Long WHC Weekend (Part1)

The view back over the French centre and right flank. Dom looks thoughtful, Gerry, errr...doesn't.

Last thursday saw me making the familar trip up to Scarborough to the WHC, this was to be a long weekend with 2 games on offer. The plan was to get there for about 2.00pm for a Corunna(ish) scenario which was to play until Friday afternoon, then once a few more people had arrived,  change over for a fictitious 1813 bash which could accomodate more players. As it was, the Peninsular game still had 10 players, so the players each had relatively small commands and the game played quite quickly and smoothly.  

I played on the French left and was tasked with taking one of 2 villages which dominated the road network which the British needed in order to get to the waiting arms of the RN.

This probably proved easier than it should have done, my opponent had racked up 8 or 9 battalions behind the village, including some fairly choice kit, a couple of guards batallions and 2 big Scots units. As it was he would have been better off spreading out a bit more. What transpired was that both myself and Eric on my right flanked the village rather than assault it directly. Due to the lack of troops on the flanks we were able to easily penetrate the defences which on my flank consisted mainly of a solitary highland btn. A punchy unit, and if it had had a couple of mates quite capable of putting up a stiff fight. On its own however, it was easily brushed aside. The end result was that the British behind the village were caught in a crossfire from myself and Eric, with units being continually pinned by retreating units in front of them.

Rule number 1 in ITGM:

Space Management!

Part of my division attempts to outflank "my" village, which is out of shot to the right of the picture 

In the end, it was a fairly comfortable and total French Victory (contrary to Noel's verdict  here:  http://garagegamer.blogspot.com/ ) Although his perspective might be coloured because he was on the extreme flank of the British with the Light Division, which he handled with considerable expertise. Unfortunately I think his troops would have been the only part of the British army to get away. The rest were cut off.

"My" village in the background, successfully outflanked. The British driven out, and are now being pushed back to the left of the picture. 

None-the less, it was great start to the weekend (I don't recall talking to my dice AT ALL...I think I am being horribly misrepresented!), and got everyone in the mood for the main event which was a larger 1813 game; Goerlitz. We started the game on friday afternoon and got a few turns in without getting into serious contact before packing up for the day. After a couple of extra arrivals (and a night in the casino), and we were ready to go on saturday morning....to be continued   

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Boardgames: MSSA's 24Th Western Cape Provincial Championships - 28 March 2020.

Saudah Bhaimia (Curro Klerksdorp) earned National Federation Colours for Morabaraba at both MSSA's 2018 and 2019 SA National Championships.

MSSA's 24th Western Cape Board Gaming Championships shall be held at Monument Park High School, 40 Dan King Rd, Kraaifontein, 7570, on 28 March 2020.

The championships shall start on both days at 9H00. Players need to register at least 30 minutes before the start of play. 

The following periods have qualified to be played, and shall be, should sufficient entries be received:

Board gaming
Period	CHAMPIONSHIPS TO BE PLAYED
	Saturday
	ROUND 1	ROUND 2	ROUND 3	ROUND 4	ROUND 5
Backgammon	10H00-10H45	11H00 - 11H45	14H00 -14H45	15H00 - 15H45	16H00 - 16H45
Checkers	10H00-10H45	11H00 - 11H45	14H00 -14H45	15H00 - 15H45	16H00 - 16H45
Draughts (Brazilian)	10H00-10H45	11H00 - 11H45	14H00 -14H45	15H00 - 15H45	16H00 - 16H45
Draughts (International)	10H00-10H45	11H00 - 11H45	14H00 -14H45	15H00 - 15H45	16H00 - 16H45
Morabaraba	10H00-10H45	11H00 - 11H45	14H00 -14H45	15H00 - 15H45	16H00 - 16H45
SesothoMorabaraba	10H00-10H45	11H00 - 11H45	14H00 -14H45	15H00 - 15H45	16H00 - 16H45

In keeping with Mind Sport South Africa's policies re development programmes, entries are free and gratis to registered players who are unable to afford to enter such championships should the member club formally request assistance. Such applications must be directed to the MSSA at: email: mindsportscorrespoondence@gmail.com

Entry fees are:              R35.00 for board gamers.

