Variable Pig

Variable Pig

The Aksai Black Pied Issue

The “Somewhere on the Road to Eternity” issue, featuring the

166th issue of “Polar Pig”, “The Universe Is A Pink Blancmange

Called Simon” 84 and on-the-shelf vol. XVI, issue 35.

Variable Pig – (Askai Black Pied) 3

VARIABLE PIG

(AKSAI BLACK PIED)

POLAR PIG 166

Greetings and welcome to another issue of Variable Pig. We’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks, so we haven’t been able to turn this issue around quite as quickly as others recently, but we should make the intended 5 week goal. I hope that all our English readers survived the “Beast from the East”. We’ve had a couple of middling snow showers last week (4 – 6 inches), although the expected ‘snowmageddon’ passed North of the Valley, but the snow really hasn’t lasted. Since January, it’s been quite a mild (and damp) winter here. January 4th marked the 30th year since I started working professionally. I’m happy to say that Evonik did recognize the occasion, but it’s amazing to think of how things have changed since I started in Clayton (Manchester) all those years ago. I was fresh from University, engaged, enthusiastic and naïve. Since that time, I’ve moved from a R&D role to a Technical Support role, married, had 2 wonderful children, lived in four different countries and traveled the World. However, it’s also sobering to realize that the clock is definitely ticking a countdown on this, although I have no plans to retire right now. Jacqueline had her long-awaited eye follow up in January, but sadly the outcome was not a success. The operation to reattach the retina was successful, but unfortunately the connection to the optic nerve did not take. The bad news was confirmed when Jacqueline went to the Optician for a sight check. She does have some peripheral vision, which is good as it helps her when driving, but no focus. It is very disappointing, especially as we still don’t know the cause of the detachment in the first place, but Jacqueline has learned to adapt and has largely resumed her regular activities. February’s main event was a short trip to England and Holland. I only planned a short trip as I expected the weather to be lousy, but of course we had great weather. Jacqueline and I took a red eye on the Thursday and stayed at an airport hotel near Heathrow before starting our whirlwind trip. I have found that this schedule actually works better for me in limiting jet lag when I get to England. The next morning we drove to Andover for lunch with Jacqueline’s sister Wendy and her husband Ian plus our niece and her two daughters. We met at a lovely pub in Andover center that served Wadsworths! The food was good too. After a nice lunch, we went to have tea with Julie and Thelma from the Andover Hosteling group. Both ladies are now in their 80s and can’t walk so far now, but they were very active members of the group when Jacqueline first joined The last time Jacqueline saw Julie, she was taken away by ambulance at the start of her gall bladder problems. Fortunately, there was no repeat and we had a lovely time catching up with old friends over a traditional English afternoon tea. We then made the short trip to see Mark and Nebby. Jacqueline hadn’t seen Nebby for over two years and they had a great time catching up. It was good to back together again with everyone healthy. After a long day catching up, we headed for Stockbridge where we stayed overnight at the Three Cups Inn. It’s a very nice old Pub with low ceilings and uneven floors. It’s also where Jacqueline’s parents had stayed early in their marriage, as Jacqueline’s father had been evacuated there during the war, so it has a special place in her family history. I had stayed there before, but Jacqueline had not. The next morning we caught up with others from the Andover Hosteling Group for a walk along the water meadows beside the River Test, outside of Stockbridge. We had great weather for the walk, cool but bright and sunny. The original plan was a circular 8 mile walk, but we were not fast enough to complete this in time for lunch, so we shortened the route to a 6 mile round trip, but it was still a lot of fun. More members of the group joined us for lunch at another local pub.


The reason for the rush, was our next stop was the Aldershot – Macclesfield game at the Recreation Ground, about an hour away. We arrived only a couple of minutes late but the large queues and problems paying for tickets with a credit card, meant that we missed the key moment in the match when Aldershot gave away a penalty and had their center back sent off after only three minutes. Having seen the incident from three different camera angles (club video, National League video and Kappadeano video), I think that it was a very harsh decision – probably a penalty but not a red card. Despite being a man down and conceding a sloppy goal at the beginning of the second half (just after missing a great chance t equalize), the Shots played really well and were a little unlucky to lose 2 – 1. It was the only blemish on a great week and it wonderful to be back at a loud, packed and passionate Recreation Ground. Macclesfield are looking good for the National League title but the Shots are still in the mix for the playoffs. After the game, we drove up to Dovercourt to see my Mum and Dad. After a couple of beers with Mum and Dad, we decamped to the Bottle Kiln, a new Wetherspoons Hotel in Dovercourt for the night. Next day we spent with Mum and Dad and enjoyed a nice walk along the Dovercourt beach. Mum also cooked a very tasty Kedgeree for lunch, something I haven’t had for years. It was the most relaxing day of our trip. We left in the evening to stay at an airport hotel near Stansted ahead of an early morning flight to Amsterdam. The main reason for our trip was that I wanted to visit Utrecht. Evonik announced last year that they would be closing the Utrecht lab this year, where I had worked for 8 years. Some of my former colleagues will relocate to other labs, but others will move on to new jobs and I wanted to say goodbye before people started to leave. It was the first time we had been back to Holland for some time and we definitely felt nostalgic riding the train from Schiphol to Utrecht and walking through the town to our hotel. Jacqueline spent the afternoon catching up with some of her friends from Utrecht and De Meern, while I made my way to the labs. It was great to see everyone again, particularly Wim who now works for another company and Bert who came up from Belgium. We enjoyed lunch at the Pancake house in the Vondelpark before returning to the lab for some pictures, I’m really glad I went, although it was a bitter sweet occasion and hard to see the lab shutting down having been such a vibrant place while I worked there. My colleague dropped me back at the station at the end of the work day, and I wandered back to the hotel enjoying the familiar sites of Utrecht: it really is a beautiful city. Jacqueline and I relaxed for a little before heading to one of our old haunts, Oudaens, for a beer and meeting with Grant and Ally, some more old friend who took us to a really neat warehouse restaurant on the Oudegracht for dinner. The last leg of our trip took us to Bristol via a direct Easyjet flight from Amsterdam, a city that I really don’t know. The reason – our first Magnum concert since October 1993. I first got into Magnum as a first year at Warwick and saw them a number of times as a student and also introduced them to Jacqueline while we courting. Their albums “On a Storytellers Night”, “Chase the Dragon” and “Marauder” are definitely part of the tracks of my youth and I still enjoy listening to them, They broke up in the late 90s but reformed in the early 2000s and have continued to record new music and play live. Their new album “Lost on the Road to Eternity” weas released this year, and careful planning meant that we could catch the opening night of their tour in Bristol. Of course, we were also able to catch up with more friends. One of Jacqueline’s bridemaids, Lisa, lives near Bristol and she was also a Magnum fan, so we arranged to meet up for the concert. We hadn’t seen her since Jacqueline’s 40th birthday party and we spent a very nice afternoon walking around a park and catching up. After a nice dinner, we walked to the Bristol Trinity center for the concert, where we met up with Mike (my best man), Carolyn, Stuart and Chris in the queue.


The concert itself was great. We managed to worm our way to near the front and stayed there for almost the entire show. As expected, they played a lot of new songs including “Sacred Blood, Divine Lies” and “When We Were Younger”, but the real thrill came when they turned back to clock for “Les Morts Dansant” and “How Far Jerusalem”: happy days. They finished with a blistering version of “Don’t Wake the Lion”. There was one more peace of good fortune to come. Jacqueline’s feet had started to hurt, so she retreated to the back for the encore and, as I came back to join her, I spotted the artist Rodney Matthews, watching near the back. I have been a huge fan of Rodney Matthews (who does the album covers for Magnum and many others) since I was 15 when someone gave me an old copy of his “Another Time, Another Place calendar”. When the show ended, I was able to chat briefly with him and Jacqueline managed to get a picture. It was a very packed and short trip, but great fun. I lost track of how many old friends we were able to meet although Jacqueline may remember. It was also wonderful to travel with Jacqueline again, after the problems of the last few years. Of course, work has also been very busy. This was the first year I didn’t attend World of Concrete since we moved to the US, and it was a little strange, but there were other visits. My first major trip of the year weas to Mexico City, which was unexpectedly cold, especially as many buildings don’t have heating. This was followed by the Waterborne Symposium in New Orleans, where I taught two short courses, moderated part of the conference and presented a paper. I always enjoy this show and this year was no different, both for the work aspect and also New Orleans. There have been other trips as well. The other big news is that Thomas graduated from Lehigh Carbon Community College. We are both thilled and very proud of him. He is now actively looking for full time employment and has already had a number of interviews. Hannah is also doing well and working hard. That’s most of the news for now. We did go to see Al Stewart in concert in Sellersville, the first time we have seen him with a full live band and he played the whole “Year of the Cat” album live. I enjoyed this, but his promise to come back and play the entire “Past Present and Future” album really sparked my attention. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will happen. There was also a small sporting event that affected a nearby city and caused much local rejoicing. I saw the game in New Orleans, but even Jacqueline tuned in for the final quarter and post game fireworks. There’s not much to report on this zine this time, as I have not kicked off any new games this time, due to the slow production. Hopefully, we can kick off a few new games next time. For now, I wish you all a pelasant spring and look forward to hearing from you.

* * * * *


LETTERS Colin Bruce A Happy New Year to you! Just received the excellent 'Lincolnshire Curly Coat'. Keep warm! Andy York Thank you, sir (for game cards). Best for 2018 to you! Bob Pitman Anyway... resend my bits por favor and a happy New Year!

I’m currently in Mexico City with no access to my Pig files. I will try to send these to you on Thursday

or Friday. I totally understand if your orders are a week or so late after all the problems. Murray Egan Happy (belated) New Year James, (Well, at least I made it by January ;-)

It’s been pretty hectic the last few weeks, with business trips to Mexico City and New Orleans, plus a

short break in England and Holland, to bid farewell to the Utrecht lab that will shut in the summer. It

was a great trip, albeit a little sad visiting the lab for the last time and we had unexpectedly good

weather. My next trip is up to Wisconsin, but it’s only for a couple of days but I think I will come back

to Chicago later in the year. I will let you know more if/when I get dates fixed. Bob Pitman Cheers Jim... you do get to some exotic locations! Hope Mexico City was nice!

Sometimes anyway, although I’m not sure I would consider Mexico City as exotic but it’s probably

nicer than many people think Michael Pargman I had a great time in Italy. There was lots of snow, but weather was pretty good. There was one day when we couldn't leave our valley because of massive snowing, but the other days we always found the sun somewhere. Unfortunately, we didn't get a white Christmas. In mid-January we got a lot of snow and the cold to keep it there for a couple of weeks, but now it's all gone.

Great to hear that you had a good holiday in Italy and the weather was kind. We actually did have a

white Christmas: we were greeted by snow falling as we came out church from the late night

Christmas Eve service. It wasn’t a heavy fall, just a couple of inches, but it did add to the atmosphere. Michael Pargman Right now I'm planning for a two week vacation during Easter in Northern Vietnam. This will be my first visit to the mainland Far East (only visited Japan when I met you 10 years ago).

We never made it to Vietnam, but our Australian friends in Japan did, and they enjoyed the trip. I

hope you have a great trip.

Allan Stagg Things are generally okay here. Julie has decided to retire, and is working her last week this week. She turned 60 a couple of years ago, and feels that it is the right time now to go. Although she loves her job as an administrator in the school Languages Department, she is not happy about the changes that will be happening to the school this year. She also wants to have some time for us to do some travelling while we still have reasonable health. The travelling starts with our trip to Australia in April, to see Brisbane, Cairns, Sydney, Melbourne, and whether Sam has been keeping his room clean! She is unlikely to join me in the bowling league.....

Glad to hear that all is well. It sounds like Julie has given this a lot of thought and it sounds like a

good time to retire. Have a fabulous trip to Oz. Murray Egan My January trip to Japan was better this time than in October. The October trip was a mix of jet lag and 'OMG, am I really cut out for this foreign travel anymore?', to my January trip: 'Dude, please pass the saki and get your chopsticks away from my sushi'. I have a lot of respect for you Jim in living over there...well done!

Glad to see that you had a good trip to Japan – are you going there regularly now? I think Japan can

be quite daunting the first few times you visit, but once you start to understand how it all works, it’s a

really nice place to visit. We would love to go back. Michael Pargman I hope you and your family are all well. Steve Ham As always it seems to be a rush to complete my orders and write to you. I hope 2018 has started well for you, even if a little snowy. I hope yours and Jacqueline's health concerns will disappear this year. Murray Egan Hope things are going well with Jacqueline's vision.


All is well here, and so far we’ve had no new health issues, other than a nasty cold. Sadly Jacqueline’s

eye operations were not successful. The retina was successfully reattached, but the connection to the

optic nerve was lost. She has some peripheral vision in her right eye, but that’s all sadly. It’s

frustrating after all the time and effort last year, but we are moving on and Jacqueline is adapting

well. Bob Pitman Flu is the hot topic over here... and yet more speculation on a) how useless our PM is and b) how long her own party will let her survive!

She’s survived another issue! However, flu has definitely been a hot topic for a few of us. Bob Gingell Not feeling too good right now as i am suffering from a heavy cold (maybe Aussie flu) which has caused me to go deaf in my good ear. It is like a fog surrounding me - I slept through my alarm clock and did not hear the doorbell, only waking when I got a phone call (since the phone was by my bed). Hooray for subtitles on my TV! Is this a preview of future aged incompetence?

Sorry to hear that. I also have a fairly nasty cold and am definitely not 100% right now, but I don’t

have the deafness problem. We did lie in intentionally this morning. Hope you feel better soon. Andy York Pretty quiet here, though out with the flu all last week. The doctor said it wasn't as bad as she would have expected, but still kept me home and I'm still on some medication/clearing lung congestion. Definitely not something to "enjoy" (though I did clock quite a few hours sleeping).

Glad to hear that you’ve recovering from the flu. It’s really nasty when you get the real disease as

opposed to “man flu”. I hope that you’re fully recovered now.

Allan Stagg My apologies for these rather late orders. January has been a mixture of hectic and illness, with hectic winning. I have only just remembered to look to see if VP had issued - guess I had better go on your reminder mailing list to prevent this happening again.

I think it took me three weeks to reply to this, given how hectic my schedule was around deadline time, Bob Pitman Just been prescribed antibiotic course to deal with this cough/cold/pain in the arse thing that started out as a tiny little tickly cough and has bloomed into a small elephant sitting on my chest.

Sounds grim – was the medicine successful? Steve Guest Meant to get orders finished before Superbowl weekend but didn’t quite make it. Then came down with a cold.

Another victim – hope you were still able to enjoy the game. Andy York Yep, all recovered from the flu. Was out of work for a week, but the doctor said I'd had a mild event compared to what other folks had. So, really can't complain.

Wow, that sounds pretty bad. My cold has finally affected Jacqueline. Martin Walker Very glad January is over and done with, there's a site I check for forthcoming hours of daylight and currently sunset's running a couple of minutes later each day. Talking with my sister and her office does the same thing, presumably it's not just a west of Scotland thing, and whisper it but I feel a wee bit of warmth when the sun does shine. Got a few seed potatoes at the garden centre, chitting them ready for the spring.

We’re also enjoying the slightly longer days, but the ground is too hard with frost for thoughts of

gardening. You may be pleased to hear that I will be a tourist visiting Scotland later this year, as the

Crets have decided to take their annual holiday to Loch Sween. I haven’t been to Scotland for about

10 years and I’m looking forward to going back. Andy York We were hit with another ice storm last night and might get to the coldest temperature tonight in 70 years (at least the weather teaser mentioned it). If I remember, the coldest in Austin was 12 degrees and we dipped to 15 in December. Amusingly, it was in the upper 60's the day before and by Saturday will be mid-70s. Texas weather!

It’s still cold here, and we’re expecting another snow storm on Wednesday. It wasn’t even that warm

in New Orleans and I was colder in Mexico where there is very little heating.

Harv Barker Hope your weather has improved, it snowed here for all of an hour, and now you can't see a single flake. Love the cold, but we don't do winter properly in the UK.


I don’t think you’d enjoy the 6 – 12” snow that’s expected later this week. However, the Beast from

the East did sound fairly unpleasant. Andy York We had a cold snap yesterday with thundersleet and thunderhail. Went into the grocery store and came out to a light icing on the car. Today's just chilly (about freezing), but not too bad. Supposed to warm up to 70 by Wednesday before the next cold front comes through.

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced thunderhail – sounds very nasty! Carolyn Townsend Hopefully Jacqueline will not need the services of the NHS, which according to Trump, is broken beyond repair. I hope the weather is good to you and moves away from the damp and cold which we are currently experiencing into lovely warm spring like weather so you can do some walking in the countryside.

The lovely warm spring weather still seems a lomg way away right now, although it’s probably just a

few weeks away. Murray Egan I loved your story in the PIG about your Bomb Cyclone. We Americans are so gentle/mild in our naming verbiage....I guess that comes from our President ;-). Indeed the end of December in Chicago was 'grab your butt and squeeze it just to make sure it is still there' cold. (Please pass the tissues honey).

Hope the weather is starting to improve in Illinois and that all is well

Allan Stagg Hope all is well with you and Jacqueline, and that you have had a reasonable winter. It sounds pretty cold - reminds me of a winter I spent in Berlin, when the temperature did not rise above freezing for over a week.

That sounds like the first winter we had in Holland – the last night they were able to run the

Elfstedentocht (11 town race). That’s a good enough, tenuous link to move onto sports. Martin Walker I think it's the superbowl this weekend, might try to stay up for a bit of it, I'm sure I'm mistaken but the pats seem to win it all the time nowadays?

I’m thoroughly sick of the Patriots and the lack of competition in the AFC in general, but I’m happy

that the Eagles (my nearest team) are the competition. There are lots of green shirts around and

Eagles logos about. Steve Ham Will you be watching the Eagles in the Superbowl? I had high hopes for the Chiefs but the AfC seems to be a bit predictable. I can't remember the Eagles getting to the Superbowl previously, although I'm sure they must have. I imagine it will be a lot of fun.

I did watch the Superbowl, from a bar in New Orleans. I watch the game most seasons, but it was

much more exciting having a team where I have some connection involved. It was a great game and

the reaction when Brady was strip sacked was awesome. Jacqueline told me that fireworks started

going off nearby as soon as the game finished. I fully agree that the AFC is getting very predictable. Harv Barker You watch the game this morning/last night? Incredible, loved it, loved every minute of it. As a confirmed Brady/Pats hater it was all the more sweet, but to be brutally honest right up until the wire I thought they would pull it back. Worth staying up for. What's it like there with the local team winning? Banners and tickertape as far as the eye can see?

It was nice to watch the game hoping for someone to win rather than the Pats to lose. I watched the

game in a hotel bar in New Orleans and, like you, fully expected the Pats to pull back. The shock when

the Eagles got the strip sack near the end was palpable. Martin Walker Didn't stay up for the Superbowl but was pleased to see the Eagles win, as for your trip I hope you're packing the midge repellant!

