2017 6x6 Challenge - My List, First 2017 Post, and a house keeping note.

So 2016 has finally gone, while it had some very good parts, like our trip to Malta, it had it seems more than its share of pretty crappy parts as well; walking out of Rogue One only to find out that Carrie Fisher's passing had been made public while we were in the theatre, being one of them.

 Now on to: 

My 6x6 Challenge List: 

Ace of Aces Handy Rotary edition

 A WWI air combat game that combines a flip book for graphics with a choose your own adventure style mechanic for movement and combat. A true analogue flight sim. 6 games complete against eldest's boyfriend over New Years, 4 losses, two draws - the boy is good.

B-17

An Avalon Hill board game of WWII air combat. Derided by some for minimal player input, this solo game does capture the looming predestination felt by bomber crews trying to hit the magical 25 mission mark.

I am dropping B-17 from the list. The reasons behind my initial enthusiasm have not proven strong enough to last.  What the replacement will be is yet to be determined.

Chain of Command

 My go to WWII platoon level combat game. Santa provided a pub in my stocking so expect to see the home guard out in force defending this important strategic asset in the coming months. I want to get my 20mm stuff out on the table as well.

 D&D OSR. 

If I can stop myself from being sidetracked by interesting campaign details, I hope to be running several short sessions for friends with lives and little time.

Gruntz 

15mm Scifi. I have multiple armies now and it is a fun little game.

Soldier's Companion, Space 1889 

I have the toys, the table, and the terrain - now I just have to play with them. :)

BONUS GAMES 

Air Force
Another Avalon Hill board game of WWII air combat. Fairly detailed with some interesting mechanics.

Luftwaffe

Yet another AH board game of WWII air combat, this time at a more strategic level. I have not actually played this one at all.

Car Wars

3x post apocalypse with converted matchbox cars because Furiosa.

 So there we are. Now you may notice a lot of air combat games in there - I have the germ on an idea in my head for a game design and want to do some research in that vein.

A Housekeeping Note:

Those of you following IrrWb(F) for any length with notice that the blog template has changed to a modern interactive variation. This is not due to a desire on my part to make it "fresh and exciting" but simply because the old template became corrupted and I am still deciding how and if to rebuild it.

Magic the Gathering Pauper Draft

I last played Magic the Gathering back in the days of Ice Age with just a smattering of Alliances. I traded it all away for Jyhad / V:TES which I considered a more interesting game. Years later, board games are back and with them board game stores. Magic is back in public view and is no longer relegated to tournaments and niche stores.  You can even find cards at the dollar store.
 
A couple of friends wanted to play. Jamie has never stopped but Marc and I haven't picked up cards in years. So rather than buying pre-built decks of the latest release, we held a pauper draft last night with five packs each from  the dollar/pound store.  To do the draft, each player opens a pack, looks through the cards and selects one then passes the remainder to the right. The select and pass continues until all the cards from that pack have been distributed. Each player then opens another pack and the process repeats until all packs have bee distributed.  Basic land is added in as desired to make a fifty card deck.

For the old timers there were more than a few questions about card abilities but in the end we were able to muddle through. I was gratified to see a Legends reprint Cat warriors in my first pack - I could understand this card at least, and looking at the rest chose that as the basis of a green-black deck.  It was not to be since Marc was to my left and was also collecting green and snagged all the good cards.  I had to revert to a Black/White deck with a focus on graveyard recycling and low coloured mana cost critters and spells.   

The games went well with the usual problems of getting the land balance right. Jamie beat me pretty soundly with some new fangled magicky stuff. Marc and I took classical deck design approaches and had a couple of very close games. Two stand out. The first was where Marc had a heavily buffed up Cyclops ready to pound me to smithereens, and I played Eye Gouge sending it screaming to the graveyard. In another game I was hurting but Marc was down to 3. I attacked with a 1/4 which Mark did not block planning to kill me next turn with his creatures and I used a white border Transmutation to flip it to a 4/1 and killed him.  The old cards are still good cards.

It wasn't about winners and losers though, just a bunch of mates having a good time playing games.  I very much enjoyed playing and thought that I would enjoy getting back into it. Then I remembered that Magic is as addictive as crack and that a lead habit is much less problematic and costly than a card habit.

Top level decks in our area run between $250 and $2,000 to assemble, the "legal" cards change yearly if not more frequently and they're just frigging playing cards.

Back to buying lead I think.

But maybe just one more pauper draft.....

Handsome Devils

Work has kept me busy the last while and with the cold weather coming in, it has been harder to work on the big projects. However I have some fine examples of steampunk sartorial elegance ideal for the games table. The first is Steampunk Montreal's Baron Celsius von Fahrenheit:

Elegantly dressed in coat and top hat, the Baron is equipped with his patent steam powered aethric communication apparatus, ideal for long range conversation in English et en Francais.  The Baron is available form RAFM miniatures a fine Canadian purveyor of miniatures and gaming accessories.

Next up we have a preview of the Winter line:

His trusty bowler hat firmly seated, and sporting an A. Smith designed armgun,  The Mechanic is ready for action at a moments notice. He too will be available from RAFM. Stay tuned for updates.

Further details on the RAFM Facebook page

20 Questions

The Angry Lurker started a list of 20 questions that has been bouncing around war gaming related part of the internet for the last week or so. With nothing better to post about right now I thought I would take a crack at it.

