My name is Mosse Stenström. I'm 31 years old, and live in a small house in the middle of the woods in the small village of Siuntio in southern Finland. I work as a foreman for a local security company, and also handle their marketing, graphic design and webdesign.
My hobbies include my two cats Mirre and Saga, webdesign and boardgames, mostly conflict simulations. 
Although the graphical theme of this blog is very wargamish it includes these other aspects of my life as well.
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I Didn't Die Nor Win
Sunday 5th of October 2008 00:27 (2 days ago)
Tags: solo, field commander, rommel, dan verssen
I have a hard time finding enough opponents for wargames, and although most wargames can be played solo more or less effectively - I've been eager to try out a proper solo-game for quite a while. About a year ago I bought the classic Raid on St. Nazaire on an online auction. It seemed very promising, and I took out the rulebook to study. That was the last I saw of them. I can not find them anywhere. And they're not online either. Having read enough good things about Field Commander: Rommel by Dan Verssen Games I decided to place an order and give it a try. My very first totally solo-game!
The first of the three included scenarios portray the campaigns of the Ghost Division in France, 1940. You start with a mere four regiments in Liege and you have eight turns to take three objective cities - Cambrai, Arras and Cherbourg from those pesky Allies if you want to be successful.
I started by sending the 25th Pz and 78th Art forward to handle the French 4th Reg and 5th DIM stationed in Dinant. As perhaps expected the German motorized regiments cleaned house. I thought about immediately moving up the infantry to back up - but opted to leave them be for two reasons. Mainly I would get four extra Resupply points if I didn't move them, secondly they would overstack Dinant and instead cost me two supplies.
I knew I couldn't sit idly by and just let my army build up. The allies get more reinforcements quickly so I knew I had to kill every single turn, and move forward at any cost. Cherbourg is a long way ahead. So I got the SS Totenkopf-regiment as reinforcements and sent them along with the 25th Pz and the 7th Schutzen to attack the Belgian/British defended Cambrai
I really love the battle system. The Battle Plans (BP) really make a difference - I wish they will be implemented in a "normal" 2-player wargame as well. BP:s are extra elements added to each battle - from supporting artillery and air strikes to overruns and intel. The allied BP:s are drawn at random, and then you can buy BP:s after that - the amount depending on the troops you have participating and any Supply you wish to commit. For the battle at Cambrai the Allies drew Press (adding a round to the battle), Dig In (absorbs the first hit), AT Guns (providing possible hits) and Disrupt (possibly removing Supply from the opponent). As I was attacking three enemy units I wanted to eliminate them and not just hurt them and give them the chance to refit.
So I bought Overrun (adding 1 to the attack and defense-values) to better my chances of hitting, AT Guns to add an extra shot per round and Press to add a third round of battle. My choices paid off. On the third and final round of the battle my troops, now reduced to 25th Pz and Totenkopf, both wounded got in the final hit and Cambrai was taken!
With allied troops arriving every turn in Calais the next objective, Arras was getting reinforced fast. At the same time I was still getting my reinforcements in Liege, too far away. I needed to get an entry area closer to the action. Lille or Paris. The first would be easier to get, as it was unoccupied, and also closer to Arras. Paris was defended and fortified. What do I do? I went for Paris. Why? Because it's closer to Cherbourg. Also, if I managed to take Paris I could then move onto Rouen, and from there draw the reinforcements from Calais, so that I could more easily take Arras.
I sent the now Veteran 25th Pz and Totenkopf regiments to take Paris. Cambrai would then be reinforced from Liege by the 31st Pz and 6th Schutzen. They did well - "liberated" Paris and made it to Elite status. I was getting worried about the Allied Operations, which was adding troops like crazy. When their grand operation would finally get the Go, they could do some serious damage.
I carried on to Rouen to draw the allied reinforcements from Calais. I also spotted some opportunities to attack and destroy some unsupported lonesome allied regiments in Amiens. Because of my successes on the battlefield - I would get a lot of resupply points! With these I could then get more reinforcements. But no! I had made a huge blunder! I had left all my reinforcement areas empty! Therefore I had to use all my precious points to get more supply! Not bad per se - but I desperately needed troops!
