I’ve finally crumbled and decided to give the UK Math Trade a try. I’m treating it as a kind of experiment.

What is a Math Trade? It’s a complicated way to trade games. People add to a list the games they want to trade. That bits simple. They then look through what people have put up for trade and hopefully find some that they would like to get. This part is handled by a separate website to the list. When you find something you would like you then have to say which of the games you added to the trade you’d like to offer for it. Once again that seems simple. Once everyone has done this by a given deadline, a piece of software does the complicated stuff and matches people up. After that you get to decide if you will accept the offer being made to you that was assigned by this algorithm. While you are doing that, others are also doing the same. All accepted offers then get sent out, and people have got rid of old games they no longer want and get new games that they want to try. And I think that’s the whole Math Trade in a none coherent explanation.

So I’ve put up an unopened Dark Souls the board game, a Kickstarter Edition of Clans of Caledonia with the metal coins, and the expansion for Star Wars: Rebellion unopened.

If I can get The Gaia Project then I’ll be really happy. But Nations or Civilisation would also not be a bad result.

So let’s see how this goes.

It’s the start of the Easter holidays, and I decided my Easter present to myself would be 9 booster packs of this little card game called Magic the Gathering.

So starting tomorrow I will open 3 packs and post my pulls on here. And then I’ll repeat that for the following 2 days.

While I was choosing my packs at my FLGS, I put my order in for pre-release weekend. Along with which of the Summer releases I wanted.

Oh one for the diary it’s MtG Open House again on the 14th April at your FLGS.

I’m so tempted by Star Wars Legion which has just been released over here. But I don’t know anyone who is getting it, or wants to get it and play. So I’m loathe to invest time and more importantly money into it. It’s not as if I’m getting some of my more miniature heavy games like Imperial Assault, Zombicide, and The Others to the table. So if I’m struggling to get them played it’s going to be even harder to get a miniatures game to the table. It’s not like I was playing X-Wing every week when I had that. That’s the drawback of living in the back of beyond.

Sometimes games sit there on the gaming shelf eating away at your conscience saying “Play me, play me”.

Here are three games I haven’t played since getting them that I’d really like to get to the table soon, and are screaming at me to play them.

I got Homeland for a bargain tenner in the later half of 2017. It had reasonable reviews at the time, at that price a steal. Hidden traitor games are fun. Just need to get the right players together to try it. Naturally the other two are kickstarters that arrived in 2018, and yeah I want to get them to the table.

Existing games I want to play

I have the new expansion for Cry Havoc, and the first expansion for Kemet. So naturally I want to play these games with the new stuff. Scythe I just want to play again with those lovely airships from The Wind Gambit expansion.

Seeing as illness put a stopper on me seeing the new Black Panther movie until this coming weekend. Thought I’d give a couple of viewing recommendations on Amazon Prime. The first is the complete, all episodes of every season of Scrubs.

I really like Scrubs. Unlike Friends this series still holds up really well. There is a heart to this series that shines through the moments of comedy. That’s a really hard thing to pull off. Like all really popular series during their lifetime they are packed full of guest appearances from celebrities.

Also recently added to Prime is the movie The Big Sick. This movie is apparently a biopic, a true life story of how the comedian Kumail Nanjiani met his wife.

Yeah I like a romcom, because this is basically what the movie is. I like the stand up element of the story, it’s a side that appeals to me, and that I have an interest in. Just get the popcorn and watch.

This looks like I’m jumping on a bandwagon especially after Sunday and the 5 BAFTA wins, but I had seen this movie well before that (just saying). Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, is an awesome movie. Great performances from the main cast.

This is a powerful movie, I’d even say there is a bit of an emotional roller coaster element to the movie. The fact characters shift between likeable and sympathetic, to unlikeable, and back, or vice versa, gives the story a depth missing from so many movies these days. It’s refreshing to see such a compelling movie doing well. Tonally I think the movie is similar to the likes of No Country for Old Men. And easily stands shoulder to shoulder with it also. Just go and see it, you won’t regret it.

Just saying why I’m quiet at the mo. Half term and this hits. I’ve been lucky the last few holidays and avoided catching anything. But it’s a drawback of the job.

I’ll just suffer in not so much silence now.

After my previous post about the 3D tokens for Imperial Assault I’d had printed. A friend pointed out that I should have printed the ones that allowed the actual tokens from the game to be used. Apparently from time to time the token colour may matter for a mission. The friend also kindly linked to the 3D designs I could use.

So here we are with the new version of the crates and terminals that allow the original cardboard tokens to be used with them.

More viewing recommendations

If you get a chance, I highly recommend Please Stand By starring Dakota Fanning.

I thought it might be the Star Trek answer to Fanboys. But it’s a different movie entirely really. I think Fannings performance as an autistic girl is really good. I think she portrays the character well. For me the star of the movie is the chihuahua Pete, her pet dog. He steals the scenes that he’s in. But overall I think the movie treats Fannings character and her autism very sympathetically, and in a very positive light. With this movie and The Alienist I think Fanning has upped her game, and putting in some really solid performances.

I’m sorry these videos must be incredibly tedious for you all. But I’m gobsmacked at how this game went. I’ve not had a game like it in an age.

I think this is also the highest authority I’ve finished a game with. I think my previous record was over 120. I also like that I finished in style as well. And this was incredibly badly written. Sorry.

In a shocking display of being organised I’m all booked up for the two big expos this year. Long time sufferers of this blog will recall that I’d already booked my accommodation for both expos before Christmas. Which was a rarity for me. Normally the accommodation is left to March time or nearer when all the cheap rooms are gone, and I have to hunt around for something I can afford. So I really did surprise myself when I booked rooms early at the cheap rate. I blame Jonathan for that when he booked his room for the UKGE, and talked about going to the TTG:Live one.

So with payday injecting much needed funds into the bank account I’ve decided I better secure my tickets as well. So that’s it, apart from getting there and having a good time I’m all paid up.

So I finally have some 3D printed versions of the crate and terminal tokens for Imperial Assault. You saw the test one that was done last week. Naturally so that the test crate stands out the others have been printed in a completely different colour.

However these do look pretty cool, and with the newish app for the game, and these I so want to get the game to the table to play through the campaign side of the game. Although these 3D tokens are going to look super cool when playing the skirmish side also. But basically the take home from all this I just need to get the game back to the table.