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

Don't let the euchre club die!

Well, it seems like none of the current euchre exec want to come back for another year. I'll be graduated, and the other three have just been doing it too long and want to move on. I hope we get a good set of people who want to be exec for next year; it would be a shame if a club that I care about so much was to die out so quickly after it was started.

Speaking of euchre, I had a really good night yesterday. I had seven wins and one loss, and it shot me into second place in the rankings! I also enjoyed the company of everyone else I played with, of course, but it's nice to have a solid set of wins for a change. Let's see how long it lasts...

I had a pretty good weekend, overall. I was feeling pretty nauseous for most of it, unfortunately. I got some Mario Party and Ticket To Ride out of my system. We went out for dinner on Saturday night, and man it was freezing. A blizzard started up just as we were leaving for dinner. What's worse is that we had to keep going out into it becuase we couldn't find anyplace with a short enough wait time. We eventually settled on Kelsey's, and waited the 50 minutes.

Earlier that day, my car wouldn't start in the Sobey's parking lot. I had to call CAA, and wait for a towtruck. He gave me a jump, as the battery was lacking sufficient juice. I'm a little wary to use my car now, at least until the weather starts to get a little less harsh. Unfortunately, I seem to keep finding uses for my car; Quinn wants me to get pop for the next euchre meeting again. I'll probably use it while John is in Las Vegas, since our parking spot will be otherwise empty.

It looks like it might be another lonesome Valentine's day. I have a date with a midterm that night, so even if I did want to ask some girl out (say, someone in the euchre club), I wouldn't be able to go out that night.

At least it looks like I'll be able to kick back for the reading week. Like I said, John will be going to Las Vegas, and Andrew might be going on a ski trip. Hugh said he'll probably go home for a few days, so I might find myself home alone to catch up on some gaming. I might be able to find a person or two in the K-W area who might want to catch a movie, who knows.

My Network Designs course is not getting any easier. I haven't been able to follow along with the lecutres; the material is really over my head at the moment. I've got an assignment due Monday, which means I have to ask questions on Friday, which means I have to work on the assignment tomorrow. Of course, working on the assignment is pretty well dependent on my understanding the course, so in a perfect world, I'll learn most of the course tomorrow afternoon, at least to the point where I can understand the assignment. Then, I'll have to learn the rest for the midterm next Wednesday. Luckily, I'm done my two assignments that are due Friday, so I only have the one thing to worry about.

I bought Through the Desert this previous weekend, and had a game with Andrew and John. It was pretty good. As usual, there's not a very explicit sense of interaction with other players, but you do have to consider what other players will do on their turns. Andrew won and I came in a pretty distant second. This Saturday, there will be another games day, so I think I'll get out to it again (but this time I'll bring something with me in case I find myself waiting on games to finish again).

I'm not fond of my sleeping habits lately. I honestly find myself sleeping for eleven hours when given the opportunity. I suspect that it is due to my lack of physical activity (aparently walking an hour to and from class doesn't cut it), but I am unwilling to do anything about it. To actually get out and do some exercise would take at least a two hour commitment, and then I'd be using two hours a day to cut back on an hour of unnecessary sleep.

Speaking of, I think I'll get some sleep now. My mind and body need to be well rested to bend some approximation algorithms to do my bidding.

Listening to... The Distillers - For Tonight You're Only Here to Know
Link of the moment... I think I'll order this game this weekend, to save the use of my car

PHYS 121 destroyed me

Well, one exam down. It was physics, and it was gruesome. I'm not looking forward to what my mark will be in that course, but I can't say I care too much. It's just an elective, and even beyond that, what's the worts that will happen if I don't get a good mark in some course this term? Nothing.

I've got a few days until my next exam. The next two are Linguistics and Graph Theory on Wednesday and Friday respectively. I think I'll mostly wing it on those exams. I'll review all the linguistics slides, but it will all be multiple choice and T/F, so it's nothing worth wracking my brain over. Graph Theory will mostly be about memorizing a few theorems, and being able to apply the rest of them. I've got a good grasp on the material, so I shouldn't run into anything that will disturb me on the final.

