As a high school teacher, one of the things I've never heard (in 31 years) is a 16 y.o. female student describe a wargame as (and I quote) "The most awesome game ever...."  She was talking about Napoleon (the AH version) that she played at game club "pizza and games" night. (see my last blog....)  

How would one react?  Well, I just so happened to have a new copy of the CG version I'd picked up last summer at a store clearnace in Santa Clara (for $5!). So student "K" is now the proud…

A recent "game club pizza night" I hosted for my high school group found these two slugging it out, playing an old AH copy of Napoleon. By the end of the game there were a dozen other students surrounding the table witnessing the game's conclusion. I'm not saying that the "graying of the hobby" isn't a problem, but perhaps there's a bit of hope.…

I'll be among the dozen or so gamers running Command and Colors games at this year's Pacificon in Santa Clara, CA.  I'll kick it off with the traditional C&C:N game at 4:00 on Friday using 15mm miniatures and Kallistra Terrain, then Saturday at 1:00 it's C&C:A (using scenarios published in France's Vae Victis) and Sunday I'll be helping with the C&C: Great War.  Hope to see you there...

Dave…

Just a quick thought....   As I recall there was a game advertisement from the early to mid 70s (S&T?) calling wargames "paper time machines." "Relive the past," or some such promise lived in this full-page ad.  

A couple of months ago I managed to convince a fellow worker to give wargames another go; he was a lapsed gamer, having picked up the hobby in his youth (late-70s/early 80s).  He left the hobby after college.... work, marriage, kids....  the usual reasons I…

As my wife and I discuss retirement, we have considered returning to her roots in Oregon.

How much gaming activity is there in Eugene? Salem?

Thanks,

Dave

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…