There came a wanderer #3: Dining out and gaming on!

Beside the Clyde
Friday dawned later than expected, as happens when two people with shared passions can't resist sitting up chatting until the wee small hours, as you do. Not often a problem, this put a cramp on our plans for the afternoon. Donald had again volunteered his driving services, and we'd decided to visit New Lanark, which neither of us had seen before. New Lanark is the former model mill village on the banks of the upper Clyde that made Robert Owen a household name in the late 18th century, and which is now a World Heritage Site.

In any event, we left late thanks to yours truly; and- no driver, I underestimated our travel time through the narrow and twisting country roads between the motorway and New Lanark. Soon the afternoon was getting on; and we were under a deadline because Friday night is Scout night for Donald. The day was saved by the happy consequence of rumbling tummies (not unlike the night I discovered Two Fat Ladies in Partick), which led us to stop for a late lunch at the Riverside Restaurant in the picturesque village of Kirkfieldbank.

I don't know what Keith's thoughts were, but Donald and I have enough experience of British pub cooking to have had low expectations of the meal we ordered. Whether it's identikit menus obviously cooked largely from frozen; or more individual menus cooked to a disappointing standard; we've learned just to look for something passable to fill us up.

Keith finishes off his steak sandwich

Initially pleased by the '3 courses for the price of 2' lunch offer, we began to suspect something was up when we got to work on our starters. They were just fabulous! Our steak sandwiches were top class too. And the puddings that followed were just the best.

Donald and Keith on the Riverside Restaurant patio (which actually does overlook the River Clyde)

We left the Riverside Restaurant knowing that we'd unwittingly stumbled upon something special. Exactly how special Donald and I didn't find out until Monday last, after Keith had left: it turns out that head chef Alex Thain has won awards. He certainly received high praise from us, I can tell you. Donald and I are already looking for the excuse for another visit.

Keith and I chat on the patio of the Riverside Restaurant

Badger and Gav were due to appear for boardgaming in the evening. They duly arrived, to be fed on Penne alla Toscana from Moyra Bremner and Liz Fillippini's Pasta for Pleasure. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that, in the past 10 years, this book has had as much influence on my pasta cookery as did Philip K. Dick and Lawrence Block on my appreciation of SF and crime fiction respectively.

Unpublished prototype
Keith had brought with him a current boardgame design project; a game so secret that I could tell you what it's about, but then I'd have to, yadda, yadda, yadda, you know the drill. The idea of this caught Badger and Gav's interest, as you can imagine, so we began our evening's session with a game of this work in progress.

I can't say anything about the themes, mechanics or gameplay of this game; other than to note that they are respectively catchy, straightforward, and well-judged for the game's simple concept. I can add that the design looks to be a solid one in a fairly late stage of development: whether it was Keith's tinkering; or our questions about features of the game; notional changes generally proved unnecessary after we'd mulled them over.

"Mine, all mine! Mwah hah hah ha!"

Our game went well, and Badger, Gav and I all enjoyed playing (although my enjoyment was tempered by my utterly dismal performance, naturally enough). In fact, Badger liked it so much he announced his intention of buying a copy when the game hits the shelves. For my part, I was amazed that Keith had taken the 2 features of family boardgames I most dislike- namely roll-and-move and the linear movement track, features which turned me off of Talisman on sight, for example; and made them the basis of a really enjoyable game. That's good going in my book.

Oh, and Badger won!

Score
The Badger 1
The Ratpack 0

Gloom
Gloom is a cardgame designed by Keith with the unique feature that it uses transparent plastic cards so that modifiers located on different parts of different cards can all be seen at a glance. The game features the comically macabre theme of unhappy families, desperate to die; but not just any old death - it must be a death sufficiently unusual as to be memorable.

Key to this is the playing of cards to stack them on your own or your opponents' family members. These use the transparency system to add or obscure positive and negative points scores; to 'depress' or to 'cheer up' up the family members. Your goal is to make your family members worth enough points to merit finishing them off with a death card; your opponents' is to prevent this; and vice versa. The winner is the person whose dead family members are worth the most points when the game ends; which is as soon as any player's family is completely dead. There are other features to the game, but that's the gist of it.

Keith deep in his Gloom

I'd played Gloom before; with 'Uncle' Martin in Edinburgh airport, during the predawn hours while we awaited our flight. I confess I wasn't hugely taken by the game back then. The cards and the theme were cute, I thought, but the gameplay was too simplistic to appeal to me. And now? I enjoyed the game much more.

