What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement?

[Dave Syrinx]

I´m in the middle of moving house at the moment. The house is filled with moving boxes and too much furniture. I´ve packed down most books, but have been reading a little David Bladacci and Lee Child. Easy reading!
Gamewise, I´m stuck with Fallout 4 and am doing a spelunking playthrough as the lone wanderer.

On tele, there´s Humans, 12 Monkeys and Shades of Blue. Westworld ended before it started. I enjoy Shooter and SIX.

And I came back here for a spell!!

Hi everyone!

[Mr. Handy]

Welcome back! I finished Ultima Underworld months ago and played a game of Civlization: Beyond Earth with the Rising Tide expansion. I was Chongsu, so I started with an aquatic city. I ended up getting a Domination victory even though I was going for Contact, and I did it without declaring war (which netted me an achievement). I allied with ARC, and that dragged me into a war it started with INTEGR, which we wiped out easily. I had high levels of Harmony, so my units were far more advanced than everyone else's, in large part due to my insane science from espionage. I later carried out a successful Coup d'Etat against the North Sea Alliance's capital Deepcastle, causing it to go to war with me. It only had one other city (its outposts kept getting eaten by a siege worm), and my forces were already poised to take it, which they did right away. I finished the Beacon and was only 40-odd turns away from a Contact victory when ARC rather suicidally declared war on me. I had forces in position already, and I took its capital in two turns. Game over.

Then I started playing Civilization VI. The tutorial was pretty easy, though not being able to save the game was annoying, as I had to leave it running for over a week. Then I played a "full" game which I won quite easily and quickly. I was Arabia, playing against Germany, Greece (led by Pericles), and China. On turn 10, I found a relic in a tribal village. Although one of my special abilities meant I was guaranteed to get a free Great Prophet eventually, I decided to go for a super-early religion by building Stonehenge, which I completed on Turn 30. This won me the game, as for one of my beliefs I chose Reliquaries, which triples the Tourism and Faith of relics. I had originally been planning to win a Religious victory, but I got a Cultural victory instead after 48 turns, as the other civs weren't producing much culture yet, and the insane amounts of Tourism I was generating swamped what little they had in short order.

I then upped the difficulty level and started a new game. This time I'm Nubia, and I'm playing against Japan, Brazil, Spain, Arabia, and India. Japan and Brazil are on my landmass, and the other three are on the other major landmass. This time the barbarians were brutal. They found my capital early and swarmed me with horsemen and horse archers while all I had was a single warrior, but I managed to get enough troops together to beat them off and eventually take out their outposts, though it stunted my early growth. Spain founded Catholicism, but I was sure I would get the second religion. I was just about to get a Great Prophet when all three of the remaining religions were claimed. Brazil got one first; they must have spent Faith to finish it. The next turn Japan completed Stonehenge and Arabia got the last prophet, leaving me empty-handed. However, I'm still doing very well, with a huge science lead and the beginnings of a culture lead. I'm in the late Medieval Age and getting close to entering the Renaissance early, while only two other civs have recently entered the Medieval Age and the others are still Classical. I'm also starting to put out Great Works of Writing to help towards a Cultural victory, which will be doubly effective once I research Printing, which shouldn't be too much longer.

I've been watching 12 Monkeys too, though I think the movie was better than the TV show. I missed the last two episodes last week because I was away. I also like Shades of Blue and Shooter. I've watched a bunch of other videos, and I'm currently watching the Blu-ray collection of Tom Baker's first season of Doctor Who. I've seen Robot and The Ark in Space, and The Sontaran Experiment is up next after I finish The Ark in Space bonus materials. I'll probably put them on hold once I get the Blu-ray of SS-GB, which I preordered from BBC America.

I've long since finished The Drums of Autumn and am now almost 90 percent of the way done The Fiery Cross, the next book in the series. I'd never even heard of the War of the Regulation before I read it, and I know a lot about history. It's amazing what doesn't make it into (most) history books. I've put the sixth book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, on hold at the library, though it hasn't arrived yet.

I haven't had any time for solo boardgaming since January, when I tried Mansions of Madness (first edition) with the Call of the Wild expansion. There's one coop/solo scenario with two variants. It's a hard one. I almost won, but got killed shortly before the end.