Only players who are registered with fully-paid-up members may participate.

Players are reminded that the majority choice of rules as at the closing date for entries shall be used.

Entry fees can be deposited directly into Mind Sports South Africa's account, held at ABSA Bank, account number, 90 4766 7676.

All entries must be entered onto the club's Google  Drive before or on 19 March 2020.To enter, the club must complete the Google Drive document. The entry form may be found on Google Drive. Clubss are to download the entry form, completed the downloaded form, and e-mail it to Mind Sports South Afica. The link for such form is: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M07rv0ER9jqE25IqMNZqGlsUPqJaE_X2/edit#gid=1844490715

The following Medals may be awarded at MSSA's 24th Western Cape Board Gaming Championships:

• PREMIER: Medals shall be awarded to the first three players who are registered players.
• UNIVERSITY: Medals shall be awarded to the first three players who are currently registered at any officially recognised University, provided the players have not received any Premier Medals.
• SCHOLARS: Medals shall be awarded to the first three high school scholars, provided they have not received any Premier medals.
• WOMEN: Women will be awarded medals as per the same basis as above, that is in all three categories.

Colours and National Team Trials:

• Provincial Colours: All Players that win all of their Matches at a Provincial Championship will earn Provincial Colours. All Players who score within the top 50% in a specific Period at a Provincial Championship, and who also score within the top 50% at a National Championship in the same period and in the same year, will earn Provincial Colours.
• National Team Trials: All Players that score within the top 20% or top three places, whichever is greater, in a specific Period at a Provincial or National Championship will earn an invitation to National Team Trials. National Team Trials shall be held in the event that a National Team must be selected to represent South Africa when competing in such Period in an International Championship. 

Also read:

• Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
• How school clubs affiliate for the 2020 season.
• Selecting the national Protea teams for Mind Sports South Africa.
• The road to Eilat
• IESF announces first three titles for 12th World Championships
• Esports: MSSA's 24th Western Cape Provincial Championships - 28 and 29 March 2020.
• Rankings: Tekken 7 rankings
• Rankings: DotA 2 rankings

End Of Campaign: Dark Heresy

   We finished off our Dark Heresy campaign on Monday night. We had all sort of lost our interest in the game after almost a year of play. The last few months we have also had several challenges with getting together as a group to play, and that certainly didn't help things.

   So, how did it end? Well, we had just captured a dangerous psyker named Molokoff from Hive Tertiam on Fenk's World and barely managed to escape the planet before it was pulled entirely into the warp. Once aboard our vessel, the Cudgel of Drusus, we turned the prisoner over to the Inquisition. That's when things went to Hell.

   Literally.

   As our ship entered the warp to travel to our next destination, something went wrong. Horribly wrong. Demonic creatures began to pop up all over the ship. We fought like heroes, but watched our companions go down one by one.

   First to die was our 'tame' psyker, Volk. The power of the warp invading the ship began to overwhelm his mental defenses, and I was forced to put him down with a bolt pistol shell to the back of the head. Next was our favorite pilot, "Mad" Murdock (an NPC). On the hangar deck, as we were making our way to the main engineering area, he was dragged down by a horde of smaller demons.

   Third to fall was our chirurgeon, Sister Scythia. She burned down a few demons with her meltagun before a flamethrowing fiend doused her with a barrage of unholy napalm. Probably for the best, as she was not very careful with her shooting and a meltagun firing off in the engineering spaces would have been catastrophic.