I suspect playing with 4 players instead of just 2 was important. Although there are strategic subtlties to the gameplay- as you'd expect from any game involving hand-management; these aren't really to the fore without the crossplay invoked by 3 or more players. So Gloom might be a multiplayer game particularly poorly served by 2-player play (the game's BGG ratings would seem to bear this out).

However important the extra players were, most important to my enjoyment (I was playing miserably again!) was the fact that I made the effort to narrate my cardplay, making up a wee story about the card I was playing and its effect on the family member I was playing it upon. Recommended by the rules, and by Keith, this has no effect on the gameplay at all. It just makes the game a lot more enjoyable. In fact, as Keith confirmed: the gameplay is as simple as it is precisely because the story-telling element is at least as important to the game as is the race to fill the family plots in the graveyard. This is also precisely the element of the game Martin and I left out that morning in the airport. Nuff said, I think.

Gav ended up handing the game to Keith on a plate. Faced with my bemoaning his half-assed decision, Gav pointed out that he'd been unlikely to win, and that he had achieved his secondary objective: stop Badger winning. Gah!

Score
'Curses, foiled again!' Badger 1
'Peace of the grave' Keith 1
Living losers 0
;)

Related@RD/KA!
- Epic adventure!
- There came a wanderer #1: Well, that was unexpected!
- There came a wanderer #2: Return to Eberron
- There came a wanderer #4: the wind-down and the send-off

There came a wanderer #2: Return to Eberron

Donald was able to run me to the airport to meet Keith on Thursday afternoon. Andy joined us later for the evening's roleplaying Keith had promised to run, in Eberron, the world of his own creation, naturally enough.

We dined on Kerala-style 'Bhuna' Lamb (Kerala Ka Bhuna Gosht), Royal Chicken Korma (Shani Murgh Korma), and Red Lentils from the Khyber Pass (Khyber Pass Ki Masoor Dal), a selection typical from curry restaurant orders all across the country. The 3 recipies were all from Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible. The dal is a standard by now, but the Bhuna and the Korma were both new to me. Madhur Jaffrey however, is the 'Queen of Curries', in the way that Delia towers over home cooking in Britain; so I was confident that the recipies would work.

They did; and Keith pronounced himself astonished that he'd eaten lamb and actually liked it. That'll've been the blend of 6 freshly roasted and ground whole spices for you I guess.

Dinner done and the table cleared, Keith repaired to the 'Seat of Power' (AKA my computer chair), which I guard jealously except when someone else is GM'ing. I had invested in a wee bottle of the fine Glenfiddich single malt, with which Keith and I toasted the occasion of his first game in Scotland before we got under way. Even I was taken aback by the whisky's delicious fruity undertones, which were quite unexpected to me.

Keith takes to the 'Seat of Power' as if he belongs there

My previous adventures in Eberron had all taken place in Khorvaire, the main continent detailed in the D&D3 Eberron Campaign Setting (reviewed here on RPGnet for those of my readers who know less about the setting even than yours truly). Those had been enough to give me a liking for the Eberron setting and its unique take on fantasy adventure. So I was looking forward to seeing what the setting's creator would have in store for us, naturally enough.

Andy, me and Keith

It has to be said that Keith was labouring under certain disadvantages when he started his game that Thursday evening (and no, the effects of the whisky wasn't one of them!). He was confronted by a group of players who were:

• Rusty as a roleplaying crew, not having roleplayed together for more than 2½ years.
• Still in the process of clearing away the baggage whose accumulation had helped end our last roleplaying run.
• Mostly unfamiliar with Eberron.
• Even more unfamiliar with the D&D4 rules we'd be using.
• And, to top off all that, we were half the number for which Keith's scenario was written.

Breele the changeling (me); Wazzee! the Kobold wizard (Andy); and Breagus the minotaur (Donald)

Unless my memory has completely failed me (and I've a snreaking suspicion that it might've), our adventure didn't take place on Khorvaire; although I can't for the life of me remember which continent Keith pointed to during his quick run through the history of Eberron, and his introduction to the key background elements which'd help us understand the scenario into which we were being dropped. The scenario itself is one that Keith is running for all his hosts during Have Dice, Will Travel. Sworn to avoid spoilers as I am, there is therefore little I can actually say about the course of events themselves.

