The Geek of the Week for this week is Peter Gifford, better known here as UniversalHead. He is a freelance graphic designer, drummer in a remarkable band (The Telltales) that I am sure will only grow in acclaim, blogger, traveler, gamer, and head-shaving Australian. His rules summaries for many games are beautiful, functional, and indispensable at tables around the world. He appreciates a different kind of game than many of us here, but his passion for gaming is certainly recognizable.

Here is how Peter describes himself:


Just a quick plug, Peter's band makes some great music, and you should listen to the songs they have online, then buy the albums. Support your fellow geek. http://www.thetelltales.com/


I am going to wing a guess here, as these all seem pretty plausible to me, and go with 'A' as the lie, as I am betting you started it at 10 or 15, and not 12.

A few questions to start things off:

1. Theme seems to be pretty important to you. Many of the games you rate highly are very thematic. Are there any games that have thinner themes, or perhaps even abstract games, that appeal to you?

2. You rate several 2-player games very highly as well. Do you prefer to play 2-player games, or is that just where your opportunities lie?

3. How did you and your band mates end up together?

4. Are there more Telltales albums in the works? When is your North American Tour?

5. You own a lot of old GW games. Do you still play them? Did you paint them all (look through his images, he is a gifted minis painter)? Do you paint all your new games (well, the ones with minis, only, I mean)? How long does it take you? Do you find you enjoy playing with painted minis more, or is there another reason you choose to do so?

6. Most of the "thumbs" you have received are for your images, and most of those are for you painted minis. I suspect, however, that if more people thumbed files that they use, this would not be true, How long does it typically take you to do one of your reference sheets? What is the process you go through th make them?

7. You have been to some really interesting destinations. Where would you like to go back to, and why?

8. what upcoming games are you most excited about? What recent game have you not played that you would like to play?

That's all for now, Peter. Enjoy your week!

Congrats Peter!

1) I see Necromunda is on your "Top 10." What is your gang name (and type) and do you where do you rank Necromunda in the top 5 GW games? (of course you already talked about it above, but just wondering)
2) What do you think was the biggest sleeper of 2006?
3) What's your favorite Patrick O'Brian book? Why?

I think #3 is the lie... #1 seems plausible and #2 could be likely if you wanted to try Shakespeare.

Have a fun week!

-DK

Congrats on becoming Geek of the Week!

Sixteen questions some of which are a bit heavier – but I like hearing answers to those sorts of things as I think they’re revealing of other aspects of a person’s thinking. As usual there’s a mixed bunch of stuff here: 7 are games related and 9 aren’t.

I like to try to check out my games correlation with each GotW if I can remember – but we only have 16 games in common so the stats don’t really calculate. For anyone who’s not aware of it, here’s the correlation to use:

http://www.lautapelaaja.net/bgg/correlation.php

Anyway, the questions…Answer briefly/in any way/leave out as you feel fit. I realise some questions might not grab you.

1. Which 2006/2007 releases have you not played yet but are desperate to try?
2. Wargames – you seem to enjoy lighter fair like Memoir and Wings of War. Is there anything heavier you’d like to try?
3. Are there any kids’ games or Party Games that deserve to be rated higher than they are and why? Are there any you’d like to try out and maybe bring the kid out in yourself?
4. Which 5 games would you say were the most pure fun you ever played? You can define “fun” in anyway you feel is right.
5. You are a big fan of the Memoir “system” I see. Have you the urge to try Battle Cry or Command and Colours Ancients?
6. You rate both the new and the old Fury of Draculas very highly. How would you describe the differences between the two games? (I’ve only played the FF version)
7. Do you ever feel that Euro game design is getting a bit stale these days? Have you ever groaned either aloud or inside when you’ve seen yet another game with the same mechanic you’ve played scores of times already? Name names if you like!
8. As a fellow Kate Bush fan, what are your three favourite tracks of hers and how did you feel about Aerial?
9. Which are the most interesting places you have visited, and where would you most like to go in the future (apart from Essen)?
10. Should the melting glaciers of Greenland keep us all awake at night? …Where do you stand on the whole global warming issue? Is it the biggest problem facing mankind which some folks are choosing to ignore at their peril or a colossal red-herring that gets way too much media-coverage?
11. What thing about the modern world most pleases you, and what most worries you?
12. What are the best 5/10 albums of all time?
13. What is the most trendy piece of clothing you own or have ever owned?
14. Who were your 5 greatest people of the 20th Century? Name 10 if you really want to.
15. Which films and songs bring a tear to your eye?
16. When have you been most scared in your life? I mean really scared.

