It's time for a new campaign...

 It's been awhile, five years. It's time I update the blog and it's time we sink ourselves into a new table top war-game campaign.

Now - we've been playing plenty of campaigns and I've been supporting plenty of campaigns on Kickstarter and Gamefound but it's been a while since I've made up a new one. Twenty years ago I was into WWII and we played many a WWII campaign, almost all were custom. Then came the Romans and we played many a roman boardgames and a few custom campaigns, anyone remember kings of Rome? Now however I'm deep into my Napoleonics phase. It really helps that I go to France twice a year. It's hard not to be inspired when you are there. So I've been thinking about this for a while, not five years but at least 3. 

Stay tuned - this blog will be leveraged for running the upcoming Napoleon in Italy campaign. Why Italy? It's the start - we can't just jump to Waterloo, we need to start at the start.

Meet Me in Italy!

The Eastern Front.....

 .....attack waits for no one.

Monday is the new Tuesday

We are changing the gaming night back to Monday. If you are curious as to why, ask Jerry.

Join us tonight, or if you read this blog via the feed and are reading this on Tuesday then join us next Monday. 5pm @ Rouge Robot. We've got some cool games in the hopper that we need people for - Tom's got space stuff and I've always got war games and the new Conan Kickstarter. Plus we've been playing Pendragon ~ the decline of Roman Britain. This definitely isn't a kids game. If you consider yourself a gamer and haven't played a game like this, then you need to level up, stretch the brain and play this game. Eventually we will get Pericles to the table too.

Also if you have a good idea or a name for Monday night board gaming post a comment. Tactical Tuesday was perfect but Tactical Monday.... doesn't really have the same ring.

Final results of 1935 Grand Prix in 2018

If you were in doubt about who won and who didn't then here is your update.

If you don't know how to access the spread sheet then....here you go, points and final finishes:

10th place: ACM, Auto Club d'Monaco (Pat).... 42 total, 135 gross. Pat had some brief flashes of brilliance, like when he won the British Grand Prix but his team never fully recover from the disaster that was the French Grand Prix. I'm sad to report that Pat was broken by his experience in France, much like Germans in 1918 and 1944.

9th place: RACI, Reale Automobile Club d'Italia (Luke).... 39 total, 120 gross. Luke was finally starting to get into a grove, his last two races were probably his best.

8th place: MEEW, Mitteleuropäischer Motorwagen Verein (Ben).... 38 total, 119 gross. Ben's highlight reel came with his only first place finish at Budapest. Unfortunately, this might have been the last race he actually participated in, most of the season someone else managed his team. What could have Ben will never be known.

7th place: SF, Scuderia Ferrari (Donny).... 36, 114 gross. Nuvolari is one of the best drivers of all time and in the hands of Donny he was as reckless as possible. "2 stop corner, 6th gear.... no problem I'll just over shoot by 12 and use all my tires and a brake. Perfect!" The high water marks were at Monaco with a 2nd place finish and a 3rd at Spa.

6th place: MMC, Monticello Motor Club (Eric).... 35 total, 110 gross. Eric figured out how to run his car and driver combo sometime around mid season and the results show, with a 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place finish in the races leading up to the championship.

5th place: KAK, Kungliga Automobilklubben (Jerry).... 34 total, 113 gross. Jerry always leaves everything on the field. He certainly did that on the last race. Trying to jump ahead cost him 1 point in the total gross score. If he could have finished in 1st or 2nd the strategy would have made him look like a genius, instead he took 5th overall. Always a bridesmaid never a bride.

4th place: TCF, Touring Club d'France (me, Dave).... 34 total, 112 gross. What can I say?  I had the most crashes. That earned me a pin and boy did I need that extra money! May best race was at the Italian Grand Prix and I crashed a car there too. My second team man was mostly my main man as there was hardly a race where I didn't use him.

3rd place: RAC, Royal Auto Club (Bill).... 34 total, 110 gross. Bill played it conservative for most of the season. 3rd lap, 5 points, drop out, until the last race where despite a crash he came in 2nd. That earned him 3rd overall. Well played.

2nd place: ADAC, Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (Tom).... 31 total, 101 gross. Going into the championship Tom and Kevin were tied. It was either player's season to win or lose. Tom took 6, or was it 7, transmission points, but he should have taken a few more body points, he crashed out on the first lap. Kevin's victory was secured quickly. Despite the results at Spa, Tom took first at Monaco, Nice and Barcelona and second at Monza, Nurburgring and the French GP, for a total of 6 podium visits.

1st place: UKDMA, United Kingdom Dairymans' Assoc. (Kevin).... 28 total, 89 gross. Kevin consistency scored in the top 3. He only had two bad races and his average was almost universally 3 points. His first place finish at Spa cemented his title as Champion. He had 8 podium appearances in 11 races. That is very impressive and is equaled only by the previous champion, Lance. There is no doubt about it, the Milk Man really delivers and he is the Champion of 2018.

