Category Archives: life, the universe, and everything

Just checking in

Game day, life, the universe, and everything, still alive

I’m in survival mode at moment.

Just trying to make it to the next day.

Drained. Tired.

Work gets like that sometimes.

Especially when you are given a shift pattern that is nine days without a break.

The upside is I get three days off at the end of it. Which will allow me to get along to a Friday club night.

What has made this time more difficult is getting the car repaired last Friday. Meaning an early start after a late finish. Plus squeezing in a prearranged gaming session the next day before work.

So you can see why I say I’m knackered and just surviving.

On the upside I got to play some games this month. I’ve just not written about them.

Diego and I are building up to play BattleTech Alpha Strike. Now with the full Alpha Strike rules in my possession we can use the full games hex maps on Diego’s table. This means for the other starter box sets they are even better value, as I can use more of the contents. We just need some hex maps now! Which Diego is ordering.

I’m going to leave it there for now. I’m tired.

So so tired

Fenland Gamers, game night, life, the universe, and everything, outdoors, still alive

After having three days off where I got to game with Jonathan. Which was the first time in a longtime. Plus attend a Fenland Gamers club night (something that is a rarity these days). At which I got to game with more friends I hadn’t played with in a while (hello Ben).

Games that saw the table in these two sessions were Dandelions, Can’t Stop, Senso: Battle for Japan, Macao, Ship Captain Crew, and Sea Salt & Pepper. Plus two games that Ben owned No Mercy, and Come Sail Away!

It was back to work and a pretty full on four days that were quite frankly draining. Especially after one shift I didn’t have any real recovery time because of union meetings I had to attend. I actually ended up having a snooze in the car between the last union meeting and the start of my shift.

The knock on effect was I was too tired to write anything about the gaming I mentioned above. Or get to mention that it came to light Jonathan has been playing trick taking games wrongly for a very long time. Basically the mistake was playing a trump card when you could follow suit. You have to follow suit. If you can’t then you can play a trump card (if you have any) or “dump” a card from another suit.

As I write this life update I have two much needed days off. Followed by a day back at work. Followed by four days off. What am I going to do in those days off? It’s not long enough to visit Nathan and give mum time to recover! Yes mum needs recovery time after I go away. I’ve factored it for UKGE for example. Apparently looking after Nico and Loki the two attack chihuahuas can be very taxing.

I’m in the process of buying a small dice masters collection. Which will help with the cube building. More on this once it happens.

Until the next big expansion for Marvel Champions Age of Apocalypse comes out (tomorrow/next week?) I now have a complete set of cards. I ordered the final three hero packs that I needed (Venom, Gamora, and Drax) that arrived at the start of the week. The nice thing about getting these older hero packs is the fact you don’t have to pay full price for them. They get nice reductions.

I just need to get the game to the table, get a storage solution, and sleeve the thousands of cards!

Having Tuesday as a dead game night at the moment is killing me. It was really cool that on a Tuesday those of us that liked ccg/tcg/lcg type games had a regular evening where we could play these style of games. I need to be more proactive in my efforts to find somewhere.

Oh I did get a quick chance yesterday to play around with my fire starting kit! I need to start playing around with this more. Get more confident in using it, and develop my fire starting skills.

So yesterday using a piece of fat wood (resin rich pine wood) I created some tinder to start a fire with. Then using a fero rod and striker to create sparks managed to get the tinder to light. This little exercise did not involve me building this into a roaring fire. Its aim was to get the tinder going. I followed this up with using the fero rod and striker to start a tinder wick. Which started first strike! Wow that was impressive.

My final little play with fire for the afternoon was to start a trangia burner with the fero rod and striker. Which worked really well. Why hadn’t I done this back when I was doing all the meth stove reviews?

My Kelly Kettle Trekker also arrived. Looks a lovely bit of kit. Although the pot and lid look too small to be of any practical use. I can’t see them being used at all, and replaced by one of my titanium pots.

