A world at war

The history
Lugged home 5 weeks ago amid much grump and bitching, and having started to lurk on the sidelines just a bit too long, my shiny new Axis & Allies: Anniversary Edition finally hit the table yesterday; and in a full 6-player game to boot. This was a landmark Sunday session for more than one reason:

• We hadn't been 6 on a Sunday since the first session of my WFRP campaign (back in the days before RD/KA! believe it or not!).
• This was the WW2 strategy game I'd waited all my life to play.

The setup
Saturday night gave the first hint of what the A&A:AE experience was going to be about. I'd read somewhere that setting up in advance was advisable to speed play, and I could easily see the point:

• There are a lot of pieces to set up.
• I wanted everything to go off as smoothly as possible so that everyone would like the game.

The subsequent hour and some spent sorting out and deploying pieces across the expansive board gave me a foretaste of what turned out to be Sunday's key experience, that of a game strangely compelling despite being uncommonly gruelling.

The choice of sides thrown open as we awaited Dave and Tony, Donald chose the Japanese, and Andy plumped for the Italians because he thought that their tiny forces would enable him quickly to cut his losses should his worst fears about the game be realised. My suggestion of smokers versus non-smokers lined us up thus:

Axis

• Germans: Me.
• Italians: Andy.
• Japanese: Donald.

Allies

• Americans: Dave.
• British: Tony.
• Russians: Gav.

We played the 1942 scenario because I assumed that starting later in the war would shorten the game (an unfounded assumption it now seems); and I'd figured we should play the short 13VP game, because I thought that'd give us our best chance of getting finished (another unfounded assumption it turned out).

The game
We started at 2pm and played until about 7. It was taking us an hour per game turn, which meant that we each played 5 turns in 5 hours. That was a bit of a shocker. I mean to say, we've all become used to playing games in which you get a turn every few minutes or less, and in which you might well be engaged during other players' turns in any case. This is very much the cutting edge, be it Euro, Ameritrash, or just plain wargame.

By contrast, 45-50 minutes downtime per 5-10 minute turn is about as 'old-school' as it gets, and it certainly proved distracting, if not outright burdensome. Turn structures of this ilk are not to everyone's taste, and it has to be said that some were heard yesterday to wonder why they were bothering at all. The turkey's clucks were almost audible.

Yet, the game's qualities rode out our frustrations so that we're all looking forward to the next time despite yesterday's inconclusive outcome after all that effort. We realised that it wasn't just a matter of the first-game learning curve; A&A:AE just isn't a game for a Sunday afternoon with a Monday morning to follow.

I certainly enjoyed my first taste of the A&A economics engine and combat system: attacking with the Wermacht at the height of its powers; capturing Leningrad, Stalingrad and Moscow by early 1943; Russia was mine as the game came to its inconclusive end. Andy - a possible sceptic because of his professed lack of interest in WW2 boardgaming - was pleasantly surprised by how much he enjoyed his ramage through the Mediterranean and into Africa. Tony's highlight was surely his 2-phase 2nd front which captured France while I was preoccupied with conquering Russia.

These and other events in the game were really exciting. As the battles unfolded round by round we often found ourselves stood around the table, cheering our sides on. And I relished the groans of dismay (echoed even by my allies) as Germany's resource base and income burgeoned thanks to my exploits on the Russian front.

Teething troubles aside then, Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition was a success, if not an instant hit. As Gav said, it's "advanced Risk". This mechanical simplicity makes the game accessible and quick to master, while the wider range of units and the expanded economic system give it real depth. The secret of the game's success yesterday, I expect these qualities will be put to the test again just as soon as enough of us can find the time. ;)

Addendum
For those who might want to take a look at the rules before their next game, look here: A&A:AE rules.PDF.

Will I? Won't I?

HERO Games have confirmed a release date for the first products of the new 6th edition of the classic rpg, formerly known as Champions. These products are:

• HERO System 6th Edition.
• HERO System 6th Edition: Combat and Adventuring.

They will be released at the Origins game fair in the US in late June.

I love the HERO system. It's still the strongest and most flexible rpg reality engine out there, and certainly my go-to game for flashing blades or gunplay. But I barely used my 5th edition HERO rules in 7 years (those few games with Katana back in 2007 are all, IIRC). Also, I thought that HERO5 was something of a bloated monstrosity compared to the sleek 4th edition, and I fear that the 6th edition will turn out grosser even than the infamous HERO 5th edition revised.

One thing I think I can say for sure: I won't be loading up on 6th edition product the same way I did with 5th edition, which occupies shelf width surpassed only by my WFRP2 collection. ;)

[From Purple Pawn]

A small but satisfying landmark

This is my 300th post, a landmark I at first would've hoped to have reached long before this, year 5 of RD/KA!. After all, I managed 99 posts in the 5 months of 2005 after I launched this blog with my impressions of the Glasgow Worldcon, a 20/month posting rate which'd've put my postcount in the region of 2000 if I'd kept it up in subsequent years. Ah well, such are the vicissitudes of the bipolar blogger's life.