[evil_scientist]

I picked up Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero. It's about a Scooby Gang type group of teenage sleuths, now grown up, teaming up once more to follow up on their last investigation. One of them suspects that there was a real supernatural element, and not just a man in a mask... I'm just a few chapters in. I have some qualms with the writing style (often the author uses explicitly "cinematic" descriptions, like "the camera pans to the right"), but in general I'm enjoying it, it's fast paced and quite dark.

[Mr. Handy]

I'm in the Renaissance now and currently researching Printing in my game of Civilization VI, and I'm also close to getting the Divine Right civic, which will allow the Monarchy government. I've got Cartography, so my ships can cross the ocean now.

I finished The Sontaran Experiment and have watched most of the bonus materials. I also watched the new finished version of Shada, which just aired on BBC America. I preordered that too last year when it had a January release date, but then they changed it to September. The UK got it last December, on schedule. SS-GB is about to ship, so it should be waiting for me when I get back from California.

I finished The Fiery Cross last night and started A Breath of Snow and Ashes. It's 1773 now, and the American Revolution is just around the corner.

[kabukiman]

I finished watching the fourth season of Babylon 5. The last episode could be a nice ending, but I'm curious now with season 5.
I also finished the game stellaris. Well, that game never ends, but I achieve the federation victory, so I decide to stop playing. I played Earth (and humans) with a democracy (the other members of my federation were aliens with democracies). We gave full citizenship to all populations conquered (including aliens and robots). I made some genetic engineering to improve the populations (getting smarter) and we defeated the horrors from another dimension. A good game.

[Mr. Handy]

I watched season 1 of Babylon 5 a few months back and enjoyed it. A cable channel I get airs ten episodes in a row every Wednesday from 6 PM to 4 AM. They used to air the same five episodes twice, once from 6-11 PM and again from 11 PM to 4 AM. The first three weeks, I saw the first showing and saw fifteen episodes. The fourth week, they started showing ten episodes instead of the same five twice. I watched the first seven of them then to finish the first season, but I had to call it a night at 1 AM. Stellaris sounds cool too. The description reminds me a little of Master of Orion 2, which is a fun game.

I achieved the victory conditions for a cultural victory in Civilization VI some time ago, but due to a bug in the game, my victory did not register. I had hoped they would patch it, but it still failed to give me the win even after the latest patch. Right now I'm replaying Star Saga: One and Two, this time with a different character. I mentioned them before here. I'm about halfway through the second game now, and really enjoying it.

I recently bought a couple of dozen videos from BBC America during a massive sale where they were all 50-80% off the regular price. I'm in the middle of watching Terminal, which stars Margot Robbie, Simon Pegg, and Mike Myers. It's weird, in a good way.

I finished the Outlander series through the latest book, and the next one has no release date yet. Then I read 11/22/63 by Stephen King, which is very different from (and better than) his usual books, though there are references to some of them. It also combines time travel and romance.

I recently played a solo game of Terraforming Mars with Venus Next, which was a lot of fun. Next I plan to play it with both Venus Next and the Hellas and Elysium boards if I ever have time.

[evil_scientist]

I am currently watching the second season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. It's a well-made and consciously cheesy horrorshow. It's not genius, but I enjoy it...

[Mr. Handy]

I managed to get past the Clathran Survey Line in Star Saga: Two, opening up previously inaccessible parts of the galaxy.

I finished Terminal, which was a very cool neo-noir with some clever twists, not all of which I saw coming. Then I started watching Churchill, which stars Brian Cox as Winston Churchill and Miranda Richardson as his wife Clementine. It focuses on the first week of June 1944 and the lead-up to D-Day.

[Dave Syrinx]

This one is going to watch El Camino, the Breaking Bad movie, tonight.
We´ll see what it´s like. Might be good. Might not.

[Mr. Handy]

That does sound good. I've actually been able to resume watching Babylon 5, as now the station that airs it does so from 8-10 PM on Monday through Thursday nights. I'm well into Season 5, and I should finish it in about two and a half weeks. I'm currently almost done watching Hidden, a Welsh police procedural series. Next on my list is season 1 of When the Boat Comes In, set in Northern England after World War I.

I'm in my fourth consecutive playthrough of Star Saga: One and Two, each time as a different character. I'm over a third of the way through the second game again and just about ready to run the Survey Line. I don't have much time to play computer games, so it really says something about a game when I play it multiple times in a row. I'd like to be able to play it multiplayer, which it was designed to do, but in hotseat mode. I might be able to host it on my computer and run it as a play-by-post, but that would only work if every player had all of the text and maps available. Almost of all of the game's story is in the character booklets and the books of text that come with each game. The games are both hosted on archive.org, but they don't come with documentation, though Home of the Underdogs has a link to an archived all-digital kit that has all the text and maps in HTML format. Still, I don't think that's strictly legal, even if the games have been out of print for decades.

