Team Tom

Still waiting for the Strat-O-Matic hockey rulebook to arrive, but I've been busy ranking the players based on my current understanding of the game stats. I hadn't been paying too much attention to the players' names up to this point, as the effort has been to achieve some sort of skill parity among the teams.  Now that I have a first cut of the rosters, however, I'm curious to see how the teams are taking shape and developing a bit of personality. I thought it was a little amusing when two players named Billy ended up on the same team -- both as forwards on the same line, in fact -- but then I have to admit that I cringed upon realizing that all three players named Thomas -- Tommy Dunderdale, Tommy Phillips, and Tom Hooper -- are all one team. That's 30% of the roster with the same name! 

Team Names

Strat-O-Matic is sending me the rulebook that was missing from my hockey game, so I should be able to get started with the planning for my first historical season. As I did with my nineteenth-century baseball league, I'll use the names of actual pre-modern teams. Here are the options on the table: Victorias, Shamrocks, Wanderers, Thistles, Bulldogs, Blueshirts, Millionnaires, Metropolitans, Cougars, Silver Kings, and Comets. (There was also a team called the Creamery Kings, but, well, that one just doesn't sound quite right.) I'll choose four from this list -- at the moment, I'm leaning toward Victorias, Wanderers, Thistles, and Bulldogs -- and then divvy up all the pre-NHL Hall of Famers among these four teams.

Strat Falls Flat

I was excited to receive my Strat-O-Matic hockey game, but disappointed to discover that it was...well...incomplete. Inside the box in which it was shipped, the game box itself was unsealed. Various components were stuffed inside, but without a parts list -- and, crucially, without any sort of instructions booklet -- I'm left wondering how much of the game I actually received.

However, I did get the player cards and confirmed that all my pre-NHL Hall of Famers were included, so I was able to get started with prep for my historical hockey league. Without the game rules, I don't really know how to interpret the stats on each card, but some of the more obvious bits are helping me understand who's better than whom. The four pre-NHL goalies, at least, were mercifully easy to rank from best to worst. That's the one position I absolutely need to get right, because the goaltender has such a huge impact on his team's success. Next up, I need to take the remaining players and split them up into defined positions (players tended to play a lot of different positions in those days) and then rank the players at each position so that I can draft four roughly equal teams.

Of course, ultimately I'll need the instructions too...

Aeronautica Models

I've finished building the models in the starter set for Aeronautica Imperialis, the new 40k game that simulates aerial dogfight combat. The set includes two Thunderbolt fighters and two Marauders bombers for the Imperial Navy, along with three Dakkajets and two Fighta Bommerz for the Orks. Tomorrow I'll prime them, and then chip away at the basecoating throughout the week. I picked up some great new paints at the GW store this afternoon, so I think these little guys should come out looking pretty spiffy.

Here's one of the Thunderbolts, built as a "Fury" variant with some heavier guns up front.

And now here's the same model alongside a Stormhawk Interceptor, which is at the standard 40k vehicle scale. These Aeronautica models are tiny indeed!

Hockey Hypocrisy

So, after railing against the Strat-O-Matic Hockey game a few months ago, I decided to order the game after all. The lure of creating a historical (pre-NHL) league -- akin to my nineteenth-century baseball league -- was just too strong. I don't even have the game in hand, and I've already set up a spreadsheet for tracking individual and league stats...

Halfway Point

We've hit the halfway point of my second season of nineteenth-century Strat-O-Matic baseball action. The Haymakers are way out in front with a record of 7-3 and a +8 run differential. The Blue Legs and Canaries are tied at 4-6, but while the Birds have a solid +3 differential, the Legs are sporting a woeful -11. The MVP race, meanwhile, is wide open. Last year, King Kelly dominated the league from start to finish, but this time around there are several in the running -- Dan Brouthers and Sam Crawford of the Blue Legs, Hugh Duffy and Ed Delahanty of the Canaries, and Jesse Burkett of the Haymakers. There's still a lot of baseball to played, however, so we'll see what happens in the second half!

Rube vs. Rube

It happened! In the latter stages of a wild, sloppy, 10-inning game, Rube Foster and Rube Waddell found themselves as opposing pitchers. Each faced the other once as a hitter, as well, and in both cases Rube grounded out weakly against Rube. In the end, Waddell's Haymakers hung on for the win to remain in first place as we near the halway point of the regular season.

Santorini

Nathaniel and I were killing time before Matthew's swim meet and found Santorini on sale at Walmart for only 17 bucks. We opened it up after the meet and played through the basic version of the game (without the Greek gods who have powers that impact workers' movement or building). Here's a snapshot of the city we ended up with...

Nathaniel was the winner of our first game, as should be clear from this photo.

The coolest moment was when Nathaniel trapped one of Matthew's workers in the corner and effectively removed that worker from the game!

Is This League Big Enough for Two Rubes?

Rube Waddell, meet Rube Foster.