Still, 300 posts is quite respectable for a hobby blog, representing:

• 1½ posts/week for 186 weeks.
• Remainder 21.

Or, in the form of a viable publishing schedule:

• 1 post/week.
• 2/posts/month for 44 months.
• Remainder 26.

Everything else aside for the moment, my biggest hope for the future of RD/KA! is that the 7-month bloglag of 2007-08 will be the last such massive writer's block I have to endure. Time will tell. Fingers crossed! ;)

A moment to marvel at...

As regular readers might already've guessed, and as my facebook friends will already know, the old mood swing kicked in recently, slowing down to a near trickle the flood of articles which already promise to make 2009 RD/KA!'s best year since 2005. I first noticed this a couple of weeks ago in the form of a change in my sleep cycle which signalled my mood swinging below the median.

The inevitable next phase began just this week, with decreased energy levels, poor motivation and attendant psychological disturbances. The upshot of all this is that the various activities I've been enjoying for the past few months start to become painful to contemplate, let alone engage in.

I actually have a better plan than ever to deal with this: exercise. I'm going to have to start to make good on last year's idea of regular gym attendance and swimming. I'll keep you informed.

Meanwhile: onwards, to bigger and better treasure!

Cards, command and combat #2. Fun in Stalingrad!

And so Combat Commander hove to on the table late last Thursday.

Offered his choice of revisiting the 2 already played CC:P scenarios (we couldn't play any more because I've not yet got round to clipping the rest of the CC:P counters); playing some of the new C3i scenarios; or trying out the new Battlepack, Badger plumped for the latter. I confess I was a bit surprised, knowing how much Badger hates cityfights. All the better for me then. Off to Stalingrad it was.

Scenario 35. Spartakovka Salient
Actually we began in the small town of Spartakovka on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad itself. Set in late August, Spartakovka Salient features the early phase of the battle, as German units raced for the Volga, and a city whose name they'd've recognised, but which would otherwise have looked as if it was going to be just another landmark in what was turning out to be a glorious summer for the German army on the Russian front.

It's official, and now public!

Yesterday was my birthday, and it came with an unusual present. Regular readers will remember my posting, only last January, about my intention to GM a Combat Commander tournament at UK Games Expo 2009. A recent flurry of activity saw the official tournament page uploaded to the UK Expo site yesterday by event organiser Richard Denning.

Thanks to Richard for his efforts getting my stuff sorted. Thanks are also due to Rob Bottos from CC@CSW, whose advice helped me decide the event's format.

Andy and I have got our hotel booked, and we're now just waiting for tickets to be available. After that, well, I guess I'll just have to make sure that everyone has a good time. And there will be an 'everyone'! The tournament already has 5 confirmed entrants, and 2 or 3 times that many possibles. So, dear readers, wish your humble scribe good fortune if you will, and see if you can't make it to Birmingham for the 5th, 6th and 7th of June 2009.

Cards, commands and combat #1. Golden Oldies

Badger and I enjoyed something of a WW2 tactical megasession last Thursday as I'd said.

Up Front

As brilliant as is Combat Commander, 2 years solid play had left both me and Badger looking to ring the changes a bit in our gaming sessions. And as much as I want to see Conflict of Heroes in action again, there really was nowhere else to go to reopen our gaming horizons than back to the great grandaddy of CDG's, Up Front.

Badger was quite happy to have a go. He'd won his 1st and 2nd games against me after all, way back in 2005 (although I must point out, for Badger's benefit, that our Up Front score stood at 2-1 in his favour on Thursday night, not 2-0 as he'd imagined). I gave Badger the standard scenario I offer to players new to Up Front: Germans against my Americans in Patrol.

Appetisers...

Badger's been on holiday from work lately, so we sat down yesterday to a long-awaited WW2 tactical session. The evening also saw me cooking the first of several seafood dishes I'll be doing over the next few days. Something I've hankered after for a while, I think I've indulged the whim now to cheer myself up a bit in the face of my mood's recent slide below the median.

Last night's recipie was Oven-roasted Fish with Potatoes and Salsa Verde. This is another Delia, originally from her How to Cook Book Two, the white series infamous for teaching such things as how to boil an egg. At least she wasn't suggesting people go out and buy pre-fried onions as in How to Cheat at Cooking (sheesh).

This recipie has all the hallmarks of a classic Delia:

• Simple ingredients list (don't be fooled by the long list for the salsa verde - you can pick it all up at a half-decent supermarket).
• Easy preparation using basic techniques and few processes.
• Ideal for preparing in advance for last minute heating in the oven, this dish could even be kept in the fridge overnight.

It was a success, although I did overdo the pepper just a bit (Badger didn't have to order pizza though!).