   Fourth was our newest recruit, an Imperial Guardsman from the 24th Canopus Heavy Foot. Corporal Jones ran out of ammunition for his heavy stubber - which he toted about with his Bulging Biceps as if it were nothing more than an autogun. After spraying hundreds of rounds into the enemy, he heard that fatal 'click.' Before he could locate any more ammunition, he too was torn apart. Thankfully, he died before they began eating. I think.

   Adeptus Arbites Belisarion Graecus was the last to fall. Using his skills with a bolt pistol, he took out demon after demon with precision aim. The holy inscriptions on the sanctified weapon glowed brighter with every shot, and the Emperor's wrath flowed through the explosive shells, overcoming many a demon's unnatural toughness. But all things must end, and Graecus finally ran out of shells as well. He met his fate, praising the Emperor and pistol whipping a final demon into death as the hordes tore into his armour.

   The Cudgel of Drusus is marked as lost in the warp on Imperial records.

10 Best Open Source RPGs (Role-Playing Games)

 
Top ten RPGs - I made a video of this. People who love text so much they would marry it, will be delighted to see this concise side-product of that video. A list of sorts. With thoughts that came to me after the fact. Especially nagging thoughts.


The bestness of films is determined by their profitability. Which one can claim allows concluding the quality of the product. Maybe the marketing is part of that product.

Whatever the case, none of this is applicable to the underground niche pro-tip specialized target audience-seeking open source games, where using the word choice "open source" is valid enough to stop writing and discuss philosophy.

Thereby I declare that "best" means "complete-ish, playable, fun" which is 33%-66% objective. I present to you - in order of "not like in the video" - the best eleven minus one* RPGs that ever existed yet.

RPG platforming is still a concept to get used to but for some reason It works well. As for balancing: I have no idea if I could finish it with melee weapon choice. Ardentryst's ending is a little anticlimactic but I'm just happy to have an ending at all.

I don't actually know what the ending looks like of the classic Diablo-esque game for Linux and the open source sphere. Freedroid RPG seems however to dictate: pick either fun (hacking droids) or progression (experience point rewards in exchange for direct kills).

Custom resolution support AND 3d graphics is great, the UI is tiny however in DNT. I just reported a build error and a fix was pushed hours ago, so I'm looking forward to trying to compile it again! The vertical slice that is the game is not very thick but so colorful! Nerdy post-apocalyptic humor FTW.

The first time I saw FLARE art in another game was Erebus. The D&D feel is great for someone like me who loves the memory of playing Baldur's Gate II but hates actually investing the actual time to actually play it actually. The most boring part so far was finding new items - there seem to be so few and none seem special. On the other hand: less item micro-management.

It is weird that this even exists. It is so freaking polished. The only weird things are: shooting corners of walls and... I guess the android version setup. Theoretically FLARE is totally mod-able. I worry that the people that are not scared away by the documentation might be the kind of people who will just start writing their own engine instead.

I fell in love with only one jRPG - a genre I usually hate for the grinding and unskippable animations/sequences - because it had painless and low quantity grinding. Fall of Imiryn is short and sweet. I actually contributed a little. It is complete and done and as long as Python 2 remains, it will be playable. That is at least 5 more months and 6 days.

When I enjoy the humor of a game, that can be the hook it needs to catch me in its net. FreeDink is cartoonishly-brutal, silly, stupid. The hero is a prick. I like it. I haven't ever finished it yet but I am curious to one day find out his punishment.

Speaking of humor: this is a joke. I love it. I did play nethack but it was kind of a social pressure thing. For IVAN however I was glad to learn the initially painful controls.

I am very much not into Wesnoth or Panzer General. Therefore if I ever ran into Hale before, I had ignored it. I was wrong to do so. I like the spells, I like the relative casualness (compared to roguelikes). I don't know whether I like the inventory management yet. It has absolutely no sound, which is a problem for me. Others will love that fact.

When upon entering a game it feels like I should know what is going on, a variety of emotions is triggered. The end sum (pun intended): is it worth it, let me work it. Summoning Wars is dead, long live Summoning Wars. Just like OGRE. Im impressed by how much playtime it has already. The visuals (oh the grass textures) might prevent me from even going beyond the first few maps but still one of the best.