Hastily I sent some troops the next turn back to Paris - but I was running out of time, and the Allied Operation was at most one turn away from the GO-signal, and then a vast amount of Allied regiments would come pouring in. My trusty 25th Pz would march on Le Havre to act as a plug for troops entering from Caen.
The Allied Operation was launched as late as possible - meaning they had their maximum of forces and would immediately advance on me. All but one troop of them arrived in Caen, and they immediately attacked Le Havre. A single infantry regiment landed on Paris and was quickly eliminated. As I entered the final turn of the game, I held only Cambrai of the objective areas. I could reach Arras, but Cherbourg was at least a good two turns away, with the vast forces from the Allied Operation blocking the path in Rouen.
I attacked Arras with all the troops I could muster. The allied drew three Battle Plans, one of which was Deploy, getting a random extra regiment. I could not fight more than was present, and chose Intel (discard a random enemy BP) hoping for the one-in-three chance of getting rid of that extra troop. Success! Not only good intel, the troops performed magnificently and I took Arras on the last turn. Even though I would lose the game - I ended on a high note.
Although it was but a formality at this point, I decided to go through with the Allied turn, and the remains of the Allied Operation advanced in on Paris. This time I was outnumbered. But I had 12 supplies remaining, and this would be the final action of the game - so I spent it all on Battle Plans. With this massive support I was able to win the battle if only by a hair. One single reduced regiment was all I had left standing of the Elite 15th Pz, 6th and 7th Schutzen defending Paris. The allies only had four regiments left on the entire map - but I was out of time.
Even though this is a "small" game - only 15 areas in the Ghost Division-map, I can already think of at least three significantly different strategies to try out the next time I play this. Most importantly - it doesn't feel like I lost the game because of bad rolls - as a matter of fact - I think overall I rolled pretty well. I lost because of some nasty mistakes. I didn't go for reinforcement entry areas early enough - at one point I even failed to hold a single entry area. I think I'm going to have to be a bit more in a hurry as well - sending a force towards Cherbourg very early, while leaving Cambrai and Arras to the troops in the rear. In this scenario you're in a constant lack of both troops and time.
I can't wait to have another go at this scenario, as well as the two other - North Africa and D-Day. Now I can get my game-face on anytime I want to!
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Boardgame Marathon: Day 3
Monday 29th of September 2008 00:51 (8 days ago)
Tags: samurai, ticket to ride, cardgame, gaming group, marathon 2008
The third day of the Aftersweat Boardgaming Marathon 2008 started, and two days of intense gaming started to show. We all overslept, and when everybody was finally up and the coffee was brewing we still had severe motivational problems. After staring at the gaming shelf for what seemed to be an eternity we picked up the classical Samurai. It funny how a game can be perceived so differently between gamers. Kid brother Jens thinks of this as a brainburner, while I think of it as a laid back, social, coffee-in-hand game.
While Linda, Jan and Jens all battled for the figurines in the capital Edo I was left alone and started securing positions on the northern island of Hokkaido. I was given so much breathing space that when Edo finally was decided and the others started spreading out I held a strong grip on the northern half of the map - Hokkaido and northern Honshu. Naturally I didn't get all of the figures, the other used their switching tiles to mess up my placements a bit - but I won enough influence to make my early positioning worthwile.
On the other hand I had next to no presence elsewhere, and this hurt me. When the curtain fell it was - as is usual in Samurai - a close call. There were ties in influence over both Buddhas and High Hats, and I won the game by winning the Rice Paddies. Samurai is one of those games that got it just right. There's enough theme to make it interesting, enough mechanics to make it stand out, enough luck to make it fun and enough skill to make it rewarding. The scalability is also spot on, as it works equally great on 2, 3 and 4 players alike. And, let's face it, it's drop dead gorgeous.
Before it was time to take Jan to the train we had time to play the trains. Ticket to Ride: the Cardgame hit the table. I've played most of the iterations of the Ticket to Ride-series, and every new version has just confirmed my initial thoughts, that the original game is the best of the bunch. The further rules the other games add don't actually add anything to the game, in my opinion, other than the rules. I thought the tunnels and more specifically the stations of the Europe-game just detract from the game, as do the passengers of the Märklin-version. I also knew from what I've heard/read that the cardgame has some similarities to the memory-cardgame Mamma Mia!, which didn't add to my anticipation, as my memory is renowned throughout the land for it's awesome suckyness.