Tonight's menu...
...is Fennel and mascarpone risotto with scallops and prosciutto.

I'm busy working on the report of our games from last night. In the meantime here is the 2nd of those 3 seafood recipies. I've never tried this before, although I've been cooking risottos for years, and I like fennel - as regular readers might remember. So I'm looking forward to trying out something new; just what I need to cheer me up, like I said. ;)

Toasters, toasters, everywhere!

Battlestar Galactica

An unexpected visit from Gav (last seen at G3's 10th anniversary bash) plus Dave's presence ensured our first long-awaited 5-player game of Battlestar Galactica: the Board Game last Sunday.

The initial dice-off gave us the following cast of characters upon whom would depend the fate of humanity:

• Gav: Starbuck.
• Dave: Saul Tigh.
• Me: Laura Roslin (I'd enjoyed the Presidency before!).
• Andy: William Adama (he wanted those nukes obviously!).
• Donald: "Chief" Galen Tyrol (Donald reluctantly succumbed to our collective insistence that we couldn't do without a 'Support' character).

The 1st thing we noticed was that there is no Cylon Sympathiser in the 5-player game, so that we knew precisely the threat we would face, if not exactly when it would appear.

Doomed, we're all Doomed!

Doom
So, Andy got his chance to lay down some smack as the Invader in Doom on Sunday. Donald and I took our 2 marines into the final scenario. It wasn't pretty. We only managed to get through 1 door, after which we just got bogged down by wave after wave of spawns.

We weren't helped by our luck: the number of attacks we missed was just painful, driving our results at least 1 point below the mean. Andy, on the other hand, enjoyed average luck, our constant dodging notwithstanding. On top of that, whenever Donald and I did pull something useful together, Andy'd have an Invader card in his hand to screw us over!

My marine wasn't much help either. My skills were Tough, Medic and Sniper. Tough gives you +1 armour, which was fair enough. Medic proved useless. I'm sure the ability to play the Ready action and use an order to heal 1 wound is something that'll've made the difference to winning or losing a game of Doom, somewhere, sometime; but on Sunday I just couldn't afford to spend an order on it when I had constantly to dodge while surrounded by Andy's Invader hordes. Sniper wasn't much better. What I really needed were skills which made my marine much more aggressive.

Our tactics let us down too, our respawning tactics in particular. Doom is a game in which the marine players can expect to get killed. So the trick is not so much avoiding getting killed as making sure that you can use getting fragged to respawn somewhere useful, ie. forward. Unfortunately Donald and I kept putting ourselves in positions from which we could only respawn backwards, so that we had to fight our way back to where we'd been. And when I did eventually spawn forwards, the Hell Knight guarding the door was more than a match for me.

We met our end shortly thereafter.

Score
Evil Andy 1
Puny humans 0
:-(

Afterthoughts
I enjoy Doom now as much as when I originally played it 3 years ago. I like the core system and the viewpoint it creates; I like the challenge of the scenarios; and, as fond as I am of the extra richness of Doom's sister game Descent, I still enjoy the more pared-down feel of Doom.

Also: I checked the FAQ; we missed a couple of things in our game:

• Blowthrough requires you to roll for the extra attack(s) after you've subtracted the dice.
• You do get an attack for Watchful when a figure is moved adjacent with Knockback, but only 1.

Munchkin
I said last week that I expected Munchkin would "take its due place at the table as entertaining filler in the future". I confess I didn't expect that to be quite so soon, but Andy and Donald seemed keen, so off we went for a couple of games.

Routine finkage, general screwage and other high jinks aside, the details of the games are hazy now. All I can really report is that:

• Andy won the 1st game.
• I played a really neat trick in 1 game, looking for trouble with a Bullrog, Mate and Friendly in my hand, which netted me 10 treasures!
• I won the 2nd game.
• I'm still enjoying my return to Munchkin madness!

Score
Evil Andy 2
Donald 0
Me 1
:-/

Memoir'44
Andy had to leave early, so Donald suggeseted a game of Memoir'44 after dinner. I was keen for some vengance after our last game, so I readily agreed.

Dinner was Simple Stroganoff from Delia's Complete Cookery Course (online variants here). With just 7 ingredients and no processes more complicated than browning meat, this really is simple cooking, but it's always been a hit when I've cooked it. It's also another good recipie for getting most of the work done the day before.

We wanted to try out the new air rules, so we plumped for the 1st scenario featuring them in the Air Pack's compiled scenario book. That turned out to be Utah beach, a scenario originally published on the Days of Wonder M44 site. The revised version features 2 changes:

• Landing craft.
• Air rules.

The landing craft are handy in beach landings (no!), enabling units in the sea to reach the beach in a single move.

The air rules are more complicated. There are 2 new command cards added to the game: the Air Sortie cards. These are used to bring 1 of the 8 airplanes into play. Once in play an airplane can be ordered using section cards just like any other unit. In fact, they must be ordered or you'll lose them. Airplanes can move 4 spaces, and can move through any terrain and/or units.