I can say that good triumphed over evil in a tangled web of plot and counterplot that'd've been fun to be able to investigate further in a longer series of games. I guess I can also add that I liked playing the changeling Breele. She enjoyed all sorts of neat powers. Breele's ability to use her shapeshifting to gain combat advantage in melee was probably my favourite. I had fun inventing different ways to describe this, and I know Keith liked them too, because he gave me healthy schmuck bonuses for my efforts. (Interestingly, HERO is one of Keith's favourite rpg's, and schmuck bonuses to reward player creativity were a feature of Champions - HERO's progenitor - from day one, AFAIK.)

Our heroes' first encounter, about which I must remain tight-lipped, naturally enough (it was nicely spooky though)

Keith was a good GM, strongly oriented towards character, narrative, and performance as opposed to simple system-crunching. Watching Keith in action, and appreciating the way he rewarded my own creative efforts as a player, I was reminded of the fact that I'd been far too stingy with this sort of thing when I was GM'ing WFRP. As a general rule, if a GM wants his players to be the sort of foolhardy heroes who'd appear in a story- as opposed, that is, to being the sort of cautious survivors you'd expect to find in an 'authentic' imaginary world; if a GM wants players so suitably rash, then the GM has to be generous with rewards to the players (be they XP or schmuck bonuses) to reassure, cajole, and empower the players.

And as for D&D4, to which Keith's game introduced me? I have to say that I quite liked it. I know I was certainly helped by the excellent playaids that Keith had put together, but I found the contentious new structure of powers made sense and was simple and fun to use. But then, I've never had that much of an emotional investment in D&D as a system; in fact it was the perceived limitations of archetypal AD&D mechanics- classes, levels, HP and Vancian magic, to name but the best known; it was these limitations which drove me into the arms of HERO back in the 80's.

I may get a chance to find out more about how D&D4 works. The taster Keith gave us was entertaining enough for me to talk to Donald about the possibility of his running a straightforward dungeon bash using the new rules. Donald was certainly interested. I suspect that this might get Donald into the 'Seat of Power' sooner than would his plans for an outlaw campaign using HERO. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
- Epic adventure!

- There came a wanderer #1: Well, that was unexpected!
- There came a wanderer #3: Dining out and gaming on!
- There came a wanderer #4: the wind-down and the send-off

Acknowledgements
Thanks to Donald for all the pictures. :0)

There came a wanderer #1: Well, that was unexpected!

Readers staying alert to my sidebar contents- Recently played games and Friends in particular; and remembering this post from last February (not forgetting some of my recent fB activity and tweetage); some or all of those readers might already've guessed something has been afoot. And they'd've been right: noted US games designer and author Keith Baker's Have Dice, Will Travel arrived chez yours truly last Thursday, for the first leg of Keith's Scottish tour. (For the unitiated: Gloom was designed by Keith; gloomforge is his LiveJournal; and Unpublished Prototype? - well, more on this Big Secret in due course.)

I must confess I had pretty much given up on the whole thing myself; I hadn't heard from Keith before Andy and I headed south for the Expo, so I just assumed that he'd received more appealing invitations. Moreover, what with beery late nights, long lies, and a busy tournament schedule, it was largely a matter of luck that I happened upon Keith at the D&D booth during Saturday afternoon's expedition into the depths of the Expo. On top of all that, the clean-shaven Keith I met that afternoon was different, in that discomfiting way with which I'm sure many readers will be quite familiar, from the bearded self (above left) I've come to know @fB.

A tad each then of frazzled and nonplussed- amounting between them to somewhat fracked; my last expectation as we shook hands was that Keith would ask me if I was OK with his visit, about which he'd emailed me after Andy and I had already left, naturally enough. I granted Keith's wishes with alacrity, I can assure you!

Keith's ordeal began 5 days later, with Irn Bru and curries... ;)

PS. This post takes to 65 2009's postcount here at RD/KA!; making this already my best year's blogging since I set off at a gallop in August 2005. You can imagine, dear readers, that your humble scribe is very pleased at the events of the past week and a half. :0)

Related@RD/KA!
- Epic adventure!
- There came a wanderer #2: Return to Eberron
- There came a wanderer #3: Dining out and gaming on!
- There came a wanderer #4: the wind-down and the send-off

UK Games Expo'09 #4: Old friends and new stuff

I commented yesterday on the "paramount contribution the tournaments had made to my enjoyment of the Expo". More than a matter of mere highlights, they were the absolute backbone of everything I did on that long weekend. Having something to do each day meant that I wasn't just drifting aimlessly, as I have done at conventions so often in the past. And even the familiar drifting through the various halls seemed more enjoyable. Perhaps because they were a part of a greater whole? Or perhaps just because I enjoyed telling people I met about my own part in the Expo?

