Thursday Things

What I’m Playing

Just finished an around-the-USA travel in December (NY, Philadelphia, Florida, and Las Vegas) and played quite a few games. Here’s a recap.

• Of course, more Advanced Squad Leader.
• I played Churchill as a substitute for 18xx with my regular gaming partners Greg and Matt. Sadly we didn’t allow enough time to get through the entire game but it was a good learning game for both of them.
• I played The Napoleonic Wars down in Monmouth right across the road from where I teach. This was with a group of folks organized by another professor at Western Oregon University. It was fun but ended after the first turn with a lucky die roll for the French. The rest of us played a game of chicken and we all lost.
• I played 6 nimmt! with family in NY.
• I played Evolution in Florida with my niece’s copy that she picked up on sale at Target. I don’t own this game any more, but playing it reminded me that this is a very good game.
• Julie and I snuck in a play of Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 in between our Florida and Las Vegas trips. We are into September now so the year is closing down.
• Jacob introduced us to Mint Works while in Florida and we enjoyed this lightning fast and light worker placement game.
• Jacob and Matthew also picked up Dicey Goblins at a local game store in Vegas (designed by friend and Rainy Day Games owner Steve Ellis) and it came out quite a bit over the holiday week.
• The highlight of the holiday gaming week was Charterstone, which I purchased explicitly for this family week. Got a wide range of folks involved in the game and we are about halfway through the campaign. Julie and I will probably finish the campaign on our own, but not until we complete Pandemic.
• I introduced my brother-in-law to Star Realms which we played “live” a few times then moved into the digital iOS world where we are keeping a single game going indefinitely.
• Jacob received Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game in the Christmas yankee swap so that came out a few times. Sweet spot is three player I think, and we played in about 30 minutes.
• Jacob, Matthew, Kaitlin and I played a very tight game of Tichu.

What I’m Listening To

• First Listen: Wilco, ‘Being There: Deluxe Edition’ (Bonus Disc) – Also, the re-issue of A.M. Honestly I can’t tell much difference in the remastered versions versus the originals, but this is worth a listen for the outtakes and extra demos.

What I’m Reading

• Abandoned my reading of Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam. I have a harder time reading (vs. listening) to historical military narratives like this. Hope to listen to it someday.
• Finished listening to Alexander Hamilton and it was outstanding.
• I finished book 2 of the Locke Lamora series, Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastard, #2), and it is my favorite so far. Pirates! Middle-aged moms who become pirates!

What I’m Contemplating

• Task management for coders – I shared this with Jacob who is soon to enter the world of professional software development. This command-line driven approach with plain-old-text files is appealing.
• Tribe of Mentors: Most Impactful Purchases of $100 or Less – I found a gem or two here.