Airplanes often have to make Air Checks at the start of their turn. An Air Check is a dice roll based on the kind of terrain in which the airplane begins its turn and the number of adjacent enemy units and/or airplanes; eg. towns have an Air Check value of 2, which would be 2 dice. If any of the dice are grenades, then the airplane is lost, and it'll be worth a victory medal to the opposing player if any of their units were adjacent to the airplane.

Each aircraft can also carry out 1 or more different special actions. These include the obvious strafing - a more flexible but less powerful version of the Air Power card in the command deck; as well as useful tricks like ground support - negates the terrain protection against close assault of hexes adjacent to the airplane; or ground interdiction - units adjacent to the airplane at the start of their turn can't move. Oh yes, and the Japanese Zero has kamikaze.

The air rules proved decisive in our game, which was largely down to my good luck in drawing an immediate Air Sortie card. I picked a P38 Lightning for the sake of the aforementioned ground support. I then promptly played an Assault, and my entire centre rolled into action. With the help of the Lightning, I was able to clear the 1st bunker without too much difficulty, although Donald's fightback meant that I was actually behind for most of the game.

My momentum in the centre exhausted, I had some some units getting shot up on my right, and my left was still to be committed. Making the most of my P38, I sent it after Donald's unit dug in on the hill on the left. I got lucky with a flag, which meant that I could move up to seize the hill with ease. Shortly after this Donald used his airplane - a Fieseler Storch - on a rescue mission, which enabled him to save a 1-model infantry unit from destruction. It was too late for Donald though. His covering forces were broken and I had a simple run through the left flank exit point for my game-winning victory medal.

Score
Andy 2
Donald 0
Me 2
;-\

Afterthoughts
After 1 play I have mixed feelings about the air rules. The way in which air power appears and disappears is pretty decent, giving a good impression of how little control battlefield commanders had over air power in WW2. And the rules are pretty straightforward and simple to use, although I did find confusing some of what the rules say about the play of Air Sortie cards. So the air rules work OK. I have to confess I'm just not yet sure if Memoir'44 needed them in the first place. ;)

Javascript japes

Ground Zero
Checking out an alert from a facebook friend Friday night I was led here:

Ground Zero: Google Maps and Nuclear Weapons
This mapplet shows the thermal damage caused by a nuclear explosion. Search for a place, pick a suitable weapon and press "Nuke It!"

How could this avid fan of Nuclear War resist?

Unfortunately, as ever this blogger template is cutting off the side of the active google maps, so I'm just posting a screenshot of a strike on my home town, Dundee. I found Ground Zero simultaneously fascinating and disturbing in that way which will doubtless be only too familiar to my readers. Most strange for me perhaps was the reaction of my inner GM, which was to wish that I'd had access to this device back in the early 80's.

I used to play Aftermath regularly back then with 'Uncle' Martin GM'ing. Seeking to run my own post-nuclear game set in Britain (Martin's was set in Canada), I decided to try to make the dimensions of the thermonuclear holocaust as authentic as possible. So I started searching for information on the subject of presumed Soviet strike plans and their projected consequences. In the end I gave up. This was back when the Reagan and Thatcher's 2nd Cold War against the Soviet 'Evil Empire' was in its first full-throated cry, and I just found too horrible to contemplate the future I was seeking to make into my roleplaying campaign.

So I felt strangely ambivalent when, toying with Ground Zero, I found myself thinking how useful it would've been back when I was trying to set up that post-nuclear Aftermath campaign. I mean, you could just pick all the locations, make the strikes, save the maps, and then you could no doubt save them all to a single map, perhaps even to Google Earth. Fascinating and a touch disturbing like I said, not least because of that taste of GM's glee.

On a lighter note
Poking around Carlos Labs, the creators of Ground Zero I also found their online Spyrograph toy (this one does paste nicely into RD/KA!, but check out the link for an explanation of how it works):

I had one of these when I was kid, so playing around with it again online was fun.

Afterthoughts
Carlos Labs are clearly big fans of Google:

"At the moment, Google represents one of the strongest forces in the creation and distribution of Open Source software, and we want to apply this knowledge and code to solve practical problems for our customers."

I really don't know how Google's activities are advancing the Open Source movement, but I do like a lot of their applications and gadgets. Picassa is a current favourite of mine. It's the best photo album software I've ever used. ;)

A minor landmark

At a loose end and getting a bit stir crazy Wednesday evening, I called Tony to meet up for a couple of beers. His assent was to be expected, his return call to say that we'd be playing Settlers wasn't. We'd got Di her own copy for her birthday at the weekend, and she was keen to give it its 1st outing. So the game we played that night represented 3 firsts:

• First play of Di's new game.
• My first play of the new edition of Settlers.
• My first time playing Settlers in the pub (although Roborally was actually the 1st boardgame I played in a bar).

