Errr, umm, hi, I think....

It's about this time that I'm really beginning to wonder what I'm doing here. It sounded like such a cool idea at the time, to be part of a regular blog group. KInd of like those great ideas in the pub on a Friday night after several pints of beer. Like the one we had to drive down to the south of France for the weekend, leaving right after lectures on Friday and getting back for lectures on Monday. From the north of Scotland. Only 1000 miles as the crow flies, except we weren't crows and had to deal with such minor inconveniences as ferries, motorways, tolls and other such details that are oh so insignificant after the afore mentioned several pints of beer. In the light of day the idea was tossed as being rather impractical, although we reckoned it could be done. At least long enough to write a postcard saying 'Hello, mom!', a quick paddle in the Med and then time to head off again. Man, I miss being a student.

Anyway. As the others seem to have started with a brief summary of their gaming history, I might as well do the same. I recall playing some games with my parents. Flutter, especially, comes to mind, and I recall evenings playing that with my mom, dad and brother. I was also very much into building plastic model kits, which developed into miniature wargames and from there it was a short (side) step to SPI/S&T wargames, Avalon Hill and that ilk. (Does anyone ever use the word 'ilk' any more? Is it just a Scottishism?) From there I developed into the early AH attempts at Euros, Brittania, History of the World, etc. At college I remember us playing lots of Talisman and Maneater.

After coming over this side of the world (further details are on my web-site for those desperate to find out more about it.) I met up and became more acquainted with the other fine gentlemen here, and most recently it's been almost exclusively Euros I play these days.

I say 'almost' because until very recently I hadn't played any wargames in an absolute age. I still had plenty on the shelf, and sometimes took them down, looked at the rules and lovingly caressed them. (Dave, you did say PG-13 was OK, right?) I even set up one or two of them, but could never quite find enough enthusiasm to actually play them. And so I started selling them. Slowly at first, and then in a big flood. Bye, bye S&T magazines! Bye, bye AH classics! Oddly enough it's been quite invigorating. (Hello, my name is Mike and I'm a game addict....)

And then a strange thing happened. I started playing wargames again. Mostly Columbia block games (which could be argued aren't really wargames), but there was some GMT stuff in there, with hexes and small counters! Egads! I'm looking for more opportunities to play deeper games of longer length. I'm still planning to sell the ASL collection, as I don't think I'll ever get back to that level of depth, but I'm no longer eyeing the last AH remnants for what they'll fetch on eBay. I'd like to thank my fellow gamers in the group for re-awakening my interest in these games.

So, where was I. Ah, yes, I was pondering on how I could possibly write an introductory blog entry, and how I'm under pressure to perform. Well, I appear to have achieved that target, in a roundabout sort of way. Enough for a first entry, more next week. (I bet you can hardly wait....)