Very busy day yesterday, with my Aunt, with grading and with getting the house ready for selling. At least Cheyenne got in a great early afternoon "play date" with Sally, my Mother's English Setter. She slept for the rest of the afternoon, very "un" Cheyenne-like!
We are winding down at school. Classes today and Tuesday, then all 6th graders go to Sea Breeze Amusement Park on Wednesday. I have 3 groups to monitor -- just have to have them check in with me every 90 minutes or so, to be sure everyone's still alive and kicking. I get to hang out in the sun, trying to get some pasty white skin not so pasty and white.
Gaming-wise, Bill and I will be starting up Thirty Years War again this week, with me as the Protestants. Not sure if Mike and I will be getting together. A new pbem game of Here I Stand is also just starting, and I'm the Pope. Time to go burn some Protestant Heretics (I can have it both ways, LOL!).
I also just ordered Espana 1936 
from Boulder Games (arrival date end of June, projected). I am very excited about this one, as the Spanish Civil War is high on my list of "cool" game subjects, and has been ever since I read Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Of course, that prompted me to read real histories on the war, and the nastiness of this conflict, along with the cornucopia of different units, makes it an interesting game situation. Besides, Charles Vasey gave Espana 1936 two thumbs up, and we have similar likes/dislikes when it comes to games. I'll be getting the English edition...
from Boulder Games (arrival date end of June, projected). I am very excited about this one, as the Spanish Civil War is high on my list of "cool" game subjects, and has been ever since I read Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Of course, that prompted me to read real histories on the war, and the nastiness of this conflict, along with the cornucopia of different units, makes it an interesting game situation. Besides, Charles Vasey gave Espana 1936 two thumbs up, and we have similar likes/dislikes when it comes to games. I'll be getting the English edition...So, I'll have to get my final grading done for report cards, then it's summer, sweet, beautiful summer! I hope we get the house sold quickly, so I can enjoy it.
18 comments:
I'll be interested to see your thoughts on the SCW title.
Rob, I noticed you said you cancelled your Angola pre-order, but didn't have time to search back through the folder to find the issue. Is there a problem with the game, or is the cancellation for a personal reason?
I'm really looking forward to Espana 1936 -- so it'll probably either vault into my "favorite games" pile or be a huge disappointment.
Harsh, but that's how things often work around here...
Angola is a great game -- I have at least 2, possibly 3 copies of the Ragnar Brothers edition.
Lee B-W, I'm sure, will do a nice job prettying the game up and a rules' rewrite won't hurt.
However, the guy in charge was just an ass to me for the last time on CSW with me going along meekly and sending in my preorder money for his games. The whole INFP thing, to be sure -- gotta do what's right.
If the rules get cleaned up I'll copy a friend's rulebook and we'll play on their new copy (if not, the last game I played, last summer, used my game and it worked just fine). And I'll not only have saved $60+, I'll feel good about getting my moral compass back on course in dealings with pricks.
Moral compass? Rob Winslow?
Something just ain't adding up here...
J.R./Dick/whatever
Screw with my sense of right and wrong, thats all it takes. :-)
There are both designers and companies I won't support with $$$ anymore. With too many games for several lifetimes, I don't feel too deprived...
I preordered Angola off that game we played last year. You can copy my rulebook. :-)
Can we *please* get some kind of moratorium on new CDG's? They're coming out faster than I can afford, let alone faster than I can learn the bloody things!
I've gotten several games of FAB: Bulge played on Bruce's program. Starting to get the hang of it. This is promising to be one of the few non CDG's that I really like to play. I'd imagine a number of the Rochester guys and Nels and Bob Titran will like it.
This is Cory
Had a good time at Millennium Sat.
Got to play Frank and got whipped again by him. He is lucky or just good.
I enjoyed the Crayon game of RR. I was always curious about the game. Now I know how it works.
I have such an insane schedule this year that it is making it tough on me to play games.
Hope you enjoy Espana; you play games much more frequently than I so I'll be interested to see whether you think it is balanced. One player who I respect felt it edged towards the Nationalists, but so did Mr Whiney O'Crybaby so the jury is still out.
It is a bit like the IGS series; you are in there playing before you realise it without the usual brain pain.
The FAB Bulge rules really confounded me. I only bought the game because of John Foley -- I'm not a Bulge fan. The games I've seen played at Millennium really dragged, and I don't think I'd ever play it enough to have it not drag, frankly...
Spanish Civil War, now that's interesting!
Good to see Cory at Millennium, even if we didn't get to play (I need to bone up on the Blue vs. Gray rules...).
I hope Espana 1936 is balanced. At least if it's tilted toward the Nationalist side, well, that's OK, isn't it? ;-)
Luckily, balance in most CDGs with area control and/or VPs can be rectified with simple bidding. I just gotta get some local guys to get the game and play it with me!
What confounds you about FAB?
I definitely think you need to play a few to see everything. Fortunately, there are several short scenarios.
The rules (on my first read through) were just very hard to grasp. I watched Jeff Heideman and Jack Morrell play a few months ago, and before every move they were hunting in the rulebook for some obscure reference (or so it seemed).
That, added to the fact that Bulge games tend to bore me, made me shelve the monster. I have no doubt it's a fun game, I'm just thinking if I want to concentrate on John Foley developed games, I'll be sticking to Combat Commander!
And let's not forget I have to learn Espana 1936...
Hmm, I don't think there are any truly obscure rules in FAB. I just think they're formatted in a bit of an unusual way. I think it takes a little bit to click, and then you go *oh*. I think it's assets and events that get people because they're unusual for this type of game. Still, once you get them, I think this plays easily.
We should play a few turns sometime.
I'm looking forward to FAB: Sicily
Spanish Civil War, Grant, Spanish Civili War...
Eh, you don't even own the game yet! You know me, I'll play any CDG. It's only the crazy ones like Here I stand and Triumph of Chaos that I refuse to try without having read the rules.
Kutuzov is coming. We've got to get 4 people together for that after (or during) WBC.
You could play Here I Squat with about 5 minutes of rules explanation, Grant. It's completely within the Napoleonic Wars/Wellington vein. Quite easy, when it comes down to it.
Triumph of Chaos I agree with you -- my head hurts every time I try to crack the rulebook...
Sadly, I'm still tempted to try and figure out ToC sometime. I think I like to beat my head against walls.
Heck, I'd probably be trying to master POG if Nick was still into it. This is mighty odd considering that the game leaves a strange aftertaste. It's like I can't resist trying to solve the problem.
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