Page 2 – Jack of some, master of none.

Aimlessly Wandering Around Town

Posted on 9th November 20229th November 2022 by JustHonour

Perhaps not totally aimless as I’m trying to get myself moving more after the years of lockdowns and restrictions that have made it really easy to simply stay at home. A good motivator for me is a camera and a daily target (as set out by Mrs JustHonour).

Snookered: I’m sure I remember this snooker hall being open. However, it looks like it has been closed for decades.
Geckos Great Escape: I hadn’t noticed the little guy when I took the shot.
Long Term Parking: I thought the bike was slowly rotting into the ground, but a few days later some people seemed to be trying to get it started again.
Street Food: Perhaps not the greatest place to sell food… Although squid isn’t usually noted for it’s pleasant smell.

The Mashbox

Posted on 10th March 202210th March 2022 by JustHonour

I had picked up a hand-made hit box a while ago to add to my small collection of arcade sticks. The hitbox was fairly cheap which was an important factor as I still wasn’t entirely sure I’d like the control method. My particular one was sold by a fellow on Etsy (I can no longer find his store but it was called “Enth” to give credit) and while I liked it very much I felt a number of issues could be solved relatively easily – especially with a handy 3d printer I now have available.

Continue reading →

1863 London Underground Now Available

Posted on 8th September 20218th September 2021 by JustHonour

It has taken some time to get to this happy day, but the game I’ve been studiously (lol) working on for nearly a year is now finally available to the masses… Well, 5 physical copies are until I get more components. There is also the option of grabbing the game as a digital download for folks that prefer to print and play their own copies. This will be much cheaper for obvious reasons, plus I really dislike printing all the components myself so I’ve heavily favoured this as the main way to get hold of the game.

If you want to know more about the game there is information available on the store page here, or on Board Game Geek. The manual is also available to download and read here.

As always I look forward to hearing what players have to say – comments and criticisms are welcome.

Backgammon – Full Circle

Posted on 21st August 202125th August 2021 by JustHonour

Having spent rather a lot of time playing numerous games I guess it’s no surprise that the ones that have lasted thousands of years are actually rather good.

I’m a fan of chess, but it requires a level of commitment I don’t have plus I’m not overly fond of the analysis paralysis it induces in me. Add to that, the fact (for me at least) that it needs a good hour or so to play then it is shuffled into a pile of other things I’d rather be doing with that time. Backgammon has a lovely amount of speed, strategy and luck allowing it to flow extremely well. It can be played in a single match often less that 10 minutes – where plain luck will frequently shine through – or to a number of points with the Doubling Cube thrown into the mix to really bring the skill of Backgammon to the fore. Some folks also use this element to add a little monetary spice to the game.

Overview of Backgammon — Overview of the starting positions in Backgammon

Continue reading →

1863 Live Test

Posted on 5th December 202025th August 2021 by JustHonour

After too long testing by myself I finally got to see the game played with real players (the promise of pizza seems to help gather willing participants). This friendly test didn’t go to completion – unfortunately only about 4 hours of slow play – but it did go a long way to helping me understand how some of the different elements are utilized by the players. Oh, and how important it is to triple check the manual. We stumbled as I had written “sum” instead of “average” for the share price calculation during a merger. Weeding out these issues is important but I’m kicking myself as I had hoped basic things like this wouldn’t creep in so we could concentrate on the overall experience. That will come with time I suppose.

The great part of playtesting, and gaming in large, is to see the different strategies employed by the players. I was particularly intrigued by the Waterloo start position taken by a regular gaming friend, a place I thought would be better suited to late game but was made to work rather successfully as an initial starting point. I guess, even though I have been scrutinizing, playing on and changing the map many of my original thoughts on good locations simply didn’t update with it. So I continued with my “tried and tested” starts.

Continue reading →