Nocturnal Wargaming

Now that I'm with child, my "Me Time" largely occurs after 2000 hours. Thus, my board gaming lately consists of using rulebooks as bedtime reading, sleeving cards, arranging counter trays, and wondering which games I'll auction off next.

Thankfully, some motivated individuals associated with the Board Game Players Association (the same folks who run the annual World Board Gaming Championship) have organized two play-by-e-mail tournments I'm now engaged in. Although the competition in these tournaments appears to be quite fierce, so far its also been quite friendly and seems to be a great way to learn the systems as I go.

The first tournment, now officially kicked off, is for GMT's Great Battles of the American Revolution Series. The first game in the tournment is the Battle of Eutaw Springs (pictured above), a nasty, bloody little scrap that took place late in the war in South Carolina, featuring the Swamp Fox of Disney TV fame (starring Leslie Nielsen). The tournment will proceed through all the games in the series, which up until now have sat unpunched, decorating my bookshelves. Wish me luck!

The other tournment is for GMT's Washington's War. I like to think of this game as Hannibal with a three-cornered hat. This tournment is still forming up, but I suspect due to the newness and popularity of the release it will be a big one.

So... what else is going on? Lots of X-Box 360. I'm on the downward slope of Mass Effect 2, and Red Dead Redemption appears tomorrow. ME2 is incredible. I'm still not a huge fan of the Mass Effect combat system, but the writing, location design, and sound are amazing. I did have to bump up the difficulty to Veteran just to make things a tad more challenging, which isn't saying much, as my poor shooter skills are somewhat legendary within SABG.

I also tried the Halo: Reach beta.... More of the same, IMHO. Star Craft 2? I just like driving the Schwarzenegger-sounding unit around the battlefield.

Oh... and the "new" Good Old Games incarnation of MOO2 is getting a lot of play these days as well.

Okay... that's enough for now.