Real life - on his part - had prevented him following up on what he said was an enjoyable experience until now, but it had always been our intention to repeat the exercise. The Wharfe has receded enough for the bridge between the north and south halves of the town to be reopened and so he visited for a festive run through of the Grossbeeren scenario. Once again he said he liked it, and indeed indicated a preference for TtS! over C&C; in other words for the more wargame like of the two. I don't think that he is ready for Piquet yet, but it might be time to introduce him to a game requiring a tape measure.

A wargamer from the days when they knew how to dress shows off his tape measure

In any event the Hexon terrain is to be taken down, put away and replaced with green felt. James very kindly passed on to me a copy of Lion Rampant that Osprey had given him in respect of his oeuvre, or to be precise, in respect of using some of his photos in their Seven Years war rules, the name of which escapes me just at this moment. These - Lion Rampant not Honours of War - have featured in a number of blogs recently (there's a set up here that appeals to the accountant in me) and having read through them I am inclined to give them a go. I have seen the term 'false skirmish' applied to them, which I think refers to their being designed for single based figures but used in units rather than individually. Notwithstanding that I think they'll work just fine with figures based in elements and in particular will allow me to use some toys that have been languishing in boxes for years without ever seeing the tabletop. Photos will follow, subject to the usual caveat regarding the Young Farmers' ladies tug-of-war competition.

Mush! Mush!

December saw another full month of boardgaming:

Avalon: I hate this sort of game.

Bohnanza: An excellent game which I hadn't played for ages. I was too quick to open up my third beanfield, which I never really needed. I love the no hand sorting mechanism.

Codenames: Another really good game, only spoiled by the imbecility of one's teammates.

Condottiere: A card game with a board. It's a sort of wargame that always goes down well, even with those that don't really like wargames.

Discoveries: The dice version of Lewis & Clark, full of opportunities to make the wrong choice.

Fresco: Similar in theme to Pastiche, and probably about as good. It's perhaps a little bit easier for the colour blind.

Game of Trains: Nothing to do with trains, but good anyway. It's a abstract number sorting game where I never see the end coming.

Ice Flow: I wish people would stop beating me at this.

Lancaster: The Hundred Years War theme is not that deep, although I understand the need to go to France to fight is stronger in the expansion, which I would like to try.

Mush! Mush!: My preference is to play a wide variety of games and a bit of husky racing never fails to entertain. It has a very simple mechanic and it's always amazing how with the same resources the various competitors can achieve such very different results.

Pi mau Pflaumen: A German card game about fruit and π. It sort of makes sense when you play it.

Quartermaster General: Playing as the Soviets I only ever had armies on Moscow, Ukraine and Eastern Europe, but I bled the Germans dry. There was an unusual amount of action in Asia, proving once again that every game is different.


Red7: The thinking man's Fluxx. Don't let that put you off; this is good.

Roll for the  Galaxy: We played the Ambition expansion, but frankly it didn't seem to make much difference to what was already a good game.

Sail to India: None of the others had ever played this previously and to a man employed strategies that I'd never come across before, all of which did better than mine. Bastards.

Shadow Hunters: An interesting game - despite being based on hidden identities - for which there seem to be a range of winning strategies. I suspect that the frenzied bloodbath will always be the most fun if not the most successful.

Skull: An excellent bluffing game, at which many of my regular playing partners are very bad.

String Railway: I loved this. It basically involves laying out railways with, er, string. Fantastic.

Glienicke

And so to the cinema. In an attempt to provide some competition in the eagerly awaited Epictetus film of the year award - watch this space - I have been to see 'Bridge of Spies'. It is, as one would expect, a well crafted piece of work without ever really reaching any great heights. Mark Rylance is as excellent as Rudolf Abel (not his real name of course - he was a spy) as he was as Thomas Cromwell. In one sense it's hard to see what he is doing differently from before, but he is as convincing a Soviet spy as he was a Tudor statesman. Tom Hanks is also predictably reliable, albeit perhaps too old for the role.

I've no idea how historically accurate it all is, although perhaps one could guess from the fact that the end credits claim that the Soviets never publicly acknowledged Abel as being a spy while the stamp above is one of a series commemorating intelligence agents issued by the, er, Soviet Union. It's at least debatable whether he was any good as a spy or ever uncovered any secrets. As for the message that Spielberg is trying to get across, that's pure Hollywood. He seems to have very little time for the intelligence or moral compass of ordinary Americans - Hank's character aside - but magically when aggregated together the whole country they suddenly become the good guys. Indeed they are so good that they are entitled to behave badly whereas the bad behaviour of the Soviets simply proves that they are the bad guys to start with. I think that it's fair to say that other, possibly more nuanced, interpretations of the Cold War are available. Hanks channels James Stewart throughout and, interestingly, Spielberg chooses to stick to the moral from one of Stewart's best films: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend". His protagonist's previous connections with the CIA are downplayed so that everything can be portrayed as the ordinary guy running rings round the intelligence services of two superpowers.

It all passes a couple of hours very pleasantly, but the film that they should really make about Abel's life is of his part in Operation Berezino.

And all the boards did shrink

A whole lot of water decided to visit over Christmas, isolating the rest of the world from the lower Wharfe valley. I hope that you all coped.

Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow

Some festive wargaming news to tide us over the next couple of days:

The refight of Mollwitz ended with only two Austrian units remaining on the table while the Prussians had dozens, many of which had not seen any action, plus loads of morale. It was therefore declared a draw. The only reason the Austrians performed so well is that they once again got all the initiative. I don't think that I got half way through my deck on any of the seven turns. It was all highly enjoyable, with what can be a problem in Piquet - lopsided initiative - actually coming to the rescue here. I know that there has been some debate on the amount of snow on the ground during the battle, with various interested parties quoting different sources. Unless some film of the event miraculously turns up then we shall never know.

On the (lack of) painting front I have gone for a stopgap solution and yesterday in the post received some Napoleonic French Line Lancers and Ammunition Caissons. The former are because I haven't got any and the latter mostly to provide teams of horses for the Pontoon Train. There will be paint on the table this Christmas.

