The Hopi prophecy for the year 2012 is the most important one, in my opinion. Whereas many prophecies speak of this "end of the world," the Hopi are the ones who've given us the most specific instructions for what to do.

According to most ancient prophecies, the Shift of Ages in 2012 is not necessarily the end of the world. It could be the end of an era of darkness on the Earth.

But according to the Hopi prophecy, WE are the ones who get to choose.

The future, or lack of it, is up to us!

While the Hopi had an oral rather than written tradition, they also created images that helped to tell the story, as reminders.

The one that is of most interest here is called the Hopi Prophecy Stone.

Although the stone has been much damaged and even altered, we will be addressing it as the Elders say it was, before its discovery by the white people.

The Hopi Prophecy Stone depicts the Creator of the world (far left), and beside him, the Circle of the World, which it was the Hopi's task to protect.

In the Creator's hand is held the two destinies humanity can choose -- one that leads to a good resolution and one that leads to a dead end.

The box represents all the people.

The diverging point of the Creator's path shows a time when some people would break away from the true path, and go the way of falseness and wickedness.

The path at the bottom represents the true path, the path of goodness.

It shows 3 calamities, as circles representing "shaken gourds" or world-shaking events, which some have interpreted as world wars. A third world war would therefore be indicated. (Could it be the unremitting war that the USA has conjured up against the Middle East? We can hope that nothing worse is predicted.)

In between and beyond the calamities, the sign of growing corn (life) combined with the sign of a cane (long life) reasserts humanity's continuity.

The last circle is said to be the final calamity, the purification of evil from the face of the Earth.

At the end of the righteous path, we find the Creator waiting for us again: the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega.

This is the spiritual path, the path of goodness and kindness.

Reunion with the Divine is the goal and destination of this path.

I would add to this interpretation that the true path is the humble path, the one closest to the Earth and nature, grounded. In this image, it is the path that is closest to the Creator.

I believe the upper path being the false trail, shows that the path of domination, of power/control, of seeking to be superior over others, is definitely a wrong turn.

And that a way of living in balance and respect with nature is part of the good path. Something Native Americans have warned Europeans from the beginning. (This may be another reason Wicca and Paganism are increasing in popularity, as more people leave the wicked path behind.)

I think it is also not coincidence that the sign of the corn is used. Life could have been signified by the cane alone. But it is a growing plant that indicates the path of goodness, and the fruit of that path.

Nature is the good path.

Although here I have drawn in the heads of the figures, the Elders say that the figures on the Hopi Prophecy Stone originally had no heads. (I've indicated this with the heads not joined to the bodies.)

This could indicate that those following the path of wickedness are not choosing wisely.

That would seem to be evident, as we can now see the inevitable result of small personal wickednesses such as greed, self-interest, insecurity, animosity, etc. Even more visible are the growing results of these: violence, war, domination, sacrificing of others and the future for personal gain, etc.

According to Martineau, however, it signals that death must come of following the wicked path.

Perhaps both meanings would apply.

The zigzag path seems to indicate that the way of wickedness is irresolute and crooked. It reminds me of politicians promising first one thing and then the opposite, depending on whatever people want to hear.

Being guided by greed, control, and fear, the Path must veer hither and yon according to the needs of the moment. By contrast, the path of truth is always aimed at the Divine, and does not waver in momentary crises.

Notice that before the third calamity, the corn symbol touches the top line. This shows that people on the path of wickedness can change direction at that point, and rejoin the path of goodness.

After that point, it is too late, for humanity's careless wickedness brings us to a dead end. The back-curving line shows a point of no return.

The symbol of the corn becomes even more prophetic, as we now seem to have seen the end of natural corn. GMOs have invaded even the purest corn stocks in the world.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that corn is used as a symbol of life, here. Of course, it was a staple crop of the Hopi. But perhaps the corn touching the wicked path is also a symbol that we can choose the wicked way with our food supply, like genetically altering them.

Perhaps the path from goodness to wickedness goes both ways?

The Hopi Prophecy Stone shows us that the parameters of our choice determines the future we will have.

Are we headed toward a Golden Age?

Or extinction?

It is not a matter of what we wish for.

It is a matter of what actions we take.

The Hopi prophesy tells us what we must do to create a positive future for the Earth -- a future in which humanity continues to exist.

This makes it the most important of all the 2012 predictions.

Not just doom and gloom, nor hope and pray, but the concrete actions and mindsets that will see us through!

With Bright Blessings,

Although often confused with guilt and shame, remorse is actually a much higher calibrating "emotion." It's the 21st Century alternative to feeling bad about yourself, and making others around you feel bad too.

It not only feels better and helps you move forward in your life, but it is healing for the Earth... and as we ride the 2012 Transition, Mother Earth needs all the help we can give her!

This article explains how it works, and why you are worthy of forgiveness.

Remorse is a method to heal yourself, and others, after making a mistake.

After all, anything that brings a feeling of remorse is a mistake -- just a mistake. Did you know that's the origin of the word "sin"? "Sin" was an archery term; it means missing the mark. That leaves a lot more possibility for positive growth, doesn't it!

So you don't need to berate yourself for eternity. There is nothing to berate yourself for if you didn't know any better, or if you did the best you could.

And I believe we always do the best we can, with what we have in the moment.

We're not perfect. Sometimes we do things we're not proud of. But, in the moment, that was undoubtedly the best that we could do.

Maybe you gave in to your meaner impulses. If you could have held yourself to a higher ideal in that moment, you would have done so. What would you have to gain, by not?

Maybe you didn't know how to do better. You can only work with what you know.

God does not expect you to know what you do not yet know!

For whatever reason -- fatigue, stress, anxiety, confusion, distraction, etc -- maybe you didn't do the best you hoped for. Maybe it wasn't as good as you could have done another day.

But you obviously did the best you could in that moment.

Why would anyone do less than that?

God doesn't need you to burn in hell for it, not even the hell of your own harsh thoughts. She only wants you to learn from the process, and to use it to grow. That's what remorse is all about.

There are four parts to the process of remorse.

The first part is a pang in your Heart. There is an energy there, call it an emotion if you like, that signals you are not happy with your actions.

From here, many people get derailed into guilt, instead of continuing the process of remorse.

The second part is the most important, the core of remorse...

You accept that you made a mistake. And you make an unemotional, practical assessment of your actions.

When your actions and choices don't live up to your ideals or ethics... you figure out how you could do better, discover what was moving in you (probably subconsciously) that caused that action, and -- here's the critical bit -- resolve to do better next time.

Remorse is calm and determined. Rather than destroying your self-respect, remorse enhances it. It provides you with the opportunity to grow, to live up to your ideals.

It recognises that within you there is a perfect being, capable of the best.

And that there is always another opportunity to try.

Contrast that with shame, which says that you are worthless and hopeless. There's just nowhere good to go, from there!

Remorse doesn't take the mistake personally. It sees an action as wrong, but not you as a person.

Remorse knows that people can't accurately, honestly be judged in terms of "wrong" and "bad."

The next step is always making amends. You must undo the error, to the best of your ability. And apologise, if it won't make things worse.

We must be clear -- this step has nothing to do with being forgiven by another person. Whether they forgive you or not is about them and their process, and is not about you.

To seek someone's forgiveness when they aren't ready to give it can be a further harm.

You fix the mistake if you can. That is the only purpose of this step.

Inherent in this process is self-forgiveness. You see a mistake, you acknowledge it, you figure out what went wrong, you fix it if you can, and you determine to not make that mistake again.

When you've done all that, forgiveness is a lot easier.

You can forgive yourself, because you know you aren't a bad person who intentionally did wrong... and because you are doing your best not to slip up that way in the future.

No one is perfect. No one is expected, by the Divine, not to make mistakes. On the contrary, that's often how we learn and grow.

That's all the Divine wants of you. Not perfection. But learning and growing from your slip-ups.

So you can accept that you did the best you were able to, at the time. And forgive yourself, for being human and humanly fallible.

If you get stuck in guilt, look for the underlying shame. Shame is like Velcro to guilt. It tells you that you deserve to feel terrible guilt, that you are not worthy of forgiveness or compassion or kindness.

But shame LIES.

You are worthy of forgiveness, because you are not a flawed person.You are Divinity tasting life as a mortal individual -- nothing else.