I lost my patience on my lest test-play of Valyria Tear and used Cheat Engine (don't ask). My only regret was that it took me hours to remember to use speedhack. The extreme difficulty is just as problematic as the slowness of movement and battle - for the kind of time-greedy being that I am. Story seems cool though and the characters too.

*try guessing (without watching the video) which of these actually does not belong on the top10 list!

While re-finding all these projects, I was really happy that SourceForge still exists. Didn't expect to ever think that thought again.

Please use the video comment section to discuss this article.

This post was retrieved from freegamer.blogspot.com.

Download IGI 2 Covert Strike Highly Compressed For Pc

IGI 2 Covert Strike Full Review

Welcome to IGI 2 Covert Strike is one of the best Shooting game especially for shooting lovers that has been developed by Innerloop published by Codemasters.This game was released on March 3,2003.

Screenshot

IGI 2 Covert Strike System Requirements

Following are the minimum system requirements of IGI 2.

• Operating System: Windows XP/ Windows Vista/ Windows 7/ Windows 8 and 8.1
• CPU: Pentium 4 1.4GHz
• RAM: 512 MB
• Hard Disk Space: 2 GB

AX-029, Crackpots!

Today's episode is about Crackpots, the Activision game that was the first 2600 game by Dan Kitchen, who went on to make many more (and is still making them!). I hope that you enjoy the episode.

Next on the podcast is Malagai, by Answer Software. If you have this game, I would love to see a photo of it on Facebook or Twitter, see the links below for those. If you have any thoughts on the game, please send them to me at 2600gamebygame@gmail.com by end of day 17 February. Just tell me what you think of it, I will take care of the nuts and bolts of the game. As always, I thank you for listening.

Crackpots on Random Terrain
Crackpots on Atari Protos
Dan Kitchen's web site
Dan Kitchen's Games site
Dan Kitchen interview by Classic Gamer 74
Atari Age thread on Keystone Kapers 2 discovery
Crackpots patch on Digital Press
...and accompanying letter
Crackpots commercial
Jim's Ferg Quest sprite hack
Ryan's Atari Age High Score Showdown post for Crackpots
Wilson Oyama's Crackpots playthrough video
No Swear Gamer 521 - Crackpots
Sean's Autobiography of a Schnook Podcast Chapter 5

Barbarrossa Pictures

 
A couple of weeks ago I ran a cracking weekend of 3 x 1941 Russian Front games for Big Chain of Command at the Wargames Holiday Centre for Mr Freeth - Here are a few pictures from the weekend, which was based around the German drive to Cherkassy in August 41
A great time was had by all, many thanks for a great weekend played in an excellent spirit

Rubicon T34 supported by Warlord and Crusader infantry  

Ruined building from Charlie Foxtrot

Germans chased out of the factory courtyard

T34 turns into a T26! (the wonders of photography)

Warlord T26, wrecked Opel from Anyscale models 

T26's move up past a Things from the Basement house, re-worked 20mm 4Ground house on the right 

The 2 rear buildings are from Scenic Store

Cat and mouse in the outskirts of Cherkassy

 

Rubicon Panzer III supports the infantry

Pioneer section moves along a ridge to clear the minefields

Black Tree Design and Warlord infantry, 

Soviets attempt to stop the pioneers clearing the minefields

Warlord and Crusader Soviets

T26 comes off worse from an encounter with a Panzer IV

BTD ATR section waits for a target

Building burns following a Stuka attack

Grenadiers come under fire

Soviets attempt to outflank the pioneers while they clear the mines

Game 2: Patrol phase

Outskirts of Cherkassy - ready for game 3

The table for the weekend

Anti- tank rifle section after scaring a Stug!