Gut Yontiff to you all, and remember that, as George Carlin pointed out, the main reason Santa is so jolly is that he knows where all the bad girls live.

Love Like a Man

A missive has reached us from the front line in Luxembourg where one of our occasional correspondents is bravely defending western civilisation against Islamic State armed only with a Collins Robert and a generous expense account. He astutely points out that Ten Years After are probably a bigger influence on Chantel McGregor than are Grand Funk Railroad.

The above video obviously comes from TYA's appearance at Woodstock, where they had the slot on the bill immediately following Country Joe and the Fish, the band with the most aesthetically overrated drummer in the history of rock.

Respect is due

My recent post which included the link to the video about Marcus Hinton and his other half continues to get literally hundreds of views. I believe that I have James 'respect to his ouevre' Roach to thank/blame for this, but I don't know how or why.

Anyway, in one of those moments familiar to people of a certain age I have suddenly remembered where I first saw the video. It was, glaringly obviously in retrospect, on a blog dedicated to Hinton Hunt figures. Respect to their mighty ouevre as well.

I note that none of my new readers has stuck around for the love poetry or the opera reviews, but perhaps that's as it should be. Party on dudes.

How...?

"How could I, blest with you, long nights employ; 

And how with the longest day enjoy!"

 - Tibullus

Pot49pouri

Just a short post as I have a cold:

• Another excellent Seven Years War(ish) game in the legendary wargames room - see the report here - is seeing a good year's wargaming wrapped up in style. James - respect to his ouvre - mentions in a throw away comment that the Austrians got all the initiative; if they hadn't then the game would be over by now, because the scenario is very heavily skewed in favour of the Prussians, especially given the extra cards they drew.
• It has become apparent that a number of people haven't watched the video of Mrs Hinton because they didn't realise that it had anything to do with wargaming; as if any non-wargaimg content would be posted here! All that I can say is that a) it is about wargaming, although perhaps not as we know it and b) if lots of you haven't watched it then the statistics rather imply that one of you has watched it dozens of times. 
• I don't think that I've mentioned recently how dreadful Windows 10 is. Let me rectify that now: it sucks.
• For no particular reason here is Eli 'Paper Boy' Reed performing a cover of a Motorhead song. This one really does have nothing to do with wargaming.

Pot48pouri

Well I've had a busy couple of days, involving lots of boardgames and nearly going to Bishop Auckland. I watched the launch, not because of the British astronaut - I am proud to say that I have no patriotic feelings whatsoever about anything at all - but because I am that age. Among my earliest memories are sitting on a classroom floor listening to a transistor radio (the detail is important because one of the teachers would have brought their own personal, portable - though still hefty - radio into school) as one of the Gemini flights was launched. I would happily watch any rocket lift off, any time, anywhere.

I also went to the theatre and saw Steel Magnolias. I've never seen the film, but was charmed by the play, which was both funny and sad. As an aside the actress playing Shelby had the longest legs I think I've ever seen. I say that with some trepidation because naturally this blog operates according to the conventions of the officers mess, and regards the ladies as off limits for conversation. But it may be that standards are slipping because my previous post has got a remarkable number of viewers (that's remarkable for this blog, still pathetic by anyone else's standards of course). I suspect that rather than new people being tempted in this is caused by regulars returning for a second ogle. Shame on you all.

I have also been to see the very talented Chantel McGregor. McGregor, a local lass and a woman in whom Robert Crumb would find much to admire, is an alumna of Leeds College of Music - an institution that has featured in these pages before - where she had a very distinguished academic record. She now plays guitar in a power trio who seem to think that Grand Funk Railroad circa 1969 is the aspirational route map to follow; which will get no argument from me. Their songs are basically just a vehicle for her to solo; which she does rather well, always assuming you like that sort of thing - which I certainly do. In addition she gets bonus marks for employing a bass player who looks exactly like the bass player in this sort of band should look. Check it out:

And here, as I mentioned them, is some Grand Funk Railroad from when they were good:

Mrs Hinton

I can't remember on which blog I first saw this video, so apologies for not giving credit. I post it here following a recent conversation with a young lady of my acquaintance. She's never shown any interest in wargaming so instead we inevitably found ourselves talking about the pros and cons of women wearing men's clothing. I, who do have an interest in wargaming, was reminded of this, which, once seen, does tend to stick in the mind somewhat:

I don't know about you, but to me that short video raises a very large number of questions. The only one that I can help with is that one and ninepence is just under 9p. Two pounds ten is of course fifty bob.

Project required

I am in need of a painting project. I am in some ways reluctant to acknowledge this because since pitching my tent in Otley a couple of years ago I still haven't managed to get all my existing stuff onto the table. The Hussites in particular need an outing. However, having a certain amount of free time, and with the weather being truly appalling I could do with something to get my teeth into.

The last big project I was working on was of course the War of the Spanish Succession, but much of those completed units disappeared in all the disruption and I have no appetite to pick it up again. This is not to say that I haven't done any painting over the last two years, but it's been mainly aimed at filling out OOBs for games that I wanted to play:

• I added some light cavalry to my Wars of the Roses forces and painted up all the longbowmen in the plastic mountain. I could no doubt do with some more of the latter.
• In Napoleonics I added Imperial Guard to the French plus some Russian dragoons. An Austrian force would make sense, but options are strictly limited in 20mm plastic. I also have a pontoon kit that I was intending to use for the WSS; it would be a shame to see it go to waste.
• I added more Roman auxiliaries, including cavalry, artillery and archers; indeed it is to some extent the completion of these archers that prompts me to ask what next. On the other side I added cavalry and a chariot. In the absence of any better ideas I suspect chariots will top the list.
• I painted quite a lot of Roman civilians etc to expand the Romans in Britain version of Pony Wars. There's not much point in doing more - although I have a lot unpainted - until that gets played again, which in turn depends upon the acquisition of some more Hexon terrain.
• I have most recently had a focus on markers. I upgraded all my numbers, added more letters, made some generic disruption/OOC markers and am just completing some ammunition chits to replace the beads we've been using for To the Strongest!. I got the idea for the ammo counters from the Tin Soldiering On blog, the author which tells me that he got it from one of Donald Featherstone's books. That, needless to say, is good enough for me. However, I'm all markered out. 

