Pot80pouri

It's the end of another month and time to catch up on what's been happening culture wise. However, the sun is shining, and I can't be bothered, and in any case I want to leave room for the joke about two wargamers at a party, should I be in the mood by the time I get to the bottom of the page. Highlights did include a talking bed - ironically in a play about someone whose memory has become unreliable following an accident - plus a chap sitting directly in front of me at an opera unexpectedly rushing the stage and joining in the curtain call. I thought at first that he was an operatic Karl Power, and was kicking myself for never having thought of it myself, but rather boringly he turned out to be the composer.

I also want to mention veteran blues guitarist Walter Trout who was excellent. I am a sucker for first hand stories about legends such as B.B. King, Albert King (who apparently wasn't very nice) and John Lee Hooker, and Trout didn't disappoint. He was joined on stage for one number by local legend Chantel MacGregor. I've no idea who arranged for it to happen, but it quickly became apparent that they had never met and that she was seriously in awe of him. However, perhaps buoyed by shouts from the crowd of "Show him, Shanty", she didn't disappoint either and the faces of the band ended up showing both surprise and approval.

I've already mentioned the only film I saw in June, the truly dreadful 2001. Moving on to a real classic, those who, like me, love the La Marseillaise scene from Casablanca (which I have previously posted here in sad circumstances) may find this critical analysis interesting; hat tip to Liberal England for pointing me to it.

There were two wargamers who had been invited to a party. One, not at all confident with women, asks for advice from his friend who had far more success in that field. He is advised to take a large potato and put it down his underpants whereupon, or so he is assured, the women will flock to him. At the party they meet and the giver of the advice asks the recipient how things are going. "Not at all well" comes the reply "They are actually running away from me now." His friend looks him up and down and says "You're supposed to put it down the front."

Perseverare Autem Diabolicum

'Errare humanum est, perseverare autem diabolicum, et tertia non datur' - Seneca

There has been wargaming, and once again it was the Romans and the Celts facing off as the annexe saw another game of To the Strongest!. In our previous game the Celts lost very heavily, which led to a certain amount of thought as to how to even things up. I wanted to take into account a number of things: they never win in a stand-up fight, warbands can't interpenetrate so there's no point in having a reserve line behind the main one and, just as important, it's a bit boring playing the Romans if all they have to do is move forward and kill barbarians.

All of which led to the layout above. The Romans, that's them on the left, have to exit the chap in the white chariot through the valley top right. Which they didn't. In fact he did a sort of shuffle, moving forwards, sideways and backwards until he ended up more or less where he started, albeit minus most of his escort. Yes, the Celts won.

A rarely seen view of the wargaming annexe

Now they didn't do it in the way that I would have approached it, utilising hit and run tactics and hiding behind the terrain so thoughtfully provided for them. Instead they went for the very successful, though probably unrepeatable, approach of charging head on and then drawing precisely the tokens they needed from the bag at the exact time that they needed them (a). Irritating in the extreme for the Roman player, but then that was Peter, and if it wasn't for bad luck then he wouldn't have any luck at all, so he ought to be used to it.

The scenario worked after a fashion, but I would make a couple of changes before playing it again. Firstly the Celts were penalised by their chariots being placed in front of the stream; they should have been swapped with the light cavalry on the hill in the centre right. Secondly we should have used some sort of morale check for the Celts. The Romans are on an escort mission and so it has to be do or die, but the Celts should pack up and go home if things get tough. For some reason (b) we have never used the command demoralisation rules when playing TtS! either in the annexe or in the legendary wargames room, but in this case they would have been appropriate, especially if we took each command to be a separate tribe (or whatever the Celtic equivalent was).

A chap with a beard

I still rather like this ruleset, although we clearly still aren't yet playing it totally correctly. This isn't helped by the fact that I have version 1 and the others have version 2. As far as I'm aware the changes aren't significant, but I think I'd better get up to speed and buy a copy of the latest edition. But not yet, because it's time for a change. I mentioned the legendary wargames room of James 'Olicanalad' Roach, and we shall next week be back in Ilkley, epicentre of wargaming in the Lower Wharfe Valley, for some Seven Years War goodness. When we return to the annexe in due course it will be to belatedly try the new C&C Napoleonics expansion.

(a) I use Warbases MDF playing card tokens instead of playing cards. It makes shuffling easier and looks better on the table.

(b) That reason is clearly an aversion to bookkeeping.

When lights close their tired eyes

Here, unsurprisingly perhaps, is some Jack, in this case with added Rory.

Leeds Meeples

И снова здравствуйте

There was another session of the Leeds Meeples yesterday, this time in the Victoria Hotel, a fine venue; not least because it served London Pride, thereby allowing me to drown my sorrows over Saturday's drama and disappointment in the most appropriate manner possible.

Cue Albert King

Anyway, games played were: Apples to Apples, Love Letter, Tsuro, The Resistance and Dominion Intrigue. All were new to me except The Resistance, which is definitely le jeu du jour. I thought they were all excellent in their various ways, although the original Tsuro is clearly superior to the Tsuro of the Seas version. 

She's young, she's wealthy. she's far from healthy

I must say a word about Love Letter though. For a game consisting of only sixteen cards it is surprisingly deep and tricky. I did get double-Baronned on a couple of occasions (difficult to do much about), but then I also had the perfect sequence of Handmaiden, Handmaiden, Princess. Beat that!


до свидания

Luck

I won a bottle of wine in a raffle last night, thereby using up this entire year's supply of luck in one go. So watch out the Spanish forces in another refight of Cerignola tonight. More specifically, look out their commanders because you are surely doomed.

He knows exactly how it is