Thanks for the reminder! Richard Smith I'm polishing off these orders in the early morning whilst watching some cricket (Aus v Eng 5th ODI) on BT Sport. I have the cheapskate internet deal but that's fine as I can watch upstairs on my laptop or Chromecast it to my lounge TV. I have occasionally watched National League football on BT but there's none currently scheduled, so I probably won't get to see any of Aldershot's triumphal charge to promotion.


The Shot’s triumphal charge seems to be stalling right now, although they’re still well placed for the

playoffs. The National League is very tight this season. Andy York Baseball is starting to rustle around here - the annual Rangers Caravan hits town next Tuesday. However, I think the Astros are going to be the team to beat, especially with the addition of Cole.

I’ve just bought our next 17 game season ticket for the Iron Pigs. I can’t get to all the games so will

sell 6 or 7 to a friend, but 11 games would be good. Hopefully they can find a way past Scranton –

Wilkes Barre this year. Andy York Glad you're going to see some Pigs baseball this year. I'll likely see about 1/2 the games, and hope to see 2-3 games in Indianapolis while I'm visiting in July. Last weekend in April already is penciled in for a run to Houston for the Astros (either two games there, or couple one with a visit to see the Skeeters in Sugarland).

Have fun – will you be going to see the Indians? I’ll be in Indy for the American Coatings Show in

April, but I’m not sure if the season will have opened them. Andy York Spring training starts this week!

And the season starts next month. Moving on….. Conrad von Metzke And having gotten the PIG in the past couple of hours, I've settled in to do orders. If not first this time, then damn close. I'm late (or nonexistent) often enough, I thought I'd offset things a little.

You win the infamous non-existent prize for first set of orders in. Harv Barker Nothing much more from me, thank you for the RPG/Zine shout out. I'll keep searching.

Here’s a lead for you. Colin Bruce Paul Evans does indeed still run the old RPG 'En Garde' in his zine 'To Win Just Once', and that Paul's email address is (GM will supply on request). Paul's zine, which comes out in a format similar to the Pig, is a useful place to find information on new games, as Paul includes frequent reports on what's 'hot' at trade fairs, etc. Very interesting.

Thanks for confirming that Colin. Dane Maslen Having got the latest issue of DG out of the way, I finally had time to read the latest VP. It was interesting to see that both you and Harv Baker were also underwhelmed by The Last Jedi. I wish I'd not been able to see it in Gran Canaria. If I'd had to wait until my return to the UK, it's possible I might have looked at the reviews by people. Obviously there are some good ones (it does after all manage an average score of 7.5), but the titles of the bad ones say it all for me: The Last Jedi is a Disgrace to Every Star Wars Film That Came Before It I remember when critics used to give bad reviews for mediocre scripts Dumbest plot in a long, long time Everything that's wrong with blockbusters today - all flash and no substance

Most of the reviews I saw before going to see the film were positive, although most did mention that

some had mixed feelings. Dane Maslen I particularly liked part of one review: "In the end, Disney got lazy and knew that no matter what, they'd make a ton of money off people who want to see a huge lightsaber fight and lots of space battles with big special effects. They forgot that lots of people actually like movies that, on top of all that, are written and produced with enough thought and care so as to not appear like a fifth-grade homework assignment put together 30 minutes before it was due."

My hope is that it may work as a bridge to the final part of this trilogy – not sure if this will be the

case. Dane Maslen Unlike you, I have no hope that the film will grow on me, for the very good reason that I have no intention of watching it again in anything like the near future (much as I have never watched parts I or II when they have been shown on TV). And if Rian Johnson writes the next Star Wars film, it'll be the first that I won't see at all.

I’m sure I will give it another try – if only as a refresher before the next film.


Harv Barker Have just this second watching the teaser trailer for Solo the new Han Solo Star Wars movie. Can't wait!

I don’t think I’ve seen a trailer yet. I hope it’s as good as Rogue One which I did enjoy. Jonathan Amery (I don’t think I’ve ever eaten goose – how was it?) The goose seems a long time ago now; we actually had two this year -- we had Christmas dinner with just the two of us and then celebrated Epiphany (well, Fiesta de Los Reyes) with friends. Goose is a darker meat than Turkey or Chicken, more like Duck and it always comes out wonderfully moist. We were eating goose leftovers for a few days after Christmas, but four of us pretty much ate the while bird at Epiphany.

I thought that goose could be quite fatty, but that does sound very tasty. Steve Ham I'm reading the Fire and Fury book by Michael Wolff - even if only half of it is fake news then I'm still worried. But then again a fly on the wall memoir of life inside 10 Downing Street wouldn’t be very different I think.

I’m not sure – I think England has a different style of political fruitcake. Mike Townsend We have double trouble this year with Adam doing A Levels and Rachel GCSEs, complete with crazy new grading of 1 to 9 and new syllabuses that nobody really understands. Adam is hoping to get into huge debt and royally sponge of his parents for 3 years, but he needs to do at least some studying to get there.

That sounds like a recipe for s very stressful Spring. Best wishes to both Adam and Rachel. Murray Egan Yes Emma returned from 1st semester Sophomore year with a whole new impression of Chemistry, following her Organic 1 course. If it was anything like my sophomore Atomic Physics course, I understand. More than a passing grade, I was just pleased to tell my parents: 'Mom and Dad, I'm a passing grade Survivor!'.

Sounds like our Advanced Kinetics course in our 3rd year – shudder! I can even remember the lisp. Of

course, Physics was even better – Professor Mykura’s wonderful 2 handed board eraser technique

and developing the Physics department sale while our Professor derived the Schrodinger Wave

Equation from first principals. Hopefully her Chemistry classes will get easier as she gets more

familiar with the step up from High School classes. Carolyn Townsend I didn’t know “crap card dealing” was a legitimate cause for divorce – I was going to divorce Mike for always winning at games and selective memory for the rules.

I’m not sure of the legal status for either argument. Bob Pitman I'm having some data corruption errors on my machine. It seems to be a known win10 problem in that part of the registry has corrupted and it means that almost any microsoft store loaded apps are not running... my main issue is that my main email access to my bt email is not working or at least I cant get into it along with the disappearing win10 start menu, notification centre, dropbox, microsoft edge, cortana, malwarebytes, windows defender security, spotify and access to control panel. yesterday it was disappearing win10 start menu, mail, notification centre and access to control panel that wouldnt work, but last week after best part of a year missing my laptop Camera apps came back and is still working which is nice.

That sounds almost worse than the dreaded blue screen of death. Bob Pitman The main problem is that I can’t access my downloaded email which includes my robo cards and Richard’s info on fragments... and I haven’t seen any email on the Crets Railway Rivals that didn’t make the current issue. Robo and fragments info won’t be available by looking at my mail through my btinternet account in my browser as I don’t leave a copy on the server of mail downloaded.

This may go down as one of the longest and most detailed late order excuse ever. Bob Pitman I still have this yahoo account via firefox (provided firefox keeps working) and I should be able to read any mail that hasn’t been downloaded on the btinternet account. I don’t use microsoft office but libreoffice so that should be OK for writing orders providing the machine keeps booting! So could you resend emails mentioned to this account...

Of course, this request came in while I was traveling with no access to the Pig files. Bob Pitman I've tried running chkdsk as it identifies the damaged bits of registry but if I run it in scan and repair at boot it gets to 11% and then does nothing for the next 7 hours! Currently changing a registry setting from 2 to 4 is giving me some better access than I had yesterday....


...no virus found just corruption of a key bit of ms database, all the modern or metro apps are or can be affected BAH! Sadly the solution I found yesterday was using Edge which isn’t working today so I can’t point you towards that one (in case you wanted a look), and just to compound the problem I can’t back my system up as it tells me there is a corruption on the disk which needs fixing first. I'm about to try the reinstallation of my store apps... it might be safe or my machine might disappear in a puff of Bill Gates flavoured smoke... who knows! this is useful but some bits like sfc are getting stuck somewhere in the fix. All very irritating! https://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computing/windows-10/has-your-windows-10-start-menu-stopped-working-here-are-four-ways-to-fix-it-11364000314532

I’m already lost and would have called in help by now, but I was never that good with computer

programming.. Bob Pitman For about an hour my hard drive wouldn’t let me delete anything or empty the recycle bin then it told me Windows needed to run a repair, it did it in about 10 minutes and then everything seems to be working again. Some personal data associated with win10 apps lost but otherwise it seems like a close brush with windows failure and a reminder to run regular back-ups.

That sounds more promising. I’m rather worried that also have a win 10 computer. Bob Pitman Mail seems hard hit, I lost my contact lists and large swathes of emails have gone and haven’t re-downloaded from btinternet... the cards and fragments included. Could you resend them and I will get orders by the deadline. If you could send them to the yahoo address and copy to this one I can make sure I at least have something to work with.

Shortly after this email, my work phone crashed and had to be completely reset, with commensurate

loss of contacts etc. Bob Pitman I should have smelt a worry when laptop Camera came back alive after I tried to reinstall it months back... it would only work if I visited the ms store and ran it from their app page. Then Saturday the machine got very slow and process explorer had 16Gb of Ram being 100% used and 100% of disc access and no process seemed to be accounting for it (which is when I worried about viruses and ransomware but I am pretty well protected with McAfee, Win Defender and Malwarebytes protecting the machine). Still lesson learnt and probably forgotten in a few months. Just as well I had bought a new 2Tb external drive in the January sales so the emergency back ups I did over the weekend had somewhere to go! Whatever Windows repair did that chkdsk /r or sfc /scannow didn’t do I’m glad it did finally kick in and fingers crossed it will stay working.

I hope that the drama is now over and thanks for getting your orders in without my having to resend

your cards. Bob Pitman “Sorted out” might be overstating it! Windows decided to fix itself but there is some ongoing instability in stuff that was stable before and I am just biting my tongue when something falls over... and putting off the day I eventually admit it has to be done and reinstall windows. Still no life in my “action/notification centre”. The apps you can reinstall I suppose but the personalisation data just keeps popping up as a niggling loss.

Sorry to hear that – it must be very frustrating. David Cowie Today (Wednesday 31st January) was a super blue blood moon day. Super moon: at its closest to Earth, so looks a bit bigger. Blue moon: second full moon in same month. Blood moon: lunar eclipse makes it look red. The eclipse wasn't visible from the UK, so we just got the super blue moon. I can confirm that, to the untrained eye, it looks the same as any other full moon.

I was traveling that day, but Jacqueline saw at least part of it. The pictures looked pretty good. Harv Barker My work colleagues bought me a Netflix sub for Christmas, which I've been watching the pants out of. Stranger Things, Punisher, The Crown, Archer, Last Chance U... So much to choose from. A very good underrated film too, Six Days, if you get a chance, which tells the story of the Iranian Embassy siege which first brought the SAS into the public domain. Loved it. I remember watching snooker with dad at the time and they cut to the live feed of the building being stormed. That doesn't go away, seeing that.

We’ve had Netflix for some time, but Thomas and Hannah use it much more than we do. We probably

should tyr binge watching a few series when the regular 500 channels have nothing on (90% of the

time).

https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhome.bt.com%2Ftech-gadgets%2Fcomputing%2Fwindows-10%2Fhas-your-windows-10-start-menu-stopped-working-here-are-four-ways-to-fix-it-11364000314532&data=02%7C01%7C%7C949518f67ecd4479077b08d5673aa2a4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636528423894665248&sdata=dFRf70oPuqyNsNqWT0d%2BG9OR6lGtxkAVO9by5YTZTKY%3D&reserved=0%20

https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhome.bt.com%2Ftech-gadgets%2Fcomputing%2Fwindows-10%2Fhas-your-windows-10-start-menu-stopped-working-here-are-four-ways-to-fix-it-11364000314532&data=02%7C01%7C%7C949518f67ecd4479077b08d5673aa2a4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636528423894665248&sdata=dFRf70oPuqyNsNqWT0d%2BG9OR6lGtxkAVO9by5YTZTKY%3D&reserved=0%20


Jonathan Amery (I can’t help but be curious – why ‘Shadow Amery’?) She's been "Shadow" as a nickname since before I met her, at which point she was somewhat of a Goth. She's never been entirely happy with her birth name and having got settled with a job that she feels actually offers some kind of job security and isn't likely to give her trouble over it, it seemed like a good time to actually go through the process of legally changing it.

OK, that makes sense. It’s good to know that her work won’t giver her any problems about it. Bob Pitman I didn’t get anything regarding the Crets RR game... Mike Townsend I cannot find an adjudication for RR LXXXIII - Crets - can you e-mail if you have it please?

Something went wrong with last issue as both RR Crets games were missing – Bob’s were late but

Richard my report also went missing. Fortunately, I still had a copy from the original file, but this

round will be held over. Carolyn Townsend I hope you have a good trip to Europe – you might want to get an American passport post Brexit so you can still visit Europe before the UK and Europe pull up the drawbridge across the Channel. This will send the UK into recession, then depression and finally oblivion when Trump sticks a nuclear weapon on us!!!

We had a fabulous trip – better than we expected, to be honest. It was great to see you and Mike at the

Magnum concert – what a fun night. Mike Townsend I'm looking forward to Magnum - I have read stunning reviews of their latest album (although we have not got it yet - on my birthday list). I really liked "Sacred Blood, Divine Lies". It is a pretty rare thing that a band so "long in the tooth" can still turn our decent albums. I have a theory that great bands often have one final good album (after some not so good ones) before a descent into mediocrity. Hopefully Magnum are proving us wrong! Are you guys going for something to eat before the show?

I’m still not sure about the new album, but fully agree about “Sacred Blood Divine Lies” and also

“Escape from the Shadow Garden”. I’m now working my way through their other post – 2000s

albums. Mike Townsend Magnum were also I thought awesome - really good set and have still got something special. Hope you guys got back without incident?

We really enjoyed it – they definitely haven’t lost their touch live. Mike Townsend Yes, was an unexpected bonus to see you guys and Lisa after 30 years!

Definitely – an unexpected treat and a great way to wrap up a great trip (and this column….)

* * * * *

BY POPULAR DEMAND

Game End Statements Martin Walker Hmm nice to be recognised as Mr. Average


BY FAIRLY POPULAR DEMAND

Round 1 – Writers

Player Crime Fiction

Horror Fiction

Sci Fi or Fantasy

Poet 19th

Century 18th

Century

Andrew York

Ellery Queen H P Lovecraft

Neil Gaiman

Lord Byron Jules Verne* Jonathan Swift

14

Michael Pargman

Phyllis D James

H P Lovecraft

Philip K Dick

Lord Byron Mark Twain Voltaire 12

Roger Trethewey

Ruth Rendell Bram Stoker Isaac Asimov

Percy Bysse Shelley

Leo Tolstoy Jonathan Swift

12

Bob Gingell

Agatha Christie

Darren Shan Terry Pratchett

William Wordsworth

Charlotte Bronte

Jonathan Swift

12

Jacqueline Reader

Ian Rankin Bram Stoker HG Wells Jenny Joseph

Jane Austen Jonathan Swift

10

Allan Stagg

Phyllis D James

H P Lovecraft

J R R Tolkein

William Wordsworth

Jane Austen John Bunyan 10

John Walker

Ruth Rendell Edgar Allan Poe

Arthur C Clarke

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Voltaire 8

Richard Smith

Ian Rankin H P Lovecraft

Piers Anthony

John Cooper Clarke

Emma Golden Daniel Defoe 8

Steve Guest

Ian Rankin H P Lovecraft

Philip K Dick

Philip Larkin Jane Austen Henry Fielding

8

Harv Barker Agatha Christie

Steven King Ursula le Guin

William Shakespeare

Charles Dickens

Daniel Defoe 7

Chris Hibbert

Agatha Christie

Steven King Margaret Atwood

Robert Burns Charles Dickens

Adam Smith 7

Brendan Whyte

Ngaio Marsh Steven King C S Lewis William Shakespeare

Charles Dickens

Henry Fielding

6

Steve Ham Raymond Chandler

Bram Stoker Philip K Dick

John Keats George Eliot* Daniel Defoe 5

Brad Martin

Lee Child Dean Koontz

Isaac Asimov

Dylan Thomas

Mary Wollstonecroft

Charlotte Bronte

5

Martin Walker

Ian Rankin James Herbert

Ray Bradbury

John Betjeman

Emily Bronte Daniel Defoe 4

Dane Maslen

Agatha Christie

Steven King Isaac Asimov

William Wordsworth

Charles Dickens

Daniel Defoe 4

Murray Egan

Arthur Conan Doyle

Steven King J R R Tolkein

Emily Dickinson

Jane Austen Daniel Defoe 3

MY CHOICES

Ian Rankin Steven King

Anne McCaffrey

Walt Whitman

Conan Doyle Jonathan Swiift

8

1. A Crime Fiction Writer: Ian Rankin (5 scores 0), Agatha Christie (4), Ruth Rendell (2) , PD James (2): Lee Child, Raymond Chandler, Ngaio Marsh, Arthur Conan Doyle and Ellery Queen all score 1

I’m currently ploughing my way through the Rebus series of novels, so this was an easy but

unsuccessful choice. 2. A Horror Fiction Writer: Steven King (6 scores 0), HP Lovecraft (5), Bram Stoker (3): Dean Koontz, Edgar Allan Poe, James Herbert and Darren Shan all score 1

This is a gamble as I don’t read horror, but hopefully other people will think of others and he won’t be

the most popular 3. A Science Fiction or Fantasy Author: Philip K Dick and Isaac Asimov (both 3 and score 0), J R R Tolkein (2): Ursula le Guin, Piers Anthony, Ray Bradbury, Anne McCaffrey, C S Lewis, Terry Pratchett, Arthur C Clarke, HG Wells, Margaret Atwood, and Neil Gaiman scores 1

Probably won’t be a high scorer but still one of my favourite authors.


4. A Poet: Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth (3 scores 0), Lord Byron (2), William Shakespeare (2), John Betjeman, Philip Larkin, Percy Bysse Shelley, John Cooper Clarke, Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Edgar Allan Poe, Jenny Joseph, Robert Burns, Percy Bysse Shelley and Dylan Thomas score 1

I think I have to avoid Alfred Lord Tennyson after the last time I asked about poets, so lets go for our

local poet. 5. A 19

th century author: Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, (both 4 and score 0), Emily Bronte, George Eliot,

Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Charlotte Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe, Leo Tolstoy, Emma Golden and Mary Wollstonecroft score 1

I don’t read too many classic novels and I think the Sherlock Holmes novels are the only ones I’ve

read voluntarily 6. An 18

th Century Author: Daniel Defoe (6 scores 0), Jonathan Swift (5), Voltaire (2), Henry Fielding (2): John

Bunyan, Adam Smith and Charlotte Bronte scores 1.

