Steam...stop!

Please Steam... stop offering amazing discounts on games. I can't resist. I am weak. I have already downloaded WH40k Dawn of War II and the expansion for $20. Now Torchlight is at $5. I must get that. Oh, and Mass Effect 2? $24. Might pick it up too....

Must finish these before Star Craft II arrives

Last-ish call

I usually do the results for the SABG Top 50 on (or around) the 4th of July, which is on the horizon. So if you haven't voted yet and want to vote, try to get those in soon.

WoW

Those South Koreans sure seem to dig Starcraft. I need to get around to finishing SC1 Brood War one of these days...

The last time I gamed at Dennis' house...

went something like this.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqSroFmRMME

Washington: American Martyr

So... after suffering two terrible defeats at the hands of the Master Deceiver (making my lifetime record for the game 0-3), I managed to salvage a very ugly victory today in GMT's Washington's War.

American superhero George Washington (under my command) led a bold early war assault against Cornwallis in Delaware, triumphantly watching the tattered British army retreat Dunkirk style out to sea. Then... General Washington turned around. At his back was Clinton (I think... or perhaps it was Howe) marching down the one-way street onto the Delaware peninsula. Unfortunately, the American Navy apparently hadn't yet been invented, and the French were still frolicking in Paris with Benjamin Franklin. So... no American Dunkirk. Washington rolled the dice, lost, and was summarily executed with the rest of his surviving troops. The horror!

This was all on turn 2 of 12, so we decided to play on. Jon was one pesky American army overrun away from auto-victory, so I thought we'd be having an early lunch. Pretty much the entire British Army, almost completely intact, roamed and pillaged the countryside. Congress was disbanded and dispersed nearly every turn. Somehow, though I managed to get enough military and political control on the board to stay alive.

Time marched on and the people continued to turn to the light side of the Force. Jon had stormtroopers in every colony, but he couldn't quite snuff me out. In the end, I think the final tally was three British "colonies" (counting Canada) to my 8 or 9 (we may have had a neutral or two). USA! USA!

Wow, what a tough and closely fought game. Washington's War is a deep and fascinating game, with mechanics elegantly depicting the asymmetry of military power vs. guerrilla agility and grassroots support. This one is a keeper.


So... next on the agenda (besides anything else that I'm able to squeeze in) is to finally get Paths of Glory to the table! The Master of Deception and I are committed to making this happen.

Other news:

-- 100 Rogues on the I-whatever is tons of fun. A great brain diversion during long meetings where you're able to sit at the back of the room.

-- Speaking of Rogue-likes, I just downloaded the latest builds of Stone Soup, Angband, AliensRL (i.e., set in the Aliens movie universe); and DoomRL (yep, set in the Doom universe). I have a few trips coming up, so this should keep me busy on the work laptop.

-- Probably late to the game, but I just read Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Good, old-fashioned military Sci-Fi.

-- Next up in my board game shopping cart: Rommel in the Desert (finally), Talisman: Highland expansion; Memoir '44 Breakthrough expansion; and something else that I haven't yet decided upon that will get me $100+ in the cart. Recommendations?

-- I'm still alive in the Great Battles of the American Revolution World Board Gaming Championship PBEM tourney. I'm slightly up on my opponent, but one bad roll could send me to the locker room.

Alright.... fading back into the woodwork....

SAVG News....

Any following this year's E3? I've been following it on Gamespot.com (where you can even "subscribe" to follow particular games a la RSS reader), and G4TV.com (the iphone app works really well btw). Great stuff.

Games that have picqued my interest:

1. Star Wars: The old Republic. As I said before, this is the game that will get me back into MMO's. The new trailer looks particularly awesome (even if it isn't actual gameplay footage). The other video updates are a must see too.

2. Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium. Like I told Mike S, games like Space Hulk, and Horus Heresy have planted the seed of interest in this whole setting. Might even download the latest RTS for the PC from Steam. Dark Millenium is an MMO based on WH40k. The gameplay videos look great.

3. Portal 2!!!! Enough said.

4. Bunch of sequels... like DeadSpace2, GOW3, Halo, etc... and most important of all, Rock Band 3 which will have a keyboard, and a "closer to the real deal" guitar. No significant updates on my fav, the drums, though.

Monday night revival?

I've been itching to play a few games and was wondering if anyone would be heading to the Lair for some Monday night gaming? I have an uplayed Cyclades I would love to bring and am open to anything. I know its late notice but post a reply if interested.

In other news, I've just been playing Red Dead Redemption on PS3 and watching my daughter systematically destroy our home.

Take care,

Travis

Blah Blah

1. Remember to send in your votes for the SABG Top 50!
2. My Netflix queue isn't in serious danger of depleting, but I'm open for suggestions.
3. ADG has announced that they want Beta testers for a computerized Seven Ages. The sound you just heard was Michael sending an email.
4. I don't mind having an asian blog spammer, but points off for lack of originality. Dude.
5. I can't believe I sat out of Rodentia Bubonica to play Imperial. Although I did get a review out of it.
6. I believe this video is real, intellectually. Emotionally, no. The research and ability of people to hold their breath really has taken off in the last 10-15 years.
   

SWTOR

Last night, I went to see Star Wars in Concert. What an amazing performance. My wife and I were simply blown away. This of course just made me itch for another SW game. So I decided to look further into Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioware's MMO coming out next year. Wow... this game will definitively get me back into the world of MMO's. To my surprise, when I talked to my wife today about this game, she said "you know, I would like to try that game out too". I was floored. Sure I enjoy when she decides to dabble on the occasional euro with me, but this... a PC game... an MMO! In the words of Neil, the chosen one, "woa...".

The game is set a few hundred (thousand?) years before Episode I. Bioware has been releasing an online comic book to give some background to the story underlying this setting. Great stuff.

I Regret I Have but One Auto-Victory to Give for My Country

So... I've been officially bounced to the losers bracket World Board Gaming Championship PBEM Tourney of Washington's War after one turn. Yes, its ugly and true.

I led the valiant American Army, commanded by George Washington into upstate New York to meet any incursion by Cornwallis and a sizable force of British regulars. We clashed in an epic battle near Albany, and the British were sent scurrying back to Oswego. Hooray! The French government applauded quietly across the Atlantic and began preparations to join the party.

However, then bad things began to happen. First a large scale Iroquois rebellion sprang up behind me, removing American control of most of upstate New York. Then, while I was getting ready to bed down for the winter (i.e., I was out of cards), British General Howe struck out from Boston, sneaking past the smaller American rear guard under Greene (missed the intercept roll) and hit Washington's army from the rear. Washington was then sandwiched between Cornwallis and Howe, with no retreat possible. To seal my fate, I rolled a "1" for my combat roll. Argh! Washington and the entire American army surrenders. Game over.

I actually conceded rather than suffered an auto-victory, technically, but AV was going to happen within a turn or so. Many tears shed.

Anyway.... all that said, it was still a wonderful game. I can't wait to play again. On to the loser's bracket!