The one about board game accessories

You know what I'd like to acheive? I'd like to have more, smaller blogposts that are dedicated to only one subject. It seems pretty stupid to use labels on my posts at all if every single one uses "board games, video games". I guess on that note, I should use more labels as well (but then again I'm not sure if there's even a point in using labels at all). Anyways, in hopes of getting one step closer to that goal, I'm going to dedicate this post to all the small thoughts I've had about board game accessories.

The first accessory I started working on is a new gaming table (or poker table, if want). It's nearing completion, but the next step (padding and attaching the vinyl rail) is likely the most difficult, and shows off any mistakes I make the most. My dad has been a huge help, but at the same time he's sort of taken over my project and has made a few decisions without me that I think are making things stray from my intended plan.

Also on this note, I'm giving my older table a bit of a facelift. Nothing cosmetic, but throwing a few screws in the right places will make it a lot sturdier. I also took 2 inches off each leg for the following reason: in a poker game, each player only really needs to see the cards in front of them. In a board game, each player has to see the whole board to get a good grasp of what's going on. So, it follows that a lower table will let you get a higher view of the whole board more readily. I really hope that it's not too low so as to impede anyone's sitting, but I'll have a slew of tables that serve slightly different purposes.

Another great idea I had is to use a cribbage board to keep score for games for which one needs to keep score. For instance, Ticket to Ride has a track around the edge which isn't that bad, but Lost Cities has no way to keep score with the game (so it's usually pen and paper). Many a people have complained about Carcassonne's board only going to 50, so it's hard to see when someone has passed 50 points. I already had red, blue, and green pegs, I spraypainted some extra ones black (turned out pretty nice), and I'm using white pegs to represent yellow, so that it covers all the basic colours. I would like to have yellow pegs, but acrylic paint didn't work, and I don't want to go spend five bucks on yellow spraypaint for three measly cribbage pegs.

While on a spraypaint high (not literally), I went crazy with painting some Memoir '44 pieces. I spraypainted the sandbags tan, and the hedgehogs and wire bundles in grey. I think they look so much nicer than the default army colours. My neighbour had the grey paint, so it didn't really cost me anything but a few minutes. I also used the tan paint to spraypaint the bases of the Through the Desert desert (green palm tree trunks? blech).

I also spraypainted one side of a whole slew of red plastic poker chips black. I plan to use these wherever I need to represent life points. The only thing I can think of off the bat is Bang, where you'd normally use a card covering part of another card to represent your health. It's easy to budge a card out of place, and difficult to see how close to death someone across the table is. Again, well worth the few minutes it took.

I picked up a bunch of plastic storage boxes from the dollar store. I'm using two for Memoir '44 whose pieces are hard to manage. The two fit very nice and snug in the game box. They fit just about everything perfectly, besides the cards and terrain hexes which I still keep in the remnants of the plastic insert. I'm using another for Through the Desert which will make setup time much faster, and it too fits perfectly in the game box. I'm using a fourth one for general game pieces (namely dice, those coloured cribbage pegs, and those red and black chips I mentioned earlier). Each one of those boxes is a dollar VERY well spent.

Lastly, I plan to get some 1" by 1" wood and cutting some shallow, angled cuts into it to make a bunch of 10" playing card holders. I got the idea from the plastic holders that Memoir '44 has. They make it much easier to consider all your options for any games that use cards with text on them. In longer games, too, it gets annoying to have to keep all your cards clenched in your hand.

Well, I think that's all! I'm also trying to get my poker chips back from Adam (who seems to have left them at a friend's house), as I've heard from other gamers that poker chips are far superior to paper money or cardboard coins for any game that uses currency that is passed around a lot.

Listening to... Dcay - In Step
Link of the moment... For only $15 at the Superstore, I couldn't refuse

There's been a change in plans.

Well, it looks like I'm not going home on Wednesday this week anymore. Now, Hugh is coming with me and we're leaving on Friday and doing a one-day trip. Unfortunately, that means that I'm either going to have to wake up really early to make it home at a reasonable time, or stay up late and drive through the night. I'm not sure what I'll do. It will probably depend a lot on what my sleep schedule wants to do in the next week.

I graduated! I'm a university graduate! I now have a Bachelor's degree in Combinatorics and Optimization behind me. I'm just waiting for one more mark to come in, but I have no reason to beleive I failed Network Flow.

