Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

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The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. The attempt to give the Tactics deck more willpower for adventures by incorporating Theoden failed - but I'm starting to think that's just because of this rather stupid Ford of Isen. I have to say, I enjoyed the Khazad-dûm quests much more than the Ringmaker quests. The player cards from the Ringmaker expansions are good, but the adventures have actually annoyed me so far.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Legolas, Mablung, and Hama wanted to investigate these strange invisible Dunlanders again. They were driven off in the first attempt, but they were successful in the next attempt. However, this was in easy mode and the threat was already 48 - the deck is crying out for core Gandalf for threat manipulation. Especially since he also helps a lot with questing. Unfortunately, Trained for War did not appear this time, which would make questing much easier. And whether Hama is really so central, I still have to consider - I only used his action once. But basically, the deck also works under time pressure - and in general, it is well set up for the hand-hate of the Ringmaker quests, a tactics deck wants to play everything it has.

Sentinels of the Multiverse. Again Legacy, Wraith, Tempest - together with Unity, who did a lot more work here, even if they started a bit slowly. Baron Blade certainly did not conquer Metropolis.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. At the Fords of Isen, Dunlanders gathered and Grima failed with his diplomacy. Hama rode with Legolas and Mablung. They were accompanied by a group of Eagles and also met some Ents at the river. But it was all in vain, during the massive attack of invisible Dunlanders in stage 2B, all Eagles, Ents, and heroes were destroyed. This "X damage with X equal to cards in hand" mechanism on a time 2 trigger is highly stupid, especially when there are no more Dunlanders in the staging area or in combat. And wandering Ents are also stupid if there is no Treebeard to play them. One is the fault of the deck builder, the other is the designer of this scenario.

Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island. The ship's carpenter and a fellow traveling researcher made it to an island, even the ship's dog survived and a friendly native joined them, but it didn't help - the researcher starved to death first. An island is not a pony farm after all. And Robinson Crusoe is a coop game that simply runs over an inexperienced team - without good preparation, the later rounds are brutally difficult. Thematically and mechanically, however, wonderfully implemented.

Sentinels of the Multiverse. A time hole to Silver Gulch in the Wild West era and Ambuscade lurking around? A case for Legacy, Wraith, Unity and Tempest. Ambuscade might be a bit frustrated now, as cleanly as he was dismissed. The first mini-expansion for Sentinels is really nice, although I still have to get used to Unity, she didn't really come into her own. Wraith was the star today. And Tempest was solid as always.

Sentinels of the Multiverse. Someone messed up while scrapping Omnitron - he showed up again in Megapolis! Legacy, Wraith, Ra, and Tempest took care of it again. But Omnitron was probably still weakened from the last battle, he was only a shadow of himself and was sovereignly dismantled into his individual parts.

Waggle Dance. Played for the first time with four players today. I actually only wanted to show it briefly, but then we just played a game up to 5 as a digestif. It really explains well and is also pleasantly fast with 4, as you only place one die and then the next player is up. With two new players in the first game, it took about an hour and everyone was close in points, which is a good sign.

Legends of Andor. Today was Legend 5's turn, the one with the dragon. I guess we'll agree on a draw. The dragon was indeed defeated sovereignly, and as Münster residents, we are tolerant of squatting monsters in the Rietburg, it was just an old building that would have needed to be renovated. Highlight of the evening: I find the abducted Prince Thorald, Juliana grabs the Gor, the prince stands up, the narrator brings the next Legend card, and it places the dragon directly on the prince. Ouch. The game is always fun, but I really don't know how to achieve it in the 60-90 minutes indicated on the box. Martin and Klaus brought the Journey to the North, so: there is replenishment. But first, there are still the Star Shield and the Battle for Cavern.

Waggle Dance. The more I play, the more fun I have. Today I largely ignored the queen cards, focused more on honeycombs and nectar. In the short game, Juliana was more focused on the 5 honey, but as we continued playing, I was first at 7 and then at 9. You don't need that many bees, I only had 7 - although more would have allowed several honey actions. There's a lot of tactics and strategy in this game.

Custom COG Pack 1 and Custom COG Pack 2: Fan-made COGs for Gears of War. Something for my next crafting session. Naturally, the minis for these COGs are missing, but you can improvise.

Sentinels of the Multiverse. Omnitron appeared in Megapolis and Legacy, Wraith, Ra, and Tempest took care of the problem. Although Omnitron initially put up a strong fight, destroying equipment and blocking abilities, annoying paparazzi and hostage situations hindered the heroes, the quartet ultimately got the job done with ease. Omnitron will be sent to the scrap metal recycling.

