The Messy Game Room Episode 17!  After a month long hiatus, the Messy Game Room returns Screaming for Vengeance!  In this month's show Mike and Marshall discuss:  The World Boardgaming Championships; Dixit; A Victory Lost; Blokus; Tumblin-Dice; Shadow Hunters; A Victory Denied; Dungeons and Dragons:  Castle Ravenloft; Descent; Long Shot; Unconditional Surrender; Weimar:  German Politics 1929-1933; Dragon Quest 9; Castlevania:  Symphony of the Night; Monday Night Combat; and more games, books, and music.

http://www.messygameroom.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=639961

Well, shit.  Today found me waking up to a horrible noise in the house.  Turns out it was the pipes and the entire front yard was under water.  Apparently a water line had broken......after awhile, I was finally able to get it turned off and localized so we can still use our houses water.  Not before tensions ran high throughout the house though.

On the plus, I guess it is good that we didn't have to call some plumber or city service on Labor Day.  On the downside, I think about 3000+ gallons of water ran down the street.


Sorry for the completely non-related game post.  Just needed a small outlet for frustration.

Sometimes, the high school education of Australia, as good as it is, leaves you unprepared when entering into the baptism of fire that is tabletop wargaming.

Ok so I got three turns of Panzer General: Allied Assault in tonight and spilled a bit of blood.  This was a solo play (the Metz scenario) and the solo rules for the Germans were pretty doggone straightforward.

Movement is exceptionally simple and the size of the map means that there just aren't a lot of opportunities to outsmart the enemy.  This is smash-mouth wargaming -- you need to bring heavy guns to the front and spend them.  Support units are a must to close the deal.  My first attack was on what my buddy calls "Porsche's finest engineering effort" i.e., a King Tiger tank  unit which I softened up with a bomber run first (played a special card) and then went after it with Shermans and support artillery and ground troops.  True to history, I dented the Tigers' front bumper a bit and that was about it.  But their return fire did no damage at all due to some terrain modifiers and a lucky break in the combat card draw, so the Tigers had to retreat.  That was a bit of a surprise.  The crack German troops at the front of the line on either side fared worse, but I went at them pretty doggone hard.

I don't know where this thought started niggling in my brain, but round about the time I turned twenty and a half I started to notice that miniatures do not make the game, and if it is it's rather gimmicky in giving you an excuse to play with toys again.