But this one did surprise me in a good way. It has a little, mechanically, in common with its forefather but manages to capture the feeling of the original Ticket to Ride completely. Yes, it's a bit heavy on the memory, as I lost track of what cards I had in my On-the-track-stack after it contained more than two cards, and although it did end up to bite me in the behind in the end - it didn't spoil the fun. The slight screw-factor is just right. This game could so easily have become a multiplayer solitaire, but the blocking system is spot on. Just enough to make it an interactive game but light enough to keep it family-safe. In the end, I had completely misjudged what I had in my On-the-track-stack and failed on four tickets. My negative score pulled the victory right from under me, with the final score showing Jens [115] Linda [98] Jan [89] Mosse [88].
Having this marathon was certainly a whole lot of fun. I got to play five new games, one new expansion and got to spend three days with like-minded people doing what we all enjoy. Afterwards I was completely locked in my body - with an aching back and neck, but being the oldest fart in the group I think I'm allowed certain ailments. Next time we schedule a boardgaming marathon I think we need to try to plan something completely different right smack in the middle of the gaming. Preferrably moving around a bit - playing Kubb, Petanque or even Badminton. I think everybody would benefit from it. Well, live and learn. We all survived the boardgaming marathon and hopefully we'll have another one at some point.
My sincere thanks to all who participated.
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Boardgame Marathon: Day 2
Sunday 28th of September 2008 01:23 (9 days ago)
Tags: decathlon, catego, mr. jack, polarity, carcassonne, mayflower, huojuva merirosvolaiva, loopin louie, arkham horror, trump tricks game, alhambra, fightball, domino, gaming group, marathon 2008
Day Two of the Boardgaming Marathon of our gaming group Aftersweat. After a long night I woke up early and gave the medicines to the cat. Jan was the next to rise from the semi-dead and we started gaming almost immediately.
Mr. Jack hit the table, and Jan got to play the ellusive Mr. Jack. As the detective I narrowed down my list of suspects to John Smith and John H Watson in the first four turns, but then I got stuck. However I tried they both managed to stay in plain sight all the time. Although it was good to have them visible, as whoever really is Jack the Ripper can't escape whilst in the light, I needed to get one of them to the dark to find out which of them was the culprit - all while at the same time keeping them out of reach from the exit alleys. Time was running out - and as I finally learned that the lightswitcher John Smith was Jack the Ripper before the last turn I wasn't able to get to him in time. Jan managed to keep Mr. Jack hidden for the duration of the game.
Next up I decided to introduce Jan to the wonderful world of magnets with Polarity - a game not like any other. Polarity is quite difficult to explain how it works, but once you get one game under your belt it becomes second nature. How to play it, that is - not how to play it well. In short, the playing field is a cloth ring and the players use magnetic discs (very much like the pieces in Othello, except the magnets are much stronger) that are placed on the field. To make a legal placement you have to "lean" the disc, your colour up, against the magnetic field exerted by previously placed flat laying "base" discs. If you mess up the placement, magnets will most likely snap together into stacks of discs which provide points to the opponent.
I told Jan it was also possible, but very difficult to make "Gordons", which are discs leaning on the magnetic fields of other leaning discs, who are in turn leaning off the magnetic field of a base stone. And wouldn't you know Jan managed to produce a Gordon immediately... The audacity... Anyway - we started the game and my experience of a handful of sessions gave me the upper hand. Jans leaners fell to base stones, which then because of their mere proximity to each other finally all snapped together late in the game, giving me two stacks for the victory. Mosse [16] Jan [0].
Jens finally woke up, and had a quick game against Jan. This time, Jan came with a vengeance. Halfway through the game he actually produced a Gordon in a game situation (in the picture above)... A few turns later Jens had two base stones about an inch from each other, with a leaner each on opposite sides. Jan semi-accidentally dropped his action disc (the disc he was trying to place) and it snapped sideways into both of Jens' base discs, producing a "double kiss". (Did I already say Polarity was hard to explain?) This meant Jens had to "convert" the touching discs by picking them up into a stack and placing them. But picking up these base discs meant the leaners fell down, producing a forced failure. Jens was outclassed. Jan [6] Jens [-3]. I stand by the impression I've had of Polarity since the first time I set it up. It's a brilliant game not like any other...
