@evildrganymede@wargamers.social
@evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

evildrganymede

@evildrganymede@wargamers.social

Brit/Canadian Greek Cypriot, Planetary Science Ph.D, Player of Games, Tinkerer of Rules, music/science/history geek.
Neurospicy!
Likes #boardgames #hexandcounter #wargames #battletech #science #history #nature #progrock #music #movies #scifi

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evildrganymede, to Wargaming
@evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

We finally played "1066, Tears To Many Mothers" last night and it was good! It'd work well as an introductory wargame (it's really a very interactive tableau building card game).

The artwork is amazing on the cards too, though some of the noble folks look a bit too clean & modern for the 11th century. I'm sure the artist based some of the characters on moderns actors too, Harold Godwinson looks suspiciously like Russell Crowe! :D

You start off with the appearance of Halley's Comet & progress through several objectives to get to the Battle of Hastings (strangely the Saxons took the comet as a bad omen, and the Normans took it as a good omen. Not sure how that's decided!). While you're doing that you can pick off/damage units that are being build in your opponent's tableau, move your cards around, & do other actions. The resources to buy cards are very tight in this game & it seems that it's best to get the resource generating cards out there as early as possible - otherwise you need to spend cards from your hand as resources & it's easy to run out of cards there! You're also somewhat at the mercy of the random draw to determine what is available on a turn - at the end I had some very high cost units in my hand that I had no way to pay for and put in play!

I started off pretty well as the Saxons, fending off Vikings in the north and then tromping down to the south of England to face the Normans. But I got stuck on later objectives as I didn't have a lot of cards with Zeal and so the Normans beat me to the Hastings objective and got a headstart attacking the wedges there. By the time I caught up I was already demoralised and I hadn't really arranged my units in the wedges very well - in the end the Normans took two wedges and won. I almost killed William with my archers earlier but he managed to shrug off all his wounds with a timely "heal one character" card!

It's a fun, clever, thematic game with lots of interesting decisions - worth checking out!

about halfway through the game.
The End - the Saxons couldn't gain a big enough advantage in the Battle of Hastings and were defeated by the Normans!

evildrganymede, to astrophotography
@evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

I did go back up to Christmas Hill tonight (which was quite crowded!) but sadly there were no more aurorae. It was a clear night though and I figured if there was no aurora then I could try out the astrophotography mode on my phone.

One thing I discovered is that the phone mount on my tripod is terrible. It's a springloaded thing that makes it very hard to actually take the photo (because the mount is in the way), see what's being photographed (because the mount covers half the screen), and also not damage or turn off the phone (because the mount clamps on the sides which is where the power button and volume are). But I managed some kind of uneasy, asymmetrically-mounted compromise that worked!

I'm not sure why some turned out blue and some turned out brown/grey though. I think I've identified some of the constellations in the frame at the time (though they're also harder to see in these pics because there's so many stars). But I think they turned out well! #astrophotography

different photo of the same patch of sky but now it's blue-tinted for some reason.
cassiopeia, and cepheus above it somewhere? (looking north)
looking directly up. the big dipper might be in here somewhere?

evildrganymede,
@evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

Also it seems the phone makes a little video/timelapse for the 4 minute exposures. This worked out spectacularly when I tried this from my balcony at 2am last night when the aurora was happening. Also worked pretty well tonight too! #astrophotography #aurora #auroraborealis

4 minute timelapse from last night (10th May) when the aurora was in full force, taken from from my apartment balcony. I was holding the tripod so that's why it's rather shaky!
a 4 minute exposure video from tonight.
another 4 minute exposure video from tonight.
another 4 minute exposure video from tonight.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

An old classic "what if" question is What scifi novel or movie would you like to live in?

Adult me is skeptical of most of them, they all have drawbacks.

Child me instantly knows my heart's desire.

evildrganymede,
@evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

@nyrath Oh, for me it's the Culture, definitely (at least as someone living on a high tech Orbital or something)!

evildrganymede,
@evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

@nyrath I dunno, I'd kinda like to be one of the Affront :D (the fun part is that could be temporarily at least, and then be a fractal space-faring photon-absorbing bush for a while too!)

evildrganymede, to scifi
@evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

Well, look what I found (in a second hand bookshop up the road in Sidney)!
@nyrath @iamgerardthomas

evildrganymede,
@evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

@nyrath @iamgerardthomas I know! They were $6 each individually but the bookshop owner knocked it down to $35 for the whole set if I wanted them all, so I wasn't going to say no to that! 😀

iamgerardthomas, to scifi
@iamgerardthomas@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

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    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @iamgerardthomas @nyrath Is it not available from here? https://paizo.com/products/btpy890j/discuss?Starblazer-Adventures-The-Rock-Roll-Space-Opera-Adventure-Game

    nyrath, to random
    @nyrath@spacey.space avatar

    Boy, my 12 year old great-nephew just made me feel totally inadequate.

