I’m not sure where this post is going.

A quick Nan update. Nan improved a lot yesterday. It was easier getting food and drink into her. She was brighter. More herself. I think she has started to get over the urinary infection. The medicine from the doctor that she started taking yesterday afternoon will make sure of that. So good news.

Now onto game stuff.

Tail end of last week I found out that unsurprisingly there is an expansion for Dune: Imperium coming out called Rise of Ix.

Rise of Ix will give us 3 new houses to play. “Acquire technological innovations from the planet Ix for a lasting strategic advantage.” which will be via some sort of board extension I assume. The expansion will also have a new epic game mode.

Pretty excited about this expansion, despite not having got the core game to the table yet! I’d also like to get the deluxe upgrade kit, but not seen that for sale in the UK. But then again with the expansion coming out you’d think they might offer a deluxe upgrade for that too. Otherwise there will be a mismatch in player components when using the upgraded core game with the expansion.

I’ve mentioned previously (a long time ago) that Lost Ruins of Arnak was getting an expansion. That should be out pretty soon. It was given a GenCon release date. But with the mess shipping is at the moment it’s possible there might be a delay.

The expansion introduces six unique leaders that have their own unique powers and starting decks. So basically introducing an asymmetrical element to the game. It also brings in an alternative research track, new item and artifact cards, plus more guardians, assistants and sites.

Another no brainer. Luckily I have got the core game to the table. Guess what I liked it a lot. As did those I played it with. Within the week Gavin had his own copy!

One game I will be getting once it’s possible to order it is Rolling Realms by Stonemaier Games.

Jamey created Rolling Realms as a free print and play at the start of the pandemic. It stands out from other roll and writes in that it has no maximum player count!

However Jamey listens to his fan base that asked for a commercial release of the game. Which this is. Although this version of the game has a player count maximum of 6. It will play more with more copies of the game. So you are basically increasing the maximum player count by an additional 6 players per extra copy.

But like all things these days Rolling Realms release has been delayed by the world wide shipping issues.

There is also a new Tapestry expansion due to come out before the end of the year. But whether that happens is due to the shipping gods. If delays to games is our only problem in life the we should count ourselves lucky. However I still need to, you guessed it, get Tapestry and the first expansion to the table.

With GenCon next week there are bound to be lots of announcements about new games etc by the companies there and those that are not attending this year (of which there are a few).

First out of the block was this post by R Talsorian Games creators of Cyberpunk Red RPG. Funnily enough this post is about that RPG and their The Witcher RPG.

I’ll let you go read the post for The Witcher stuff. But I’m very interested in the Cyberpunk Red stuff they have coming out, such as the Data Pack (GM tools), Netrunning Deck (deck of cards), and Interface Red (a collection of the free articles). Plus an update on a couple of Cyberpunk Red projects that are currently being worked on.

The interesting thing other than the product info is the information about how not only the already mentioned shipping issues are affecting them. But also how world wide shortages of materials such as paper and cardboard are also having a knock on affect on production and release schedules. Let alone the difficulty of getting a slot in the over busy production companies production runs.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg in the UK. We are experiencing the perfect storm here of the above issues, plus the effects of the pandemic and the fallout of Brexit (self inflicted). Which adds up to it being harder, more expensive and slower getting stuff into the UK.

There will be implications to the consumer in the UK in the form of price rises. Asmodee UK has never been shy of passing these on as quick as possible. Funnily they don’t seem to drop prices.

There will be another post after GenCon about anything that caught my eye. Until then stay safe.

What does board gaming mean to me?

I love it.

For a brief time the stuff going on in life is not wearing me down. It’s a break. A distraction. My social life.

I got a similar benefit from another activity I love backpacking/hiking. Sadly life over the last decade has meant that was not an option. But playing board games is.

Both activities have lead to great friendships, and great memories.

That break I mentioned, it is so important as a full time carer. A couple of hours here, half a day there. It might not seem like much. But it makes all the difference. Believe me.

So deciding not to go to this evenings club gaming session is a big thing for me. I didn’t make the decision lightly.

But considering how my Nan has been the last couple of days, and is today I can’t go.

I’ve tweeted about the emotional toll that Mum and I are paying caring for Nan. Especially over the last few weeks. It’s a price we gladly pay. After all it’s my Nan.

However watching her slowly decline, refuse to eat, not even open her eyes, or speak clearly (she barely mumbles now). It’s hard.

As I write this post we are awaiting a nurse visit. But you know there isn’t much that can be done.

UPDATE 10/9/21 15:30 : the nurse has been and checked Nan and seems happy Nan doesn’t have an infection (after listening to chest and taking temp). She has a urine sample to get tested. So we await the results. Which will be next week sometime I assume.

To paraphrase a popular saying, we are praying for a miracle but expecting the worst.

So if it’s quiet on here for a while, it’s most likely because I’m not up to writing anything. I’ll pop in with the portal posts if that’s the case.

Be safe folks.

UPDATE 10/9/21: part 2. It’s been a tough day emotionally. Not just with what’s going on with Nan but today is also the anniversary of my dad’s death. Which ironically is a hash tag day for World Suicide Prevention Day. So socially media today has helped make the day extra painful. 33 years since dad took his life and it doesn’t get easier.