As Linda had woke up as well we made our breakfast coffee/tea and had a partnership game of Reiner Knizia's Catego. Linda and I teamed up against Jan and Jens. And the dice was not on our side. Jens threw three double-sixes in his first four throws. How do you compete against that?! I'm just asking... Jan & Jens [62] Linda & Mosse [6]. Continuing with dice we had a four player Reiner Knizia's Decathlon as well. It's a really brilliant little dice-game, and I recommend it to anybody who likes Yahtzee. Linda [21] Mosse [19] Jan [18] Jens [15].
We decided to carry on for a third day, so that meant getting to the store for food. Men (or women) can't live on gaming alone, appartently... As Linda and Jens live close to the stores we went to their place to eat, and got some gaming. While Jens and I (a.k.a. "the Bad Dancing Chefs") made dinner Linda opened their newly arrived copy of Carcassonne: Mayflower, which we then tried out after the delicious meal of oven baked sausages and garlic potatoes. The new thing about Mayflower are the explorers, who move forward every time something is scored, and all meeples left behind the explorers are discarded. I understand the point of these. It keeps the players from attempting ridiculously large towns which, if completed, probably decide the whole game. It also forces the players to concentrate on the same area and not just build in their own little corner of the world. These are all good aspects, but at least with four players, it seemed to do it a bit too well. The towns ended up a bit too small to be fun, and the roads ended up too short. And as you rely solely on what tiles you draw to complete features, the fact that you're now pressed for time as well means the luck-factor was elevated further. A novel idea that (in my opinion) needed a bit more tweaking. The final results will remain forgotten but the standings were Jan - Mosse - Jens - Linda.
Before we left to get back to my place we played a few silly games. First, Huojuva Merirosvolaiva ("Wobbly Pirate Ship") where players have to place pirate figures and plastic barrels on a plastic ship, which is standing vary unstable on a spring - hopefully without the ship tipping over and dropping pirates off the sails. I was the first to place my last figure on the ship, FTW. I've played this game a handful of times now, and I don't think I've ever lost. I might go Pro. Next up was a handful of games of Loopin' Louie. Who won? Who cares?
Well back at my place we immediately settled down to play a game I had picked out at Jens' place. Arkham Horror. I've played it once before, as 2-player with Jens. This is clearly not a 2-player game, at least not with just two investigators. I also knew Jan was a big Cthulu fan and would appreciate the game. Arkham Horror is a co-operative game, where the players are attempting to close enough gates to the underworld (or whatever they are called in the Cthulu mythos) before the great ancient super-bad monster awakens. They cannot, naturally, merely run around closing portals, but have to confront and fight a lot of monsters in between.
Arkham Horror has the potential to be a fantastic game, but because of the nature of the game, it's very random. This time it was a very boring session for me, although the other players saw much more action. I just happened to be at the wrong places at the wrong times. As the other players were killing monsters by the dozens, my entire game consisted basically of closing two gates, which isn't as exciting as it sounds. You move forward, draw a card, and roll a specific amount of dice to see if you pass the test on the card. It's a matter of the game playing you, not you playing the game. I killed one monster during the entire three-hour game, and that was on the last turn, just to kill it - it didn't need to be killed. And it wasn't as if I actively had been avoiding the monsters either. I like the idea of the game, so I'd gladly play it again and hope for a better experience. I wouldn't play it on two, but not with more than four either, as the downtime could be a bit tough in that case. How did it go? We made it. We kicked ass. Bad-ass supermonster Yig never awakened, as we closed the sixth and final portal in Arkham.
After a meaty game it was appropriate with a short filler cardgame - Trump, Tricks, Game. It seemed like one in the massive amount of "smart" trick-taking games with a close to traditional deck of cards. Four suits with cards numbered 1-12. The mid-range (5-9) of the cards have one to three footprints for points. The basic game plays like most trick taking games - high card takes the trick, you must follow suit or play another card. The game is set in four rounds, with each color being pre-determined as trump for the round. Now it gets freaky, though. During the first three rounds you can only take a total of three tricks. If you win a fourth trick, that trick instead goes to whomever was second in the trick. So everbody gets three tricks. Scores are then tallied as the amount of footprints multiplied by the number of different suits you've accumulated. You then use the same cards you took as tricks as your hand for the next round.
