That said the grand majority of you know full well the primary reason behind the lapse. While I know that my brother-in-law did not share my obsession with board games (YACHTZEE!), he was always one to be attentive to be attentive to everyone's interests and pounced on opportunities to bring our respective families closer together.
For this I will always be grateful.
I am also grateful that I was able to be of some assistance and support in the aftermath of James's untimely passing, even if it was just the role of tech support and basement archaeologist.
As a matter of doing honor to my late brother-in-law's memory, one of my first tasks upon returning to Australia was to do something that he did all the time. Buy a cheap, broken laptop from the classifieds and fix it up.
Now what else have I been doing over the last two months?
Work has been naturally crazy, as professional services projects tend to be. I do however have to be doubly careful not to inadvertently reveal details of what I am doing and precisely why I classify it as crazy. The reason behind that is the upcoming national election down here in Australia. While we are all fairly certain that a change in government would not cause too much chaos, nobody (myself included) wants to take that chance.
This particular set of online ramblings was, at the outset, all about goals and obsessions. At the writing of this entry the whole Koester family is participating in one of the world's biggest obsessions, the broadcast of the Eurovision 2016 Grand Final.
Earlier today I restarted another of my long term media goals, which is to watch all of the known Doctor Who episodes. In order. From the beginning. So far I have finished up to serial 10, The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This particular episode is notable because it ends with the first departure of one of the Doctor's companions, his granddaughter Susan Foreman. As a note of Who trivia, the ultimate fate of Susan is one of those mysteries that is never resolved by Who canon. While the Doctor has said in recent incarnations that he is alone in the universe after the destruction/sealing of Gallifrey at the endow the Time War, the ultimate fate of one of the few Time Lords known to have not been on the home planet is as yet, unknown.
So prepare yourselves folks. In addition to periodic reports on what games I have been playing and collecting, you are now also likely to receive regular reports on my trip through the history of Who.
Now, about those games.
Obviously my initial goal of at least one game a day for the year is a bust. Too many days have been missed to even track. However, my wife has informed me that (despite her resistance on some evenings) she does value the effort and does miss the time spent playing games on a regular basis. To that end, I will attempt to restart the regular plays, with subsequent reporting in this forum. While they may not happen daily, they will happen regularly.
Some new games that have been added to the collection -
Machi Koro: Deluxe Edition - This is a card and dice game where the ultimate goal is to finish construction of a series of city improvements. This is done by collecting income based on dice rolls and using that income to buy more improvements. Essentially this game is an engine builder. The person who builds up the fastest and most reliable stream of income will usually come out as the winner.
This was a gift from friends during our unexpected trip back stateside. While not one that was on my immediate wish list, it was one that I have played several times before at Meetups. One thing that I will say about this game is that the Deluxe Edition is the version to get. The base game alone, with no expansions, runs out of steam after just a few plays. The path to victory is just a little to predictable. Once you add the expansions, things get a lot more random and decisions made get a lot more important. I am not sure how well this will go with my eldest son though. This may take just a little more forward thinking and planning than he is capable of at the moment. But who knows, after a couple plays of the base game, he may surprise me.
Tiny Epic Kingdoms: Heroes Call - This is the latest of the Gamelyn Games Tiny Epic series to arrive in my Kickstarter pipeline. This entry is an expansion and, in my opinion, a substantial improvement upon an already solid 4x game. In particular some of the revisions to the combat system I like. In the original game, war was a costly venture such that most players would spend the entire game avoiding it at all costs. Now there are more, better defense options, and most importantly the option for a lost to retreat without a debilitating loss in resources. Ultimately the expansion has offered more paths to victory, and re-balanced some of the old ones. I look forward to getting a full 5 player game of this going.
Tiny Epic Galaxies - This one has been getting a lot of playtime at meetups lately. One of the reasons for this is the recent confirmation that it will be featured on an episode of Season 4 of Table Top. It is also just a solidly awesome game with a not too common mechanic. This dice rolling, action allocation, engine builder fills a space that I have not seen done well. So far everyone that I have taught it to has really liked it. There is enough variability in the planet deck that every game is a very different experience.
Red Dragon Inn 5: Character Trove - This game brings to the forefront what every fantasy adventure gamer knows happens after the adventure is over. All of the heroes (and some of the villains) gather at the local Inn and do their best to drink their compatriots under the table. Yes, this is a drinking game. You are one to those adventurers trying to be the last one standing. You win by having everyone else either pass out, or get kicked out of the establishment for lack of funds. (Please do not ask for credit at the Red Dragon, as getting your face bashed in by the barmaids, sometimes offends.)
I am proud to say that I actually won this game in a contest on International TableTop Day. Mind you, this was not just luck nor was it all skill. The last contest of the night was to identify the person who was the most AWESOME! The method of choosing the lucky gamer started out wit what amounted to a series of coin tosses. This winnowed the field to four. Those four then participated in a rousing game of Zombie Dice. I played my usual conservative game as is my habit in press your luck style games and this time fortune favored the cautious.
Enough drivel from me now. I will be back soon. I promise.
