astradele

I highly recommend watching this video if you have fond memories of playing the Nintendo or Super Ninendo. I assure you, if the names of Super Mario or Zelda are familiar and welcome names, you’ll enjoy this video.

I play this tabletop war strategy board game every week. It’s far more complex than the Parker Brother offerings. A simple analogy would be what Risk is to Axis and Allies, Empires in Arms is to A&A (and then some).

It’s set around the Napoleonic wars around the 1800′s, involves seven players, takes an estimate 100 hours of playing time per game, and has aspects at the tactical, strategic, and diplomatic level. Quite a commitment, but quite a different kind of game. It sounds daunting, but people who are into strategy games should really give these kinds of games a try, IMO.

Here’s a picture from the game, June 1796. I’m playing Prussia, and Napoleon and the Prussian army just finished a huge bloodbath exchange involving all the able bodied men of Prussia and most of the French, just east of Holland.

I even do work-type stuff off hours, too. Not heady, hand-wavy architect stuff, but more regular programming. Don’t get the (totally) wrong idea, however; “leisure” programming is fun, but there still needs to be a purpose for me.

Currently, said purpose is being fulfilled by a project a friend of mine asked me help him out on. Eventually the plan is to spin it commercial, but for me right now, it’s simply fulfilling a need to make software do something useful – and the need to tinker.