I haven't had much time for solo boardgaming, but I've started learned how to play Tiny Epic Mechs. Months ago I did win a solo game of Terraforming Mars with Venus Next and the Hellas board.

[Dave Syrinx]

So, I went out to a local thrift store and found a board game from 2009 called Runewars. It looks like a MERP fantasy battle game 2-4 players with perk cards and no dice. Has anyone tried this one? I bought it primarily for the 190 or so figurines. Spent 15 dollars and will use them in a start-up D&D game. Beats buying the real miniatures!



I also found a pair of foldable Skullcandy on-ear headphones. Cleaned and all in working order, they sit quite comfortably and sound is good enough. 3 bucks.

What about you guys, do you bargain hunt at Goodwills and such?

[Mr. Handy]

I don't have any board game stores near me, and the ones I've visited don't have bargains. I get most of my games, except the ones I back on Kickstarter, through CoolStuffInc and Miniature Market. All of their games are discounted, and they have sales where they have even steeper discounts. They also have free shipping in the USA for orders of $99 or $100 or more, and I never have a problem finding enough games I want to spend that much. I got the bulk of my vast board game library that way. The only thing I lack is the time to actually play them. I do have Runewars 2nd edition, along with an official solo variant, though I had to pay a lot to get it. It was $65 at the time, as the game was out of print. You got a great bargain! There's a more recent 3rd edition, which has an expansion that allows solo play, but I don't have it yet. I haven't played 2nd edition yet, though.

I finished watching Babylon 5 a couple of weeks ago when the final two episodes aired. Yesterday I finished Season 1 of When the Boat Comes In, and I just started watching Good Omens, which only just came out on video. It arrived yesterday, which was great timing. I loved the book when I read it in college, but there's much I don't remember about it.

I'm now in the middle of my fifth consecutive playthrough of Star Saga, almost halfway through the first game. This will be the last for a while, unless I can find people to play multiplayer with, as once I complete it I'll have played through both games with all six characters. I learn more about the story from each character's personal parts of it. This time I got stopped by a space pirate early in the game before I was ready to fight him and lost a rare cargo I need for my personal mission, which is annoying, but at least it's an extra challenge. I got that cargo early in the game for free, and now I'll have to find somewhere that sells it and pay dearly for it.

[kabukiman]

I have finished deus ex mankind divided. They didn't inovate much and I was getting bored at the end, something that never hjappened in the other games of the saga; at least it was short.

I also finished kingdom come: best simulation (rpg) of medieval life I ever saw. The main story is ok, but many of the side stories are very good. And the mechanics are excelent (even if very dificult to learn at the beggining, (specially because our character is near wortless).
And now after 1 year, I resumed watching babylon 5- the 5 season.

[Mr. Handy]

I have the earlier Deus Ex games. I haven't played them yet, but I've heard the first one is excellent. A few weeks ago, I won a game of Master of Magic, a classic Civilization-like 4X fantasy themed game where several wizards are competing to control the worlds of Arcanus and Myrror. Usually wizards start on Arcanus, but I played the draconian wizard Sss'ra, who begins the game on Myrror. After spreading out and building a large empire there, I conquered a tower of wizardry, allowing my flying armies to invade Arcanus, where the other four wizards lived. Two of them declared war on me, and I managed to defeat them with only a little difficulty. At that point, it was much easier to just find and defeat the other two wizards than to research and cast the game-winning Spell of Mastery. With help from the Awareness spell, I located the other two wizards. An aerial sneak attack on the capital of one of them knocked him out in one blow, the city's Wall of Fire proving utterly useless against my fliers. Not long after that, the last wizard declared war on me. It took some time for me to gather sufficient forces to crush his capital, but I managed it with no problem and won the game. Then I started playing the original Master of Orion, a science-fiction themed 4X game, and I'm almost 100 turns into the game. I'm playing as the cat-like Mrrshans. The Humans attacked one of my colonies before I officially made contact with them, but I fended them off and made friends with them, which is a good thing, as I have enough enemies. I had a non-aggression pact with the lizard-like Sakkra (whose homeworld is named Sss'ra), but that didn't stop them from invading and conquering a nearby colony of mine. The game didn't consider the pact broken at that point, but my reinforcements arrived at the colony the next turn and took it back, which caused the Sakkra to declare war. I held it against their second wave, and then I sent my invasion forces at one of their colonies. I would have taken it, but they developed Duralloy Armor the turn my troops arrived and barely held out. My second wave should crush the survivors, though. They've got another wave incoming, but I should be able to beat them and then make peace. The bird-like Alkari (who look quite delicious to my kitties) also declared war on me, but we're not really in range of each other to fight much except for one nearby colony of theirs that I don't have the technology to land on yet. I also brought in the Humans to the war against them. I've really spread far and fast, with more colonies than any other player, and I'm ahead in population and technology. After this game, I plan to play Master of Orion 2, perhaps one of the best games of all time.