 I suspect that the next games in the wargames annexe at Casa Epictetus will be to try out the new expansion to C&C Napoleonics, which, as far as I'm aware, hasn't arrived in the UK yet. I certainly don't need any more figures to play that, so a painting project doesn't have any time or other constraints; although cheapness would be preferable, not because I'm poor, but because I am mean. While I am thinking about it here's some Grateful Dead. I can't remember if I've already posted this, but if I have then so what.

Beyond the horizon

James and I concluded the latest Seven Years war game last night, it ending as expected in a good kicking for the Russians. If anything the initiative was even  more skewed in favour of the Prussians than it had been the previous week, but it was nevertheless and enjoyable game. In fact, on the wings the Prussian cavalry was completely destroyed. Unfortunately this was because there was too much Russian infantry on the right and not enough in the centre and that was where the game was lost. The new morale rules worked well I think, and the charge restrictions on Cossacks meant that I used them in a different way, only lost one unit of them and yet they still caused a fair amount of disruption.

Indeed James asserted that the rules (provisionally entitled 'Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops') were now pretty much finished. This should be treated with a certain amount of scepticism, especially as it was followed by some suggestions regarding cavalry opportunity charges. The rules favour the Prussians, which is reasonable enough, but in order to make a decent game of it this has to be compensated for by scenario design. At its crudest this means giving the Russians more units, but exactly how many more is more of an art than a science. It maybe that, given that their strategy seemed to be simply to try to hang around long enough until Frederick's army got fed up and went away, that they should be allowed a number of 'free' unit losses not countable against Major Morale. Also, it would seem to me that any scenario should not require them to actually do anything. The previous game we played fell down because they needed to switch units around in reaction to a flank attack, and they couldn't. In this game my deployment was too much to one side of the town and I could never bring the units back across.

On a different subject you may remember that a couple of years ago James and I got into some heated discussions about the length of day at the equator. This was particularly pointless as this is a very well understood phenomenon, has been for thousands of years, and it could be demonstrably proved which one of us (i.e. me) was right. You'll be pleased to know that we have moved on to a new and somewhat upgraded topic to argue about when we should be turning cards and rolling dice: gravitation as explained by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. This is also completely pointless as, let's be honest, neither of us has the faintest idea what we are talking about; didn't stop us though.

In the Middle of Something

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” - Epicurus

Nuns fret not

Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room,And hermits are contented with their cells;And students with their pensive citadels;Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells,Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:In truth the prison, into which we doomOurselves, no prison is: and hence for me,In sundry moods, ’twas pastime to be boundWithin the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground;Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,Should find brief solace there, as I have found.

                                                - William Wordsworth

The New Rock & Roll

I have been to a talk on the Battle of Towton given by Chris Murphy of the Towton Battlefield Society. It was informative and entertaining, and in particular was very strong on the context and personalities. Murphy is given to a colourful turn of phrase and I was taken both with his assertion that the Wars of the Roses is the new Rock & Roll and that Edward IV was Elvis. I was less convinced by the idea of Henry VI as Stephen Fry, but one can't have everything. He included a special section on local notable John, 9th Baron Clifford (the 'Flower of Craven' or ' Butcher Clifford' according to one's taste). Otley wasn't actually on Clifford's land, being owned by the Archdiocese of York, but he was the nearest big cheese. There is one obvious problem with focussing on the Flower/Butcher in a talk on Towton; as discussed on this very blog quite recently he died the day before. It probably didn't matter because the majority of the packed out hall - the sight of which prompted the bon mot about Rock & Roll - appeared to have only come to get away from Storm Desmond which was raging outside. As with the previous year's talk on Richard III - also a sell out, although against a background of snow that time - their grasp of what was going on appeared to be slim. There were no actively racist questions this time, but the first one to be asked, after two hours of bigging up the events of Palm Sunday 1461, "Isn't it true that the 28,000 casualties are a huge exaggeration, that it's all myth and that it wasn't a very important battle after all?" was unsurprisingly met with a curt "No!". In fact it is only modesty that prevents me from pointing out that for the second year running the only sensible question was asked by me.

The storm had abated sufficiently today for the annual Victorian Fayre; indeed it was about 15˚C warmer than last year when the reindeer were the only things looking at all comfortable. It's a big event with the entire centre of the town closed off and interesting to see how my great grandparents would have celebrated the time of year. I entered into the spirit of things by having a samosa.

The weekend also included a bit of old Rock & Roll with an excellent gig by Steve Phillips and the Rough Diamonds. Phillips, a long time friend and sometime bandmate of Mark Knopfler, is really a blues musician - his set included the usual list of McTell, Broonzy, Jefferson, Johnson, Waters, Wolf plus a couple of obscure Dylan covers - but he opened with Heartbreak Hotel, first made famous by that son of York, Edward Plantagenet.

More SYW playtesting

And back to wargaming. James has posted extensively on his blog about the current game which is testing some rule changes. I thought that it was a most enjoyable night, despite things not going completely according to plan for the Russians. As discussed before, Piquet isn't to everyone's taste, but I really like it. Specifically, I just love the fact that if we played exactly the same scenario again it would inevitably develop in a completely different way even if both sides started with the same plan.  We (for which read James) are always tinkering with the rules, but I don't see that as a problem. The objective is not a simulation, but rather a good game in which the flow of the battle develops in a way that seems historically appropriate; the trick is to get the two objectives - enjoyability and verisimilitude - in balance. Anyway, here are a few thoughts to supplement James' report:

