Neil C

After a summer of journeying and battling through forests, river valleys, villages and abandoned watchtowers a momentous moment as the Middenheimers finally make it up onto the walls of Mordheim.

Interesting as the trend I've noticed when out shopping at one supermarket - Tesco, is for the shelves to become increasingly dominated by processed food and in particular brand-crossovers... a kind of post-modern supermarket of signs diet which generates the most £££

Technology is increasingly leading us into the kind of hyper-reality postmodern theorists like Baudrillard set out.

Excellent game of Sword Weirdos last night which saw my rugged men of the North took on a powerful sorcerer and their zombie horde. In the end the zombies kept coming and overwhelmed me with their numbers. Loved throwing the D&D dice and the theme was on point.

I've seen some pretty alarming graphs charting the ratio of Doctors to the population 65+

The intense alienation of postmodern, post-covid life.

Always exciting to stick a new model down on the battlefield. Even more so when it's swooping all over the place. Still looking for my first Dragon Rampant victory though.

The truly scary thought is that as bad as we think it is now those demographics are nowhere near to wreaking the havoc that they will in the next decade.

Southampton student housing block to be demolished Unite Students say it was

Demolish and rebuild in less than 20 years www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

There is a golden age, of perhaps 20 years ago, when it was possible to just be spontaneous... before we arrived in some sort of tech-driven mess.

It will certainly be a test to see whether Farage has been able to break his habit of presiding over parties with next to no organisational backbone. In his UKIP days councillors were left with no support and many became disillusioned enough not to stand for re-election.

Brought out the Orcs for some Gutterbowl this evening. Such a fun BB variant which like Dungeonbowl is chronically underplayed.

Chain of Command at the club this week. Best part of the game was giving a tabletop debut to the middle-of-Lidl Sherman.

Three big factors 1.) The decline of the pub (pubs had a huge role in organising supporting activities and sports teams) 2.) Liberalisation of Sunday trading laws and 3.) Shareholder capitalism (firms reduced spending on leisure facilities for staff - think of all those old sport and social clubs)

Two great games of Bloodbowl Sevens this evening. Really enjoyed playing a Shambling Undead lineup of two Wights, two Ghouls and three Zombies.

Spot on - also echoes of 'plucky little Belgium'. It highlights how people in cities have a limited understanding of the politics of rural England which are in some ways much more progressive and radical than people give credit for.

A return to the Dragon Rampant campaign with a 4-player battle (2v2) involving the combined forces of the men-of-the-North who were aided by a giant bear. Here my heavy foot occupy a hilltop whilst mt elite foot guard the pass.

Wonder how many graduates are in non-graduate jobs too?

Return to Crossfire at the club. 2 platoons of US Paras defend the Hartenstein Hotel against 3 platoons of Germans and a Stug. Great back and forth game. After getting bogged down on both flanks by MG fire and losing the Stug to a bazooka shot the Germans just managed to overpower the left flank

Back to the club for the first time since 2024 with a game of Chain of Command. Great to catch up with the guys and to meet some new club members.

Having had a year away from Magic the Gathering I've plunged back into #edh afresh. Buzzing with lots of ideas for decks. Gave a debut to Dina Soul Steeper last night. Combo is something I've never previously embraced, but it is certainly effective and in theory Dina can win on turn three.

In Godzilla-like move the men-of-the-north's yeti occupies the tower in a game of Dragon Rampant.

There’s a word for people who prefer phones to meeting friends: addicts | Martha Gill Ditching hanging out for isolated scrolling on our sofas is a dangerous habit that warrants help on a par with gambling

Interesting article from Martha Gill. Two additional things I'm pondering is 1.) Impact of the cost-of-living crisis on how people spend leisure time and 2.) The decline of the central role of the public house in peoples social lives.

There also needs to be more agility. Proper need for life-long access to learning to allow people to access jobs which are more in demand in the present, or short to medium term.

The Tories have a solid grass-roots infrastructure which is something Farage-led parties have always lacked. Reform may succeed over the short term, but will they be able to manage all those new councillors and foot-soldiers, turning them into an asset, or will they be more a liability?

Not been able to do a whole lot of tabletop recently, but did manage to get a game of Dragon Rampant in last week. Lots of fun putting an army together.

Ha ha, UEA I was there for a year in the late 90s. Drawn in by the promise of lots of gigs in the LCR.

My resolution is to focus both my game-time and modelling time on a small number of rulesets: Chain of Command/ Crossfire/ Dragon Rampant/ Stargrave with a bit of Bloodbowl thrown in.

For many Millennials it will also have a big influence over what retirement looks like... particularly at a time when the retirement age is rising.

What's interesting to me is the clear geographic clustering. North/South Urban/Rural Coast/Inland and the regional heartlands. A move from a class-model of voting to a geographic one perhaps?