Game 2 - Stuka hits a Charlie Foxtrot building in its first game....typical

Mortal Kombat 11 | Release Date, Trailer Revealed

Mortal Kombat 11 | Release Date, Trailer Revealed

Mortal Kombat has been one of the most popular fighters game in the world for decades.

NetherRealm Studios announced Mortal Kombat 11 to the world in an official revealed trailer at The Game Awards 2018. The trailer featured a bit of new look for the series. Mortal Kombat series co-creator Ed Boon revealed the first trailer for his new game today, showing a shocking, bloody battle between Raiden and Scorpion. And after that another Scorpion. The trailer guaranteed a full reveal of the game in January. 

Mortal Kombat 11 will release on 23 April 2019 for multiple platforms including PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch.




As you can most likely guess after watching, the trailer for Mortal Kombat 11 was typically bloodier. With heads being removed from bodies and blood flowing freely. Also, the trailer seems to feature just how detailed the brutality zoom-ins will be in the new game.

There were also multiple Scorpions. While the first one got taken out by Raiden, the second transformed into a being of fire and flew through Raiden, decimating him. It is unclear what the presence of two Scorpion implies yet, but it could be possible that Mortal Kombat 11 has something multi-universe sort of thing going on. 

The trailer ended on a rendition of Shao Kahn waiting on a throne, imploring consumers to preorder the title so as to get Shao Kahn and beta access to the new game. Preorders for both console and PC start on December 7, 2018, Although there's no word on when the game's beta access period will start.

More more updates, stay in touch with the "Pro-BrosArena"


Also Read: Upcoming Games Of 2019 | Confirmed Release Dates | PS4, Xbox One, PC

Here's To Lookin' At You, Bugs!

Image used for criticism under "Fair Use." All rights belong to Warner Brothers.

"What's up, Doc?"

Bugs Bunny was one of the great idols of my childhood. Looney Tunes used to regularly come on Cartoon Network, and Bugs was the one I always wanted most to see. In fact, Cartoon Network used to dedicate the entire month of June to playing Bugs Bunny cartoons nonstop. Such a bold move could hardly be imagined today. Even more inconceivable were his appearances at that time beside Michael Jordan in Space Jam, and Mickey Mouse in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The latter more productive than the former.



I speak of Bugs since he just turned seventy-five this year. In the few moments I've spent with him, eyes glued to the TV set, so many are fond. Who wouldn't adore his arguments with Daffy over whether it was "Rabbit Season" or "Duck Season"? We all know the routine. Bugs would concede that it's "Rabbit Season", but Daffy, not one to agree with Bugs, thoughtlessly insists that its "Duck Season", only to get his bill shot off by Elmer. Though Bugs hardly ever got on Elmer's good side, either. As much as he tried to be very, very quiet in his hunting for rabbits, Bugs usually got the upper-hand. Sometimes he did it by cross-dressing as a woman, most famously in What's Opera, Doc? Now remembered as one of Bugs and Elmer's finest, What's Opera, Doc? is a fanciful adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, with the "Tannhauser Chorus" and "Ride of the Valkyries" included. The short was produced in the 1950's, when the Chuck Jones cartoons acquired a more modernist art style. We see this on point when Elmer's fury to command the weather gets the background into more clashing hues and greys. What stands out about this particular episode is that Elmer actually succeeds in killing Bugs, to which he weeps. I was shocked upon first seeing this. Tom never caught Jerry. Sylvester never caught Tweety. Wile E. Coyote never caught Road Runner. Yet here we were. Though Bugs slipped in a final comment to berate my surprise, "What did you expect from an opera, a happy ending?"

Even when Bugs was shamelessly ripping off Tom and Jerry's Cat Concerto in Rhapsody Rabbit, he managed to get a good laugh or two in. I mean hell, he literally pulls out a gun to shoot a coughing audience member. I suppose a bullet does better to silence than cough drops.