The game itself went really well for me. My setup left me without a sheep region to begin with, but I had an immediate route to one, which no one chose to contest. My other settlement, across the island, gave me a similarly uncontested route towards a 3-1 port. That much was OK. Building my 1st city on turn 2 of the game was even better. I imagine that this is a record which will stand for quite some time. And I just pipped Tony at the post - he built his own 1st city on turn 3.

The midgame was notable for how unusually open was the longest road. More often than not the initial setups ensure that 1 or more players are simply cut out of any challenge for those 2VP. In Wednesday's game, any of the 3 of us could've made the run across the centre of the map to join up our 2 initial roads into 1. I did it in the end, finishing off by building 3 roads in 1 turn instead of the settlement and 2 roads I'd been thinking about - 2 roads would've left Di with the chance to block me and, as much as I needed that settlement, I just had to guarantee those 2VP first.

I never looked back after that. My regions enjoyed good numbers and my cities meant that the resources were rolling in when those numbers came up. I quickly built 3 cities and I was buying development cards by the fistful (an exaggeration, but I did twice buy 2 in a single turn). Soon enough I had enough in hand just to sit through 3 turns and play Knights (the original German name for the Soldier has been adopted in the new edition) for the largest army and victory. Only Di could stop me, by grabbing it first. She didn't. I also had a victory point card in hand, so that I was on 11VP when I won.

Score
Do you really need me to count it out for you?! :b

Afterthoughts
As noted, this was the 1st time I'd played using the recently released new edition of Settlers. I have to say that all 3 of us were well impressed with it. I've always liked the Mayfair edition, preferring its vivid colours to the more muted tones of the German edition. The new edition is graphically more attractive IMO. A more practical change is the addition of a clip-together surround after the fashion of those long since used in the Seafarers expansion. Readers familiar with Settlers will appreciate the convenience of something as simple as the board pieces being held in place.

I also like the way the game comes set up for storage. The resource and development cards are in a box. There are ziplocs for all the other parts. And the plastic box insert has a place for everything in the new deeper box. Personally speaking I'd've been happier to see the old box size without the plastic insert, but then I'm an ecofriendly gamer geek with 100's of baggies in stock and a serious labelling habit. There is a much wider market at which Settlers is aimed which will appreciate these little touches I believe.

There are a couple of gripes from this gamer. The symbols for the ports are less instantly recognisable than those from the old edition. The value of ports and their specific resources used to jump out at you, unmistakable. Now they don't. The other gripe is that I'm sure that the cards are of thinner stock than the ones in my old set. Not good, but not quite the retrograde design step of the ports symbols. ;)

Crucial apps #1: KeyNote

My article earlier this month about download dependence and Open Source has inspired me to write more about software.

My practical and theoretical ICT education and training is limited and out of date, so that to begin I'll confine myself to comments about favourite freeware and Open Source applications. This time I'm going to sing the praises of my single most used application: Tranglos' KeyNote, which I've been using for some 4 years now.

What KeyNote is
According to the designer:

"Keynote is a flexible, multi-featured tabbed notebook, based on Windows standard RichEdit control... It's always accessible with a single keypress, even if you work in another application. Take a look at the screenshots page."

The key phrase here is "tabbed". There are other note-taking apps, but a professional writer friend who's spent a lot of money on different packages assures me that he's only come across 1 that he thought was better than KeyNote - Scrivener, only available for the Mac.

How KeyNote works

In a few short paragraphs I can only hope to scratch the surface of what these features of KeyNote has to offer, but these 2 screencaps should help. Above you can see the fully expanded tree of the tab I use every day, mostly to draft articles for RD/KA!. To the left you can see the fully expanded KeyNote, showing:

• The Templates tab of the Resource Panel (RHS), which contains useful tools.
• The text-editor window, containing the contents of the 'codes' tab, namely all the HTML codes I use when drafting articles for RD/KA!, and which can come in very useful when I'm commenting on other people's blogs.
• The closed nodes tree (LHS), in which every node opens another text-editor window.
• The 'note' tabs across the top, in which every tab is just like the one here displayed.
• The bold blue text at the top of this window is a 'KeyNote link', a handy wee link back to an earlier draft of the article that window is about (this one, BTW).

I dare say that you could get by with just 1 tab (ie. none, as such), but the facility to have more than 1 is really neat, and I'd want something else really, really useful (Scrivener maybe?) before I was happy to give it up. KeyNote's designer explains why this is so useful:

"The basic idea in KeyNote is that you can include many separate notes within a single file. This means that you do not need to open several files - for most purposes it is enough to create only one file and hold all your notes inside it. With the addition of the tree-type notes, you now have a three-dimensional notebook: many notes within one file and a multi-level, nested pages within a single note."

