6mm-Minis

6mm-Minis is Maksim-Smelchak's blog to discuss gaming, miniatures, books, movies, food, Israel, Judaism, life in general and other funny crud. My favorite scale of miniatures is 6mm, which is also called 1/285 or 1/300 scale. I enjoy many different kinds of games including ancients, Napoleonics, WWI, WWII, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Car Wars AKA Autoduel (a sort of crash'n'derby automobile combat game), 6mm Godzilla AKA Kaiju games, and science fiction games. I'm open to everything though!

Saturday, April 29, 2006

PERSONAL NEWS: I'm Tho Thick! Uuugghh!

Hi and good morning, Everyone,

I'm really sick... I think I have some sort of flu. I have a high temperature, sore all over, having trouble sleeping, clammy skin and am generally miserable.

So please don't be surprised if I don't update the blog for a few days either.

And I know I'm seriously sick because there is gaming today and I don't think I'll be going unless I feel much better later today.

I hope that everyone out there is better than I am at the moment.

Shabbat Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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Thursday, April 27, 2006

GAMING NEWS: No Stink'in Badges! (26 April 2006)

Hi Everyone,

Well, yesterday was A-1 Comics gaming night and we had quite a showing.

I'm not sure what the night's theme was, but it was probably Spaghetti Westerns again as we played Bang! three times. The law men were slain three times running, definitely a bandito day.

It was a quiet evening... everyone was a little tired and Crystal was having a "creative hair" day... The scent of love and allergies must have been in the air.

Check out an article on Yahoo News called:

"Soaring Pollen Counts Spur Worst Allergy Season in Years"
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
"We have seen an early and aggressive allergy season, including seasonal pollens and mold spores," said Dr. Clifford Bassett, a Long Island-based allergist and vice-chairman of AAAAI's Public Education Committee. Shulan agreed.

"The buds have been ready to burst, and when we have these warm days, the pollen counts have been just wild," he said.

Sacramento is among the worst cities in the country (#8 of the worst 10) for allergy sufferers.

Present & Accounted For:
- Cary
- Clay
- Crystal
- Dave Story
- Dick
- Kimbo
- Maksim (me!)
- Mike O'Brien
- Nils
- Todd

======
1. Tigris & Euphrates

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/42

Players:
- Dave: L.
- Dick: L.
- Maksim: L.
- Mike: WINNER!

This is an interesting little game... I am wondering how much of the game is skill and how much luck. While the characters (round tokens) can pull off some pretty nice coups... the winning player profitted most from what other players did for him... not necessarily through his own actions. Weird. However, I'm not begrudging Mike his victory as, what Dick calls: "Monarch of Mesopotamia!" Mazel Tov, Mike!

This is a serious picture of Dick looking "spic 'n' span" after a haircut without his crisp trademark purple shirt. It must have been a "Back In Black" day for him. The whole evening seemed a little sombre... several of us were suffering from Spring allergies.

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2. San Juan

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/8217

Players:
- Crystal: WINNER!
- Kimbo: L.
- Nils: L.
- Todd: L.

When Crystal plays for keeps, she DOES! Despite Kimbo's best efforts, she eeked out a SBD victory... Mazel Tov, Crystal!

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3. Robo Ralley

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/18

Players:
- Cary: L.
- Clay: WINNER!
- Dave: L.

Dave introduced the guys to this "oldie but a goodie" on a simple one-map game in which Clay took victory by pushing his robot to its utmost. Mazel Tov, Clay!


The above robot pretty much captures the "spirit" of the evening... low on energy and desperately sad.

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4. Bang!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3955

Players:
- Crystal: ?
- Dick: ?
- Kimbo: Outlaw - Victory!
- Maksim: Oulaw - Shot Down Like A Dog! - Victory!
- Mike: Deputy - Loss.
- Nils: Deputy - Loss.
- Todd: Sheriff - SDLAD!

OUTLAW Victory!

Here's a picture of Crystal and Todd not looking too energetic... I tell you, allergies must have been in the air... Of Course, with that eyes closed position, it might have just been Crystal plotting ways to beat the rest of us down and Todd not recovering from his last marital castigation.

Nils adds:

Bang #1: Todd was the Sheriff while Mike and I were Deputies. Unfortunately, we sat immediately to Todd's right so were very little help to him in the first turns of the game. Then I was jailed for my first turn.

======
5. Bang!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3955

Players:
- Crystal: ?
- Dick: ?
- Kimbo: ?
- Maksim: Sheriff - Shot Down Like A Dog! - Loss.
- Mike: ?
- Nils: Deputy - Loss.
- Todd: ?

OUTLAW Victory!

It was an "Eat lead, lawman!" day and the outlaws "moidelized" the sheriff and his weak deputies again!

Nills adds:

Bang #2: I was Deputy again, but don't remember who the Sheriff was (Maks: I was.). It finally dawned on me that I had to pay attention to other people's play to determine if I should attack them or not.

======
6. Bang!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3955

Players:
- Crystal: Deputy - Shot Down Like a Mangy Cur By Her Own Side! - Loss.
- Dick: Deputy - Shot Down Like a Dog! - Loss.
- Kimbo: Outlaw - SDLAD! - Loss.
- Maksim: Outlaw - SDLAD! - Loss.
- Mike: Outlaw - SDLAD! - Loss.
- Nils: Sheriff - SDLAD! - Loss.
- Todd: Renegade - Renegade Victory!

RENEGADE Victory!

In a remarkable turn-around, the Renegade pulled off a rare renegade victory! I have no idea who the renegade was since I was the first one turned into road kill... Mazel Tov, Renegade Man!

Nils adds:

Bang #3: I was Sheriff. Dick was a Deputy. Maks, Kimbo and Mike were all Outlaws and were all gunned down. It came down to Todd and Crystal, one being the other Deputy and the other being the Renegade. Both had played very well, but since Todd sat immediately to my left, I noticed him helping me more as Sheriff, so attacked and slew Crystal. She turned out to be the Deputy. Todd and I fought it out for a few turns, including me getting the right cards to strip Todd of all his cards, but he finally gunned me down.

Bang Variant: There was a discussion of how people can get killed early on in the game (Maks and Kimbo). On BGG, there are variant rules to allow the dead plays to continue to play as Ghosts and even affect the living players. Might be interesting to try. Here's the link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo.php?fileid=14481

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7. No Thanks!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12942

Players:
- Cary: WINNER!
- Dave: L.
- Dick: L.

Cary must have been hot yesterday... a skillful victory! Every time I turned around, he had a new hand layed out. Mazel Tov, Cary!

======
8. No Thanks!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12942

Players:
- Cary: L.
- Dave: WINNER!
- Dick: L.

Every dog (sic. Dave) has his day and this was his game! Mazel Tov, Dave!

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9. Saboteur

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9220

Players:
- Cary: ?
- Crystal: ?
- Dave: ?
- Dick: ?
- Nils: ?
- Todd: ?

This was the last game of the evening and I left before it ended. The saboteurs, narsty little barstards, seemed to be leading... and the map looked like a government contractor's job of tunneling.

Here's a picture of the gang playing Saboteur near the end of the evening when I pulled out my digital camera to snap a few shots. Nils has his legs propped up in the upper right corner of the shot, poor guy's baby daughter has been sick keeping him up late. In the upper left of the photo, you can see Dave in an "animated state." I think that Crystal was being irksome with him.

Nils adds:

Saboteur: Dave neglected to explain that you could discard instead of playing if you didn't have any card to help in tunnel building. Because of this key ommission, the first round was extremely erratic, with the new players (me included) thinking good little gnomes had to make bad plays because of the cards in their hands. This threw everyone's Saboteur sense totally off. The gnomes finally got the gold with the TLC unit being the saboteurs (Wow!, imagine that!). Second round, Dick played the Saboteur role extremely well, even to the point of making people thing I had said there was gold under a card when I had originally said there wasn't. Dave and ?Todd? were the other saboteurs. They ended up winning that round and since Dave was in the winning group both rounds, he won the game.

Saboteur Variant: Also on BGG, a Saboteur variant is discussed that allows only gold to be given to the good gnomes that aren't blocked by broken equipment. Sounds like this adds a bit of complexity to the game and makes it a bit easier for the Saboteurs to win since the good gnomes start fighting amongst themselves as the end of the game nears. Weird, the BGG link has disappeared since last night.

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10. Yinsh!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7854

Players:
- Clay: L.
- Maksim: WINNER!

Well, I said it about Dave and turn-about is fair play. Every dog (sic. Maks) has his day and it was my day!

Here's Clay with a somber smile. I swear he has the most slick, smooth poker face that I have ever seen. You'd never guess what he had just done.

======

Have a great Thursday!

