Back again...

Well, another try and change of direction.

The blog name is from a line in a movie ("Everyman's War") that I though memorable and certainly true for me.  I tend to be pretty clueless. I have that phrase on my Xbox Live account as well.

My previous blog name was "KraftyDave".  That came from the New Order song, "Krafty", off the "Waiting for the Siren's Call" CD.  When I though up the name, I didn't realize that the Beasty Boys were also associated with "krafty".  Rats.  I'd rather not be be connected in any way with those w***ers.

It's July here in Washington.  The weather is warming up.  Still raining a bit, but some awfully sunny days too.  Last weekend was gorgeous; we were in Seattle at Greenlake with a lot of other folks.  I have been biking to work once or twice a week.  I miss reading on the bus, but I get to work faster. Plus, exercise. Definitely prefer wheels to feet. 

I've rediscovered my bike.  I have a Raleigh Obsession, bought in 1991 or so. My stepson gets the credit; he was the push that got me moving.  I took her for a tune-up and have been replacing accessories on the cheap.  I try to ride safely and wear a helmet and high-visibility clothing.  So far, I've been on two local rides of approximately 10 miles each, and a community bicycle ride sponsored by the West Sound Cycling Club (14 miles, or so I was told), in addition to riding to work.  I did find out that my work rides are about 4.75 miles one way. 

Gaming-wise, not much going on.  As I said in a previous post, I play wargames, card games, board games, Xbox, and computer. I also said before that yeah, I know wargames aren't PC, but I've been playing them most of my life and can't won't quit. The last games I have played are Paths of Glory (PoG), Pandemic, and  For The People (FtP).  PoG and FtP are card-driven (meaning that card play and card management regulate the game) two-player wargames about the First World War and the American Civil War respectively.  I now dig card-driven games (CDGs) very much. Card-play in FtP, for example, adds political events to the game that otherwise wouldn't be mentioned.  You hear from Copperheads and Quantrill's Raiders, for example.  Plus, generals are rated for their political weight. The other decent strategic Civil War game, The Civil War (Victory Games), is an awesome game and does an excellent job with the military side, but has no political dimension.

I am at present playing in an online "For The People" tournament sponsored by the Boardgame Players Association. The game I am in has just gotten started; we just finished the first turn. The tournament starts off "Swiss" which means that for the first round, everyone plays two games, one as Union, one as Reb.  Opponents are randomly assigned and we play different people for each game. I am right now in Turn two (summer 1861) of my first tourney game. Like I said earlier, the guy I am playing has way more experience, well, 18 games, whereas I haven't even finished a game yet.

I am also playing FTP with H. S., a friend of mine.  That game we started months ago, March maybe?  We have made it to Spring 1863, played a turn a night.  It's been a learning game.  I had never played FtP before , and H. S. has never played a wargame.  I'm the Union, and finally making progress.  He pretty effectively stymied me, by putting an ironclad and 2 divisions of troops in New Orleans and later playing the Baltimore revolt card (didn't see THAT coming!).