All of which is by way of introduction to a highlight of my wanderings through the halls crammed with trade stands, demo games, and people- lots and lots of people.

Gordon Lamont and Snow Tails
The oldest of old hands or most dedicated readers of blog archives might remember that Gordon Lamont (one half of the dynamic duo that is Fragor Games) featured in the 2nd post here at RD/KA!. Regular readers will probably remember Gordon from my reports about DiceCons, which he helps organise alongside his associates in the SBGA.

I'd heard about Fragor Games' new game Snow Tails on the net, naturally enough; had seen some preview pictures; and had seen Gordon sheltering under an umbrella from our lovely summer rain while I was heading to the Clarendon on Saturday, so I knew he was at the Expo. For some reason though, I was still surprised to find Gordon demoing Snow Tails.

The irrepressible Gordon Lamont demonstrates Snow Tails

I enjoyed my first game of Snow Tails, a game about racing dog sleds in the snow. I spotted 1 or 2 similarities with the only Euro-racer I own: Mississippi Queen. Most of the game though, was completely new. The most significant new feature is the cardplay players use to control their movement.

Each player has their own deck of dog cards, each numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 IIRC, and from which they will maintain a 5-card hand. As many as 3 cards can be played each turn, 1 each into 1 of 3 places:

• Left dogline.
• Right dogline.
• Brakes.

These cards set the sled's speed according to the simple formula: (left + right) - brakes. The difference between left and right also determines whether the sled drifts; and how far and to which side if it does.

There are various tweaks to this core mechanic. Among the more important are:

• Each time you collide with something bigger than your sled (ie. not another sled), or exceed cornering speed limits, your sled is 'dented', and you have to add a dent card to your hand; useless cards that count against your 5-card hand limit and which cannot be disposed of in any way, dent cards limit the range of choices you have each turn.
• You can only play more than 1 dog card in a turn if they are all the same value.

The upshot of these simple rules is a game which is quick to pick up; which plays fast enough so that you could easily fit 2 or 3 games into just part of a comfortable evening's gaming; and whose hand management rules are sufficient to induce brain-burn in the most hardened card gamer. I liked it, enough to think seriously about buying it.

Gordon shows off Fragor Games' UK Games Expo'09 award for 'Best New Boardgame'; and the winner: Snow Tails

I wasn't alone in that. I met several groups of gamers that Saturday afternoon who were just settling down to play their newly acquired copies of Snow Tails, and who were all excited at the prospect of meeting one of the designers. It was just a shame that I couldn't offer them better directions as to how they might track Gordon down.

In any event, the praise for Fragor Games' latest offering was sufficient to give our favourite dynamic duo of designers the UK Games Expo 2009 award for Best New Game. Congratulations to Fraser and Gordon both. Lang may yer lums reek!

And stuff
Entry fees and beerage aside you can be sure, dear readers, that money changed hands between me and traders last weekend in Birmingham. I bought a couple of games that had been on the horizon of my interest for some time. I also picked up an absolute bargain boardgame 2nd hand from a fellow C&C:A campaigner (thanks again matey!). More on these as they hit the table, I expect.

Books too figured large in my quietly conspicuous consumption. I picked up a good half dozen or so new WW2 books. That particular splurge began on the Saturday when I chanced to notice Rommel's Infantry Attacks. My swither was just some kind of game I played with myself before succumbing. Other books quickly followed, opening the floodgates so that I had several games and doubly several books in the luggage I took home as compared to the luggage I'd brought south.

One last big thank you...
... goes out to Andy.

Andy does what a man's gotta do

Andy booked our hotel, our tickets, and did all the driving; so that from day one of my plans I could relax in the knowledge that all I had to deal with was my own event. I couldn't've done it without your support pal. Thank you very much. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
UK Games Expo'09
- #1: Time to kill
- #2: And so to war
- #3: I eat dirt and die

UK Games Expo'09 #3: I eat dirt and die

I'd had a long lie on the Saturday morning, but I had to get up bright and early(ish) to get to the Clarendon Suites for Barry Ingram's Commands and Colours: Ancients tournament, my entry into which readers might remember. I was looking forward to this a lot. Regular readers might remember that C&C:A is my favourite version of Richard Borg's Commands and Colours system; yet, because Badger and I just can't get Combat Commander off the table, I've played C&C:A just once in over a year.