Special thanks to the TLC (Todd Loves Crystal!) unit for bringing fancy chocolate chip cookies!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

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Wednesday, April 26, 2006

HUMOUR: History & Humour At the Gym!

Hi Everyone,

I got a shock about two weeks ago... I went to donate blood, a long-time habit, and one of my favorite good deeds (mitzvah or mitzvot in Hebrew) when I was deferred for high blood pressure. And I've known that my blood pressure was high for sometime, but the doctor always tells me that it's nothing to worry about and to just make sure that I take care of the big three of blood pressure:

1. Diet
2. Exercise
3. Stress / hereditary conditions

Well, you can do something about diet and exercise, but you can only manage, not control, your hereditary health conditions and stress so I resolved to do what I could. I've donated over seven gallons of my blood over the years and I don't want to stop. I made a New Year's resolution last year that I didn't keep... to go to the gym at least three times a week. Last year was a stressful one and I ended up pushing that one to the side.

If that's too depressing, check out this uplifting video from AISH.COM:

http://www.aish.com/movies/highh.asp

And for my non-Jewish friends, the advice that isn't specifically Jewish is good for everyone, but I felt like some Jewish jokes today.

Well, I no longer have a choice anymore so I polished off the gym membership card and resolved to head there every day and I have. I think that I'm going to let myself have Wednesday nights off to game. Other than that, no break unless I substitute another healthy activity like hiking.

And the below picture is how I usually feel at the gym. I'm the person being "worked."

So, I've been finding myself at the gym every night.

And the below photo is of the gym I probably ought to be heading to:

And normally that's not such a good thing as my last gym was a meat market... all beautiful in-shape people ogling one another. And that's OK... I mean who doesn't want to be surrounded by beautiful people, but it can be annoying when you just come to work out and were hoping to see a few like-minded folks about... no bonfire of the vanities.

Here's a couple of folks (below photo) that look like they worked out at my last gym:

Well, my new gym is a lot different. For one, normal people go there... and by normal people, I mean out-of-shape folks, middle-aged folks, retirees, people of vastly different health levels and ages. I've been a heck of a lot more comfortable now that I'm in such a varied environment.

The people at the new gym look normal and wear T-shirts and sweatpants instead of spandex and tank tops. They look more like this (below photo):

Well, one of the affectations I picked up studying Russian culture and having spent my time there was a love for saunas, the steam room, the dry heat and all that that entails. So I find myself there at the end of every evening after my work out. And if there is one place that is the "social central" of any gym, the dry spa would be it. I've met Korean grandmothers, hippie meditators, total stud muffins, a young lady bodybuilder, men with canes, two older Ukrainian ladies who gave me tips on facial skin care, a kindly African-American body builder, and yesterday was the day of days...

I met Mike, Charlie and the "Chief."

I met Mike after he ended up on the exercise bike next to mine. He forgot his glasses or left them in the car and couldn't read the machine so I helped him (by reading those tiny red electronic numbers and letters) and we ended up chatting. He's an automobile insurance claims man with All State Insurance and a happily married man for twenty-five years. He also has two happy children. I always enjoy hearing a happy story and I ended up tagging along with him. We finished on the bikes and I followed his abdomen and upper body routines.

Check out this video to get an idea how Mike must have felt on that exercise bike without his glasses:

http://grouper.com/GlobalMedia/MediaDetails.aspx?id=559558

Then we were done and headed for the steam room.

And the gist of this story is that Mike and I met not one, but two veterans yesterday... both veterans of both the Korean and the Vietnam Wars. And both Air Force.

The "Chief" was already in there spinning stories while tolerating the heat.

And Charlie, an older Asian-American gentleman, came in and joined the conversation.

We talked about children, the service, the neighborhood and a variety of other things. And it was great.

Just when things seem hopeless, I get this uplifting conversation and a reminder from the past to keep on going and to remember to keep building my own legacy for the future generations. I really enjoyed hearing the stories from these venerated elders and enjoyed joining their conversations.

And I really enjoyed hearing from a group of folks that loved the USA. I hear a lot from folks who complain about what a terrible country the USA is and wish that they'd never immigrated here, but they stay... and forget why they came. This group of gentlemen was different... they remember why they live in the USA and have made the best of their lives here to date.

To learn more about the Korean War, please check out these links:

http://www.korean-war.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War

So, now I'm feeling more like the (below photo):

And, yes, I do really like Chuck Norris!

Have a great Wednesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S. In honor of Passover, well... having passed, I give you the ILL Matzahbrise!

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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

HASBARA: Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Hi Everyone,

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, otherwise known as Yom HaShoah in Hebrew. I thought alot about what I could write, but in the end I want to go with some simple text... no picture, no razzle dazzle... simply mention the fact, acknowledge it and stop. Talking about the existential threat of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons wouldn't help today.

http://www.yadvashem.org/

http://history1900s.about.com/cs/holocaust/a/yomhashoah.htm

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I'm going to follow my friend Yehuda's lead.

http://jergames.blogspot.com/

======

Yehuda linked to one story and mentioned two more.

1. He linked to Treppenwitz with one of those stories that is so real that you want to cry:

http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2006/04/fred_basci.html

2. Then he mentioned genocide is unfortunately still with us:

http://www.darfurgenocide.org/

3. And lastly he mentioned that there are those who would have us suffer more Holocausts:

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/04/14/iran.israel/

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I would add one more link to that string:

http://www.yadvashem.org/

I finished reading the novel Against Gravity yesterday, which is certainly cogent, but I'll leave book discussion for another day.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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Monday, April 24, 2006

PERSONAL NEWS: "I attended the PROM very pinkly."

Hi Everyone,

I had to share this:

PROM, 2006.

Well that's that then. Lisa and I attended the final event of the fellowship year very pinkly.

Cheers,
Chuck.

"You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here."

And that's Chuck if you know him... always full of off-the-wall jokes and quirky... well... quirks. Little quirks like using colors for adverbs...

Anf if you look at his signature line, it's a line from the early computer era from a classic game called "Zork."

He, Eric, Ralph and I got together a number of times during the past year or so and had "guys day/night out." We always had a good time together just being happy geeks.

Chuck's wife, Lisa, enlisted me in the planning for Chuck's surprise birthday party last year... I think we surprised him too! My job was to keep him out of the house and distracted... an easy job for a game geek.

Chuck and his wife, Lisa, are away on this huge work trip / scholarship around the world right now. She's a journalist that works for The Sacramento Bee and won a fancy award that has allowed them to travel to Argentina, Turkey and I don't know exactly where else!

That's a picture of Eric above... taken at the ConQuest Sac 2006 gaming convention. I still don't have a photo of Ralph even though we have saw quite a bit of each other. Chuck didn't get a chance to see the photos from conQuest Sac 2006 so here's a link to them:

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/ConQuest%20Sac%202006/

Have a great Monday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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Sunday, April 23, 2006

HIKING: Sunday Hike At Nimbus Hatchery (23 April 2006)!

Hi Everyone,

I went on a hike today at Nimbus Hatchery with the Rancho Cordova Walking / Hiking Meet-up Group... very nice folks and a pleasant hike. I think that there were about seven of us on the hike.

The above lady, Cheryl and I, quickly became pals and I spent much of the hike by her side. She was very kind and we chatted about a number of topics. She also had a very fancy water rig. It had a tube that came over her right shoulder so that she didn't have to pull out a water bottle like I did... fancy shmancy.

It was advertized as a four-mile hike, but I think we did closer to five or six miles. We started around eleven am and ended around one-thirty pm. Much of the trail looked like the above photo... a worn earth trail with plenty of rocks.

Here I am, doing my best to look studly. I'm wearing a T-shirt that I sort of "borrowed" from my little sister. My sister is a Rock Med volunteer and the shirt has a colorful story... Apparently it was given to her by a paramedic named "Barf Bag Bob"... you probably don't want to hear the rest of the story...

http://www.rockmed.org/

We mostly walked along the foot and horse trails and spotted a good amount of wildlife. We saw all sorts of varmints, a pheasant, some quail, a swarm of butterflies and a whole variety of small birds. The above photo is of one of the many butterflies we saw. It looked sort of like a black Monarch Butterfly.

This is what I call the Seven Dwarves "Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go" shot... James is in the front of this photo. He's a former US Marine and loves to hunt in Wyoming. His wife Kathie, is behind him. They're a very nice couple. James and I spoke about world politics during the hike and I enjoyed the chat.

I later learned the name of the trail thanks to this handy sign, which wasn't so handy... The little red dot that showed where "here" was must have faded off of the map. On the map key, but not on the map of the trail area. Bummer.

In a number of areas, the trail passes by the river and we saw some canoeists and kayakers.