I'm going for number 2 as the lie.

Thankyou so much Dave! First of all I'd like to thank the Academy ... oh hold on, old joke. It's a great honour to be named 105th GotW, a strange thing that anyone should be vaguely interested in asking me questions, but I will do my best to be honest, interesting and worthy of the title! I can tell there's going to be a lot of procrastination from work this week ...



You know, I just went through my collection and if there's one defining factor is is definitely theme. I love giving my imagination a workout. In my collection there's a few where the theme is pretty thin and yet I still really enjoy the way they work however - Babel, Blue Moon, Colossal Arena - hmm, Ok, not that many at all really.

I'm starting to play a few more thinly-themed Euros with the BoardgameGlebers, and while they're interesting, I can't seem to get quite as excited about them. I'm not an accomplished strategist and would rather laugh my head off when some unexpected dice roll turns my favourite character into a fireball than tote up numbers and probabilities in my head. Euro games just don't seem as fun (argh, don't hurt me!).



I can't deny that 3+-player games are far more sociable and a lot of fun, but I do like the one-on-one action (hmmm, hold on, that didn't come out quite right!) of a good 2-player game. Plus, they're ideal for playing with my girlfriend or with a mate. And there's less downtime.



For the Telltales, the bass player, keyboard player and I go back to high school (not the same school, but we all hung out together after a friend swapped schools and we all got to know each other). The bass player and I played together in our first band 25 years ago! The lead singer is the younger brother of the keyboard player and entered the picture with a whole batch of good songs, prompting us to form this band.



If only! Well, I'm sad to say that I bowed out of working on the third album, which is currently at mixing stage. I'm very proud of our first two but, due to a bit of a bad back, and getting tired of lugging around drums and all the time spent in smelly little studios and rehearsal rooms, this new album has come down to the bass player and the lead singer and some session musos. It's a thankless job, and unfortunately the thrill of playing live starts to pall after about 5,000 gigs!



Some of the old GW games still occasionally see the table, notably Man O War, Necromunda, Space Hulk and Blood Bowl. I have a few fleets painted for MOW, a couple of gangs for Necro, plenty of figures for SH and a couple of old teams for BB. All of the games have unpainted figures that deserve some painting time! In fact I just bought a Dark Elf fleet for MOW that cost me 120 bloody US dollars! They're getting crazily expensive.

I occasionally play the 'wargame' ones too - Horus Heresy, Battle for Armageddon and Eldar Attack. They're quite fun. A lot of the others pine for attention but are not heard ...

I do try and paint the figures in new games, but there's a big backlog, and understandably I can only leave the paints out on the dining room table for so long before my lovely girlfriend gets a bit miffed! I've finished the character figs and almost finished the leader figs for WotR, and am determined to just do a very rough job (a couple of base colours and a wash) for the rest of the figures, or I'll be there until doomsday. Descent is another one which will take a long, long time to finish also. I'm currently busy painting the specialist packs for BattleLore, and man, am I sick of painting tartan.

I have a bad habit of treating every figure like a 'hero' figure, and painting way too much detail on them all.

I definitely enjoy playing with painted minis more, there's no comparison. A fully painted game with a well-organised foamcore storage system and rules summaries and player aids all ready is a joy to behold and play! BattleLore, for example, when painted, is just fantastic. Doom looks brilliant - ahh, there's just no other way to go.



Quite a while actually, usually when I should be doing paint work! I've got a nice template going now, but it still involves a good number of hours. First I make a background in Photoshop, which usually involves scanning and manipulating the game logo art and background, or making a background from scratch. The summary is written in InDesign by carefully going through the rules and re-writing them to be as clear and 'free of fluff' and unnecessary expression as possible - paring it down to the essentials. One of the trickiest things is to get all the info to line up perfectly in columns and in the space available! Once finished I save as a PDF file. Personally, I like to print them out on double-sided matt card, laminate and trim them.

The idea is to have something that can be referenced before or during a game that makes it unnecessary to hunt through rulebooks.

Reference sheets take longer - more art has to be scanned in, info has to be carefully expressed to fit in small spaces; it takes a while. The Tide of Iron one, for example, took ages.