The C&C:A tournament took place upstairs in the Clarendon. I'd wandered round that area on the Saturday afternoon, noting without really seeing the militaristic tone of the cases of medals, flags, paintings and so on which decorated the walls. It wasn't until Sunday that I cottoned on that this was all Masonic memorabilia and regalia; rooms and rooms of it. I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures.

UK Games Expo'09 #2: And so to war

My plan for our Inaugural Combat Commander tournament was simple: to get as many people as possible to play as many games as possible in the shortest possible time. I'd've been satisfied to scrape the bare minimum 4 people needed for a credible tournament; in the end, 10 players joined in across the 2 evening sessions, playing a total of 19 games.

I did bring printed sheets so that players could record the details of their games, but foolishly too few; and my hopes of easy net access were dashed, so that my backup plan fell through. With neither spares for other players, nor my own copies for duplicates, my record keeping was less than meticulous, amounting in the end to nothing more than the bare list of wins and losses I needed to track players' tournament VP. So 20-20 hindsight proved the sense of my decision to run the simplest possible format.

UK Games Expo'09 #1: Time to kill

UK Games Expo'09 has been and gone, and our inaugural Combat Commander tournament is done and dusted. I am pleased to be able to report that the Expo was hugely enjoyable, and that the CC tournament was a great success. But all of that is to get ahead of myself a bit.


To begin at the beginning

A giant cyborg sadly
couldn't kill the turkey
hiding behind this movie

Arriving in Birmingham in that teatime twixt afternoon and evening, Andy and I had no difficulty finding our destination thanks to the wonders of modern technology, AKA the Tom Tom satnav. Duly installed in our hotel and with an evening to kill, we sought out a cinema there to watch the newly released installment of a movie franchise which has never quite lived up to its point of origin, by which I mean Terminator: Salvation.

At first sight the trailer had given me real hopes for this movie, but subsequent reflection and one really bad review had brought me back to more realistic low expectations. Which was just as well: the best thing that Andy and I could find to say about the film was that it wasn't as bad as Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (and I speak as one who lists Terminator 2: Judgment Day as a Top 5 SF/Fantasy movie sequel).

And they're off!

I'm just waiting for Andy to come and collect me for the drive down to Birmingham. In a couple of days, my Combat Commander tournament at UK Games Expo'09 will be over. I am already confident that there'll've been enough players to make it a good couple of days' gaming.

UK Games Expo runs over 2½ days. My CC tournament slots will amount to one of those days. I already know where I'll be on Sunday: playing in Barry Ingram's Commands and Colours: Ancients tournament. I'm looking forward to this; C&C:A is my favourite iteration of Richard Borg's Commands and Colours system.

The rest of the time? I won't know till I get there. If I had to pick out just one possibility, I guess I'd have to hope that Uwe Eickert might be able to make it across the Channel for the Expo. I'd just love to have the chance to play him at Conflict of Heroes, a game I'm keen to see get past CC onto my WW2 tactical gaming table one of these days.

That's it for now. See you on the other side. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
UK Games Expo'09
- #1: Time to kill
- #2: And so to war
- #3: I eat dirt and die
- #4: Old friends and new stuff

A rusty veteran and new arts of war?

Not so much 'rusty' as 'seized up'!

As I noted last month, my old buddy Mark's mayday visit was marked by his introduction to my current game of games: Combat Commander. This was going to mean more visits to Scenario 1. Fat Lipki, which I guess I've played more than any other because I've already introduced 3 players to the game (but scenarios 4. Closed For Renovation and 9. Rush to Contact are 2 alternative candidates for my single most played Combat Commander scenario). Just as well I still like the scenario then.

Following up the scenario's sitrep notes in my efforts more precisely to locate the action I was unable to locate the specific Lipki via google or wiki. I had to turn to my books for the map to the right. I also learned that the 18th Panzer Division was in Panzer Group Two's 47th Motorised Corps under Army Group Centre.

Combat Commander quickies

Fun in Stalingrad!