I paused in the middle of watching the Doctor Who Season 14 Blu-ray box set when my copy of the newly animated mostly missing Doctor Who story The Faceless Ones arrived. Today I finished watching the black and white version and started on the color version.

[kabukiman]

I never played master of orion 1. But I sometimes play MO2 just to kill the nostalgia, I agreed that is one of the best games of ever.

[Mr. Handy]

MOO1 is still fun, but the second game is far better. I also have MOO3, but have never played it. I've heard it's really bad. There's also a more recent Master of Orion, but I don't have that one and don't know how it is. There's a similar game to MOO2 with a Star Trek theme called Birth of the Federation, which is very hard to find, but I still have the copy I bought back in the day. My current game is going well. I took a colony from the Sakkra and one from the Alkari, and I made peace with the Alkari shortly before 2425, when the first Galactic Council met. I almost won the vote then and there, as the Alkari voted for me, seeing as they were at war with the Humans but at peace with me. Of course, the Sakkra voted for the Humans. I was only a couple of votes from winning. I made peace with the Sakkra after taking and holding their colony for a while, but both they and the Alkari have declared war on me again (they're both aggressive). The Sakkra are down to their first two planets, so I can keep them contained while I work with the Humans to fight the Alkari. My colonies near them are under threat, but I think I can hold them off from all except the one I'm about to found on a distant planet. I've also developed Soil Enrichment and made most of my planets fertile, which greatly increases my maximum population and growth. Population is the key to winning, and I'm far ahead in all categories except fleet strength. Maybe my population has increased enough to win the next vote in ten turns if I can make peace with the Alkari again while the Humans are still fighting them. I'm close to getting Fusion Drives, which will give me much faster ships. Once I have a breakthrough, I plan to build a massive war fleet. I'm also researching Controlled Radiated Environment, which will allow me to colonize every planet in the galaxy, and that should be enough for a win by 2475.

I finished The Faceless Ones and am now watching the bonus material. It's interesting finding out about the animation process, and it'll be good to learn more about this mostly lost story.

[kabukiman]

I finished watching fifth season of Babylon 5... and it was weak. Speially the ending (I want include any spoilers). I have watch several other movies from B5; the gathering, the begining, the river of souls. I still have more movies to watch (the box included all the movies and series from B5).

I have been playing eve online. It was near one year since I played last time, the base where I had acumulated ore to be sold in Jita was invaded and I lost it all. And I was kicked from my corporation. Well, now I'm in a other corporation, I play a miner in high sec., so I can do something else, like reading or even playing other games. But as soon as I buy an exploration ship, that will change.

[Mr. Handy]