It doesn't matter what your family or coworkers or boss thinks of you. It doesn't matter how you've been treated by others -- that's nothing to do with YOU, that's all about the (human) blindness of others.

You are infinitely worthy and loveable!

And when others can't see that it's only because they haven't realised that they are infinitely worthy and loveable. When people get tied down, in their minds, into one little frail animal body and one small human life, all kinds of such misconceptions arise!

But it's not the truth.

The truth is that you are eternal -- learning and growing and polishing yourself on challenge after challenge, life after life.

The soul that is truly you is infinitely worthy and Divine. The body and mind you think of as you are only a costume that put on for a while, and then point aside, to go home for dinner and a bath, a good rest, to get up and come play again.

So how do you as a mere mortal forgive yourself?

The same way you forgive anyone... With compassion for your human frailty: you really are doing our best with what you have. With perspective: understanding that this life is a playground and schoolroom, and not the life-or-death struggle it seems. With determination to not make the same mistake again.

With Bright Blessings,

Last weekend I had a lively discussion with a friend about Pagans she has met who don’t condone or accept the LGBT community, especially as it is intermingled with Paganism.  She has met some of this ilk (I have not) and described how they do not condone non-straight sexuality when it is expressed in Paganism, and how this type also has a limited view of what should be expressed as Paganism, and other expressions are wrong.

I gave her the impression I was surprised to hear this, but it was not surprise, but shock.  I knew intellectually that this type exists (since all types of everything exist,) but this was the first I had heard of actual encounters with such thinking.

We followers of Earth-based spirituality are persecuted and ridiculed enough with us doing it to ourselves.  Think of how Christine O’Donnell (who has no business holding public office, but that is another story) was openly ridiculed when an old clip of her surfaced where she stated she dabbled in witchcraft.  It tanked whatever chances she had in her Senatorial race, and was it because she was the wrong picture to put on the pagan community?  No, it was because any inference that one is a practicing pagan is social suicide in most parts of the United States.

We pagans need to be accepting of each other, and open to the great cosmos that is all of us.  There is no “right” or “wrong” way to be a pagan.

Those who think otherwise are suffering from cognitive dissonance.

Do you have all of your SUPPLIES?

In most Pagan traditions it is very important to purify or cleanse a space prior to beginning any sort of ritual. Although there are a different ways of doing this, how you do it will depend on the tradition you follow as well as what you feel comfortable with.

Usually, when ritually purifying an area, most do it deosil and spiraling inwards to the center. There are times when moving in a widdershins direction is appropriate, most notably for Banishing Ritual.


These methods are some examples of common ways to cleanse a space for ritual.

Smudging

Smudging uses smoke, which will carry negative energy away from the area. Traditionally White Sage is used, however, other dried herbs can be added, such as Cilantro, Cedar, Lavender and Mugwort. The herbs are bound with string into a bundle, which is commonly referred to as a “stick”.

When lighting the bundle, try to make it flame for a moment if possible, then blow the flame out. This will leave you with a smoldering, smoking herb bundle. Once you have achieved the smoldering bundle stage it is time to smudge the house.

Now you don’t take the bundle and rub it on the walls and other things in the room, which would make a mess and probably ruin a few things and maybe even start a nice fire. What you do is this. Hold the smoldering bundle in one hand or in a heatproof object, like a shell. With either a fan or your free hand you waft the smoke to the edges of the room, making sure to get it into the corners.

When you have finished smudging you can either snuff out the smoldering end of the bundle by setting it into some sand or by crushing the end. An alternative method is to douse it under a bit of water, making sure to let it dry completely before attempting to use it again.

Sweeping
By long tradition, the broom is associated with cleaning and purification. The broom can be either a special one used solely for ritual cleansing or even your household broom. Use a broom or besom going around the edges of the space, with your intent being to sweep negativity away as you go. Here's a good idea. Start and finish near a door--that way, negative energy is swept outside, rather quite literally.

Asperging
Asperging is the sprinkling with a liquid in order to effect spiritual and magical cleansing. Most people will associate Asperging with the Catholic Church, however the practice is also widely used by pagans for cleansing prior to rituals.

It can be accomplished in many ways. The simplest of these is to have a premixed liquid of your choice and bundle of fresh herbs that you can dip into the water. Then you take the herbs, dip them in the liquid and with a quick flick you throw the liquid off the herb and into area or onto the object to be cleansed. You don’t want or need to have a lot of liquid being thrown though. Just small droplets are perfect. Herbs that are prefect to use are Sage, Lavender, Vervain, Hyssop, Pine, Rue and Rosemary.

Another option that can be used quite effectively to cleanse a space is the use of incense. This can be either in cone form, stick, or powder and charcoal. The incense should be for working with cleaning, purification and even protection if you want to add that bit into the cleansing.

During your cleansing and purification of your space you can also include a little chant to augment the process. There are many to be found on the Internet as well as in books. You might even have one in mind already, in that case write it down so you will remember it for the next time you want to cleanse a room.

In addition to the above, I also ensure that the space is physically cleaned as well. I try to use a non-toxic homemade cleanser to do this. How you physically clean is of course up to you.

I would be remiss if I didn’t do a shameless plug for our online store where we carry many items that are perfect for what I have just talked about. Stop by Grove of the Ancients Pagan Marketplace today and order cleansing supplies.

Blessed Be!

View the original article here

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Last week we received Hues and Cues from The Op Games. We recently finished playing through Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion (a fantastic game in The Op Games catalogue designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim, and Kami Mandell that you should absolutely pick up to play with your family) and wanted to give another game from the same publisher a go. I picked Hues and Cues because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other “test whether our minds think the same way” games such as The Mind  and Wavelength.

In Hues and Cues, players gather around a large central board comprised of 480 graduating colors of the rainbow surrounded by an x-y axis and scoring table. White and black (which are technically not colors) are conspicuously absent as are shades (mixtures of color + black; e.g., grey) and tints (mixtures of color + white; e.g., cream).  On each player’s turn, they draw a card with four colors and the x-y axis codes of those colors depicted and they select one.

They are in the role of the clue giver. They attempt to convey which one they selected using a one word clue without directly pointing to it, naming its x-y axis, or using basic color references such as “yellow” or “green”. After they’ve provided their clue to everyone, each of the other players gets to select and mark a color on the board with their token that they think is the one to which the clue giver was referring. Then the clue giver gets a second shot at leading everyone to the correct color and this time they follow the same rules except that they can use a two word clue if they wish. Once again, all of the other players select and mark a color. After everyone has finished marking colors, the clue giver lays a 3x3 square cutout over top the board so that the color they were giving clues against lies directly in the middle. Any player who has a marker in that spot gets 3 points, any player who has a marker in one of the surrounding 8 spots gets 2 points for each marker of theirs in that area, and finally, any player who has a marker in one of the 16 spots surrounding the cutout gets 1 point for each marker of theirs in that area. Meanwhile, the clue giver scores 1 point for every marker (of any player)
inside the cutout.

Just as with Wavelength, Hues and Cues reinforced the absolute truth that we all think a bit differently. When I say lilac and imagine the corresponding color, it’s likely that it’s at least a few steps away on the board from the color you imagine. Ditto for emerald and periwinkle. And don’t get me started on apricot, as we had a big debate among 4 players on exactly which color square corresponds to that. Then there are misunderstandings in the clues themselves. In our group this happened when a clue giver said robin and I assumed they meant the dominant color of the bird (orange) but they were thinking of the iconic eggs of the bird instead (a shade of blue). It also happened that time a clue giver said bazooka and I assumed they meant the rocket launcher (brown) and they were thinking of the bubble gum (pink). 

Overall, I think Hues and Cues is a fine party game. My core gaming circle enjoys heavier strategy games, but we often look to a party game to start off our evening and get everyone comfortable before breaking into smaller groups to play the brain busters. Hues and Cues  works well for us in that role. I prefer Wavelength ever so slightly over Hues and Cues so if you’ve only got the budget to add one more party game to your collection I’d lean in that direction, but if you’re open to a couple of games or if you already have Wavelength and want something a little different, pick up Hues and Cues. One thing I really appreciate about Hues and Cues is that its language independent. As long as all players speak a common language, it doesn’t matter what that language is. You could even easily use sign language to give the clues. In this way, it’s especially a great game to bring into your collection if you host international board gamers (I’m looking at you, game cafe owners and Air B&B hosts!). Please note: while it should be obvious, this is not a game for the colorblind.

