Greetings from Keuka Lake, NY!  We took the red-eye from Portland last Thursday night, arriving at the lake cottage around 11am on Friday morning.  The weather has been very decent so far, though as of now (Sunday evening July 4) we are in the midst of a thunderstorm watch.  This could put a damper on our plans to take the boat up to Branchport to watch the annual fireworks show from the lake.

Our time at the lake is usually divided by a set of activities that is frequently weather-condition determined.  When the winds are blowing up, that means sailing and tubing (white caps mean lots of bouncing!).  When it gets calm, particularly during mid-week when there's less traffic, that means water skiing.  And when the rains come, we usually hang out inside the cottage and head up the road for a gully hike to enjoy the increased water flow.

On a July 4 weekend, there's usually too much boat traffic to water-ski so we hoped for some winds today.  The weather cooperated - in fact, there's a major low-pressure front coming in that created some outstanding southeasterly winds this afternoon, allowing all of us to spend some quality time in the Sunfish.  Things are blowing up a bit too much to do a checkout right in the Flying Dutchman, so we'll wait for a quieter day before venturing out in the larger, older boat.

Tomorrow Jerry and I will head over to Seneca Lake for some golf at the course on the west side of the lake.  This is an affordable quality public course that I've enjoyed playing for the past 10 years.

Check out this interesting article in the recent issue of the GiocAreaA online magazine. The translation is a bit stilted at times, but the content is very nice.

I finally received my copy of Memoir '44 this week, the new game from Days of Wonder.  DoW is on a roll, with the Alan Moon designed game Ticket to Ride winning the Spiel des Jahres award announced this week.

Jacob and I sat down for a quick game tonight before dinner (Matthew was preparing dinner for all of us to earn a Cub Scout achievement) to give this one a try.

Having already played the great American civil war game Battle Cry, learning Memoir '44 was a snap.  I hadn't pre-read the rules and we were able to get started within 20 minutes.  10 minutes of prep time was setting things up for the first scenario, Pegasus Bridge.  This scenario is a great way to learn the basics of the game as it only includes infantry and a subset of the terrain features.

Turns happen very quickly - there's essentially zero downtime.  Command cards greatly limit the choices each player has in a turn (these simulate the challenges of command/control in this tactical environment, though I wonder how well this translates in WWII-era gaming.  Civil war I can understand, but I think operations could be better coordinated than is depicted in this game.  Alas, this is a game, not a simulation...).  Luck plays a significant factor, both in the luck of the draw and in the dice rolling.  This appears to be a great family game for us and I highly recommend it for fans of A&A D-Day, Battle Cry, and other lighter tactical wargames.

The components are first class, particularly the rule book.  Days of Wonder is doing a great job supporting the product as well, providing an excellent portal for folks to share scenarios, after action reports, and strategies.

Sort of old news, but it gives me a good reason to post something.  Read about it here!

Wow - long time since I've posted anything too meaningful.  This post won't break that trend.  It has been a busy few weeks, so very little has happened on the gaming front.  Work has been extremely busy - I manage to get home at a decent hour most days to see the boys' baseball games (this coming week they play every evening M-F, and Jacob has tournaments both this weekend and next).  But most of my evenings tend to involve working again from 8pm until about midnight.  Here are a few things going on though:

• Doug Walker and I are going to try a Cyberboard game of Europe Engulfed (gameset here). I still have not been able to play this game face-to-face, but I'm anxious to try it so this is probably the best way.  Doug, sorry I haven't sent you my initial setup yet!
• Jacob, Matthew, and I did manage to play a great game of the original Settlers of Catan on Tuesday after Jacob's baseball game. I was ahead 9-6-4 (Jacob in 2nd, Matthew 3rd).  On my next turn I would win the game as long as I didn't roll a 7 - of course I did and lost enough cards to prevent me from building my city.  Jacob then managed to steal longest road from me, pulling ahead 8-7-4.  Things were tense for a while, but I was able to pull out the win by taking back the longest road and building my city.
• My latest eBay purchase arrived: the classic game Camelot (originally Chivalry) by George S. Parker, founder of Parker Brothers.  I recently read the book The Game Makers, a history of Parker Brothers (great book! I'll write a review shortly), and this game was mentioned frequently as one of GSP's favorite games.
• Jacob's team won their baseball tournament last weekend in Gladstone, and are looking good in the Sherwood tournament this weekend (2-0, likely heading to the championship game).  Their team is also undefeated in league play (team name is Sherwood-Dyer).
• My parents have been in town for about the past 10 days.  It had been a few years since they were here and it is has been great having them here for a week of baseball.  Julie's mom was up here for a few days this week as well to look at some property on the Oregon coast.

Matthew Baldwin does it again: DNC Urges Clinton's Demise.  Hilarious (Hillary-ous?).

Shannon Appelcline wrote a nice review of the Iron Dragon Computer Game over at RPG.Net.  Funny thing, I just discovered this game on Saturday after a referral from Doug Walker.  I've played the demo and was quite impressed.  I purchased the game at a fire sale at Amazon ($15 or $20) but still haven't played the “real-life” version.  I'm going to try the trial a few more times but it looks like a likely purchase.

Join me in a game of Wallenstein.  Game: TowerMadness.  Password: ripcity.

Jacob and I spent Saturday afternoon at Kevin Graham's for some gaming.  We picked up Ken and Brandon around 12:30 and arrived at Kevin's place on the east side around 1:10.  Doug & Mimi, Matt Riley, and a few new (to me) folks were also present.

While waiting for a few new arrivals, I taught a small group KC's new prototype card game Tres Amigos. This is a light trick taking game that shows some real promise.  El Guapo (going nil) still needs some work, but everyone had a good time.  Jacob was the victor.

The other group played a game of Landlord.  Ken is fond of this game.  I've only played once and thought it was a fun diversion, but could take it or leave it.

We then split into three groups (4/4/3).  Jacob played a game of the Days of Wonder remake of Piratenbucht called Pirates Cove.

By far the longest game of the day was the Settlers of Nürnberg.  Ken and Brandon both enjoyed this game which Doug managed to win.

I played Ticket to Ride with Mimi and Matt.  It seems that I'm pretty awful at this game, having played four times and never coming close to winning.  Mimi crushed us, though Matt was in the running.  Mimi and I also taught Matt how to play San Juan, and I fared a bit better there, winning soundly.

The Pirate group then brought out Formula De Mini.  I don't know if they played with the alternate pit stop rules - a requirement in my book.

I had been hoping to play Through the Desert, a recent used game acquisition, so three of us took to the desert to give this fairly abstract game a try.  I liked this game A LOT, though it ended quite quickly (we all seemed to be grabbing the same camel colors).  Novice games like this (none of us had played it) are not very representative of typical play, so I hope to play again soon to see if my liking sticks.

The day ended for us with a game of Kings Gate.  This appears to be a solid, short, lightweight game.  I picked it up from the judges' prize table at Game Storm and didn't expect it to be much.  I'm pleasantly surprised, though we were playing wrong.  Somehow I screwed up the rule about what it means for a location to be surrounded.  We declared it surrounded once all of the orthogonal adjacencies were filled rather than all 10 squares (including the 4 diagonals).  This obviously makes a huge difference, so I'll have to play again soon by the correct rules.  It was still fun though...