This week, guest blogger Jake

asks the tough question

WAR GAMES, WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?

and invites you to come and play a few of his favorites with him. Take it away, Jake.

I’ve been a eurogame fan for a decade, and an Ameritrash fan for two, but only in the past few years have I really gotten into into wargames. Looking back, none of this should surprise me. Aside from the plastic-filled dicefests Risk and Axis & Allies, games specifically about war are tucked away in the darkest sub-niche within the niche that is tabletop games. People don’t get exposed to them in college like they do D&D, Catan, hard drugs, and STI’s.

The games sometimes have funny symbols, use technical manuals for rulebooks, and are usually the ugliest on the market (St. Petersburg aside). Besides all of these unsexy traits, wargames are actually great, and I’ve finally come around to appreciating how marvelous they can be.

So I’m starting a new wargame event at the Raygun Lounge. It’s called Hex & Violence, and it starts at noonish on Sundays. Show up and try some of the finest examples of contemporary wargaming, including , Twilight Struggle, 1812: The Invasion of Canada, and many more.

I’m happy to teach anything I bring, and while many (if not most) wargames are for 2 players only, there are many games for more, and even the occasional game for fewer. This is not an event for painted miniatures games such as Warmachine, or a nostalgia-fuelled foray into Risk. You can of course just grab a table and do that, but trust me, you’ll be missing out on some of the most engrossing experiences you can have in a tabletop game.

I know from personal experience how important getting a Christmas gift can be for a child living between homes. The gifts that meant the most to me were always games. The games I received at Christmas brought me joy and connection year round for years to come. That’s why it’s such an honor for me to announce Gamma Ray Games‘ 2nd annual Waltier Used Games for New Games for King County Foster Kids for Christmas Drive (better name pending). Here’s how it works:

You bring in your open-yet-complete-and-in-good-condition-games to Gamma Ray Games.

We put the store credit for these used games into an account for Treehouse.

On December 15th, we take all of the credit from everyone’s used games and buy a bunch of brand new games at great prices for the Treehouse Wearhouse to be given out free to King County foster children and their families.

Last year we were able to raise over $250 in store credit and carefully stretch it to buy dozens of great games for foster children. This is a great way for you to pass on your used games to people who will love them and buy brand new games for local area kids in need at the same time.

It’s brilliant.

We love participating in it and we hope that you will too. Just bring your used games to Gamma Ray Games, tell us that they’re for Treehouse and we’ll take care of the rest.

See you soon,

-Eric

Wow! Is it that time again already?

No. Yeah. Well… maybe. I dunno that seems pretty cool anytime actually.

No it’s almost time to

FFFFPT 11!

What the hell is FFFFPT 11? Well, as I discussed way back at FFFFPT 10, FFFFPT is where we celebrate getting 100 more fans on facebook. Hence it’s name, Facebook Fan Fantasy Festival Party Time!

I know. I know. It gets me every time too.

So how’s it work? Well, as soon as we hit 1100 fans (we’re at 1096 as of 5 minutes ago), I post a suitably sensible image with the caption FFFFFPT 11! Then we declare some kind of ridiculous sale. Like the one we had last time where we said, “buy 1 new game, get a second new game for half off and get a third preowned game for absolutely free.” That was a good one. Yeah. You know what? To hell with it. Let’s do it again!

As soon as we declare FFFFPT 11, it’ll be buy one game, get a second one half off and a third one absolutely free. While supplies last. Or until we get bored. Or surly. Somebody’d better go tell Jake and Gordie about this. I’ve gotta go, we’ve got a lot of work to do and I need to decide if I’m going to dress up as Salvador Dali or a velociraptor. I wonder what Gordie’s going to dress up as?

I’ll see you soon,

-Eric