Bugs had wit. I'd argue that's part of his draw. With so many one-liners, Bugs comes across as an animated Groucho Marx. (Bugs has even put on a Groucho disguise). The rabbit always used his brains to get the upper-hand over his opponents, and being a cartoon, he resolves matters in ways that may surprise the viewer. Compare this to Popeye the Sailor, whom while being entertaining in his own right, always ended his conflicts in the same way: with spinach and muscle. Though the type of character Bugs is comes from the Trickster archetype. NPR compared him favorably to Puck, Anansi, and the Monkey King. Further, the radio station quoted Robert Thompson, who directs a pop-culture studies program at Syracuse University. Thompson remarked of Bugs that, "He defies authority. He goes against the rules. But he does it in a way that's often lovable, and that often results in good things for the culture at large," (Sutherland). Chuck Jones, always made sure that Bugs only acted when provoked. His trickery was a matter of defending his dignity.

And to my recollection, he always won.

Image used for criticism under "Fair Use." All rights belong to Warner Bros.

Bibliography

Sutherland, J.J. "Bugs Bunny: The Trickster, American Style." NPR, January 6, 2008. Web. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17874931

Roman Update

           The Roman count has now reached 4 cohorts, and this batch are ready to go off to their new home

                                                         Cohort number 4- Foundry figures -

Top 5 Reasons Why Your PUBG Is Lagging And How To Solve It?

It has become a common thing to lag in big games like PUBG, Apex legends etc. Especially, if we are in a serious situation 
and at that moment PUBG lags then our frustration and angriness go beyond the limit. This has become a serious problem even for a pro player. So if you are looking for the solution to this problem then you have visited the right place. This post will mention the reasons for which PUBG lags and the solution to it.

Why PUBG lags?

Reasons and solutions to PUBG lag :

1. Running of unnecessary apps in the background:

           Believe it or not but just running unnecessary apps or installing any app or updating an app in the background decreases your internet speed which finally results in PUBG lagging. 

Solution:   So, if you want to keep a distance from lagging make sure that there are no online apps running in the background. And avoid updating or installing any app at that time.

2. Bandwidth limits set by your ISP(Internet Service Provider):

         If your internet speed is good but still your PUBG lags whereas you can run other online apps such as Youtube etc easily then there is a high chance that your ISP might have set limits in that particular game.

For example- Sometimes the ISP set 25% bandwidth only for games and the rest 75% for other online apps. This is done to distribute the internet equally otherwise it would become difficult for normal people to surf the internet.

Solution: In that case, you can change your ISP or simply use a VPN. There are many free gaming VPNs present on the internet. You can use one to increase your internet speed. This can decrease PUBG lagging to a great extent.

3. Excess heating of PC or mobile:

Excess heating of Smartphone

         While playing any game, you must ensure that your CPU or phone should not heat too much. In case of excess heating, your game will surely lag because heat is the biggest enemy of the processor and hence the processor is unable to work properly. For such reasons, gaming PCs are specially designed for proper cooling.

Solution: Ensure the proper cooling of the laptop or computer and in case of mobile you should let it rest for some time to attain normal temperature. 

Note: You should never play games on a mobile while it's charging. This not only makes your phone hot but also it is unhealthy for your battery and sometimes if the battery is a low-quality battery, the battery can even burst. 

You can visit this article for more information on overheating of phones.

You can visit this website to know how to cool down your android phone.
You can visit this website to know how to cool down your PC.

4. Your PC or mobile does not meet the recommended requirements of the game:

Requirements don't meet

      This is a well-known problem. Sometimes PUBG can lag because your device can lack many components including processor or graphics card or GPU or RAM or Memory or any other component. In that case, though your ping may be okay still the PUBG will lag.

Solution: If you are highly addicted to this game and want to play the game anyhow without lagging you can change the components of the PC while in case of mobile you need to buy a new mobile.

To know the minimum and recommended requirements of PUBG PC click here.