• James had determined the forces and terrain, but otherwise this was a scratch game. Naturally none of us could remember exactly how one did that in Piquet, but we busked it through. I would, I think, make one small amendment to the process we followed: I would allow switching of qualities of units of the same type within the same command after they have all been rolled for. This is purely a game thing; it just gives one the possibility to partially ameliorate bad dice rolling.
• My original intention had been to rush my troops into the town along the road, taking advantage of the extra Infantry Move in the Open card that I had drawn during the morale set up; that's why they were in column. It didn't work because of the way the cards fell, but then again, on a different day, it could have been a masterstroke. To repeat myself, it's that unpredictability that makes me enjoy the game so much.
• On the plus side, my other unit of grenadiers in the centre did make it across the river and in to the town. They had originally rolled up as unknown quality, but when first into action the re-roll made them superior - a purple bead. Coupled with their commander having also rolled up purple means they will be very hard to dislodge; indeed they have already recovered all losses incurred so far.
• I think the morale challenge rules are working well so far. I hadn't thought through the effect mechanism that in Piquet allows one to pay a chip to re-roll a morale dice for the cost of a chip, but I think that the approach that we ended up with is the right one. There isn't any great logic to the original rule, but I think it adds a moment of choice to the game so I'd be loath to lose it.
• Prognosis? Not good for the Russians, apart from anything else my infantry is pretty poor. quality. I could do with winning the initiative and then turning Artillery Reload and Cavalry Move as my first two cards.

A personal view

I have known quite a number of MPs over the years; for obvious reasons most of them Labour. In fact the only past or present Tory MP that I think I have ever spoken to is former cabinet minister Jim Prior with whom I had dinner in Abu Dhabi some twenty years ago. The reason behind our separate visits has recently returned with a vengeance, indeed there was an extremely inaccurate article about the whole affair in the Guardian last week. Pretty much everything they wrote was wrong, except for the inescapable fact that innocent civilians are being killed by British made weapons.

Anyway, I digress. I was going to write about the fact that I have liked a great many Labour MPs as people; you will recall that I have previously mentioned a couple that I didn't care much for. I knew Ruth Cadbury, newly elected in Brentford & Isleworth, many years ago and I'm sure she'll be a fine MP. The late Alan Keen, MP for Feltham & Heston, was a warm. personable man and I liked him more each time that I met him. Martin Salter, MP for Reading West until he stood down in 2010, is somewhat of a hero of mine and was one of the few who came out of the expenses episode looking better than before. And Neil Kinnock was every bit as gregarious and good company as you would imagine.

But, the politician for whom I had the most time by far after meeting them in person is man-of-the-moment Hilary Benn. Now clearly he and I take a different view on the issue being debated yesterday, but that doesn't alter my high opinion of him. All politicians are self-selected to be comfortable dealing with people, but I think we all know that much of the interaction is false and superficial. I always found Mr Benn genuine in his concern for the problems and well-being of others and, a rare trait this, keen to hear what they had to say and learn from their experience, rather than assuming - as so many senior figures in both politics and business do - that he knew the answers already. In my own case this was most pronounced during the horse meat scandal (as well as being a merchant of death my varied career has seen me as Head of UK Finance for a major global food company) when he sought out my opinions and asked very pertinent questions in what was clearly a serious effort to understand the realities of the logistics of the industry. Any elephants among my readers will recall that I have already blogged on this subject and so I am also happy to report that when I quoted Marx at him, he didn't make the sign of the cross and run away, but instead noted down the reference and, I am fairly sure, went and looked it up afterwards.

So, Hilary Benn is a lovely and engaging chap, but before you start thinking he's somehow too saintly to cut it as a politician let me point out that he was also responsible for the most outrageous and blatant stitch-up that I have seen in four decades of internal Labour Party politics. And that, believe you me, is some achievement.

An expert speaks

"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour." - T.E. Lawrence

The Norway of the Year

I have given up fighting against doing a round-up of boardgames played on a monthly basis monthly so here's November's:

6 Nimmt!: Random at first, but there is depth once one starts to try to second guess the other players.

7 Wonders: At the risk of repeating myself, I really enjoy this, but am absolutely useless at it. And I always seem to end up with the hanging gardens of Babylon.

Between Two Cities: I'm not entirely sure the extent to which there is actually a game here. The group is keen (actually 'keen' might be stretching it) to try the 'left' variant of the rules which is rumoured to improve things.

The Bloody Inn: Another competitive innkeeper game, and certainly better than Polterfass. I'm developing a taste for games where each resource - in this case cards - could be used in multiple ways, but where only one can be chosen.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Secrets: This was the first time that I'd played this expansion. I'm not sure that it adds anything to what is a very good game to start with. It seemed to me that the obvious strategy now was to collect swans, so I did and won handily.

Codenames: This is rapidly moving towards becoming the game that I have played the most. It's a very amusing game whatever the mix within the teams, but not having much in common with other players is a real handicap to winning; and yes that is a reference to me being much older than everyone else. We also tried a variant using the cards from Dixit. It was better than Dixit, but not an improvement on Codenames. I wouldn't bother again.

Elysium: I was glad to see this back on the table. It's a good game that had got lost because of the temptations of the shiny and new.

Game of Trains: This has very little - in fact nothing - to do with trains. Instead it's an abstract, card sorting game and much to my taste.

The Grizzled: That rarity, a cooperative game that I like. Players are French soldiers in the trenches of WW1 (although the theme isn't terribly deep) and must together complete a missions and survive to the end of the war. We lost miserably, and I saw no real prospect of ever winning, but I'd be delighted to play again and be proved wrong.

Guillotine: When played last month this normally reliable filler fell completely flat.

Hanabi: n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-nineteen

Isle of Skye: Good game, with the variable victory conditions really adding to replayability. One of this month's games represented what was, I think, the first time I'd played it with four people. It made it harder to see what tiles were up for sale, but otherwise didn't slow it down too much. The winning strategy seems to be to concentrate on end-game scoring (especially with scrolls within completed areas) rather than scoring heavily each round. I suppose what I'm really saying is that I think that the catch up mechanism is a bit too strong so one may as well take advantage of it by lagging behind during the game and saving one's powder for the end.

Jenga: Seriously, Jenga, and very good it was too

The Manhattan Project: Enjoyable worker placement game on the soft and fluffy theme of developing weapons of mass destruction. I suspect that the winning strategy is always no aircraft, uranium only and will only fail when confronted by irrationally aggressive players.

