Kobold Curry Chef

@koboldcurrychef

Old gamer: Traveller, Cosmic Encounter, 18xx, Advanced Squad Leader, Race For The Galaxy, Dominion, and many many others. Why a curry chef? That's a long story. (Finally, sorry but not a furry.)

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Bluesky

gamer

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir koboldcurrychef.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· 15d

I have yet to see The Odyssey. When this wayward traveler finally came home today, though, one overly extended journey at last came to an end.

A Very Civil Whist, which I backed a Very Long Time Ago, and was Very Much Delayed getting to American shores.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· 15d

Almost.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· 25d

Update:

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· 26d

Woke up to a bizarre billing alert on my personal, dormant AWS account. Turns out it is a code error on the AWS side (health.aws.amazon.com/health/status). That being said, it's always a great idea to spend a few minutes reviewing your login security and billing there.

Cost and usage overview

Total cost
$16,504,528,011.00

*insert Doctor Evil meme here*

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· 26d

There are several more feet of what used to be a sailboat in the back there, under the green.

(Not my boat.

Well, by law, it is…now.

But, like all mortal creations, the earth has claimed it.)

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jul 9

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jul 5

My wife and I had our annual July 4th game of Washington's War by @markherman54.bsky.social & @gmtgames.bsky.social. We were a bit rusty, since our last annual game was in 2023. As the British, I got every bit of luck, making the game a bit anticlimactic, but we still had a great time.

Washington's War, birds-eye view, in the turn for the year 1777. At this early stage, the Continentals still held sway over the affections of the colonies, but the British were so well stocked with 3 OP cards that it didn't last very long.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jul 3

Show me a cool physical game

Cosmic Encounter, the best boardgame of all time.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jun 13

I have been picking through this all too slowly this spring, kind of a bookend to your post:

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, written by Peter Hopkirk

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jun 6

xkcd.com/3255/ I am, this moment, running an experiment to test this hypothesis. So far, the data supports it.

First-hand evidence, gathered by yours truly, showing the existence of water on the surface of a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone.

(View from the hotel balcony in Roseburg, Oregon, looking out over the Umpqua River, lazily flowing between lines of tall green trees. Wooded hills in the distance, fluffy clouds in a blue sky, and a cute downtown nestled amongst it all.)

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· May 23

Almost home. Time to buckle down and face all which awaits.

Foggy Golden Gate Bridge, looking from our balcony on the cruise ship.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· May 13

The hell with this whole real world bullshit. For the next 10 days, I’m outta here…

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· May 11

My first HASL campaign is done! Hatten in Flames. After maybe 50 hours of play, it came down to one hex, one Close Combat in hex K20. Of course! Germans won all scenarios, but lost the campaign. Baseball!!

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Apr 15

Playing the ASL Hatten In Flames short campaign, I’m starting to get why larger battles and scenarios appeal to people. It’s cumbersome on the tabletop, but the added scope adds a narrative weight and impact that smaller scenarios can’t quite equal.

Advanced Squad Leader, Hatten In Flames map, covering most of my folding table. It has dozens of counters arrayed on the battlefield.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Apr 13

A friend of ours hosts a mini-convention at her home for each of her birthdays. I only got to attend for a couple of hours this time, but played a new game. The White Castle, a dice-drafting, dice-placing, action-chaining, mostly-random-selection-of-action-spaces thing. See image alt for more.

The box cover of the boardgame The White Castle, which has a painting of the famous white castle of Japan in the winter.

This photo shows the action board, which has a lot of random things on it. On the left is the "garden" area, which has three bridges. Each bridge has five dice which get rolled every round. The center has the "castle" area, which gives actions. The actions are all on cards, and change every time you place a worker on that area. The upper right is where samurai go. The bottom has some generic actions. Only the two on the bottom right have actions that never change from game to game, minute to minute.

The lower left of the photo has my player board as the game starts. There are tracks for four different resources, warehouses for three kinds of worker meeples, and a place for cards for my "personal domain" action. Again, this action will be different from game to game, and turn to turn.