You can pick up Hues and Cues  at Amazon for under $25.

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Publisher: The Op Games
Players: 3-10
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): ~25 minutes
Game type: party games

Rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

I was so excited when Jamey Stegmaier’s Plans and Ploys  expansion for Tapestry  (published by Stonemaier Games) showed up in the mail. I’d  played a lot of Tapestry games with my social isolation pod (see my review for Tapestry  here) over the summer and I was eager to explore the new Tapestry cards and civilizations promised in the expansion. Beyond these updates, the Plans and Ploys expansion also includes a new game element (Landmark cards), new space tiles, a handy bag for drawing exploration tiles, and landmark place marker tokens which offer an easy way to identify which landmarks have already been claimed just by looking at the central board.

As soon as we unboxed Plans and Ploys, we invited a few of our friends over to give it a go. Our previous social isolation pod had disbanded with the spike in new COVID cases in our state (Iowa: ground zero for the pandemic once the fall semester of school started) and none of the members of our newly formed pod had ever played the base game before. So we weren’t sure whether we should play the base game without the expansion first or if the expansion was straightforward enough to merge into the base game in a way that didn’t prove too complicated for new players to understand. We spent a bit of time going over the base game rules with our friends and then read the rules addendum for the expansion together and decided to jump straight into playing with the expansion. It was a good decision. Everyone got into the flow of the game without any difficulty.

I played the Advisors civilization. This is a new civ from the expansion and I wasn’t sure if I was in love with its special abilities as compared to the other new civs I’d peeked at before we shuffled all the civs and randomly drew for each player.  One point per Tapestry card didn’t seem to amount to much, and at first I didn’t see the power in forcing others to take my Tapestry cards instead of drawing from the deck. But as the game unfolded, I quickly realized that I could use the giveaway power to purge less helpful Tapestry cards from my hand and churn through the Tapestry deck much quicker in search of the really powerful cards. Plus, I could influence my opponents’ behavior by giving them Tapestry cards that would encourage them to favor certain actions over others and then use the knowledge of what they were likely going to do for my benefit. For example, I might give someone a Tapestry card that strongly encouraged military track advancement and then play a Tapestry card myself that allowed me to pick an opponent and a track and copy the opponents movement on that track. Knowing that a specific opponent would likely play heavy on the military track for their next several turns allowed me to be more confident in my bet on that player and that track in conjunction with the track+opponent copy power of my Tapestry card.  Overall, the Advisors are well balanced and constructed civilization, as are all the others from the expansion that I’ve studied closely.

At the beginning of the game, each player was given a Landmark card and building. These are personal goals that allow a player to place a building on their Capital city map once the goal is met. All of the goals are fairly straightforward, but as with other games that feature personal player goals, players have to be careful not to become overly focused on their goal at the expense of general game strategy.

All of the new components packaged with the Plans and Ploys  expansion feature the same artwork style and the same quality of construction as those of the base game. The additions integrate very well in terms of gameplay and strategy too. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Stonemaier revealed Jamey had done a Peter Jackson: Lord of the Rings  move with this game, designing everything all at once and just releasing it in separate parts as the base game and an expansion. I especially appreciated the new landmark tokens that saved me from that grumpy feeling that wells up inside of me when I realize someone else has already taken a track landmark I was eyeing. Now as soon as they claim a landmark from one of the tracks, the landmark token is removed, signaling its unavailability. Nice. 

Our game was really close in score as far as everyone could tell for most of its duration. I wasn’t sure I was going to win, but I was having a hell of good time playing the six, count them, SIX, civilizations I’d managed to acquire in the game due to some crafty manipulation of my technology cards in conjunction with track actions. I felt powerful. Very powerful. 

In the end, my husband Christopher won (but not by much) and I came in second. Our newbie players did pretty well at final scoring, especially considering they’d never played before and were playing against veterans.

I loved everything about this expansion. If you haven’t picked up the base game yet, call/email your local game store to reserve a copy (or order online from Stonemaier) and add Tapestry Plans and Ploys  to your order at the same time. You’ll want them both. And if you already own Tapestry, this expansion is calling your name. There’s still time for you to add it to your Christmas wishlist and if no one gifts it to you, you can give yourself a copy (you deserve it after surviving 2020!) when the new year rolls around.

-------------------------------------------------

Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Players: 1-5 (We played with 4)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 3 hours per game
Game type: tile placement, hand management, dice rolling, area control
Retail Price: $27 direct from the publisher https://store.stonemaiergames.com/collections/tapestry/products/tapestry-plans-ploys

Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

During the early reign of King Charles III (Charles the Simple) in West Francia, the area was besieged by Viking invasions, while the memory of the previous and frequent Saracen incursions was still fresh in the minds of the general populace. The Saracens were Muslim - mostly Berbers from Africa – and had only let up on the Franks because they’d been pushed back by the Vikings. The local nobles were left largely to fend the Vikings off on their own.

In Paladins of the West Kingdom, players assume the role of these unnamed nobles (most likely Dukes), working to keep the region safe and spread their faith (historically: Christianity).  I really enjoy this theme, and in fact, playing the game nurtured my interest in the historical kingdom of West Francia.  That’s why I can tell you that while the rulebook notes that the King lends his Paladins to the nobles to aid them in their quest, I’m giving all the credit for the loan to the designers, Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald.  Paladins are a fictional group of knights in French lore (think of them as similar to the Knights of the Round Table in British lore),  or alternatively, a translation of the Frankish royal title of Palatine Count, which was a noble that focused mostly on judicial and governing matters and was not known as a knight.

I’ve won a few and lost a few games of Paladins. It’s a worker placement game that incorporates card drafting.  At the beginning of every round, players draw the next three Paladin cards in their deck and choose one to play for the round, one to put back on top of their Paladin deck to draw during the next round, and one to put at the bottom of their Paladin deck. Each Paladin boosts faith, influence, or strength (usually more than one of these), and also provides a special benefit. If you’ve got players prone to analysis paralysis, this is where they may get stalled, especially in the first few rounds. After Paladins are selected and put into play, workers for the round are selected by each player and put into their personal resource supply. You have many stations on your player board to place your workers during the round,  and when you do so, your moves are independent and walled off from your opponents (they cannot tamper with your player board or placement of your workers on it). However, there is one area on the general board (the King’s Favour card area) where you can also place your workers and those spots are competitive. Also contributing to player interaction – some of the stations on your player board where you place workers allow you to move resources (monks and outposts) from your player board to the main board, consuming a competitive spot that provides a placement reward. And all the resource cards on display around the main board – the townsfolk you can hire, the walls you can build, the outsiders you can attack or convert, the tavern cards you draw workers from, and the suspicion cards you gain $$$ from, are all lucrative items for which players must compete. So we’ve got a good mix of independent action and player interaction in Paladins.  There are not a lot of opportunities for  “take that” behavior in this game, other than perhaps timing your draw of suspicion cards to trigger an inquisition when you know your opponents will suffer a penalty and be forced to take on more debt.

Giving the game more intellectual weight, worker placement on your board and the actions workers trigger often have additional requirements beyond number and types (i.e., colors) of workers. The actions triggered by worker placement may be constrained by your strength, faith, or influence level. And some spots or actions triggered by placing workers in those spots require money or provisions. All of these prerequisites can be gained as rewards from prior actions triggered by various worker placement, so much of the game is finding the most efficient ways to obtain prerequisites associated with the series of actions you’d like to take as the game progresses. I worried this decision making would be a weak point for analysis paralysis (I’m a pretty good candidate for testing potential AP, as I’m prone to it) and while there can be a bit of that during the game, nothing excessive was logged during our plays.  

The artists (Shem Phillips on graphic design and Mihajlo Dimitrievski on illustrations) have printed helpful indicators next to each placement location on boards and cards to identify any prerequisites as well as rewards. It’s an example of how the designers have worked with the artists to layer meaningful game information into the layers of artwork. In fact, all of the symbols implemented across the game components are really quite helpful. Bonus: once you familiarize yourself with them in one of the West Kingdom games, you’ll have learned them for the entire series as the artists reuse the same symbols in all three titles.

Beyond the iconography, the illustrations and other artwork are lovely. As with the iconography, the same style of artwork is implemented across the entire series and it carries the theme well. There was a good mix of cisgender representation, but not a lot of racial diversity, especially as would be suggested by the historical setting of the game (for example, Berbers in the area had skin tones ranging from light to to dark brown).