Hopefully I’ll get to try out the Kelly Kettle on one of my days off. Who knows I might even film my initial efforts with it!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

gaming on the trail, gaming outdoors, hiking/backpacking/camping, life, the universe, and everything, outdoors, still alive

In a recent post I’ve said plans are forming to get back outdoors this year.

Wow how the online scene has changed since my days as one of the early UK “pioneer” bloggers on the trail.

Back then in 2008 the technology was very restrictive and it was just about possible to live blog as you hiked through the wilds of Scotland. Blogs were a lot more popular back then. YouTube was a thing, just not the monster it is now. Heck I even did stove reviews on YouTube.

Now there are so many YouTube channels for the outdoors covering bushcraft and backpacking.

There is some crossover between the two skills and equipment wise. But one thing that winds me up is the bushcraft tarp videos. And to be fair there are some outdoors videos that have the same fault. The bug bear is the pitching of the tarp. A good 90% of them are in woods/forests and use trees, and a ridge line. Something that being in remote locations you won’t have.

I also query just how far they hike with all the gear they have for a camp. Sometimes I suspect it’s not more than a few feet from the car. It’s obvious they have not hiked several hours with the kit, or done a multi day hike carrying it.

Oh and the formulaic videos, starting with the hiking montage. All meant to establish that they are in the outdoors, far from the beaten path. So staged. I almost want to say these montages are a cliche now.

Having said that there are bits of useful information I can use from these new sources. And I’ll discuss those bits in future posts.

Obviously there will be a gaming element to my return. Whether that involves just a pack of cards and some d6 dice, or maybe Pocket Hive for those social moments on the trail. But gaming options too are subject of a future post.

The Road to UKGE 2024 #2

life, the universe, and everything, still alive, UKGE

The hotel has been booked.

It’s just me. Nathan is apparently in Cornwall with his Mum, Dan and newest addition to the family Chloe.

I’ve still to meet Chloe. One day. I was just over the moon that Dan told me of her arrival at the time. Small steps.

I’m staying at the Fort Dunlop Travelodge. I’ve stayed there before. It’s nice as Travelodges go.

I’ve gone for three nights so that my start on the first day isn’t so early. It can be relaxed and stomach bursting from the all you can eat breakfast.

For the first time ever I’m trying their standard plus room. Which includes Wi-Fi (I’d be getting this anyway) plus a Lavazza coffee pod machine, hot chocolate and tea. Never used one of the pod machines so expect me to ramble on about my experience at the time.

I nearly went with the evening meals. But that ties me to the Travelodge to eat when I could be meeting up with others to play games if they are elsewhere or at the expo.

Camping at the expo will be next year I think.

The Road to UKGE 2024

life, the universe, and everything, still alive, UKGE

The holiday request at work has been approved.

So my plan is to travel to the Birmingham area on the Thursday and get to whatever accommodation or campsite I’ve booked. Have a relaxed, chill evening.

Then the day of the expo itself have a relaxed not so early start to the day. If I was traveling on the day of the expo (which I have done before) I’d be having to get up damn early. It most definitely wouldn’t be as relaxed a start as traveling across the day before.

I’m still waiting for Nathan to get back to me about coming along.

On the Fenland Gamers front I’ve created the event for the expo with those club members there on the Saturday to have a group picture taken. It’s bit of a club tradition.

But next week I’ll be booking my accommodation for the expo.

Happy Mario and Mothers Day 2024

life, the universe, and everything, still alive, UKGE

Happy Mario Day everyone! And to all the mums out there happy Mother’s Day.

This year Mario Day and Mother’s Day in the UK coincide.

A double celebration.

That’s why as I write this post I’m watching the Super Mario Bros movie.

Mum has got the perfunctory card. But I did get her a cake (photo to be shared on social media later) and a bunch of tulips.

Plus from mum and me some daffodils to put next to nans ashes. They were her favourites.

Oh and mum gets to spend even more time with her favourite two little masters of mayhem as I’m working this evening until 2am. So I’m going to get stories of how they kept her awake all night tomorrow.

Happy Mario and Mother’s Day…

It would appear once more I am leaving the booking of accommodation for UKGE to the last minute.

I can’t book the days off until the start of April!