Badger was round on Friday. We played Combat Commander, naturally enough, choosing to embark on the campaign scenario from BP#2: Stalingrad. Representing a single September day's fighting atop the Mamayev Kurgan (Badger was pleased to discover that, Stalingrad campaign scenario notwithstanding, there are no city maps), the multigame campaign scenario uses the RSG with a few variants:

• A limited mapset across which to fight; this represents the ebbs and flows of the tactical situation as the battlelines move back and forth across the mountain.
• Predesignated force pools, with named leaders and their platoons replacing the OB's from the RSG.
• Extra rules for fortification resources; for units which survive one scenario becoming reinforcements in the next; and for spreading devestation - a personal favourite this, it adds an increasing amount of rubble to the map each scenario.

Badger got the Germans (curses!).

Another bloody Sunday?

From the skies and the forests they came!
It was just Donald and me for games on Sunday, so we decided to begin our first campaign from DoW's Memoir '44 Campaign Book, Volume 1, which this M44 completist had treated himself to with the hoary old "it's my birthday" excuse.

The quick play and simple unit representations make M44 an ideal game for a system linking a series of scenarios into a campaign, and M44:CB1 was eagerly awaited by the game's many fans. After just 2 games it is impossible to have a sense of the full scope of what the DoW team have added to M44 with CB1, but I can report that I like the look of what I have seen so far (surprised, dear readers?):

• A nice hardback book, with full colour art throughout: it's expensive to go hardback, but the book's more durable, and I think kids'd be extra proud of one.
• A punchboard of counters stuck in the back of the book (keeping these in good nick is another good reason for a hardback book).
• 51 new scenarios, many drawing on underused expansion sets.
• 3 grand campaigns; each comprising several mini-campaigns, themselves played out across 3 or more scenarios (as many as 8 in the really big ones):

1. Unternehmen Fall Gelb: France 1940.
2. Operation Barbarossa: Soviet Union 1941.
3. Normandy: France 1944.

The core campaign rules themselves are simple but effective:

• Reserves: each player has a reserve pool; reserve rolls at the start of each scenario govern access to your reserve units.
• Objective VP: many scenarios contain various objectives other than just destruction of the enemy; these provide bonus Campaign VP as well as victory medals in the given scenarios.
• Victory events: dice rolls made before each new scenario begins, these provide another layer of variation by enforcing small changes to each side's deployments.

All told, these rules will add a few minutes to each scenario's setup time, which I would expect to see become increasingly insignificant as players gain experience of the campaign game.

Unternehmen Fall Gelb: Airborne Operation
#16. Fort Eben Amaël
Starting at the beginning, as you do, and with some random selection, I found myself the Belgian defenders of fortress Eben Amaël on the Meuse near Maastricht, under attack from German glider-borne combat engineers. The original action there was one of WW2's first and most famous coup de main operations.

Historical revisionism took root right at the start of our new campaign: the Belgians held the fort against the German attack so that the panzers were unable to cross the Meuse as quickly as had been planned. There was a minor rules hitch which might've contributed to my 5-4 victory, but I reckon more significant was the excellent shooting of my units, which was some 1 pip above the mean on the day as a whole.

#17. Unternehmen Niwi
Another interesting scenario showcasing the new depths brought to this old favourite with the expansions, Unternehmen Niwi features the operation in which the Germans used Fieseler Fi 156 Storch light utility aircraft to seize crossroads vital to the planned panzer 'infiltration' through the Ardennes. Among the new rules in play were:

• Depleted units: units starting at less than full strength.
• Armour Breakthrough: armour reinforcements which can enter on your opponent's side of the map.

History was again rewritten, despite Donald's canny use of an Armoured Assault card to mobilise his Armour Breakthrough. I had kept my own armour units safe, ready, and waiting, and so was able to mount a decisive armoured counterstrike which won me the game.

So, with 2 scenarios to go, the Unternehmen Fall Gelb: Airborne Operation minicampaign stands at 10-7 to the Allies. All to play for then!

Score
Grizzled veteran 0
Stubborn defenders 2
:-)

Attack Sub
I've recorded a game or two of Courtney F. Allen's Attack Sub with Andy in the past, but none with Donald. We'd played it several times before, although sufficiently long ago that we decided to stick to the introductory scenario.

I drew the Russians. The game started well for me, as I was able to build up contact sufficient to take the first shot (IIRC), which missed. All told I think Donald and I each fired 3 times; mine all missed; 2 of Donald's were the 1-shot kills that won him the game. I will have my revenge.

Score
Old seadog 1
Not quite got his sealegs 0
:-\

PS. I don't know why the scans for the M44 maps turned out so scabby. I'll look into it. ;)

A Sunday sessions roundup

So, I've got 3 sessions' worth of games unreported. The Combat Commander games played with Mark and Badger are going to have to wait a bit. Meanwhile, I'll do a quick run through our last 2 Sunday sessions.