The components for Paladins of the West Kingdom are well made.

There are wooden meeples, an assortment of foldable boards constructed from cardboard, and various plastic coated card decks. We found the rulebook to be clear and direct, and there weren’t any items we had to look up online. It would have been nice if the designers included a player aid in the components, but I was able to compensate for the oversight by downloading a detailed player aid another user uploaded to the forums on BoardGameGeek.com.

Paladins of the West Kingdom is my favorite game of the West Kingdom series. All of the worker types and available actions make sense within the context of the theme, the mechanisms (worker placement, card drafting) integrate tightly with the scoring system to provide opportunities for building a victory point engine, and the game is complex and interesting yet still accessible for new players. The game is also a great value at its price point (approx $50) given you’ll get dozens of multiplayer games in before even a hint of same-o same-o creeps in. Many games with comparable replayability and complexity are double the price of Paladins. There’s also a solo play mode, which provides an additional way to explore the game.

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Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Players: 1-4 (We played with 2)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 2 hours per game
Game type: card drafting, worker placement
Retail Price: $50

Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

I had the opportunity to play a preview edition of Quests & Cannons: The Risen Islands  from Short Hop Games in advance of the game’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Designed by Eric and Shannon Geller, the preview edition arrived in a bright and colorful cover box that hinted at the beautiful artwork within.

We got it on the table for a family game straightaway. As we unpacked the contents of the box, I was impressed with the quality of the wooden components. Especially for a preview copy, everything was incredibly well made and sturdy, which speaks to the care and enthusiasm Eric and Shannon have put into the game. The illustrations on the components are just lovely! The artists (Lily Yao Lu, Tony Carter, Regis Torres, Sita Duncan, and Lilia Sitailo) did a really great job integrating the theme into the materials. 

Quests & Cannons  is very easy to setup and the rules are straightforward,  so you can get started playing pretty quickly; no one is going to be stuck spending an hour reviewing the rules upfront. The only thing you really need to work out is whether you want to play the game solo, cooperatively, free for all, or in teams.  Regardless of the mode you choose, you’ll sit down as a leader of a kingdom, tasked with bringing prosperity (i.e. victory points) to your people as you explore new islands that have suddenly cropped up in the sea. The revelation of the islands has coincided with devastating famine and drought hitting the kingdoms to varying degrees, so you’re also on a quest to find a way to reverse these plagues.

And since prosperity can be gained through attacking other leaders during explorations, you’ll need to be thinking about battle defense and offense.  My kids are teens, so they handled the attacks pretty well, but your mileage may vary with your youngsters, depending on their age and temperament.

The underlying mechanics of the game are pretty simple:

• Explore to gather resources across the islands and turn those resources in to complete quests (pick up and deliver)
• Follow explicit instructions on map clue cards to do X action at X location
• Attack rival ships

Players can do three actions on a turn, choosing freely between move, gather resources, and attack. 

I did find a few issues with the mechanics for the Geller team to address before the final version is distributed:

• Explain in the rulebook what should be done if the map clue drawn cannot possibly be used
• Add a 0 space to the action point track on each player’s ship to track the exhaustion of the final action point
• Implement monsters or other descriptive elements with differing effects into the treacherous sea spaces to add more complexity

Outside of these issues, I recommend Quests & Cannons as a family game for gateway gamers (i.e. new to the hobby) or those who gravitate toward light strategy games. It’s kid-friendly and there isn’t any analysis paralysis inherent in the game.  It plays in under 90 minutes, gives kids exposure to different play modes within the same game, tackles conflict resolution, and comes with a variety of board layouts to keep things interesting over multiple plays. Note that this is not a game I’d recommend for players who prefer deeper strategy. Highly experienced gamers drawn to seafaring themes and beautiful artwork can find similar mechanisms with a bit more depth and complexity in other games such as Islebound (designed by Ryan Laukat from Red Raven Games).

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Publisher: Short Hop Games
Players: 1-6 (We played with 4 and 5)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): about 90 minutes per game
Game type: pick-up and deliver,hand management, action points, kid-friendly, solo

Rating for Gateway Gamers: 

Rating for Advanced Board Gamers:                                          

Rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is one of our board game library essentials. There’s a great puzzle aspect to the game, it plays in under an hour, it’s family friendly, and it keeps analysis paralysis to a minimum. It also plays up to seven players, filling that niche when so many other games are capped at 4 or 5. For all of these reasons, when the Secrets and Soirees expansion debuted, we knew we had to have it.

The expansion offers additional room types for your castle, extra bonus cards, two new solo modes, higher player count (up to 8), and a new variant of head to head castle building where each player builds their own exclusive castle.

My personal favorite bit of the expansion is the puppy room!!! Adorable little corgis, just like we have at home.

We have played the expansion dozens of times. The first few months we had the game, we stuck to standard play, with everyone building two castles, and just focused on the fun of the new room types. These are activity rooms, secret rooms, and ballrooms. The activity rooms are thematically just that – clever little rooms themed around activities that give you points for each other room adjacent or penalize you if the listed prohibited room type is within the radius. The secret rooms are quite innovative. Each one has a little arrow printed on the tile pointing up, down, left, or right and takes on the same identity as the room indicated by the arrow, giving players a lot of flexibility based on placement in the castle. The ballrooms score points for specific room types in your neighbors’ castles. I really enjoyed these plays with the expanded room types and have not ever wanted to go back to playing with just the base game tiles again.

More recently, we’ve explored the new variants provided by the expansion. The Mad King’s Demand variant has players each build a single castle instead of managing two castle builds at once. It solves the problem of weaker players bringing a section of the entire table down in scoring and it plays so much more quickly than the regular game, so it can be a good choice for player counts larger than two. While it’s also easier and smoother in a two player game to play this way versus playing with the 3rd NPC player normally required in a two player game, I’m much less fond of using this variant with two players. I like the extra tiles to choose from when a third castle is in the mix; it helps make it a bit more challenging and feels more interactive.

The Automa solo mode is very easy to learn and it’s the most enjoyable solo game I’ve ever played because it feels like you’re actually playing against other players.  I played on level 3 – normal difficulty – and won 58 to 55/55. I actually found myself wishing for longer rounds. The other solo mode (which is dubbed the Introvert variant and noted by the rulebook as technically not an Automa mode) feels less like a game against peers and more like a game of solitaire puzzling. It’s faster than the Automa solo mode and has the quirky hack of allowing you to force the NPC opponent to take a specific tile you don’t mind it having when there’s only one that meets the selection filter used to draft a tile for them. This is because, in this mode, the NPC follows an algorithm to pick between a tile you’ve marked as favored and desired for yourself and all the other tiles in demand under its selection filter that round. If there’s only one tile that meets the filter and you mark another tile you actually want, there’s a 50/50 chance you’ll lose your coveted tile to the NPC. However, if you mark the tile that meets the filter as if you wanted it for yourself, it’s forced to select it. Then you can choose whatever tile you actually prefer for yourself instead. The introverted solo mode is pretty great if you like that sort of thing, but I prefer the feeling of playing against others, so I’ll stick with the Automa solo mode, or competitive play against real life opponents.

With a retail price of just $15 on the Stonemaier website, and having so much quality content in the box, the Secrets and Soirees expansion is a must-have.

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Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Players: 1-8
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 45 minutes per game
Game type: card drafting, tile placement, set collection

Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

What follows is the true and unredacted account of my tour of duty as a command leader for the Yin Brotherhood.

Map: 5p POK Kazadoom’s Notch Map generated on https://ti4-map-generator.derekpeterson.ca/

Factions: Yin, Yssaril, Nekro, Vuil’raith, Hacan.

Round 1 objectives: Engineer a Marvel (R1-1); Push Boundaries (R1-2)

Five experienced leaders gathered this weekend to prove themselves worthy. As the Yin, I found myself wedged between the Hacan (around the corner of a notch in the galaxy) and the Yssaril. Word had come down to the Blessed on Darien through our ambassadors and spies that both nearby factions were set on amassing larger fleets and armies, but to what end we were unsure. The Blessed discussed the matter at great length and decided our best defense was to rebuild our flagship the Van Hauge and to take control of as many planets as we could (more, at least, then our neighbors). That would allow us to stand firm in the face of any aggression.

