Yesterday I got out my handmade copy of Lou Coatney's free introductory wargame 1st Alamein. It's a nifty little Allies vs. Rommel number that's operational/strategic but small enough to be manageable. In the grand grognard style I set up the game tonight and did part of a turn solo before putting it away. I'm not sure I'm doing a good job digesting and understanding the rules. Mr. Coatney was at Winter War this year, running demos of his games including 1st Alamein. Now I regret not availing myself of the opportunity to learn the game firsthand from the author. Maybe I'll go back to trying to play a game of Tactics II. The rulebook for that is so easy to understand it almost insults my intelligence.

While I was looking for my copy of 1st Al I found my partially assembled copy of King of the TableTop. Written by Tom Wham and Rob Kuntz with counter art by Tramp, KotTT appeared in Dragon magazine issue #77, September 1983. It's worth tracking down a copy if you get a chance. My sister and I played the crap out of my now lost first set of this game. Neither my sister nor my wife are gamers. If one of them likes a game I know it's a good game. (If both of them like a game it's gaming gold. Come to think of it, I really ought to put together a list of games they enjoy and post it either here or on my main website or maybe over at BoardGameGeek.com.) A redone/upgraded/whatever version of TableTop was published as a box set under the title Kings & Things, by of all companies West End Games. I can't speak to the value of any of the improvements made to the game in K&T, never having seen a copy up close. I do know that it's tough to find nowadays. There's a German language edition to K&T that seems to be easier to locate, even on this side of the pond. The original version is much easier to find, as eBay sees lotsa back issue of Dragon change hands every day.

With my cow-orker Laurie on vacation this week I got real busy at the office and failed to plan for a game this weekend. Unless Pat's available (maybe for the aforementioned Tactics II or other wargamery) this will probably be a game-free weekend. As such, I'll probably do some work on game-related web projects. I really need to get my stuff together if I want to enter the ChessVariants.com 44-squares contest. The deadline to enter is Wednesday of next week. I think my rules for SpaceWarp44 are good to go, I just need to code the page. I wouldn't mind getting a Call of Cthulhu page up. I've got three tiny little gameaids that could all fit on a single webpage. And I haven't updated the Otus Shrine in a month. I ought to be able to get at least one of those three project done over the next two days.