ALFRED'S BEST OF THE BLOGOSPHERE

After a good night's rest, we're back. By Wednesday night I was sufficiently tired I forgot about the Missouri Compromise. (No offense to those who never knew it existed in the first place. For those of us in the US History biz, it's a bigger deal. I'll have to erase this introductory remark when I start angling for tenure.) This week's episode is totally being dedicated to sleep.

Let's see what the Links Fairy brought us this time...

If you take my enthusiasm for the Clash for a Continent games, and average it with Chris Farrell's opinion, you get a guy who's never heard of the game. I mention it not so much for the sake of balance, but that I always think it's interesting when two thoughtful gamers (if I may include myself as one) can see so many aspects of a game totally differently. One man's inferior ripoff is another man's brilliant improvement. Ah well; we have plenty of other games to play if we run into each other.

Plenty of good stuff on Gone Gaming; reading Tichu strategy articles reminds me of smiling and nodding when I'm being talked at by someone who knows far, far more about something I just don't understand: "Sure...definitely...of course...sure, sure...yeah..." I don't think I'll ever understand that game.

Over at Tao of Gaming, Brian has a post on estimation that's worth reading; it's mostly not about games explicitly but there's some, and it's all good.

How do games get made? Hasbro has a three-shift factory churning out game after game around the clock, with robots and legions of deft employees. Other places are more clothespin-centric. I call this the "quilting bee" method. Havoc sounds neat; I'll have to give it a try sometime.

(I am, as I type this, also watching on TV out of the corner of my eye two Swedes play professional, competitive table tennis. This is so far outside my experience of the game it's not even funny. It's enthralling. I don't really have enough depth perception to play any racquet sports, so it's amazing to watch someone, fifteen feet away from a tiny table, return a tiny ball high in the air with enough spin to corkscrew back and hit the other side. Amazing stuff. Just a sidebar...)

Over at Naturelich, we have the first two installments of the Naturelich GeekList Aggregator. Check 'em out!

Selling my copies of Ironclads and the expansion thereof was one of the bigger mistakes I ever made when it comes to collection management--right up there with buying Kuk-Nuk for the equivalent of two candy bars. (Mmm...candy...) Mr. Nizz shows us why I should have kept them around (and bought nifty metal figgies for 'em).

Keep up the good posts!