Hmmm – not as many as I thought there were. In this round, the top scorer this round was Andy York who scored 14 from a maximum of 19. Andy York and Steve Ham lost one point each* for failing to name a female author in their list of answers. And now, the players comments section Bob Gingell 1. Agatha Christie [High risk but hoping most will choose less 'obvious' names] 4. William Wordsworth {although John Donne is more of a favourite of mine, but I might well be on my own for that one} Avoiding Dickens and Jane Austen for Q5 - is this a mistake? Dane Maslen I shall probably adopt my usual approach to 'By Fairly Popular Demand', namely give the answer that I would give in an ordinary and hope that either (a) I've overlooked the obvious answer or (b) enough other people duck the obvious answer that it isn't the top scorer. In the past, when I used to try to avoid the obvious answer, I occasionally found that my switch was just enough for the obvious answer to lose by one and hence score points. If I'm going to score zero, I'd rather do it for the obvious answer than the second most obvious! Martin Walker Had to redo these after realising the rule change Brendan Whyte Ngaio Marsh (my favourite) Steve Ham For the final two questions did you intend to identify when the authors were born, or when they wrote their works? I very much hope that nobody pulls me up for an all male set of answers - surely not? Harv Barker 3) Ursula Le Guin (topical) The artistic second round questions are

1) An artist famous for (record) album covers 2) A cubist painter 3) An Impressionist painter 4) A pre-Raphaelite painter 5) A Landscape Painter 6) A Portrait painter

* * * * *


Lyric Quiz

Game Thirteen – Round Four 1) “We're going to Parti', Karamu', Fiesta, forever, Come on and sing along” (1980s)

“All Night Long” by Lionel Richie John Hopkins, John Walker, Jacqueline Reader, Andy York, Brendan Whyte, Richard Smith, Steve Ham, David Cowie, Murray Egan, Harv Barker, Steve Guest 2) “When the world comes in, They come, they come, To build a wall between us , We know they won't win” (1980s) “Don’t Dream it’s Over” by Crowded House Andy York, Brendan Whyte (song only), Harv Barker 3) “Turning and returning to some secret place inside, Watching in slow motion as you turn around and say” (1980s)

“Take My Breath Away” by Berlin John Hopkins, John Walker, Dane Maslen (song only), Jacqueline Reader, Andy York, Martin Walker, Richard Smith, David Cowie, Murray Egan, Harv Barker, Steve Guest 4) “Yeah, they was dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin' And just when it hit me somebody turned around and shouted” (1970s)

“Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry John Hopkins (song only), Jacqueline Reader, Andy York (song only), Martin Walker (song only), Brendan Whyte (song only), David Cowie, Harv Barker (song only) 5) “If I leave here tomorrow, Would you still remember me, For I must be travelin' on now” (1970s)

“Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd John Walker (song only), Jacqueline Reader, Andy York, Richard Smith, David Cowie, Murray Egan, Harv Barker, Steve Guest 6) “Stop your fooling around (ah-ah-ah), Time you straighten right out (ah-ah-ah), Better think of your future (ah-ah-ah)” (1970s)

“A Message to You, Rudy” by The Specials Jacqueline Reader, Martin Walker, Harv Barker 7) “Sittin' in the mornin' sun, I'll be sittin' when the evenin' comes, Watching the ships roll in” (1950s)

“Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding John Hopkins, John Walker, Dane Maslen, Jacqueline Reader, Andy York, Martin Walker, Tom Howell (song only), Brendan Whyte, David Cowie, Murray Egan, Harv Barker, Steve Guest, Arthur Owen 8) “Faces look ugly when you're alone, Women seem wicked when you're unwanted , Streets are uneven when you're down” (1960s)

“People are Strange” by The Doors Andy York, Martin Walker, David Cowie, Harv Barker, Steve Guest 9) “Gotta get down to it, Soldiers are cutting us down, Should have been done long ago” (1960s)

“Ohio” by Neil Young or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Martin Walker, David Cowie, Murray Egan, Steve Guest 10) “'Cause the walls start shaking, The earth was quaking, My mind was aching and we were making it” (1970s)

“You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC (RIP Malcolm Young) Jacqueline Reader, Andy York, Richard Smith, David Cowie, Murray Egan, Harv Barker

Comments Martin Walker 5. Carpenters?


Dane Maslen 3) “"Take my breath away", but who was it by? Let's try Jennifer Rush. Which is a pretty poor result given that 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are the decades from which I'm most likely to be able to recognise lyrics. Brendan Whyte 2. Something so storng. Crowded house 4. Play that funky music. Vanilla Ice 5. 4 storng winds. Peter Paul and Mary Richard Smith 5) Freebird by Lynyrd Synyrd (Warwick PRS closer) Steve Ham Why not I read them and very rarely identify any of them 7. What becomes of the Broken Hearted - Percy Sledge? Harv Barker 1) Lionel Richie, All Night Long (I can't think of him without seeing a mug someone at work uses... It's got his face on and it says Lionel RichTea, Hello, is it TEA you're looking for) 3) Berlin, take my breath away (from Top Gun?) 4) Not sure who by, but I think it's Play that funky music 5) Lynard Skynrd, Free as a bird (no idea how you spell his name) 6) The Specials, Message to you Rudi (used to be really big into Ska as a kid, re-finding it again now) 7) Think it's Otis Redding, Sitting on the dock of the bay 9) Argh, don't know it, was doing so well! Arthur Owen 10. Ballroom Blitz by Sweet

Scores David Cowie 16 (47) Harv Barker 17 (46) Andy York 15 (45) Jacqueline Reader 14 (42) John Hopkins 7 (42) Murray Egan 12 (34) Steve Guest 12 (33) Martin Walker 11 (33) Richard Smith 8 (32) Brendan Whyte 6 (30) Dane Maslen 3 (22) Arthur Owen 2 (14) John Walker 7 (17) Steve Ham 2 (2) Chris Hibbert 0 (1) Tom Howell 1 (1) Anyone can play – score 1 point for the song and 1 point for the artist. The lyrics for next round are – 1) “Gotta make a move, To a town that's right for me, Town to get me movin', Keep me groovin' with some energy” (1970s) 2) “Responsibility, To me is a tragedy, I'll get a job some other time, uh-huh” (1970s) 3) “To you I guess I'm just a clown, Who picks you up each time you're down, Oh baby, oh baby” (1970s) 4) “A tabloid life is played, a ten cent masquerade, Your dress you walk you talk, you're who you think you are.” (1970s) 5) “Now we're sharing the same dream, And our hearts they beat as one, No more love on the run” (1980s) 6) “A full commitment's what I'm thinking of, You wouldn't get this from any other guy” (1980s) 7) “Lift your hands and voices, free your mind and join us, You can feel it in the air” (1990s) 8) “Baby; here comes the twist - I don't exist” (1960s) 9) “It's about a girl that I once knew, She took my love then ran around with every single guy in town” (1960s) 10) “Then he asked me to be his bride, And always be right by his side, I felt so happy I almost cried”


6 Nimmt!

Game Twelve – Mostly Turn Six A high scoring round helps Kev who is the only one not to score.

HAND 1 HAND 2 HAND 3 HAND 4

58 104 72 58 88 57 65

90 57 103 71 57 54 103 52 85 95 55 63

83 86 55 100 53 55 50 100 48 28 73 91 54 17

72 75 51 98 47 51 40 99 45 26 71 90 22 15

71 70 43* 96 5 49 33! 82 46% 13# 35 21@ 67 89 12^ 9

6 6 11 7 5 11 13 10 1 1 6 3 10 7 15 7

Brad Martin plays 43 to row 3 in Hand 1, 58 in Hand 2, 13 to row 2 in Hand 3 and 22 in Hand 4. Score = 9 Dane Maslen plays 57 in Hand 1, 40 in Hand 2, 26 in Hand 3 and 12 (r3) in Hand 4. Score = 12 Kev Lee plays 58 in Hand 1, 50 in Hand 2, 28 in Hand 3 and 54 in Hand 4. Score = 16 Steve Ham plays 51 in Hand 1, 54 in Hand 2, 46 in Hand 3 and 57 in Hand 4. Score = 22 Tom Howell plays 55 in Hand 1, 33 to row 3 in Hand 2, 21 in Hand 3 and 55 in Hand 4. Score = 29 * Brad takes column 3 of hand 1 for 4 points. ! Tom takes column 3 of hand 2 for 5 points. # Brad takes column 2 of hand 3 for 5 points. @ Tom takes column 4 of hand 3 for 9 points. % Steve takes column 1 of hand 3 for 8 points ^ Dane takes column 3 of hand 4 for 6 points

Game Thirteen – Turn Five Another high scoring round and John is the chief beneficiary as he moves into the lead.

HAND 1 HAND 2 HAND 3 HAND 4

58 102 99 104 40 44

55 43 100 83 101 39 43

21 52 40 87 49 76 24 100 37 42 49

13 47 32 85 14 40 23 67 38 30 35 96 37 47

4* 11 28 78 4 17 2! 57 3# 34@ 29 31 95$ 29^ 12 99

3 15 6 8 9 5 3 7 1 2 9 10 3 2 3 5

John Walker plays 13 in Hand 1, 24 in Hand 2, 15 in Hand 3 and 37 in Hand 4. Score = 5 Carolyn Townsend plays 58 in Hand 1, 2 to row 3 in Hand 2, 3 to row 1 in Hand 3 and 95 in Hand 4. Score = 15 Arthur Owen plays 4 in Hand 1, 23 in Hand 2, 38 in Hand 3 and 96 in Hand 4. Score = 25 Jacqueline Reader plays 21 in Hand 1, 104 in Hand 2, 34 in Hand 3 and 29 (r2) in Hand 4. Score = 45 * Arthur takes column 1 of hand 1 for 2 points. ! Carolyn takes column 3 of hand 2 for 2 points. # Carolyn takes column 3 of hand 2 for 5 points. @ Jacqueline takes column 2 of hand 3 for 9 points. ^ Jacqueline takes column 2 of hand 4 for 3 points. $ Carolyn takes column 1 of hand 4 for 7 points.

* * * * *


Breaking Away 9

Turn Six

Vladimir Putin did not have an 8 card to pay so he played a 5, the nearest card, instead. Most of the rider slow down a little Celeborn retains a big lead.

Square Replacement Riders

61 3 Celeborn,

60 -

59 -

58 -

57 -

56 -

55 -

54 3 Galadriel,

53 4 Turkey Lurkey,

52 5 Zebedee, AABB

51 7 ABBA,

50 8 Dawkins, ABAB, AABBA

49 11 Dennett, Elrond, Lucky Ducky,

48 -

47 3 Chicken Licken, Arwen

46 5 Florence, Dougal

45 7 Michael Gove, Ermintrude

44 9 Donald J Trump, Vladimir Putin, Foxy Woxy, Hitchens

43 13 Harris

42 14 Nigel Farage

ROYAL ELVES (Allan Stagg) 7 points THE FOUR HORSEMEN (Richard Smith) 11 points A. Galadriel (5) 14, 12, 2, 3 A. Dawkins (8) 4, 8, 7, 9 B. Celeborn (2) 7, 3, 3 B. Dennett (3) 14, 11, 11 C. Elrond 5, 11, 8 C. Harris 13, 8, 5 D. Arwen 5, 3, 8 D. Hitchens 9, 3, 3 ALTERNATVE FACT PEDALLERS(Bob Pitman) pts RHYME SCHEMES (Chris Hibbert) 7 points A. Donald J Trump 3, 7, 9, 4 A. ABAB 8, 5, 7 B. Michael Gove 4, 7, 6 B. ABBA (1) 7, 9, 11 C. Vladimir Putin 3, 9, 3 C. AABB 5, 3, 8 D. Nigel Farage 9, 14, 2 D. AABBA (6) 5, 8, 5 THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT (Jonathan Amery) pts FARMYARD FOLK (Steve Ham) 14 points A. Zebedee 5, 6, 3, 1 A. Chicken Licken 3, 7, 4, 5 B. Ermintrude 7, 8, 9 B. Turkey Lurkey (4) 11, 12, 4 C. Florence 3, 5, 8 C. Foxy Woxy 9, 12, 5 D. Dougal 5, 8, 3 D. Lucky Ducky (10) 3, 3, 11 The rules for this game can be found at http://www.fwtwr.com/postal_games/breaking_away.htm.

* * * * *

http://www.fwtwr.com/postal_games/breaking_away.htm


BUS BOSS (GALICIA) BB362GAL

Round Seven

43 Conrad Purple

SLAG Richard

Blue

HOLA Brad

Brown

REAR Kev Red

? Arthur Green

1) Viveiro (4D) – Lalin (9H)

5 + 5 + 4 + 4

13 - 5

8 - 4

4 - 4

2) Santa Comba (6C) – Castile and Leon (10S)

10 - 3 + 4

20 - 4

+ 3

3) Monforte de Lemos (3S) – Betanzos (9D)

Race not possible

4) Ourense (KH) – Santiago (KC)

7 - 2

8 7 8 + 2

5) Lugo (6S) – Os Banos (10H)

10 - 6 + 9

20 + 6 - 9

6) Vilalba (5D) – Melide (9C)

30

7) A Rua (2S) – Guitiriz (10D)

Race not possible

8) O Grove (AH) – Carnota (4C)

15 - 1 + 4

15 + 1 - 4

9) O Ferrol (6D) – Silleda (10C)

7 + 1 + 2- 3 + 1

8 - 2

3 - 1 - 3

8 + 3 – 1 + 3 + 3

4 - 3

Total from Last Turn 52 50 48 49 55

Points from Races 60 35 34 50 31

Builds - 12 - 11 - 10 - 10 - 10

Total 100 74 72 89 76

HOLA: Ourense – Monforte de Lemos – A Rua REAR: Ourense - Monforte de Lemos; Muxia - Fisterra SLAG: Ourense - Verin 43: Viveiro – Foz: Noia – Santa Comba ? Lugo – Monforte de Lemos The second set of races is 3. Monforte de Lemos (3S) – Betanzos (9D): 7) A Rua (2S) – Guitiriz (10D) 10) Malpica de Burgantinos (AC) – A Coruna (JD): 11) Ourense (QH) – Ancient Site (KC) 12) Lourenza (3D) – A Gudina (AS): 13) Vigo (5H) – Santiago de Compostela (JC) 14) Noia (5C) – Portugal (8S): 15) A Coruna (KD) – Tui (7H): 16) O Ferrol (7D) – Zamora (JS) 17) Vilanova (8C) – Port (QS): 18) Pontevedra (3H) – Vigo (4H) Enter up to 6 races. The build order for next round is Brad, Richard, Arthur, Kev and Conrad. Note that some of the numbers on the map for track length may be wrong. The track itself is clear, but the number below is wrong (or partly deleted). The next turn build order is Conrad, Richard, Brad, Kev and Arthur. We will be playing the special Pilgrimage race rules. This is a special set of 8 races that follow the known pilgrimage routes to Santiago, which will be raced in turn 13. The races are Camiño Primitivo: Asturias Connection, Lugo, Melide, Guitiriz to Santiago de Compostela Camiño Francés: Pedrafito do Cebreiro, Melide to Santiago de Compostela Camiño do Sueste: Verin, Ourense, Silleda to Santiago de Compostela Camiño Portugués: Tui, Pontevedra to Santiago de Compostela Ruta do Mar de Arousa: O Grove, Vilanova de Arousa to Santiago de Compostela Camiño del Norte: Ribadao, Lourenzá, Vilalba, Guitiriz to Santiago de Compostela Camiño Inglés: A Coruña or Ferrol, Betanzos to Santiago de Compostela Camiño de Fisterra – Muxia: Santiago de Compostela, Santa Comba, Muxia to Fisterra

Note that all entries must pass through each of the towns listed.


CAFÉ INTERNATIONAL 9

Round Seven

Kev plays fESP to ESP2 and mJOK to ESP1.ESP2 to scoring 11 points Brad plays fFRA to FRA2 scoring 4 points Steve plays fJOK to TUR1.TUR2 to scoring 8 points John plays fRUS to RUS1 scoring 4 points

AFR1 ITA1 ITA2 CHI1 CHI2 ESP1

mJO

AFR2 GB1 GB2 fES ESP2 fES

mES

CUB1 fRU RUS1 mRU

Bar - 2

fRU

CUB2 RUS2 mRU

mFR mIN

TUR1 FRA1 fFRA FRA2 fIN IND1 fIN

fJO fDE fUS mFR mIN

fTU TUR2 mTU DEU1 fDE DEU2 mJO USA1 fUS USA2 fIN IND2 fJO

mTU mDE mUS mUS mIN

Bar: mITA, mITA, mRUS, fAFR, mAFR, fCHI Steve Ham female: GB, ITA, FRA male: AFR score 29 John Walker female: ITA male: GB, AFR score 33 Kev Lee female: male: AFR, USA, CHI, FRA score 25 Brad Martin female: CUB male: CUB, ESP, FRA score 33 The turn order for next round is Brad, Steve, John and Kev.

* * * * *

The Golden Strider 4

Turn Six

Something went wrong with my report from round 5 – Fartlek Pain played the 0/2 in round 5 and did have the 10/2 card, wrongly marked as 0/2, to play in round 6. I have readjudicated the round below.

P S Runner Cards P D M B R O

1 24 Fartlek Pain

Bob Pitman 4/0, 10/2, 8/3, 8/4, 4/5, 8/6 10/2 0 6 4 8 0

2 21 Creepy Crawler Roger Trethewey

5/0, 9/2, 8/3, 5/4, 9/5, 1/6 5/0 0 5 0 1 0

3 16 Tom McLazy Richard Smith

4/0, 10/2, 10/3, 8/4, 10/5, 9/6 8/4 0 4 4 9 1

3 16 Hugo Larst Bob Gingell

10/0, 2/2, 9/3, 8/4, 6/5, 9/6 9/3 0 5 4 9 3

5 15 Pheidippides Chris Hibbert

3/0, 9/1, 9/3, 6/4, 10/5, 10/6 9/1 2 3 4 10 1

6 14 Les Pharaoh Arthur Owen

6/1, 10/2, 10/3, 8/4, 6/5, 8/6 6/1 0 3 3 8 0

6 14 Spenda Penny Steve Ham

10/0, 9/1, 4/2, 0/3, 8/5, 6/6 4/2 1 1 2 6 0

8 13 Xavier Vincent CIV John Walker

9/1, 10/2, 8/3, 8/4, 8/5, 10/6 8/3 0 3 5 10 0


Question Steve Ham: Do you have any idea why I played 10/4 rather than 10/0 last round?

Because that it what you ordered – “P 10/4 D4 M3 B3” Bob Gingell: When does the last 0 have to be played?

All cards ending in /0 must be played next round.