One Zero One. Played a test game at the regulars' table. Nice, small, fast card game. Easy to learn, but enough content to make you think sometimes.

Merkel's statement "Islam belongs to Germany": De Maizière emphasizes duties for Islam. Freely interpreted according to Saxony's Prime Minister: "Saxony is welcome as part of the Federal Republic. This does not mean, however, that Saxony belongs to Germany." - you can see that in the mental outpourings of those politicians. And in the language.

One could also apply De Maiziere to Saxony and remind it of a few duties. For example, the Basic Law. And yes, De Maiziere is right, but perhaps he should also direct his statements towards the Christianists, who are also quite annoying to atheists with their moral claim to exclusivity - I don't care which mythical beard is held up to me with an raised index finger to tell me what I may or may not do.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Celeborn is slowly getting frustrated - Galadriel and Elrond are taking care of Celebrimbor's Secret, so he looked into what the antlered crown is all about with the Dunlanders - he took Legolas with him, always good to have an archer and weapon enthusiast around. A disaster. A total disaster - the Dunlanders simply drove his Elves before them, they got lost and generally behaved very stupidly. He is now planning a relaxing vacation on the Anduin. And I have rebuilt the Woodland Realm deck back to Leadership-Lore with Milronde and an Ent package, tri-sphere just isn't stable enough with the Elves. Celeborn is no Dain, I'm not even sure if he's really worth his 11 threat. The Ringmaker Adventures are brutally difficult and very fiddly due to the time mechanic.

Elder Sign. The researcher (Juliana) and the private detective (me) managed to push Glaaki or whatever the sausage head was called back into his silly portal. Although the detective klutz early on caught a curse and couldn't get rid of it and threw himself into suicide commands on monsters, Arkham was actually never in great danger. Even after many games, I still find it one of the nicer dice games - Juliana has no idea about the stories behind it and just plays for the dice combinations, but for me there's a bit of theme painted on, and it's also entertaining. But don't expect deeper strategy (apart from "grab as many clue markers as possible").

Forbidden Desert. The mountaineer (me) and the meteorologist (Juliana) turned out to be the absolute dream team and dug out all the parts of the airplane in no time and flew back to civilization sovereignly, not even a breeze or thirst came up. The game is really fun, but I think we can soon leave the beginner mode - otherwise it is too easy. But that it went so quickly today I owe to the really perfectly running combination.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

San Juan. Still a nice filler, but I don't know if it doesn't become frustrating in real play against other players (instead of in the app against AIs) - the player with the guild hall and production focus is hard to catch up with, the difference in points is enormous. If one of the end evaluation buildings comes up, the corresponding player makes a huge leap, there are no useful catch-up mechanisms, except to have luck as well. In the second game of the evening I noticed this myself - no end evaluation standing except the triumphal arch for me and no monuments that I could have built. It can quickly become frustrating when opponents already have an evaluation building out early.

January 19, 2015, Banned and Restricted Announcement | MAGIC: THE GATHERING. Ouch. I really feel sorry for Pod players - their investments in Modern decks are now completely down the drain. And Treasure Cruise is making a banning sweep all the way down to Vintage - when was the last time a card was restricted in Vintage? Intense.

Update on OS Support for Next Version of Lightroom. Hmm, I think this is where I'm out of the Lightroom update cycle for now. I'm absolutely not sure that upgrading to 10.8 on my MacBook Air is a good idea, and I don't feel like messing up my system with updates. Frankly, I don't quite see the point in absolutely needing 10.8. And no, system updates are never "free". Maybe free of charge, but the time you invest has value. And the loss of performance and potential new hardware purchase are also factors to consider. I don't even think I need more than what LR5 already offers me right now.

COLOR AND LIGHT IN NATURE Homepage: Rainbows, haloes, mirages, colors in the sky & water and more!. Sounds very interesting, I already have Color and Light in the Outdoors, which also deals a lot with the physical basics of effects, but this one seems to focus even more on the actual visual aspects.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Celeborn sent Aragorn into the woods after the last failures and set out with Haldir and Beravor to uncover Celebrimbor's secret. Unfortunately, another failure, the threat was too great and forced them to retreat. But it went better than with the woodlander klutz who is so smitten with Celeborn's granddaughter. No idea what the girl sees in him, nothing will ever come of it.

Super Fantasy - Attack of the Ugly Snouts. Just blogmarked because I generally like such games - and it is playable in Coop, Solo and also competitively. And not as expensive as the miniature-based Big-Box games. And already in German, which makes it easier to invite others.