This past weekend was one big party. On Friday, Julie wrote her last exam, so John, Julie, Hugh and I went out to the Huether for some food, then to the Silver Spur. It wasn't really that wild of a time. For some reason, everyone called it quits pretty early. I wanted to go to the Starlight to get my groove on, but the line was way too long.

On Saturday, Nicole came into town for a visit. The bunch of us, along with Katie and her friend Kat, went bowling and then for an end-of-term dinner at Red Lobster. For some reason, I've been feeling a bit queasy lately, so I'm not sure if seafood was the best choice. No one actually finished all of their meal, so I didn't feel too bad taking the rest of mine to go. After that, there was some Super Jeopardy on NES and some Apples to Apples.

Katie had invited us to her "dance party" that night too, so we headed over. I gotta say, it wasn't as hopping as I'd thought. There was some pretty tame music, and they were all playing some drinking game when we got there. Regardless, a good time was had by most. I offered Caroline a ride home (well, actually I think she asked), so my crew went home at that point. Afterwards, I stopped off at Katie's again for a farewell game of euchre with Jordan, since she was leaving the next day.

Today is John's last day. That is, he's heading for the airport later today with Julie. Of course, when Hugh and I pull in to Thunder Bay later this week, the four of us will hang out anyways, so it's not much of a goobye.

I finally got a hold of Memoir '44 after my last exam, and I've played both sides (Axis and Allies) of the first scenario (Pegasus Bridge). I'm having a tough time liking it, solely because Andrew absolutely massacred me both times, proving that he didn't just get lucky with one overpowered side. I'm hoping Adam doesn't have the same luck when I introduce him to the game.

Listening to... The Black Mages - Fight With Seymour (FFX)
Link of the moment... Play Coloretto online (against Bots)

Memoir '44 is out of stock? GAH!

I must be the target of a conspiracy...everytime I go to J&J with one game in mind, they don't have it in stock! It happened first with Thurn and Taxis (which I eventually got a hold of (but have yet to play)), and now it's happened again with Memoir '44! They say they're getting a Days of Wonder shipment in this week, but they're not sure if Memoir '44 will be in it. I hope so, because I'd really like to pick it up before I leave Waterloo. It seems like the kind of game that Adam would be interested in, and I don't have any wargames in my collection (besides Risk 2210, blech). I also had hoped to pick up Kill Doctor Lucky and Bohnanza, but they only had the latter in stock (I guess one out of three aint bad?).

I've also been thinking about picking up a mixed lot of Magic cards on eBay, or a starter set. No matter how many games I get, I'll never have enough to satiate my thirst. I certainly have no hopes of being one of *those* Magic players. You know, the ones that buy booster pack after booster pack, hoping to score one of those rares that they need to have an unbeatable deck. No, I just want something I can divy up between some chums and play when I need my nerd itch scratched. I mean, MTG has been around as long as it has, so the gameplay must have some sort of redeeming qualities.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to include more links in my posts. I don't suppose any of you have said "jeez, I wish Kevin would direct me to a page with more information about his favourite board games", but you never know. If I can infect one of you with my gaming disease, I'll consider it a success.

While I'm (still) on the subject of games, let me tell you a little story. When I last played Catan with Jordan and Katie, they mentioned that they were walking through the V1 cafe one day, when someone asked if they wanted to play some guy's game. They told me that he had gotten it published. This had reminded me of some guy who was showing off his game at a WATSFIC games day, saying he was trying to get it published. Long story short, they were one and the same. Having played the game, I didn't think it was that great. Someone (Andrew?) said I shouldn't trash talk him, since he got his game published, something I probably couldn't do. Since then, I've been trying to get inpiration to design a game of my own, and I think I've finally got something workable. I'm working out the kinks, but so far I'm thinking of an old west theme, with "simultaneous action selection" (ala Diplomacy). We'll see if I can make something workable out of it.

I've also been looking into Arkham Horror, but I'm not sure how much use I would get out of a 3 hour long, heavy weight game that requires a few playthroughs to get used to. Ok. I'm done talking about games for a while. Thanks for letting me indulge.

Listening to... The Offspring - Something to Believe In
Link of the moment... I have SERIOUSLY got a one-track mind