* * * * *

Hare and Tortoise

Game Five – Re-Start As I feared, I have not heard anything from Howard, so I will restart this game as a four player game. This will require a change of map (as the copy I sent out was for a 5/6 player game) so I have dug out my Waddingtons copy of the game (bought at Manorcon for 5 pounds) from the basement. The map is shown below

64 Hare 63 Carrot 62 Hare 61 3 60 Carrot 59 Hare 58 Lettuce 57 Tortoise

49 1 50 Tortoise 51 Hare 52 Carrot 53 3 54 Tortoise 55 2 56 4

48 2 47 4 46 Tortoise 45 3 44 Carrot 43 Lettuce 42 2 41 Tortoise

33 1 34 Hare 35 Tortoise 36 2 37 3 38 4 39 Carrot 40 Hare

32 Carrot 31 Hare 30 2 29 3 28 Tortoise 27 Carrot 26 Hare 25 Carrot

17 1 18 2 19 Hare 20 4 21 3 22 Tortoise 23 Lettuce 24 2

16 Carrot 15 Tortoise 14 Hare 13 3 12 2 11 4 10 Carrot 9 Tortoise

1 Finish 2 Hare 3 Lettuce 4 Hare 5 2 6 Carrot 7 Hare 8 Lettuce

The rules for jugging the hare are also different. A six sided die is rolled and the results depend on the players position in the race – see table below.

Die Roll Position in Race

1st 2

nd 3

rd 4

th

1 Miss a turn

Miss a turn Miss a turn Chew a carrot

2 Move back to carrot square

Move back to carrot square



3 Drop back one position

Drop back one position

Move up one position Move up one position

4 Chew a carrot

Chew a lettuce Chew a lettuce Chew a lettuce

5 Your last turn is free

Your last turn is free Your last turn is free Your last turn is free

6 Take another move

Take another move

Take another move

Take another move

All other rules are the same, other than a player cannot reach the finish line unless he has less than 20 carrots and has eaten all his lettuces. The revised movement order is as follows.

Player Start Square Finish Square Carrots Lettuces Next Turn

Brad Martin 64 65 3 1 and 5

John Walker 64 65 3 2

Kev Lee 64 65 3 3

Arthur Owen 64 65 3 4


Grand National 2

Game Start And they’re off – chaos ensues once again, although there is only one faller at the first two fences as Rigel takes an early lead.

Question Tom Howell Regarding MiddleMan's Jump points, "20 at first fence, then median of JPs used by other horses at previous fence". What is the 'median'? As I recall, the median is the number for which the number of lower events and the number of higher events is the same. In this case, is that the the total number of events, or the number of unique numbers?

Player Horse JP at Fence One

(Plain: TN is

lowest)

JP at Fence Two

(Plain: TN is

lowest) Comments Penalties

Starting JP JP after Fence Two

Michael Pargman Rigel 5 7 500 488Chris Hibbert Man O Peace 9 8 500 483Chris Hibbert Freedom Fighter 8 9 500 483NPC Slow Riser 9 9 500 482NPC Mediator (3d8) 10 10 500 480Dane Maslen Ankle 11 10 500 479Tom Howell Not Again 11 10 500 479Richard Smith Gay Trip 11 10 500 479Dane Maslen Red Bum 10 11 500 479Tom Howell Oh No 10 11 500 479Richard Smith Jay Trump 10 11 500 479Steve Guest SG1 11 11 500 478Mike Townsend Crazy Frog 11 11 500 478Jon Carter Lady Gs Nag 10 12 500 478Cian Owen CO 1 11 12 500 477Steve Guest SG2 12 12 500 476Jon Carter All in a Whirl 11 13 500 476Arthur Owen Another Oddity 12 13 500 475Steve Ham Norwich Porridge 12 13 500 475John Walker Horse 11 14 500 475Steve Ham Norfolk Enchants 11 14 500 475Cian Owen CO 2 12 14 500 474NPC Aquarius (2d6+9) 13 13 500 474Kev Lee Custard Tart 12 14 500 474Arthur Owen Amazing Queen 13 14 500 473Roger Trethewey Sleepyhead 14 13 500 473Kev Lee Humble Plum 14 13 500 473Mike Townsend Hopping Mad 14 13 500 473Roger Trethewey Lazy Susan 13 14 500 473John Walker Individualization 12 15 500 473Bob Gingell Anon 1 11 16 500 473Bob Gingell Anon 2 11 16 500 473Jonathan Amery Queen Elizabeth 11 16 500 473Jonathan Amery Prince of Wales 11 16 500 473NPC Chaos Theory (5d6-1) 18 11 500 471NPC Lounge Lizard (12+d6) 14 15 500 471NPC Mr Consistent 16 16 500 468NPC Metro Gnome 19 14 500 467Brendan Whyte White Night 17 16 500 467Brendan Whyte Black Boy 16 17 500 467NPC Middle Man (Median) 20 13 500 467Brad Martin Alert 18 19 500 463Brad Martin Alacrity 18 19 500 463Jacqueline Reader Sauron's Summit 15 22 500 463NPC Fade Away 23 23 500 454Jacqueline Reader Cyclips Cyclops 29 19 500 452John Marsden The Next Ode 27 28 500 445John Marsden The Red Planet 26 29 500 445Conrad von Metzke Egbert 33 32 500 435Conrad von Metzke Ethelred 33 32 500 435Michael Pargman Rapid 4 5 Stumbles fence 1 20 500 Falls Fence 2


For example: Say our events are: 1 1 1 1 1 3 6 9 If the median considers the total number of events, the median is 1. If the median only considers unique numbers, then the median is 3. Or 6. Not 4.5, as the median should be one of the events. But how to choose?

I use median as the middle number, not middle unique number, so in your example it would be 1.

Fortunately, I adjudicate this game in Excel so it’s not too difficult to find. Press or Comment Richard Smith Jay Trump (no relation) won the Grand National in 1965, Gay Trip in 1970 Steve Ham Norwich Porridge does exist - https://www.norwichporridge.com/ John Marsden Despite having no interest in the race itself (which is a lottery that only benefits the bookies) looks like an interesting game. The next fences are 3 – Open Ditch (Trouble Number or Numbers generated by rolling d8 and d12) and 4 – Plain (Trouble Number equal to lowest JP played). The following horses, played by the GM, will also start the race and move as described below. MISTER CONSISTENT (16 at each fence) MEDIATOR (3D8) LOUNGE LIZARD (21 at the Chair, 12 + D6 at each other fence) FADE AWAY (23 at the start then reducing by 1 at each odd numbered fence thereafter) SLOW RISER (9 at the start then increasing by 1 at each odd numbered fence thereafter) METRO GNOME (19 at odd numbered fences and 14 at even numbered fences) AQUARIUS (36 at Water Jump, 2D6 + 9 at all other fences) CHAOS THEORY (5D6 – 1) MIDDLE MAN (20 at first fence, then median of JPs used by other horses at previous fence)

* * * * *

Maneater 4 Round Five Game One: The Shark gets his first meal, taking off one of Roger Green’s legs in an otherwise quiet round. Game Two: Red Roger grazes his knee on a black herring and attracts the shark towards him, but fortunately the Shark is too far away to reach him this turn. Game Three: Red Richard gets a second wind and dashes forward to the shark nets, but elsewhere two swimmers come off beach C (GM error) and Richard Yellow is blocked by Arthur Blue and cannot escape the reach of the Shark.

Game 1 Game 2 Game 3

SHARK Richard

73 to 109 Arthur 99 to 48 Roger 110 to 162

RED SWIMMER Arthur

76 to 51 Roger 10 to 8* Richard A to 59*

GREEN SWIMMER Roger 1 leg

110 to 108 Richard 48 to 34 Arthur 73 to A

BLUE SWIMMER Roger

C to C (cramp) Richard B to B Arthur C to 173

YELLOW SWIMMER Arthur

188 to 209 Roger 222 to 220 Richard 1 leg

C to 174

https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.norwichporridge.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C12bde94c98fb4082caf108d566292aa5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636527249344757658&sdata=AsHt8psGvEWI7khN8tf%2BUvCqbQI5cwD6ArnZvttav3c%3D&reserved=0


Scores Richard 1 Roger 1 Arthur 0

* * * * *

MISSION: RED PLANET

Game One - Round Ten The Countdown 9 – No Recruiters are played. 8 – John and Richard play Explorers. Richard plays first and places his astronaut on the Mare Serpentis ship and then moves his 2 astronauts from Vastitas Borealis to Syrtis Major. John places his astronaut on the Tritonis Sinus ship. John, you can only move astronauts a total of 3 spaces, so I have interpreted your orders as best as I can by moving 3 astronauts from Valles Marineris to Vastitas Borealis. 7 – Brad plays a Scientist and places his 1 astronaut on the Mare Serpentis and Tritonis Sinus ships, both of which then launch. He then looks at the event card on Hellas. 6 – No Secret Agents are played 5 – No Saboteurs are played 4 – No Femme Fatales are played 3 – No Travel Agents are played 2 – Andy plays a Soldier and loads a Soldier on the Phobos ship. He then kills one of John’s astronauts on Sinus Sabeus and then moves 1 astronaut from Phobos to Hellas and 1 astronaut from Phobos to Sinus Sabeus 1 – No Pilots are played

Player Characters In Hand

Character Played

Astronauts In Play Resources Mined

Brad Martin Recruiter Explorer Secret Agent Saboteur Travel Agent Soldier

Femme Fatale Pilot Scientist

3 on Hellas 3 on Mare Serpentis 2 on Tritonis Sinus 6 on Mare Tyrrhenum 5 on Ausonia

8 Celerium 6 Ice 5 Sylvanite

Barsoom or Bust Andy York

Recruiter Scientist Saboteur Pilot

Femme Fatale Travel Agent Secret Agent Explorer Soldier

4 on Mare Serpentis 2 on Valles Marineris 2 on Mare Tyrrhenum 2 on Sinus Sabeus 1 on Phobos 1 on Vastitas Borealis 1 on Syrtis Major 1 on Ausonia 1 on Hellas 1 on Phobos ship

4 Ice 6 Celerium

Richard Smith Recruiter Saboteur Soldier Pilot

Scientist Travel Agent Femme Fatale Secret Agent Explorer

6 on Mare Serpentis 6 on Valles Marineris 4 on Tritonis Sinus 4 on Syrtis Major

6 Celerium 12 Sylvanite 6 Ice

John Walker Recruiter Scientist Secret Agent Saboteur Femme Fatale Travel Agent Soldier Pilot

Explorer 1 on Hellas 1 on Valles Marineris 3 on Tritonis Sinus 1 on Sinus Sabeus 6 on Vastitas Borealis 1 on Syrtis Major

11 Ice


Ships Launch The Mare Serpentis and Tritonis Sinus ships both launch delivering 1 each of Andy, Richard’s and Brad’s astronauts to Mare Serpentis and 1 of John’s and Brad’s astronauts to Tritonis Sinus. Events The event cards are then revealed. Mare Tyrrhenum: Depleted Deposits: This zone produces one fewer point token Tritonis Sinus: Ether Magnet: Take all astronauts that are docked in ships and place them in this zone – Andy’s astronaut on the Phobos ship is delivered here. Ausonia: Inexhaustible Deposits - this zone produces 2 additional point tokens Sinus Sabeus: Uneven Ground - Treat each player who has an odd number of astronauts in this zone as having 0 astronauts in this zone Vastitas Borealis: Meteorite Field: Each player with at least one astronaut in this zone gains points equal to the number of astronauts in this zone

Mars Region Production Astronauts Event Card Resources

Hellas Ice Brad (3), John (1), Andy (1) No 3 Ice

Mare Serpentis Sylvanite Brad (3), Andy (4), Richard (6)

No 3 Sylvanite

Valles Marineris Sylvanite Andy (4), Richard (6), John (1)

No (not possible) 3 Sylvanite

Tritonis Sinus Ice Brad (2), Richard (4), John (3), Andy (1)

Ether Magnet 3 Ice

Mare Tyrrhenum Sylvanite Brad (6), Andy (2) Depleted Resources 2 Sylvanite

Sinus Sabeus Ice Andy (2), John (1) Uneven Ground 3 Ice

Vastitas Borealis Ice John (6), Andy (1) Meteorite Field 3 Ice

Syrtis Major Celerium Richard (4), John (1), Andy (1)

No (not possible) 3 Celerium

Ausonia Celerium Brad (5), Andy (1) Inexhaustible Deposits 5 Celerium

Phobos Celerium Andy (1) No 3 Celerium

Scoring Each region produces 3 resources, except Mare Tyrrhenum that produces 2 and Ausonia that produces 5! The regions are then scored. Hellas – Brad receives 3 Ice Mare Serpentis – Richard receives 3 Sylvanite Valles Marineris – Richard produces 3 Sylvanite Tritonis Sinus – Richard produces 3 Ice Mare Tyrrhenum – Brad produces 2 Sylvanite Sinus Sabeus – Andy produces 3 Ice Vastitas Borealis – John produces 6 Ice Syrtis Major – Richard produces 3 Celerium Ausonia – Brad produces 5 Celerium Phobos – Andy produces 3 Celerium Final Scoring Brad scores 6 for 6 Ice, 10 for 5 Sylvanite and 24 for 8 Celerium. His Mission Card is Pockets of Influence and he scores 9 points as he has astronauts in each of Ausonia, Mare Serpentis, Hellas and Mare Tyrrhenum. His total is 49. Andy scores 4 for 4 Ice and 18 for 6 Celerium. His Mission Card is Good Intel and he scores 10 points for having Astronauts in every region. His total is 32 Richard scores 6 for 6 Ice, 24 for 12 Sylvanite and 18 for 6 Celerium. His Mission Card is Western Influence and he scores 3 for having astronauts in Mare Serpentis and Syrtis Major. His total is 51.


John scores 11 for 11 Ice plus 9 for the Ice Monopoly mission. His Mission Card is Strategic Zones and scores 6 for having astronauts in both Syrtis Major and Valles Marineris. His total is 26.

Congratulations to Richard Smith Game End Statements welcome

Game Two – Round Eight The Countdown 9 – Arthur plays a Recruiter and places his astronaut on the Hellas (3) ship that then launches. 8 – No Explorers are played 7 – Chris and Tom play Scientists. Chris goes first and places one astronaut on the Tritonis Sinus ship that then launches and the other on the Sinus Sabeus ship. He then looks at the Event Card on Tritonis Sinus. Tom places both astronauts on the Sinus Sabeus ship and receives a second Mission card. 6 – Roger plays a Secret Agent are plays one astronaut to the Sinus Sabeus ship, which then launches and the other to the Hellas ship that he forces to launch. 5 – No Saboteurs are played 4 – No Femme Fatales are played 3 – No Travel Agents are played 2 – No Soldiers are played 1 – No Pilots are played

Player Characters In Hand

Character Played

Astronauts In Play Resources Mined

Chris Hibbert Recruiter Explorer Secret Agent Saboteur Femme Fatale Travel Agent Soldier Pilot

Scientist 2 on Mare Serpentis 2 on Valles Marineris 4 in Tritonis Sinus 1 in Mare Tyrrhenum 1 on Sinus Sabeus 2 in Vastitas Borealis 1 on Syrtis Major 1 on Sinus Sabeus ship

3 Celerium 1 Sylvanite 3 Ice

Roger Trethewey

Recruiter Explorer Scientist Saboteur Femme Fatale Travel Agent Soldier Pilot

Secret Agent 4 on Sinus Sabeus 2 in Syrtis Major 3 on Valles Marineris 1 on Tritonis Sinus 1 on Hellas

3 Ice 3 Sylvanite

Tom Howell Recruiter Explorer Scientist Secret Agent Saboteur Femme Fatale Travel Agent Soldier Pilot

1 on Hellas 2 on Mare Serpentis 2 on Valles Marineris 1 on Sinus Sabeus 4 on Syrtis Major 1 on Vastitas Borealis 1 on Mare Tyrrhenum 1 on Tritonis Sinus 2 on Sinus Sabeus ship

3 Sylvanite

Arthur Owen Recruiter Explorer Scientist Secret Agent Saboteur Femme Fatale Travel Agent Soldier Pilot

7 on Hellas 5 on Ausonia 1 on Mare Serpentis

3 Celerium 6 Ice


Ships Launch Three of the four ships launch. The first Hellas ship delivers 3 of Arthur’s astronauts and the second delivers one of Roger’s astronauts to Hellas. The Tritonis Sinus ship delivers 2 of Chris astronaut, 1 of Roger astronaut and 1 of Tom’s astronauts to Tritonis Sinus. Three new ships are bought to the Docks Scoring Each region produces 2 resources of the regions designated production and the regions are scored as follows. Hellas – Arthur receives 2 Celerium Mare Serpentis – Region is tied so the resources stay in region Valles Marineris – Roger receives 3 Sylvanite Tritonis Sinus – Chris receives 2 Celerium Mare Tyrrhenum - Region is tied so the resources stay in region Sinus Sabeus – Roger receives 2 Ice Vastitas Borealis – Chris receives 3 Ice Syrtis Major – Tom receives 2 Sylvanite Ausonia – Arthur receives 2 Ice Phobos – Arthur receives 2 Ice

Mars Region Production Astronauts Event Card Resources

Hellas Celerium Tom (1), Arthur (7), Roger (1) No

Mare Serpentis Ice Chris (2), Tom (2), Arthur (1) No 3 Ice

Valles Marineris Sylvanite Chris (2), Tom (2), Roger (3) No (not possible)

Tritonis Sinus Celerium Chris (4), Roger (1), Tom (1) Yes

Mare Tyrrhenium

Sylvanite Chris (1), Tom (1) No 2 Sylvanite

Sinus Sabeus Ice Roger (4), Chris (1), Tom (1) Yes

Vastitas Borealis Ice Chris (2), Tom (1) Yes

Syrtis Major Sylvanite Roger (2), Chris (1), Tom (4) No (not possible)

Ausonia Ice Arthur (5) No

Phobos Ice Arthur (3) No

Please send orders for your ninth character placement next turn – Roger is the first player should players play the same card. The four ships available are going to Syrtis Major (5), Hellas (4), ? (4) and Sinus Sabeus (4 – 1 Chris astronaut, – 2 Tom’s astronaut). Please remember to include details of all the character’s actions. The lost in space memorial contains three of Roger’s and one of Chris’ astronauts. Rules (including a map) for this game can be found at http://www.variablepig.org/rules/missionredplanet.html

* * * * *

Puerto Rico

Game Seven – Round Thirteen The GM takes the Captain and loads 2 tobacco to the 8 ship scoring 3VP. Arthur ships his tobacco for 1VP. No-one else can ship and no goods are lost. Carolyn takes the Builder and builds a Guild Hall for 7 doubloons. Bob passes, Arthur buys a Small Warehouse for 2 doubloons, John cannot buy a second Small Indigo Plant and the GM passes. Bob takes the Trader and trades his coffee for 7 doubloons. Nobody else has goods to trade. Arthur takes the Prospector and receives 2 doubloons. John takes the Craftsman (+ 1 doubloon) and receives 2 corn, 2 indigo, 1 sugar and 2 tobacco. The GM produces 4 corn, 3 sugar and 2 tobacco: Carolyn produces 1 corn, 1 indigo, 1 sugar and 2 coffee, Bob produces 1 corn, 2 indigo, 1 sugar and 2 coffee and receives 3 doubloons from his Factory, then Arthur produces 1 corn and 1 indigo. John then produces another corn for his privilege.

http://www.variablepig.org/rules/missionredplanet.html


The play order for the fourteenth turn is the Carolyn, Bob, Arthur, John and GM. There are 12 colonists on the colony ship. The 6 ship holds 5 sugar, the 7 ship holds 3 indigo and the 8 ship hold 3 tobacco. The trading house holds 1 coffee. The plantations available this turn are corn, indigo, indigo, tobacco, indigo and coffee. There is a + 1 doubloon bonus on one Prospector and the Mayor and a + 4 doubloon bonus on the Settler.

