Smorgasbord

 It's been a little while since I've put in an entry, mostly because we were in Sunriver with my extended family. Not a lot of gaming other than a few Cheeky Monkey games with my grand-niece (who did a good job of getting the monkey trading rules for a six-year-old) and three hilarious games of Times Up! with the adults. I ended up giving my copies of Cheeky and Pickomino to my niece as she seemed to like them a lot. Oh, and I also played Mario Party 8 with her as well. I'll turn her into a gamer yet.

I've also been working on learning OCS in preparation for our WBC West micro con in mid-August. I have to say that I'm finding the rules amazingly transparent, although I haven't gotten to the supply part yet. I've gotten the Mareth Line scenario in the Tunisia game set up, which uses a small portion of the map but relatively high counter density, which should give me a good sense of how the game works. So far, I'm impressed and will give more info once Mike and I have played it at the con. 

I'm also trying out Warriors of God, Adam Starkweather's ultra-light wargame on the Hundred Year's War (as well as a Lion in Winter scenario). The rules are very simple in general, and the game flows very quickly. There are a lot of things to consider, and the chaos that is the leader death rule will drive Mike nuts. Still, this is a winner, and one I'm looking forward to trying out. I strongly recommend playing a couple of turns for practice so that you can see how control of a given area is critical to raising troops, and how difficult it is to actually raise said troops. This game may have a higher depth of play/elegance of rules ratio than Combat Commander, although clearly not as flexible in terms of variety of scenarios. 

I also need to start getting my Burning Blue and Asia Engulfed rules read (or re-read). I plan to try the solitaire scenario that's available online for BB, and will have to simply try out the extended example of play in AE and carry it forward. These and OCS are my "new" games to play at WBC West, and I find that my brain does much better if I've done my homework ahead of time. Having to learn a game, both rules and situation, is extremely draining and to do it day after day simply shows just how old I am now.

Finally, and most importantly, I had the most satisfying session of World of Warcraft I've ever had. Better than dinging 70. Better than getting my Flying Machine. Better than running my first instance with a good guild. It was going online to look for clam meat off the coast of Desolace and having my daughter, who has started playing again, whisper me. That was why I started playing the game, wanting to have a connection with her while she was living in Las Vegas, and while it's taken 16 months to get to this point (we will be actually gaming together in the near future), none of that matters. I've always maintained that it's not so much what you play but who you play with, and last night brought that home to a degree I can't put into words. Of course, she's in town now (as is her SO, who is even bringing his level 70 over so Leo will finally have someone to play with), but every minute I spend with her is time I will never consider as having been wasted. 

There's a lot of gaming coming up in the next couple of weeks, so look forward to me making up for a dry stretch. Right now, I'm going to do my Wii workout. This balance board has been the best console-related purchase I've ever made, even my wife plays Wii now because of it. Amazing.