UPDATE 11/9/21: we didn’t have to wait for the results of the pee test. Within an hour the nurse had called back and said Nan has a urinary infection. I would also be able to pick up from the pharmacy a prescription for liquid antibiotics. Sadly when I went to pick the prescription up they had none in stock. So I have to go back later today to pick it up. It won’t be easy getting Nan to take this but much easier than a pill.

I had intended to do some work on this massive post I’ve been working on, and/or look at bit more at horror within D&D. But life has thrown more obstacles in the way. Or excuses for doing neither, depending on your point of view.

Yesterday we said good bye to a much loved furry member of the family Toby.

He had lost weight, and recently been less than solid in the number 2 department. But at the weekend Toby started struggling to get up without help, and had little energy to go out to answer the call of nature.

It was time to make that heartbreaking decision. It’s one of the hardest decisions a person who has dogs has to make. But as strange as it may seem it’s the loving decision to make, repaying all that love and devotion that they give.

Toby was a gentle, mischievous soul. Who will be greatly missed.

With Mum’s birthday finally passed, and my prep and planning for it (mainly baking) over, I have time to at least write an update post to prove I’m alive.

My activities the last few days have been none board gaming related. Although with recent real world events thoughts are finally starting to consider the possibility of gaming in meat space again at some point in the future.

I had some light reading arrive. Some of it for a future project (Super Mario Bros 3), another for a current project (Baldur’s Gate 2) and the final one just for pleasure. Although lack of motivation and being able to stay focused are big obstacles to getting through my reading backlog.

One or two new Pop Vinyl Star Wars related figures “mysteriously” arrived.

I got a waffle maker. I’d been dithering about getting one for a while, and finally caved once I decided on a surprise dessert for Mum’s birthday involving waffles. Which means I’ve started to test various waffle recipes to find one I like. The sacrifices I make for my Mum!

I’m making slow progress on a project for this blog that once complete will give you the difficult decision of reading a long pretentious blog post (the first of many possibly) or going off and doing something less boring instead. Like the lack of progress on bringing Aliens to Last Days apathy keeps putting up major road blocks. Which is saving you from having to make that hard choice, for the time being anyway.

Right I’m off to try and get motivated.

Well it’s been over due but I final got round to trying the Carolina Reaper flavoured biltong or jerky as it’s also known.

Feel free to skip this post and video, it’s not terribly exciting. Not that any of my videos are exciting. But hey ho for your viewing pleasure…

Ok bit of a sensationalist blog title. And this blog post and it’s embedded video has absolutely nothing to do with board gaming!

But it is me trying some chilli noodles that were given to me by my brother.

Apparently these noodles are too hot for his wife so he wanted me to try them.

Forgot to say in the video I really liked the noodle itself.

Plus I think my brother is a little disappointed I didn’t find them too hot.

This morning I had a delivery that I had no clue was coming.

Why?

I never ordered it!

Some-one sent me the rather cool tee pictured below.

So just like the 16 odd one-shot adventures in the just released D&D book Candlekeep Mysteries, I have a mystery to solve.

I have no idea who the very kind and generous sender is. There was no invoice/receipt inside. Which would be possible if they ticked a box to say it’s a gift. The return address is to an industrial estate in Peterborough.

There are a couple of suspects but until life events allow it, a more aggressive investigation approach can not take place. Unless extraction teams are hired and rendition to another state with dubious questioning techniques is used. But that might by some seem to be on the extreme side of things.

But seriously whoever sent the tee I’m deeply grateful for their generosity and kindness. It made my day.

Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH) has usurped Minecraft as my chill out game. I usually log in once a day around 8am, pick fruit, dig up fossils, then sell them to raise funds to fuel my Mario merch purchases (which Nook limits to 5 purchases a day) and buy stuff from the local store.

The goods that the store sells changes on a daily basis. This morning I was able to buy a boardgame!

The game doesn’t appear to be any game particular. Just general game components thrown together to look like a game.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could interact with the game in a limited way. That interaction was limited to throwing a die. But still I could imagine I was playing god knows what!

Here is a short video of my mii throwing the die in the boardgame. Yes my life would appear to be that sad that I get excited about this sort of thing, and even worse I put a video of it up on YouTube and share it!

Hopefully I’ll get a new life soon before the next post.

There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel in all of this darkness that has been plaguing the world for a year now.

Which means it’s time to remind myself that I have a list of games that I want to play once things become safe again to do so.

I have to admit it’s been frustrating not being able to play these games with my friends. Plus there has been more than a touch of envy seeing photos of people playing games with family/partners on various boardgame Facebook pages I belong to. The drawback of being single.

Below are collages of the games that make up my list of games to play once in person gaming is a thing again.

This list is just games that I have new expansions for, or are new to my collection.

Which means this list doesn’t even cover games that I’d like to get to the table again because I haven’t played them in a while like Scythe or Battlestar Galactica.

The list also doesn’t include RPGs either. Maybe I’ll do a separate list for those.

I think all these sort of lists prove is that even though not able to play games, this doesn’t stop people adding to their collection. And that when able to get together again we will all need a months holiday to get through the backlog.

What games/expansions are on your list?