One thing I’m hoping to do while at the expo is get to play a game or two of Netrunner and Ashes.
To help this plan come to fruition I’ve posted on a couple of relevant discord servers to try and arrange something for while I’m there.
At the moment it looks like I may get some Ashes action using the precons.
To help with this plan and it surprises me I’ve not done this before I’ve ordered a play mat case. Something that’d have been handy when playing at my flgs. But even after the expo it’ll be used.
I’ve also ordered a second set of acrylic tokens for Ashes and the last expansion in the Red Rains Cycle, End of Argaia. This wasn’t released in time for the all in pledge of the kickstarter. But just for completion sake.
I also ordered a deck box to put some phoenixborn in and the new acrylic tokens.
Once all here my hardest decision will be which phoenixborn to take. With thirty to choose from, and only having at best played four or five. I have no idea which is my favourite, or which have a play style I like. It may just be a matter of grabbing a couple of random ones.
I’m also hoping to get some gaming in with friends on the days they attend. My copy of War will be in my bag every day, along with Shallow Regrets. So at least we will have something at hand to play.
As I write this post I’m four days in on creating a sourdough starter using rye flour. Naturally once the starter is fully active I’ll be making loaves of rye bread.
I’ve not done any baking since Nan left us in 2021. At the time she was the reason I baked.
Yes I had a sourdough starter back then, and I’d make a sourdough loaf regularly. After taking the loaf out of the oven, and once cooled a little. I’d take the loaf round for Nan to see. She’d put both hands on the warm loaf. She used to love doing that. I think it was the warmth of the bread, and the sensation it gave her. At the time Nan was well and truly bedridden, her dementia slowly stealing her away.
Nan would eat the tiniest of bits of the fresh loaf. She had trouble eating solid food, and literally no appetite. So to get her to eat a piece that wouldn’t even feed a sparrow was a major achievement. Nan definitely got great enjoyment from just holding her hands on the warm loaf.
But my baking didn’t stop there for Nan.
I made cookies, shortbread, muffins, poundcake, lemon drizzle cake, lemon meringue, cheese cakes, chocolate mousse, you get the idea.
Nan would eat just the tiniest of pieces of all of them. But even if they required a lot of effort, technical skill, or took time to make. It was all worth it. They were for my Nan.
Once Nan had left us I no longer felt like baking. I didn’t have the heart or desire. My reason had gone.
But now the desire to bake has returned.
I think it was initially sparked into life with my cousins daughter who has got into baking. I sent her a couple of books to do with baking (Ratio, and Dessert Course: Lessons in the Whys and Hows of Baking). Nan would have done the same. She would have wanted to encourage her.
It was helped along making bread and butter pudding for mum. She really likes my bread and butter pudding (I use brioche, and a mixture of dried fruit, nutmeg, and double cream).
Then recently I’ve had a hankering for rye bread. I love it toasted. However when I can find it in my local supermarkets it’s not cheap. So I thought you know what? why don’t I make my own? It’d be cheaper.
Obviously depending on the weather while UKGE is on instead of noodles there might be rye bread sandwiches, or just a chunk of rye bread to have with cheese. Although these might be my preference.
Plus I think each day there might also be a slice or two of pound cake to be washed down by some damn fine coffee.
I definitely will have biscuits as well to go with the coffee, which might just be home made now instead of the individual packets you can get.
So at the moment my food plans have completely changed.
Another first for me is I’ve come up with a list of stands, games and expansions I want to visit/get at the expo! That’s very organised. Especially for me. I blame my friend Duncan. He messaged me on BlueSky giving me a stand at the expo where a game I might be interested in is. So a note was created on my iPhone so I didn’t forget. Before I knew it a single entry had grown into a full blown list!
Thoughts are definitely focused on UKGE at the end of the month and a planned return to baking. But I’ll write more about that return in a future post.
Here are the games I played at the start of this month.
Deep Regrets: we played using the brand new, literally dropped through the letter box that morning expansion Even Deeper Regrets, and the mini expansion Lamentable Tenticles. This was a surprisingly long game. I liked what the expansion bought to the game. New area to fish in, alternative fish deck, and cards that wipe out whole shoals of fish!
Skull: we played Gavin’s copy because he hadn’t played the game before.
Excalibur: I started off lukewarm warm to this game, but by the end of the game I actually really liked it. I was playing tiles for their comedic effect rather than some grand tactical plan. I was embracing the chaos. Near the end keeping track of who had the Excalibur tile meant on my last turn I had a one in three chance of guessing right. I gambled and guessed right to force them to hand me the sword and the win,
Pixies: almost a staple of game night now. Really like it, as did Diego.
Rebel Princess: full player count. Lots of tactical play. Great fun.
Pili Pili: more trick taking goodness. You have to definitely embrace the chaos in this game. Especially when you have to bid on the number of tricks you will win before your hand changes in some way.
Root: it turns out we had a massive rules misplay on tokens. I was playing the Corvid Conspiracy, Dave was the Marquise de Cat, Jeff went all religious with The Lizard Cult, and Colin was Eyrie Dynasties. I do like the advance setup for faction selection. The winter map was chosen , and we used the black market landmark. After a slow start I started amassing points. But the misplay on the trap token and the keep token meant it was not possible to enter those clearings, and it made it possible to lock off parts of the map. It saw Colin trapped in one half and Dave in the other. We hadn’t realised place and move were different. We were treating them the same. Where in reality pieces could be moved into the clearing with the token, and they could attack the token. That would have changed the game. It would have stopped the field hospital shenanigans of the cats. Oh and me cutting the board in two. I did like the winter map and the random setup of the clearing markers. But we had fun, and I won my first game of Root.