The path eventually turned into a morass of mud and unpassable areas so we backtracked to the bike trail. The walk back was as pleasant as the one on the way there. Some horse riders passed us at one point. We also found an ampitheatre area with a big fire pit and logs to sit on.

======

On the way home, I stopped by a local Persian market and bought some Taftoon bread, a sort of pita-like flat bread. I also bought some Persian carrot-orange jam (Sima's), a jar of Israeli cocoa spead (HaShahar H'aole) and a jar of Persian pickles with onions and garlic. Bon apetit!

And I'm sure that they will go well with the novel I'm currently reading:

Against Gravity by Farnoosh Moshiri, formerly of Tehran, Iran. It's an interesting novel and I didn't think I'd be enjoying it, but I am. It's about a Persian emmigre that has moved to Texas and her life there. Very clever and the characters are strangely likeable.

http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,0_0143035681,00.html

And, as a side note, since I've received several E-mails about it, Persian and Iranian are about the same thing. It breaks down like this... most folks who escaped the Ayatollah's regime in 1979 and after prefer to be called Persians. Persian is also the older historical term. The Ayotollah's regime prefer to be called Iranians and the terms "Iran" and "Iranian" have became the de facto default since. So, Iranian nationalists along the former Shah's line like to be called Persians and Iranian nationalists along the Ayatollah's line like to be called Iranians. You say to-ma-to, I say to-mah-to; you say po-ta-to, I say...

See! That degree I earned in International Relations is good for something other than collecting dust...

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Have a great Sunday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Learn more about the group here:

http://walkers.meetup.com/121/

P.S.S.
I have all of the photos from the hike here:

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/Hiking%202006/

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Saturday, April 22, 2006

WARGAMING: Some AIW Links For Tony!


Hi and Good Morning to Tony and the Gang,

Well, this is going to be short post... Tony Mark has been talking about runnng a 1973 Yom Kippur War Golan Heights scenario and I've been thinking about his game. I wanted to post a few links for him since I have had a long interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

He's not sure which rule set he wants to use, but he's leaning towards Modern Spearhead (MSH) and is also considering Flames of War - Moderns (FOW-Moderns). Tony has already decided when he wants his scenario... late war on the Golan Front, so several days into the war after the inital excitement and scares... when the Israelis go from desperation mode to the competence that they're known for. Tony wants to run a scenario with Ugdah Peled, a task force, advancing into Syria to take them out of the war.

The big story up North happens a bit earlier with Kahalani, Tsvika and the courageous stand that those heroes made against such overwhelming odds... on line with any great stand from history... Rourke's Drift comes to mind. But Tony is going to stage a game somewhat later... which isn't a bad idea at all. The Syrians, for all that they were defeated, can fight the hard fight and, like the Egyptians, had had years to prepare their defences for the eventuality that Israel might advance into Syria one day. But... they weren't good enough and the Israelis had limited attainable objectives.

All the Israelis wanted to do was advance within artillery range of Damascus and shell the capital until the Syrian regime gave up... Add secondary objectives of pummeling Syria on the strategic level with air and sea power plus the advancing ground forces clearing out the creme of Syria's air defence batteries and you have the 1973 late war Israeli war goals. And that's pretty much what happened, Israel pummeled Syria's strategic infrastructure until they were on a stone-age level of technology... oil tanks buring, power plants in ruins, headquarters turned into rubble, etc., etc. The USAF calls that "nexus-centric warfare" these days. It didn't take long for Syria to pressure Egypt to join the war, which had disasterous results for them... a sort of long line of dominos that started toppling in Syria and fell in rows all the way down to Egypt. The war in the North was vicious, but short.

Tony has a number of options, set fighting against dug-in Syrian forces trying to hold a line... the classic ambush box that the Israelis humiliated the Iraqi expeditionary contingent with, the hard fought battles with the Jordanian king sent as a token to help his "Arab allies" (Who had tried to invade him just a few years earlier in 1971 - the Syrians OR called him friendly things like "the Whore of Babylon" - the Egyptians), or even the mop up of retreating Syrian units that occurred in several places. Lots of scenarios are possible for Tony.

Here are a few links for you Tony:

======

First of all, after doing tons of research for ages, I put together a discussion group for the Arab-Israeli Wars (AIW) because it's always better to have two (or more) minds on a problem than one. It's a great group and has been around for ages (since 2003):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AIW-Wargaming/

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Another major resource is IDF Modeling, which is run by several gentlemen, but most notably some fellows from Oz if I remember correctly. It's full of vehicle and aircraft photos to help you paint your models/miniatures and all sorts of other useful reference materials.

http://idfmodelling.free.fr/

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Israeli-Weapons.com is also very useful... historical monographs, photos, equipment entries and tons of videos. I've contributed to the site by editing some of the monographs on occasion. It's a great site that has been up for a long time.

http://www.israeli-weapons.com/

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A friend of mine in the UK, a Kiwi married to a Sabra girl, put up this site: "Balagan," which means a number of things, but "a big mess" is one of the most common meaning used in Modern Israel. Steven Thomas is a mensch and I've corresponded with him a number of times over the years. His site is royal:

http://www.balagan.org.uk/

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Keith McNelly, also a friend Down Under, runs one of the other huge AIW resources. He has been using MSH to run AIW battles for ages. He has all sorts of useful information on his site here:

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mcnelly/msh/aiw/aiw_index.htm

All of the photos that I've used on this post came courtesy of Keith.

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For microarmor enthusiasts, I can recommend none other than Bob MacKenzie... if you want it, he's got it.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bob_mackenzie/

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I also have a huge AIW library, Tony, and am willing to loan you anything that I have.

Have a great Saturday!

Shabbat Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Yom HaShaoh or "Holocaust Remembrance Day" is coming up on 25 April 2006 and I've been thinking about that... a pretty heavy topic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Hashoah

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Thursday, April 20, 2006

HUMOUR: Got The Cookie Blues?

Hi Everyone,

A friend sent this to me:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1SUTkXl6rOQ&search=cookie%20blues

http://www.zippyvideos.com/5504646893257456/cookie_blues/

The Cookie Blues...

Reminds me of Shrek...

Enjoy!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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GAMING NEWS: Shoot Out At The A-1 Corral (19 April 2006)!

Hi Everyone,

Well, Wednesday night has come and gone and the gaming was good. The one game that most characterized the evening was Bang!, a spaghetti Western themed game (even subtitled in Italian)! All hail Clint!

The following came... veni, vidi, vici!

Players:
- Barto Riggs
- Crystal
- Daryl
- Dave Story
- Dick
- Keith
- Kimbo
- Kurt
- Maksim (me!)
- Mike O'Brien
- Todd
- Tony

And we played or tried to play several games:

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1. Nature Of the Beast

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20906

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20907

Players:
- Dave Story: Suburb - L.
- Dick: City - L.
- Kurt: Farm - L.
- Maksim: Forest - L.

Dave wanted to try this game and that's as far as we got... the game is very card-driven and it didn't pass the Kurt & Dick "macho meter"... After puzzling over it for about forty minutes, we all came to the conclusion to try something else and that game got stuffed back into Dave's box... Woohoo! What a start!

And that Kurt, what a mind on that man! He's full of more one-liners than... uh, well... uh... Wayne Brady in a singles bar?

Seriously, I'm "overly" fond of Kurt and he really does his bit to make the evening interesting... Many thanks to Kurt!

======
2. Killer Bunnies And the Quest For the Magical Carrot

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3699

Players:
- Dave: Winner!
- Dick: L.
- Kurt: L.
- Maksim: L.

This game was characterized very early by Dick and Kurt forming a carniverous partnership. That is, they tried to send all their hurt towards Dave and I unless we were both down for the count, in which case, they gnawed on each other... That worked for awhile, but I immediately got their number so I saved up a major wallop for them and when I was at critical mass, I let them have it. I brought out a holographic bunny to play supported by the Minilith that launched the Ebola Virus at them... TAKE THAT, craven bunny bullies!

And they did, The two of them were pretty well wiped out the rest of the game and my bunny brigade slowly grew and grew... I finished the game in a dominating position... controlling the cabbage, water, carrots, defense cards, etc., etc. And I had about eight bunnies at the end... Dick mentioned that "we all knew who left that game walking tall"...

Of course, that doesn't matter one bit because KB is completely random so... Dave, who had a cruddy "rotten carrot" game, managed to win with his one lucky carrot! Mazel Tov, Dave!

I'm not sure if I like KB much... it's pretty mean-spirited and brings out some of the worst in players much of the time... Too much "Dick-Kimbo" (DK) factor as Richard would say...

