Tomorrow, Thursday the 21st of May, is the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Arras. That’s the 1940 battle with British & French forces counter-attacking the Germans during the Battle of France; not the 1918 battle of the same name.
There are a few board games/scenarios on the subject. A recently published board game on the subject is Counter-Attack: The Battle of Arras, 1940 published by Revolution Games. BGG link. There is a Vassal module and I recently created a Tabletop Simulator module for the game. In these current, ummm difficult, times playing online is the only way I can get my historical board gaming aka Consim aka wargaming fix. I have been experimenting slash playing with the creation of modules for the Tabletop Simulator game engine.
Anyone else planning on commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Arras? Myself and some regular wargaming mates are playing tomorrow.
If you would like to know a little more about the battle, David Willey, curator of the (Bovington) Tank Museum has a nice long Youtube video on the battle.
This coming Saturday, 20th of April 2019, I will hopefully reach the milestone of my 600th play of the Battlestar Galactica board game. This figure has been a long time coming. It also is a reflection on how a board game group evolves over time.
My copy of Battlestar Galactica (aka BSG) was first played on the 28th November 2008 at LosCon #35, a annual science fiction contention, in Los Angeles. Over the next 4 years I played the game regularly, but not excessively. By 2012, I began to play it more often with my local Tuesday night Ventura County Strategy Boardgamers Meetup group. I was getting close to my 100th game played.
BALTARFEST 2012 was held on the 11th of November 2012. That day we played BSG a total of 9 times. I got to play BSG a total of three times that day. Three times in one day, that seems excessive. Hold that thought!
The game plays accumulate fast when you are playing two, three, or even four games of BSG a week. We had a regular group that played BSG a lot. BSG became a go-to game for Tuesday nights. We knew how to play and we could play fast. By FATDOG 2015 I had reached a total of 400 game plays. BSG was a familiar game on Tuesday nights and other gaming events.
The cake for FATDOG 2015
The first 100 game plays took 6 years. The next 300 games took a mere 3 years to accumulate. I have played BSG 5 times in a single day on several occasions. I have even played 4 times in one evening. To be honest, playing 4-5 times in one day is quite mentally exhausting. The games just merge together into one.
The last 200 games have taken 3.5 years. The rate of games played has noticeably dropped. It seems that BSG had peaked as a board game in my playlist. Why is that? Had I begun to tire of being a cylon? Not at all. The game is still fun to play. The game is still a challenge. The player interaction is still thrilling. The truth was it was just harder to find others who were able or wanted to play. For some their lives have moved on and folks have moved away. The game is hard to learn too. We play with a mix of the base game and the three expansions. We play fast. It is hard for a newcomer to keep up with us at times. It has become harder to get the 5 experienced players together that is the optimum number for a game. The BSG base game and the three expansion modules are now long out-of-print and so there are less new people discovering the game. I have played BSG only 5 times this year, so far. Our regular group is meeting, just not as often. BSG is a still a great game but I do like to play other games too.
How do I have all these stats and information of how, where, and with who I have played BSG? Simple, I log my game plays on the BoardGameGeek website. See here for my article on why this logging of game plays is a good thing.
On a side note: I have to make a shout out to Ryan for arranging our venue for so many events. Many thanks for being a good sport. Btw, that certificate that exempts you from playing BSG has long expired at the end of 2017. See the pic below for proof.
Ryan was happy to win his exemption certificate
Looking back at these photos I see a lot of great people that I have come to know solely because of board games. A wide range of ages, races, and professions, where the only thing we have in common is sharing a fun time over a table playing a game or two. I would not have missed these moments for anything. I hope to see my many cylon mates again soon. To share the challenge of being all sneaky and devious together.
So say we all.
Tim
18th April 2019
P.S. We will be playing lots of different board and card games at BALTARFEST 2019, not just Battlestar Galactica. You can RSVP for free on Meetup at the this link.
Young scamp Chris Rollins is leaving the land of endless summer for the fair city of Boston. Over the past 4 years Chris has graced us with his presence almost 200 times. He has been airlocked in Battlestar Galactica and he has hunted the Rebels in Star Wars Rebellion.
Join us for a session of gaming, and the odd adult beverage or two, to say farewell to the young lad. This may or may not involve Chris getting brigged or airlocked multiple times.
Kindly gather at McGregors craft bar in Moorpark on Saturday, the 7th of April, 2018 from 2pm – 10pm.
Please RSVP on Meetup or on Facebook. We need to let the venue know how many we expect. Kindly let us know if you simply plan on popping in to pay your regards or if you plan to stay for a while.
The venue is one of the regular locations: Seed House, just off the 101 in Ventura. Many thanks to April-Lyn for the venue, and hosting duties etc.
More details to follow as we plot special events etc. One thing that I can promise is a full day (10am-9pm) of open gaming, for free. Snacks and drinks are at cost.
Join us for a pleasant Sunday afternoon & evening of Board games and Beer (or wine etc) at McGregors Craft Beer and Wine, Moorpark.
21st January 2018 – 2pm onward
The venue is a friendly craft pub that is open, airy, with great lighting, and large clean tables. There is plenty of free parking too.
Bring along games to play if you want, we will have plenty of fun games at hand. Beginners are welcome. There will be plenty of fun games to play that take mere minutes to learn. We will have plenty of games that are suitable for all types of gamers, from newcomers to experienced.
You can RSVP on the Ventura County Strategy Boardgamers Meetup or on the Facebook event. All our events are FREE to attend. The venue is a commercial establishment, people are expected to support the venue by partaking in the food and drink they have to offer. As the establishment serves alcohol there is a minimum age limit of 21.
Ventura County Boardgamers 
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