    Apparently he listens to podcasts while simultaneously reading technical books on totally different topics. His father (my nephew) has given him tests and his comprehension of both cast and text are excellent.

    As a drawback, he does suffer from severe ADHD. His mental world is like he is surrounded by falling scraps of book pages, and he has to read each one before they hit the ground.

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath it's often said that AD(H)D people have superpowers, that must be his. I think mine is the ability to be able to identify the weak spots in a system very quickly (and fix them, if possible). The downside is that before I was diagnosed I couldn't really concentrate on tasks unless I was really interested (and then I'd hyperfocus on those for days).

    I started taking Concerta a few months ago after I was finally diagnosed in September and that has helped a lot (I can only handle the minimum dose of that though). I can now stick to tasks and work all day without getting bored and needing to get up every half hour. I actually have more trouble now in forcing myself to stop working or thinking about what I'm doing (I guess I haven't had much practise with having to do that). But I think it has also made me a lot less patient with other 'normal brained' people and I think it's made it harder for me to understand why they do things (I'm getting frustrated with people a lot more now, especially at work).

    It's a struggle, but knowing I have ADD (and probably some associated 'tisms on the side) has helped a lot when it comes to understanding my own thought processes. The Concerta can't fix anything, it can only make some aspects less troublesome, but at least I feel like I'm operating at the level I'm supposed to be at now.

    evildrganymede, to Babylon5
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    For many years now I have been visiting a friend every sunday night and we usually watch films or some old TV series. We've seen many movies, all of the original Twilight Zone episodes, most episodes of The Night Gallery, and tonight we started a new series - Babylon 5 😄 .

    I haven't actually seen it since it aired, and I religiously watched every episode at the time, at least until the middle of Season 5 (I know, I know). The Gathering still stands up pretty well (maybe the new Bluray version is better quality but honestly the DVD version we were watching looked absolutely fine). I know Richard Biggs was great as Dr Franklin in the actual series, but I rather liked Johnny Sekka as Dr Kyle in the pilot! (also I am reminded about how many of the show's cast is no longer with us, having died far too soon :( ).

    It's going to be fun watching these again :D (and yes, hopefully this time I'll make it through all of season 5...!) #babylon5 #scifi

    nyrath, to random
    @nyrath@spacey.space avatar

    Mastodon mass-mind, please have pity on me!

    I'm trying to identify a book I read.

    I am almost positive it is a book by Stephen Baxter. I'm trying to avoid having to re-read them all.

    There was a side story that gave the early history of the universe, starting at the big bang. It describes the weird physics a few nanosecond after the bang, and the creatures that live then.

    Then the story goes back to the main story

    1/

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath ah, dang! glad you found it. I did have a look at World Engines and there is a bit set at the start of the universe (lol) near the end of Creator which is probably what I was thinking of.

    I do love the scale of his books, I have quite a lot of them (Time is one of my all time faves). The only one that really fell flat for me was Galaxias, that one felt really phoned in. The Thousand Earths was quite fun though, even if it was a bit different to what he usually does.

    nyrath, to random
    @nyrath@spacey.space avatar

    https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240403-dark-star-at-50-how-a-micro-budget-student-film-changed-sci-fi-forever

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath I unapologetically love this film - the end is amazing! :D Though the beach-ball alien scenes make a lot more sense to me after reading that they were basically just padding to make it eligible for cinema release - that always seemed to be a bit of a random additional side-plot to me.

    nyrath, to random
    @nyrath@spacey.space avatar

    Holy fucking shit...

    I can see this from my back yard

    https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltimore-bridge-collapse-03-26-24-intl-hnk/h_1652f6b8572b04068c0408df86d22076

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath holy cow, that is awful. From what I'm reading now it sounds like the power went out on the ship and it drifted into the support pylon - imagine being crew on the ship, knowing what is about to happen and not being able to stop it. It's terrible that people have died but at least it didn't happen during the day when it would have been very busy! This is going to have a lot of knock-on effects too...

    evildrganymede, to scifi
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    Just finished watching The Orville New Horizons and... wow - how awesome was THAT! This season was great, and much more serious than previous ones with a lot of good character development and some really good stories too!

    I always said that The Orville did Star Trek better than Star Trek does (even when it was more comedic at the start) and that was even more true in this season - the Moclan and Kaylon story arcs were really meaty and were really well done! And they even tied up some of the loose ends leftover from previous seasons too (though I do wonder what the deal was with the Chak'Tal...).