At which point I need to sort something out booking wise. But any affordable rooms will be long gone. Even if it was earlier there seems to be less and less affordable rooms each year. Are the hotels etc finally catching on to the popularity of the expo, and exploiting that new knowledge?

I am toying with the idea of camping instead of a hotel. It’s been years now since I’ve spent a night under canvas.

I know in previous years some attendees of the expo have used a camp site. And it does just fall into the affordable price range.

Camping at UKGE was added to my bucket list for the expo of things to do years ago when I first heard of this being a thing.

Plus it would give me an excuse to update some of my equipment. I am tempted by the Kelly Kettle for instance. There are three versions! Even though my initial use would be for camping I’d want to be able to use it on backpacking trips also. So out of the three available “models” I’d go with the Trek version.

I already have an army surplus 100% wool blanket in the car, along with a poncho liner. Yes to be totally honest these have been recent additions. Which is the start of a sleep system idea I have. I think these would work well with the backpacking quilt I have. Obviously not the lightest of systems but definitely warmer and more flexible. Plus as a car camping system as it initially would be used the weight side would not matter. Nor would the fact it is more bulky.

But this conversation should be for another post if I decide to go this route for UKGE.

Having raised the topic of camping and backpacking on what is now essentially a boardgaming blog. I have given mum notice that later in the year I will be returning to the hills for one or two trips. Which means on one or two of future posts this blog will return back to its roots.

Yes although the posts are no longer on this blog (they are archived on a backup) this blog started life back in 2008 as an outdoors/backpacking blog!

But life events meant I have had to take an extended break from doing that sort of thing. Over a decade now. I really do love backpacking and hiking in the remote areas of the UK. And I think it’s about time I rekindled that love of being outdoors.

The aim is to get a couple of weekend trips to the hills in over the summer. It will be a while before I’m back to applying for the TGOC. Which I really do want to take part in again. But being a carer puts restrictions on how long I can be away. Three days is the limit at the moment. Two weeks is out of the question.

As some of you know I have reached an age where in the UK if I have a personal pension I can start taking it. I’m at least a decade away from being able to take the state pension. Well currently. The UK Government like to keep moving the goal posts so it gets further and further away.

But what this means is that I have as an option the possibility of taking a short career break of about 5 months.

Which is an idea I’m mulling over.

It would allow me to get some stuff sorted for mum. Do the afore mentioned backpacking trips and spend a bit more time with Nathan. Maybe even volunteer sometime to a charity.

I never thought I’d be able to do something like this. So now I know it’s an option I think it needs exploring and looking into the feasibility.

Let’s talk about six baby

bgstat, by the numbers, gaming stats, life, the universe, and everything, stats, still alive

I couldn’t help quoting Klopp after Liverpool won their sixth Champions League title for the title of this blog post. It just seemed apt.

February saw some gaming. Not much though. Even less than January.

In total six board games made it to the table.

I was glad to get three of them to the table with a higher player count than my initial plays of them. They did not disappoint.

Getting Zombie Dice back to the table was cool. I really do need to leave this in the game bag, along with Sea Salt and Paper. Two nice little filler games for a club night.

With my upgraded dice cups for Liars Dice I need a better storage solution that would allow it with the neoprene mat for tracking bids to also be in the bag.

But as the search for that elusive bag continues I’m grateful that I got some gaming done this month.

Sadly I won’t be able to play any games tomorrow and record some rare plays for that once every four years opportunity.

But that just sums up my new normal. Hopefully Sunday will keep being a thing gaming wise, and with a bit of luck Tuesday will be a thing too.

Until then here’s hoping for a better March.

Survive

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

It’s my penultimate shift at my current store today before transferring over on Sunday. But what a penultimate shift it will be. It’s going to be an eleven hour shift instead of nine.

There will most definitely be a knock on effect for the final shift tomorrow. I’m going to be knackered to say the least.

But the thought of playing some games on Sunday is helping me get through these final two shifts.

Especially since my copy of Wyrmspan and the deluxe components upgrade arrived yesterday.

