Games Played
- Europe in Turmoil - Two plays of one full game. I played the Liberals, and Rob took the Authoritarian powers. Early game went Rob's way fully, as I struggled to get momentum anywhere on the map. At one point, he is sitting on 12 Victory Points (I think 20 triggers an automatic victory). I start to catch back up with play in Austria-Hungary and the Balkans, and I'm in good position to score some serious points on the turn that Rob manages to trigger the Great War. We play a war round, closing the gap further, but when we do final scoring, I'm not able to make enough ground, and the final score has Rob beating me by five points.
- Project: Elite - A Kickstarter I backed that arrived this month. Looks to be a super interesting game, and something I think I can get played at some point upon things opening back up.
- Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms - Received this for my birthday from Rob, a new minis game set in the Elder Scrolls world. Rules and minis look pretty good. I currently have the Core Box and the Stormcloak faction starter.
- Advanced Squad Leader: Red Factories - Received this from my wife for my birthday. I've actually been pretty happy to get some new things to expand my ASL collection, I can't wait until I have some time to play these!
- The Operation Nightfall starters for Spycraft: The Collectible Card Game. After playing this on TTS with Rob, I figured I enjoyed it enough that I wouldn't mind having some cards. So I got some!
- Some cards for the Transformers TCG. Eh, I was curious about it. Picked up some cards, and I'll give it a shot.
- The new Commander 2020 decks.
- A few other miniatures - Roget d'Vyaros, Doctor Stygius, Targ, Megaton Mashup, 100% Mayhem, two mini-crates. Clearly a bunch of Privateer Press stuff.
- The Men of Hawkshold box for Battleground, from the Kickstarter. I love this game, and I have the original set of these guys, but wanted the updated cards (as some errata has been incorporated). I'm eager to back the new faction, too!
- Still mostly assembly. More Riot Quest, Monsterpocalypse, and Warmachine minis. I am fully done with every Star Wars Legion model I own (need to buy more). Painting on my Stalkers slowed down, although I did sit down for a major painting session only to discover my metal paints were all bad. I bought new metal paints, so I'll be set to go when I can get some time.
- Finished Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Found it pretty interesting. Several of the patterns I have used multiple times, so the refresher was nice, and I did manage to pick up some new ideas from the book. Should help me think about how I design software in the future.
- Finished Simulating War: Studying Conflict through Simulation Games. This is a topic I find endlessly interesting, and this book proved to be worth the time, definitely. It was super interesting to not only have different design strategies discussed, with examples, but also I found some new ideas that will be a huge help if I ever decide to try my luck at designing a wargame.
- Finished Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football. This is a memoir by John Urschel, who played football with the Baltimore Ravens, but is also a dedicated and successful mathematician. A very quick, enjoyable read.
- I honestly can't recall. The summer has kind of run together. I'll try to update this correctly next month.
- Painting Points: Currently 0/10. I actually sat down to paint, realized my paints were bad, and then bought more paints.
- Number of Unplayed Games: Down another three. July will see me start playing games again, so although I won't hit my goal, I should try to keep it even.
- Warmachine/Hordes games: No games played this month. I really need to try out Wartable.
- Number of Books Read: Up to eleven, so a little behind schedule.
- Weight lost: Down 18 pounds on the year. Still going well.