For the first time ever, I’ve allowed everyone’s favourite operating system into my condo. Up until now, the only computers I’ve allowed to cross the threshold are my iMac and Jason’s iBook.
Why did I commit this mortal sin, you might ask?
Ah, the things we do for work. I’m working from home tomorrow so I brought my PC home with me. Rest assured, it’s only temporary. My condo will return to pure Appleicious glory on Friday.
Jason recently posted an article on his weblog about tactical games. While I agree that Wizard Kings is a more tactical game than many Eurogames are, I don’t entirely agree that Eurogames don’t focus on tactics.
As examples, consider two of Dr. Reiner Knizia’s games, Blue Moon City and Samurai. With their tile-driven wooden-block-pushing mechanics, I can’t imagine anyone would doubt their Eurogame provenance, yet they’re both almost purely tactical games in my experience.
Many of Knizia’s other designs also feel quite tactical to me – Kingdoms and Through the Desert come to mind, as do Lost Cities and the Blue Moon card game, and the list goes on. Dr. Knizia certainly does not have a monopoly on tactical Eurogames, either. Tikal and Java by Kramer and Kiesling are quite tactical, as are Wrede’s Carcassonne and Rauscher’s Tongiaki.
There are also eurogames with deeper tactics and heavier strategy such as Caylus and Tigris & Euphrates, though they both play longer than the more family-oriented Eurogames as a side effect.
One thing most of these tactical Eurogames have in common, and this is perhaps what Jason was picking up on, is that their tactical palette is sometimes a little limited. When I’m playing Blue Moon City, for example, there are only a limited number of single-turn and two- or three-turn tactics I can use. The choices aren’t usually easy, but there aren’t all that many options, either. On the other hand, Wizard Kings gives players a wide range of tactical options, owing a lot to the variety of terrain and units. The strategic framework present in the game also provides a richer environment in which to explore those tactics (or just make them up as you go like I do).
While I don’t agree that Eurogames lack tactics, I do think that in many cases they limit the tactical options. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as they can create tension and interest in many other ways. I can think of dozens of games of Ingenious where I could easily agonize over a single tile placement for more than a minute (a long time in a 20-30 minute 2-player game), even though Ingenious really doesn’t have that many tactical options.
Wizard Kings produces tension more on the tactical and strategic side of things, and this kind of variety is the reason I play (and own) such a large number of different board games.
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As I mentioned earlier, I acquired a new camera lens last week. Today I finally got around to giving it its first test drive.
The first part of the test drive involved a long walk from my condo, over to Scotsman’s hill, through Ramsay and Inglewood, then along the Bow river past Fort Calgary and over to Eau Claire and Prince’s Island park. All in all, I spent about 3.5 hours enjoying the sunshine and taking the occasional photo.
Since the focus of the trip (besides getting outdoors for a walk) was to test out the lens, I took a number of pictures that were complete garbage as I tried the lens out at different focal lengths and apertures. All in all, maybe 20% of the photos were worth keeping, but that’s not half bad considering what I was up to.
The second test was after sunset, as I shot three subjects from the balcony of my condo at night:
Of course, the night photographs were long exposures at long focal lengths, just for fun. I used the obligatory tripod and shutter cord to avoid blurring the photos beyond recognition, though I didn’t bother with the mirror lock-up function of the camera since these are just test shots. I took 3-5 pictures each of the three subjects, and kept only the best one.
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Overall, I’m quite pleased with the performance of the lens as an all-around zoom lens. In daylight I can still manage to get clean shots even at 200mm focal lengths, though this amount of magnification is overkill for the type of photography I generally do. Based on the EXIF data from my use today, I doubt I’ll go beyond 150mm all that often.
As a lens I plan on taking with me whenever I travel and on hiking trips, I’m sure it will perform very well and I’ll continue to enjoy shooting with it.
As always, the May long weekend will see the University play host to hundreds of… people dressed like anime characters? Otafest 2007 takes place on May 19 and 20, in Macewan Hall and the Science Theatres at the University of Calgary.
Though the schedule hasn’t been posted yet, there are some special events listed that I would like to attend this year, depending on the timing. It’s likely that I’ll pick one of the two days based on the schedule, which means I’ll miss some things, but that’s the way it goes. I find it tough to devote two whole days to Otafest, but I also find it hard to skip entirely.
Hopefully this year there won’t be as many schedule conflicts as there were last year. In 2006, it seemed like every time something interesting was scheduled, there are about 3 other interesting things scheduled as well. It’s the nature of the beast with any convention / festival, I guess.
Have no fear, though; I’m not madly stitching the last few sequins onto my costume. Really, I’m not.
Jeremiah Wittevrongel lives in Calgary, Canada. Though he works as a software developer and loves what he does, this blog isn't about that. It's about the rest of his life, which tends to revolve around board gaming and cooking.
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