Power Grid: I'd never played this before and for some reason had it in mind that it was a really heavy and complex game. In fact whilst it is on the long side it's fairly straightforward. It's an accounting game - I won, tied in fact - but very well designed and rewarding of sensible investment decisions. Despite enjoying it I don't think I'll play again; it's too much like the day job.

Skull: Always good

Survive: Escape from Atlantis!: There is such great pleasure to be had in sinking someone's boat with a sea monster. This is best played showing no mercy.

Ticket to Ride: Europe: This is such a good game, often and unfairly overlooked because it's a bit old now, and it's trains etc etc.

Titan Race: My companions kept finding parallels with Mario Kart but as I've never played any games on a games console at all, ever I can't comment. It's not up to much as a board game.

Wars are poor chisels

“Tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.”- Aeschylus

 

Robert Kennedy would have been ninety last month. He famously quoted different words from Aeschylus, his favourite poet - the politicians of today, as I have mentioned before, don't have quite the same heft as those of my youth - when extemporaneously delivering a eulogy to Martin Luther King Jr.; words that would appear on his own tomb a tragically short time afterwards. He also played a key, behind the scenes, role in averting war during the Cuban missile crisis.

I would hope that MPs from all parties will bear in mind his words and actions whilst discharging their responsibilities.

"Are we like the God of the Old Testament, that we in Washington can decide which cities, towns, and hamlets in Vietnam will be destroyed? Do we have to accept that? I don't think we do. I think we can do something about it. "

"We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all. We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled nor enriched by hatred or revenge."

"I think back to what Camus wrote about the fact that perhaps this world is a world in which children suffer, but we can lessen the number of suffering children, and if you do not do this, then who will do this?"

                      - Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy

Baby, it's a Knit Mitt

For those of you jaded with wargaming I offer you an alternative vaguely military related craft based hobby. Check it out here. I have seen the future.

“Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.” - William Blake

Exit pursued by another bear

It's a sad fact that some readers of this blog have disagreed with some of my comments on here, the most notable when being when I pointed out that that 'Chinese' Gordon of Khartoum was a religious nutcase; a statement of the bleeding obvious that nevertheless prompted more than one god-botherer to take their bat home. It's also a fact that the writer of this blog often disagrees with what he writes himself; it not all being meant to be taken entirely seriously. However, today I can say with some certainty that even should this blog last another twenty years I shall never post a less controversial opinion than the one that follows: Judi Dench can act a bit.

I have been to see the live broadcast of Kenneth Branagh's production of The Winters Tale; a play incidentally that I had quite happily lived for almost sixty years without seeing, but which I have now seen twice in a couple of months. It was an excellent production - the play itself is a touch ho hum if truth be told - but as good as Sir Ken himself was as Leontes and as fine as the rest of the cast performed, it was Dame Judi as Paulina who stole the show. She was simply wonderful.

It was the first time that I had been to a live theatre transmission to a cinema and I was most impressed by the technical aspects: the sound was clear, the stage effects (including the bear) and lighting came across perfectly and the camera angles and close ups were very well chosen. There will be a live showing of  Branagh's company performing Romeo and Juliet next summer and I recommend it. If you needed any further incentive the elder Miss Epictetus - an increasingly fervent Shakespeare enthusiast and my accompanist for the evening -  tells me that it will be starring 'the really fit bloke from Game of Thrones'.

Pot47pouri

“I do feel it gone,
But know not how it went” 

- William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale

Life has ticked along nicely during my brief absence from blogging here. I went to an very entertaining talk on pseudoscience by Michael Marshall of the Good Thinking Society. There was nothing new, but it's always good to hear someone stick the boot into psychics, homeopathy etc. There was the usual round of boardgaming - which will be covered in due course, although I can reveal that I have played another cooperative game that I quite like - and even some wargaming.

First up in terms of wargaming was the little project to redo all my number markers. I set up a production line and with with a bit of focus have managed to pretty much finish, despite the fact that it quite possibly wasn't worth doing in the first place. Is that better than half-finishing something that is worth doing? What am I, a philosopher?

Which leaves the climax of the latest Seven Years War scenario at James'. I rather thought it was all over before we started, a feeling reinforced when Peter got an early run of initiative and I sank to zero morale. However, the dominoes suddenly shifted in my favour, Peter's dice rolling reverted to its usual poor state and the Prussians found themselves without any morale either. Sadly that proved to be the high water mark for the Russians and for me the tipping point was when I was one initiative pip short of being able to heroically remove a unit of horse grenadiers from the firing line. In the end the major morale rules did their job and the Russian left flank disappeared leaving the game effectively over.

I'm still not sure about the scenario; it certainly needs more physical space behind the Russian defences. Probably, the top reason for the Prussian's success was their ability to effectively fire their muskets twice as often as the Russians. The latter would have been better in melee, but never got the chance. Most of the wrap-up discussion centred on possible rule changes for morale and Cossacks. A consensus was achieved: give a try to my suggestions on morale challenges, yet another version of major morale, and moving back a bit on the previously proposed amendments to Cossacks. The current plan is to try these out next week.

The whole vibe of everything

I'm going to try to avoid abuse for not being sufficiently appreciative of Elkie Brooks by sneaking mention of it in with a load of other stuff. In fact I seem to have also overlooked having seen Gilmore and Roberts recently. I rather liked them, make your own mind up:

The wargaming annexe was unaffected by the floods in Otley. The houses that ended up underwater were those that have a view of the river rather than of the A659 as the Casa Epictetus offers. The weather did disrupt travel somewhat, but nevertheless I made it to Leeds Art Gallery for British Art Show 8, a touring exhibition that takes place once every five years and which hasn't been to Leeds for twenty five years, or a generation as the publicity rather portentously says. Featuring forty two up-and-coming British Artists, it was mostly a load of old pony, with the only piece to which I would have given house room being 'On Nom Ore', a large hand-tufted wool wall hanging by Caroline Achaintre, that was so big that in fact I don't have enough room in my house after all. I chose the particular day that I went partly because it was when certain works were being interpreted in the galleries through the medium of music and dance by local students. This did not make things any better.