You can't plan much in advance in The White Castle. You may as well just browse your phone in between turns. But it's kind of fun.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Apr 7

Best Star Trek crew. Wrong answers only

Clockwise, from upper left: communications officer Lt. Tarlek; Capt. Carlsen; chief science officer Mr. Trap; Dr. Fever; Ensign Marlowe; five-time winner of the Buckeye Newshawk Award, as well as winner of the Silver Sow Award and Copper Cob Award, news director Les Nessman; chief engineer Commander Travis; Adm. Quarters.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Apr 4

Taking a day off work. Hanging out where @dundracon.bsky.social used to be. The bar staff there remembers us, and misses the convention goers. Mega Civilisation is a special event always, but doing it here is even better.

Mega Empires (aka MegaCivilization), 4-player match on the East board. Persia is purple, Parthia brown, Kushan is dark red, Indus is green.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Feb 22

AD&D again? This never happens.

A nice green table with dice and AD&D books on it.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Feb 21

My @dundracon.bsky.social run of John Company was successful, with a full table of eager and engaged players. Let's see if I can summarize the action without a super long thread. This was the state of India at the end of turn 1. The storm die roll was '4,' which set the tone for the entire game. 1/

India is closed for business, with two or three exceptions. It's difficult for the Company to trade when India doesn't want to trade.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Feb 15

AD&D character sheet for “Mayhem,” a zero-level human with 17 CON, 18 CHA and a dagger. And 2 hit points.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jan 31

Describe your Bluesky account in a single image.

Black & white photo of a young boy squatting on the ground, playing with a toy battleship. A slightly older girl points a stick to the stern of the ship, perhaps issuing commands.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jan 27

So does Loretta!!

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jan 27

I want to reply "all the other Rick Barber maps," but that would be cheating! Liberty or Death from @gmtgames.bsky.social jumps to mind immediately.

Gorgeous gameboard for Liberty or Death, focused on the Carolinas.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jan 26

Away from yesterday’s horror, I bought some interesting books. My parents had The Making Of Star Trek in the early ‘70s. Very young me devoured every detail. The Great Game should expand on my sadly limited South Asian history education. The Kingfisher series is great gothic horror fun.

What Stalks The Deep, T. Kingfisher
The Making Of Star Trek, Stephen F. Whitfield & Gene Roddenberry
The Great Game: The Struggle For Empire In Central Asia, Peter Hopkirk

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jan 11

The Company faltered after that. Being shut out of trade, the Crown decided to Deploy into Bombay. Adding more to The Anarchy, prioritizing loot over profit or Indian lives. It was a last gasp before Company failure. The Crown didn't mind. They walked away from the carnage as victors.

The end of the game. Green is the Crown, with 18 points. Yellow is me, 3 points. India itself? The rules give them no score. They lose, whatever happens.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jan 11

Turn 3: an awful dilemma in Parliament. Crown was firmly against any tax, even if it meant turmoil that would totally close India for business, and starve thousands. As PM, I had to choose: spend all my money, save people, and lose ALL my VP, or...just not? Bloody hell, @colewehrle.bsky.social.

I kept the money and the VPs. India went dark. Very dark. All orders closed, no business possible...

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jan 11

Next month, at @dundracon.bsky.social, I will host a game of John Company. Today I did a solo game vs. the Crown to freshen my memory. It was interesting! I took the Prime Minister and Chairman to start. I like being in charge vs. the Crown.

John Company during Turn 1. Rulebook open, dice and pieces everywhere, India open for business.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Jan 3

The world is stupid today, and run by villains, but Monterey is an excellent refuge.

View of Lighthouse Drive, over blue-green waters, taken from our table at the restaurant.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Dec 26

Well, Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit is sure adding more neat stuff (via SSR). Basic Training Issue One features this scenario S105, Storm Group Sedelnikov, a Stalingrad meat grinder with several terrain features not normally available in SK!

A small ASL city map, showing German and Russians up close and personal before the game even begins. Shellhole, Rubble, and "Level 1" counters are seen here. These do not appear otherwise in the Starter Kit rules.

Kobold Curry Chef@koboldcurrychef· Dec 23

In the previous Age, before the pandemic changed everything, this was my go-to game. I have hundreds of plays logged of BGG. When @amysnotdeadyet.bsky.social, my main partner for this, moved due to the pandemic, it went into the closet. Giving it another whirl this morning, rather badly at that...