Systemic Babble

I was introduced to Warhammer 40k during my first year of university when I befriended the guy in the room next to me (Dave; later to become a housemate and then a cousin by marriage) who was an avid table top geek.  He had a couple of armies, Tyranids and Blood Angel Space Marines , and so we started playing small skirmishes on the floor of one of our rooms, and then in the study room.  It was about this time that I first met Bill, who was also an active 40k player.  I believe that we met at a [... read the rest ...]

As I’d hoped, Bill has posted a battle report for the game of Axis & Allies (revised edition) that we played on Saturday. I played the Allies, while he controlled the Axis powers. Although it was a one-sided affair almost from the start, which is less interesting than a tight game, we still had a fun time with it overall. Time runs out for Germany – click to enlarge Players of the original Axis and Allies will definitely want to check out the later edition. Not only does it add a couple of new unit types (artillery and destroyers), but [... read the rest ...]

Pandemic, published by Z-Man Games, is a co-operative board game for between two and five players (2-4 without the “On the Brink” expansion) that challenges you and your friends to stop the global outbreak of four deadly diseases. The game is simple to pick up, contains five different difficulty levels and three play variants, and is extremely tightly tuned. Since receiving the game and its expansion for Christmas I have played three different sessions totaling perhaps eight hours. The total number of games played during that time frame stands somewhere around twelve – a testament to the speedy nature of [... read the rest ...]

A lifetime of gaming For the past twenty-odd years of my life, strategy games have been one of my core hobbies. It all started with Axis and Allies around the kitchen table with some high school friends and quickly branched off into other games such as Samurai Swords and Blood Bowl. My university years saw a hobby blossom into a full blown obsession as I acquired two separate Warhammer 40k armies (Dark Eldar and Tau), painted them, and played frequent friendly weekend matches and well as the odd local tournament. Once I settled down, bought a house, and ceased to [... read the rest ...]