Player Doubloons VP Goods Buildings Plantations

Bob Pitman 12 12 1 corn 2 indigo 1 sugar 2 coffee

Construction Hut (x) Large Indigo Plant (√,√, x) Hacienda (x) Small Sugar Mill (√) Coffee Roaster (√,√) Large Market (√) Fortress (√) Factory (√) Residence (x)

Indigo (√,√, x) Quarry (√, √, √) Corn (√) Tobacco (√) Sugar (√) Coffee (√,√)

Arthur Owen 5 13 1 corn 1 indigo

Small Indigo Plant (√) Tobacco Storage (√√√) Hacienda (√) Construction Hut (√) Small Warehouse (x)

Indigo (√,√) Sugar (√), Corn (√), Tobacco (√,√,√) San Juan (√,√,√,√,√) Quarry (√)

John Walker 3 13 3 corn 2 indigo 1 sugar 2 tobacco

Small Market (√) Small Indigo Plant (√) Large Warehouse (√) Tobacco Storage (√,√,x) Small Sugar Mill (√) Large Indigo Plant (√, x, x) Office (√) Wharf (x)

Indigo (√,√) Corn (√,√) Quarry (√,√), Tobacco (√,√) Sugar (√)

The GM 3 33 4 corn 3 sugar 2 tobacco

Small Warehouse (√) Tobacco Storage (√,√,√) Large Sugar Mill (√,√,√) Large Warehouse (√)

Corn (√, √, √, √) Tobacco (√, √) Sugar (√, √, √)

Carolyn Townsend 0 16 1 corn 1 indigo 1 sugar 2 coffee

Small Market (√) Small Indigo Plant (√) Small Sugar Mill (√) Large Market (√) Coffee Roaster (√,√) Customs House (√) Guild Hall (x)

Corn (√), Sugar (√,√) Indigo (√), Quarry (√,√) Coffee (√,√) Tobacco (√) San Juan (√)

Game Eight – Round Eleven

Player Doubloons VP Goods Buildings Plantations

Brad Martin 2 3 3 corn 1 indigo

Small Indigo Plant (√) Large Indigo Plant (√,√, x) Harbour (√) Wharf (√) Guild Hall (√)

Indigo (√), Quarry (√, √, √) Corn (√,√) Tobacco (x)

Kev Lee 3 14 1 corn 1 indigo 1 sugar 1 tobacco

Small Market (√) Tobacco Storage (√, x, x) Small Indigo Plant (√) Small Sugar Mill (√) Harbour (√)

Indigo (√), Corn (√,√, x) Tobacco (√, x) Sugar (√)

Chris Hibbert 8 8 2 corn 1 indigo 2 coffee

Construction Hut (√) Small Market (√) Coffee Roaster (√,√) Factory (√) Small Indigo Plant (√) Office (√)

Corn (√,√) Coffee (√) Indigo (√) San Juan (√) Quarry (x)


Kev should have had 14 VP, not 13 VP – 10 VP brought forward + 1 VP for being the captain + 1 VP for shipping Corn + 1 VP for shipping Indigo + 1 VP for shipping Tobacco. Chris takes the Craftsman (+1 doubloon) and produces 2 corn, 1 indigo and 1 coffee and receives 2 doubloons from his Factory. Brad produces 2 corn and 1 indigo: Kev produces 1 corn, 1 indigo, 1 sugar and 1 tobacco. Chris then produces another coffee for his privilege. Brad takes the Settler (+2 doubloons) and takes a tobacco plantation. Kev takes a corn plantation and Chris takes a Quarry using his Construction Hut. Kev takes the Mayor and mans his Harbour and a corn plantation. Chris mans his Office and Brad mans his Guild Hall. Three more settlers board the colony ship. The play order for the twelfth turn is Brad, Kev then Chris. There are 3 colonists on the colony ship. The 5 ships holds 4 indigo; the 6 ship holds 4 tobacco and the 4 ship is empty. The trading house holds 1 coffee, 1 tobacco and 1 indigo. The plantations available this turn are indigo, tobacco, tobacco and tobacco. There are + 1 doubloon bonuses on the Captain and Builder roles and + 2 doubloons on the Trader.

Building Cost Victory Points

Game 7 Game 8

Small Indigo Plant 1 1 2 1

Small Sugar Mill 2 1 0 3

Small Market 1 1 0 1

Hacienda 2 1 0 2

Construction Hut 2 1 0 2

Small Warehouse 3 1 0 2

Large Indigo Plant 3 2 0 2

Large Sugar Mill 4 2 1 3

Hospice 4 2 2 2

Office 5 2 1 1

Large Market 5 2 0 2

Large Warehouse 6 2 0 2

Tobacco Storage 5 3 0 2

Coffee Roaster 6 3 1 3

Factory 7 3 1 1

University 8 3 2 2

Harbour 8 3 2 0

Wharf 9 3 1 1

Guild Hall 10 4 0 0

Residence 10 4 0 1

Fortress 10 4 0 1

Customs House 10 4 0 1

City Hall 10 4 1 1

Tiles and Goods

Quarry 0 4

Corn Tiles 2 2 (1)

Indigo Tiles 1 3 (4)

Sugar Tiles 0 (2) 7 (3)

Tobacco Tiles 1 2 (1)

Coffee Tiles 2 5 (1)

Corn Goods 0 5

Indigo Goods 1 4

Sugar Goods 1 10

Tobacco Goods 0 4

Coffee Goods 5 6

Colonists 11 34

Victory Points 39 61

* * * * *


Rail Baron 6

Round Three Brad heads West having apparently forgotten that he needs to pay the White House a visit before heading to the California Beaches. Fortunately, the smaller moves means he can still turn back. I forgot that Jon had bought the C&NW in turn 2, so Cian should have paid Jon 5K for his turn 3 and 4 moves. Jon therefore receives + 10K while Cian loses 8K as he paid 2K to the bank. Please remember to specify which railway lines you intend to use with your orders. This was not a problem this turn, but this will be important next round. Jon Carter Cash 20.5K Home City: St. Louis (North Central) 8. 2SW Chicago – 4W Kansas City (AT&SF) 1K bank 9. 4W Kansas City – Phoenix (AT&SF) 1K bank, + 25.0K Buy NYC for 28K 10. Phoenix – 3E Phoenix (SP) 1K bank 11. 3E Phoenix – 3E El Paso (SP) 1K bank 12. 3E El Paso – San Antonio (SP) 1K bank

Cian Owen Cash 15.0K Home City: Reno (Southwest) 8. 1W Denver - Salt Lake City (D&RGW) 1K bank 9. Salt Lake City - Oakland (WP) 1K bank, + 22.0K Buy D&RGW for 6K 10. Oakland – 1W Reno (SP) 1K bank 11. 1W Reno – 4E Reno (SP) 1K bank 12. 4E Reno – 7E Reno (SP, UP) 1K bank

Brad Martin Cash 14.0K Home City: Los Angeles (South West) 8. Pittsburgh - St. Louis (PA) 1K bank 9. St. Louis – Kansas City (SL&SF) 1K bank, + 13.5K Buy B&M for 4K 10. Kansas City – 3W Kansas City (AT&SF) 1K bank 11. 3W Kansas City – 8W Kansas City (AT&SF) 1K bank 12. 8W Kansas City – 3N El Paso (AT&SF) 1K bank

Arthur Owen Cash 34.5K Home City: Columbus (North Central) 8. 1W Fargo - Fargo (GN) 1K bank, +12.0K Buy GN for 17K 9. Fargo – 1S Chicago (GN, CMStP&P, IC) 1K bank 10. 1S Chicago – 4S Chicago (IC) 1K bank 11. 4S Chicago - Memphis (IC) 1K bank, +11.0K Buy IC for 14K 12. Memphis – 2SW Louisville (IC) 1K bank


PLAYER FIRST DESTINATION PAYOUT SECOND DESTINATION PAYOUT Jon Charlotte (South East) 24.0K Pittsburgh (North East) 5.0K Cian Omaha (Plains) 17.5K Baltimore (North East) 13.0K Brad Washington (North East) 11.5K Los Angeles (South West) 33.5K Arthur Buffalo (North East) 5.5K Indianapolis (North Central) 4.5K Jon’s 3

rd destination is Nashville (South Central) for 6.0K

Cian’s 3rd

destination is Seattle (North West) for 29.0K Arthur’s 3

rd destination is Reno (South West) for 22.0K

PLAYER ARRIVALS TRAIN RAILROADS CASH Jon 3 E C&NW, NYNH&H, NYC 12.5K Cian 3 N D&RGW 26.0K Brad 2 N PA, B&M 18.5K Arthur 3 N GN, IC 21.5K

Turn Die Roll Bonus Priority

13 4 + 3 6 Jon

14 4 + 5 5 Cian

15 5 + 2 3 Brad

16 3 + 3 6 Arthur

17 4 + 4 3 Jon

* * * * *

RAILWAY RIVALS

RR Game LXXI – RR2308AH - RR Austria-Hungary (1912) – Round Five MARS 5a) 5. (S15) - - - A64 – Klagenfurt - C63, John Marsden 5b) 6. (F74) - - - G73 – H73 - I72: (C14) - C13, Orange 5c) 4. (I72) - - - J72 - K71. BANK: 47 – 1 (TRAIN) + 1 (TEAR) = 47 POOR 5a) 5. (I76) - - - J76 - K75 - K74, Dane Maslen 5b) 6. (K74) – K73 - Banjaluka; (K73) - L73; (Q23) - R22; (Bistrita) – Q44 - P44, Red 5c) 4. (R22) - S22; (P44) - - - O45. BANK: 23 – 1 (TRAIN) = 22 GLARE 5a) 5. (R13) - R14: (B63) – KLAGENFURT: (C62) - - - D62, Bob Gingell 5b) 6. (D62) - - - E61: (S9) - - - S8, Brown 5c) 4. (E61) – TRIESTE: (S8) - - - S7. BANK: 35 + 3 + 6 = 44 TRAIN 5a) 5. (M26) - M27 - M28 - M29 - M30 - M31, Roger Trethewey 5b) 6. (M31) - M32 - M33 - L33 - Kassa; (Mostar) - S74 - T75, Black 5c) 4. (T75) - RAGUSTAa - V76 - V77 - W78 / Montenegro.

BANK: 54 + 6 + 6 + 1 (MARS) + 1 (POOR) – 2 (TEAR) = 66 TEAR 5a) 5. (I26) – H25 – G25 – F24 - Ostrava; (Q20) - R19, Kev Lee 5b) 6. (R19) – S19 – A68 – B68 - - -C67, Green 5c) 4. (Q25) – P24 - - - O24. (build shortened by river)

BANK: 57 - 1 (MARS) + 2 (TRAIN) = 58 The sixth turn build rolls are 6a) 6, 6b) 5 and 6c) 5.


Note that hex numbers on the map are wrong in the area near the Switzerland border. T4 should be S4, S1 should be R1, R4 should be Q4 and Q3 should be P3. Sorry for the inconvenience – please be careful with hex numbers in this area. This has also affected a number of the special run destination hex numbers. Italy should be E61 not F61, Schweiz is P1 not Q1, Deutschland is P8 not Q8, Ruszland D28 not D29 as D29 is Krakov, Rumania is O48 not P48 and also B98, Montenegro is W77 not W78. Note that P1, D28 and K87 are next to two foreign borders but only give access to one country. My thanks to Bob for spotting all these. Whinge POOR: Now all I need to complete my network is for you to use a D100 die for the final three build allowances. :-)

RR Game LXXI – RR2309AH - RR Austria-Hungary (1912) – Round Five DMR 5a) 5. (N19) – O19 – P18 – Q18 – R17 - GRAZ, Brad Martin 5b) 6. (R17) – R16 – R15 – R14 – R13 – R12 - R11, Blue 5c) 4. (R11) – R10 - - - Q10. BANK: 36 + 6 – 1 (WINNER) = 41 WINNER 5a) 5. (Szeged) - - - B81 - B82 - B83, Jonathan Amery: 5b) 6. (Trieste) - G62 - H63 - H64 - H65 - I65 - J66, Purple 5c) 4. (J66) - K66 - L67 - M66 - ZARA. BANK: 32 + 6 + 1 (DMR) + 1 (TAKE ME OUT) = 40 TAKE ME OUT 5a) 5. (F66) – LAIBACH - E64: (I70) - J71 - K71 - BANJALUKA, Steve Guest: 5b) 6. (Q31) - - - Q32 - Q33: (K21) - J21 - I22, Orange 5c) 4. (I22) - H22 - G23: (E64) - E63 - D63. BANK: 39 + 3 + 6 – 1 (WINNER) – 1 (HAPPY) = 46 HAPPY 5a) 5. (D13) - C13 – C12 – C11 – CARLSBAD: (K76) - L76, Michael Pargman 5b) 6. (L76) - - - M76 - - - N77, Green 5c) 4. (N77) - O76 – SARAJEVO - P75: (C81) - C82. BANK: 41 + 6 + 6 + 1 (TAKE ME OUT) = 54 FFR 5a) 5. (S37) – R37 – Q38 – P38 – O39 – N39, Arthur Owen: 5b) 6. (N39) – N40 – N41 – N42 – N43: (S40) – CLUJ-NAPOCA: (S42) – S43 Black 5c) 4. (N43) - - - N44: (S43) - BISTRITA. BANK: 43 + 6 + 6 = 55 The sixth turn build rolls are 6a) 6, 6b) 5 and 6c) 5. Note that hex numbers on the map are wrong in the area near the Switzerland border. T4 should be S4, S1 should be R1, R4 should be Q4 and Q3 should be P3. Sorry for the inconvenience – please be careful with hex numbers in this area. This has also affected a number of the special run destination hex numbers. Italy should be E61 not F61, Schweiz is P1 not Q1, Deutschland is P8 not Q8, Ruszland D28 not D29 as D29 is Krakov, Rumania is O48 not P48 and also B98, Montenegro is W77 not W78. Note that P1, D28 and K87 are next to two foreign borders but only give access to one country. My thanks to Bob for spotting all these.

RR Game LXXIII - RR2307CRE – Crets Holiday Map – Round Three I’m not sure what happened to this report last issue, but somehow it was missing from the zine. Unfortunately, by the time I noticed that it was missing, it was too late to send round so by default it was held over. There were a couple of small couple of corrections. Jon spotted them quickly so I was able to notify all players except Arthur by e-mail. 1. CRAP’s last build should have read Market Lavington – P36 and not P38 as reported.

2. Bob built 7 hexes in turn 2b so I have reduced his 3b build allowance by one. All players were notified by

email shortly after last issue was published. Warwick University is located at S27. Steve asked if the S27-

S25 branch should be deleted – only the S26 – S27 part. The Wawick to S26 build still stands.


3. BRE&K should have paid EYUP LUV 2 for the build Leamington Spa - Bull's Head Lane.

4. There is a small hex numbering error – V18 should be U18

? 3a) 3. (P21) - P20 - P19 – Manchester Airport, Jon Carter 3b) 6. (Manchester Airport) – O18 - N17 - N16 - N15 - N14 - N13, 3c) 3. (N13) - N12 - N11 - N10. BANK: 34 – 1 (EYUP LUV) – 13 (AUNT) = 20 CRAP 3a) 3. (Y31) – Z30 – A74 – B73, Arthur Owen 3b) 6. (B73) – C73 – D72 – E72 – LODDON – E70 – D70, Green 3c) 3. (D70) – C70 - D69 - WROXHAM. BANK: 15 + 6 + 3 - 24 EYUP LUV 3a) 3. (U29) - U30 - U31 - U32, Steve Guest 3b) 6. (R11) - Q11 - P11 – BROUGH - N10 - M10 - AIKTON, Orange 3c) 3. (U15) -Y14 – ALLERSTON: (Barnard Castle) - R9. BANK: 23 + 2 (correction 3) + 6 + 6 + 6 + 1 (Jon) – 1 (BRE&K) – 1 (AUNT) = 42 ? 3a) 3. (N29) – M30 - L29 – K29, Bob Pitman 3b) 5. (K29) – J29 – I30 – H30 – LLANPUMSAINT: (Kings Lynn) – B69, Red 3c) 3. (B69) – C70 – D69 – WROXHAM. BANK: 62 + 1.5 + 3 = 66.5 BRE&K 3a) 3. (N29) - M29 - L28 - K29, Jonathan Amery: 3b) 6. (K29) - L29 - I30 - H30 - LLANPUMSAINT - F31- E31, Dark Blue 3c) 3. (E31) - Fishguard – DALE: (Romford) - A76. BANK: 25 – 2 (correction 3) + 1.5 + 6 = 30.5 AUNT 3a) 3. (O21) – O20 – O19 - O18, Mike Townsend: 3b) 6. (O18) – N17 – N14 – LINDALE: (N14) – N13, Black 3c) 3. (N13) – N12 - N11 – Brough. BANK: 22 + 6 + 13 (Jon) = 41 The fourth turn build rolls are 4a) 5, 4b) 6 and 4c) 6.

RR Game LXXII - RR 2306CRE – Crets Holiday Map - Rounds 4 and 5 GM: Bob Gingell

RR 2306CRE Round 4

WEAR bypasses Coventry despite its newly announced cultural importance while JIM heads north

and GOB hugs some trees. JIMBO helps out YETMAN yet again, all the while insisting it is purely

accidental and worrying that his plans could go wrong. Is this a conspiracy to jointly sink to the

bottom? Santa flies in from the north with the charitable spirit of Christmas (eggnog?) for JIMBO.

Round 4 build allowance: 5, 6, 3

CREATIVE, Green (Michael Pargman): 48 +12 -11 = 49.

4a. (S30) - Stonesfield - T31 - U32 - U33 - V33 [-2w, -2y, -7jb]

4b. (V33) - W34; (U15) - V14 - ALLERSTON; (R6) - R5 - R4 - EMBLETON

4c. (W34) - Heathrow - Y34 - Z34

JIM, Brown (Brad Martin): 71 +4 = 75.

4a. (Q30) - R30; (Wrangle) - Z21 - Z20 - Z19 - Y19

4b. (Y19) --- Hull - X17 - W17 - W16

4c. (W16) - W15 - Allerston; (R30) - Stonesfield


GOB, Black (Roger Trethewey): 42 -1+1 = 42.