#1. Triumphs: complete, petty, or otherwise
Ivanhoe

Elsewhere on Saturday after showing what he's made of across the Combat Commander table, Mark was able to join us Sunday. I was keen to play Judge Dredd, so that I could return to my rightful place in the Chief Judge's chair, there mercilessly to lord it over Mark as befits ancient rivalries we share with our old Edinburgh mob.

Gav's impending late arrival meant that we had to turn to filler, so that Knizia's old favourite Ivanhoe appeared on the table as if by a law of nature. We fitted in 3 games while waiting for Gav. Andy particularly enjoyed the first: he won, which is rare. The next 2 games went to me.

Score
Andy 1
Donald 0
Mark 0
Me 2 (that's the "complete"...)
:-)

Oooh! Shiny! (AKA floating like a butterfly)

It seems like an age since last I posted, but it was actually only last Tuesday. Stage 1 is ongoing. I take comfort from the fact that I seem to be levelling out, but am only too well aware of how easily this might change. I've done some proper shopping and cooking this week, which is about all that's gone to plan. I'm just a bit frazzled.

CC@UK Games Expo'09
I've made some decent progress in my preparations for this tournament, but less than I'd've wished. Still, with a tad less than 3 weeks to the due departure date, I remain confident that I'll manage to do all I'm planning for the event.

Meanwhile, look at the lovely piece of kit I was able to pick up the other day at the local Ryman stationers (formerly known as Stationery Box): my very own LOS checker! (AKA: Retractable chrome badge reel.) Dirt cheap at £1.99. So you where to go fellow CC fans.

#Grins#

Adjusting the throttle

Bloody hell! No sooner had I survived the mayday gaming bash with Mark, Badger and the lads, than I found myself snapping awake and bouncing out of bed in the instant; a sure sign of my Stage 1 Hypomania. Oh dear, I thought, and I'd just got used to the unanticipated mood downswing.

Faced with this wakeup call, and after a frazzled week at the end of which I was pretty weary, I've decided that RD/KA! will be taking 2nd place in my gaming priorities until June. Or, to be more precise: Mark's, Badger's and my mayday weekend's games of Combat Commander and Up Front will be the last full-length game report I post before I return from CC@UK Games Expo'09.

CC@UK Games Expo'09
The event now has 4 players booked (myself excluded), plus 6 CC sets available. This means that we can already accomodate up to 12 players. Such a turnout would push the event up to the limits of this year's space, which would just prove my point about the demand for a WW2 tacsim tournament circuit in Britain. Fingers crossed I guess.

Meanwhile, I've made a start on the task of clipping, bagging, tagging and inventorying all the games I'm taking with me (CC aside, I'm taking my Memoir'44 and my Commands & Colours: Ancients to lend to Barry Ingram for his main-event tournaments (Saturday and Sunday, respectively). Hardly a thrill a minute (task and entry both), I'm going to get the latter done so's I can make headway on getting the former dusted. I've got two Sundays' games results to post, which I should get done before the week is out. ;)

Promises, promises!

The perfect Space Marine army?

Facebook-friends and twitter-fellows will already know about the Liquid Gloat prompted by yesterday's geek grab:

"the 'old' one (and better than ever too!)."

No-prizes (with apologies to Stan 'the man' Lee and the old Marvel Bullpen) to readers who thought... 40K?

Yes I'm hankering after more than just some roleplaying, so yesterday I hit town; there to visit my local GW; where I availed myself of the filthy lucre and finally grabbed myself a copy of the new(ish) 5th edition Codex: Space Marines. I've only skimmed the book so far but I can report that, alongside the astonishing and ever-growing range of plastic Space Marine kits, this codex - fat as an old 2nd edition volume, means that there truly never has been a better time to be a Space Marine fan (and at GW's prices, it's just as well, don't you think?).

A definite hankering...

It's been a long time since I did any roleplaying, and longer still since I've GM'ed. There are various reasons for this, but they all boil down to two in the end: dissatisfaction and weariness.

My WFRP campaign ran for about 30 sessions over a period of some 16 months, ie. roughly every other week on average. I wasn't a seasoned GM, and I'm not really the seat of the pants type either, which meant that I put a lot of work into those games, not including the write ups here at RD/KA! (Keynote was a godsend!). In the end it was all too much for me. I was worn out.