I hope you all had a good time. I certainly did. When the world starts to turn back toward the light we will setup for the 2019 1935 season with some new maps, tweaked drivers and tweaked cars and see if we can crown a new champion.

As winter progresses we will still be meeting on Tuesday's for random board gaming goodness. Join us if you dare.

The Championship

If you've been paying attention and keeping up on the scores you'll notice that on the spread sheet each team has a range of values at the top. They are your best and worst possible scores.

If you are hoping to slide into first and win the championship and your name isn't Kevin or Tom, then my friend, you are dreaming. However, the race for 3rd is open to almost everyone.

Tuesday November 6th, Election Day, is the date for the final race of the 1935 season.

We've raced 10 races so far.

Here are the winners in order of race:

  1.Sweden:-------------------RAC (Bill)
  2.Monaco:-----------------ADAC (Tom)
  3.Monza: --------------------TCF (Dave)
  4.Budapest: --------------MEEW (Ben)
  5.Nurburgring:---------UKDMA (Kevin)
  6.Donnington:--------------ACM (Pat)
  7.French Grand Prix: UKDMA (Kevin)
  8.Nice:------------------- ADAC (Tom)
  9.Barcelona:------------ ADAC (Tom)
10.Tripoli: -----------------MMC (Eric)
11.Spa: ----------------------TBD

Good luck to you all.

The final two races....

Tuesday October 30th the attention will turn to Tunisia. If you've been hankering for 6th gear then this will be the map for you.

Here is a link to the track at Tripoli, Tunisia. 

As you can see, the long straight on this track is 60 spaces long and ends in a very, very short two stop corner. How many transmission points do you have? Oh, and watch out for goats.

As always, open market at 5:30. Race starts at 6:30.

The following week, November 6th, we will compete for the championship race at Spa. This track is very technical and should test all your skills, after all this will be the 11th race this year.

Here is a link to the track at Spa, Belgium.

As a reminder the Spa race can replace a previous poor score. So if you take 1st at Spa you may just find yourself atop the podium, or maybe Kevin will win the championship this year...

Barcelona!

Barcelona is the last Grand Prix before the championship. If you are planning to "make a move" to "get into position to win the championship", you should have already been racing as hard as Kevin and Tom.  Of course, maybe you always wanted to come in third... Bill and Jerry and I are right on track for that. Can't you just hear the fans exclaim, "Oh, the race for third is heating up!"

Barcelona is a short track. Here is a link to the track. With only one 2 stop, and eight 1 stops this track should prove to be quick, a well managed car should be able to cruise around the track almost exclusively in 4th and 5th gear.

The race is on Tuesday, October 9th. This is a Grand Prix so prestige is doubled but German and Italian Car and Driver combos will earn triple.

Following Barcelona we will race in Tunisia on October 30th and have the Championship race at Spa on November 6th.

Time to make you move!

Schedule change for the last 3 races

The last 3 races will be: Barcelona, Tunisia and Spa.

These 3 races, for various reasons are having their race dates changed. (Click the links to see the race maps.)

The new race dates are: October 9th, Barcelona, the Spanish Grand Prix,
                                       October 30th, Tunisia
                                       November 6th, Spa the Championship race.

As we get closer to the race day. I'll send out blog post reminders and those of you that are subscribed  will get an email. Those of you that aren't please.

Here are a couple pictures from the last race in Nice.

The fastest track: Nice

Tuesday September 4th the circuit turns it's attention to the South of France.

With only 9 stops and the longest straight at 66 spaces that terminates in a very short 2 stop, I can already hear the whine of the transmissions and the burning of breaks and tires.

The race will be fast. Arrive in time to play the market. The race starts at 6:30 sharp.

Here is a link to a video of the track and here is a link to the map.

Good Luck

Tragedy at the French Grand Prix

Rain, rain and more rain. The French Grand Prix greeted teams with a challenging track and lots of rain and sliding around. This led 13 crashes, and only 5 out of 10 teams finishing the race.

The heartbreak was complete from start to finish. With cars crashing out on the first lap and the last.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, went right. Some low lights of note are; the pole position winner stalled on the start, the French team crashed their first car not far from the start and their entire team crashed out before the third lap, and the German team, with the finish line in sight and, the victory within grasp, overshot the last corner by two spaces and crashed.

The only bright light for the entire race was the UKDMA team who's car suffered hardly a scratch and he pushed into the lead after the ADAC team crashed.

Everyone left the field feeling dirty and broken. Will there be any teams even able to race in two weeks when the attention turns to the sunny South of France for the very fast Grand Prix d'Nice.

Here is the map for the next race.