4a. (P28) - P29 - P30 -- P31 [-1jm]; (Y29) - Z28

4b. (P31) -- P32 - O33 - N33 -- N34

4c. (N34) -- N35 - M36

JIMBO, Yellow (Jim Reader): 28 -11+8 = 25.

4a. (P36) - O37 - N37 - M38 - Taunton - K37 [-4y]

4b. (K37) - J37 - I38 - Patchacott - H39 - G40 - G41 [-7y]

4c. (G41) - F41 - E42 - Perranporth

YETMAN, Blue (Richard Smith): 10 -2+14 = 22.

4a. (M38) - Taunton - K37 - J37 - I38 - Patchacott

4b. (U27) - U26 - U25 - U24 - U23 - U22 - U21 [-1jm]

4c. (R27) - Q27 - P27 - O28 [-1g]

WEAR, Red (Kevin Lee): 48 -4+2 = 46.

4a. (A71) - B71 - C72 - D72 - E72 - Loddon

4b. (V29) - V28 - V27 - V26 - V25 [-1jm]; (S30) - R29 - Chipping Camden

4c. (Chipping Camden) - Q28 - Q27 - Q26 [-1jm, -1y, -1jb]

Press: JIMBO – This could go horribly wrong. [And some of it does].

YETMAN - This round I am going to risk going "bust" during 4b. A strange sense of deja vu fills my

head. [Yet in fact it works out OK, although CREATIVE ensures that YETMAN stays in last place!]

RR 2306CRE Round 5

GM: Bob Gingell

Surprisingly, both CREATIVE and GOB (heading East), and JIM and YETMAN (heading North)

manage to converge with simultaneous parallel builds. WEAR goes to Wales and JIMBO to Surrey,

but no new towns are connected and there are a lot of short extensions to existing networks.

Press: CREATIVE - I wonder if the invasion of the North will arrive this turn? GM: It does happen,

but it looks fairly cautious to me as all worry about what the other southerners are going to do.

GM note: The map has three hex-numbering errors: hex U18 is wrongly numbered W18, hex V14 is

numbered Y14 and hex J24 is numbered J14.

Round 5 build allowance: 4, 5, 3

CREATIVE, Green (Michael Pargman): 49 -1+4 = 52.

5a. (T25) - - V24 - - X25

5b. (X25) - - Z26 - King's Lynn - B69 - C70

5c. (Z34) - A79 [-1y]; (Aikton) - K9 - K8

JIM, Brown (Brad Martin): 75 -5 = 70.

5a. (Stonesfield) - S32 - R32 - Q33 - Q34 [-4w]

5b. (W16) - V15 - U15 - T14 - T11 - T12 [-1c]

5c. (T12) - T11 - S11 - Barnard Castle

GOB, Black (Roger Trethewey): 42 -1+2 = 43.

5a. 4. (Gwastannan) - G21 - Holyhead; (M36) - L36 - Taunton

5b. 5. (Z28) - Z27 - Z26 - Kings Lynn - B69 - C69 [-1w]

5c. 3. (C69) - D68 – Wroxham; (N18) - M18


JIMBO, Yellow (Jim Reader): 25 -2 = 23.

5a. (S37) -- S38 -- Dibden Purlieu

5b. (Q16) - R16 - Barnsley; (N17) - N16; (R14) - R13 [-1c]; (Farnham) - W37,

5c. (W37) - X36 - Y36 - Z35 [-1y].

YETMAN, Blue (Richard Smith): 22 -3+2 - 21.

5a. (U21) - U20 - U19 - U18 - U17

5b. (U17) - U16 - U15 - T14 - T13 [-1c]; (K39) - J39 [-1w]

5c. (Q27) - P26 - O26 - O25 [-1w].

WEAR, Red (Kevin Lee): 46 -3+7 = 50.

5a. (Q26) - P25 - O25 - N24 - M24

5b. (M24) - M23 - L22 - K22 - J21 [-2g]; (V25) - V24 [-1c]

5c. (V24) - V23 - W23 - X22

Round 6 build allowance: 5, 4, 4. The Round 7 build allowance will be 12 points.

RR Game LXXIV – RR2325DM – Denmark Map - Game Start The players start details are as follows Chris Hibbert: Company Name: The Emperor’s New Clothes (TENC) Color: Yellow Start: Aalborg Roger Trethewey: Company Name: Red Color: Red Start: Kobenhavn Jon Carter: Company Name: No Name Again Color: Black Start: Aalborg Judy Ferguson: Company Name: Loki Color: Purple Start: Kobenhavn Arthur Owen: Company Name: Viking Railways Color: Green Start: Kobenhavn Richard Smith: Company Name: Locomotive Express Global Operations (LEGO) Color: Blue Start: Aalborg The first turn build rolls are 1a) 6, 1b) 4 and 1c) 2.

Questions Chris Hibbert I think I get most of this, but I don't think I've played games with bridges or ferries before. From the description on the map it sounds like both are free to run on and don't require build allowance. Is that true of both? Does one or both of them count as distance along the race? How far is Bonholm from Kabenhavn?

Thanks very much for asking as I had thought that the ferry rules were printed on the map. Here is my

interpretation of the map rules based on previous games.


Bridges are free to run on as these have already been built by the Government and there are no

parallel building costs for building over a bridge other than connection fees for the hexes at the start

and end of the bridge.

Ferries cost 6 to buy and can only be owned by one player – buying a ferry must be included in your

orders. Others can pay 5 to use the ferry both for the building phases and also during racing. If two or

more players attempt to buy a ferry at the same time, then the ferry (and costs) shared. For building

purposes, players do not have to use pips from the die roll to continue building from the other side of

the ferry.

For examples, a player may order a build R13 – Korsar *buy ferry to Nyborg* - Nyborg – Odense

with a build cost of 5.

For racing, the full track length of the ferry applies, with an additional cost of 1 to embark and 1 to

disembark. For example, a total of 5 is needed for the race from Fredrickshavn (14) to Laeso (61) – 3

for the ferry length and 1 each for embarkation and disembarkation.

I’m really not sure what Peter intended with the ferry to Bornholm. Bronholm is a considerable

distance from Kobenhavn as it is south east of Malmo. I estimate that it is a similar distance from

Kobenhavn as Odense (25 hexes). I will rule that it is a 1 hex ferry (i.e. to the hex with the 66 in it) and

the ferry is public so all players may use it without payment but normal race rules apply.

Judy Ferguson Thanks for that. Just one query - the map shows Korsar - Nyborg as a bridge not a ferry as you have put as the example below. Could you please clarify?

Sorry about that. A build Faborg – E54 – F53 *buy ferry* I51 – Sonderborg would cost 3. For racing,

the total distance would be 7 plus 1 for embarkation and 1 for disembarkation.

* * * * *

Robo Rally 4

Round Eighteen A relatively quiet round, enlivened only by some hostility between R. Daneel Olivaw and Python. Phase A

Robot Card Played Start End Actions

Robbie 840 3F B17E E17E

Python 770 2F A10S A12S

Skaffen-Amtiskaw 550 1F H9N H8N Conveyed to H7N, pushed to I7N and rotated to I7W

Shootme 530 1F L2W K2W Use Gyro Stabilizer to stop rotation

R. Daneel Olivaw 030 UT A9W A9E

Dalekbot - H3N H3N Power Down

Phase B


Python 780 2F A12S A14S Shot by R. Daneel Olivaw

Shootme 740 2F K2W I2W Conveyed to G2W

R. Daneel Olivaw 280 RT A9E A9S Shoots Python

Robbie 170 LT E17E E17N

Skaffen-Amtiskaw 090 LT I7W I7S Rotated to I7E



Phase C


R. Daneel Olivaw 820 3F A9S A12S Shoots Python

Robbie 690 2F E17N E15N Registers flag 2

Shootme 610 1F G2W F2W Conveyed to D2W

Skaffen-Amtiskaw 540 1F I7E J7E Rotated to J7N

Python 400 RT A14S A14W Shot by R. Daneel Olivaw


Phase D


Skaffen-Amtiskaw

790 3F J7N J4N

Robbie 750 2F E15N E13N Conveyed to F13N

Shootme 660 2F D2W B2W Uses Gyro Stabilizer

R. Daneel Olivaw 630 1F A12S A13S Shoots Python

Python 490 BU A14W A14E Shot by R. Daneel Olivaw


Phase E


Robbie 450 BU F13N F14N Shot by board laser

Python 380 RT A14E A14S

Shootme 250 LT B2W B2S Uses Gyro Stabilizer

R. Daneel Olivaw 240 RT A13S A13E

Skaffen-Amtiskaw 190 LT J4N J4W Repair 1 point of damage


Status Report

Player Robot Location Damage Lives Lost

Specials Flags Registered

Chris Hibbert R. Daneel Olivaw A13E 0 0 Gyroscopic Stabilizer Brakes Reverse Gears 1 unknown

1, 4, 3

Tom Howell Python A14S 3 1 Gyroscopic Stabilizer 1, 4, 3

Andy York Dalekbot 0 3 - 1, (J4)

Michael Pargman

Robbie F14N 1 2 - 3 (A12), 2

Steve Ham Shootme B2S 3 2 Gyroscopic Stabilizer 2 unknown

1 (L9), 4

Bob Pitman Skaffen-Amtiskaw

J4W 3 2 - 3, 2

Roger Trethewey

Dropkick DEAD - 4 - 3

Harv Barker CAT-5 DEAD - 4 -

Options will be kept secret until revealed or unless they are clearly visible (e.g. turret) to others. Reminder The order of timing is as follows - Robots move Express conveyors move 1 space Express conveyors and normal conveyors move 1 space Pushers push if active


Gears rotate 90 degrees in direction of arrow Crushers crush if active Shooting (robots, then board; lasers will fire before other special weapons) Touch flags, repair, collect options

Whinges Tom Howell Thanks, Jim (for RoboRally cards). Did you leave all the left turns in the box this round? Michael Pargman Finally a break with cards that moves me in the right direction :-) Questions Tom Howell A clarification question on the RoboRally map: the conveyors at B13, D13, F13, & H13; are they express or normal speed? They are all normal speed. Press Bob Pitman Oh Dear looks like R Daneel Olivaw and Python just have to beat each other to a pulp (while Robbie provides interference) to decide who wins doesnt it! Going to be fun for the last 1 or 2 turns watching that bottom left corner! Thought about the power down but as its almost all over I’m going down rolling!

* * * * *

STERNENHIMMEL 3

Round Seventeen Brad places a black hole in the last available star of Lowe (Leo). Leo is then scored. Andy’s mystery star is a star 7, neutralized by Brad’s black hole. Brad’s mystery star is also a star 10. Brad has a total of 18 and Andy has a total of 5, so Brad scores 9 and Andy 7. Andy places a black hole in the Northernmost star of Schutze (Sagittarius) Arthur places a double star of in the Northwestern star of Wassermann (Aquarius). Aquarius is then scored. Andy’s mystery star is very effective Black hole that neutralizes Arthur’s star 10 and star 5. Arthur’s remaining mystery star is a star 7. Arthur has a total of 16 and Andy has a total of 6, so Arthur scores 8 and Andy 6. John places a black hole in the Easternmost star of Schutze (Sagittarius) Brad places a double star in the remaining star of Schutze (Sagittarius). The final star system is now scored. Brad’s mystery stars are 7 and 6 while John’s is a star 10. Arthur and John’s black holes cancel each other out, while John’s second black hole neutralizes Brad’s doubled star 6. John has a total of 37 while Andy is left with a black hole and Brad with a double star so John scores 10 and Brad and Andy get 1 point each. The final scores are John Walker 46 Andy York 34 Brad Martin 33 Arthur Owen 21

Congratulations to John Walker Game End Statements welcome


7.

* * * * *

Sopwith T-365VP

Round Five 1

st Move: Avey Ate Her and The Mystery Pilot crossed paths early and both landed short range

hits on each other. The Gossamer Heron wrongly anticipated Avey Ate Her’s move and fired into space, while Camel Toe and the Ode-Ace-Ious One started to head towards the action. 2

nd Move: The Gossamer Heron slipped out of The Mystery Pilot’s sights, just as the Ace let rip

at close range. Avey Ate Her continued to slip away from trouble while Camel Toe and the Ode-Ace-Ious One continued to head towards the action 3

rd Move: The Gossamer Heron and The Mystery Pilot’s waved at each other as they flew in

parallel. The Ode-Ace-Ious One tried a long range shot towards the Gossamer Heron but his target was already moving away. Avey Ate Her and Camel Toe stayed out of trouble.

BM?

AYBH

AO7

AO10

BM3

AY6

BM5

AO6

BM6

AO3

JW10

BM7

AY10

JW2x

BMBH

AY?

AO5

JW7

BM1

AY5 AOBH

JWBH

BMBH

AYBH

AO2x

JWBH BM2x


Pilot Starts Moves Ends A:D:P

1 Avey Ate Her Brendan Whyte

2) J4E 3) M7E 4) N10E

5) K10NW

2) RS – RS – RS 3) RS – A – A fL

4) LT, fA,R – A – A 5) LS, fL,A – LS - LS

2) M7E 3) N10E

4) K10NW 5) H7NE

13:7:6

2 Gossamer Heron Chris Hibbert

2) B4SE 3) E5SE 4) G7SE 5) J8SE

2) RS – RS – A 3) RS – LS – A fA

4) RS fA - A fA – RS 5) A fL – RS – LT fL

2) E5SE 3) G7SE 4) J8SE 5) L10E

11:12:4

3 Cameltoe (ACE) John Walker

2) D12SE 3) F13SW 4) E12NW 5) F12SW

2) LS - RT – A 3) I – A – LT 4) I – A – RT

5) LS – LS - A

2) F13SW 3) E12NW 4) F12SW 5) I14SW

16:12:0

4 The Mystery Pilot (ACE) Brad Martin

2) J16W 3) J13W 4) J10W 5) H8SE

2) A – A – A 3) A – A – A

4) RT fA - I fA - 0 fA 5) RS fA – RS fA – LT fA

2) J13W 3) J10W 4) H8SE 5) J9E

13:6:3

5 The Ode-ace-ious One John Marsden

2) R16W 3) P13W 4) S13W

5) S10NW

2) A – RS – RS fA 3) LS – LS – LS

4) A, A, RT 5) A, A, RT fA

2) P13W 3) S13W

4) S10NW 5) O8NE

14:12:0

6 Red Baron Arthur Owen

2) P10NE 3) M8NE 4) L10E

5) -

2) LT – A – RT 3) A – RT – A

4) LT, A… 5) Booooom

2) M8NE 3) L10E 4) I9NW

5) -

Shot down turn 4

1

2

3 4

5


on-the-shelf vol. XVI, no 35 11 March 2018

Brought to you by Tom Howell: off-the-shelf at olympus.net. Welcome to on-the-shelf, volume XVI, number 35.

With three rounds remaining in the WitWiKN?, is anyone getting closer to either the location or the

Mystery Person? Only time will tell. The Machi Koro game continues on with a somewhat reduced

cash flow. Nevertheless, everyone manages to increase the size of their little towns. We'd welcome

suggestions for new games to offer here. And of course, current non-players are welcome to join our

ongoing:

Where in the World is Kendo Nagasaki? New players welcome anytime. Game goes 10 rounds, unless won earlier.

Round 1:

Jim Burgess Kurt Vonnegut in Jerusalem Jim Reader Jengishbek Nazaraliev in Piddle Trenthide

Bob Gingell Winston Churchill in Zurich Richard Smith Theresa May in Intercourse, Pennsylvania

Steve Guest Carmen Muñoz in Corozal, Belize Brendan Whyte Plutarch in Plutarchusstraat, Amsterdam

Chris Hibbert Joan Miró in McMurdo Station Andy York John Calvin in Stuttgart

Dane Maslen The Dalai Lama in Lhasa

Public response to player with closest guess: You were born less than a decade after me.

Round 2:

Jim Burgess Woodrow Wilson in New Delhi, India Jim Reader Jimmy Lusibaea in Yaren District of Nauru

Bob Gingell Rudyard Kipling in Marrakesh Richard Smith HP Lovecraft in Kingston, Norfolk Island

Steve Guest Queen Elizabeth II in Asdas, Yemen Brendan Whyte Peter O'Toole in Thule, Greenland

Chris Hibbert Karch Kiraly in Antikythera, Greece Andy York Fidel Castro in Tehran

Dane Maslen Tsar Nicholas II in Yekaterinburg

Public response to player with closest guess: We missed each other by nearly five years.

Round 3:

Bob Gingell Andy Warhol in Mumbai Jim Reader Óscar Nicanor Duarte Frutos in Dushanbe

Steve Guest Roger Daltrey in Tommi, Chad Richard Smith Albert Einstein in Ulm, Germany

Chris Hibbert Phineas Gage in Barcelona Brendan Whyte Lee Harvey Oswald in Capetown

Dane Maslen Ageng Tirtayasa of Banten in Banten Andy York Burgess Meredith in Beirut

Public response to player with closest guess: Some might not call it that, but we've both known some controversy.

Round 4:

Bob Gingell Che Guevara in Kabul Jim Reader Daisaku Ikeda in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Steve Guest Mohammed Ali in Hit, Iraq Richard Smith Albert Einstein in Nice, France

Chris Hibbert Rudyard Kipling in Tamale, Ghana Brendan Whyte Alexander Selkirk in Robinson Crusoe Is.

Dane Maslen A. Y. Abdul Gayoom in Kulhudhuffushi Andy York Heisenburg in Vienna

Public response to player with closest guess: We have the same number of children.

Round 5:

Bob Gingell Noam Chomsky in Amritsar Jim Reader FM-2030 in Kargil, Ladakh Province, India

Steve Guest Dwayne Johnson in Kashgar, China Richard Smith Shirley Temple in Bikaner, India

Chris Hibbert Archduke Karl Ludwig in Sochi Brendan Whyte Sitting Bull in Istanbull

Dane Maslen Han Youwen in Xining Andy York Robert Oppenheimer in Tyre, Lebanon

Public response to player with closest guess: Despite our lifetimes overlapping by multiple decades, we have essentially

nothing in common.

Round 6:

Bob Gingell Philip Levine in Gilgit Jim Reader Margaret Thatcher in Muzaffarabad

Steve Guest John Forbes Nash Jr. in Kolkata, India Richard Smith Shirley Temple in Kathmandu

Chris Hibbert Jaques Cousteau in Samarkand Brendan Whyte President Assad in Damascus

Dane Maslen Mel Ferrer in Taiyuan Andy York Vyacheslav Molotov in Kathmandu

Public response to player with closest guess: Your parents had twice as many children as mine.


