I received a (rare) complimentary copy of a game to review - Dragons of Kir (publisher page). Jacob and I sat down to play last week, and here are my thoughts on the game.

Summary: A promising game that suffers from poor components and a turn sequence that I'm afraid will lead far too often to draws. It just doesn't stack up well to other 2 player abstracts on my shelf, notably the GIPF series and Ingenious.

Mechanics: Players alternate placing tiles from their hand on the game board grid to influence the movement of four different dragons. The goal is to have one of the dragons attack your opponent's home base while protecting your own base. The tiles are Asian themed (think Chinese dragons) and usually either draw a dragon closer or push a dragon away, allowing players to force the dragon to approach certain areas of the board.

Components: The game would shine with quality wooden components for the dragons and home bases, but instead the publisher provided scored cardboard to fold and shape into the appropriate pieces. As a publisher I can relate to the manufacturing choice - I'm sure it was a cost factor. The board and tiles are very decent quality.

Thoughts on the Game: Jacob and I played two games, each to draws, and came away feeling a little bored and disappointed. One issue is the player sequence - the first player always places a tile first, followed by the other player. Then the dragons move. This means the second player always gets to respond to the first. I don't like this flow in abstract games - nothing wrong with a first or second player advantage, but the break in flow to move the dragons magnifies the effect throughout the game.

I'm sure if we played several more games we would have found some solid strategies, but in both of our plays (we alternated start player) we found it far too easy for the second player to play defensively and force a draw. If you want a game that involves some randomness with tile draws combined with solid abstract play, stick to Ingenious.

Dave is producing a video journal of our gaming group wargame retreat in Sunriver. I'll arrive late Thursday afternoon.

Next weekend I'll be spending about 3.5 days in Sunriver with Doug and crowd at his "WBC West" event. This will involve mostly wargaming with a little bit of lighter fare thrown in at nights. Doug and I will also be seeing Wilco play in Bend on Saturday night.

Going to an event like this where I'll be playing new (to me) wargames requires some preparation. Two games I want to play are Napoleonic Wars and FAB:Bulge. At a minimum preparation means setting up the game and working through a sample solitaire turn or two, but Jacob's eyes lit up when I suggested we play a wargame on Saturday afternoon / evening. He chose Napoleonic Wars and I set out to read enough of the rules to get us started. I let Jacob play the French - slightly less to manage in a 2 player game as he starts off only controlling France and Spain, while the coalition player runs Russia, Great Britain, and Austria.

As expected the first few rounds were slow going. A round consists of a series of impulses (usually card plays) by each nation in a fixed order. Like many other card-driven games (CDGs), the player usually has the choice of activating an event or playing the card for operation points which can be used for movement, drafting new troops, and influencing diplomatic relations. Jacob turned east from the start, marching Napoleon's army towards Austria. I had to respond by gathering Austrian forces and bringing Russian troops in to reinforce, ultimately joining the Austrians and Russians together in a single army. Meanwhile, the British harassed the French and Spanish in the seas, taking control of the Atlantic and Med by the 3rd round or so.

We got sidetracked later Saturday evening watching the Olympics and resumed our play on Sunday morning. We knew we would get one turn in max after the first turn ended, so when the peace phases came up and we had to choose how many cards to give up to influence the die roll, I had a choice to make. Jacob was in the lead by one point by virtue of a key he took in his last move in Austria and sacrificed a card to add one to the peace roll (if a 6 is rolled on a single D6 the game ends). I could have given up 2 cards from any of the 3 countries I controlled, but opted to give up just a single card and let the die roll, knowing we would have to end the game anyway. Of course a 6 was rolled and the game ended with Jacob victorious - not a satisfying ending but appropriate. We learned enough to get down most of the mechanics and Jacob looks forward to another play. I also still need to introduce him to Hannibal.

The boys and I spent last week (hah! last month - can you tell how long it is taking me to get through the write/edit cycle for posts?) at Camp Gorton on Lake Waneta. We joined up with a local Bath, NY scout troop (Troop 59) and they were great hosts. I was one of the two assigned adult leaders for the troop so I was able to get some great interactions with the boys.

This was Jacob's third summer camp and he decided to focus much of his time on the lifesaving merit badge, arguably one of the most difficult badges to earn in scouting. He had an amazing instructor and loved the experience. This is also a required merit badge for Eagle scout (he will be Life scout by the end of the month) so this puts him on track to finish Eagle by his 15th birthday.