The last round is different. You can take as many tricks as you want and you get scores based on all cards, not just the footprints. Four points per bear-card, three for boar, two for deer and one point per wolf. This is a bit dumb, as (especially since we were playing quite late, and had drank a few beers) it can be a hassle to keep in mind which cards were worth what during play. I found this game to be very smart, but lacking in the fun-department. Maybe it was trying a bit too hard and ended up a bit too clever for it's own good? I like the point of being allowed only three tricks, and using those same taken cards as your hand for the next round as well, but the scoring was a bit counter-intuitive, I thought. Since only the mid-range cards provide scores maybe it would have worked better as a partnership game? Also having to memorize which suit was worth what for the last round wasn't to my liking. I would have preferred sticking to the footprints for scoring, only allowing players to accumulate more tricks... Jan [166] Mosse [134] Jens [104] Linda [67]
After a quick game of Alhambra, where Jan proved to be the master builder with his massive outer wall bonus, winning the game Jan [135] Jens [94] Linda [72] Mosse [65], Jens wanted to show Jan FightBall. This is a weird game. It's a speed cardgame, where players play cards as fast as they can. I should hate these games, and I do, but this one is different. Jens also hates these games, but not this one. Jan said he hated such games, yet he seemed to enjoy this one. It's... weird. Quick fly-by of the rules: Each player has a deck portraying a team of a futuristic ballgame called Fightball. There are cards for players, balls, shots and special cards. Each deck/team is unique and has certain characteristics. I have the Texas Wildcats/Cruisers deck. The arena is divided into zones onto which the players play cards as fast as they can. In order to complete a goal a team must play, in order, onto a zone a player followed by a ball and a shot. Some players, balls and shots are better in certain zones and the opposing team can play their own players in the middle of an ongoing play (player-ball-shot) as a defender to hinder the other team from scoring.
When the game starts the players go through their decks one card at a time, either playing the card directly to the field or discarding it. You can also at any time play the top-most card in your discard pile. The bottom card in the deck is the "BUZZ"-card, and when it appears the player yells out "BUZZ!", and the round is over. You then go through the zones one by one counting up what's in it. If there's a successful play (player-ball-shot) points are counted. If the play is worth a total of 10 or more, a goal is scored, worth either two or three points depending on the zone. Illegal plays, such as playing a shot without a ball, or not staring with a player, or playing anything after a successful and finished play awards the opponent between one and three points, depending on the foul. Ordinarily matches last four rounds/periods. Because of the late hour, we only played two rounds/match. I was feeling a bit too tired for this stressful game, but the others played two matches each, with the results as follows: Linda [20] Jens [19], Jens [26] Jan [13] and Jan [23] Linda [12].
I caught two of the matches on my Samsung SGH-i600-smartphone, but it's not designed for video, so the quality isn't perfect. I'm not too sure I uploaded them correctly either, I used Free Video-to-Flash converter from DVDvideosoft.But you'll get a basic idea of how the game works, if I manage to get them uploaded here. Keep in mind we were getting both tired and drunk, so the quality of tabletalk is not to be taken seriously.
Before ending the night at three o'clock we managed to squeeze in a quick three-player game of Dominoes. We play a variant of All Fives, except we always start with the highest double, and you only draw one if you can't place, and then the turn passes on. I had a decisive victory with final results being Mosse [300] Jan [185] Jens [150]. 20 minutes in to our next game we decided we were too tired and too drunk to carry on. What were we playing? A word game where we where supposed to come up with words starting with "in". Told you we were drunk. It was time for bed.
Final thoughts and third day notes coming up shortly...
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Boardgame Marathon: Day 1
Friday 26th of September 2008 23:08 (10 days ago)
Tags: null & nichtig, transeuropa, warcraft, runebound, cult of the rune, shear panic, decathlon, catego, gaming group, marathon 2008
Four days of joint days off work for me and fellow gamer/brother Jens in a row?! And his GF Linda as well?! And newly found friend and gamer Jan too?! Holy Fantastic Opportunity for a Boardgaming Marathon, Batman! My cat Mirre's health issues pushed the awaited event a day, but we still managed to get three glorious days of gaming, while I was keeping an eye on the cat.