Round 7:

Bob Gingell Patrick McGoohan in Abbottabad

Steve Guest Frank Borman in Chaklala, Rawalpindi

Chris Hibbert Edward Elmer Smith in Lahore

Dane Maslen Kevin Reynolds in Incheon, South Korea

Jim Reader Ravi Shankar in Everest Base Camp in Nepal

Richard Smith George Peppard in Srinagar, India

Brendan Whyte Ayatollah Khomeni in Khiva

Andy York Vladimir Putin in Lucknow, India

Public response to player with closest guess: My fame is based on intellectual pursuits; not physical,

nor a combination of the two.

In My Neighborhood On entering our bathroom, you will find a twenty-four inch deep counter on your left. The left side of

the doorway you just passed through is only seventeen inches from the left wall, the one the counter

backs up to. The door is hinged on the right and swings into the bathroom, so the reason you were

able to open the door is that I cut a curve in the counter top and the cabinet below it to accommodate

the door. Thus, the counter edge has a concave section, a convex section, and a straight section.

Which means, of course, that the drawers under those edge sections have concave, convex, and

straight fronts. Lucky me: the doors under the sink are in the straight edge section. So how does one

make concave or convex fronted drawers, you may be asking. That's what I'm here to tell you thish.

The drawers with straight fronts are easy. Just flatten four boards, cut them to the requisite widths and

lengths, and use a router and a dovetail jig to cut four joints. Then use a table saw to cut grooves in

the two sides for the runners and narrower grooves in all four pieces for the bottom, which is a piece

of quarter inch thick plywood also cut to size on the table saw. Glue it all together, a little sanding and

you're done!

The curved front drawers are a bit more complicated. The joints between the back and two sides are

the same jig-cut dovetail joints, so that part is just more of the same except the sides should be cut a

bit long. The fronts, and the joinery between the front and sides, are where it gets tricky. The surface

area of the front ends of the sides needs to be flush against the back of the curved fronts in order for

the hand-cut dovetail joints to be tight and secure. The following procedure has that as its primary

motivation. For the fronts, start with a rough-cut, two inch thick board of sufficient width for the

height of the drawer front. Flatten one side, then joint an edge. This edge will be a reference plane

when the curves are cut and may be the bottom of the drawer front, so it should be perpendicular to the

flattened side. (Mine weren't.) Then, I clamped a piece of paper between a board and the underside of

the floor of the cabinet. That edge is cut to the same curves as the counter top, except, being inset

from the edge of the counter-top, the curve radii are different: and closer to the curves wanted on the

drawer fronts. Draw a line on the paper along the cabinet front, then another three-quarter inch away

using a compass. Mark the drawer front ends, un-clamp everything and cut along the lines to produce

a template for the drawer fronts. Transfer the outline of the templates to the top edge of the blanks,

then cut just outside the lines on a band-saw.

Sand the faces to a smooth curvature, inside and out. Try fitting them to the front edges of the cabinet

dividers and continue sanding until the ends of the fronts fit against the cabinet partitions with no gaps

and without rocking. For best results, we want the back of the front and the front edge of the sides to

meet in a straight line. Assemble the back and sides without glue. Slide them onto the runners,

positioning the three pieces where they will be when the finished drawer is in place by shimming the

drawer in the center of its space. Triple check that the back corners are as close to 90 degrees as you

can get them. Place the drawer front on top of the sides and draw lines on the top edge of the sides

using the back of the front as a guide. Also draw lines on the outside of the sides at the front edge of

the cabinet dividers. Cut the excess off the sides at these lines. Re-assemble the back and sides and

re-position in the cabinet. Support the (curved) front in place and mark the sides and back of the front


to show where they contact each other. Layout the dovetail joint on the sides and front. I use a

version called 'half-blind' in which the dovetails are visible on the sides, but not the front of the

finished drawer. Using a backsaw (a saw with an extra piece of metal folded over the back [non-

toothed] edge of the saw to give the saw rigidity), cut just outside the layout lines on the 'tails' which

are on the side pieces. Using a chisel, remove the waste wood from between tails and pare the tail

sides down to the lines. Make sure all the cut faces are flat and clean. Since the 'pins' are not visible

from the front of the drawer, the amount of sawing one may do to start them is limited to the back and

end of the work piece. Again, cut as far as possible on the waste side of the lines before continuing to

remove the waste using a chisel. Since the sides meet the front at a non-90 degree angle, and the sides

of the pins are somewhat undercut from the back surface of the front, the corners of the pockets will

probably need to be cleaned out with something like a utility knife blade. Be sure to pare to the layout

lines and get all the surfaces flat and clean.

Now the moment of truth: will the pieces fit together? If they go together perfectly the first time,

you've done a better job than I usually manage. If they don't, … hold them together and inspect

carefully to see where more wood needs to be removed. Check to see if the front is properly

positioned vertically relative to the side. At this stage, some vertical adjustment may be made by

removing wood from the pins instead of the tails or vice-versa. Once the side slides into the fronts,

make sure it goes all the way in. Sometimes more wood needs to be removed from the pocket or the

back of the tails to get the fit right. If the sides don't go in far enough you could end up with a drawer

too wide for the space it is supposed to go into. That problem can be fixed by a lot – and I do mean a

lot – of sanding later. It's much easier to get it right at this point in the process.

Now, dry fit the the sides, back and front together and check that the drawer does slide into it's space

in the cabinet. If necessary, make more adjustments until it does. Remove the drawer, turn it over,

measure the distance between the sides, both at the front and back (they should be the same), and mark

the location on the front of the bottom grooves in the sides. Measure up from the bottom edge of the

front to be sure the groove ends are parallel to the bottom. If not, make some taper cuts on the jointer.

Then use a marking gauge to score the sides of the groove in the back of the front which will accept

the drawer's bottom. I use a quarter inch chisel to cut the groove. There are several different power

tools that could be used to make the work go faster, but they all also offer more opportunities to ruin

the work piece very quickly.

Cut a piece of quarter inch thick plywood a half inch wider than the distance between the drawer sides,

and about an inch longer than the longer drawer side. Dry assemble the back, sides, and bottom.

Mark the bottom at the front edge of either side. This is where the back of the front will be. Slide the

bottom out a little way, then make another mark a quarter inch away from the existing marks. Place

the front on the bottom, aligning the back with the last made marks, then draw a line on the bottom

along the back side of the front. Cut the bottom to this line. Now you should be able to dry fit your

drawer and make a last check that it still fits its space.

Finish sand all the surfaces which will be inside the finished drawer. Whilst gluing, be careful about

which surfaces of the dovetail joints get glue. Be careful to not get glue into the grooves which hold

the bottom. The bottom should 'float' in place rather than be glued in solidly. You'll probably find it

easiest to assemble the drawer if you glue the back and front to the short side first; slide the bottom

into place; then glue on the long side, seating the hand-cut front dovetail joint before engaging the jig-

cut joint at the back. Clamp carefully. Clamping across the width is easy, but front to back is tricky

due to the different lengths of the sides. Make sure the back corners are square. When the glue is dry,

sand the joints smooth, then finish sand all around and take the sharp edges off with your finish

sandpaper. Relax with an easier project before going on to the next curved-front drawer.

Off the Reference Shelf CDs Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett Giant of the Senate, by Al Franken

Below the Belt, by Stuart Woods Grant, by Ron Chernow

Fast & Loose, by Stuart Woods Edge of Eternity, by Ken Follett


Winter of the World, by Ken Follett A Room With a View, by E. M. Forster

The Secret history of the World: as Laid Down by the Secret Societies, by Mark Booth

DVDs

Plants Behaving Badly: The Intriguing Behaviour of Extraordinary Plants, from PBS

Game of Thrones: conquest & rebellion; an animated history of the Seven Kingdoms,

Game of Thrones: Season One, from HBO and George R. R. Martin

Is Walmart Good for America?, by Frontline

Game of Thrones: Season Two, from HBO and George R. R. Martin

Game of Thrones: Season Three, from HBO and George R. R. Martin

首里城 Machi Koro Shuri Castle

The game goes into a recession, reducing everyone's cash reserves.

Round Seven:

Player Turn Roll Results Builds

Kevin Lee 8 6 Kevin receives two coins from his flower shops. French Restaurant

Steve Ham 8 6 No income Forest

Richard Smith 9 10 No income TV Station

Roger Trethewey 9 5 Steve and Richard each receives one coin from their forest.

Train Station

Kevin Lee 9 1 Being penny-less, Kevin bypasses both Roger's and Richard's Sushi Bars. Everyone receives one from their Wheat Field.

Hamburger Stand

Kevin triples his restaurant holdings. Steve invests in primary industry, while Richard builds a fancy new TV

Station, and Roger climbs aboard a new two-dice-available Train Station.

Status Table

Player Coins Buildings Landmarks

Richard Smith 4 Wheat Field, Sushi Bar, Livestock Farm, Bakery, Café, Convenience Store, Flower Orchard, Forest, TV Station

City Hall, Harbour, Train Station

Roger Trethewey 5 Wheat Field, Sushi Bar, Bakery(2), Corn Field, Flower Orchard, French Restaurant, Flower Shop, Stadium

City Hall, Harbour, Train Station

Kevin Lee 0 Wheat Field, Livestock Farm, Bakery, Flower Orchard, French Restaurant, Flower Shop(2), Hamburger Stand(2)

City Hall, Harbour

Steve Ham 3 Wheat Field, Livestock Farm, Bakery, Café, Corn Field(2), Forest, Mine

City Hall, Train Station

The marketplace shifts away from eateries to secondary industry. Another Stadium becomes available.

For round eight, player order will be Steve, Richard, Roger, Kevin, and Steve. Remember that you each have a City

Hall, which will produce one coin (from the bank) on your turn if you have no coins at your Construction step. All

except Kevin may now roll two dice; remember that one die is the default if you do not specify how many die to roll.

For purposes of the corn fields, the City halls are starting cards and do not count as constructed landmarks. Roger's

Corn Field ceases productivity. Please tell me which establishment to construct from the current market place

(numbers in parentheses are the quantity on offer) [numbers in brackets are cost in coins]:

Sushi Bar (2) [4] Wheat Field (4) [1] Convenience Store (1) [2]

Corn Field (1) [2] Café (1) [2]

Soda Bottling Plant (1) [5]

Winery (1) [3] Apple Orchard (1) [3] Tuna Boat (1) [5] Furniture Factory (2) [3]

Stadium (1) [6] Business Complex (1) [8]


#84

The Universe is a Pink Blancmange Called Simon A subzine by Richard Smith – [email protected]

4th March 2018

So, the “Beast From The East” has invaded our shores. This issue’s picture shows shoppers queuing outside

Tesco’s for a loaf of bread. It was of course my fault for going to the DIY store recently to buy gardening stuff for spring.

Here in the deep south we did get a day and a half of “proper snow” which is a lot more than the usual three flakes. I did end up working from home for one day, thanks to the wonders of modern technology I was able to

connect to the office network via VPN using a mobile phone app that gives me a “BMS Token”.

I have shied away from mentioning sport in the last few issues as my football team, the once high-flying Saints,

are having a lean time at the moment. I’m hoping doing well in the FA Cup will help shake off the malaise that sees them sleepwalking to relegation in the Premier League.

England’s southern hemisphere cricket tour has been a long one with mixed fortunes in test, 50-over and T20.

I have heard that it is a false perception that there are fewer away wins in test cricket these days, England ’s failure to win any against Australia was more down to inconsistent form than the conditions IMHO. Much better

in the one-dayers though only one T20 win is a bit surprising.

The recent athletics indoor championships have been entertaining but marred by too many disqualifications. No

drug taking reported this time so it looks like their all stepping on lines instead of snorting them.

On the games front I am planning to turn my attentions back to a spot of RR Map design. The rude

placenames map in its current form is too similar geographically to the Crets map, so I’m planning a bit of a redesign. Not much else in the pipeline as the subzine is currently a bit on the large side given my rather slow

GMing capabilities, so I’m going to let some games finish before offering any more.

Richard

Originating from the Greek “chion” meaning snow, and “phobos” for fear, the word Chionophobia

is used to describe the condition of being afraid of snow. It is often thought that the fear stems

from childhood events such as a sledding accident or being hit by a snowball and symptoms

include cold sweats and panic attacks.


Crystal Ball

2018 – Winter Wonderland

Sport Event Date Richard Smith

Martin Walker

Jim Reader

Brendan Whyte

Steve Ham

John Walker

Arthur Owen

Bob Pitman

Tennis Australian Open - Ladies Singles winner (1st Wozniacki 2nd Halep)

Jan Garbine Muguruza

Garbine Mugaraza

Johana Konta

Venus Williams

Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Winter Sports

Winter Olympics - USA medals* (23)

Feb 25 (1)

21 (1)

19 24 (1)

37 33 23 (2)

28

Cycling UCI World Track - GB total medals** (6)

Mar 5 (1)

3 6 (2)

5 (1)

4 5 (1)

6 (2)

5 (1)

US Masters - winner

April Jordan Spieth

Jason Day

Henrik Stenson

Jason Day

Dustin Johnson

Jordan Spieth

Tiger Woods

Dustin Johnson

IIHF World Championships - winner

May Canada Canada United States

USA Canada Canada Canada Russia Sweden (-1)

Basket ball

NBA - winner June Golden State Warriors

Boston Celtics

Cleveland Cavaliers

Boston Celtics

Golden State Warriors



Cleveland Cavaliers

Football (soccer)

World Cup - Winner

July England Spain France France Belgium Germany France Germany

Athletics Euro Champs - GB total medals ***

Aug 14 10 12 10 12 20 12 17

Aussie Rules

AFL Final winner

Sept Great Western Sydney

Sydney Swans

Geelong Cats

Carlton Sydney Swans

Great Western Sydney

Great Western Sydney

Adelaide Crows

Baseball World Series winner

Oct LA Dodgers

NY Yankees

Cleveland Indians

USA New York Yankees

LA Dodgers

LA Dodgers

Houston Astros

Field Hockey

Men’s World Cup winner

Nov Australia Germany Pakistan India Argentina Australia Australia Australia

Formula 1

Winning constructor

Late Nov

Ferrari Mercedes Ferrari Red Bull Mercedes Mercedes Ferrari Red Bull

Score 2 1 2 2 0 1 4 0

Tie Breaker

Average house price in UK, September 2018 ****

Late Nov

£244,001 £235,000 £238,000 £249,000 £232,001 £251,001 £230,009 £252,000

* 2 points for exact, 1 point for within 3 ** 2 points for exact, 1 point for within 1 *** 2 points for exact, 1 point for within 2 (Track and Field events in Berlin only) **** according to HPI https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-house-price-index-summary-august-2017/uk-house-price-index-summary-august-2017

For the first event, nobody chose Caroline Wozniacki or Simona Halep who fought out a gruelling final in

sweltering conditions in Australia http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/42844093

The Winter Olympics was good fun and Team GB managed a best ever 5 medals, as for the USA, their tally

might have been more but for the Olympic athletes from Russia “team” getting 17. Arthur scores 2 for a bang on with three others getting 1 point for being within 3.

Cycling: A gold for Archibald and Nelson in the women’s “madison” (an event that will be contested in the 2020

Olympics) to take GB’s medal total to 6. On the final day the men’s madisoners missed out by 1 point on scoring a 7th medal that would’ve cost six of us a point. Jim off the mark with 2 and Arthur moves clear with 4.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-house-price-index-summary-august-2017/uk-house-price-index-summary-august-2017

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-house-price-index-summary-august-2017/uk-house-price-index-summary-august-2017

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/42844093


Richard Smith’s House of Games - Round 2

This is a postal version of the popular BBC TV show “Richard

Osman’s House of Games” which features a number of different games in each episode – often a little offbeat or silly.

Just like the TV show, in the postal version, there are five rounds

and the last one is worth double points. In each postal round

there are two games to enter, each containing four questions. Unlike the TV show, in the postal version, you aren't told what

the rules are to any of the games (but the title might help). More at http://variablepig.org/rules/houseofgames.html

Game 3 was arguably a little too straightforward for HoG: Stickman drawings intended to be a rather ropey

attempt at Pictionary (perhaps by a child or a drunk adult at Christmas) for movies with a named decade. The

first was an Italian flag and a bus teetering on a cliff representing a famous scene in The Italian Job. The second picture was an attempt to illustrate the well-known “we’re gonna need a bigger boat” quote from Jaws.

The third one was Bill and Ted in a phone box, and finally an attempt to depict the bizarre storyline (from a 1958 Robert A. Heinlein short story) of the recent sci-fi flick Predestination. Chris was the only one to get

Predestination, other (reasonable) guesses were Terminator Genisys and The Time Traveller’s Wife.

Game 4 would have been harder if the title was less revealing. The answers being something which when

followed by “and” goes with both words in the clue.

Game # Answer Guessed by

3: Flicksionary 9 The Italian Job (1969) BW, JW, BP, BG

10 Jaws (1975) JW, BP

11 Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) JW, BP

12 Predestination (2014) CH

4: Andy Pandy 13 Gilbert (and) BW, JW, BP

14 Cut (and) BW, JW, BP

15 Rough (and) BW, JW, BP

16 Adam (and) BW, JW, BP, BG

Scores: Bob Pitman: 10, John Walker: 10, Brendan Whyte: 9, Chris Hibbert: 7, Bob Gingell: 5, Brad Martin: 3.

For round 3, we have a very nerdy game 5 and a more sensible game 6.

GAME 5: Damerau-Levenshtein 17) Loki / Derby -> Spurs -> Hull -> Derby (ed = 2)

18) H Granger / E Einstein (ed = 3)

19) A Huberman / Fanny & A (ed = 3)

20) Bilbo / God (ed = 3)

GAME 6: Stating The Obvious 21) Randy Ferrari

22) Michener Spiteri

23) Gulf Road

24) Guthrie Gibb

http://variablepig.org/rules/houseofgames.html


Fragments - Round 2

Rules at http://variablepig.org/rules/fragments.html

This is an all-reader game, anyone can join in anytime, and it’s the categories variant: You have to guess the thing rather than the year. Remember you can ask for the category OR a word analysis for ONE fragment. For

the rest (or all the fragments if you choose not to ask for a category or analysis) it has to be a guess or request to reveal a letter (by position or ask for a named letter “I’ll have a P please Bob”).

Analysis requests: Fragment 2 (John W, Bob P); Fragment 4 (Bob G) - word breakdowns sent by email. Category requests: Fragment 3 (Chris H) - category sent by email

Guesses: None Revealed letters: players’ requests revealed first, then 10% of the remaining unknown letters.

One player’s revelation request resulted in no letters being exposed (which is informative to some extent) and

some players chose the same letter. When this happens there is no reserve action, the letter is exposed and

that’s it. One category request (can be very helpful in this variant) but no guesses yet, maybe next time.