An unlikely and serendipitous result from the trip was that one exhibit, Linder's 'Diagram of Love: Marriage of Eyes' (literally a piece of old carpet that the artist found somewhere), made me realise what the device on Hastings' flag was meant to represent. That would be the first Baron Hastings, who has featured in all of my many refights of Tewkesbury and who has caused me every time to think "What on earth is that meant to be?". No doubt you already knew and are mocking me now; so be it.

Which brings us to Elkie Brooks. She was excellent. I can say no more.

Bad Penny Blues

I have, I'm sure, remarked here before that I have never understood why some wargamers are constantly rebasing their figures. It is therefore with some embarrassment that I have undertaken something even more pointless, I am reworking some of the markers that I use for indicating, for example, unit type and strength. I have two sorts, letters and numbers, both home made from adhesive craft stickers mounted on pennies in a base of filler. I had insufficient of some letters, but have now tracked down some more stickers of the same typeface to extend the collection. At the same time I managed to find some numbers in the same font, which I have decided to use to replace my existing numbers, which are perfectly adequate in both quantity and appearance. The exercise will take quite some time and will leave me pretty much where I was when I started. Perhaps I am a proper wargamer after all .

Speaking of which, last night I was half watching a documentary about WWII tanks when my ears caught the words Sidi Rezegh. What followed was a very interesting few minutes on Operation Crusader which was memorably described by an officer of 5th RTR as 'a gigantic cock-up'. The comparison of the relative sizes of shells from the British 37mm gun found on the Honey with that from a German 88mm was frightening. I'm not suggesting we fight the scenario again though.

Here's some Humph:

Fool if you think it's over

The observant among you will have spotted the song reference above, and indeed a review of an Elkie Brooks concert will follow in due course; as soon as I can steel myself for the subsequent, and inevitable, flood of comments from Elaine's biggest fan. Instead the title alludes to the current game ongoing at James', which appeared to have ended in a resounding defeat for the badly generalled Russians - that would be me - but then leaped from its deathbed to continue into the third act just like an operatic soprano.

James has chronicled the first week here, and as he was taking loads of photographs will no doubt write up last night's second week, so I will only make a few general observations. (By the way, any readers with OCD prepare yourselves for some pain and discomfort because experience tells us that he won't write up the concluding evening at all.) So, it was the usual good fun, full of the normal swings that Piquet gives. I rolled the worst set of officers I can remember so haven't tried to rally very much, and at one point rolled about ten threes in a row on a variety of size of dice, but overall it flowed along reasonably evenly.

On the downside - and I know James won't mind a little criticism; despite apparently having been promoted recently from wargaming aristocracy to wargaming demigod - I'm not sure about the scenario. It rather relies on the Russians switching their forces around and/or counterattacking with their left flank, and they don't have enough Infantry Move cards to make it work in practice, or enough space behind their barricades to move around in even if they did.

There was much debate about Cossacks, and I agree they still seem to be too powerful. They can be rather good at shooting down flanks, although I suppose the moral there is don't let them get on one's flank. James made one of his trademark mid-game rule changes regarding their ability to close with enemy units; indeed he actually made the alteration mid-charge, which seemed a bit harsh to me. If I understand the new rules - and I'm frankly not confident that James is very clear on them, so I'm not sure what chance Peter and I have - things have now gone too far the other way. If we started over again with the current rules then at the earliest opportunity I would move all the Cossack units off the table and save myself the morale chips for losing them; and whatever one thinks of their fighting abilities I suspect that wasn't what he had in mind when he painted them. My own preference would be for their chances of closing to be dependent on the state of the enemy unit and the direction from which it's approached. I'd also make the penalty for failure becoming disordered rather than becoming shaken.

Which brings me nicely to the morale rules in Piquet, or, to be more precise, the morale rules in the version of Piquet currently being played (provisionally entitled "When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye"). I don't like them. The original rules seem to have been designed so that a small game would come to a definite conclusion one way or another in an evening, which is fair enough. But they've been bastardised to such a point that they now lack - in my opinion - any real internal consistency or validity as a game mechanic. There, I've said it.

Liberté, Liberté cherie,

Psalm 116 Verse 3

 

 

"The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow."

It's a New Orleans thing

“There are only two things: love, all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music of New Orleans. Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly. ”  - Boris Vian

Indeed it is. Farewell, Allen Toussaint.

And you might recognise this one:

Hamians

I very much admire those blogs where regular progress reports are provided of what has been painted. No similar update is provided here simply because nothing much ever seems to get painted. However, I am happy to report that the dozen Hamian archers and the Celtic chariot have finally been based - the painting was largely finished some time ago - and their place has been taken in the cupboard by another dozen Hamian archers. The cupboard in question is the one in which the painting tray spends the vast majority of its life; it's actually beneath the boiler so I pretend to myself that it is in some way a sort of extended drying process.

The archers in question are a mish-mash of Roman bowmen from various manufacturers. Many of their colleagues have been converted to Ottoman forces to serve at the siege of Constantinople, but those remaining have been dragged from the plastic mountain to give some variety to To the Strongest! battles. They are Hamians mainly because that's what's pictured on Plate A of Osprey Men-at-Arms 93 'The Roman Army from Hadrian to Constantine' (not the picture above by the way which was lifted from here). Extremely rudimentary research on my part (although not Wikipedia on this occasion) indicates that one theory has them in Britain as hunters, whose main role was to provide meat and game to other troops. That suggest a possible use for them in the Romans in Britain rip-off of Pony Wars, for which I am keen to develop a hex based variant. And finally, on the subject of Hexon, I have bought some more.

So I wait for you like a lonely house

Till you will see me again and live in me

Till then my windows ache

....................................................

                                But
                                 if each day,
                                 each hour,
                                 you feel that you are destined for me
                                 with implacable sweetness,
                                 if each day a flower
                                 climbs up to your lips to seek me,
                                 ah my love, ah my own,
                                 in me all that fire is repeated,
                                 in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
                                 my love feeds on your love, beloved,
                                 and as long as you live it will be in your arms
                                 without leaving mine.