What this means is that, whether you are writing one long piece - eg. a novel; doing research for a shorter, yet still substantial one- eg. an academic thesis; or just writing regular short articles - eg. a blog; you will find KeyNote a great convenience because it makes all your work easily accessible in a single file. And the tree structure means that file can be logically subdivided so that you're not scrolling through endless pages in long documents either.

What KeyNote is useful for
I'm hoping that reader who themselves write regularly might already be realising that software of this ilk is an electronic addition to the tools of writing more valuable perhaps even than the most fully featured word processor. Turning again to the designer:

"What is KeyNote useful for? In general, any structured of [sic] free-form information, especially the kind of information which lends itself to hierarchical representation, such as lists or outlines. KeyNote's powerful search facility quickly locates information you're looking for."

The picture above shows the note tab from the WFRP campaign that'll be familiar to old hands here at RD/KA! (new readers can check out the 'my little old world' category, also at the bottom of the page). This used to be part of my everyday KeyNote file, but I exported it to a new KeyNote file when I stopped GM'ing WFRP.

After a few false starts I developed a simple approach to using KeyNote as a GM's aid. I maintained a list of NPC's, which I'd just copy and paste into the new node I opened for each upcoming session. This I would print out for ready reference. I added little details like the date and other stuff to keep them handy too. The tree structure of the nodes also proved ideal for making notes as I worked to figure out what was going on and how to keep up with the plot.

All in all then, I'd have to say that KeyNote is nearly the perfect tool for GM's, enabling them to keep campaign information in a format ideal for their purposes. I certainly found that to be true, and I've barely scratched the surface of the app's functions, some of which I'm sure would prove every bit as useful.

There's got to be a catch?
If something looks too good to be true, it usually is. My enthusiasm aside, KeyNote's main issue is that it is a dead program, the designer having given up on development back in October 2005, mere months after I'd taken it up!

I guess that this will lead to significant problems sooner or later, even for an app as stable as is KeyNote. It's certainly true that I've experienced 1 or 2 minor bugs as my Windows versions have moved on, but nothing that actually affected the functionality. Most serious perhaps is that Windows Vista no longer supports the code for the KeyNote Help files. There is apparently some fix for this, but efforts to implement defeated my limited computer ingenuity!

Conclusion
KeyNote is the single most useful piece of writing software I've ever owned, and I'm sure I've only scratched the surface of what it is capable of. Most of what I write is drafted in KeyNote and then copied and pasted into whichever other app it is intended for. Checking out the screenshots on Tranglos site while preparing this article has reminded me that it's time I found out more about its other capabilities. I expect I'll report on those in the future.

In the meantime, it might well be that the Open Source movement has already come up with a better app (in which case I'd love to hear about it); and the app's obsolescence might one day prove problematical (unless, that is, it picks up new followers and starts to enjoy some geek love from code monkeys in the Open Source movement; oh, if only!). Those caveats aside, I just cannot recommend KeyNote too highly. Suck it and see, as they say! ;)

A proper counter cutter, at last!

It was just last month that a CC:P@BGG thread led me to the scrub's blog Triple Point Blank Fire. Seeing the scrub unleash the vaunted C4 Corner Cutter convinced me I must have one to clip my own growing piles of counters. Already even the nail-clippers I'd been using were proving perhaps more tiresome than just using a sharp knife, something I'd had enough of with CC:M.

Counter-clipping is one of those peculiar geek specialisations, which has spawned its own sub-literature (for the curious: a BGG poll and a page of GeekLists on the subject). For me, it began as a matter of marginal utility with my old Squaddie set.

Notice how the corners of that 5/8" King Tiger counter overlaps the hexsides? When the rules suggested (IIRC) that players trim those as a convenience, I just knew that this would just bug me batshit if I didn't. Seven SL/ASL sets and some 2500 counters later, I had a serious counter-clipping habit. I can vividly remember one particularly long session with a craft knife and the bread board.

Hell's Highway was a game in which the stacking of congested hexes not much larger than the ½" counters was an issue which led to counter-clipping. This was particularly the case with certain much-used information markers whose functions were crucial in the game. Again, the prospect of footering about during play was such that the added convenience was worth the initial effort, even for the few short solitaire plays which were all the use I got out of that Hell's Highway set.

By the time I got Combat Commander I was hooked on the simple visual appeal of nicely clipped counters as much as on the marginal utility. And when I found that the effort to get counters clipped was delaying getting CC:P on the table, and that the efforts to hurry my laborious corner-by-corner efforts were generating shoddy results, I knew the C4 was for me.

I just need some new chisel blades for my X-acto, and I'll be ready to get to work. ;)

All in the cards

Dave had to cancel due to work, so we were the regular crew of 4 for games yesterday. That 5-player game of Battlestar Galactica just keeps getting postponed. We also had an early finish so that we could head off into town for a Di's birthday night out (that's Di of Settlers infamy). This meant that we didn't have time for the game of Doom Andy and I had been hoping for.

