Board Game Treasure trove... Part one

One of the things I was looking forward to when I headed back to Canada was rooting through the few old boxes I had left there. I knew that I had left some older games back there, but I was not totally sure what was in there.

Here is what I found...

The first exciting box in the memory pile was the game Hacker (1992). This was a game that HEAVILY borrowed from another game I have Illuminati. Like most Steve Jackson games, it was ok, overpriced and had not as much replay value as you would like. The basic idea was that you are a hacker who is competing with the other hackers to gain control of the most systems. The cards are full of clever "in-jokes" that get a little less funny each additional time you read them.Next up is Marvel Super Heroes, this is an RPG, not a board game. It is funny, this is a game that my friends and I played A LOT, but never really in a traditional RPG manner. Instead of adventures, we would normally create a pool of heroes/villains, then distribute them to each player and have some sort of free for all battle on a big city map. We did this regularly and I have to say it was awesome. The best was throwing in vastly under/overpowered characters into the mix. I am sure most comic fans wanted to know what would happen in a battle between Aunt May, The Fabulous Frogman, and Thor.A game I was thrilled to still have was this one. The Star Trek RPG and Star Trek Advanced Combat Simulator (1986) all in one box. I hardly ever played this one as it was pretty complex and in 1986 I think most of my gaming buddies and I were looking for a quicker fix than power management of capital ships in space. I still have all the books and every single counter, so I think I could still revisit this one, or maybe even EBAY it one day if I think I could need the cash.
Finally (for this post anyway) the single best thing I found was my old edition of Cosmic Encounter. This is the Mayfair Edition, which I purchased around 1992 or so. The original game is from 1977, and I understand it will be reprinted by Fantasy Flight Games later this year. I also owned the expansion, More Cosmic Encounter, but that one was sadly not in the box.

This game is one where you take on the persona of an alien race, and then strive for domination by capturing a fixed number of planets. Each alien race (there are MANY MANY) has a special ability that allows them to do something outside the normal rules. I played this in school and it was a blast. I had already planned to buy the new version, but now I will have to wait and see if it is a straight reprint of this one or contains any improvements.
Stay tuned, there was a bit more in the closet, there will be more posts on this topic coming...

Rock Stars

Something I think Liam enjoyed in the first days of the visit was the wealth of new toys that were now available to him. It was a whole rec room full of new stuff that he had never yet had his grubby little paws on.

Some things were more appealing than others, and he seemed in particular drawn to things that made a lot of noise.

Near the top of the noise list was a little guitar, Liam liked this right away and surprised me by knowing the english word for it immediately. I am sure we covered it in one of his books at some point.I think that he is already clearly showing that he has what it takes as far as the posing and ability to give the crowd what they are looking for...
He even worked on some different poses over the days, in this one I think he is trying to pull off some sort of Jeff Beck thing. It works for him.I even tried to join in the fun, I am trying to pose as if I actually have a clue as far as guitar goes. I think I was already testing my musical limits with this toy one, I have all the musical talent of a rock.

First meeting of cousin Adam

Well, one of the big attractions for the trip to Canada was of course to introduce Liam to his family over there. My sister has two little people of her own living in the house and this would be the first occasion to get them all in the same room.

Now, I know that Liam will fairly much get some geekdom forced on him with me as a father, what with my love of computers, video games, science, comics, board games, and other nerdy nerdy things, but I was not sure what my Sister's boy would like. My sister is fairly much a non-geek. She has always liked things like sports and traditional normal human pastimes.

Lucky for me, some of my old junk still lives in her basement. The kind of junk that her 5 year old son got his hands on...This is my sound FX Darth Vader light sabre, something I purchased in my 20s I will add. Adam had apparently taken a liking to that one and as luck would have it, there was a second light sabre in the basement for Liam.Not quite a duel on the level of Vader vs Obi Wan, but I thought it was great that the two little guys went right for this stuff all on their own, no prompting from me. I knew the geek gene ran strong in my family.

Back in Germany

Well, I have endured the monster travel of 1+8+1+5 hours in various forms of transport to get back home and I can start with the wonderful posts on the Canada visit.

All in all it was a very nice trip, the weather was generally cooler than expected, but so many years of living in Germany has made me used to cool damp weather. It was very nice to see my family and friends again and it always feels a little sad to leave when the trip is over.

This visit was clearly the best time ever for Liam. He had two weeks in a house full of kids, dog, bird, fish, toys, and constant attention. I think it is safe to say that it was his greatest trip ever. If nothing else, his obsession with my sister's dog was well worth it.

First, some photos of the trip there...

