And On the Sixth Day, God Created.. FRIDAY!!.. And There Was Much Gaming.

[BanzaiCat]

I went to my woobie last night - Civ V with all the trimmings. I'm pushing 500 hours now on that game and still love it.

Really need to pull out Field Commander Alexander - I just pulled it out of my 'game bag' and put it on my desk next to me as a reminder. :)

[Greybriar]

After purchasing about a dozen games on sale here and there, I finally used my $5 Amazon credit towards the $7.50 purchase price of Spooky Bonus. It's back up to $9.99 now and the Editor's Choice special has ended, but Spooky Bonus is a cute little time killer that I spent a few hours playing last night.

What other games does the weekend hold in store for me? I still cannot answer that question.

[mikeck]

Lol..dude, the only board games I play are chutes and ladders and Candyland with my kids. I can't get any of my friends to do anything longer than 10 minutes...can't imagine
Trying to get them to sit down and play a complex tactical wargame

[MengJiao]

I'm waiting to see if Meng is gonna have another baby this weekend. In the mean time, still trying to get up a mountain in CMFI and Lydia and I just found a wrecked ship on the coast in Skyrim, so I just got to see what's inside. And some wings, drinks and football Sunday.

Two kids is enough.  After a morning of pirating operations run by a girl of nearly 4 years of age (lots of maps, dangerous crabs, plenty of feeding the crew to the sharks for pooping in their pants, a special invitation for Archie Combolopoop who lives on Martin Helens Beach), yes.

[Nefaro]

Lol..dude, the only board games I play are chutes and ladders and Candyland with my kids. I can't get any of my friends to do anything longer than 10 minutes...can't imagine
Trying to get them to sit down and play a complex tactical wargame

That's when you buy the solitaire capable ones.  Like Thunderbolt Apache Leader.  It doesn't require you to persuade someone to join you. ;)

[BanzaiCat]

Yup. Thunderbolt/Apache Leader, or any solitaire game. RAF, Struggle for Galactic Empire, D-Day Omaha, Picket Duty, Field Commander series...plenty of good stuff out there!

[JudgeDredd]

Lol..dude, the only board games I play are chutes and ladders and Candyland with my kids. I can't get any of my friends to do anything longer than 10 minutes...can't imagine
Trying to get them to sit down and play a complex tactical wargame

There are LOADS of solitaire games out there- superb games...much batter than any AI and I know you think "How ca that be...how can you play both sides and try to win as one " - but it works...Solitaire boardgaming is making huge inroads. I have 4 now...

• Phantom Leader
• Thunderbolt/Apache Leader
• RAF Battle of Britain
• Band of Heroes
• Hornet Leader
• World at War:Blood and Bridges

I also had U-Boat leader but it was a but "slow" for my liking...

But solitaire board games are my future I believe.

[Arctic Blast]

Lol..dude, the only board games I play are chutes and ladders and Candyland with my kids. I can't get any of my friends to do anything longer than 10 minutes...can't imagine
Trying to get them to sit down and play a complex tactical wargame

Well, TA Leader is solitaire. Any other excuses?  ;D

[spelk]

I had plans, but then I installed Drakensang, an oldy but a goody.

[Toonces]

I flew the shit out of BMS Falcon today.

Head to head with an F-15 (as an Adversary F-16):

[Kushan]

But solitaire board games are my future I believe.

With all this talk of board games, I pulled out Steel Wolves last night and begin re-reading the manual. Think I may skip watching the big game (who wants to watch the Seahawks anyway?) and run a single boat patrol this afternoon.

In other board gaming news, I saw on the compass games website that Breaking the Chains is now shipping. Hopefully my copy will arrive this week and I'll have something to talk about other then EU IV in next weeks Friday thread.

[Nefaro]

I flew the shit out of BMS Falcon today.

Head to head with an F-15 (as an Adversary F-16):

If I feel like flying a fully functional cockpit 'study' sim, I think my next will be BMS and not one of the DCS ones.  Only having to learn one aircraft in the F-16, yet still having good ground AND air capability will just give you more bang for the learning time involved.   

[Toonces]

They're making some good progress on new campaigns over there.  Israel is fully playable, and Balkans as well.  There are several new tile options for Korea, there's a good Korea 80's mod, and I've been working on putting together a campaign for Guam, which has 100% photoreal tiles. 

BMS has it's flaws, but it is certainly worth the effort to learn if you want to fly modern jets.

[Nefaro]

BMS has it's flaws, but it is certainly worth the effort to learn if you want to fly modern jets.

I also recall the F-16 having one of the most user-friendly cockpit interfaces.  I thought it was easier to utilize than the A-10C in DCS for example.  Although part of the learning time involved setting up the damn HOTAS hat switch 'Management System' stuff and memorizing them, which they both have. 

Takes some time writing up all my command cheat sheets after spending a lot of time mapping all this stuff properly.  Not only remembering what "TMS Up Long" does compared to "TMS Up" or "DMS Right" (for example) takes a lot of front-loaded time in both setup and memorization.  It's this initial time spent setting it up and memorizing it that makes me say "MEH" and I go play Flaming Cliffs 3, SF2, or one of the WW1 sims because I can jump into those fairly quickly even after not flying them for awhile.

My tendency to hop between different games for short stretches would mean I have to re-learn such things every time I revisit all these sims, and the ones that take the longest are the study sims.  The HOTAS data management stuff on the Hat Switch(es) is a big time sink issue for me.  Actual weapons employment and much of the other avionics is no big deal.


All that being said.. I really want to fly the F-16 since it's such a widely capable multi-role aircraft.  Time efficient for me as a player, too. 

[Toonces]

I hear you.  The whole HOTAS deal is what is holding me back from spending more time with DCS.

I'm using a full CH HOTAS I've had for about 5 years now.  I downloaded a very good profile from CH Hangar years ago and I've memorized it enough to get the job done.  The translation to BMS from Freefalcon (for which it was built) is mostly the same.  If I had to program the HOTAS from scratch....ugh.  I wouldn't even know where to begin.