Deadzone!!

Comrade James Reporting: This month of September is the Mantic Month of Madness here in the GarageCave, with my birthday present of the Deadzone Mega Bundle arriving last week, and my long awaited Kickstarter from Mantic, Mars Attacks, due to ship later this month.
I'll post a more detailed review of my first impressions of Deadzone in due course, but first I need to assemble all the awesome terrain pieces and tricky figures...

Fathers Day Gaming

Comrade James Reporting: What do all Gamer Dad's do on Fathers Day ? Continue the education of their children in the delights of gaming of course! I spent the weekend with my three Mini Gamers on the Aussie Fathers Day weekend recently, and like Paul, had plans for lots of gaming goodness...lo and behold, Mini Comrade (age 8) asked me if I had heard of Dungeons and Dragons, because he had seen it being played on a TV show and was curious. During the car trips on Saturday attending kid activities, I gave all three kids a taste of a Role Playing game, inventing a scene (ahem, sorry, 'Encounter' ) and giving them a chance to say what they would do...they all got into it, so I took the opportunity of a visit into the city to acquire the new 5th Edition DnD Starter Box...for the next one and a half days, pausing only for a Fathers Day picnic lunch, my three intrepid adventurers took their 5 characters through the forests towards Phandalin, escorting a wagon of supplies through Goblin infested woods....after chasing the sole Goblin survivor to the Goblins lair, surviving the inevitable booby trap, and showing that even an 8 year old can remember to throw the rope to help his sisters up the rocky entrance to the cave, the kids were hooked....the adventure continues, but I'm happy to report three more mini gamers are hooked on RPG's to complement their love of Blood Bowl Team Manager, Munchkin and Talisman......

 New Game Smell selfie

An intense Dungeon Master Moment......note the killer roses to add to the theme....

Putrid Players!

Today was father's day and I had pre-empted it a little by ordering the new Blood Bowl Team Manger Expansion "Foul Play" for myself.  So after the day's fun the Lad and I sat down to try out the new teams- he took Nurgle while I thought I would try my luck with the Goblins.  Lots of fun ensued, as always with this game, and I liked both the disease mechanic of the Nurgle and the new stadium features.

Right Stuff having no mercy on his Dad - as usual!

I would say though that there seems to be a lot in motion with all the new rules from the two expansions.  Not an insurmountable amount, but a lot.  I'm sure if you play regularly it wouldn't be an issue but its a lot now for a pickup game if you use them all.

All of which is my excuse for loosing the game 39-33 ! :-)

PS Yes this was our first game played since moving to the US - two months without hobby time was a very long time indeed!

V-J Day

Today is the Anniversary of the surrender of the Japanese Empire in 1945 and the conclusion of WW2.

On 12 Aug 1945 the Japanese announced their unconditional surrender.  However, it was not until 2 Sep that the surrender document was signed onboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, and President Truman officially declared that day to be "V-J Day".  Operation DOWNFALL, the planned invasion of the home islands scheduled to commence in November 45, was cancelled and hundreds of thousands of projected casualties on both sides were avoided.

General Douglass MacArthur (shown above) was the supreme Allied Commander for the occasion, and stated:

"It is my earnest hope—indeed the hope of all mankind—that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance, and justice."

One may visit the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbour where she is preserved as a museum ship and berthed astern of the USS Arizona memorial - between them they mark the beginning and the end of the involvement of the USA in WW2 (USS Arizona was sunk in the Pearl Harbour attack of 7 Dec 41).

You can visit the exact point pictured above where this plaque commemorates that event in 1945 and copies of the surrender document are displayed.  I had the privilege in 2009 and it was most memorable.