Author: Chris S.

Posted on

Solitaire Wargaming Organization

I overwhelmed myself with the number of new wargames that came in over the past couple of weeks, and I’m excited to play them all.

That said, I’m going to have to pull back a bit and try not to dive into all the games at once.

I’m going to attempt to learn and play them in this order:

  1. Phantom Leader
  2. Carrier Strike Force
  3. Hornet Leader
  4. Warfighter
  5. Gato Leader
  6. Philippines Ablaze
  7. Corsair Leader

The second and the last two are print-and-play games, which I may take the time to cut and assemble the counters and other playing pieces, while learning the other games.

During this time I may also go back to some old standbys like B-17, B-29, Ambush! and maybe try to finally learn Patton’s Best.

Wish me luck.

Posted on

Warfighter

Yet another game, using an Amazon gift certificate (thanks, Howard) that I didn’t realize I got for my birthday.  Stupid spam filter.

There’s a few expansions for this game, so I picked up a couple:

I get to play the SAS.

Posted on

… So Little Time

Hornet Leader and Gato Leader came in today.

I have yet to play a scenario in Phantom Leader.

And I downloaded the 5 additional scenarios for Hornet Leader from the DVG.com site.

Posted on

Bandwagoners and ‘True’ Fans

As short a time as I’ve been calling myself a bandwagon Warriors fan, I laugh at the reaction of so-called ‘true’ fans after the recent run of Warriors games.  Panic, the sky is falling, etc.

I saw the same thing happen to Giants ‘fans’ after they failed to make the playoffs in 2011/2013/2015, and especially when they lost in the 2016 postseason.

Teams go through slumps and other adversity.  As a ‘true’ sports fan, I’ve known this for years.  There is no pattern.  There is no ‘even years for the Giants’ thing.  That was a coincidence.

The Warriors may be imploding because of the loss of Kevin Durant.  Or not.  How about we wait until the playoffs start before writing them off, huh?

Bottom line is that fans who come to a team ONLY when they start winning don’t know how to deal with slumps and losing streaks.  They only know the team when they are successful.  And sadly their coping mechanism is trying to throw criticism wherever they can, whether it’s the coach or players or even management.

Long suffering Giants and Warriors (and 49ers) fans can cope better, having tasted success, and are happy that their team has won during that ‘long suffering’ phase.  I for one was satisfied with the Giants 2010 World Series Championship.  2012 and 2014 were gravy and/or icing.  A lot of my long time Warriors fan family and friends were happy with the 2015 Championship, though disappointed with the 2016 Finals result.

There’s nothing wrong with that disappointment, nor am I saying that the teams shouldn’t strive for the big prize.  What I’m saying is that you should not expect championships and the accolades to be handed to a team on a plate, before the playoffs or the season even begins.  Cheer your team on, through thick or thin.  And cherish the moments when they do win big.

Posted on

Mutants and Masterminds

Today my gaming group began a new role-playing campaign, using the Mutants and Masterminds game system.

We spent a couple of hours creating characters, with me doing it hesitantly, since I was running the campaign.

I decided to make a ‘Crime Fighter’ type, since I wanted to make a Shadow/Crimson Avenger/Green Hornet type.  That isn’t what I ended up with.

The following is a result of the die rolls generated as I used the quick-start character creation system:

Dark Avenger: Your life changed in a single, horrifying moment.  Since then you’ve trained your body and mind to become an instrument of vengeance.

I need to come up with what that traumatic event was.

Incredible Presence: You are physically impressive or otherwise intimidating.  You are also a natural leader.

Okay.

Sleuth: You’re a student of observation.

Scientist: You are a trained scientist and capable of inventing gadgets of your own.

Cool.

Acrobat: You’re a trained acrobat, capable of incredible feats of agility.

By this time I figured that I was going to have a Batman-esque hero.  Or maybe Blue Beetle II/Nite Owl.

Avenger: You’ve trained yourself in a number of useful skills.

The advantages given here totally makes this guy like Batman (Streetwise, Intimidation, Vehicles).

Investigator: You’ve studied investigation and other forms of observation.

Next, this character ended up with Gadgetry, granting him a Headquarters, and a further roll granted a Combat Suit.

I figured that this would be an animal based hero, and that animal would be…

ENTER… THE KOALA

I made him about the same size as me (5’6″, 160 lbs) and spoke with a raspy Christian Bale voice as we played.

We decided that the super team would use this character’s HQ as their base, the Koala Den, located around Yerba Buena Gardens in the South of Market area of San Francisco.

We haven’t come up with a super group name yet.  And I may do a little fudging and grant everyone some equipment, like Koala-rangs for my character.

Fun times ahead.

Posted on

Fantastic Beasts

I watched it this morning and really liked it.  I kinda regret not seeing it on the big screen.

I grew bored with the Harry Potter movie franchise after Goblet of Fire.  I’m not sure why, exactly, and splitting the last book into two movies didn’t help to change how I felt.  I don’t think I saw the last 3-4 in the theatre.

Even though the movie takes place in the same universe as Harry Potter, the change in time period helped it become more appealing to me.

Aside from the cast, who I either loved or didn’t know they were in it (Ezra Miller!  Jon Voight!) my favorite part of the movie were, of course, the beasts.

I went and ordered this:

Niffler POP! Vinyl figure *squeee*

And this as well:

Newt Scamander’s wand

I’ve never wanted a prop wand from any of the characters in the Harry Potter movies (though I did almost pick up Snape’s a while back), but for some reason, I wanted this one.

Overall, I thought it  was an entertaining movie, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.  I just hope I don’t grow tired of them as I did with the original Potter films.

Posted on

Headphones

I’ve been an $10-$20 earbud guy forever, with a couple of pairs of wired over-the-ear headphones attached to my desktop and laptop at home.

I started looking into noise-cancelling headphones, mainly for the level of noise at times at work.  At the recommendation of my co-worker, I picked this up.

Bose Quietcomfort 35 wireless noise-cancelling headphones

I tried them at Best Buy, along with a couple of Beats by Dre models, and this one blocked out ambient noise better than the others did, just as my co-worker said they did.

This is definitely the priciest audio accessory that I’ve ever bought, next to my iPod.

I’ve been wearing them right now for about 30 minutes, and I really like them.  They’re good for audio books, too.