We started with the simple cardgame Null & Nichtig. I generally dislike most of these kinds of cardgames, as most of them are simply a traditional card-deck with just enough unique elements to justify selling it as a separate game. My expectations with this was on that level. Especially concidering it's a deck of five suits (colors) with cards from 0 - 11 in each suit. Technically this game could easily be played with a traditional deck of cards, but this one actually feels solid! It's a trick-taking game, except you don't have to follow suit, and the highest card wins the trick regardless of suit. The twist is that you collect the cards of the tricks you win in order, in separate stacks for the different suits, and at the end of the hand you score only the top-most card in each stack! So if you claim a trick early with a high card, the next player can play a low card of the same color, which will then cover your high card in your scoring stack. Not only is this brilliant, it's elegant! Four rounds later and the score was Mosse [103] Jan [99] Linda [72] Jens [66]
With a few cups of coffee and a mug of tea on the table we wanted a simple game and went for TransEuropa next. An extremely simple game where you're trying to connect five randomly drawn cities across Europe with railroad tracks. Each player has different cities but the tracks are all common to all players. So it becomes a guessing game as to which cities the others are trying to reach. The fact that the five randomly cities are categorized into five different areas means you can't draw five destinations really close to each other, which is good, but it also means - especially with four players, that you will very quickly become one giant network raising the luck-factor again. Which isn't bad if all you want is a simle, easy-going and non-competitive game. I'm either going to get the Vexation-expansion, or color some of the generic track-bits in different colors to get the same effect. If one could have selected tracks solely in your use, it could change the game quite a lot. Linda [5] Jan [1] Jens [0] Mosse [0]
Time for the first of the bigger games, WarCraft: the Boardgame. The only four-player scenario in the rulebook was a 3-on-1 battle, so we opted to reset the table and go with the default all-on-all brawl (we decided against the 2-on-2 teamwork part). My night-elves against Jens' undead, Linda's humans and Jan's orcs. The orcish workers quickly depleted their goldmines and forests in the immediate vicinity of their home base, and were on the march - as is common when it comes to beings of the orcish kind. As he made it to the middle of the lands, the rest of us decided it was in our interest to stop them. I was the first to attack but was handed my elvish bottom to me on a silver plate. Jan had some very handy cards to play and ate my troops.
Problem is, the more you win, the more cards you get. So Jan got more cards, so that he could then subsequently beat some undead and human behind as well. Ironically, even though we had opted not to play a 3-on-1 game it seemed it would be it anyway. As Jan managed to construct an outpost in the center we quickly decided to continue the anti-orc joint campaigns and concentrated our troops to attack Jan. At one point it seemed we were successful. But the wars had consumed our forces as well, and we weren't able to rebuild our armies fast enough to stop the second coming of the orcs. Jan collected his 10th victory point and won the game.
I enjoy WarCraft. It's a fast slugfest and actually reflects the computer-game really well. Why they opted to produce the game with the abstract-ish wooden meeples instead of proper plastic figures - especially concidering it's Fantasy Flight Games is beyond me. It would (personal opinion) add a great lot to the experience. The other thing I simply don't understand is why there's absolutely no descriptions on the cards, merely completely non-descriptive illustrations. This could have been solved in one of two ways. Text on the cards - the easiest and best ways or player aid-sheets for each player. As it is now, the only place with the card description is the back of the rulebook, which means it has to be passed around the table all the time.
Sticking to the theme, we moved on to Runebound, which is Jens' and Linda's obsession. I've played the base game (2nd ed.) with them once before, and I wasn't too impressed. This time we played the expansion Cult of the Rune. Let me get it clear, I don't think it's a bad game, I'm just not too impressed. Mostly the quests bother me. There are hardly any. It's just about running around arbitrarly killing random monsters, building up enough of a wallet to buy better weapons to be able to kill better monsters. Personally I prefer quests - i.e. delivering stuff from point A to point B, or killing specific monsters at specific locations etc. With this expansion, my expectations were high again. An occult group moving around converting cities and monsters? Sounds good...
