Ever Have One of Those Days?!

Where all is right with the world?

Last day of school for my Upper El. Classes so we throw down some "Knights of Camelot" on the whiteboard with die rolling and high adventure in Arthurian Britain.  This went on for the first two classes.  I was really pleased to introduce my students to a RPG/board game.  They loved it and I am sure this will come back in some form next school year.

An RPG geek dream.  An LCD white board to project your game map on and keep track of character movement and stats.

Our classes got to finish with a unit on architecture.  The best photos are on my Sony camera and have not been uploaded.  (If requested I will add them.)

These kids had never played through a full game of Chinese Checkers so we had a Lower El. demonstration game.  Patience, taking turns, strategic planning, following rules where the objectives.

Love this game.

So then for the evening entertainment I got to play some cool games with the club.  We had a Japanese F1 race on a scale version of the actual Suzuka track in Japan.  In keeping with the theme we ordered sushi and poured saki.  After dinner we played a game of Cricket on the bristle dart board.  Had some good laughs at our lack of dart throwing skill and the game came down to one closing point apiece between the three of us.

On to the track and some Going the Distance racing action.     A six car race that was swift and clean.  We actually had no DNFs or collisions.  The race was pretty light with only three required laps and was run with out pit stops by any team.  Some cars coming across the line with red-lined stats.  

The start.  Ted and Terry cars have moved and gone round turn one.  My two cars still in the grid and getting ready to roll my first turn.  Going the Distance requires 3 to 5 dice to be rolled to generate the movement of the cars.

My turn one.  Listen to the high pitched scream of those F1 engines.  See the sparks as the car under-body blisters through the turn. From race leader to back of the photo- Ted, Ken, Terry, Ken....

In the "Spoon" it is Terry, Ken getting loose, Ken, Ted, Ted, Terry....

Terry takes a commanding lead roaring down the front straight and across the start finish paddock area.

Terry would run away with this one and the lead in our year long campaign unless PKRAT Van Pelt could do some aggressive racing.

Boom.  In this image we see perhaps a season telling image of the neck and neck racing taking place between the garages of Van Pelt and Carr.

Same place in the race as above letting you see the bridge and then the turn into home stretch.

Vroom.  We see the finish. Ken Van Pelt 10, Terry Carr in second and third with 6, 4 respectively.  Followed closely by team Conn with Ted taking fourth and fifth garnering 3, and 2 points.  And then Van Pelt in last place with a car he nursed too much taking 1 point.

Prior to this evening's race:

Ken - 20
Terry - 16
Jon Mark- 16
Ted - 9
Bill - 5
John C - 5
Carl - 3
Greg - 3

We see a progression into the next segment of:

Ken - 31
Terry - 26
Jon Mark- 16
Ted -14
Bill - 5
John C - 5
Carl - 3
Greg - 3

Cleaned up the track and we got out Camelot for a near end of evening game.  Three sided view of this new to me game I got off ebay.  I love the simple mechanics and great pieces that come with the game.  You get to have a Castle HQ.  A dragon!  Some knights that include a skilled dragon slayer.  Ships and catapults!  What!  Yea it's all there and super easy to play.  1987 copyright with really simple rules.  I lost.

Ted with blue.  Ken in the middle with yellow.  Terry commanded the purple kingdom.

Early game.

My peaceful kingdom just minding our own business and not trying to hurt anyone...

and for a night ender game we played Tiddly Winks.  Don't laugh this game is frustratingly hard.  Ted won.  We squidged, squopped, nurdled, and boondocked.

Thanks for visiting.

Death from Above

The Blue Bomber Air force attacks.

In the Deadzone, crazy axles and alloys drivers test metal and men in the sport of death racing

Angry machinery poised for mutual and victimized destruction.

The cauldron they call pit row is a dangerous place to rest your teams cars.

WTF!  That car just flew through the air hailing machine gun bullets out of the sky!!!!!

WWWAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

Oh hell yeah!

Buyah!  I laughed so hard beer came out of my nose.

A great segment in our F1 calendar.  This time we are at Ted's for an Axles and Alloys Deadzone race.  The final points look like this:

Terry Carr and the "Dutch Oven" in first place with 10 points

Ken Van Pelt in the "Blue Bomber" with second place and 6 points.

D10 Billy and the Pokey Red Rocket in third with 4 points.

John C. in fourth in a replacement vehicle after the "Yellow Flamer" was knocked out takes 3 points.

Jon Haworth in the "Fishbat" took fifth and has 2 points.

And the host with the most took the least (he always get's a beat down in the Deadzone!) Our own Ted Conn in his replacement car gets 1 point.   His rail buggy had targets painted on all sides.

Go Fast Turn Left

Racing in the the Conncourse 300

NASCAR racing with all the "Turn left, drive fast" action you can handle.  The Secondhand Lions used Race Day collectible cardstock cars to continue our campaign game race theme and this time it was NASCAR action.

Ted Conn, hand colored all of the raw card edges on his collection to enhance the beauty of the cars and make them much more than a punch and build collectible.

Bass Pro car driven by Ken Van Pelt.

My other car the Office Depot 99.

Press pass access to the Conncourse was available.

The grid readies their driver and car.

Screaming hot racing action down the back stretch into turn 3.

Pit lane stacks up during lap 3.

Turn 3 and 4 from the aerial camera.

Race finished early as the hour was getting very late.  Each driver had two cars and the positions at quitting time were as follows.

Jon Haworth 1st place with 10 points.

Terry Carr 2nd place with 6 points.

Ken Van Pelt 3rd with 4 points.

Greg Moore 4th with 3 points.

Ted Conn 5th with 2 points.

Bill 6th with 1 point.

Calculating the two events we have a points standing of:

Ken Van Pelt 14 points, Jon Haworth 14 points.
Tedd Conn 8 points
Carl Lathrop 3 points, Greg Moore 3 points.
John Cordry 2 point

Bill Cownie 1 point

Next race will be the Formula 1 race of Suzuki Japan.  Micro machines on a road course.

Formula 1 B.C. Grand Prix of Italy Chariots in the Lion's Den

The Secondhand Lions have begun a year long race schedule to determine the racing champion of the club.  We will race in different forms and formats and keep a running score of the results to determine our victor!  Our first event has been called the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Italy and features my 54mm chariot racing collection and spina from the circus maximus.  Join us table side as Ken takes his victory lap.

Yes good readers, I won the first race in our schedule.  That's me above in the red tunic crossing the finish line.  So let's take a look at the action that lead to such a grand victory.

Out of the gates.  The five charioteers lash their teams of horses on to breakneck speed.

The front straight away. Turn one the teams all start out with a speed die in the chariot basket.  During the plotting phase you could increase or decrease your speed and then the turn would be resolved from the front of the pack to the back. Repeat.

Ted, John C, and Carl racing around the spina.

Going into the turns.  Lots of geometry and guess work.

I love to see this set out at least once a year.

Racing and pacing.

It was a great race that would see three of the five charioteers shipwreck their rigga.

The game is a guess for maneuver speed versus turn radius allowed at the chosen speed.

Hitting other racers and the fixed objects like the outer wall and crashed rigga are all calculated in your control die roll.  Fail three times and your shipwrecked. 

Coming into the final turn of a three lap race.  The blank cardboards came in handy to mark the progress of a turn radius and you can see the control die roll on each in turn as the move was calculated and executed.

Fine bit of racing by that Van Pelt team.

Making rolls that were critical to victory.

You can hear the hoof beats and smell the horses. No wait that's just Carl.

Team Lathrop getting mathematical.

It was a fun event and we wish the whole crew could have been there.

Late night game. Kittens in a Blender.

Really!?!