Nuclear War

Casting around for ideas of where to start, Andy I think it was who suggested this gem - the classic satirical game of global thermonuclear holocaust - which promptly appeared on the table. Checking out the last time we played Nuclear War, it turns out that it was Andy's suggestion then too; a hint of dodgy megalomanically destructive tendencies here perhaps, hmm?

In which I just must bitch and moan a bit...

When I was a kid, I played several classic family strategy boardgames, like Risk, Campaign and Diplomacy. Older, and into wargames, my interest in WW2 and my taste for multiplayer games meant that I was keen to find a multiplayer WW2 strategy game featuring economic planning and development as well as battles.

Pretty much the only kid on the block back in the early/mid-80's was Rise and Decline of the Third Reich, designed by John Prados and published then by the old Avalon Hill. The merits of this game are evident in its lasting success - it's still available some 35 years after its initial publication, from Avalanche Press.

I must confess I never really liked the look of Third Reich, and my single, short play with someone else's set didn't change my mind. I might've liked the game more if, as is commonplace in today's digital age, I'd been able to study the rules in advance, thus having the 1st clue about what I was doing as the Russian player in those crucial early days of Barbarossa. But maybe not, because my main issue with the game was that the rules seemed to me to be burdened by too many special cases and exceptions, for the sake of being both historical and open.

Still looking to scratch my WW2 multiplayer strategic itch, I bought myself a copy of Udo Grebe's Blitzkrieg General at Claymore several years ago. That was a flop. I found the rules so opaque to understanding that I've not even punched out the counters, which sadly puts Blitzkrieg General in the same class of untouched unplayables as ASLSK#1 & 2, great title notwithstanding.

That past left me primed and ready when I paid my first visit to a new acquaintance's flat recently, there to find displayed on the kitchen table what I can only term the splendour that is the Axis and Allies Anniversary Edition, released to mark the 50 years of games under the Avalon Hill brand. I just knew it had to be mine as soon as I saw it.

Visits to my FLGS proved fruitless, both telling me that it was out of stock at the British distributors (quite remarkable for a game released only on 18th November last year). To ebay it was then. Purchase duly made, I began my wait for my goodies to wend their way across the Atlantic. And herein lies the fly in the ointment of this otherwise happy tale.

The pound has collapsed in recent months, with the result that this game and its postage and packing were expensive. I could live with that. No one was forcing me to click on the buttons confirming my purchase after all. But what ticked me off was having to make a 3-hour round trip to my local Parcelforce depot so that I could pay an additional 25% on top of all that, for customs duty and 'handling'. With attentions focussed on the giant scams of multi-billion dollar financial frauds and bailed-out bankers' bewildering bonuses, spare a thought for the smaller-scale but ongoing scam that is customs and excise. Curse them! ;)

Fine, fine dining!

Regular readers might remember me talking last December about the Two Fat Ladies West End restaurant, good enough to join a shortlist of my 4 favourite restaurants. Two of those restaurants are local oriental eateries serving authentic Malaysian cuisine which makes a pleasant change from the all-too-familiar generic Chinese fare that is very common here. The quality of these 2 places can be seen in the fact that they're always full of local Chinese people.

The other restaurant in that shortlist is Gordon's, of Inverkeillor. I was there again last week, while visiting my family in Arbroath. Quaint little fishing village it might be, but Arbroath's a really bad place for quality restaurants. There used to be one that was pretty good, but it just wasn't quite good enough to survive as the premium establishment it was styling itself. Then there was the passable Italian place that came under new management, but the less said about that the better really. Faced therefore with an utter dearth of local eateries for an Arbroath night out to celebrate our birthdays a couple of years ago, my mum opted for a visit to Gordon's.

Mum, me, Meg and sis - cheers!

I was bowled over, exactly as I was later to be at Two Fat Ladies. In all my 30-odd years as a restaurant-goer, I'd never enjoyed fare quite like what the father-and-son team at Gordon's were serving up. In fact, I'm sure some of my readers will have shared my experience of ranting at 'poncy over-fiddly food' when watching TV cooks and chefs prepare the sort of dishes you can find on Gordon's sample menu. The part of me that is a cook still reacts like that, but the eater in me has long since stopped needing excuses to go to Gordon's.

It's not just the food either. Maria, who runs front of house, is a natural at making you feel welcome. Attentive without being intrusive, and with a knack for relating to the character of each table, she makes dining at Gordon's feel like being part of some kind of, well, some kind of extended family. Take my previous visit for example, last December. Just wearing a shirt, I commented that I'd make a special effort the next time, and wear a tie. Last week I duly did, and Maria commented on this, reminding me of my promise. It's the little touches like this which make the experience of a night out at Gordon's just the best.