======
3. Unexploded Cow

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1690

Players:
- Crystal: L.
- Kimbo: Winner!
- Todd: L.

This was the first game of the day for the TLC unit (Todd Loves Crystal... somewhat along the lines of Joanie loves Chachi) and Kimbo tagged along and managed to pull off victory! Mazel Tov, Kimbo!

======
4. Twilight Struggle

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12333

Players:
- Barto Riggs: Leading as Russians!
- Mike O'Brien: Trailing as Americans...

The infamous Barto Riggs finally shows up! And it was Mike that called him out. Too bad, Dean Volpicelli wasn't there. He makes a good side kick, "lil partner" for someone. Mike and Barto started a fresh Cold War and they left around eight'ish with Barto leading. TS is a long game and I rarely see one go to the final count. Mazel Tov, Barto! Better luck next time, Mike!

======
5. Bang!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3955

Players:
- Crystal: Sheriff - Survived albeit with a half a gol'darned dozen er so Swiss cheese holes in her "dainties"...
- Dave: Outlaw - Shot Down Like A Dog (SDLAD)! Rest in Peace (RIP)!
- Dick: Deputy - Survived through Italian mafia-style negociation...
- Kimbo: Outlaw - SDLAD-RIP!
- Maksim: Outlaw - SDLAD-RIP!
- Todd: Renegade - SDLAD - Couldn't bluff his way out of a box...

In a majorly wicked game, Dave was slain very early and Todd, through his inferior bluffing skill, was marked early. Todd fell next under a barrage from "Black Kimbo," feared outlaw. And then there were four... (whistling Western music... Oh, Ow, Oooooooo...)

We knew Crystal was sheriff and that Kimbo and I were outlaws... Dick was the wild card and what a wild card he was! He slew both Kimbo and I in a "rage of lead-fisted fury" leaving the forces of good with victory! Mazel Tov, Dick 'n' Crystal!

And that Crystal... I'm tell'in ya. She has more lucky than Dick in an "I-talyan" noodle restaurant. I literally shot and wounded her EIGHT times, riddling her with holes, and she pulled more beer than you can imagine. Lucky puke! And that was only the times I hit that law-sucking scumhole... I missed her about another EIGHT times! That's a lot of shoot'in there, partner!

======
6. Ticket To Ride: Marklin Edition

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/21348

Players:
- Crystal: L.
- Dick: L.
- Kimbo: L.
- Maksim: Winner!

G-d bless Kimbo! Where the others have no problem ganging up on me, Kimbo decided to let nature take its own path. I set up an early passenger line and managed to finish it with aplomb. Kimbo couldn't quite block me in time and the other two were busy with their own lines. Before long, I had lined up two passengers at either end of a "wallop'in" train line and launched both scoring about fifty points, which is about what I won by. It was my game and as Kimbo put it: "Maks plays smart; he earned that win."

It was a good game... Crystal got tricky in the end... but her secret "back door maneauvers" availed her none. I think she distracted herself more with her banana more than it distracted the others (don't ask) except maybe Dick... Dick was uncharacteristically quiet during the game. Either that banana utterly captivated him or I conjecture that he might have been thinking...

I hear that Dick is on an all fruit and vegetable diet...

======
7. Advanced Squad Leader

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/243

Players:
- Dave Story: ?
- Todd: ?

Dave and Todd pulled out this old warhorse near the end of the night and started "banging" their way through a scenario. I have no idea how the game turned out, but it did keep Todd more quiet than I've ever seen him. Strange... Dave's a card shark... he probably won.

======

Have a great day!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
For those in post-Passover mode, that means you, Mike, I have two links:

1. A little surreal "Sign-O-Chumitz" in the 'ol Eretz city of Jerusalem:

http://www.israelity.com/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=around_israel&id=P8230841

2. Matzomeletes - What to do with all of your leftover Matzo...

http://www.thisnormallife.com/blog/_archives/2006/4/17/1878370.html

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

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Wednesday, April 19, 2006

MINI GAMING: Miniature Games - The Good, the Bad & the Ugly!

Hi Everyone,

Well, Scott DiBartelo has started a blog and it's coming along. Just the other day or so ago, he decided to discuss the hobby of miniature wargaming and came up with a few questions he wanted to pose to his friends and readers...

Read his entire discussion here:

http://nothingbutgames.blogspot.com/

http://nothingbutgames.blogspot.com/2006/04/miniature-games-good-bad-and-ugly.html#links

======

The specific questions he posed were:

So there ya have it, my take on why I love (for the most part), miniature games. They aren't perfect - though some do come real close for me, they are open to rules lawyering - though often it's unavoidable due to the nature of the game, the look absolutely fantastic - no denying that! and they provide an appropriate outlet for my creative tendencies that is both satisfying and appealing.

How about you?

- An oddball uncle got me into the hobby in the 1980s and I haven't looked back since although I have taken several long hiatuses from the hobby several times for work and/or university studies. I started off with board games and RPGs, but quickly switched over to the entry-level miniatures games, where miniatures replace game chits / counters. I remember the early fantasy rules like Chainmail and the Star Trek mania that Starfleet Battles brought about.

- Your statement, "Show me some cool scenery or terrain and give me some nice looking figures to push around and I'm a happy camper," certainly applies to me. I also enjoy the hobby on many different levels: artisanry, craftsmanship, social interaction, intellectual challenge, historical interest, etc., etc.

Do you enjoy miniature games?

- Oh, yes. I've had a great time with the hobby over the years and one of my favorite aspects of the hobby is that it's a very calm and peaceful outlet. It's also relatively inexpensive compared to hobbies like extensive television watching (...need that big screen TV sooner or later), sports cars, boats or even bar hopping... traditional domains of the male stereotype.

- And one of the greatest benefits I've gained from the hobby is a group of great friends all over the world from...

- Dafrca down in Burbank, CA in the Greater Los Angeles area to...

- Peter "Primarch" Ramos in Puerto Rico to...

- Ronen Tamari in Karmiel, Israel to...

- Stephane in France, to...

- Ian "Cybershadow" Weir in the UK, to...

- Mark and Tas in New Zealand and Oz respectively, to...

- John VanVlak in Malta, to...

And the list goes on and on...

- John, the other day ago, posted about Easter on Malta:

http://www.epic40k.co.uk/epicomms/ikonboard.cgi?s=281f1214f9ce24f7d9f9e7ef66d4b2aa;act=ST;f=59;t=6704;st=0

- I'm interested in trying some of his Maltese recipes now:

http://www.maltagozo.com/recipes#figolli

- This one sounds particularly good: "FIGOLLI - TRADITIONAL MALTESE EASTER PASTRY"

Have you had the same kinds of experiences?

- Yes. I think I've gone the full gambit of gaming experiences, but, on the other hand, the nice thing about the hobby is that there is always something new coming down the pipe. You never know what the next popular trend or historical interest will be...

- I know that in my time, I've tried out a huge variety of games from an equally large number of historical periods and a few nonhistorical ones as well...

- Overall, my gaming experiences have been very very good. I've made some very positive friendships and had some great experiences.

Do they appeal to you for the same (or maybe different) reasons?

- Gaming for me is first and foremost a social outlet. I like the social banter, the camarderie and the feelings of warmth from interacting with nice folks.

- The collecting and craftsmanship angles are nice as well, but the social aspect is more attractive to me.

- And the historical aspect is up there for me as well. I love the interest in history that gaming often brings about. I've learned a lot about history that I might never have learned if it wasn't for gaming.

Have you played with a miniature rules lawyer?

- I think we all have at some point and they do put a crimp in the hobby, which is a bummer, but nothing is perfect.

- One of my favorite local gamers is KIMBO! And he specifically avoid miniatures games because of rules lawyers. He likes the dependability of games with less "rules lawyer'in." Bummer. Kimbo would be a fun fellow to share those sorts of games with.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/kimbo

- A trend that I've noticed is that groups often shrink and become insular to prevent entry of "rules lawyers" and other such undesireables. I can't blame such groups for the trend, but I have a sort of pet peeve to introduce gamers to each other and keep the player pool from stagnating too much. I think that that is one of the great saving graces of the Internet:

- On one hand, cyber-relationships are impersonal and keep some from interacting face-to-face, BUT, on the other hand, the Internet is great when used as a tool to gather like-minded folks. I've made a number of interest groups for the hobby and one of the most successful has over 1,500 members. I think of the Internet as a tool to help me meet quality folks and... it's pretty much worked out that way for me.

======

Scott is known for being a generous great guy and has hosted at local Nothern California gaming conventions for years and year. One of his favorite games is Man O War, the classic GW game of fantasy naval combat from the 1990s. He started a Yahoo support E-group for Man O War called "The Sea Of Claws," which now has over 1,200 members!

