Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all.

Pot76pouri

So, wargaming then. There isn't likely to be any at the Casa Epictetus until the shower is sorted out because the table in the annexe is covered with the stuff moved out of the living room due to the ceiling falling down situation. I can't validly blame that for the lack of any painting at all in the first quarter so I have tried to remojotivate myself (1) in a way that has worked before: namely making some markers - the letters and numbers that you see in photos of the games  - as a sort of way back in. All that seems to be happening this time is that I am very slowly making markers that I don't particularly need.

So let's talk boardgaming instead. This is what I played in March:

Cockroach Poker: An amusing bluffing game. The best strategy is to keep a low profile and let the others get on with it.

Deep Sea Adventure: A push your luck game which I'd like to try again. When playing with lots of players no one is going terribly deep on their adventure, or if they do then they ain't coming back.

The Grizzled: I do like this. As always, our group of poilus failed to survive until the armistice.

Istanbul: I also like this one a lot; might have to buy it.

Kingdomino: A good - and quick - game for which I lack the requisite pattern recognition skills.

Oceanos: Another subsea exploration game, although one's divers are less likely to get the bends in this one. It's OK. I was made rather cocky by a good set of cards in the first round; it didn't last.

Perudo: Or Peruvian Liar's Dice; in other words the classic bluffing game.

Plague Inc.: In which one plays a bacterium (or virus) and attempts to wipe out humanity. Great fun; loved it.

Power Grid China: A rather tough map. I got a bit carried away and overbid for a power plant too early during the last round. I might have won otherwise.

San Juan: I'm not that bothered about this; happy enough to play it, but I wouldn't suggest it.

Stockpile: In contrast to how I played Power Grid, no one is ever aggressive enough in the auction phase of this to make it work as it obviously should.

Survive: Another cracking game.

Telestrations: Bored with this.

Wasabi!: Absolutely no idea why that has an exclamation mark in the name. It's OK, but I suspect it's another game that would be better if people played it a lot and better understood the tactics.

I'm going to finish the whole jumpsuit thing before it gets out of hand. This is surely the definitive way to wear one on stage:

Let's end with a story to warm the hearts of accountants everywhere.



(1) Did you know that the constitution of Wisconsin forbids the Governor from inventing new words?

S.O.S.

Should anyone be wondering why the font size on this blog keeps varying between posts - well so am I.

Be that as may, here's some Agnetha; I mean here's some ABBA:

Pot69pouri

Well, I don't have much time for the royal family normally, but I think HM has played a blinder this week; which is more than can be said for TM the hapless PM. The Daily Mirror has also hit some form;

I used to work in the Mirror Building, back when both Fleet Street and I were in better shape; remind me to tell you all my Robert Maxwell stories sometime.

In other news I have been to see Vieux Farka Touré, the 'Hendrix of the Sahara'. I couldn't see any similarity between them myself beyond the fact that he played guitar, and, as the big bouncy woman pointed out, that is probably the absolute minimum. If I had to make comparisons - which I don't but I will - I'd say that he was the 'Robert Cray of the Sahara'. Whatevs, as the younger Miss Epictetus would say if she ever spoke to me, he and his band were very good. I have no idea what he was singing about - they spoke to each other in French, addressed the audience in very broken English, and sang in what is presumably a language native to Mali - except perhaps for the song entitled 'Ali', which I assume was dedicated to his father, the late Ali Farka Touré. However, I enjoyed it as did the audience of mainly aging hippies dad dancing in the aisles throughout.

He was on at the Howard Assembly Rooms, which shares a common entrance with the Grand Theatre. Currently showing there is Mama Mia, which made for some interesting contrasts in the queue for bag checks. It also provides an excuse to include a photo of Agnetha; though who needs one?

There is also no reason to explain the appearance here of some asparagus. That's crème fraîche with dill and jalapeño peppers on the right.

Galia est pacata

I have mentioned before (a) my opinion that in grid based wargames it is crucial to use the game tactics that the rules writer had in mind to replicate real tactics. We ran into this problem when first playing C&C Ancients and again with TtS!. We have played the latter with Wars of the Roses, Punic Wars and Early Imperial Romans against Celts and the problem is far less in the first case. Logic suggests this is because in that case we have two essentially identical forces using essentially identical tactics whereas Romans versus others is asymmetrical. Last night the wargaming annexe saw the same issue replicated.

Now this could all be, as I have heard suggested, because the rules writer loves the Romans. It could also however be because the Romans were simply better at fighting than everyone else; and given that in the periods that we're discussing they won all the wars and had a huge empire there may be something in this. The implication of which is that the Celts need to be slightly smarter than simply aiming for a straight up fight.