As a command leader, I had heard the rumors not only of these rising neighbor armies, but also of some truly terrifying events taking place on the other side of the galaxy. The horrific Vuil’raith were actively recruiting with empty promises; telling factions whatever they wanted to hear to forge alliances. Left unchecked, they would surely seize and destroy our entire galaxy planet by planet. The Nekro Virus was also gaining strength on a planet nearby the Vuil’raith and while it was unclear who would come out the victor in the inevitable head-to-head match between them, I shuddered at the idea of either of them heading our way. Because I viewed Nekro and the Vuil’raith both as bigger threats to our Yin than Yssaril or Hacan, I decided to put all my efforts into leading my crew to Mecatol Rex as fast as possible. I knew that if we could successfully land and build up a presence, we could stand as a line in the sand against the wave of Nekro or Vuil’raith forces that would inevitably come crashing down upon us.

As time went on, I congratulated myself on recruiting warfare strategy experts and prioritizing our expansion to Mecatol Rex over building the flagship. It was the right choice. It had allowed me to maneuver our fleet onto the doorstep of Mecatol Rex. I had to explain to my Blessed brothers why we hadn’t built our flagship yet as ordered, but I pointed out that settling the planets along the way between Darien and Mecatol was in line with the orders given to seize control of new planets. Granted, we did not have more planets than our neighbors yet, but we did have more than we started with. I was sternly reminded to prioritize the flagship, especially since our spies had spotted the Hacan flagship (R1-1), but otherwise the matter was dropped.

End of R1 scores: Yin(0), Yssaril(0), Nekro(0), Vuil’raith(0), Hacan(1)

Round 2 objective: Erect a Monument (R2-1)

To provide the assistance I needed, I hired some well respected leadership strategy consultants. Their job was to provide me guidance on getting more out of my command, using the influence I’ve cobbled together. I’d been given a new objective by the Blessed – I was to gather the resources needed to build a monument to the brotherhood on one of our newly settled planets. I thought it absolutely ridiculous at a time like this. Word was that Hacan was also heading to Mecatol with a settlement force and the Blessed wanted me to make time for fundraising? Forget it. In my meetings with my brothers, I nodded and agreed on the importance of the monument, but secretly planned to prioritize what I deemed most urgent instead. Back at command, I forged ahead and reached Mecatol (MR1) before Hacan could do so. Built a space dock on her right away once construction was authorized, and then began amassing troops on the surface. At the same time, I was diligently managing the build of our flagship (R1-1) by our production teams back home on Darien.

Yssaril also finished their flagship (R1-1) and through some swift imperial strategy, settled enough new planets to control more than their neighbors (R1-2). Hacan got word that Vuil’raith had taken over a legendary planet in a distance sector (VS1) and in response intensified their own settlement efforts. In doing so, Hacan also found themselves controlling more planets than their neighbors (R1-2). Our ambassadors’ reports were increasingly worrisome – war was brewing and they were unsure where it would break out. And while the Vuil’raith were clearly planning something, the Nekro had gone completely silent. Our scientists on Darien continued their research, our production teams added more ships to our fleet, and we all waited for whatever was coming next.

Having established a settlement on Mecatol Rex, I called for an inaugural council meeting with the other leading factions. At this first meeting, we took up a couple of interesting proposals and passed a new law implementing technology that allowed all Alpha and Beta wormholes to connect.

End of R2 scores: Yin(2), Yssaril(2), Nekro(0), Vuil’raith(1), Hacan(2)

R3 objective: Discover Lost Outposts (R3-1)

Pleased with the completion of the Van Hauge, the Blessed advised that our intel had intercepted some encrypted communications about an objective the other factions’ were working on – to conduct in-depth explorations of their new settlements and identify any undocumented resources, pockets of political influence, or technology specialties. Any gains discovered during exploration were to be documented and written up in attachments to the planetary profiles faction leaders kept on hand for reference. I was told to keep on the efforts to settle more planets than our neighbors and to emphasis exploration of any new settlements. I was to report back when I’d successfully identified at least two different planets with enhancements worthy of documentation attachments. There was no more mention of the monument, and I was glad to have that off my to-do list. I decided to hire some tech strategy consultants to help develop new tech that could aid our explorations.

Soon after I’d turned my attention to new settlements and exploration, the Nekro launched a direct attack on my fleet guarding Mecatol. I’m not the best negotiator and had been unable to secure the contractors needed to implement an imperial strategy, but holding onto Mecatol was still imperative for blocking the advancement of Nekro or the Vuil’raith toward Darien. Additionally, we had built a good rapport with everyone on Mecatol and their influence on the council was powerful. So I dug my heels in and fought. A couple of my destroyer pilots kamikazed their ships into the Nekro fleet, but it was not enough to stop them. They held the airspace above Mecatol while at the same time building their flagship in another production facility they controlled elsewhere (R1-1). Luckily for us, they underestimated the fortitude and persuasiveness of our infantry. We were able to turn at least one of their advancing infantry against them and through the strength of our troops, we held the planet. Still, they did not leave the system, so we had to make peace, at least temporarily, with their looming presence above us.

There was a skirmish between the Nekro and the Vuil’raith as well, and there also, the Nekro had come out ahead. After the battle, Vuil’raith regrouped and turned their efforts toward building their flagship (R1-1). Nekro had also been reported to be gathering relic fragments as they conquered and explored, only instead of holding onto them to reassemble a relic, our spies came back with word they were purging them (NS1). While all of this was going on, Yssaril was quietly continuing to settle and explore planets. Our spies kept a close watch on them and every step of progress they made was immediately relayed to the Blessed. Eventually, my superiors sent me a reprimand via encrypted message wanting to know why I still hadn’t made more progress with the attachments when Yssaril had already done so (R3-1). Worse, the Hacan commander had managed to submit 2 attachments for planetary profiles under their control (R3-1) AND build a monument to their leadership (R2-1). Now the Blessed were jealous and angry and every communication from them I received reflected that. I had faith in my strategy, but I was going to have to have something more to show for myself when I spoke with my brethren. When I got word from my construction team that we’d build a third space dock across our systems in record time (YiS1), I forwarded the progress report directly to the Blessed, hoping it would soothe them.

Another council meeting was called, and even though I wielded the most influence of any leader present, none of the proposed legislation before the council interested me much. Certainly nothing to really shake things up in favor of the Yin. I mostly abstained from voting and mentally prepared for my upcoming status report meetings with the Blessed.

End of R3 scores: Yin(3), Yssaril(3), Nekro(2), Vuil’raith(2), Hacan(4)

R4 objective: Raise a Fleet (R4-1)

I really wanted to implement the famous imperial strategy I’d heard so much about, as when a faction holds Mecatol, it’s especially rewarding for them. But you need the right experts who know how to do it and Hacan always managed to grab that team it each time their contract came up for renewal. One time, even after they’d agreed to go work for another faction, Hacan pulled out some fancy datahub tech and persuaded them to come back over to work with them. So I never got my turn with them. After my research consultants rolled off their contracts, I reached back out to our warfare experts who were on the market again. I wanted to bring them back under contract for guidance in troop redeployments. We had a problem with ship crews’ that fulfilled a deployment order and then wanted to rest on location for an extended amount of time before being redeployed. They’d gotten their union involved and it was a mess and I hoped the warfare strategy team could persuade at least one of our most essential crew teams to head back out sooner than they’d planned.

At my next status meeting, my brothers were frank with me. They were encouraged by my construction feat, but I was not back in their good graces yet. They told me I was to build my fleet up to 5 in at least one system (R4-1), but preferably in as many systems as possible. They were also interested in the spoils from the cultural planets my crews had been settling and asked me to have at least 4 under my control (YiS-2). I was easily able to do both of these things, and so our working relationship was going very well. With the Blessed giving me some breathing room, I took time for planning my own goals and priorities.

Hacan had been making a lot of noise about taking over Mecatol and the Vuil’raith leveraged the general atmosphere of distrust and anxiety to approach me directly about a potential alliance. It might be just what I reported before – that the faction knows how to say whatever you want to hear to get you on their side. But it also might be that the rumors of their all consuming evil were vastly overdramatized. All I know is they gave me some useful tech that allowed my production teams to go above and beyond their production limits. And I agreed to look the other way should they decide they wanted to stomp out Hacan or Nekro. And why shouldn’t I make such a deal? They never did anything to me or our people whereas Nekro had attacked us. There were also confirmed reports that the Nekro had built an impressive monument to themselves on one of the planets they had recently assimilated (R2-1). And Hacan needed to be stopped before they got any more powerful. Recently they had amassed 5 ships in one system (R4-1), won a battle with their flagship (HS1), and come to control enough planets to give them 12 influence votes on the council (HS2). No doubt the Blessed would have been thrilled with the Hacan commander, were he set up to answer to them.

