Niagara is Approaching...

With less than 2 weeks to go until Niagara Boardgaming Weekend begins, I'm getting kind of antsy. It's a real fun mid-winter break, with 4 straight days of gaming. 9 more school days, then I'm there...

Getting geared up for Niagara, I played Hannibal with Mike Cardwell last night. Mike has really been enjoying the game, which is good, for I'm trying to wean him from hexes and games without cards! This was a great game (I was Carthage). Hannibal entered Italy on the 2nd turn, and took 2 northern Provinces. With the help of Diplomacy, and the Macedonian Alliance, I sailed Mago to Sardinia and secured that island. Rome was concentrating on building up its forces and suppressing the pro-Carthaginian tribe in southern Italy. By mid-game, Hannibal had built a decent force in northern Italy, and I went defensive -- thinking that if Rome came after Hannibal I'd send Mago to Sicily or send Hannibal south if mago was getting harassed. What I didn't count on was Rome playing a Major Campaign and sending three armies against Hannibal. Ouch! Once the dust settled, Hannibal was down to 1 CU, and nestled in Gallia Cisalpinia, his back against the Alps. Mike had a chance to finish Hannibal off (assuming I flubbed the avoid battle roll), but left him alone, instead choosing to bring spaces in northern Italy back under the Roman yoke. This gave Hannibal the "out" he needed, as he fled westward over the Alps. Over the next turn, Hannibal went back to New Carthage and emerged with another large army...

Hannibal Barca

While Hannibal was recruiting his new force (though no elephants), Rome was clearing out northern Italy of Carthaginian sympathizers. Hannibal then headed back and crossed the Alps with a full 10 CU force before Rome was ready to deal with him again. This time, he wasn't fooling around -- 2 battles in Gallia Cisalpinia completely routed 2 Roman armies (17 CUs lost!) and the northern Italians welcomed the Carthaginians back. Even Syracuse, in Sicily, decided to ally with the now strong (again) Hannibal. Game ended with Carthage winning the province count 11-6 (Celtiberia being neutral). It was a much closer game, falling apart for Rome only at the end (after those 17 CUs disappeared). I must say, I really love this game.

Ah, gaming...

Bob Titran is coming by tomorrow for some Combat Commander. Can't wait!

What a Slacker!

Yeah, I've been a horrible slacker, lately...

Since my last update, before Thanksgiving, we've had the following:

Thanksgiving
Syracuse Basketball goes to 8-0
Played Hannibal x2
Played Combat Commander x2
Had 2 new dog training days
And a lot of other boring stuff...

Thanksgiving was fine, nothing exciting. I made oyster stuffing and a peppery giblet gravy. For dinner, I had a lot of dark meat, stuffing, gravy, and whole-berry cranberry sauce. Most excellent. Had some of Deanna's pumpkin pie later in the evening, and it was good (though I prefer my non-cook pumpkin chiffon pie!). Didn't really bother with the football games, as the match-ups all sucked. Played poker into the night, though my Visa will no longer deposit money into my Poker Stars account (I had recently taken back a good deal of winnings, so when I went to put more $$ in, I was rejected -- I need to do an e-check one of these evenings...).

Syracuse won a tourney in Kansas City, beating #17 Florida and #22 Kansas in the process. And they kept winning, beating Virginia, Colgate, and Cornell after that. They're an exciting team that has the bad habit of falling behind early, then coming on like gangbusters and winning the second half. Jim "2-3 Zone" Boeheim has a team that excels at man-to-man D, and whenever they get out of their zone, they play much better. AP has them ranked #16 now, and the top 25 has EIGHT Big East teams in it -- a third of the poll. What a monster conference, I'm betting 10 teams get into the NCAAs (they should).

I played a practice game of Hannibal with Mike last week, to help him learn the mechanics (we ended after 3 turns). Last evening we started a real game, and are through 6 turns. My Carthaginians have the upper hand, but Mike's Romans had a good last turn, with Scipio Africanus leading the way. Should be an interesting end...

Bob Titran came by last Saturday, and we played a couple games of Combat Commander. First game was from the paratrooper battle pack, a fight over glider resupply outside Bastogne on 12-27-44. My American paras were able to overcome the evil Germans and pick up the victory. After a nice Thai lunch, we decided to use the Random Scenario Generator for a new game. Bob rolled up the Italians in 1940, while I got Allied Minors, so the scenario worked out to a Greek company trying to take back a village held by an Italian Blackshirt detachment. A couple of weenie armies, which made the scenario a lot of fun -- it took me a while to get the Greeks going, but they were on the move. Then we thought we had misplayed a victory condition (which, in hindsight we hadn't, d'oh!), so we decided to call it for the Blackshirts, as Bob had to hit the road anyway. All in all, good fun, and I think this may be my favorite game right now -- so much happens!

On Saturday night, I was talked into playing a game with Deanna and 2 kids. The 4 of us ended up playing Santa Fe Rails, and it was actually pretty fun. Brad, the youngest, ended up winning with 163 points, I was 2nd with 159. I admit, I helped him out, and I didn't play as cutthroat as I could (should?) have, but it was pretty fun, nonetheless.

Cheyenne's new training regimen has begun, and she's not getting along with an English Mastiff in class. The Mastiff growls at other dogs, and this pisses Cheyenne off, so she barks back at him, and gets all the dogs going. She needs to learn that it might not be a good idea barking at t dog 3 times her size! She is a smart dog, but so damn stubborn. Maybe she has a little Sicilian blood in her, as I do.

And life goes on. I have gaming and Cheyenne to keep me busy, and I really need to get back into shape (this is proving elusive). I also need to focus on getting a game design going, I really do.

Oh yeah, I need to be more vigilant here, too.

So many resolutions, waiting for the New Year...