Tough one, they were all fascinating in different ways. I think India, because 6 weeks is definitely not enough to cover such a huge and fascinating country. There are large areas of the south I didn't go anywhere near. Of course by the end of the trip I was so sick of India I could hardly wait to leave, but that was only because it is such a difficult and challenging country to travel through. Once you're home you quickly forget the perpetual feeling of being run-down and/or sick, the hassling, the endless cries for baksheesh, the 14 hour bus journeys, and all you can remember is the amazing feeling of being continually stimulated by sights, smells, sounds and tastes unlike anything you've ever experienced. Highly recommended.

And, of course, Egypt. I was only ten days there on the smell of a credit card and have a lot more to do and see in that fascinating country - I only got to Cairo and Luxor.



I'm trying to take a break from buying new games at the moment, as I don't want to get into the habit of just buying new ones as soon as they're released. I just bought Last Night on Earth and I'm dying (bad pun!) to give that a run. I bought a mint copy of Dune aw hile back that I still haven't played and would love to.

Tannhauser is on order though I must admit reviews so far have not been great and it may be just another miniature combat game, of which I have many. As for upcoming, I have my eye on Starcraft and Dust by FFG. I'm really looking forward to the new FFG versions of Dune, Cosmic Encounter and Borderlands. Also I can hardly wait until DOW brings out a Heroes expansion for BattleLore.

Thank you sir!



Good old Necromunda. I must take some photos of my terrain, as I based the supplied card terrain on thin wooden boards and added various plastic bits, industrial sewerage etc; they look pretty good.

I usually play Delaque - I liked the little bald guys; and the gang's name is 'The Killers of Murthe' (The Murthe, Lodermulch, Gundarcos, Vullgnatz, Underherd, Slat, Ukko and Cugel). While I'd loved to be organised enough to have a campaign going, we usually just have one-off games (my friend plays a Redemptionist gang called 'The Eternal Fires of Damnation' - Reverend Purger, Firefont, Dogmatosk, Reginald, Rimey, Rickard, Roger, Robert). I'll get a photo of the Delaque gang up this week (edit: have uploaded a few pics).

Where do I rank it in the top 5? Ummm - say third behind Man O War and Space Hulk. Must fiddle with my top 10.

This may be because it's just seen more table time of course. But for some reason, Necromunda just comes together as a great miniatures skirmish game - the theme, the rules, the terrain. Love those high gangway fights when someone gets pushed off and falls to their death!



Tough one ... well, BattleLore would have to be the hit of 2006, but as for a sleeper hit, I'm not sure. I have about nine games from 2006 and none of them really seem to deserve that label. Argh! My first lamely answered question!



This one is really tough! I'm only on my first read through - a baby in O'Brian fan terms - and up to book 18, The Yellow Admiral. O'Brian is my favourite read before sleep. Reading them all in a row, they tend to blur together, so it's tough to say, but I loved Desolation Island, it's a classic scene loved by many, but when they are being chased by a Dutch ship through the southern ocean in an incredible storm and Aubrey is firing the stern chaser and is knocked unconscious just as the Dutch ship's mast is hit and it is swamped by a huge wave - what a scene! My heart was in my mouth reading it. HMS Surprise was also a beauty too - "Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

I'll need a few more read-throughs of the series before I can immediately put my finger on my favourite book - they are all so good.

The bottle stands by you sir!

Many thanks. Ahh, some challenging stuff here. I see my prospects for solid work today beginning to dwindle ... luckily I'm the boss!



Last Night on Earth - on the table any day now I hope, I've been waiting for a decent zombie game. Starcraft looks fun, but I'm saving it up as a big purchase when I really deserve a treat. Duel in the Dark is one I hope to get soon - lovely treatment of the theme and looks like an interesting game.



I think Tide of Iron is about as heavy as I get when it comes to wargames, and my wargaming friends are even surprised I got that close to Squad Leader. I wouldn't say no to a wargame based in a particularly interesting period that I know something about though - for example the Persian or Peloponnesian wars. I may get the reprint of Hannibal when it's released. I just try to avoid games that get me too close to accountancy or hard work.



I certainly have no problem bringing out the kid in myself! I just bought the base set and all the expansions for Battleground: Crossbows and Catapults and it's great fun. I also just got a copy of Vampire Hunter on ebay because I couldn't resist a game that could be played in the dark with a black light. I mean, who could?