Waggle Dance. Wow, so much fun for more. We played again as two players, it really works well. However, it's still quite difficult to assess the tactical potential of the queen cards. And somehow I also need to pay more attention to my own strategy so that I can win sometimes.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Sentinels of the Multiverse. This time, Legacy, Wraith, Ra and Tempest faced off against Baron Blade and although he really gave it his all, he didn't stand a chance. Insula Primalis was particularly annoying this time, but the superheroes were not impressed by either thieving Pterodactyls or lava flows. Epic!

Waggle Dance. Today's first game with Juliana, and it really worked well - definitely a good gateway, but also interesting strategies. The exchange actions, for example, were my saviors, even though I initially rated them as rather weak. And the victory scoring - great. Efficiency is so much cooler than just victory points in a field. Both of us had 5 honey (here the leader would have won), both 9 bees (here the lower one would have been the winner), but Juliana had more nectar and was thus the winner. Very friendly, visually beautiful and elegant worker placement game system.

Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients. Distributed in this country by Heidelberger and the German versions of the two base boxes have already been threatened. Weird West at its ameritrashiest.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Twice, Aragorn, Celeborn, and Beravor attempted to find the secret of Celebrimbor from the Orc troops of Bolg, but both times they failed, despite support from the Ents. On the second attempt, they already had the mold, but were then overrun by the Orcs.

After attacks in Paris: Premier Cameron wants to ban effective encryption. And so begins the madness of attacks on civil rights with flimsy pseudo-arguments and ineffective - but certainly very convenient for the intelligence services - requirements. Who gets left behind? The citizen, who just wants to live. The citizen, who is still in the majority, who does not question the liberal democratic basic order, as extremist fringe groups like terrorists and politicians do.

Waggle Dance. Just a test flight of the busy bees to get a feel for it, but I like the game! Pretty colorful and a simple, catchy worker placement with enough tactical options. Definitely a good decision to join the Kickstarter. Nice gateway game that even advanced players can have fun with.

What is this all about? | Space Empires 4X - a board game by Jim Krohn. Another program to automate the alien players in Space Empires 4X. This time in Java.

Space Empires: 4X - Alien Players Tool. Bookmarked for later - simulates the Alien Player in Space Empires 4X when playing solo and not wanting to face the Doomsday Machine.

Gears of War: The Board Game. On the day of his arrival at his new post, Markus Fenix made a truly pitiful figure - Dom would laugh at him. But it was only flesh wounds, quickly patched up by the medic and right back in, that damned hole must be plugged. And this time it worked. The grenade launcher that the Boomer lost, which suddenly appeared in front of his Lancer - where do these big guys always hide? - and which he couldn't grab, did bother him a bit.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

IMHO: Und ewig lockt die Vorratsdatenspeicherung

Forbidden Desert. Navigator and water carrier had no major problems finding their way out of the desert, despite the storm picking up and the scorching sun. The game is really nice, relaxing, and fluid to play, even for the first game - although I had of course read the instructions and watched the game on Tabletop. Can definitely become a regular guest with us, and offers space for 2-5.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Aragorn and Frodo visited Celeborn and helped him get a captured Orc through Fangorn. The Huorns were a nuisance but could be kept under control and the group made it through with a few scratches. The deck isn't running really smoothly yet, I still need to optimize, even though it achieved its goal here.

xslt workbench. Please don't ask why I need something like this. The pain is already great enough.

sharplispers/cormanlisp. Haven't lisped in a long time. Corman Lisp - one of the coolest implementations of Common Lisp on Windows at the time - is now open source and on GitHub. However, it probably still needs a lot of work before it runs smoothly on modern Windows versions. But the first step has been taken with the source release.

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I have uploaded new pictures to Google+ and/or Flickr. Here they are - unsorted and uncommented. And yes, there is some really old stuff in there.

Galaxy Defenders - blocked for later, so around May 2015 - with the Windows program you can create your own missions. And with the tracker you can keep track of the current status in a campaign, so you know how it ended the next time.

We spent the New Year's change in 2014 on Gran Canaria and of course produced a lot of vacation photos again.

Sentinels of the Multiverse. Baron Blade destroyed Legacy, Ra and Fanatic on Insula Primalis. I guess I need to get better.

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer. And another time killer on the plane. Offline against the AI.

San Juan. On the return flight from Gran Canaria, this was the perfect relaxation in the plane, even if only against the simple AIs.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Deck: Look to the Skies

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Deck Spotlight: Defenders of Eriador

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Archive 16.11.2014 - 15.2.2015

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