At our third council meeting, Yssaril, Nekro, and Vuil’raith reported they now each had at least one 5 fleet system to serve as deterrents (R4-1) for aggression. Thank God I’d prioritized that myself or the Blessed would have really been up my ass. Nekro passed around pictures of the monument they recently built. It was absolutely hideous. I made no bones about saying so and they deflected with slander that I was just salty about their blockade of Mecatol. As we brought each agenda item up for consideration, Nekro pushed hard to get a seemingly dull law passed. I should have figured out their angle sooner, but I was distracted by the Vuil’raith who were on me to pay back that tech share by voting for them on an upcoming agenda item. At the end of things, the law Nekro was pushing was passed (NS2) and with my influence, the Vuil’raith was selected by the council as the elected beneficiary of a boost to their military operations (VS2).

End of R4 scores: Yin(5), Yssaril(4), Nekro(5), Vuil’raith(4), Hacan(7)

R5 objective: Command an Armada (R5-1)

In my next debrief with the Blessed, I told them all that had happened at the council meeting. I warned them especially of Hacan’s growing power, but they didn’t take me as seriously as I’d hoped. The Hacan had not attacked us in any memorable fashion (perhaps an accidental ship collision here or there) and wouldn’t it be better for them to come out on top versus Nekro or Vuil’raith, the destroyer of worlds? I didn’t have the heart to tell them I’d already made some preliminary deals with the the Vuil’raith. Their minds were made up on the more pressing threat. The Blessed presented me with my latest assignment – build up my fleet to 8 ships in a single system. A show of force to deter Vuil’raith and Nekro. I tried to remind them our great strength was in our infantry and holding the ground (especially with our Yin Spinner tech), not our pilots, but they didn’t care to listen. They sensed my reluctance and offered up double the cash incentive if I could get it done before the next council meeting. I told them I’d work on it, but as usual, I had other plans.

As always, Hacan lured away the Imperial strategy experts when they came off their contracts so I reached out to our on again off again leadership consultants. I also focused on settling more planets, including a few intrusions into Yssaril territory. They were in the midst of a monument building project (R2-1) and completely distracted so there was no retaliation even though I’d braced for it. The Nekro and Vuil’raith faced off against each other aggressively again. The tension between all of the factions was growing but despite our petty grievances with each other, all of us kept our eyes fixed on Hacan.

Just before the council met again, word came in that Hacan, Yssaril, and Nekro had each managed to build up a fleet of 8 powerful ships (R5-1) within a system they controlled. Dammit! The Blessed were going to be upset with me again. At least I’d settled enough additional planets to outnumber my neighbors as they’d asked me to do eons ago (R1-2). The Vuil’raith had done this also (R1-2), facing the increasing threat of the Nekro at every turn. While I didn’t have the fleet count the Blessed had asked of me, all my planet settling and incursions into Yssaril territory had given me control of planets in the same system as other factions (YiS3), which provided great accessibility for continuing covert operations. The Vuil’raith commander reported to me through back channels that Yssaril was creeping into systems neighboring their home planet in our galaxy (YsS-1). Yssaril had also formed a loose, informal alliance with the Nekro. Under friend of my enemy logic, that made the Yssaril a new enemy of the Yin.

The fourth council meeting was extremely stressful. Hacan was confronted regarding their massive fleet build up and asked of their plans. Instead of answering the question, they reminded us how they’ve always been generous in trading with us all, and how they had rarely shown any aggression. But we weren’t buying it. The continual build up of their fleet and infantry had to point to something big they were planning. Hacan was given a mandatory military reduction directive from the council. They would be sent back out from the council meeting with a limit of 3 command actions, 3 ships max in any fleet, and only permitted to conduct two strategic actions until we met again, unless they could gain more influence through better leadership. It passed by a wide margin, and I have to say Nekro looked especially pleased. As much as I fear and hate Nekro, I do not trust Hacan and the Vuil’raith commander had said that was wise on my part.

End of R5 scores: Yin(7), Yssaril(8), Nekro(7), Vuil’raith(5), Hacan(9)

R6 objective: Manipulate Galactic Law (R6-1)

Nekro announced a bold move – they had instigated a scheme their lawyers had crafted to force their consultants into an automatic follow-on contract. Each other faction was now doing the same, utilizing a fine print clause to make it so. I knew the Blessed would be disappointed if I released our teams, so I let our contractors know I was exercising the fine print as well and they belonged to us for a little while longer, whether they liked it or not. I needed to keep the Blessed content. My ears still stung from the berating comments my brothers had laid into me during our last status meeting following the fourth council. How had I let so many other factions get ahead of us on fleet size? Didn’t I see the danger? Did they need to replace me or could I get my head on straight and get us into a position of power? If Hacan or another faction were to take control of everything, there was a good chance they’d shut down our genetic cloning operations. They were prejudiced against our ways. They didn’t understand the threat of Greyfire.

It was true that Hacan was exceedingly close to seizing control of everything, but I couldn’t see an easy path for me or my fleet to stop them. Perhaps if I had built up the fleet as the brothers had ordered, but it was probably too late for that to make a difference now. What I did do, was send a message out across all channels – even to the Nekro – that I pledged my support in temporary alliance to all who would seek to destabilize Hacan.

Nekro moved first, easily taking control of multiple Hacan systems (although Hacan managed to hold the planets). Vuil’raith charged in next, infiltrating the Hacan home system and taking an entire planet hostage until Vuil'raith agreed to stand down.

Meanwhile, I’d gotten an urgent dispatch from the Blessed. If I couldn’t take Hacan out militarily, the Blessed counseled that I needed to gain enough influence to impose even greater consequences on them during the next council meeting. To do this, according to their calculations, I needed to amass at least 16 votes of influence. So while all of the military operations against Hacan were going on, I moved into more of Yssaril territory to capture more planets so that we’d have a greater voice on the council. I also made a far reaching jaunt into Nekro systems thanks to one of our command heroes. I was bound and determined to collect enough planets under Yin control so that I would have the strength to stop Hacan. I also prioritized building out our fleet to 8 ships (R5-1). Better late than never.

Just before the fifth council meeting, both Vuil’raith and Nekro publicly announced they’d raised enough influence among their settlements to be in a position to heavily influence the next wave of galactic laws (R6-1). Nekro had also beaten up Vuil’raith badly in an anomaly (NS3) equidistant between their areas of control. And Yssaril had brought in a report of some new strategic tech they’d adapted (YsS2). As for Hacan, they came into the council meeting with their head down and shoulders slumped. They hadn’t been able to accomplish much of anything lately with the constant onslaught of attacks from all sides and the Vuil’raith hovering over their home planets. Did I feel sorry for them though? While I considered it, the Vuil’raith commander gave me a wink across the table. No, I did not feel bad for them at all. Yssaril proposed we give an official support of power vote to the faction that most aided the Hacan disruption. We were all in favor of that and passed the measure, but when it came time to decide who should receive the award, there was contention. Nekro made a good case for themselves, but we felt the honor belonged to the Vuil’raith and gave it to them instead (A1).

End of R6 scores: Yin(9), Yssaril(9), Nekro(10), Vuil’raith(7), Hacan(9)

R7: Subdue the Galaxy (R7-1)

I took news of all these developments (leaving out the wink from the Vuil’raith commander) back to the Blessed. They were extremely happy to hear the Hacan had stalled, even if it was temporary. We discussed the new problem – Nekro was gaining power and now they were on the verge of becoming unstoppable. In fact, they had assimilated not only our faction tech but Hacan’s! They were now able to seize control of any strategic contract team when needed during strategy contract negotiation windows. We could be faced with Hacan peeling away imperial strategy experts away from us and then Nekro peeling them away from Hacan. I told the Blessed that we had one last hope. The latest round of contract negotiations was approaching, and I was slotted last to recruit. My plan was to grab some strategic contractors who weren’t of any value to Hacan, but whose priority rank meant that I’d be given audience in my bid for total control before the other council members. If we could prove ourselves worthy, we could take control of the new empire before any of the other factions even got up to speak. I explained this would be possible because Yssaril always preferred to hire research contractors, Nekro would hire imperial strategy experts as it was the only way for him to win ultimate control, Vuil’raith would hire whomever they chose (they weren’t a threat to us), and then Hacan would take something they didn’t care too much about that was a higher number and then force Nekro to switch. The Blessed approved of my plan and suggested I continue to settle new planets – at least 11 outside of Darien – to give me firm footing on seizing total control. They didn’t have any new secret objectives to hand down to increase my power, but they said intel reports advised some of the relics could increase my power if I happened upon the best ones.