'Fun' for me usually means laughing my head off and not having to work too hard, so my top 5 by that definition would be pretty simple, easy, thematic games with wild and amusing swings of fortune like Heroscape, Ave Caesar, Battlecars, Doom and Man O War.



Definitely. Not Battle Cry so much, partly because I don't know much about the American Civil War but mostly because I've heard the system has been improved in subsequent games. Certainly C&C Ancients - though I do wish it had better production and maybe figures instead of blocks. I was going to buy it just before BattleLore came out and took up all my attention, but I do find ancient historical battles fascinating and may get it at some time in the future.



The original version was a huge hit with us back in the day and dripped with theme. The new version, I must admit, I haven't had as much luck with, but mainly because I've played it with the wrong people in all but one case. The new version introduces the whole idea of Dracula's trail (represented by cards), which didn't exist in the original, so subsequently it was harder to find Drac before. Of course the trail means there's a bit more book-keeping for the Dracula player to do. I still find the combat system in both to be a little lacking.

The main problem is both is that you need players who know the game and play it in a particular way - ie. they're not frustrated to the point of spontaneous combustion if Dracula escapes their grasp after a long hunt. I still think both games have slight problems but when it all comes together they're a blast.



Well, to be honest yeah. But then I'm not a huge Euro fan am I? No doubt people more versed in the variety of Euros will be able to easily shoot me down here, and there's no doubt that non-Euro/Ameritrash/theme-is-vital games recycle mechanics just as badly, but there's seems to be a lot of rehash in the Caylus/Puerto Rico mould. And I do dislike a game that feels it could just as well be completely re-themed, or in fact have no theme at all, without any change to the mechanics.

I played Yspahan the other day, which was OK, but it really seems like about four stock-standard Euro mechanics stuck together with scotch tape with some camels thrown in. At least a thematic game has the theme to fall back on if the mechanics are rehashed. I have quite a few dungeon crawl-type games for example, that are relatively similar in mechanics, but a grim bughunt in an alien spacecraft just feels really different than an expedition into a fantasy dungeon.

There also seems to be games, eg Antike, where there's a big stage where players just build up their little empires without much player interaction until a certain point. I like a lot of player interaction - even Puerto Rico feels like multi-player solitaire sometimes.

And besides, slicing three zombies in half with a chainsaw is just so much more amusing than trading barrels of grain, y'know?



Ahh, Kate, lovely Kate. What a shame she has to age like the rest of us, but then what a joy that she's still making great music (despite the fact we have to wait bloody ten years for it!) Three favourite tracks .. so difficult ... The Man With the Child in His Eyes, Wow, Rocket's Tail. And many others.

I liked Aerial - and was very relieved when I first heard King of the Mountain, because I was worried we were going to get more of the unfortunate pop like Constellation of the Heart from The Red Shoes.

There are a few missteps in my opinion - Bertie is just horrible stuff that Bertie is going to hate his mother for when he goes to school and gets beaten up about it, Mrs. Bartolozzi is pretty tedious, and I wish the last track Aerial would break out of the solid on-the-beat bass drum and explode into something and it never does ... but on the whole it's an interesting return to form for Kate and certainly head and shoulders above most of the crap being passed off as music these days. She's got more invention and originality in one song than most musicians have in their whole career - always did.



Luxor in Egypt, while touristy, was heaven for an Egyptophile like me. I went to see the monuments and the Valley of the Kings, but was surprised by how friendly and fascinating the people were as well. I was only there a few days but made some great friends.

Cuzco in Peru is an amazing traveller's hub and a great place to stay. The Sacred Valley of the Incas is nearby, there are Incan ruins everywhere, you can do the Inca Trail to Macchu Piccu, and on top of all that the bars and night life are excellent!

The Kailasa temple in Ellora, India is absolutely astounding - it's a huge temple cut out of the mountainside to a depth of 100 feet, carved into incredible detail. Also in India - the Great Stupa at Sanchi, which I promised myself in high school I would circumambulate one day and did - the golden sandstone of the Jaisalmer fort in Rajasthan, and of course the Taj Mahal, which is stunning.

The Galapagos Islands were totally different from anywhere I'd ever been and an amazing experience. It was like going back in time to a world where animals hadn't learnt to be afraid of you. And swimming with sea lions was unforgettable.

I could go on and on ..!