It wasn't. Sure, the monsters weren't completely arbitrary anymore - you had to follow the cult and kill the converted monsters, but it was still just killing monsters. But the main problem was the time-factor. If I remember correctly we were supposed to play to either 26 victory points or 18 discarded events or encounters. After three hours of non-stop play we were at about two or three VP:s and two discarded event. I concider myself a semi-wargamer, and I have a history of role-playing games, so long games don't scare me at all. But this was getting ridiculous! We decided to play to 10 points or 10 discards, whichever came first. An hour later and Jens managed to kill enough cultists to get to his 10th point. Game over, thank god. Even Linda and Jens the Runebound-fans seemed slightly relieved it was finally over.
I enjoy these kinds of games, but with the content Runebound provides, I think 2-3 hours is what it should last at most. And now we stopped playing a third through the game, and towards the end of the game we pretty much let Jens have all the cultists so we could end the game. I don't even dare think how long it would have lasted if we had stuck to it. I'm not a big fan of the movement dice either, actually. It's a novel and nice idea, but I don't think it really brings anything to the game. It's a needless puzzle game trying to figure out where you can get with the dice you roll. I would, personally, prefer normal movement-points, but I understand trying to do something different. What this game does is ignites the spark to get back into role-playing games after about 15 years, but I know I don't have the time for the commitment. Besides, I don't really like games where somebody has to GM either.
As it was getting late, Linda decided to sit out, and organized the Runebound-components with the help (?) of my cat, while we, the boys carried on bravely, with Shear Panic. Shear Panic is a clever game were you're manipulating the flock of sheep to first get your two sheep as close together as possible, then trying to get them as far in front as possible, then as close to the black sheep as possible and finally as far back as possible. These funky rules combined with the absolutely fantastic components make for a unique experience. I can't really place my finger on why it doesn't, though. Maybe it's because it's all over the place? The goofy components pull it towards fun party-game, the goals of the game make it a chaotic riot, and the movement possibities have a lot in common with abstract strategy games. Again, it's not bad in any way - just not as good as I want it to be. Jens [30] Jan [23] Mosse [21]
Linda went to sleep and there was not enough blood in our alcohol circulation, so we moved on to simple dice games. We played both Reiner Knizia's Decathlon and Reiner Knizia's Catego. Both have Yahtzee beat in my opinion. I like every event in decathlon except the 110 meter hurdles, which just seems pointless. The others are really fun. I won the decathlon Mosse [20] Jens [20] Jan [19] as closely as possible, with one victory more than Jens, and after my crushing victory in Catego Mosse [40] Jan [27] Jens [5] Jens demanded a rematch, which he won Jens [33] Jan [26] Mosse [0].
End of day 1. Stories of the second day to follow soon...
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The Cat is Back
Wednesday 24th of September 2008 13:46 (12 days ago)
Tags: cats, mirre, operation
OK, so an update on day two after the operation. Having wobbled around for a while, sleeping a while every five minutes, Mirre finally decided enough is enough with the being knocked out, got up from under the sofa - walked straight to the kitchen and food bowl for a snack, then straight to the litter box after which he parked his behind by the main door waiting to be let out.
"No outdoors for the first two days", the vet had said, and Mirre wasn't too pleased with that decision.
Day Operation + 1 started out well, I got Mirre to take his medications without hassle and even the procedure went better than I had expected.
Gross-out Factor Warning! Don't read this if you and blood don't mix!
The cavity where Mirre's eye once was couldn't be left completely empty, so the vet has some form of bandage/tissue in it, with the edge sticking out through the eyelid under the stitches. Every day I'm supposed to pull out about an inch and a half and cut it off, so that the cavity can gradually fill up with new tissue. Ordinarily I am very bad with things like this, I hate the mere sight of blood and thought I couldn't do this. But here, I simply don't have a choice. It's a question of something that just has to be done. So I do it. However much I hate it. I've now donwe it twice, and although I still hate it, I do it.
End of the gross-warning.
So Day Ops + 2 was here, and I had to fulfill my promise to Mirre. After the procedure and the meds I let him out. And he walked out like nothing had happened to him, sniffed the fresh air and walked to the pool for a drink. After sniffing the grass and the bushes he was pleased and came back in.
Seeing that he now cleans himself again, eats with appetite and goes for walks, I'm now more convinced that the choice I made about going ahead with the operation was the correct one. Mirre seems to love life, and I love seeing him do so.
A week and a half until the stitches come out.
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