                                           - Pablo Neruda

It's not cricket

 "Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?" - Harold Pinter

Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?
Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/author/11692-Harold_Pinter

Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?
Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/author/11692-Harold_Pinter

Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?
Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/author/11692-Harold_Pinter

And so to the theatre. Sometimes there is a serendipitous juxtaposition of plays that one sees and so it is that shortly after 'Godot' comes 'The Birthday Party'. Pinter was clearly influenced by his fellow Nobel Laureate despite somewhat more happening in this, his second play, than in Beckett's. Having said that, one is left slightly unclear exactly what it was that occurred, the audience ending up in the kind of mental fog that engulfs Meg Boles throughout. Pinter reputedly told one director that it was all about cricket and was also supposed to have told an actor who asked why his character behaved as he did to mind his own business.

The director and actors involved here had made their own decisions and the piece was finely acted. Comedy - even 'comedy of menace' - isn't easy, and the play's descent from banality to absurdity makes it even more difficult, but their timing was excellent. One quibble might be that McCann is surely meant to be an Irish Catholic, whereas James Bell's accent was absolutely spot-on Ulster Protestant, to the extent that one wondered where the bowler hat was. Making things even more disconcerting for this member of the audience at least was that the actor playing the deck chair attendant chose to make the character spookily reminiscent of a wargaming art-shop proprietor of my acquaintance.

Anyway, to me the interesting thing about art isn't so much that it teaches you anything about how one should live life, but that every now and then there is a flash of insight into how one actually does conduct oneself day to day. For me - and I accept that this may not resonate with others quite as much - Pinter achieves just that here: "You're a big, bouncy woman." says Goldberg to Lulu upon meeting her "Come and sit on my lap.".

Napoleon's last victory isn't

I had set up the C&C Ligny scenario mainly to see how it looked, but we ended up playing it last night.

The emperor ponders how best to waste the Old Guard

The terrain is very robust despite not being clipped together as thoroughly as recommended by the manufacturer. The video on their website makes it look so easy, but it's really not; I gave up after pinging the clips around the annexe on several occasions. The fact that the hexes were smaller than the previous squexes not only made it look more cramped, but also made the players imagine there was less room for manouevre as well. I suppose we'll get used to it.

For the record, James' peculiar aversion to combined arms attacks resulted in a straightforward Prussian victory.

Pot46pouri

Did I mention that I have seen Spectre? What a terrible film; if you haven't yet had the misfortune to see it, then don't bother. I'll grant you that the five minutes before the credits are rather good, but after that it's just rubbish. How they can drag the thing out for so interminably long and still leave countless plot elements completely unexplained is beyond me. The script takes itself very seriously (except for the joke about the allocation of the car, which did make me laugh), raising all sorts of political, ethical and psychological issues and the treating them all in a trivial, superficial, intelligence-insulting manner. I feel somewhat conned by all the glowing reviews in the media, but I think thay can be explained by the repeated, self-referential allusions to other films, mainly Bond although others such as Indiana Jones get a look in; critics love to display their esoteric knowledge (yes I know, I know!). And why is the state of the art global surveillance system accessed via a VDU of the type that no one has used for thirty years or more, displaying big coloured typeface on a black background?

MI6 fights cyber-crime

On a more positive note I have been to see the Jon Palmer Acoustic Band, who are very famous if you happen to live in Otley. Despite that they are very good, in a Waterboys, Pogues, Billy Bragg sort of stylie and well worth checking out. Here's one of their songs, in honour of today's Prime Minister's Questions:

Posh boys talking bollocks indeed. They did a very fine version of Steve Earle's Copperhead Road, but I'm actually going to leave you with another JP written song and then some Waterboys, both just for Crumb:

Les contes d'Hoffmann

And so to the opera. Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman was English Touring Opera's third offering last week and very much lived up to its five star reviews. I've no idea whether the original stories by the doomed German Romantic author E.T.A. Hoffman made any sense - it possibly depends how far advanced the syphilis was when he wrote each of them - but they make no sense whatsoever linked together here. That of course does nothing but enhance their suitability for being turned into an opera and also means that the fact that the 1920s Hollywood setting for the framing first and final acts is inconsistent with that for the three tales sandwiched in between is of no importance either. (N.B. for a completely different perspective try the Guardian review.)

What really makes this production buzz is the highly amusing acting of  Warwick Fye as the various bad guys. And the singing is good as well: from him, from Sam Furness as Hoffman - who really gives it some welly, as a good tenor should - and from Ilona Domnich, as easy on the eye as on the ears. Also excellent is Louise Mott in a number of roles, but it's a mystery as to why, while playing Nicklausse, she is dressed as Billy Bunter. I think I neglected to mention when reviewing Pelléas and Mélisande that Yniold appeared to be dressed as Wee Jimmy Krankie. Someone in ETO's design team seems to have a thing for women in boys' school uniform.

Hexon II for C&C

With all due apologies to Crumb it's time for some more wargaming. As previously mentioned I bought some of Kallistra's Hexon II at Fiasco. I suppose my main intention is to use it to build terrain flexibly for all rule sets rather than use it specifically for hex based rules. However, I haven't bought a lot so far, partly because I don't have a terribly good visual imagination and wanted to experiment before I commit to what elements to buy, and partly because I had travelled into Leeds on the bus and couldn't actually carry very much. In fact the box I bought was somewhat trickier to carry than I had anticipated and I ended up walking through Leeds a bit like George Lazenby in the old Fry's chocolate adverts.

Anyway, notwithstanding my ultimate intentions I have set up the boards that I currently have for C&C Napoleonics; it's the Ligny scenario. It all looks a bit lost in the middle of the table, although there will be plenty of room to put the rules and fizzy drinks, and to roll the dice. The whole thing has now clearly abandoned any pretence to be a wargame and stands proud as a more aesthetically pleasing boardgame.

Observations are:

• The sabot bases and unit identifiers fit well in the clear hexes, but it gets a bit snug when a commander is added. As a reminder these are 20mm figures with units of 9 for infantry, 4 for cavalry with guns based singly.
• The individual hex hills are too steep for the sabot bases to sit comfortably, but the flexible slopes won't fit into the standard C&C scenarios. I never had this problem with the upside down paper plates.
• My existing river sections, paper bridges and (some of) my charity shop sourced knick knack buildings work OK. I need more small trees. Town and forest hexes need to be marked with coloured felt because the buildings and trees will have to be taken off if one wants to get any troops in the same hex.
• Line of sight is line of sight; neither complex mathematics nor constantly referring back to the map are any longer required.