I won my game of MOO1 a couple weeks ago. I wasn't quite able to win in the council in 2450, as the Alkari refused to make peace with me and voted for the Humans even though both of us were at war with them. Fortunately, I had plenty of votes and could block them from winning all by myself. 25 turns later, when the council met again, I had colonized most of the planets in the galaxy and had almost two-thirds of the population by myself. It wasn't quite enough to win outright, but this time I was able to make peace with the Alkari in 2474. They voted for me because they were still at war with the Humans, which put me over the top. I'm almost 100 turns into my game of MOO2 now, playing as the cybernetic Meklar. My rivals are the Humans, the Psilons, the Silicoids, and the Gnolams. I'm well on track to win in the council when it eventually forms with a combination of population and diplomacy. My increased production, combined with my reduced reliance on food, has helped tremendously. My first two colonies are thriving and churning out colony ships, which I'm using to settle the other decent planets in the galaxy. There aren't many of them. I've explored all of the galaxy except for one star I can't reach in a corner of the map, as well as worlds the other races have colonized. I've found a star system with two Terran-class planets that I have staked out for when my next colony ship becomes available, which won't be long. I've out-negotiated the Humans, forming alliances with both the Gnolams and the Psilons, and I'm close to one with the Humans themselves. I went to war with the Silicoids because my allies the Gnolams asked me to, and the Psilons jumped in as well once I formed an alliance with them. The Silicoids and I have left each other alone so far. I've also out-earned the Gnolams, hiring three leaders that really helped me produce more money. I've also out-researched the Psilons, even though they get more technologies than I do through research, as my research is faster thanks to not needing as many farmers or workers, and I can trade technologies with my friends. My strategy is to settle as many planets as I can to bring up the council meeting and grow my population. When it meets, my allies should vote for me, except for whoever is running against me. The Silicoids have reduced population growth, so they won't be as much of a factor, especially since nobody likes them.

I've finished watching Doctor Who Season 14 and have started on the bonus materials for the last story, The Talons of Weng-Chiang. After I'm done with that box set, I have the Blu-ray box set for the final season of the classic era waiting.

[kabukiman]

I have started to watch a spinoff of babylon V, and it's bad. I just saw the first 5 episodes and I simply don't like it. I will watch a couple more maybe and if it doesn't improve, I'l stop watching it.
I saw (again) conan the barbarian and as usual I liked.
I am also playing eve online, I lost another ship (herom model) when I was exploring a relic site; I arrived at the place, and 10 seconds latter I was deadkilled by several guristas, I didn't have time to escape. So I decide to return mining, and now I mine ice asteroids, that are worth the double the usual ore I mine.
I am also playing tanks online, I'm trying to get a stug IV and I need only to finish the missions from light tanks to get it (I have finished the medium, heavy,arty, and anti-tanks).

[Mr. Handy]

I won the game of Master of Orion 2 using a similar strategy to what I used to win Master of Orion 1, but there were some obstacles. I managed to conquer one of the Silicoid worlds, but the Psilons managed to grab all the others before I could, including their homeworld. Shortly before that happened, the alliance broke up due to the Gnolams and the Humans going to war with each other. I didn't want to get involved, so I refused when both of them asked me to go to war with the other, and they withdrew from the alliance. Then the Humans declared war on me, which was a fatal mistake. I invaded their worlds and conquered the Human race. During the war, the Gnolams did ask me to ally with them again, and I did. After the war, the Gnolams and the Psilons went to war, and I sided with the Gnolams against the Psilons. The Gnolams always voted for me in the Galactic Council against the Psilons, and the Humans always abstained. I conquered some of the Psilon worlds, including the Silicoid homeworld, though anything with a missile base was too tough for me to crack. Still, I managed to get enough population that I won the vote in the next Council with help from the Gnolams.

I've started a new game of Master of Magic, this time with the Community Patch. I never noticed any of the bugs it's supposed to fix, but it also introduces some changes I don't like, as they nerf the wizard I'm playing: Rjak, the death magic specialist. Skeletons used to be maintenance-free and would have made excellent cheap garrisons and guards for magic nodes, but now they each require 1 mana per turn to maintain. There's a Zombie Mastery spell that causes all normal units killed to rise up as zombies under my control, and while they're still maintenance-free, the spell isn't. It used to be only 8 mana per turn, but now it's an insane 40. Still, I've got some excellent spells I can learn that will help me win, and werewolves are amazing. Just one unit of them can conquer any neutral city. The other wizards all hate me, of course, but I'm powerful enough that I can fight them off, though I can't conquer all of them yet. Horus proved to be a pushover. I crippled him early on by taking out his settler and crushing his outpost, and later I was able to conquer his capital city and banish him for good. Lo Pan is the greatest threat, as he had some powerful nodes and towers of wizardry near his starting position, and he also grabbed a node on Myrror and built at least one city there. However, I'm now ahead of him, and once I get Wraiths his days are numbered. I'm about to stomp Jafar into the ground once I locate his capital and my ship with my army lands on his island. Freya is not much of a threat, and I can mop her up after I deal with the others. When that's done, I plan to play Wasteland Remastered.

I've started watching Season 26 of Doctor Who, and I've seen all three versions of Battlefield. Now I'm watching the bonus material, and when that's done, Ghost Light is up next.