When strategy consultant negotiations began, I found I was wrong about Yssaril – their commander hired warfare experts instead of tech. But I was right about Nekro. And Hacan chose to hire tech experts instead of stealing away the imperial experts from Nekro. This was probably because they realized Nekro would just lure them back. So I hired some trade experts, knowing Hacan would not want to steal them from me. It was hard to leave the leadership consultants on the table, but I couldn’t risk losing them to Hacan if I hired them.

Based on my hiring choices, I held a better initiative than anyone else in the council except Vuil’raith. If everyone could just keep Nekro held back until the council was ready to meet again, and if I managed to find a powerful relic, I could seize control for the Yin.

With limited command actions due to a lack of leadership strategy consultants, everyone was careful with their actions. Except for the Yssaril of course, who kept stalling, as is their way. The faction commanders plotted in the open how to stop Nekro. It wasn’t going to be that hard. They didn’t have a massive fleet yet (they had the capacity but not the build out), nor did they have 11 planets outside their home system. They’d have to work for either. And work for them they did, but they were stymied at every turn by the Vuil’raith and perhaps once even by myself. The Nekro commander boasted about finally having more planets than their neighbors (R1-2), but that was truly too little, too late. Having neutralized the Nekro, and seeing the Hacan was still too weak to assume power, everyone’s attention turned toward Yssaril and our people, the Yin. It looked hopeless for me, so the focus remained on Yssaril who still held secret objectives that could bring them a measure of power.

I spent my time shoring up troops and ships on Mecatol and Primor, and as I turned in a handful of relic fragments, I prayed for a power granting relic. Nope. I pulled a relic that allowed me to destroy a planet. I would have to eventually face my Blessed brothers and explain to them why I had failed. My hopes dashed, I sent out my trade consultants. At least I could gather some trade goods to bring back to Darien. To my surprise, Hacan offered to give me 6 commodities in exchange for 2 trade goods and 2 commodities. It seemed to be for no particular good reason, but I suppose they needed the trade goods to continue rebuilding their fleet. They were not giving up yet on themselves. I accepted the trade as they truly seemed repentant and in no position to harm me.

To finish things up what I assumed would be my last tour of duty, I looked for a high value target to destroy. Something with a lot of infantry or some structures. Then, at least I could tell the Blessed I went out with a bang and the event would be listed in my biography. I found it in a Vuil’raith system adjacent to their home. I called a 1:1 meeting with the Vuil’raith commander. While he watched, I unrolled a map of our galaxy and pointed to one of the planets bordering his home system. “I choose this planet”, I announced, as I showed him mercy with an advanced warning to evacuate. With a horrified look in his eyes, the Vuil’raith commander said, “Please don’t”, and pledged the support of the Vuil’raith for a Yin Brotherhood throne (SFTT1). Adrenaline surging, I agreed in earnest. I had not seen this coming and it was going to make all the difference.

Suddenly the factions were buzzing again. We picked up the chatter on every channel we interception. Now *I* would have the first audience in a bid for the thorne. I had 12 planets outside my home system, proving the Yin brotherhood worthy of ruling. Could they stop me? Only Nekro and Yssaril were still under normal operations at the time; the Vuil’raith and Hacan leaders had gone on holiday until our next council meeting. Vacation or not, they were still in communication with Nekro and Yssaril. Scheming together, the entire council plotted against me. They tried to work out the easiest planets to take from our people to bring our planet count below 11. Nekro made an incursion into one my systems and took a planet. Then came wave after wave of Yssaril attacks. After reducing our territory to just 9 planets outside our home system, there was a pause. The pause and the realization I had been calmly waiting for. The Yssaril commander called for a 1:1 with me, and when I arrived she wanted me to answer a burning question. Had I already submitted proof to the Blessed that I had completed the objective I’d been given to produce 16 votes of influence? “I have not”, I replied with a smile. “And how much influence does the Yin hold at this moment?” “TWENTY-SIX votes of influence”, I replied, with an even bigger smile. There wasn’t enough attacking and stalling in the world for Yssaril to knock us down below 16. I could buy 9 votes in trade goods alone, 4 from my heavily guarded home system patrolled by our suicide leaning flagship, and much more spread across the 6 or seven systems I controlled.

The Yssaril commander studied the situation from every angle. It was impossible. She had overlooked the key information – that I had finished my last tour of duty meeting both public objectives and she’d only stripped one of them from me. There was nothing she could do. She ended her tour of duty, dejected. Just before our next scheduled council meeting, Vuil’raith called a press conference on the steps of the council building to announce that they had won a measure of power by completing a secret objective they’d been given. (VS3). He also announced he had two planets with attachments under his control (R3-1). The crowd cheered for him. Everyone was really warming to these alleged monsters of the galaxy. And then I took to the steps and announced that our faction - the Yin brotherhood - who had peacefully resettled Mecatol and reinitiated the galactic council, were leaning on our 16 votes of influence to seize complete and total control of the galaxy. A gasp was heard from the crowd. And then cheering. Immense cheering from all sections of the crowd.

And that is how Yin took the unexpected Win.

End of R7 scores: Yin(12), Yssaril(9), Nekro(11), Vuil’raith(10), Hacan(9)

I’m thrilled to announce new ebook editions of my Hugo Award-winning novel Hominids, its Hugo Award-nominated sequel Humans, and the bestselling final volume Hybrids. Together, they are the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, which won the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award (“the Aurora”) for best work of the entire decade. The trilogy tells of a parallel […]

In the latest episode of their intrepid podcast, Ken and Robin talk Sense Trouble, fatbergs, William Stephenson, and doomsday predictor Albert Porta.

In the latest episode of their planchette-moving podcast, Ken and Robin talk historical isms, a man in a barrel, unsolicited seeds, and Ouija board inventor Elijah Bond.

It’s that time of year again—but what a different year. The Toronto International Film Festival, COVIDVERSE edition, has begun.

The show must go on, though with a slate one-fifth of the usual size.

There are distanced and drive-in screenings, but we are forgoing those entirely in favor of digital screenings. For $19 - $26 a pop, viewers in Canada who grabbed tickets in time can watch on digital devices. Options include Chromecast, so we’ll be hunkering down in front of our home theater setup for a total of 39 films. No TIFF unfolds without technical problems, but this time an entire new set of them awaits!

Many rights holders are sitting on completed films hoping to launch them when normalcy returns to film exhibition. TIFF 2020 titles skew less toward the offbeat genre items that make up my typical must-see list and more to documentary, Canadian and generally serious fare. I did snap up tickets for the three Midnight Madness titles.

Normally we see 45 films each. We’ll be filling in the gaps with titles already on streaming services. Most years there’s a documentary about film near the start of the fest, so I’ve found one of those. We usually strive to stack up fun, poppier choices on the last Sunday, so I’ve picked out a substitute slate to replicate that. To not be weird, I’ll be putting capsule reviews of those flicks in our weekly Ken and Robin Consume Media feature, not here.

Pandemic Festival tosses our finely-tuned logistical routines, honed over 34 years, out the window. I’m sure you’re all anxious to hear about the profound changes this wreaks on our snack game.   

I’ve drawn up a specific schedule of screening times to keep us on track, with break times marked. Finally we can pause TIFF films for brief naps. We’ll be making a point to go out and speed-walk around the block to mimic the salutary effects of dashing between venues.

And as for the dudes loudly voicing wrong movie opinions while we’re packed, sardine-style, in line-ups at the Lightbox or Scotiabank, well, we’ll just have to imagine what they had to say about opening night:

Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds [US, Werner Herzog & Clive Oppenheimer, 4] Documentary explores the science and mythology of meteor, from Chicxulub to ʻOumuamua. The intersection between scientific discovery and religious awe, central to all of Herzog’s gorgeous, delightful nature docs, rises from subtext to text through the intercession of traditional elders, joyful researchers, and the Jesuit scholar of the Vatican’s heaven stone collection.

