Summer of the Games

With all my friends away, I have been gaming a lot, physical and PC based.

LOTR Card Game has been great, though I am desperately trying to get passed the third Adventure pack in the first series, "A Journey to Rhosgobel". I thought it was going to be a breeze. How wrong I was. However, it has forced me to examine my player deck very carefully to try to optimize my chance of success. Soon, I hope to get passed it and continue through the campaign.

I have also been able to spend time organising my other games. Battlelore is all painted, and Harry and I had a great day of gaming before he left. Zombicide base set is all painted. X-Wing I have been organising it and laminating cards ready for the next season. The new faction, Scum and Villainy, is ready to go. Imperial Assault remains to be examined and painted, though one stormtrooper and one rebel fighter are nearly complete.

On the PC I have been playing World of Tanks and, newly acquired, GTA 5. I was hoping to leave PC games behind, but it hasn't happened. I do now though, however, only play a very limited range of games, as I find many of them just don't do much for me. Gracie and I though have had a hoot on Skyrim and we have been progressing a character. I also upgraded my RAM from 4 Gig to 8 Gig and what a huge difference that makes. I am also about to upgrade my graphics card to a NVidia Ge Force GTX 960 which should set me up for a couple of years and allow me to play the approaching Witcher 3.

Friday

Here we are. Home, slightly inebriated and very relaxed. We all got trapped into working an extra 2 weeks but its not so bad. Everyone one is tired and wanting to sleep so the pressure to teach is not there. I do a bit in the morning and take it easy in the afternoon class.

Saturday Night, Getting On.

All the crew are down the pub, but I chose to stay in with Oi and Grace, Even though, I just got trashed in my den, it is good to be close and we cohabit quite well.

I got some wine. It serves well.

Summer Holidays

Well, it's kind of here. Yesterday was the last day of term, though I still have exams to check in on, and mark, and we (Harry, Kate and myself) have all been roped into doing another 2 weeks of a private course, for no extra pay. I will try to resist.

I celebrated by purchasing some choice ales from the fish-bowl booze shop in the town. Bloody lovely they were too, and I got a special free glass. Later I went to Pete's restaurant and had a good time with the lads here; Jonny, Arun, Harry and Brian are all excellent company, and we have a real giggle.

I am slowly making my way through painting all the miniatures to Battlelore, a 2 player fantasy war game I am dying to have a crack at. Star Wars Imperial Assault is next in line for a paint job.

Gaming has been on Thursday nights and once a week. More than this and Oi starts making grumbling noises. So best to keep her happy. We have been working our way through the Descent campaign and it's nearly finished. Zombiecide is a popular favourite, though I want to get X-Wing back on the table but it is a bit more of a thinker, and set up can be quite long as there are a plethora of upgrade cards to consider when constructing one's fleet. Very tense game though. Love it.

Grace is fine and enjoying her young life. Her two rabbits are fun and I find myself growing quite fond of them. Never had a rabbit before.

Walking Dead and Vikings are back on the telly and I am sure will be great fun.

I try to play World of Tanks regularly too, as it is such an excellent game.

The garden is looking lovely and the house is an excellent place to relax, which is what I like to do most of the time.

Enough.

Post Christmas

I was really sad Christmas was over. I hadn't watched enough movies or listened to Silver Bells enough. I felt much sorrow as I took down the decorations.

The New Year brings the beckoning of the Summer Holidays. Just a few short weeks away. I was determined to keep the inertia going at school until the end of term. My first subject, "Plate Tectonics" bombed. No one is interested in more, or any science. I quickly changed to, "The Vikings" which has had moderate success. I played a few documentaries with warriors attacking monks etc. and it seemed to catch on. My assistant said, "Vikings are cool." Next week, The American West.

Games dominate every waking moment. I have got seriously into painting the miniatures following the success of Zombicide with the Drinking Crew. There is about 90 zombies that need funky clothes, and I can provide. Painting is very absorbing and relaxing and the results are a blast. Today, I was washing the virgin figures in soapy water before drying and applying primer in spray form. The base coat went on a dream. It was like touching silk....

Card duel game Blue Moon Legends has been surfacing late. I have laminated three more decks from the recommended starting two. We will squeeze a game in some where.

Thursday, a second gaming group is forming, in the guise of Karen ('Sisco) and Phil (some sort of Kiwi sailing vet). The game is Carcassonne, for a more discerning, mature player of casual games. I love Carcassonne. It's possibly the sweetest game in the world, where ones aim is to complete a monastery in a field. And with expansion names like, Hills and Sheep its for a select audience.