And don't people know this. Local farmers are regular customers, and surely they'd have no appetite for over-priced rubbish. Others travel - by taxi mark you - from miles and miles around. Luxury dining is one of those things whose prospects can never be 100% certain in straitened economic times like the present world crisis. I, for one, am hoping that Gordon's quality will continue to inspire loyalty among its customers, because I plan on eating there for years to come! ;)

Long lost hulk of legend sighted again?

Rumours confirmed?
Andy sent me an email the other day, tipping me to threads at the Bell of Lost Souls and Ain't It Cool News, between them the first sources to claim authoritative off-the-record confirmation of rumours of which I was already aware, namely that GW plans a 3rd quarter 2009 release date for a 3rd edition of their legendary boardgame, Space Hulk.

Rumours of the return of Space Hulk aren't new. Readers who knew JMcL63 before RD/KA! might remember my story from Trollslayer.net, of Jervis Johnson telling me, at GD UK 2004, about discussions at GW that might mean a possible future for this great boardgame. Clearly Jervis was then talking about something real going on, as witness this story at the Warseer forums, dating back nearly 2 years.

Regular readers might remember my lengthy 'rash of enthusiasm' for this long-lost classic (#1, #2 and #3). The more curious might even've checked my BGG profile, where Space Hulk is recorded as my 4th most played game ever. So I share the fond memories of so many who commented on the story over at The Bell of Lost Souls.

What I don't share is the oft-expressed preference for the 1st edition, which seems to come down to the matter of the timer more often than not. We can only hope therefore, that the Warseer story gives us a true picture of what we can expect from what is already an eagerly anticipated release, namely that the timer rules will be included because GW can source digital timers cheaply enough to include them in one of their own products.

Another major theme of discussion has been precisely which Terminator models GW will choose to use:

• The snap-together models from the Assault On Black Reach starter kit.
• The fully detailed kits from the Space Marine range.

I imagine that the snap-together models will be the way that the company wants to go, but that's not so much of an issue for me in any case.

What intrigue me most are the rumours I've read about the new Space Hulk board parts. People are suggesting that GW will be doing these in plastic instead of the jigcut card with which we're all so familiar. Various reasons for this were mooted, but 2 stood out for me:

• It'd solve the problem of the printer's films lost in the move to the Lenton site (a story Jervis told me too IIRC, back in 2004).
• It'd prove cheaper to make plastic parts in house than it would to subcontract the production of the card parts (the recent revival of the Mighty Empires supplement to WFB suggests that this is true).

I have mixed feelings about this. Sure, moulded plastic hulk parts could look very pretty. But they'd need to be painted to get the best out of them, and they wouldn't be backward compatible with 1st or 2nd edition board parts.

The former bugs me because I'm just not the painter I used to be. Having to paint the board as well as anything else tends to defeat the purpose of my investment in boardgames - namely that the publisher does all the design work for you; all the more so since I'd never manage to get moulded plastic board parts to look as good as did the full-colour board parts from the 2nd edition. And the latter'd bug me because I have a large collection of 1st and 2nd edition Space Hulk parts.

Whatever the truth of these rumours, and whatever a putative Space Hulk 3rd edition might look like, one thing is for sure: the game will sell like hot cakes, and fans old and new will celebrate the revival of this red-headed stepchild of the 40K gaming universe. We live in hope! ;)

"You finally build your Argyle Street and I smash through with my M8!"

Another spate of cancellations left us numbering just 3 yesterday despite Dave's being able to turn up again. So it looks like our 5-player game of Battlestar Galactica is going to have to wait till next week. In the meantime, the 3 of us settled down to a session of 2 ever-familiar Euros.

Ivanhoe

Dave is new to the adventure gaming table, so it seemed appropriate to introduce him to Ivanhoe. He proved a quick learner, exactly as he had on his first game of Settlers.

Our 1st game went right down to the wire. I won with a 4-card bule laydown after a sneaky Unhorse to red by Tony, which'd cost me both a valuable action card and my Maiden's support. You can imagine I was pleased to recover after that piece of finkage!

Heroic history or Cold War revisionism?

A Frozen Hell

I was tipped to A Frozen Hell on Conflict of Heroes@CSW back in December. The games Badger and I played last October of Combat Commander's Scenario #20, A March in December prompted me to buy a copy.

My decision was made easier by the book's reputation. It's apparently the essential history of the 1939-40 Russo-Finnish war: the biographical notes tell us that it is "required reading for the [US] 2nd Marine Division"; while the back cover boldly announces that author William R. Trotter:

"Masterfully recreates all the heroism, tragedy and drama of a campaign whose lessons deserve far more attention."
- General James [sic] R. Galvin, former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe

I have to confess that this fulsome blurb lost a bit of its shine thanks to that unfortunate mistake in the name of the General making the comment - he is John R. Galvin, not the James M. Gavin of WW2 82nd Airborne fame. The truth though is that the book itself had already done a good enough job of dulling the lustre of Galvin's enthusiasm.