Here are links to his favorite game and his venerated Yahoo E-group:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2516

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/theseaofclaws/

Have a great Wednesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
I dont know exactly why I picked that comic for today's post, but I enjoyed it and why not?

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Tuesday, April 18, 2006

HUMOUR: Does a Bear **** In The Woods? And Will a Chaplain See It If He Does?


Hi Everyone,

My friend Mark Steinberg sent me this one:

A priest, a Pentecostal preacher, and a Rabbi all served as chaplains to the students of the University of Montana in Missoula. They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and to talk shop. One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really all that hard. A real challenge would be to preach to a bear.

One thing led to another and they decided to do an experiment. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it.

Seven days later, they came together to discuss the experience.

Father Flannery, who had his arm in a sling, was on crutches, and had various bandages, spoke first. "Well," he said, "I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him I began to read to him from the Catechism. Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God, he became as gentle a lamb. The bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation."

Reverend Billy Bob went next. He had one arm and both legs in casts, and an IV drip attached to his wheelchair. In his best fire and brimstone oratory, he claimed, "WELL, brothers, you KNOW that we don't sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And, then I began to read to my bear from God's HOLY WORD! But, that bear wanted nothing to do with me. So, I took HOLD of him and we began to wrestle. We wrestled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came to a creek. So, I quick-like DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy soul. And, just like you
said, Father Flannery, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day PRAISING Jesus."

They both looked down at the rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body cast and traction and there were IV's running in and out of him with multiple monitors beeping and glowing at his bedside. He was in seriously bad shape.

The rabbi slowly looked up and whispered, "Well, looking back on it, circumcision may not have been the best way to start..."

And my friend Mojarn sent me this link to a fantasy RPG (Role Playing Game) type joke making fun of the spellcasting requirements in SOME fantasy games:

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript

Have a great day!

Chag Sameach and Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
I got the "Rabbi Bear" graphic from a Chabad site about Jewish names that can be found here:

http://www.rabbiriddle.org/rabbi-riddle/01-13.htm

Many Jewish names mean things:
Malka means "queen."
Yonah means "dove."
Dov means "bear."

P.S.S.
My name "Maksim" apparently means "charming" in Hebrew. A friend named Sigal told me that. Now, I just have to work on earning that appellation...

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Monday, April 17, 2006

WEIRD NEWS: The ROBOTS Are Here, And They, Not The Dingos, Want Our Babies!

Hi Everyone,

I came across this news article this morning and thought to share...

Robot Birth Simulator Gaining Popularity
By PAUL ELIAS, AP Biotechnology Writer

VALLEJO, Calif. - Noelle's given birth in Afghanistan, California and dozens of points in between. She's a lifelike, pregnant robot used in increasing numbers of medical schools and hospital maternity wards.

The full-sized, blond, pale mannequin is in demand because medicine is rapidly abandoning centuries-old training methods that use patients as guinea pigs, turning instead to high-tech simulations. It's better to make a mistake on a $20,000 robot than a live patient. ...
Pretty cool, huh? I dont know how much dealing with a cold robot will help nurses and doctors with their bedside manner, but I'm all in favor of saving a few more lives...

It's probably all a secret conspiracy by the robots to take our babies... do ya think?

A link to the article:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060417/pregnant_robot.html?.v=1

Robots in 'da house!

Ninjas too!

Have a great day!

Chag Sameach and Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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GAMING NEWS: Have You Had Your "Skank" Today? If Not, Get It For Free!


Hi Everyone,

One of the biggest games in town goes on every year on Halloween at Great Escape Games in Sacramento and that is the Zombie Town games going on a number of year now (I think it's over ten, but I'm not sure). Those of you who made it out to ConQuest Sac got to see one of the Zombie Town games in person and know that Zombie Town is plain B-movie goodness!

And for me, hosting the Zombie Town games every Halloween weekend works as Halloween is my birthday! Huzzah! Playing in a low-key, beer & pretzel game is a great way to celebrate my surviving another year. Here's hoping...

Well, Mike and Marcus, two of THE Zombie Town progenitors have decided in all their generosity to make their rule set available to the public... in proper Skank fashion... for FREE!

Download here:

http://www.recon-in-force.com/Skank/Armory/index.html

And you can check out photographic reports of the games here:

http://www.recon-in-force.com/Skank/Zombietown/index.html

There are at least three documented Zombie Town games and a number of other "Mad Max" type apocalyptic games with photo albums.

Here's how to find Great Ecape Games:

Great Escape Games
1537 Howe Ave
Ste 200
Sacramento, CA 95825-3360
(916) 927-0810

http://sacramento.citysearch.com/profile/1257628/

Great Escape Games is in spitting distance of the Howe About Arden mall, a movie theatre and The State Fairgrounds.

Here's the official Great Escape Games web site:

http://www.greatescapegames.com/

Special thanks to Gary and the Great Escape staff for hosting several gaming tournaments at the ConQuest 2006 game convention!

This site has a list of the local shops that sell games:

http://www.freewebs.com/sacgames/

Don't forget Viking Hobby, one of my all-time favorites!

I'm still in process of editing and cropping the photos I took at ConQuest 2006, but I'll try to upload a Zombie Town ConQuest 2006 photo to this blog post later this evening depending on time constraints.

I did get the photos I took uploaded. They can be found here:

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/ConQuest%20Sac%202006/

(Zombie Town photo from ConQuest Sac 2006 at the top of this post courtesy of Mike Warde.)

Have a great week!

Chag Sameach and Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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Sunday, April 16, 2006

WEIRD NEWS: Urban Ninjas In 'Da Hood! Watch Out!

Hi Everyone,

Just when you think the world might just be approaching a level of normality, something like this happens...

And, wow, I had no idea that folks all over were doing "urban ninja" training in malls and urban development projects around the world!

And these guys are good... very talented acrobats! I think that they were inspired by both Bruce Lee Kung Fu videos and... the indubitable Jackie Chan! Very fun!

I was browsing one of my favorite web sites, TMP (The Miniatures Page), when I came across this post:

"Urban Ninja Video?"

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=72177

Check out these two videos:

======
- Asian Urban Ninjas

http://www.badongo.com/vid.php?file=ninja+video__2006-02-20_chew.wmv&s=black&ad=na

This guys features some "urban extreme gymnastics" and a bunch of footage of him doing back and forward flips at his dojo. He also had a few clips of what are obviously him and his friends recreating manga fight scenes. The music accompaniment isn't bad either, especially compared to the "Russian Urban Ninja" video below...

======
- Russian Urban Ninjas

http://videobomb.com/posts/show/46

- The Russian video is alot longer, something like eight minutes compared to the roughly three of its Asian counterpart, but the Russian "Ninja" is just as amazing or more... But while his acrobatics are amazing, the accompanying music is a little less... well, fantastic. You see, Russia, has always had a fascination with things foreign and, even during periods of paranoia and xenophobia, they still had it.
.


.
- So, knowing that fact, what music did these guys pick? You probably didn't guess it... and never would... French rap! Yes, French rap! I'd still check it out, but I recommend turning the sound down a wee bit... I can appreciate some rap, but I don't think I'm ready for the words "French" and "rap" together...

- And as a side note, the little bit of Russian dialogue in the film is a tad funny... They should have had bad subtitling with the Asian film theme and all.

======

Enjoy your Sunday!

Chag Sameach and Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
I made my first pot of Matzo Ball soup yesterday evening so it's starting to really feel like Passover this year! Gut Pesach!

P.S.S.
Happy Easter Sunday to my Christian friends!

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

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Saturday, April 15, 2006

MINI WARGAMING: MWS Meeting (15 April 2006).


Hi Everyone,

There was an MWS meeting today (15 April 2006) at the Rancho Cordova meeting that was well attended.

The following showed up:
- Brad
- Brian
- Charles Gomez
- Dick
- Joe Bianchi
- Joe Riddle
- Keith
- Maksim (me!)
- Mark
- Mike O'Brien
- Mike W.
- Randy
- Tony

For more information about the MWS gaming club and to examine a photo gallery chocked full of miniatures splendor, please check out this site:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/M_W_S/

Two games were staged:

(Forgive me my laziness in making these battle reports short and quick!)

======
1. Battleground WWII: Eastern Front

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20441

(BG:WWII photo courtesy of BGG.)

Players:
- Germans: Minor victory.
- Russians: Minor loss.

This was the biggest game of the day and I was lucky enough to play in it. Mike Warde led the German team and Kurt led the Russian team. Both sides fought a hard fight and there were lots of upset die rolls and more than a few semi-miraculous feats of bravery. One of the most amazing was when the German Tiger tank was brewed by a long-ranged shot by "hot hands" Kurt, who rolled two ones in a row! Mazel Tov, Kurt!