5.  Playing in the farthest server:

       Another reason for which your PUBG is lagging is that you are playing in a server far away from you. In PUBG there is an option to select servers like Asia, Europe etc. If you belong to Asia and playing in Europe server then your PUBG may lag since it takes time to communicate and get a response from them. 

Solution: You should play at the nearest server. For example, if you live in the Asian continent you should play at Asia server while if you live in America you should play the South or North America server. You can notice less PUBG lag if you play in your nearest server.

Note: The above reasons are also applicable to the whole internet services. You might have noticed that sometimes though your internet speed is very high but still many websites or pages take too much time to reload. This is because their server is very far and takes too much time to communicate with them.

If you are suffering excess lagging of PUBG, you can complain at the official PUBG support page by clicking here. 

FAMILY HOUSE + DOWNLOAD + TOUR + CC CREATORS | The Sims 4 |

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Goodbye To Chess

Chess was important growing up. When I finally got my own room as a kid, it was the former den, filled with my father's chess trophies and books from his time on the Penn State chess team. I wasn't terribly into chess, but I read all the books in the den, mostly sports novels (ugh), chess strategy and how-to books. For a while in high school, I brought my chess set and played in science class, where the game was socially acceptable. My player's handbook stayed at home. I was a solid, thinking several moves ahead kinda kid, so the chess books were mostly aspirational. I felt like I wasn't quite smart enough to go full chess, like a wannabe wizard with an eight intelligence. Magic missile was just out of my grasp.

When I opened the store in 2004, I had a very respectable collection of chess sets, amazing really, for a 940 square foot store (amazing equals dumb for non retailers). These were all on full display, and about once a week, I would remove the pieces of each set, dust the board, and put them back on. My father was impressed when he visited. When it came to chess, I knew how to represent. This was all incredibly time consuming and eventually I lost several boxes, making selling them pretty difficult. Oh, and then there were the missing pieces. Realizing the queen is missing from a $250 Egyptian chess set will make you seek out boxed chess sets pretty fast.

As the display sets sold, their replacements tended not to get re-opened, and eventually not re-ordered as the plain white box did nothing to help move them. Chess sets sold poorly. They have always sold poorly. They sell poorly now. Stores in the region who do much better with chess, who dominate with chess? They sell poorly there too. It's a legacy item, an item that says "games" to the general public. It's a touchstone for me and my father. But chess, to be honest, is a complete waste of space.

That's not true everywhere. There are stores in the Midwest that do gangbusters with chess. But here? The serious players buy their sets online, often through chess organizations or just Amazon. In the store, I think it's enough to have a tournament size Staunton set and a roll up travel set, but beyond that there are hundreds of themed chess sets that will make you crazy as customer seek them out. Civil War? Simpsons? Harry Potter? You could stock an entire store with what's out there ... and promptly go out of business.

I used to special order sets and it was time consuming and unrewarding, unlike the work with other types of games. Help a board game customer and you may have created a regular board game customer and maybe even a board game hobbyist. Help someone with a chess set and you've sold them a chess set and you'll never seem them again.

I've watched my classic games numbers stagnate, even when I double or triple my selection. I've tried more and less and different and boxes with pictures and on display and nope, none of it works. It's dead here. I've been foolish not to drop it sooner. I would look at the corner where our "classic" games reside and fantasize about what I would put there. Frisbee golf. A coffee kiosk. Anything but chess.

With 25% Chinese tariffs, I'm extremely concerned about board games. But then there's chess. All those classic games come from China, really. I had forgotten. It's not even on my radar anymore. We just didn't re-order classic games after the holidays and nobody seemed to mind, except the occasional random customer who has clearly never been here before. We send them to the regional store that has a better selection and also doesn't make money selling them. Then that classic game space got taken up with profitable stuff. So with tariffs on the way, a better use of that space, and performance numbers that I use an example at trade shows of what you should drop, I think it's time to say goodbye to chess. Sorry dad.