Enemies of the State [US, Sonia Kennebeck, 4] Documentary pulls apart a labyrinth of contradictory evidence around Matthew DeHart, an Indiana man who was framed for child pornography by the FBI as part of a Wikleaks espionage case, or created a story of secret files to shield himself either cooked up a Wikileaks-related espionage smokescreen to mask his sex crimes. Invites the viewer to join a filmmaking team as it goes ever deeper down a rabbit hole.

Nomadland [US, Chloé Zhao, 5] When her town closes down in the wake of its gypsum mine’s closure, a self-reliant widow (Frances McDormand) moves into her van and joins the ranks of the nomad subculture, people who rove the US, taking whatever hard work they can get and living out of their vehicles. Rooted in social realist cinema, marked by a triad of transcendent qualities: poetic visual beauty, an indelible central performance and a deep love for the characters from the writer/director.

This is from Searchlight, formerly Fox Searchlight, now part of the Disney empire, so you’ll get a chance to see it. Likely as part of awards season, whatever the heck that’s gonna look like this year. Normally I don’t spend festival slots on titles with distribution but that’s out the window in the COVID-verse.

(At the moment cinemas are open, with distancing, here in Ontario but if you look at the numbers we’re in the early denial phase of a reimposition of lockdown measures. Whatever the deal is I don’t plan to be inside a theater in any foreseeable time frame.)

Her next project is a huge pivot from poetic verite dramas like this and The Rider— Marvel’s The Eternals. 

Memory House [Brazil, João Paulo Miranda Maria, 1] Racist harassment from German co-workers drives dairy worker to vengeance. Blunts the political anger of its subject matter with enervating pacing.

Another Round [Denmark, Thomas Vinterberg, 4.5] Burned out high school teacher (Mads Mikkelsen) embarks with three colleagues on an experiment to enhance their performance by maintaining a blood alcohol level of 0.5% throughout their days at work. Not only an original booze movie, but a big one, full of turns and ambiguities, and an utterly masterful performance from Mikkelsen.

Shadow in the Cloud [New Zealand, Roseanne Liang, 4] When an WWII RAF Flight Officer (Chloe Grace Moretz) boards a Samoa-bound cargo plane bearing a mysterious package, a monstrous gremlin on board is just one of the surprises. Enclosed space horror-action thriller tips an 80s-style hat to Carpenter and Cameron.

City Hall [US, Frederick Wiseman, 4] The latest of Wiseman’s distinctive epic-length observational documentaries studies the quotidian, procedural and human moments of human life as seen through the processes of municipal government in Boston, as held together by the thoughtful charisma of Mayor Martin Walsh. Improbably absorbing as always, this institutional cross-section offers a beguiling vision of an oasis of good government in the USA.

In a normal year I’d wait for the four and a half hour Wiseman documentary to arrive on television rather than taking up two time slots to watch it from the confines of a cinema seat at TIFF. But this is not such a year and with a digital screening you get a pause button when you need it. This is bound for PBS and due to the breadth of its subject matter will serve as an excellent introduction to those unfamiliar with this pillar of the documentary form. Or track down 2017’s Ex Libris, about the New York Public Library. In North America Wiseman’s filmography can be found on the Kanopy platform, which you may be able to access through your public library system.

The Father [UK, Florian Zeller, 4] Retired engineer (Anthony Hopkins) struggles to piece together the confusing reality of his living circumstances as his daughter (Olivia Colman) copes with his progressing dementia. Impeccably performed stage play adaptation puts the viewer inside the contradictory shifts of the protagonist’s subjective viewpoint.

Forget Draculas and Cthulhus. This is the real terror.

Summer of 85 [France, Francois Ozon, 4] Love between two young men in a French beach town leads to a bizarre crime. Teen emotions run high in a sunlit melodrama of Eros and Thanatos.

In the latest episode of their dark and stormy podcast, Ken and Robin talk Gothic F20, Elon Musk's pig brain implants, and a contactless edition of Ken's Bookshelf.

David Whitford - San Juan College OLER Student

I opened up the wordpress dashboard today to write a post and noticed I had a post pending from June. So, uh… here’s that post so I can get it out of the draft section: It’s June, so I should … Continue reading →

I have a lot I really should write about (and over 8000 photos I need to edit through and post on photos), but I’ve been having trouble working up the energy to do anything these days other than work and … Continue reading →

Federal Government Boosts Australian Cardiovascular Alliance’s Mission to Combat Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke  News Hub

1. New program will see pregnant mothers and babies protected from life-threatening virus  SBS
2. World-leading approach to protect babies from RSV  Department of Health
3. Government-funded RSV vaccines to protect infants from severe disease  Australian Pharmacist
4. 'Very scary': Wagga mum's plea for parents to protect babies through RSV jab  The Daily Advertiser
5. Guild backs free RSV vaccinations  Australian Journal of Pharmacy

1. Sols 4362-4363: Plates And Polygons  Mirage News
2. Sols 4359-4361: Ideal Rover Road Trip Spot  Mirage News

1. Right now, the Sun is far more active than predicted – and small satellites are paying the price  The Conversation
2. Unpredictable Solar Activity Sends Satellites Plummeting to Earth  ScienceAlert

1. Monster Hunter Outlanders Brings Big Beast Hunting to Mobile Gaming  CNET
2. Monster Hunter is going mobile with new ‘fully featured game’ Outlanders  Polygon
3. Monster Hunter is getting an open-world RPG spinoff for mobile  The Verge
4. TiMi Studio Group and Capcom announce Monster Hunter Outlanders for iOS, Android  Gematsu
5. How to join the Monster Hunter Outlanders playtest  ONE Esports

1. Apple reportedly releasing a wall-mounted smart home tablet in 2025 - and yes, it does AI  Yahoo Finance Australia
2. Apple’s next device might make your home a lot smarter  Sydney Morning Herald
3. Apple's Next Big Move Could Be Home Security Cameras  PCMag AU

1. Outback Queensland residents spend thousands on flights, grapple with Qantas service changes  ABC News
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3. Predictably, domestic airfares surged after the collapse of Rex. There aren’t many good solutions  The Conversation
4. Report finds just how much airfares spiked since end of Rex. One route doubled  The Canberra Times
5. Qantas’ single excuse for fare price hike  news.com.au

1. Beijing and Washington stops provide clues for Indonesia's direction under Prabowo Subianto  ABC News
2. Prabowo pledges co-operation with Trump  The Australian Financial Review
3. Indonesian president meets Biden and speaks with Trump  The Canberra Times
4. At White House, Indonesia's new leader straddles US-China rivalry  VOA Asia
5. Will Prabowo Subianto cosy up to Donald Trump or to China?  The Economist

1. Volcanic eruption grounds Bali flights, leaving travellers stranded  Sydney Morning Herald
2. Bali flight cancellations continue due to dangerous volcanic ash clouds  SBS News
3. Bali flight cancellations continue as volcano spews ash  9News
4. Aussies stranded in Bali volcano nightmare  Daily Telegraph

1. Cindy Crossthwaite's estranged husband faces Supreme Court murder trial over mother of three's death  ABC News
2. 'Deep-seated hatred' for estranged wife led to killing, jury told  9News
3. 'Deep-seated hatred' for estranged wife led to killing, court hears  9News

1. Kristian White trial: CCTV reveals final moments before Clare Nowland Tasering in Cooma nursing home  Sydney Morning Herald
2. Jury shown footage of 95yo getting stuck in tree in weeks before being tasered by police officer  ABC News
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That's all I've got, so far, for linguistic commentary on the U.S. election results. According to the OED, the etymology of ballot is < (i) Middle French ballotte (French †ballotte) small ball (beginning of the 15th cent. as †balote), small coloured ball placed in a container to register a secret vote (1498) or its etymon […]

In recent weeks and months, we've been having many posts and comments about Taiwanese language.  Today's post is quite different:  it's all about the difference between Mandarin as spoken on the mainland and as spoken on Taiwan. "Words of Influence: PRC terms and Taiwanese identity", by Karen Huang, Taiwan Insight (8 November 2024) What is […]