The below photo, taken by Mike Warde, shows Kurt's amazing Tiger kill:

All the smoke came from not only the brewed Tiger, but the German supply depot that went up when the Tiger exploded.

Dick and Joe Riddle duked it out on another end of the field and their good sportsmanship and playful camaraderie really made the game a joy to join. Both took their lumps too. I played a mediocre game, but sited some German mine fields very well... the Russians hit almost every field I laid. Overall, it was a great game... Thanks to everyone who played in it!

And a special thanks to Kurt and Mark for providing the figures and terrain in the game as well as hosting! Thank you very much, gentlemen!

And because Dick mentioned it, I was on the winning German side so the old myth of "Maks always wins!" stands another day! Here's hoping that Crystal won't tease me too much about it this upcoming Wednesday!

======
2. Flames of War: African Front

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/11168

Players:
- Allied: ?
- Germans: ?

I was too busy playing in the BG-WWII game to notice too much, but Randy, Tony, Brian, Brad and others appeared to have had a great time. The battle had brewed armor and shattered infantry all over the battlefield so it must have been a very hard fought battle. Tony left the game smiling so I have the idea that he fought well and probably won.

======

- Joe Riddle brought some beautifully painted HOTT armies to show off and they were very impressive. Mazel Tov, Joe! Joe has a really dramatic-looking undead force and... zombie dogs and ghost chickens! And, yes, I typed that correctly!

- Mike O'Brien hopes to play Blitzkrieg Commander next meeting and is looking for players so please contact him if you are interested.

- Tony is planning to run a 1973 Yom Kippur War battle using microarmor sometime in the next few months if anyone is interested. He wants to run a late-war Golan Heights scenario featuring Syrians and the Israeli Peled Task Force. He is looking for players so please contact him if you are interested. He is planning to use the Modern Spearhead ruleset, but may use a Modern Flames of War ruleset once he has reviewed those rules.

- I brought the Alien Squad Leader (ASQL) rule set and would like to run a game sometime in the next few months. I'm planning to invite Aron Clark down, who is specifically credited in the book and lives in the Bay Area, not too far from us.

Have a great day!

Chag Sameach and Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

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Friday, April 14, 2006

HUMOUR: Doctors, Pirates & Ninjas... Oh my!

Hi Everyone,

My friend "Tas" who lives Down Under has been playing around with those silly quiz thingies and he motivated me to see which of the Dr. Whos I am so...

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=166656

And I scored as the third Doctor Who... Mr. Pertwee.


You scored as the 3rd Doctor.

3rd Doctor = 92%
9th Doctor = 75%
1st Doctor = 58%
4th Doctor =58%
A Dalek = 58%
8th Doctor = 50%
5th Doctor = 33%
7th Doctor = 33%
10th Doctor = 33%
6th Doctor = 25%
2nd Doctor = 17%
Davros = 0%

Bummer, the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, was my favorite. I must be too straight-laced to score as him. Oh well, Pertwee wasn't so bad as they go.

I still haven't caught the new Dr. Who series... I keep trying, but it has been accidently deleted sveral times now after I set it to be digitally recorded. I suppose that's OK though since I'm in no hurry.

You can find Tas's site, which is mostly focussed on Victorian Science Fiction (VSF, but sometimes called Steampunk), here:

http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/

He also found this link and was wondering what it was about... I think I'm with him on this one. Super Geek or not, this site is pretty wacky.

http://www.piratesvsninjas.net/

Have a great Friday!

Chag Sameach and Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
I'd also like to promote Scott DiBartelo's new blog here. He's a Northern California gamer who has been hosting Man O' War tournaments since practically the beginning of time. He's a great guy and I'm happy to help promote his new site.

Check it out here:
http://nothingbutgames.blogspot.com/

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

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Thursday, April 13, 2006

GAMING NEWS: A Near-Death Experience, Killer Bunnies & Passover!

Hi and good morning Everyone,

First of all, I had a terrible scare just the other day or so ago... I was driving along Folsom Boulevard when I encountered an oil puddle in the heavy run and... my car slid out of control. However, I remembered by driver's training classes from all those years ago and steered into the out of control swerve... I was very frightened for my life though as I careened off the road and eventually brushed up against a fence.

Thank goodness that there was noone else on the road at the time. When I finally stopped, I quickly checked to make sure that I was OK and then prayed. I suppose that serendipity stepped in and saved my life because I came out of that scare without a scratch. My car didn't though. My front right bumper took some superficial body damage (There is a bent-in fender with a hole and a slight crack in the right headlight housing). I don't think I've ever been so glad to be alive.

Secondly, I would like to wish all of my Jewish friends and those others who celebrate it a Happy Passover / Happy Pesach!

Chag Sameach! (Happy Holidays in Hebrew)

Gut Pesach! (Good Passover in Yiddish)

Happy Passover! (English)

Passover is one of the best Jewish holidays of the year and celebrates freedom among other themes. Passover is the story of Moses (old Moyshe), the Jewish people, the Ten Plagues of Egypt, Pharoah, and so much more. This year Passover started on April 12th and lasts seven or eight days depending on whether you live inside of or outside of Israel. Most Jews celebrate Passover by going to a specialized ritual dinner called a Seder on the first two days of the holiday.

(Passover Seder Plate graphic courtesy of Chabad web site.)

During Passover, religously observant Jews won't eat leavened products of any kind including bread, cookies, doughnuts, most breakfast cereals, rolls and so much more. Of course, the week of Passover is ALWAYS when your non-Jewish friends at work bring exactly those things everyday... temptations, temptations...

My friend Stacy found this article and shared it with me:

April 5, 2006
It's Passover, Lighten Up

By JOAN NATHAN

WHEN Emily Moore, a Seattle-based chef and instructor, was invited to consult on recipes for Streit's Matzo, she assumed that the baked goods would have their traditional heft, because no leavening can be used during Passover.

Not so, said Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, a member of a prominent rabbinic dynasty, who oversees the company's ritual observances. Let the cookies and cakes rise, he told her. Let there be baking soda and baking powder.

"He acted like I was crazy," Ms. Moore said.

The biblical prohibition against leavened bread at Passover — which begins on Wednesday night — has kept observant Jews from using any leavening at all. Cakes and cookies of matzo meal (ground matzo), matzo cake meal (which is more finely ground) and nuts can be tasty, but dense.

So it will surprise many Jews — it certainly surprised me — that among the profusion of products that most Orthodox certification agencies have approved for Passover are not just baking soda, but also baking powder.

Some rabbis are lifting other dietary prohibitions that they say were based on misunderstandings or overly cautious interpretations of biblical sanctions, and because they want to simplify the observance.

"The holiday has become overly complicated, and people are turning away from the rigorous practice of it," said Rabbi Jeffrey A. Wohlberg, the senior rabbi at conservative Adas Israel Congregation in Washington.

Last year, Rabbi Wohlberg said it was permissible for his congregants to eat legumes, called kitniyot in Hebrew. They are usually beyond the pale at Passover for the most rigorous observers, but are increasingly accepted by many Conservative and Orthodox rabbis, particularly in Israel.

"I have also talked to a lot of young mothers over the years whose children, for example, are lactose intolerant and want to use soy milk," Rabbi Wohlberg said. "But soy is a bean and hasn't been permissible."

The restrictions have their roots in the Book of Exodus, which tells of how the Israelites fled Egypt in such haste that they could not let their bread rise and become "chometz" in Hebrew. Only unleavened bread, matzo, is eaten during the eight days of Passover, in memory of the Israelites' hardships and in celebration of their escape from slavery.

"No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory" during Passover, it was written. But, as Ms. Moore said, "There is a lot of misunderstanding about what leavening means for Passover."

Jews avoid flour or grains, for fear that they might become leavened even without the addition of yeast. (Matzo meal, since it's already been baked, is less likely to rise and become leavened.)

Matzo, a simple mixture of flour and water, must be made in less than 18 minutes to avoid the possibility that the dough could ferment and then rise before being baked. "The Talmud says that
it should take no longer to make matzo than the time to walk a Roman mile, which later generations understood to be 18 minutes," said Dr. David Kraemer, professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

At Passover, some ultra-Orthodox Jews will not eat matzo that has become wet, including matzo balls. Instead of matzo meal, or the fine matzo cake meal, they use potato starch in cakes and other dishes.

But rabbis in even some of the most Orthodox associations say chometz does not refer to all leavening.

"There is nothing wrong about a raised product at Passover per se," said Rabbi Moshe Elefant, executive rabbinic coordinator and chief operating officer of the Orthodox Union's kosher division, the oldest and most widely accepted certifier of kosher foods.

