Packing List

Next weekend, I embark on the first of two (?) lengthy research trips: About seven weeks along the Mississippi River, from Baton Rouge to Natchez to Vicksburg to Little Rock (which is, granted, not on the River), and thence to St. Louis for the holidays. This is the longest research trip I've taken yet, by a couple of weeks, so packing is an interesting proposition.

Clothes, for instance, are trickier. Baton Rouge will get up into the 80s (30 C) while I'm there, but when I leave St. Louis it'll be in the 20s (-5 C), so I need a few different layers.

The other trick, of course, is staying sane while being alone on the road for almost two months. I'll be fairly busy, even when I'm not in the archives; I need to be categorizing all of what I find so I can get to it when I start writing. I also have a writing project I need to work on--on games on the Civil War--so that'll take up some time.

But there will be some time off. I'm casting an eye over the bookshelves and the game shelves, trying to figure out what to bring along. "Small" is the order of the day, of course, along with solo-able. I picked up Space Hulk: Death Angel on the recommendation of a great many people, and it's certainly a small enough package. Combat Commander is a natural; I'm also looking at Ancient Battles Deluxe, which is climbing up the ladder for me.

I may have discussed it before, but maybe not. It's one of my beloved "toy box" games, with the ability to depict a great many battles in one package. It's a redesign of the old 3W Ancients, which is the second game I bought in Austin (Europa Universalis being the first, of all things). The new one is more complex--although you can use the old rules if you want. But while it's more complex, it's still simple enough; it's no GBoH, that's for sure. It's not a dissertation on ancient and medieval warfare...but then GBoH isn't, either. (I got into a long Facebook argument about this with Richard H. Berg...) But it's fun, and it has a small footprint, and the time investment isn't great--and it provides a whiff of verisimilitude.

I'm trying to decide whether to bring a chess set along. I feel chess fever in my bones again, which is never a good sign. Speaking of reissues and revisions, a new edition of my favorite chess book ever reached my doorstep the other day: The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It's more than the usual game collection; it's a kind of autobiography written by a kind of idiosyncratic player, David Bronstein. He's famous for almost being World Champion in 1951; he drew the match (meaning he didn't take the crown) under suspicious circumstances, and there's a certain bitterness that tinges the book. But it's almost a kind of endearing bitterness; it's a sign of a real, tangible personality, which is often lacking from these kinds of books. Anyway, it's gotten me thinking about the Game of Kings again.

But on the other hand, there's the new Master Play, with fourteen go games deeply (and amateur-friendly) annotated by Yuan Zhou, who is making a nice authorial career out of this sort of thing. His books make me feel like I understand the game a little bit better after I read them. I don't think I actually play any better, but I might be appreciating well-played games better. In an attempt to actually improve, I've invested in Winning Go: Successful Moves from the Opening to the Endgame. Of which I cannot speak much at the moment...

Of course, what all this means is that I'll pack up all my games, and all my books, and forget my laptop...or the five (six?) chargers and cords I need...