It's been difficult choosing where to go next year, as my girlfriend and I don't want to repeat ourselves (yet) and we've both been to places the other hasn't, so we've decided on southern Spain (Andalusia) and Morocco. There's some fascinating Moorish architecture and history and Morocco should be challenging and stimulating. We must ride camels in the Sahara.



Let's not having anything keep us awake at night - a good sleep is too precious and worry won't change a thing.

With the limited information at my disposal, I think global warming is an absolutely crucial issue. Anything that brings the focus of world leaders and the public into treating our environment with more care and concern is a good thing, regardless. Of course convincing third-world countries that we pillaged the environment for our own gain and sorry, you can't, even though you're trapped in a system which rewards such activity - well, that's trickier. The challenge of the 'first world' is to create ways to bring all countries the benefits of prosperity without destroying the environment at the same time. This requires long-term thinking, but big business so often thinks only in the short-term.

I also don't think the human race is the be-all and end-all of the universe - in fact we're hardly a drop in the bucket in evolutionary terms - and the planet could shrug us off in an instant if it chose to. Something we should keep in mind and quickly learn to start co-operating with the natural world instead of raping and pillaging it. I live and hope that we'll wake up to ourselves in time and one day, probably many hundreds of years in the future, we'll be able to look back at this period in our history with disbelief at how short-sighted and ignorant we once were.

However, back to the global warming issue, I don't like media coverage that uses fear to get ratings or sell product, and the media so often latches onto the latest issue to do that. Choices should be made through education, not ignorance and exploitation.



I'm pleased that, in the wide view, the human race is better off than ever before in history in terms of reducing disease, ignorance, war and abuse of human rights - though sometimes it may not seem like it. I'm pleased that despite all the stupidity and greed and bigotry, some intelligent, compassionate people still work quietly away in the background to improve the human race.

I'm most worried about ignorant, backward thinking, small-minded people, bureaucrats, committees, mobs, those who force their beliefs on other people, the denial of human rights, the blending of church and state, and the use of fear-mongering to gain power over others.



The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway Genesis
Peter Gabriel 4 Peter Gabriel
The Dreaming Kate Bush
Yessongs Yes
English Settlement XTC
The Pretenders The Pretenders



That would have to be the balloon-legged jeans with the red zips up the front that I wore to my art college interview. Offset by my shock of permed peroxided blonde hair, they were damn trendy.



Freakin' heck this is getting tough!

In no particular order of merit and pretty much off the top of my head:
Albert Einstein
Bob Dylan
H.G. Wells
Captain Robert Scott
Nelson Mandela
Steve Jobs
Mahatma Ghandi
Sir Edmund Hilary
the Beatles
Monty Python
J.R.R. Tolkien
Sir David Attenborough



A lot - I'm a complete sook and I cry at the drop of a hat, especially when it comes to things like nobility, courage and self-sacrifice for some reason. My worst outbreak was when I first saw the film Gattaca in the cinema - I almost gave myself an embolism holding back the hysterical sobs and my face was soaked with tears by the end. I cry in Buffy and Angel episodes. Hopeless.

The last book that made me cry was a bit in the second book (The Subtle Knife) of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.



I'm lucky, I don't think I've every been totally terrified (touch wood). When I went to Egypt and was still a relatively inexperienced traveller I rode around the pyramids (first on a camel and then a horse), and when we were riding back to the gates we went through a dark shanty-town alleyway with our guides that was completely isolated. I saw some shadowy mounted figures coming towards us, thought I heard my guide signalling to them and suddenly was convinced we were about to be mugged! All I could think of was that I had to protect the girl I was with, so I surreptitiously got my penknife out of my bag and into my pocket. Silly now when I look back on it.

Another time in India we were trying to catch a train at night in a country town and we got into a big altercation with the stationmaster who tried to put us on a military train packed with soldiers - who were having a good look at our girlfriends I can tell you. When we refused a big fat military officer got off the train to demand what the hold-up was and an argument started ... it all seemed very hairy there for a while. Another train showed up and we ran for it and got the hell out of there!

When diving in a underground cenote in Mexico I lost my guide for about 5 seconds - enough time for me to do a 180 degree revolution as I hung in the blackness in an underwater cave. Cold, sheer terror rippled through my body for half a second. Then I saw him ahead of me. Whew.

But I've been lucky, nothing serious has happened to me - may that continue!

Thankyou for your stimulating questions David!