Lise Stern, author of "How to Keep Kosher" (Morrow, 2004), said: "Chometz, which means sharp or sour, denotes bread that has a sourness to it caused by fermentation, occurring when liquid is added to any of the five grains mentioned in the Torah. This refers to yeast, not baking powder or baking soda."

Rabbi Soloveichik said: "They're just minerals. What do we care about minerals?"

While kosher for Passover baking soda and baking powder can be hard to find in supermarkets, they have been available in Orthodox neighborhoods for years. Erba Food Products, of Brooklyn, made kosher for Passover baking powder in the late 1960's.

Ms. Moore, who creates kosher recipes for the Elliott Bay Baking Company in Seattle, adjusted recipes for matzo meal, which is heavier than flour, to make vanilla sesame, lemon ginger and double chocolate _mocha cookies with baking soda or baking powder (made with potato starch, not corn starch, which is made from a grain that is avoided).

The ban on legumes is connected to the ban on leavening. Jews in medieval Europe began to keep beans and lentils, as well as grains, from the Passover table because until modern times they were often ground into flour. The use of rice and corn were later restricted, too, by some Jews. But Sephardic Jews of the Middle East continued to eat them at Passover.

Over the past few years legumes have become accepted for Passover by the Israeli Army and the Masorti movement (as Conservative Judaism is known in Israel) partly because of increased intermarriage between Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews, as those of European descent are called.

A delicious Moroccan Passover dish of shad and fava beans takes advantage of the freer interpretation of the Passover pantry and the bounty of spring.

The Passover table has changed in many ways. More than 21,000 kosher for Passover items are available in the United States, with 500 new ones this year, said Menachem Lubinsky, president of Lubicom, a marketing firm specializing in kosher food.

With such items as Passover pasta (made from potato starch), quinoa salads, tricolored matzo balls, and ingredients like grape seed oil, kosher organic chickens and matzo breadsticks, a lot of the suffering is being taken out of Passover.

In the weeks before Passover, many homes are rigorously cleaned, and every bit of chometz or leavening removed. Some people avoid cooking in their newly cleaned homes by going to a resort that is kosher for Passover, a practice that in the past few years has been boosting business in the Caribbean and around the country during a traditionally slow period.

At the Hyatt Dorado Beach Resort and Country Club in Puerto Rico, Robin Mortkowitz, a therapist in Fairlawn, N.J., who became Orthodox when she married, was swept away by new foods like sushi made from quinoa, the sesame-seed-sized kernel cultivated in the Andes that many certifying agencies have ruled is not a forbidden grain.

"With people becoming more sophisticated, we have to step up the food program," said Sol Kirschenbaum, an owner of Levana restaurant in New York, which arranged the food at the Hyatt. "It's wild mushrooms and grilled rack of lamb, but I still need to have chicken soup and gefilte fish for the 60- to 90-year-olds."

Kosher companies are also sprucing up their food. Susie Fishbein, author of the popular "Kosher by Design" series of cookbooks, said she is creating recipes for the Manischewitz Web site and food boxes, like tricolored matzo balls with green spinach, yellow turmeric and red tomato paste, using olive oil instead of schmaltz.

"Companies like Manischewitz can't survive on kosher gefilte fish anymore," Ms. Fishbein said. "A whole new generation of cooks is looking for fresh ideas."

But some still find beauty in tradition. When the cookbook author Tamasin Day-Lewis made a flourless almond cake with a fresh orange and mandarin syrup for a party recently, some of her guests who were Jewish said, "This is perfect for Passover."


My friend Yehuda wrote up an excellent post on his blog about the underlying values of Passover and I couldn't have done a better job myself.

You can find Yehuda's site here:

http://jergames.blogspot.com/

And for those interested in more information about Passover, you can find some here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover

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I was able to get in a few games yesterday and they were:

1. Killer Bunnies And the Quest For the Magical Carrot

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3699

Players:
- Dick: L
- Kurt: L
- Dave: WINNER!

I came in to this game being played and it appeared that Dave took the game rather handily after the traditional bunny stew was made in the first few turns while anti-bunny cards ran amok. Mazel Tov, Dave!

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2. Ticket to Ride - Märklin Edition

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/21348

Players:
- Kimbo: L.
- Maksim: Winner!

I like this new twist on the Ticket To Ride (TtR) franchise. I managed to win this game, but I wish that I hadn't because everytime I win, it fuels the "Maks always wins!" shtick. Kimbo played a good game, but my routes were slightly longer, which aided me. Kudos to Kimbo for being such a great sport! Thanks, Kimbo!

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3. Domaine

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/5737

Players:
- Cary: L.
- Dave: L.
- Dick: L.
- Kurt: WINNER!

This was my first chance to meet Dave's fiance, Cary (I hope I spelled her name right?), and I really liked her... she's charming. The four of them played a death match of Grudge and the last time I saw the game, it looked like Kurt pulled out victory. Mazel Tov, Kurt!

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4. For Sale

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/172

Players:
- Donna: L.
- Kimbo: L.
- Maksim: Winner!
- Mike: L.

I really liked this simple bidding game and it was that much the better for having Donna and Mike join us. I won by a measly $2,000.00 in cash.

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5. For Sale

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/172

Players:
- Crystal: L.
- Donna: L.
- Kimbo: L.
- Mike: WINNER!
- Todd: L.

A second game of "For Sale" went underway and Mike pulled out a win. Mazel Tov, Mike!

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6. Killer Bunnies And the Quest For the Magical Carrot

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3699

Players:
- Crystal: L.
- Dick: L.
- Kimbo: L.
- Maksim: Winner!
- Todd: L.

(Killer Bunnies graphic courtesy of BGG)

The last game of "Killer Bunnies" was... well... vicious. It was like bunny Armageddon! My first five or six bunnies all went under the axe... it made me wish that I was a German cook with Hasenpfeffer on the menu. Kimbo started out with the fatalistic notion that "Maks always wins" and darn me if I couldn't prove him otherwise. I'm determined to do so. My team of fatalistic bunnies found the magic carrot and I managed to win. Sorry, Kimbo! I tried, man, really.... Crystal and Todd have the "married couple" routine down at this game... They traded lovely "killer bunny" moves the whole game. And Dick played a good game too.

Darn my victory! The whole "Maks always wins" shtick is starting to get to me! I know I'm a sorry sack when losing is starting to almost mean more than winning to me! And speaking of the word "darn," it's a sewing term from a time gone by. I never did it in my lifetime, but my aunt did and I once had her explain it to me. I had read about it in a book and wanted to learn more.

Learn more about "darning" here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darning

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7. Unexploded Cow

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1690

Players:
- Crystal: L.
- Dick: WINNER!
- Maksim: L.
- Todd: L.

Cheap Ass Games makes some good ones and I liked this simple little parody of WWII minesweeper movies. Dick played an amazing game and pulled off victory by a large margin. Mazel Tov, Dick!

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Chag Sameach and have a great Thursday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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Wednesday, April 12, 2006

NOVELS: "The Winter War" & "Guns, Germs and Steel"

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Hi Everyone,

Yesterday, my friend Ralph AKA L-4 forwarded me a post from our mutual friend Mojarn Piett AKA Jyrki Sarni in Finland. Mojarn is a huge historical buff and one of his prime historical interests is the little-known Winter War between Finland and the USSR. He found an interesting site about The Winter War and shared it with us the other day ago.

Check it out an enjoy:
http://www.wfyi.org/fireandice/index.htm

For those of you who haven't heard of The Winter War, I'm providing a link to the Wikipedia entry on The Winter War should you want to learn more about it.

Link here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_war

In a nutshell, while Hitler was taking his first bites of Europe, The Winter War was Stalin's first attempt at serious land acquisition in WWII. In 1939, Stalin attempted to conquer Finland, a tiny nation with not much of s atnding army that proved that numbers aren't everything. The Russians swarmed the Finns in large numbers, but superior knowledge of the land allowed the Finns to triumph although with considerable losses, but nothing like what the Russians endured. By 1940, an armistance was achieved, but several later border skirmishes occurred.

From a wargamer's stance, the war was very interesting because it featured so many of the early war Russian tanks that gradually disappeared from the later battlefields of WWII. In addition, the Finns made extensive use of Molotov cocktails and used tactics similar to what several Allied forces used later in the war against fascist Germany. The Winter War is definitely an interesting piece of textbook history, worthy of study.

I also found that Jared Diamond's runaway bestseller novel, "Guns, Germs and Steel" has been made into a PBS television special.

Check it out and enjoy:
http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/

If you haven't heard of "Guns, Germs and Steel," I highly recommend you check it out. I first heard of the book from an unlikely source... from the Apolyton computer game discussion group, associated with the popular hit computer game "Civilization" from Sid Meier. They wanted to design a computer game along the lines of "Guns, Germs and Steel." And what would those lines be?