Note the crapness of the chariots

Anyway, a straight up fight is what happened, and as usual they lost. The post game discussion revolved around how they might do better next time. The rules give warbands three hits before they die, meaning that they last longer; specifically that they are less likely to be defeated in one melee. It seems to me that the tactics have to be to take advantage of this by withdrawing behind the chariots following disorder, to rally and come again. Being deep units they can't interpenetrate and therefore the deployment must be wide and thin rather than narrow and deep. Meanwhile the chariots and skirmishers can press against the Roman line because should these charge them they will almost certainly move forward, making them more vulnerable to being attacked by the warbands.

(a) The page to which that link directs you is one of those from which the photographs are now missing. You may recall that I was trying to establish what had caused images to disappear across a number of posts. I failed, and the only upside of my efforts was a gratuitous photograph of Agneta's backside; for which I can only apologise and promise not to do it again.

And there we may rehearse most obscenely

In a moment of boredom some weeks ago I installed the featured post widget on blogger. It has been interesting for me at least to look back through previous entries, but it seems that a number of illustrations from the early days of the blog have mysteriously disappeared. I say mysteriously, but I think we can safely assume that some incompetence on my part lies behind it; indeed my working hypothesis is that it has something to do with what happened when I set up on Google+. I shall test this out by trying to track a picture through the system.

So, in order to get a good look at what goes on behind the scenes, here's Agnetha.

You don't need teeth for kissing girls

I've had a request that if I am going to insist on filling a wargaming blog with music videos can I at least put up one that has some wargaming relevance. Of course the obvious choice in 2015 is 'Waterloo' by Abba, and this blog has a well known fondness for Agnetha.

Any excuse

But, striking out in a different direction - and a year early anniversarywise, here is Tom Russell singing about Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico in 1916; an event that I at least have long wanted to recreate on the tabletop.

And here he is again, accompanied by Nanci Griffith, with a song about human relationships. Wargamers, look away now.

Ramblings about nothing

"Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it." - Robert Frost

A process of elimination has revealed that the Roman and Celt civilians that I found in the box and have started to paint are by Newline. A dozen of them have left the painting table for the plastic box in the annexe together with ten Roman Auxiliaries and the really naff villa that I've just built. I have acquired some cavalry for both sides and they will be next up.

An entirely gratuitous - and dreadful - picture

We got half way through a most enjoyable Seven Years War scenario at James' last night where I was the Russians fighting off Prussians attacking from all directions. Unfortunately, this being Piquet, I couldn't turn any infantry move or reload cards and therefore had to do it all with my cavalry. I don't rate my chances much when the remaining Prussian reinforcements arrive, but it has been fun. I say that the game was Piquet, but James and Peter's version is gradually drifting away from the original via Field of Battle towards who knows where. It does seem to work though.

'There is a danger of changing too much in the search for perfection'

Well, a rare second posting today. This is driven partly by the impatience of my main man Gummy, and partly by the fact that all the transmitters have gone down and there is no terrestrial television or radio in Ilkley. As I don't have access to satellite and I can't be arsed to fix up the computer to the TV set I am forced to answer his question. I promised to answer it in two parts, but he has since posted a follow-up that's longer than the first instalment of my response was in the first place. I have therefore decided to answer it in three bits. This is therefore 'part one, a slight return' and is included not least because it gives me the opportunity to bring you a photograph of Agnetha Fältskog.

The thrust of Mr Highway's question is whether James' preferred method of playtesting rule changes is optimal from the point of view of those playing the playtest games. The thrust of my answer is that no it probably isn't purely from the point of view of playing a game for the games' sake. But if you assume that those playing are also interested in helping to develop the rules then it becomes less of a problem. Also I know that I always refer to the as James' rules, and he does do the editing, collation etc, but you shouldn't underestimate Peter's role. I'm pretty sure that the Punic Wars rules that you praised are co-credited to Peter, and rightly so. The purpose of the evenings therefore is to have fun in the two areas  of gaming and rules developing and scenario designing. To have fun in the three areas of gaming, rules designing, scenario designing and lamenting our inability to speak Latin. Continues ad infinitum...

James and Peter update the quick play sheet

In fact the changing rules wouldn't even be in the top three things that occasionally take the shine off an evening's wargaming chez Olicanalad. Top of the list would be extreme initiative swings. We had some terrible ones whilst in the Western Desert which really spoiled a couple of sessions. The dominoes seem to have improved that aspect of things, and in the Ager series of rules it's not an issue anyway. Second would be scenario defects. These happen, but can't be corrected as quickly as rules experiments. D8 defence dice wasn't working so it was changed for D6. The German infantry attack started too far from the British at Sidi Rezegh, but short of moving the terrain there was nothing we could do about it. We could however change the smoke rules (as in artillery laying down smoke) and so we did. I spent two Seven Years War evenings doing nothing because my troops never arrived. Compared to that the impact of inconsistent rules doesn't carry any weight. Third on my list of downers would be the quality of commanders rolled up. Facing an 88mm with two Brilliant Commander cards is not that much fun; and trying to turn Sapper cards with a Command Indecision in the deck isn't either.

Last minute gift suggestion

"Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen." - Epictetus the Stoic. One of my best I think.

Gut yontiff to you all.