First a nice stroll through the airport on the way to the boarding call... Bobby was of course a constant companion through the trip.
At the Airport, Liam sees a plane up close for the first time. He was amazed how big they were and could not really understand that he was actually going to go ride INSIDE it.
Liam on his first plane ride, taken with my phone. He was super excited on how fast the plane was... then asleep about 5 seconds after take off. Aside from boredom near the end of the flight, he was a very very good boy.
Then at the baggage claim, a little pooped and unsure of what is really going on. That is all for today, lots of work to do, but there will be lots more coming.

Still in Canada

Yep, the vacation is still going on... so not much in the way of posting time. The trip is going very well, nice to see all of you so far and I am looking forward to having lots and lots of content when I return home next week.

Look, even Liam is in the act taking some photos for this site...

Fun with Aunt & Uncle

Liam Loves Aunt Doris and Uncle Ryan.

Here he has demanded she sit on the carpet so he can teach her some new games with Bobby the bear. Bobby is Liam's best friend.
The first game is "sleeping"
Followed by the always fun, "climbing on the big person"
Then it is off to the next adventure... come on Aunt Doris!
Aunt Doris does not get all the attention though, when it comes to Fussball, Liam turns to Uncle Ryan. At this point, papa was specifically commanded to STAY INSIDE by Liam.
Liam has the brilliant game of kicking the ball off down the hill, then trying to make someone else go get it. I can foresee a future in management.
Here is the little commander, telling Ryan that he should be the one headed in to the shrubbery. Ryan stood his ground though, teaching Liam that "he who kicks it out of bounds, gets the ball" Good job Uncle Ryan.
Clearly Liam's tremendous football skills and Ryan's key training initiatives is getting me ready for early retirement as I follow Liam's pro career.

Some Interesting Gorge

On the drive home fro Annency, we saw this very interesting looking bridge over a gorge. I insisted that we stop for a quick look. It clearly is trying to look like some old old bridge, but I get the feeling that it is quite new, just done in an old style.

Foolishly, I never wrote down the name of the bridge, and Ryan and I did not notice a plaque or anything stating the details of the attraction. It just looked too.... new to me. Anyway, here is the gorge and some of the bridge.

I wish the sky had been a little more blue at this time of day, but I can not be bothered to photoshop one in.

The bridge as we approached it was pretty impressive. It looked very castle like. This is what I saw from the car that drew me in, making us stop for a closer look.
nextIf you look closely at the bridge though, it just seems to clean and non-crumbled to be ancient. Ryan thinks it was restored, but I say it was new. I am willing to bet that I am older than this bridge.It is still pretty impressive though, It was nice to walk along and take in the view, a nice breeze was blowing.The view of the gorge was pretty nice. Not the best time of day for a photo, but it looks not too bad.It sure seems like a long way down....I also thought that the modern highway bridge was also pretty impressive looking. It must have been a real pain for people to get around this region before modern engineering made stuff like this possible.

Boat Ride on Lake Annecy

OK, here is the BIG post. This one covers what may be the highlight of Liam's whole year so far.... he had the chance to ride on an actual boat. He loves boats and water and he was shouting at them from the side of the lake as soon as he saw them. It was so nice we thought, why not, lets rent a boat and have a paddle around.

We headed over to a paddle boat rental place and hired a 5-person boat. Liam was the only one who needed a life jacket. Perhaps we should have all had them, but we were confident enough in our combined boating and swimming skills amongst the adults.
I could not resist one more nice mountain and lake photo taken out on the water. I really thought this was one of the nicest places I have been to in quite a while.
Of course, the powerful men sat up front providing the engine for our paddle boat. The first 5 minutes are easy, then Ryan and I quickly noted that a boat plus 5 people quickly tire out the legs. We got out to a nice spot then just floated around a little. Notice how happy Liam looks as he gets out on his first open topped boat ride (he was on the water taxi in Lake Geneva last year...)
The wives took the relaxing lounge-spots in the back. A comfy restful location where they could enjoy the sunshine and cool breeze. Featured in this one is a clear shot of Claudia's new haircut. It was not all lazy-bones day back there though, Claudia and Doris took on the very difficult task of telling Ryan and myself which way to go and how fast. just kidding.

Here is a rare photo of myself. Too bad Liam's huge life jacket got a bit in the way, otherwise this would have looked pretty OK.
I think the absolute biggest thrill for Liam was when we let him drive the boat. We did this of course in the middle of a lake, with no other boats or obstacles around and traveling at a pretty slow speed. I think in Liam's mind we were rocketing along like a speedboat. He was very enthusiastic and happy to be given the controls...
Well, that wraps up the boating adventure.

