An Axis + Allies Weekend and some computer trouble

Whew!
It doesn't seem like that long, but I guess I didn't post the past couple of days. How unusual.

So what's been going on? First things first, if you like board games or really immersive table-top games - go here and check out Boardgamegeek.com for pictures and review of just about everything you can think or remember from your youth, plus find listing of places to buy them or where to shop online. Its pretty cool. You don't have to register - I didn't - yet ;)

Not much real good happened this weekend - depressing things actually - I finally got my computer back after much time and expense and its still not fixed right.....I've put off the dreaded tech support phone call for a day and half now....its going to be painful folks...let me tell you. So, no Supreme Commander or Command and Conquer 3 just yet for you intrepid gaijin. DAMMIT! The old rig can't even dream of running such a game, but my Star Wars rig....with twin nVidia 512Mb GTX 7900s....OH....its rarin' to go....too bad the GD thing doesn't WORK....AUGH....I'll tell you what, Alienware has a very, VERY slim chance of retaining my future business.

I also had a chance to play the newest version of an old table-top classic Axis and Allies. Man, the basic game is the same, but they've really altered the Eastern Front between Germany and Russia. Wow....it really changes the changes the game. There's a lot of other subtle little changes as well. (Like the Sahara desert is impassable, which keeps the Germany AFRIKA Corps bottled up in North Africa, and there are more sea zones, making ship movement a bit slower in places. And a very welcome British naval presence in India and Australia) Well long story short, I went to the local game night, planning to play some Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition. But there was a new guy there and we talked for a bit and decided to try and get in two games...OOPS....the game went a little slow and we wound up just playing one - A&A. For those of you that don't know anything about the game feel free to skip this part: It was me and the game owner (Charles) as the Allies. He professed his competence with America, so I took Russia and Britain, while the other players Kirk and his son Tristan played the Axis powers - Germany and Japan. It really became a battle between Kirk and I, because Charles did very little to help the allied cause. I kept carrying the water, holding the tough Germans and Japanese off, hoping that America would enter the fray quickly (heck my Aussie submariners - yes you read that right, Britain starts with a submarine in Australia now - took out the Japanese sub in the Solomons, and then sunk a fully loaded Japanese carrier with an instant death sneak attack the next round - Brilliant - the Brits did more to hamper the Japanese in the Pacific than the U.S.!) Charles did help in a couple of spots. But I tell you what, it was Britain that pulled out the victory, with almost no help, other than the Russo-German meatgrinder that was the Ukraine - Russian and Germany armies, tanks and planes went there to die, and die they did, by the hordes.....It kept the pressure off the U.K. though, and actually me to start open up a western front quite early in the game. ah...the good old days of battling out WWII on a board game. Man, I hadn't played that game in YEARS! Years I tell you, and I hadn't lost "it".