Well, essentially the primary question that Diamond brings up in his book is: "Why did European countries come to the forefront of history and not some other ethnic or cultural group?" And the title of his book neatly answers his question:

GUNS: Groups crowded together had the constant impetus to develop more sophisticated weapons.

GERMS: The use of domesticated animals "innoculated" populations with them against diseases that groups without them were highy susceptible to.

STEEL: Access to natural resources was vital to the development of better materials such as steel.

At first I was worried that Diamond's book would be pseudoscience forwarding a revisionist "politically correct" view of the world, but after speaking to a number of my friends who are scientists, I decided to give it a chance. And while I'm not sure I agree with everything Dr. Diamond hypothesizes, I do find his arguments and evidence very compelling. And aside from that, "Guns, Germs and Steel" is a great read although an academic one.

One of the books I read back around the time I became interested in "Guns, Germs and Steel" was Orson Scott Card's "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus." It's an interesting novel of time travel and alternate histories, one well worth checking out. Imagine if the "New World" met the "Old One" in strength instead of at the end of conquistador guns and swords:
http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/card.html

Have a great Wednesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

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Tuesday, April 11, 2006

MINI GAMING: ConQuest Sac Was a Huge SUCCESS!

Hi Everyone,

Well, ConQuest Sac has now come and gone and it was a Huge Success! I had worries leading up to the show of a tiny room that would be poorly air conditioned and dozens of miniatures wargamers stuffed together with board gamers and the good Lord only knows whom else and... almost none of my worries came to pass.

First of all, here's a link for the con:

http://www.avalonconventions.com/conquestsac/

The Sci-fi / Fantasy Miniatures events did very well with 100% of the game hosts showing up promptly and all but one event attracted lots of players and had a great time. George Gardea's Full Thrust game didn't attract any players, but he'd also chosen a time that went head to head with the Babylon 5 starship game so most of his potential audience already had their phasers and missiles primed elsewhere... so to speak. It was also a first year show and we had one of the weirder phenomena occur (cue X-Files music)... we had more games & gamemasters than players the whole weekend! Very few of the games went to capacity because there were so many different choices.

Teaming up the historical and sci-fi / fantasy miniatures events was also a great idea. Don Delis and I were able to manage the miniatures games very well and made a great partnership.

Here were the areas for improvement for next year:
- Plan a little farther ahead so that room assignments will be known to all ahead of time...
- Have the convention event booklette ready a little sooner...
- Make individual game entries in the events booklette a little more discernable.
- Be able to provide more space for the big game tournaments that came such as the larger GW games...
- Locate registration somehwere closer to the front of the hotel or put up more directions, folks had to hunt for it...
- Provide more space for open gaming...
- Have affordable food available for the gamers; several folks expressed a wish for a closer and more affordable eating venue... The hotel's meals were a bit pricey.

Here were some of the con's great strengths:
- Great event coordinators; I saw happy people having a good time at every event I attended or even walked by...
- Great staff! Registration ran smoothly and the only complaint I heard was that the registration desks were located in the back of the hotel...
- Great game masters / game hosts... we had lots of generous folks and there were always plenty of games to play or even watch...
- Stephanie and Walter ran a really cool movie room and had plenty of auxiliary activities for everyone to do.
- Great seminars! I was very impressed by the job that Grace did and the only thing that kept me from attending the seminars (I had planned to attend three of them) was my responsibility as a miniatures games coordinator...
- Very cool painting contest! I had some difficulty finding time to visit and support Roger Mark, but I was able to do so later and I stopped and painted a miniature with him and some of the other painters around. Roger was great!

I simply had a super time and I got in the following games and attended the following activities:

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FRIDAY:

Friday was the slowest day of the con and thus provided Don and I with the least work so we got to play more games than we expected...

1. DBA Tournament
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/299

- Mike Warde, Clay, Don and I all got a chance to get a few DBA games in and we had a great time. In one of my battles I received a huge surprise when my warband heavy army managed to beat a knight-heavy army. Mike also debuted his beautiful new Seleucid army. He put on a great event and everyone involved had a great time.

2. Wings Of War: Dragons!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/22686

- Kimbo was kind enough to play a few games with me and we both had a good time. We later played a three-players game or two when someone else showed an interest.

3. Havoc
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/19363

- Kimbo utterly stomped me at this numbers / trick card game. It was ugly. I won one battle and he won the rest of the war (something like the other eight battles!)...

4. Command & Colors: Ancients
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14105

- I had a chance to play The Battle of Cannae with two guys from the Bay Area and pulled off a surprise win on the last turn for the underdog Romans. It was a good game!

5. Junta
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/242

- The Junta game unfortunately didn't collect enough players to get underway, but I did get to meet Sam Abbaki, a Persian gamer and we were able to amiably swap Middle East experiences and stories. We just about went out for Persian food (I'm still Jonesing for it) that evening, but both decided to stick around and pull in a few more games...

I spent the better part of the day coordinating with Don and trying to make sure that we were prepped for the inevitable Saturday rush... of course, we knew that you can't prepare for every eventuality, but we did what we could.

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SATURDAY:

Saturday was the busiest day of the convention and Don and I were swamped with games at the "rush hour" for the con, from roughly 10:00am to about 2:00pm... Out first order of the day was to find space for the big game tournaments of which we had several planned:
- Warrior
- Warhammer Ancients Battles (WAB)
- Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB)
- Babylon 5: A Call To Arms (B5: ACTA)

The room we had wasn't big enough so we had to call on the senior con staff to find more room. Luckily they were able to provide the open gamign tables in the dealer room for the WHFB torunament and we used expansion space in the hallway for the rest of the tournaments. Thanks to Michael who made sure we got the extra tables that we needed. We set up Warrior in the hallway, but they never showed up. That wasn't so bad though because the Axis & Allies folks ended up there and we also put the big cult classic Zombietown Game there.

I wanted to add a side note that I finally got to meet Mark Cuomo of the WAB folks and he was utterly great! I really enjoyed meeting him. He is a gentleman with class.

I still had a chance to play in a few games throught the day:

1. Monster Island
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3700

- I played this several times throughout the day and I have to say that Patrick Sweeney puts on a good game! His table attracted all kinds of convention throughout the game and it was rare to see less than a crowd of players enjoying his game. And his game was the biggest draw for younger convention goers... I played in a several games... mostly with adults though. My King Kong was masterful too... he went 3 and 0 undefeated and stomped the Alien in several grudge matches... (King Kong bellowing yell!)

2. Zombietown Massacre (ZTM)
- The ZTM folks had a great time and attracted all kinds of attention. I seem to recall that they planned for a maximum of 12 players and ended up taking closer to 15! The ZTM game was plain old-fashioned B-movie fun and all had a great time. I played Neal the gun store owner and had a blast. I also met Antonio from Oakland who played poor Timmy (got munched on by the undead). I shared lunch with Antonio and was pleasantly surprised to meet a gamer geek who more than matched my maximum nerd-osity!

3. B-17 with Ron Plunk
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1032

- Two bomber boxes launched and what Ron advertized as a milk run was anything but! The lead box returned home with just two bombers while the other box lost two and nearly every other bomber barely limped home. I had thought that my flight would have done worse, but we managed to survive... Thabks to the many causalties, what would have normally beena very low score ended up snagging me 2nd place overall in the game. Again, my theory is that I only took second because most of the highest scoring players went down in flames... survival has a quality of its own!

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SUNDAY:

Sundays and Fridays often vie with each other as to which day will be slower, but there was no contest at ConQuest Sac 2006. Sunday had a lot going on. The miniatures room had a full venue!
1. Flames of War - Vietnam Variant: "Pile on, A Search & Destroy Mission!"
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/11168

Charles Gomez put on a great game and I ended up playing the Vietnamese against Greg and Don as US forces. I had expected an utter Vietnamese rout, but it didn't happen that way. The Vietnamese lost the war as the US players pulled off a minor victory for finding and destroying two Vietnamese weapons caches, BUT... they paid dearly for those destroyed weapons caches. The Vietnamese took very minor casualties (abut seven stands) and the US was horribly mauled, taking half to three quarters of their forces as casualties (somewhere over twenty-five stands) before the battle was ended. We all had a good time.

2. Monster Island (MI)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3700

I played my last game 0f MI at this time and Kong finished the convention undefeated.

3. Painting Booth with Roger Mark
I had a chance to sit down and paint a figure with the indubitable Roger Mark. He's a great host and I enjoyed the experience of taking painting advice from him and two other experienced miniatures painters.

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Have a great Tuesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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