We are off to Canada on Sunday! There will almost certainly be fewer posts while we are traveling, but I think the bulk of our readership will see us in person in the next days, so that is even better. I will of course be bringing along the camera, so I have no doubt that I will get some nice photos to share in the great white north.

Around Annecy

I was very very impressed with the town of Annecy. I was likely influenced somewhat by seeing it under the best possible conditions. Wonderful sunny day, temperature was just right. Liam was in a good mood and we had just eaten a yummy lunch. Conditions were perfect for enjoyment.

One of the first sites we saw after lunch was the Palais de L'Isle. My friend Wikipedia advises me that this was built in 1172. It is apparently one of the most frequently photographed landmarks in France. No wonder, I think it looks pretty sweet.
The Lake is of course the biggest attraction of this town and I was pretty amazed at just how great it was. I don't have too much else to say about how much I liked it... so enjoy these nice photos.

New Feature!

I just added the "google translate" tool to the sidebar, so now you can view my glorious posts in a variety of languages.... German for example, or perhaps Norwegian if that is your fancy.

French Fashion?

France.... a nation renowned for its sense of style. This is a country that is a fashion capital of the world. It would seem that they are not too big on how they market their fashion though. I think the name of your store should be something good... something catchy...

I saw this place in France on the weekend:
To be fair, it is clear and concise. There is really no doubt in my mind what they have in this shop. Shoes. Not just any shoes. Trendy ones. Since I trust the French sense of style so much, I know that if they say it is trendy, then it must be so.

However, here are a sampling of the shoes on display:
Now, I think I can safely say that this is not a current trend in any of the places I have been lately. So France, Germany, Switzerland... all out. Unless of course it is a trend that is just beginning. I could be breaking the fashion news here ahead of major news outlets. When you spot the crowds wearing these god awful sparkle shoes, remember you saw it here first.

The only other theory I can come up with is that this store recently changed management, and slapped the "trendy shoes" name on the front as a new beginning. These sparkling shoes are left over from the old store, which was using the much less successful name "Crap Shoes"

Yummy Crepes

On the Geneva voyage, we decided to go across the border and spend a day in France. The lovely town of Annecy. I had never been there, but Doris and Ryan told us it was well worth the short drive over. They were right, it was a super nice town and we enjoyed it a lot. I will have a few posts on this place, but the first one talks about lunch.

I am all about perpetuating absurd stereotypes when I can. In fact, when I go to France I fully expect and want everyone to look exactly like this (well, he should actually have a baguette in one hand and a cigarette in the other):Now, what better way to have a typical French lunch than to go for Crepes. We quickly found this nice looking Creperie:

I went for a Galette, which is the dark crepe that you have with heartier, meal type ingredients as opposed to the sweet kind. Mine was a "raclette" one, filled with cheese, potatoes and with smoked ham on top. It was very very good and I could barely finish it. The beverage of choice when I am in France is 100% of the time Orangina. Yummy yummy orange pop with pulp floating around.Knowing the diet of the picky boy, we went safe and ordered him a plain sweet crepe. Pancakes are one of the few things that Liam actually eats at home, so we thought he would probably have no problem with it.

Turns out we were mostly correct, he jumped right in and was particularly pleased to use a big fork like everyone else.
All in all, a delightful lunch, I would go back tomorrow.

Gaming night

We have just returned from a very nice visit with the Joneses in Geneva this weekend. Lots of sunshine and fun was there. As much fun as everyone waiting on Liam hand and foot can be, I personally enjoy when he pops off to bed and we can play some board games.

On Friday night, we got to play one of my personal favorites, Pillars of the Earth. I have shown this one in the past on the blog, but to remind you, players are each heading a building company in 13th century England. A cathedral is being built and you gain points by managing resources and contributing to the construction.

It is a fun game of managing your workers to gather resources, recruiting craftsmen to build those resources into points, and managing gold to pay for stuff. Quite strategic, with just enough luck thrown in to make it interesting.

Here is the game in the early going. Everyone is thinking hard about what they will be buying... wood... sand... more masons? more carpenters? hmmmm
A close up on the board in the penultimate round. You can see that our hero (ME) as the green player has built up a healthy lead. However I was pursuing a sub-optimal strategy that left me almost no gold for the last rounds... I was getting outbid on all the big points craftsmen by the gold saving Claudia and Doris....As it turned out, slow and steady did win the day. My plan of ensuring I had a couple of points every round instead of saving up for a big push at the end worked out. Claudia as the yellow player actually caught up to me in points, also finishing the final round with 44, but she blew all her cash getting there. I had my paltry 3 gold in the bank which broke the tie and crowned me winner!
Not a crushing victory by any stretch, but it was worthy of me performing the traditional 13th century victory dance.