 1. Favourite Wargaming period and why?
Ancients. I grow my own woad. 'nuff said.

2. Next period, money no object?
Colonial/VSF  

3. Favourite 5 films?
Blade Runner Science fiction that looked like a real world with real problems.  
Alien A space freighter that looks like a working ship and not the showroom floor model.  
Zulu Guilty pleasure. The Thin Red Line for the win Huzzah!
Stalingrad No heroes just bleak, cold horror.
Went the Day Well
From Wikipedia:

Tom Huddleston of Time Out London termed it "jawdroppingly subversive. Cavalcanti establishes, with loving care and the occasional wry wink, the ultimate bucolic English scene, then takes an almost sadistic delight in tearing it to bloody shreds in an orgy of shockingly blunt, matter-of-fact violence."

With a nod to Triumph of the Will This is evil: polished, seductive and dangerously appealing.

4. Favourite 5 TV series?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Date night fodder when the kids were young.
Firefly Space Westerns Rule!  
True Blood A bloody soap opera that often has um "benefits" after the show is over.
Murdoch Mysteries Quiet Canadian detective show with a tinge of steam punk.
Big Bang Theory My people.....
Star Trek (original series) Dinners on TV trays in front of our first BW television. The beginning of geekdom becoming cool.

With a nod to The World at War that I am currently re-watching. A great series from a time when the people who were there were still around to talk about it.

5. Favourite book and author?
Too many. In the "if you had only one book on a desert island" category it would have to be Tolkien and Lord of the Rings for re-readability. Fondest memory would be The Way Things Work A two volume encyclopedia of technology originally in German. It had the basics of pretty much any machine you could name from the zipper to the cathode ray tube.  

6. Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!
Marius. He change a whole society to win a war.

7. Favourite Wargames rules?
DBx: HotT for fast play fantasy, DBA for fast ancients and DBMM for the way the battle slowly slides out of your control.

8. Favourite Sport and team?
None and None  

9. If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?
I would go forward 2,000 years to see what is actually important in our own time.
Finding out what happened to Crassus' legion would be another choice.
Sit down and chat with JC - Son of God or just plain nuts?
And of course - Kill Hitler (and Stalin if they were ever in the same room)  

10. Last meal on Death Row?
Full on Honzen Ryori with three soups and 11 sides prepared by a top flight chef. Failing that anything I can't cook myself.

11. Fantasy relationship and why?
The missus. Not just a hot chick but my best friend. In terms of a one off - Sarah Bernhardt to see if the reputation had any basis in fact.

12. If your life were a movie, who would play you?
Some no-name actor.

13. Favourite Comic Superhero?
Not a big comics person. Magnus, Robot Fighter  

14. Favourite Military quote?
"Because we're here, lad. Nobody else. Just us."  

15. Historical destination to visit?
The Maginot line.  

16. Biggest Wargaming regret?
Getting rid of my board war gaming collection.  

17. Favourite Fantasy job?
Archivist, Library of Alexandria.

18. Favourite Song Top 5?
Hanging Around - The Stranglers  
No More heroes - The Stranglers
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Harry's Game - Clannad
Anything with pipes.

19. Favourite Wargaming Moment?
Double blind with referee Squad Leader night scenario. Pure gaming.

20. The miserable Git question, what upsets you?
Nazis.
Nazi apologists.
Clueless fanboi gamers who wear Hitler Jugend or other T-shirts because they think the SS was just a cool elite unit.
Drivers, cyclists the odd pedestrian.
Fundamentalists of any stripe.
Anti-Science types.
Anti-Vaxers.
Homophobes (I hate that word).
Political fear mongering.

CanGames Day 0

Operating since 1977, Cangames is one of the longest running conventions in Canada and I suspect North America. For the first time in 30 years (you do the math - it has been a while), I simultaneously  have the time and money and interest to be able to attend. Unlike the British and European conventions I have heard so much about, Cangames is almost purely comprised of  participation games with a small vendor area at the back of the hall. It is spread over two and a half days and runs from 2 p.m. Friday afternoon with the last games ending at 11 p.m. on Sunday evening.

The schedule features approximately 180 games with the possibility of a few more being added to open tables. Each day is further broken down into five time slots to allow players to plan out their gaming weekend. Players have four options to play a specific game. For the nominal charge of $2.50, players can reserve a slot when they pre-register on-line, through a participating game store or via post. At the door, players can purchase game tokens at the registration desk for $3.00 then use a token to sign up for a slot on the game sheet at the tournament desk. The third option is to wait until 30 minutes before game start when the sign up sheets are placed out in the sign up area for free to all sign up.  I am told that the press of gamers to get at these sheets resembles gladiatorial combat. Each sheet has a cut off for number of players but extras can sign up as alternates. Finally, each game master has a small orange traffic cone they can place on their table to indicate they have slots open to walk by traffic.

After perusing  the schedule, I settled on three games. The first was the Sunday DBA tournament - my first outside of a small club event, the second was the Saturday evening Saga game  - I am excited because I have heard so many good things about this system and the third was a 1/2400 coastal forces game on Saturday day because I like the period. With a lot of extra time to spend and not a lot of spare cash to drop in the dealer's room, I thought I might as well volunteer and see the event from the other side. Each volunteer shift is 5 hours long and can be used to count toward the weekend's admission fees or toward the mandatory volunteer hours (yes that is an oxymoron) high school students have to perform to graduate. I will be assembling trophies, printing certificates and handing these out to the lucky winners. Unfortunately due to an oversight on my part or a last minute schedule change, my shift conflicts with the coastal game. Slightly annoying, but not the end of the world.

Last night was spent setting up tables and taking the needed of training (No WHS warnings about the glue guns though). For some reason the amount of lifting done seemed to be proportional to the age of the people doing it with the young 'uns standing around waiting for direction while the grey beards got stuck in. I have nothing on tonight other than picking up my badge on the way home from work.   I will post updates and pictures as the event progresses.

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