    The last episode was more like an epilogue but even if they don't do another season (it doesn't seem likely at this point) I think it had a really good run and did what it set out to do. I would love to see more of this setting, in some form (books? comics? cartoons?) but I'd also be OK if this is all we're going to get. "Future Unknown", indeed!

    if you're still on the fence about this and you like sci-fi, then I would definitely recommend that you start watching it - it's very good stuff!

    nyrath, to random
    @nyrath@spacey.space avatar

    Rewatching one of my favorite movies

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath I thought that was fun, though a bit weirdly creepy in places IIRC.

    nyrath, to random
    @nyrath@spacey.space avatar
    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath why yes, I'd like some WAR with my breakfast cereal!

    nyrath, to random
    @nyrath@spacey.space avatar

    This what I used to watch on TV when I was a little boy.
    Artwork by the legendary Alex Toth.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IbEla3FLDcQ

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath I think you've posted some of these Space Angel eps before and they are kinda fun (even with the creepy human lips) :). Where's "Prometheus" supposed to be though?

    evildrganymede, to boardgames
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    oh lordy! This game is HUGE! 😲 #boardgames #voidfall

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath yes, I bought it from a friend.

    nyrath, (edited ) to random
    @nyrath@spacey.space avatar

    This is entertaining! A pdf file about a copyright infringement lawsuit involving Games Workshop with lots of interesting pictures.

    The author is an expert witness, asked if components of the Warhammer 40K line had elements from historical or preexisting scifi paperback cover art. He concludes that there indeed are such.

    https://ia601300.us.archive.org/24/items/gov.uscourts.ilnd.250791/gov.uscourts.ilnd.250791.289.6.pdf

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath Was someone trying to claim that they owned the copyright for big metal shoulder pads? That would be a bit ridiculous!

    evildrganymede, to VideoGames
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    Hm, what's this free game on Steam - "The Ur-Quan Masters"? Sure, I'll check it out...

    Where has this game been all my life?! It's insane! I met the Spathi (Space Captain Fwiffo) on Pluto and they're like something out of the old Captain Kremen skits (fully voiced as well - is everything voiced in this?). Gotta love the way they say ULTIMATE EEEVIL in exactly the same way all the time :D. I think this is gonna be a lot of fun! #videogames

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @nyrath @maxthefox Yeah I missed the original games, though this does still look vaguely familar. Or maybe it's the world scanning part reminding me of Mass Effect :D.

    molotovcockatiel, to random
    @molotovcockatiel@mastodon.social avatar

    Guys, maybe we have enough themed Munchkin variants.

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @molotovcockatiel I think maybe we've generally had enough Munchkin.

    nyrath, to random
    @nyrath@spacey.space avatar

    A sample play through of the TTWG High Frontier

    https://verywordy.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/theres-a-starship-waiting-in-the-sky/

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @RogerBW @nyrath Leaving Earth has character, but it's basically a lot of maths. And then your rocket blows up because Randomness.

    I love Spacecorp because it doesn't have that random explosion nonsense in it.

    IMO Stellar Horizons is absolute garbage. Complete waste of time and money, don't go near that one.

    evildrganymede,
    @evildrganymede@wargamers.social avatar

    @GoblinQuester @RogerBW @nyrath I'll repost my comment from the (2/10) rating I gave it on BGG:

    "I have come to the conclusion that SH is not really a solar system exploration game, it's a game with a pasted-on space exploration theme. Everything that makes solar system exploration interesting and challenging has been removed from the game for "simplicity". It is riddled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies that make it not work as a setting - Planets don't move over time, travel times are unrealistically long (for ships) while being instantaneous for cargo, failure rates are way too high... The rules are also badly presented and contradictory in places and are full of over-simplifications that further act to destroy the theme. And the pace of the game is just too slow, and you could be screwed by randomness at any point.

    It's just too flawed to be worth the money (and it is a very expensive game) - if you want a good, fun solar system exploration game then get SpaceCorp instead, but avoid this."

    I really tried to like it and spent a lot of effort on it. I made a TTS mod where I fixed all the board misprints and upgraded the graphics, and I even made a realistic travel time calculator (with planets that moved over the timeframe of the campaign - you can find that at https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2482480/long-analysis-travel-time-distance-equation-and-re ), but the more I dug into it the more shallow I realised it was. For starters the default travel times in the game are completely arbitrary and based on nothing realistic. And the gameplay itself is just boring - there's far too much dice rolling, it takes far too long to get anything done, takes up far too much space, and ultimately far outstays its welcome. It would have made more sense as a game where you explore some islands in an archipelago than a space exploration game. In the end it was just brutally disappointing in every way.

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