I went to J&J the other day, as I said I would. I found Bang!, and found Lost Cities after scouring the shelves a few times. Through the Desert, and Mystery of the Abbey, however, were missing. I figure MotA is a bit obscure, and they said TtD was out of print but they should get some more eventually. I didn't want to walk out of there without buying a $30 game, since I'm not often in a spendy mood and figured I should get something for myself. I wound up buying Carcassonne: The Discovery based on a review I found on Board Games With Scott, which says it captures the essence of Carcassonne while being more accessible to new gamers. TtD will have to go on my 'to buy' list for the next time I feel the need to get more games. I think the next time I want to buy some games, I might try out GermanGames.com which is local to Waterloo and has good prices and selection.

I won Megaman ZX off of eBay today for a measly $20 after shipping (it retails for $40). The only reason I got it so cheap was because I got it off a user with almost no feedback. It's probably a bad idea, but the price was right.

I think I might try to get involved in Watsfic and the UWGamers next term, if it fits my schedule. I stopped by the Watsfic office while on campus the other day to see if they were having any more games days. Turns out I just missed one last weekend. I also scolded them for not having their information more accessible, such as on their now-defunct website and perhaps over a newsletter. I'd join in hopes of playing games with people who play games. Similarly, joining the UWGamers would let me try out the new consoles and test drive new games for DS. Of course, walking to campus is such a pain in the winter term, I'm not sure I'd be motivated enough to go to events.

I'm almost done FF5! Isn't that so exciting? Although, I wound up exploiting a game feature to buff up my guys. I guess it takes some of the fun out of the game, but the final boss will still put up a challenge, and there's still an entire optional dungeon after that.

Only nine more days until I'm back home!

Listening to... Raised Fist - Illustration of Desparation
Link of the moment... I'm sure I'll buy from here when I'm back in TBay...no local shops there.

No mo' class

Today was the last day of classes. I feel like there's still so much more I should have learned this term but maybe that's because I only have 3 on-campus classes, one of which I skipped frequently. Now it's just a matter of exams.

I think I will buy some new board games soon. I've been looking around on the interwebs and have narrowed it down to a few. Seeing as how I've little else to talk about, I'll now list the said five games.

Lost Cities: I plan on buying this because it's a 2-player game. Andrew's the only one nearly as eager as I am about games, so we're often short of players when we want to play something. If I had to compare the play mechanic of this game, I'd have to choose Gin Rummy.

Bang!: I've already talked about this one a lot. It seems like something Grant would go in for. If I had to compare it to another game, it would be Werewolf/Mafia.

Through the Desert: It's gotten some good reviews, and is a staple of many peoples' collections. It seems like a game I might be able to make John and Hugh play. If I had to compare it to another game, it would be Go (for the 'blocking in' aspect of the game).

Mystery of the Abbey: This would be a good addition to my collection since I don't really have a deduction game yet (besides scotland yard that no one will touch). From what I've seen, it's a hybrid of Clue and Guess Who.

Carcassonne: I might buy this after Christmas. Sonja says she got it cheap from a calendar kiosk after boxing day. I played it once and didn't like it a lot, but it seems to be one of 'the' games to own, so maybe I just need to know the rules a bit better.

Since I really haven't spent much lately, I've got $500 coming to me from marking, and J&J is a resource I can only use for five more months, I think I'll spend a non-trivial amount on games. I'll probably get Bang!, Lost Cities, and one of MotA or TtD. If the prices are fair, maybe I'll go ahead and buy both! It's just a bloody shame that I won't have enough room in my luggage to take a fair number of my larger games to play.

Listening to... Death By Stereo - Unstoppable
Link of the moment... A pretty awesome board game vlog I stumbled upon.