With only 14 nineteenth-century pitchers in my (well, technically, Nathaniel's) Strat-O-Matic Hall of Fame set, one of the three teams in my old-timey league (the Haymakers) has had no choice but to get by with only four pitchers. Yesterday I was scouring some Negro Leagues data to see if any of those pitchers might have been active during the timeframe that I use as my eligibility requirement. After doing a bit of digging into who played in what league and when, I feel confident that Rube Foster fits the bill. Now this league has two players -- both pitchers, no less -- nicknamed "Rube".

The last-place Canaries got the first opportunity to sign this new player, but to do so they had to release a pitcher to get back down to five. Struggling starter Mickey Welch drew the short straw. Welch promptly re-signed with his old team, the Haymakers, who then traded spare starter Old Hoss Radbourn to the Blue Legs for hard-throwing but erratic reliever Amos Rusie. Now all three teams have five pitchers apiece, and I look forward to first time the two Rubes face each other!

Haymakers Making Hay

After a crushing loss in their first game of the season, the Haymakers have won three in a row and sit atop the standings of my little three-team league. The defending champion Blue Legs are treading water at 2-2, having scored the most runs in the league but having allowed the most as well. The Canaries are 1-3, with good pitching and mediocre hitting -- the same story as last season.

Play Ball!

Yesterday I started the second season of my nineteenth-century Strat-O-Matic baseball league. Opening Day featured a rematch of last season's finals, with the champion Blue Legs hosting the Haymakers. The Haymakers put men on base throughout the game, but Legs starter John Clarkson wriggled out of every jam, giving up a single unearned run in a complete-game effort. The Legs roughed up Haymaker hurlers Cy Young and Old Hoss Radbourn, with Sam Crawford's three-run homer the decisive blow in a 6-1 victory. Next up, the Blue Legs face Honus Wagner and the Canaries tonight!

Watch the Skies!

There's a new website for Aeronautica Imperialis. Between this game and the upcoming release of the Adepta Sororitas army, it seems that Games Workshop is going to be getting a lot of my money this fall!

More News on Aeronautica Imperialis

Click here for the latest details on Aeronautica Imperialis, the upcoming aerial combat miniatures game set in the Warhammer 40k universe.

And the winner is...Tennis?!

Of the 20 Atari games that came preloaded on our mini-console, I'm suprised to report that RealSports Tennis holds up the best. Even 35 years after it first came out, it's simple, elegant, and fun!

Feuding Dragons

So the XFL is coming back (let's go, Guardians!) and D&D is playfully going after the newly-minted Seattle Dragons. Given the XFL's track record, however, I'm betting on D&D to be the last dragon standing in Seattle...

Free RPG Day News

It feels like kind of a slow time for RPG news (I haven't mentioned an upcoming D&D sourcebook featuring a setting I don't like, but I'll definitely end up buying the book for the official artificer class), so I'm scraping around for any interesting tidbits. Here's an interview with the new owner of Free RPG Day. The fact that Free RPG Day has an owner was news to me, but the really cool part is that the new ownership group includes Millennium Games -- hands-down the best game store in the entire world!

Retro Fun

With the new Atari VCS coming in early 2020, I thought it might be fun to introduce the boys to the wonderful world of Atari gaming, so I picked up one of those cheapo mini-consoles that comes pre-loaded with Atari 2600 games. Nathaniel really digs the retro vibe, but I don't think Matthew can get past the forty-year-old graphics and sound. For my part, I've enjoyed revisiting old favorites like Adventure and Asteroids, hidden gems like Crystal Castles and Gravitar, and a few I'd never even heard of, like Secret Quest and Double Dunk. We'll definitely need to poke around online for the manuals, however, as it's not really obvious how to play some of these games; I mean, the original 2600 controllers had only one button, but the controller that came with our mini-console has nine!

Atari Art

I'm back in good old WNY for some time off, and it's been a bit of an artsy-fartsy visit thus far. I enjoyed seeing the Rembrandt, the two Monet pieces, and many other great works at Rochester's Memorial Art Gallery, and now I'm working my way through Art of Atari, a fascinating visual history of the pioneering video game company. I'd highly recommend it for any fellow Gen-Xers who grew up on the 2600!

Aeronautica Imperialis

So, yeah, Games Workshop just found another way to get my money. Check this out -- it's like X-Wing, but set in the 40k universe!

Eagles Take Flight

The upstart Elmira Eagles have won the Stanley Cup -- well, in our Xbox game, anyway! After dropping the first game of the Cup Finals to the Vegas Golden Knights in an overtime heartbreaker, we reeled off four straight wins. The last game featured an amazing comeback in which we found ourselves in a two-goal hole just moments into the game, only to rally for the victory. In one frantic sequence midway through the game, the Nathaniel character (our goalie) made three spectacular point-blank saves on Vegas's top scorer to preserve our narrow lead. When the game ended, Matthew's character took the Conn Smythe trophy for playoff MVP after leading the league in scoring and penalty minutes!