Inaugural Post

OK, a new blog - this one on board gaming. I have always enjoyed a good "Euro"! I also enjoy a little "Ameritrash" now and then too, of course. But the Euro is what I really enjoy the most. I like being asked to make difficult choices every turn and I like limiting random factors (like dice).

Over the last couple of months, I have essentially shifted my hobby focus to board gaming. I'll explore why over some of the posts on this blog...but...a couple of thoughts are in my mind. They are:

1. Buy the game, say $30 to $80, and you are ready to play with zero to four or five or even, sometimes, six other people. There is no painting, no building terrain, no collecting hundreds more miniatures.
2. Set up the game, and play and you faced many challenging decisions over the course of 90 minutes to 3 hours. 
3. Depending on the game, there is zero randomness or some degree (low to high) of randomness. The thing I enjoy about that is being able to build an "engine" during the game to compete with the engines built by other players based upon what I think the best choices are.

That last one has my mind spinning a little. Almost every wargame uses dice or cards or something to remove control from me - which I adore. Combat often has a pretty high degree of randomness in it. Sure there are modifiers based upon tactical conditions, but in the end, it may come down to a D10 versus a D6. But, I think that's terrific for trying to model the myriad of potential combat outcomes within the fact that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

So, I guess I have a lot of things to hash out on this blog! This is in addition to posting some game play action and noodling on game reviews.

Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves and think that "I have essentially shifted my hobby focus to board gaming" means that I no longer am interested in miniature wargaming. To the contrary in fact. I have a group of people that I still regularly wargame with once or twice per month, and I enjoy the hell outta that and them!

But, I have not painted a miniature since early December and have not purchased a miniature since the end of September. The purchasing hiatus is largely due to the fact that I purchased a fair amount of Three Kingdoms Chinese to finish off that army - about half of those miniature still are to be painted given the painting hiatus.

I think that all of us miniature wargamers hit a painting wall, and I certainly have. Frankly, I am enjoying the challenges of the Euro very much these days...so...onward with the board gaming!