I have been constantly wrestling with obstacles to my gaming pleasure; storage is a big one (always going into detail on how I have too many games), unplayed games another and struggling to attend as many sessions I would like another. Missing out on all this actual playing time often leaves me at a loose end, and a couple of weeks back I decided to use my non-gaming time to approach a concept I ha...

"realism noun SPECIALIZED: paintings, films, books, etc. that try to represent life as it really is."The last time I wrote about realism, it was a fairly simplistic look at why something - a game - can convey realism despite being rather elegant and lacking layer upon layer of chrome or detail. It can cut both ways, of course; just one missing detail can throw the baby out with the bathwater and le...

Frequent game sessions do little to reduce the list of unplayed titles the player-collector possesses, particularly when the group's attendance is usually too high for the games you crave to try out on them. Thebes is one of many games Mike had been trying to introduce to the rest of us since October last year, and one we finally got to play in February (yes it is some time ago, but things have bee...

Quite often the same old argument rears its ugly head. How much realism is there in this game or that? Is it realistic enough? Is it too realistic? Does realism add too much complexity?The question is being raised more and more these days because of the latest trends in wargames. ASL has regained some of its old popularity, more card-driven titles are surfacing and plastic armies are sweeping acros...

It was a hectic few months late last year and early this year for me and my family. The house has become a great source of pain as one small job has escalated into several large ones, I have been forced to make a career change after my former employer made me redundant and there was a death in the family just a couple of weeks ago. Despite all this I managed to make my annual pilgrimage the weekend...