He spent the afternoons earning his rifle shooting and orienteering merit badge. Jacob is a pretty good shot - scouts must demonstrate competence by "qualifying" at the range. Jacob was the first in camp to qualify, doing so on his second day there.

Matthew's schedule mirrored Jacob's - he spent the mornings on the waterfront earning swimming and rowing merit badge, then moving to the archery range in the afternoon followed by 1st aid. Matthew was also the first scout in camp to qualify for archery merit badge, completing his qualification on Wednesday.

Matthew had a doctor teaching his first aid merit badge, a great instructor who was great with kids.

This shot is of the dedication plaque at the archery range. If you look closely, you'll see Lloyd Saxton on it - that's Julie's grandfather. He made a contribution to their fundraising campaign in the 80s and the mark is still there.

Week 4 at Keuka Lake is a wrap, and I'm sitting here in the grey cottage watching heavy rains over the lake as we do final prep for summer camp at Camp Gorton. I hope the rain stops by the time we leave - checkin at camp is a pain when everything is wet.

We had another crazy week of activities here at the lake, both indoor and outdoor. We continued playing games, including some Glory to Rome and Hand and Foot (a canasta variant), and had some great adventures on the water. Julie's brother Mike and friend Carla were in town.

For the first time in my memory we did some double skiing. Matthew and I paired up, with me taking the longer rope and going on one ski and Matthew up front on two. It was a bit hard to get up on the ski but once we did it was a blast.

Jacob and Mike also teamed up.

One of the highlights of the week was the sailboat battles. Jacob and Matthew went out on the sunfish, armed for the ensuing battle with the pirate raider Flying Dutchman.

Mike and Carla crewed the dutchman, armed with bailing buckets as their weapons of choice.

The sailing is quite good practice - the faster but less maneuverable dutchman chases down the sunfish, which is forced to jibe and come about frequently to avoid direct hits. Matthew turned traitor at one point, leaping from the sunfish to join the dutchman crew.

The boys moved onto their next project - sealing the deck railings at the grey cottage.

The boys and I are of to Camp Gorton in about 90 minutes. I'll take plenty of photos there and hope to provide an update next Saturday or Sunday, but I'll be incommunicado until then.

Given the, er, spread out nature of my Europe posts, I figured it would make sense to post a summary.

• London, Day 1
• London, Day 2
• London, Day 3
• Belgium Tourism, Days 1 and 2
• Belgium Tourism, Days 3 and 4
• Bulge Tour, Day 1
• Bulge Tour, Day 2
• Bulge Tour, Day 3
• France Days 1 and 2
• Paris Day 3
• Paris Days 4 and 5

We began the day at the Rodin museum, an impressive display of sculptures and other artifacts of his life (the museum is housed in his former residence). N.B - the sculpture below is my first attempt at HDR photography - criticism welcome. The green leaves from the garden were a nice contrast to the stark bronze of the sculpture, but I wanted to get the shadows and highlights on the work as well. This was hand-held, quick shutter burst, with +/- 2 stop exposure bracketing.

The gardens are nothing short of amazing at the museum - it would be worth an annual pass just for the privilege of relaxing on a bench and reading amongst such works of art.

The surprise highlight of the day for me was the war museum at Les Invalides. I wasn't expecting much, but the WWI and WWII chronological exhibits were very well done - nearly as high quality as the Imperial War Museum in London. Unfortunately we didn't budget more than about 30 minutes or this stop and I was continually shooed along.

From Les Invalides we walked to the Musée d'Orsay, one of my all-time favorites. Museum fatigue was in full force for the boys, so everyone else did a quick highlights tour while I stayed for 2-3 hours for some more in-depth investigation. Rick Steve's guide (not far removed from the one I used when last visiting in 1990) does a great job of illustrating the transition and contrast into the Impressionist era.

Everyone else left the museum to visit the Jardin du Luxembourg, an expansive public park that would prove to be a great resting and play area. Julie paid for Matthew to enter the playground area, with mostly injury-free results.

When I arrived Jacob and I wandered around in search of the chess games. There was some solid play going on, and some hot tempers at times. We decided to just watch and not play.

We spent the evening wandering the steps and alleys of Montmarte, home of bohemians like Dali and Picasso and cabarets like the Moulin Rouge.

There was music in the plaza, jugglers in the streets, and craziness in the cabaret district. Very thematic.

We were ready for more Indian food and found a tiny but great choice in Shenaz. The staff was very patient and helpful and we had quite a feast. And, thankfully, no sausages.