We got a couple of photos of Ace looking handsome.
But afterwards we got a couple of photos of the x-rays that were taken. They show what was done internally to fix Ace’s paw. Ace like so many famous sports people who have really bad breaks has two pins in his paw, and for some reason I see an image of the racing driver James Hunts leg with multiple steel pins in it. I have no idea if this is a real image I am remembering from my childhood or not. But it seems like a memory of something I saw in one of the newspapers at the time. I just might not have the right sports personality. It could even be Evil Knievil! He definitely had multiple breaks after the multiple crash landings he had.
You can see the x-ray photos at the end of the post showing the healing process. It seemed the natural place to have the photos.
The foster family looking after Ace while he recovers are doing a fantastic job of keeping us updated on his recovery, and sharing photos and videos of him.
Ace looks so happy in these latest videos that were shared overnight, and I hope he will be just as happy once he joins us over here.
I’ve created a playlist of the Ace videos, which you can find here.
I think in the past I’ve talked about seeing Star Wars A New Hope for the first time. How my memories of the time seem to be mainly the Olivia Newton John and John Travolta You’re The One That I Want music video from Grease and the Star Wars clip of Han saying “don’t get cocky kid” to Luke during the escape from the Death Star scene in the Falcon shooting Tie Fighters.
However we are jumping ahead to 1983, possibly 1984 and the first time I played a Star Wars game.
Back then during the start of peak 80’s home computer boom in the UK, my first time playing a Star Wars game was the C64 port of the Star Wars arcade game.
Taken off the internet
In the fenland market town I lived in the main places you got to play arcade games were the odd cabinet sitting in a corner of an establishment like the roller skating rink, or maybe a pub. Otherwise you had to travel to the coast and visit the arcades there (not a great option for a teenager) or wait for the fair to come to town.
So the home computer boom and the many ports of arcade games to home computers were often the only opportunity for a fenland teenager to play them.
It was this way that I got to play the C64 port of the Star Wars arcade game. This was played with a joystick.
I wasn’t clocking up world record scores (not even close). But I was able to run through the three levels three or four times in a single play.
It was as far as I knew a pretty good port. It certainly was fun to play.
I loved the first person, 3D. Shooting tie fighters, avoiding their shots or shooting them too. Survive long enough and you were then flying across the surface of the Death Star shooting up towers and gun turrets. Survive that and you were in on the Death Stars trench making a run on that one weak spot in its design, the exhaust hole.
There weren’t many 3D games around at the time. Star Wars used wireframes just like the classic Battlezone.
At the time for a Star Wars fan this was a great game.
Once again we’ve had a few days of unseasonable hot weather. So much for those April showers.
The contents of the removed shed hasn’t gone yet. I’m waiting for the guy that did the shed to give me a date. Once it has the vision can start taking shape.
In the meantime I’m still outside with the dogs allowing them to enjoy being outdoors.
Obviously our routine has changed during this weather. Their first walk of the day is the only one. However it is a much longer walk. So it’s done and dusted before it gets too hot for them.
Using my brew kit for UKGERigged this for the dogs
Using some bungees I put up a DD Hammocks magic carpet to give the Suicide Squad some shade. I almost look on this as a proof of concept for the summer.
It would come as no surprise that my coffee consumption has gone up. Being able to brew up without leaving my seat is fun. Plus it allows me to get familiar and comfortable using various stove and pot combinations.
Luckily as I write this post the weather has cooled a bit. Just in time for Diogo’s second paddock session this evening. He’s going to be tired this evening.
I’m writing this round up a couple of days earlier than normal because there will be no gaming before the end of the month. But posting on the last day of the month. Which is also known as my birthday!
Biblios Dice: I think this is the first time I’ve played this game since buying it years ago when it came out. It’s out of print. So was miffed a brown cube was missing. But it’s not going to be hard to replace that. Still this was a fun game to play. Love the drafting of dice, and the auction.
Skull: Colin had expressed a desire to try this game. Luckily I was able to find my copy of this bluffing game. We had fun, Colin liked it.
Pixies: Safe to say this is or is it has become a favourite.
Vegetable Stock: Love this drafting, market manipulation game. Just a great, quick, light game.
Twilight Imperium 4: In the end this was a rushed game cut short by clashing with an evening event going on. But still an epic four player game. The 3D printed insert made a massive difference in setup and breakdown.
3 Chapters: a fast trick taking game. What separates this one from the crowd is the drafting. Yep you start off drafting your hand to play for the trick taking round. Which is pretty cool because it starts you off with some tough choices. You don’t just draft on value but trying to get combos that will score you points not only during the trick taking round but also the final scoring round. Some cards score only during the trick taking round, others during the final scoring. You are hoping that others drafted cards you need to combo off. However it’s almost a dark draft where you are not 100% sure what’s been drafted because you don’t draft all of the cards, one goes back unseen.
Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring Trick Taking Game: although I like how this game handles two players with the dummy hand. It really does need the minimum of three players. We got to chapter 7. But the game kicked our butt too many times.
Bohnanza: a three player game that was just as good fun as the five player game.