Pelléas and Mélisande

And so to the opera. English Touring Opera are presenting three works in Harrogate. I passed on Massenet's Werther, mainly because the eponymous protagonist is so insufferable, but also partly because I made the mistake of going to see the very disappointing Spectre instead. But I did catch Debussy's version of Maeterlinck's 1893 play. I always welcome the chance to see opera in a smaller theatre and musically and vocally it was very good. The stage designs are necessarily built around transportability, but I felt they worked less well. The window in the castle tower wasn't really high enough or big enough for the Rapunzel style hair letting down and then there was the filing cabinet which lay on its side centre stage throughout. The opening and closing of various drawers to represent wells, caves, gardens etc sort of worked until late in the second half, when the top drawer was opened for the first time and a pile of papers spilled out. It was impossible to tell whether they represented anything in particular or whether someone had just forgotten to take them out. 

And what things represent is rather important here. The original play was 'symbolist'; in other words everything has a deeper meaning than that being acted out in front of us. I think - and don't quote me on this - that this one's about some things ending and other things beginning, whether we want that to happen or not. I saw echoes of Tennyson's views on the death of Arthur and the end of Camelot ("The old order changeth, yielding place to new"). Maybe that's all tied up with the mock medieval setting; maybe I'm just talking drivel. From our modern perspective it's always tempting to assume that fin de siècle (both temporally and artistically) implied some sort of intuitive awareness of the onrushing global conflict.

Whatever, I actually prefer to draw my lessons from the story as told on stage rather than looking behind it. The recital of infidelity and jealousy provides an interesting juxtaposition with both The Winter's Tale, seen on the same stage recently, and, once again against a background of impending and inevitable social change, the contemporaneous Uncle Vanya. For me, there are two pivotal moments: when the adulterous lovers first acknowledge how deep their feelings for each other are and understand that they are reciprocated; and then, when perhaps inevitably they are discovered and await whatever fate will bring, Pelléas cries "All is lost, all is won".

Ferrybridge, the morning after (sort of)

Some weeks ago I set up a scenario loosely based on the action at Ferrybridge on March 28th 1461. The drivers for choosing this particular scenario were variously: having given up trying to make decent scenarios from the larger Wars of the Roses battles; wanting to try out To the Strongest! on something other than a straight two lines facing each other type of engagement; and because I have enjoyed a couple of Seven Years War scenarios that James devised (with more than a nod to Charles Grant) involving either bridges and/or troops arriving from various directions.

I say loosely based because I took out the damage to the bridge as being a complication too far for my purposes and gave the Lancastrians (Blogger's spelling suggestion for that last word was Zoroastrian; interesting) some reinforcements in order to even things up. I also gave Fauconberg some mounted archers, mainly because I have some and this was a way of getting them onto the table.

After illness and the foray into galley warfare previously mentioned here, Peter and I played through the game earlier in the week and I thought it worked fairly well. Edward IV might disagree as he died fairly early on, which does rather cast a cloud over things from the Yorkist's perspective. We decided that Warwick would have carried on regardless with the intention of pulling the strings of the young George I, as Clarence would have become. Clifford and Trollope (commanding the reinforcements) were also victims on the other side. The game ended in a a bit of a draw (ignoring Edward's death) with the Kingmaker holding the bridge, but unable to get more troops across and Fauconberg's force having been rather depleted.

The post match analysis placed the blame on my lack of aggression as the Son of York, which I think was fair enough. I should have pushed on to clear space in order to get more troops across even at the cost of losing my better units. But the scenario mostly worked out OK, the rules coped with a more complex setup and the newly acquired tokens were much easier to use than playing cards.

Appearances lead to deceive

It's about time that I bored you all with a list of boardgames played:

6 nimmt!: A really abstract game for which the correct strategy is so elusive that one is probably almost as well off playing randomly, but which I like despite that.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig: I like this, but have never seen anyone, myself included, display any particular science in deciding the prices when it's their turn to be master builder.

Codenames: A most enjoyable game for which I have no talent. It depends on having common frames of reference with one's teammates so, given the age gap between me and everyone else, all it does is prove that I am not down with the kids.

Isle of Skye - From Chieftain to King: This game has nothing to do with Skye and even less to do with getting promoted from chieftain to king. It is a sort of cross between Carcassonne, Castles of Mad King Ludwig and any number of games with variable victory conditions. I liked it and am not being facetious when I commend it for being quick to play.

Mafia de Cuba: A very fiddly and, I would suggest, pointless addition to the hidden identity genre. The only connection to Cuba seems to be that the (very many) bits are supplied in a cigar box.

Memoir '44: Enjoyed it and would like to play again.

Mystery of the Abbey: Cluedo meets 'The Name of the Rose'. I like it, but it works best with the maximum number of players.

Quartermaster General: The game a couple of weeks was probably my favourite of all the the times we've played. As the Germans I got my status cards all deployed early and the blitzkrieged my way to Moscow, but my card expenditure was too great and I had nothing left when the Yanks arrived.

Snowdonia: Jointly building a railway to the summit. A highly enjoyable worker placement game.

Thunderbirds: FAB, Virgil. It's basically Pandemic, but with added Tracy brothers. It was OK - I rather relished being Lady Penelope - but I still can't see the point of co-operative games. It didn't really seem that much different to the board game on the same theme which I played in the 1970s. And there was no Brains nor Parker either.

Tiny Epic Galaxies: We were somewhat handicapped as none of us knew the rules, but I'd like to play this again now I've sort of got the hang of it. I preferred it to the similarly themed Ad Astra.

War Galley: Not for me. It turns out that Peter quite liked it, although his reasoning seemed to be no more than that it wasn't as bad as Advanced Squad Leader.

And, speaking of Skye, here's some Runrig: