The Magnetic Game Board Conundrum….

If you’re like me, you’ve looked longingly at Marco’s magnetic game boards and wished you could somehow create one of your own. I’ve a busy work schedule and often don’t get much more time in than a few minutes here and there. A magnetic board would be ideal to keep the counters in position and store it away when the space was required for work.Unfortunately, those  lovely “counter Clips” now run  $129 for 50 half-inch…

If you have not had the opportunity to read German historian Norman Ohler's  Blitzed, the least you can do is trek over to the (free) BBC History Magazine Extra Podcast website and give it a listen. It will change your view on the invasion of France.

This late springtime brought another couple of wargame magazines: Battles # 10 and Paper Wars #82.  Both offered an interesting contrast, so I thought I’d just give my two cents on the matter.

First, Battles Magazine…..   What can be said about this chronically late, but always superb publication form Oliver Revenu.  Presentation is professional to the core; graphics invites the reader into each article. (I wasn’t intending to read the article on Pax…

Thanks for all the suggestions given by Consimers (That should be a word, right?).  We had another student game night the other week and I brought with me a pile of games. (I had just sold a house and had to downsize my collection by getting rid of the duplicate games.)

The most sought after and coveted game?  Can anyone guess? (Keeping in mind that these kids are 15/16 y.o. boys....)   Got it it your mind? I'll hit the return a few times; you just scroll down the…

A Year in Review (of sorts…)

Now that the year has passed I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on what worked for me this year, and what didn’t.  First of all, the big hits of the year, neither of which was published in 2015.

Hits and Misses: 

After viewing a couple of videos by Marco and Kev, I decided to give GBoH a go using the Simple GBoH rules. I’ve tried this before, lured by the beautiful components of this series, but this time, using the…

Well, better late than never….  A brief wrap up of 2014 gaming.  I have to say that there were quite a few surprises for me last year. The biggest of which was that I enjoy card-based wargames.  I have always avoided these due to a general dislike for card games as a kid growing up in Yosemite N.P., California. (They were the only games that were portable enough to bring with us to the back-country ranger station my father manned.) It all started with Spearpoint 1943 by CEG; it was…

I had an interesting experience yesterday. About 4:30 pm, my wife came in the house to inform me that ashes were falling on the house; there was a wildfire nearby and headed our way.  It was probably time to pack up, grab the legal docs and wedding album, the laptops and iPads and maybe pack some clothes.  (we had  not received notice to leave, but the fire was only a 1/4 mile away at that point. After a few minutes of running around and packing, she brought in a couple of file boxes; "don't…

I'm thinking about attending GMT West for the first time. My better three-quarters (my wife) has agreed to travel to Hanford on her birthday weekend. Could someone who has participated in this event give me (and others) an overview of what can be expected? (start times, how late the gaming goes, quality of hotel accommodations, what sort of games get played, etc...)

Thanks,

Dave

I think in my very first blog I harped on people labeling games as "beginner's wargames" in spite of the fact they were priced at over $60 and had more than 20 pages of rules.  Now maybe price range and rules' length isn't the best way to determine whether a game is suitable for a novice, but for the teens I teach these features would make a poor selling points. To the rescue comes Steve Jackson's new offering: Ogre.  The same game (although with better quality materials) I bought over 30…

Here's a great club 'zine that's free to everyone: Warning Order.  They've just published their 37th issue and it's available to download at http://www.wfhgs.com/wrngorder.html

Enjoy!

Dave Smith

And now back to the "blog"…..

Part of my new year's resolutions was to spend some time writing on this social site, trying to pry myself away from the usual 60-65 work weeks.

I'd thought I'd start with two strong book recommendations, books about ,the history of this hobby gaming that we pursue.

This first is David Ewalt's excellent Of Dice and Men. Yes, it is the story of D&D , its creation and its creators, but let us remember that back in the 70s those "rpg's" were…

Looking back at 2013 I was wondering how fellow "Consimmers" did with their game purchases and other related aspects of the hobby.

Most surprising game purchase: Spearpoint 1943 (CEW).  Who'd ever thought I'd be so enthusiastic about an abstract card game based on the Allied invasion of Italy?  This is a fabulous game!

Most Embarrassing purchase: Deluxe (Kickstarter) OGRE.  What the hell was I thinking? I mean, I like OGRE, but not this much!

Best…

In Harry Pearson's excellent memoir of his wargaming life (“Achtung Schweinehund!”) he quotes a friend who's an alcoholic commenting about always thinking there’s one guy worse than you until you become “that guy.” And every alcoholic has a guy who fits that role until they realize they have become that guy. Well, this last week I had a “that guy” moment when my 30-pound OGRE deluxe game showed up on the doorstep.  (See the photos section for a size comparison with…