WMMS 2011

Went to WMMS for the first time in at least 3 years. Enjoyed it but still not as good as it was at the old venue. Sense of exploration and discovery is missing!
Still, managed to buy a copy of El Grande for a good price (from Chris at E-Collectica), plus got some Pendraken 10mm ACW and some Peter Pig 15mm ACW to experiment with Sharp Practice.
Will I go next year? At this point totally ambivalent, as it was OK but not great.

Merchants & Marauders

Played Merchants & Marauders at Brackley club. Three player game with me acting as game trainer and referee. Was good fun with a strong narrative feel to it. Will play again next week.

Also picked up Seven Wonders from the Games Keeper in Oxford. Spot purchase of a well regarded game.

Beat by a Noob!

Played Twilight Struggle last night against Jacob, at Brackley club. And he beat me!
Got to mid 60s, Jacob was playing the Soviets and through very insightful use of the scoring cards he scored 20 points. Don't recall the score ever being in the USA's favour at any point in the game.
I could argue that the luck was against me, as kept failing in the space race and the cards were always poor. But in reality I was outplayed.
Also played Summoner Wars, which is a solid game.
On the previous Saturday played Chris at Firestorm Armada. Sorylians defending against Dindrenzi. Simple breakthrough scenario, which despite the complete destruction of my fleet, was a very tight game. One roll here, or a faster attack there and I'd have either killed enough ships or delayed him enough to have won.