Our final day began with a visit to the holy chapel Sainte-Chapelle. Beautiful gothic architecture and stained glass.

And how about this - the French edition of the Pillars of the Earth boardgame sitting there in the gift shop.

After a visit to the Jewish district and a great Israeli / Mediterranean lunch feast, our last stop was to the Pompidou Centre. The kids had a great time ogling the sometimes, shall we say, evocative art in this bastion of modern art and abstract expressionism. I figured the red rhino was a pretty safe picture to post.

That's it! Only three months later and I finish my Europe postings. For those of you still paying attention, thanks for your patience.

Day 3 in France started with an early morning trip to Île de la Cité for a visit to Notre Dame de Paris, famous for gargoyles, gypsies, and hunchbacks. We saw at least 2 of the 3.

We roamed the island for a while, visiting Ponte Neuf and the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation before crossing to visit the Rive Gauche.

While most of the stalls along the river were close, Shakespeare and Company was not so we spent 20 minutes or so browsing the English book selection.

Our big museum visit of the day was the Louvre, and we devised a plan to keep the boys engaged that worked perfectly. We allowed them to roam on their own but gave them a checklist of exhibits to see. They had fun and we were able to browse at our own leisurely pace. The highlight for me was the Coronation of Napoleon.

We opted to eat in our hotel room that night, icing / chilling our beer (from Orval) and champagne (from Taittinger) to go with... what else but Pizza Hut?

Julie and Lisa surprised us with a collection of dessert pastries - very tasty. Also, if you happen to get a pizza in Paris from Pizza Hut, make sure you get it with "cheesy fun crust" - there's nothing like it in the US and we still talk about it today.

My goal is to finish my posts on Europe before my next trip to Europe. Nothing like setting the bar high.

We finished our tour of Belgium near the French border and drove through the countryside to our first stop in Reims (or Rheims) to break up the drive a bit. We started with a champagne tour at Taittinger, arriving without knowing when tours would run but fortunately we had another English speaking couple show up that allowed us to supersede their previously scheduled French language tour. We did have to wait in the lobby for a while to make sure nobody else would show up.

The tour was fascinating - we went deep into the cellars and witnessed a great overview of the process, plus some tasty sampling afterwards.

That evening we wandered around the heart of Reims, including a visit to the spectacular Notre Dame de Reims cathedral. This cathedral has been a participant in many historical events, including coronations of many kings and battles during WWI.

Early the next morning we departed our hotel to enter Paris. My navigation skills were a bit lacking as we missed a key turnoff on the south central loop around the city and we managed to get stuck on the freeway for several miles and unfortunately had to pay a tool to make our way back. Dave and I dropped everyone off at the hotel to check in so that we could head into town towards Les Invalides to return the car. We lucked into a fueling station near the drop-off and hopped on the metro to head south and meet up with the family.

Unfortunately the catacombs were closed for renovation! Julie of course had a backup plan - the Musée de l’Orangerie where we could see some of Monet's finest works plus pick up our museum pass - an amazing deal if you are spending a few days in Paris. Julie was our guide throughout the Paris stay - it was rare to see her without the Rick Steves book in hand.

Next up was the hike up Champs Élysées from the Place de la Concorde (with obelisk) to the Arc de Triomphe. The weather was cool but clear and the skies a deep blue.

Except when the thunderstorm hit us and we had to hide away in the Grand Palais. One day into our Paris trip the museums were starting to wear on the two most likely suspects: Dave and Matthew. All the more reason to have a museum pass and allow us to hop and hop out without worrying about getting a full value from a single visit.

We enjoyed stopping in a few of the shops along the Champs - most impressive were the concept cars in the Renault Peugeot (I knew that! but thanks George...) show room.

And of course, the culmination of the walk is the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed to the top - within a 24 hour period we would climb the Arc, the Eiffel [as far as we could), and Notre Dame - for a spectacular view of the city.

Note: this is not perfect scale - view of the tower from the Arc.

We originally planned to climb the tower later in the week, but with the weather clear and our legs fresh we decided to take advantage of our location and climb it. We approached from the Trocadéro and got a few nice shots of the illuminated tower. Climbing as high as we could followed by the final elevator lift was a smart move and probably saved us an hour of waiting in line at the base for tickets and an elevator.

We finished the day at a brasserie near our hotel, which was most notable for possibly the worst piece of sausage any of us have ever tasted. Lesson learned, we'll stick to sausages from Germany and England in the future.