Earlier in the week two new games also arrived, Tournament At Avalon, and Senso Battle for Japan. Both games where trick taking is the core mechanic.

These ended up in the collection due to me mistakingly watching a couple of YouTube videos, and seeing they were not too expensive on Amazon.

My get to the table list (image above) has been updated to reflect their arrival and addition to the collection. Whilst doing this I realised I didn’t have Fuji Flush on the list. So it’s been added to.

I’ve kept the games I played with Diego Tuesday evening on the list because I want to play them with a higher player count. They were fun at two player but sometimes at the higher player counts the experience will be different, more cut throat, frustrating (as more chances of others blocking what you want to do).

The plan on Sunday is (and I’m hoping Charlene is cool with it) to play Wyrmspan. Followed by, time allowing, one of the two new trick taking games.

In the meantime I just need to survive these last two shifts.

Decisions, decisions

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

With a planned gaming session imminent (tomorrow night) and one next Sunday the hard decision arises of what to play.

So I carried out a brief exercise in the bgstat app of tagging some games that I’d like to get to the table.

It’s a combination of new additions to the collection (which will hit the unplayed challenge when played) and one or two games I’ve played recently that need to get played again.

Dune Imperium Uprising is the plan for tomorrow evening. Time allowing one or two of the smaller quicker games on the list might also get played.

There is the obvious elephant in the room can’t get played yet, as it hasn’t arrived, Wyrmspan.

Then Sunday because at the moment it’s just Charlene and myself it might be a chance to get the roll and writes on the list to the table.

I’d like to complete Welcome to the Moon and its story based campaign. Yes it’s not on the list. But still it’d be nice to get it to the table.

Enough of the blue sky thinking. Let’s see how well this plan holds up when it gets put into action.

Wyrmspan delay gets me all political

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

As I write this latest “hey I’m still alive, sorry to disappoint” post I’ve not long woke up after a late shift and enjoyed my morning coffee.

We are ten days into February and I’ve played one board game.

There is some gaming planned for Tuesday evening with Diego. I think Ben is coming along as well. I’m really looking forward to that. Plus a week Sunday there should be some gaming taking place as well.

Neither of these two planned sessions will see Wyrmspan hitting the table. The UK and EU won’t start seeing their copies dropping through letterboxes for at least another week. Jamey on his latest live stream explained that this delay was due to “current events” in the Red Sea area. That’s the polite way of not getting political about the whole genocide and war crimes being committed by Israel in Gaza at the moment. Which despite the pathetic attempts by the UK’s most corrupt Government to justify their involvement in attacks on a sovereign nation Yemen, is linked to why there are any delays in shipping via the Red Sea.

Knowing this is the reason why I’m not playing or about to play Wyrmspan helps. It’s an inconvenience. Which doesn’t even register when you think of the horrors and suffering going on by those in Gaza at the moment. I’d gladly put up with even longer delays if it meant that this genocide stopped. And you know what? I feel so bad even mentioning this inconvenience in the same sentence as the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

I suppose whilst I’m going all political one of the surprising things about the most documented genocide and war crimes of the last one hundred years is the silence of so many in the boardgaming space. Many spoke up (rightly) on such issues as BLM, trans rights etc. But now with genocide, war crimes, and apartheid going on right in front of their eyes. All of a sudden they have lost their voices.

Their silence makes them complicit in those acts as far as I’m concerned. And most definitely hypocrites.

After the Second World War and the horrors of the holocaust came to light many over the following decades asked questions such as “how could the German people let this happen?”, or “what would I do if this was going on?”

It breaks my heart that we are now in the situation that every single one of us can now answer those questions.

For so many its remain silent, justify the atrocities, attack and try to silence those speaking out. All actions that enable those deplorable acts to be carried out.

At least with those supporting the genocide you know what horrible examples of humanity they are, and I know who to avoid.

It’s the silence I don’t get. I can only assume that it’s out of self interest they aren’t saying anything. That they think that if they speak out against it they will lose work, free games, etc. from those that support it, and vice versa.

Hypocrites.

I’m getting off my high horse now and my simplified views on this emotive subject.

Regular content to resume soon.