What was more, I wasn't getting the satisfaction I wanted from the game. As I explained to the lads one night while we were eating dinner before a game with Bill: playing boardgames with Badger is a simple matter of opening the box and off we go; a 100% successful recipie for enjoyment, which couldn't be said of the roleplaying, even when it was going well; which wasn't all the time, naturally enough. This was my motivation to turn the Sunday sessions into a regular boardgaming bash.

Even when Bill became the GM, the group dynamic changed because the midweek date ultimately reduced us to just 2 PCs: Tony and me. I think this just wasn't enough to give the games real momentum. Quite why the 3 of us failed to reach critical mass escapes me, although I do know of some contributory factors. I now believe that primary among them was Katana.

Readers who've known me since bygone days might be shocked by that admission, since they'll be all too aware that Katana is one of my all-time favourite PC's, so close to my heart that I coined the phrase 'primary projection' to express what he meant to me. That is to say: he was a creative expression of some of the deepest wellsprings of my subconscious strivings. Well known primary projections include Conan and Philip Marlowe.

At first sight you'd think that I'd've been delighted to return to a PC like that; in the hands of the GM who presided over his creation and the first phase of his adventures; and with the player - Tony, natch - who, as GM, gave Katana the second phase of his adventures, when we first roleplayed together back in the late 1990's. And I was. It's a nice experience to pick up an old PC and 'put him on' like you would a well worn coat. And that blog I wrote upon his return weighed heavily in the balance which eventually tipped in favour of my acceptance that rpg's are art.

Even so, with the benefit of hindsight after the roleplaying had unravelled, Bill mused that going back to Katana might've been a futile attempt to relive old glories. He was right, of course. Precisely because Katana is that primary projection, he is too deeply embedded in pasts that can't be revisited. Sure Bill and I could do Katana easily and well, but it was, as Bill said about Frank Miller's Sin City, a five-finger exercise.

Worse still, with the benefit of lengthy reflection on Bill's offhand remark, I have come to the conclusion that not only was Katana too easy to play for the pair of us; he was also an unfair obstacle we unwittingly threw in Tony's path. I mean to say, teaming up Tony's Witchblade with Katana effectively reduced her to a guest star in Katana's continuity, instead of being a co-star in her own. This is OK for one-offs or short mini-campaigns based on player transience, but not if you want a proper ongoing series. Each and every player should enjoy equal billing after all.

All of this is by way of looking back at some of the mistakes made in past roleplaying in the hopes of avoiding them in the future because, yes, we're talking about doing some roleplaying. In the end Donald's wish to roleplay again was just too keen to ignore.

I'd already suggested to Donald that he try the HERO system, and was pleased he was agreeable. On that basis, Donald is talking about a couple of ideas. It's likely that we'll begin with his first: an outlaw mini-campaign using Iron Crown Enterprise's highly esteemed 1987 Robin Hood: The Role Playing Campaign. I am already looking forward to this. I'm thinking of a character who is a master of the quarterstaff. Whatever complaints people might have about HERO, it cannot be gainsaid that its skills list and combat system renders weapon mastery in rich detail, and with mechanics that reward real tactics and actual practice as opposed to just dishing out stat upgrades.

For my part, I have two ideas for mini-campaigns of my own. One is HERO too: a return to my take on TSR's 1993 Bughunters. One of two books I've got from the late, unlamented Amazing Engine system, I liked Bughunters' concept: clone troopers in space fighting the bugs? What's not to like? I immediately realised though that I would run this game with HERO instead of the dumbass TSR AE.

I ran this with Tony and other friends back in the late 1990's. I've still got all the material I worked up for the game and the setting (a piece of background work was posted to the Trollslayer forums a few years ago). It just needs to be updated, and I'd be ready to run it again. This is something I'd like to do, because I liked the kinds of stories I was aiming at in the setting; and I had a few surprises in store for my shell-shocked players. Unfortunately we moved on to other games, and never went back to my Bughunter.

My other idea is to go back to WFRP, naturally enough. I'd like to run a more hi-octane game in a classic D&D style, albeit with a bit more than just dungeon bashing; a game in which I'd unleash without let or hindrance the full power of the game's hideous antagonists and its deadly combat system. Of course, I plan on making the potential rewards commensurate with the risk.

We still don't know quite how, when and with whom our return to roleplaying is going to pan out, but we'll be getting something going for sure. Expect to hear more. ;)