Scores (number of analysis or category requests in brackets): Brendan Whyte: 0 (0), Chris Hibbert: 0 (2), John Walker: 0 (2), Bob Pitman: 0 (2), Bob Gingell: 0 (2)

1) ****a tC*r* **i*s ****v **t** m***i **po* ***** f***u **sc* *d*m* ***** *l**u ****w e** (73) 8 points

2) *ha** yi*** ***st *r*** h*h** *f**r o*gh* *** (38) 8 points 3) ***** a***n ***** *gS** ****B *o*** **d** *e*** *m*** ***nd ***f* ***** *i*** ***u* ***e (74) 9 points 4) D**c* ***** **fa* ***** ***i* a**** ****y s**** ***w* r**** ****h **h** ***** u***C E (71) 9 points 5) **m** ***** t**** ***g* ***** ***** ***** B**** ***** ****o * (51) 10 points 6) ***** et*** ***** ****u ***** ***** w**** ***** *p*** ***** *y*** **** (59) 10 points

Snakes and Ladders – Round 10 No square got the required three trapdoor votes (100 got 2). Next round Tom

will be able to finish come what may (see below), so it seems the rest of you

are playing for silver and bronze. The next postal turn is doubler, though it is expected that the game will be over at the end of round 11.

I have now updated the rules http://variablepig.org/rules/snakes.html based on

the improved FWTDR rules and some other tweaks. They don’t come into effect

yet, so regarding the victory conditions....

http://variablepig.org/rules/fragments.html

http://variablepig.org/rules/snakes.html


FWTDR rules: "The winner is the first player to end a turn on or beyond space 100". Statement in TUIAPBCS

turn report: "The game will end on the round when at least one player lands on or goes past square 100".

Using my statement, you don't land on square 100 if it is TDd, but if square 101+ is your destination and it is

TDd, you have already passed square 100, so it doesn't matter. Using the FWTDR rules, if trapdoors above 100 are allowed you would not meet the victory criteria of "ending you turn on or beyond space 100"

I will reveal the map layout next time, providing the game does finish as expected.

Golden Strider - Tarnished Variant - Round 5

Rules for the game are here http://variablepig.org/rules/golden.html. This includes the main game and the Tarnished rules which are slightly different from

those published in VP160 (I won’t reveal the owners of the runners, nor will I

show move cards or overtakes in the turn report). Please note that this is a 68-square race.

The rules are experimental and there is some game theory element.

P S Runner

1= 15 Auld Fahrt

2= 14 Dopey Dappy

3= 12 Tess T'Osterone

3= 12 Cheaty McCheatface

3= 12 Druggy McDrugface

6 11 Roy D. Rage

7 7 Di Leyted

Things remain quiet as there is a little jockeying for position (some small overtaking penalties) but nobody

making a break as yet and nothing suspicious to report. Dappy moves up onto Fahrt’s shoulder whilst Rage

drops back a little into a good buttock-checking position. Di Leyted makes a little effort to catch up but is still some way behind the pack.

Overtaking penalties as well as replacement cards are reported privately by email - do shout if you think I’ve

made a mistake. We wouldn’t want anyone falsely accused of drug-taking now would we?

Love Letter – Round 8

Postal and F2F rules here http://variablepig.org/rules/loveletter.html Each player receives an email with 6 hands of one card and 2 hands of 2

cards. For the 2-card hands the player must choose one to play / discard and one to keep. No action on the other hands.

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11

Brendan 0 1 4 8 46 52 58 24 54 58

Chris 0 21 22 28 33 66 70 75 81 84

Conrad 21 4 10 8 46 50 54 60 63 64

John 0 0 21 22 28 32 66 25 27 33

Judy 1 0 21 26 28 34 66 25 54 56

Roger 4 6 9 15 20 21 27 10 46 51

Tom 0 0 21 27 28 32 66 70 94 96

http://variablepig.org/rules/golden.html

http://variablepig.org/rules/loveletter.html


Just one suitor gets the push this time, in Hand 8 Roger comes a cropper to Tom’s guard, resulting in the latter

claiming his first token. In the F2F game a draw is not possible, but it could happen here. We’ll skate over

exactly how the princess divides her affections between the victors.

To clarify the “cards left” column: If the cards in a particular game are exhausted at the end of a turn, the winner is the suitor with the highest face-down card, and if that is a tie then it’s down to total played card

values. The value represents the state in which the card for the new round has just been drawn, so if zero it’s

the final round (and the spare card is used if the Prince is played). If 1, there will be another round unless the Prince is played.

Cards

Left*

R8 Jim Tom Roger John R9 Jim Tom Roger John

- Hand 1 (4)(3)(1) (2)(1) (1)(5) (2)(1)(6) Hand 1 WIN OUT OUT OUT

0 Hand 2 (2)(2)(4) (5)(4)(1) 5 (1)(3) (1)(1) Hand 2 x OUT

- Hand 3 (4)(1) (1)(3)(5) (4)(1)(8) (3) Hand 3 WIN OUT OUT OUT

2 Hand 4 (1)(7) (4)(1) (2)(5) 1 (1)(3)(8) Hand 4 OUT x OUT

1 Hand 5 (1)(3)(1) 4 (5)(2) (3)(1) (4)(2) Hand 5 OUT x

2 Hand 6 (3)(5)(6) (1)(2)(8) (1)(4) 1 (1) Hand 6 x OUT OUT

1 Hand 7 (4)(1) (1)(7)(1) (4)(5) 1 (2)(3) Hand 7 x OUT

3 Hand 8 (1) (1)(2) (3)(6)(2) (1)(4) 3 Hand 8 OUT WIN OUT OUT

Key: 1= Guard, 2= Spy, 3=Baron, 4=Handmaid, 5=Prince, 6=King, 7=Countess, 8=Princess

* Not including the spare card removed at the start (for final round Prince if needed) Hand 2: Tom plays the Prince on himself, discarding the Guard and drawing a new card.

Hand 4: Roger plays a Guard against Tom and guesses that he has a Handmaid - he does not. Hand 5: Jim plays a Handmaid.

Hand 6: Roger plays a Guard against Jim and guesses that he has a Baron - he does not.

Hand 7: Roger plays a Guard against Jim and guesses that he has a Spy - he does not. Hand 8: Tom plays a Guard against John and guesses that he has the Prince- he does and is OUT!

Another small correction - Tom spotted a missing Baron on Jim’s discard pile (was in my GM document but missing from turn report). See also clarification of cards left column.

Handmaids currently protect: Hand 2: Jim; Hand 5: Jim;

Next postal turn: Jim gets the final play on Hand 2, as the other hands near conclusion (5 and 7 could also end if a Prince is played). Once again the vagaries of the hand rotation result in a player (Roger) having no cards to

play.

Seven Wonders with Babel, Leaders and Cities – Turn Six RULES: The rules (postal and F2F) are available here http://variablepig.org/rules/wonders.html

For details of the wonders see issue 160 (also included in email handouts to players).

THIS TURN: The great project is completed, but no new wonders are constructed or Babel tiles deployed. Instead players boost their scores with gold coins, science and civil buildings.

SEATING: I’ve added “east” an “west” for further clarity.

LEFT (WEST) NEIGHBOUR PLAYER RIGHT (EAST) NEIGHBOUR

Mike Townsend: Antiocheia TONY BAYELY OLYMPUS Brad Martin: Rhodes

Tony Bayley: Olympus BRAD MARTIN: RHODES Kevin Lee: Stonehenge

Brad Martin: Rhodes KEVIN LEE: STONEHENGE Chris Hibbert Nenue

Kevin Lee: Stonehenge CHRIS HIBBERT: NENUE Mike Townsend: Antiocheia

Chris Hibbert Nenue MIKE TOWNSEND: ANTIOCHEIA Tony Bayley: Olympus

BABEL TILES: Up to four tiles active (fifth one placed covers the first, and so on)

http://variablepig.org/rules/wonders.html


8: The construction of civil buildings via resources is forbidden.

Their construction requires a number of coins equal to the number of resources

present in their construction cost. These coins are paid to the bank.

Note: construction of civil cards via chains remains possible and free.

Example: The Pantheon costs 6 coins or requires the Temple to be built via a chain.

12. The purchase of basic commodities from neighbours costs 1 coin more.

The extra coin is added to the fee after any other adjustments are applied, such as rebates from the Marketplace, the Trading Posts, and the Clandestine Docks.

CARDS PLAYED:

TONY:

Age 2 R2: Build Caravanesery (cost 2 wood, 1 own resource, 1 from Bilkis for 1 coin) +1 basic resource

Age 2 R3: Build Laboratory (cost 2 clay, 1 papyrus, all own resources) + 1G, buy sewer network token (cost 2 coins)

Money: 11 - 1 - 2 + 2 = 10

BRAD: Age 2 R2: Build Gambling House (cost 1 coin) +9 coins, Tony and Kevin +2 coins

Age 2 R3: Build Foundry (cost 1 coin) + 2 ore

Money: 8 - 1 + 9 - 1 = 17

KEVIN: Age 2 R2: Build Courthouse (cost 3 coins) + 4VP

Age 2 R3: Build Brickyard (cost 1 coin) + 2 Clay

Money: 7 - 3 + 2 - 1 + 4 = 9

CHRIS: Age 2 R2: Build Dispensary (no cost via chain) +1C

Age 2 R3: Build Laboratory (cost 2 clay, 1 papyrus, first clay own resource, second 3 coins [+1 Babel 12] from Kevin, papyrus 1 coin from Kevin (via Marketplace) + 1G

Money: 10 - 3 - 1 = 6

MIKE:

Age 2 R2: Build Vineyard (no cost, +1 coin per brown in own or neighbouring cities = 4 * 2 for wonder power = 8)

Age 2 R3: Build Courthouse (cost 3 coins) + 4VP

Money: 2 + 8 - 3 = 7

SCOREBOARD:

Player Wonders Leaders Military Babel Cards Science Guilds Gold** Total Tony 3 2 0 0 1 1 0 3 10 Brad 3 0 0 5 2 1 0 5 16 Kevin 1 0 -1 0 4 1 0 3 8 Chris 0 0 -1 0 6 13 0 2 20 Mike 0 3 2 0 12 0 0 4 21

** Including boosts from Leaders / Wonders / Guilds


STATUS TABLE:

Player Wonder (Stages)

Leaders G M (T)

P Cards Production*

Tony Olympus B

Ares = +1MIL +3VP

Bilkis (buy 1

resource from bank for 1 gold)

Sappho (+2VP)

10 1

1 Tavern Clay Pit

Residence Lumber Yard Ore Vein Loom Forum

Caravansery Laboratory (G)

1 stone 1 wood

1 clay / ore 1 ore 1 cloth

1 cloth / glass / papyrus

1 wood / stone

/ ore / clay

Brad Rhodes B

1) +1MIL

+3VP

Leonidas (red

buildings 1

resource off)

17 1

(+1

-1)

1 Stone Pit Lumber Yard

Tavern Timber Yard

Altar Library (T) Gambling Den Foundry

1 ore

1 stone

1 wood 1 stone / wood

2 ore

Kevin Stonehenge B 1) +1 VP per

stone on brown (=1)

Hatshepsut (1 coin from bank when

buying from neighbour)

Tomyris (send back defeat tokens)

9 0 (-1)

1 East Trading Post Forest Cave Excavation Ore

Vein Glassworks Press Dispensary (C)

Courthouse Brickyard

1 wood 1 wood / ore

1 stone / clay 1 ore 1 glass

1 papyrus 2 clay

Chris Nenue B

1) Free black card (taken)

Caligula (build 1

black card per age with no cost)

Croesus (+6 coins)

6 0

(-1)

1 Marketplace Gambling

Den Clay Pool Gates Of The City Theatre

Apothecary (C) School

(T) Dispensary (C) Laboratory (G)

1 cloth

1 clay

Mike Antiocheia B 1) yellow

cards x2 coins

Midas (+1 VP per 3 coins at end)

Nebuchadnezzar

(+1 VP per blue)

7 3 (+1

+1)

0 West Trading Post Militia Baths Guard Tower

Aqueduct Vineyard

Courthouse

1 stone

* production that cannot be purchased (e.g. from yellow cards or wonders) is marked with an asterisk. Science symbols C = Compass; G = Gears; T = Tablet

GREAT PROJECT (AGE 2):

Sewer Network is the Great Project for Age 2. When you construct a green

building you may also buy a participation token in Sewer Network

at the cost of 2 coins. This payment is in addition to the cost of the building.

If, at the end of the age, all 4 tokens are sold, the project is a success and

all contributors get one “construct for free” (CFF) chit (when constructing a

building a player can hand in a CFF in

lieu of payment) per token. If the project is a failure, all players with no

participation tokens lose one red building. If they can’t they get -2VP.

TOKENS PURCHASED: Tony 1, Brad 1, Kevin 1, Chris 1, Mike 0. All sold.

ORDERS REQUIRED: The Great Project for Age 2 is a success. The Babel board (4 wedges) has two wedges filled. Each player receives (by email) details of his unplayed leader cards and Babel tiles plus two sets of 7 age

2 cards. Orders for Age 2 R4 and Age 2 R5 with reserve card. Card passing order. Tony -> Mike; Brad -> Tony; Kevin -> Brad; Chirs -> Kevin; Mike -> Chris.


Postal Three Handed Chicago Bridge – Round 3

The game is for three players. Three hands are played

simultaneously. http://variablepig.org/rules/threehandbridge.html

Hand 1: Nobody vulnerable, player 1 is dealer (S). Hand 2: Anyone who made a contract in hand 1 is vulnerable,

player 2 is dealer (S).

Hand 3: Everyone is vulnerable, player 3 is dealer (S).

Player 1: Roger Trethewey (hand 1: S, hand 2: N, hand 3: W) Player 2: Tom Howell (hand 1: W, hand 2: S, hand 3: N)

Player 3: Chris Hibbert (hand 1: N, hand 2: W, hand 3: S)

First Bidding Round:

HAND 1: Roger (S) bids 1C; Tom (W) bids 1H; Chris (N) bids 1D HAND 2: Tom (S) passes; Chris (W) bids 1D; Roger (N) bids 3H

HAND 3: Chris (S) bids 1D; Roger (W) bids 1NT; Tom (N) passes

Second Bidding Round:

HAND 1: Roger (S) bids 3C; Tom (W) bids 2H; Chris (N) passes HAND 2: Tom (S) passes; Chris (W) passes; Roger (N) passes (3H carried forward)

HAND 3: Chris (S) bids 2D; Roger (W) passes; Tom (N) passes

First Play Round: Opening leads have been chosen, and dummies exposed....

HAND 1: Roger is declarer in 3C, Tom leads D6.

HAND 2: Roger is declarer in 3H, Tom to leads DA.

HAND 3: Chris is declarer in 2D,

Roger leads H3.

Dummy

6 4 2

K J 4

A Q 7 2

9 7 6

TOM CHRIS

6 ROGER

Dummy

A K Q 10

A 8 4 2

J 7 4

10 3

TOM CHRIS

A

ROGER

Dummy

A J 6 4

K J 4

A 10 8 7

9 6

ROGER TOM

3

CHRIS

In hand 1, the dummy looks OK with three trumps and 10HCP. In hand 2, the dummy looks really good with four trumps and 14HCP (and super spades!).

In hand 3, the dummy looks great with four trumps and 13HCP.

Second Play Round: For each hand, the declarer needs to supply his strategy which I will implement as best

I can. Same goes for the defenders (who are not allowed to collude). Declarers and defenders also have the option to call “computer” and my Bridge software will do its best / worst on your behalf.

If anyone needs a reminder of their hands, I’ll be happy to supply this by email.

Comments also welcome - I do wonder if random hands (what I have used) is the best option. Perhaps random with a redeal if certain conditions are not met (such as ensuring all three players get at least one decent hand).

In this game the strong dummies may have stifled bidding, and could well give the declarers an easy ride. Perhaps after the first bidding round the GM could publish a (natural) response from dummy to each bid - this

wouldn’t be part of the auction but would instead be informative to all.

http://variablepig.org/rules/threehandbridge.html


Theme Crossword #42305

The theme is somewhat UK-centric but still gettable by all. All the answers belong to the theme but some have

been broken up into pieces. The clues are standard cryptic fare, and as usual are much easier when the theme is known.

VARIABLE PIG (ASKAI BLACK PIED)

Polar Pig 166 on-the-shelf vol XVI, no 35 The Universe…84

JIM (CJ) READER, TOM HOWELL RICHARD SMITH, jim_reader”of”hotmail.com off-the-shelf”of”olympus.net richard530smith"of"btinternet.com

Jim Reader is the editor. Richard Smith does the printing and distribution from the UK. Back issues of the zine and most game rules are avalable from the website http://www.variablepig.org. Variable Pig also has a Mailing List primarily for announcements. Send a blank email to [email protected] to join (posting address [email protected]). Variable Pig is free but donations of British stamps or a PayPal transfer (to Richard's email) are welcomed.

PIG WAITING LISTS TEA DANCE – Arthur Owen and Roger Trethewey; 1 more wanted (Polar Pig) WORK, REST AND PLAY – Arthur Owen. 2 more wanted (Polar Pig) DER FUHRER – John Walker, Howard Bishop, Jonathan Amery and Arthur Owen; 1 – 2 more wanted (Polar Pig) SNOWBALL FIGHTING – Arthur Owen, Bob Gingell and Andy York. 2 - 3 more wanted (Polar Pig) FAIR MEANS OR FOUL – John Walker, Brendan Whyte and Arthur Owen. 2- 3 wanted (Polar Pig) BREAKING AWAY –Arthur Owen, Steve Ham, Allan Stagg and John Walker. 2 more wanted. (Polar Pig) RAILWAY RIVALS –Brendan Whyte (Polar Pig). PUERTO RICO – Allan Stagg, John Walker, Richard Smith. 1 – 2 more wanted (Polar Pig) BUS BOSS – Cyprus Map. 3 wanted. (Polar Pig) BACKPACKS AND BLISTERS – Steve Ham, Brendan Whyte, John Walker, Bob Gingell and Arthur Owen. 1 more wanted but game will start next issue (Polar Pig) ORIGINS OF WWI – Arthur Owen, Brendan Whyte, John Marsden (on-the shelf) 1830 – Brad Martin, Jonathan Amery 2 – 6 wanted (on-the shelf) WHERE IN THE WORLD IS KENDO NAGASAKI? – Game underway but more can join in (on-the-shelf) THREE-HANDED CHICAGO BRIDGE – Brendan Whyte, John Marsden. 1 more wanted (The Universe) RICHARD SMITH’S HOUSE OF GAMES - All reader - anyone can join in (The Universe) FRAGMENTS - All reader - anyone can join in (The Universe)

THE DEADLINE FOR VARIABLE PIG (PALAWAN BEARDED PIG) is

Friday 6th April 2018

The Palawan bearded pig is a species of pig endemic to the Southern Philippine islands of Balabac, Palawan, and the Calamian Islands. They range in size from 1 to 1.6 metres in length, about 1 metre tall and weigh up to 150 kilograms. It was considered a subspecies of the Bornean bearded pig but has recently been classified as a separate species. Your GM did not see any during his visit to Palawan many, many years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javan_warty_pig

http://www.variablepig.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balabac

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamian_Islands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subspecies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bornean_bearded_pig

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Variable Pig