Messages

1

General / Re: Essen ‘24 is almost here…

« on: September 06, 2024, 02:06:04 AM »

... Not for this this year I'm afraid ;(

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News and Events / Re: Donations for Daisy

« on: July 31, 2024, 01:04:43 AM »

I've been updating BGG with news but the latest is that Daisy seems to be improving day and day and her anemia appears to be resolving on it's own.

She's a big fan of the 4 dinners a day at the moment; and it seems to have paid off. We had the first 'definitely a poo' since her spay. Almost a month ago!

The auction is scheduled to end around midnight this evening, I've added a few Carcassonne things which you may have missed.

Thanks for all of the support so far. We're indebted to the community for the help with Daisy's fees.

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General / Re: I was missing, but now back again!

« on: July 20, 2024, 01:30:46 PM »

I'm sorry to hear about this wallaceprime, but happy to hear from you and in remarkably high spirits.

As you described the risks of nerve damage you reminded me that my Dad had a throat operation several years ago (nowhere near as complex), before the operation he asked the Doctor if he would be able to sing after the operation, the doctor said curtly "yes of course". My Dad replied: "That's strange because I couldn't before".

I know you must have be going through a lot, and it certainly sounds like you're in good hands and approaching things positively. You're in our thoughts and thanks for sharing your journey with us. I hope the continued treatment is successful, please let us know how you get on.

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News and Events / Re: Donations for Daisy

« on: July 19, 2024, 10:22:25 AM »

Thanks for the support everyone. It's a bit too early to share any good news at the moment.

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News and Events / Donations for Daisy

« on: July 17, 2024, 02:17:05 PM »

Hi everyone,

Sorry I've not been active on the forum as of late.  Looking at the unread posts since my last visit (in February) there were 7 pages to try and catch up on. Well done to you all for keeping everything so busy!  There looks to be some great fan-expansions and crazy Carcassonne ideas being explored.

Back in February our beloved cavalier Roxy had to be put to sleep after a number of traumatic seizures.  We knew it was time, she had been with us for over 11 years; which is extremely good innings for the breed.  We told ourselves that with not having a dog, we could go ahead and book some holidays and not have to worry about the responsibility.  About 7 weeks passed. We hadn't booked any holidays, and we were feeling sad, so we visited a local rescue centre (our Roxy was a rescue dog too, but that's another story).  Keeping the story short we were able to rehome a 2.5 year old Bichon Friese that called Daisy.  Daisy hadn't had a brilliant start, her previous owners had to relinquish her because they needed to change their accommodation suddenly.  She was quite a nervous dog to begin with, but very very affectionate.  It didn't take long for her to settle in as a family member. On the 4th July we took Daisy to be spayed, unfortunately she's reacted to the operation and has been struck with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, pancreatitis and a likely infection.  She's been on supportive care since and for the first week we were transporting her backwards and forwards between our regular vet and an out of hours emergency vet. Last Friday we were referred to a specialist teaching hospital in the hope they could diagnose her.  This week started with signs of progress, but we're not seeing the improvements we had hoped for, and our energy levels are quite low. We're in a very fortunate position; however the daily costs of care are mounting up, and I'm auctioning some games that really deserve better homes on BGG.  I've written about Daisy's progress in more detail there: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/339234/auction-fundraiser-for-daisy-uk-ends-1st-august If you are a pet owner and do nothing else: If you have a pet I urge you to make sure you've got sufficient insurance cover. We made the mistake thinking that a young healthy dog would only need minimal cover. If we had known that the supportive care she might need was about £1000 a day, before any investigative or treatment costs, we'd have chosen differently. So far we're deeply grateful for the generosity that the community has shown Daisy; it's going to take a very long time for us to show people how thankful we are. If you're able to take a look, or give a thumb up on BGG, or share the link with your friends, We'd really appreciate you taking the time to support our Daisy.

6

Strategy Guide / Re: Opening tile strategy?

« on: January 31, 2024, 01:48:44 AM »

Open strategies are often a bit tricky to determine if they make a significant difference to the final result.  Unlike Chess where the opening move sets players in particular decision spaces, I think Carcassonne has a lot more variability.  Like at the star of the game investing a meeple on a cloister might seem like a good idea because you have more opportunity to complete it; however there's more opportunity for your opponent to block it.  So would it be better to keep a meeple in hand.  I think it's usually too early to say at the very start of the game; and I'm not sure that the positions of tiles at the very start of the game greatly impact the end-resulting map.  There's obviously some significant tiles like the cloisters, or CCCC or RRRR which if they come out early mean that they won't appear later.  I think @wallaceprime did some research into Carc-AI. So probably has a much better grasp of what you're considering.

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General / Re: Database of tiles

« on: January 31, 2024, 12:32:21 AM »

There's no officially recognised schema for naming tiles.  The list above is produced by a member of the Carcassonne-forum and Cundco publishes it.

You might want to read about this project: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=5644.0

Good luck with the project. Please be careful distributing HiG's assets.

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News and Events / Re: Belgian tournament

« on: January 31, 2024, 12:29:18 AM »

Good luck with the tournament in March!  And thanks for letting us know about it!

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General / Re: I love the postman...

« on: January 31, 2024, 12:27:33 AM »

That's right!

Dan's Mustachioed tile is official too - KJW signed it.

I think there's an official milk sachet expansion too.... although his signature might have rubbed off by now.

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Anything Else / Re: Trying to Debug Google Image Sharing Glitch

« on: January 20, 2024, 10:07:46 AM »

Probably a security thing to stop gdrive / photos being used to host images on sites.

@kothmann If it helps, I can set you up with an SFTP to upload images to that are easy to embed.

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General / Re: I love the postman...

« on: January 20, 2024, 10:04:30 AM »

A few posts up:

Well done! I dread to think what you had to do to find it.

I've always appreciated the idea behind this.  We've got a load of mis-printed score tiles.... let's get KJW to doodle on some paper-tape, stick them on the board, and sign each of them.  At least the proceeds went to a good charity.

PS: I do worry someone of low-moral fibre will use a lovely image like this and replicate it for ebay.

12

General / Re: I love the postman...

« on: January 19, 2024, 04:49:17 AM »

Well done! I dread to think what you had to do to find it.

I've always appreciated the idea behind this.  We've got a load of mis-printed score tiles.... let's get KJW to doodle on some paper-tape, stick them on the board, and sign each of them.  At least the proceeds went to a good charity.

PS: I do worry someone of low-moral fibre will use a lovely image like this and replicate it for ebay.

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Other Games / Re: KICKSTARTER (watch your purses)

« on: January 19, 2024, 04:22:13 AM »

I've not been on to Kickstarter for a long time now, but I did see this pop up. I picked up the base game at Essen this year.  It's another one of those silly but fun dexterity games.


I played with two random people and enjoyed it enough to buy it - I'm liking the look of the wooden tables in this KS:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardgametables/kabuto-sumo-sakura-slam

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Other Games / Re: New & Old Games on a Family Trip to Hong Kong & Taiwan

« on: January 17, 2024, 07:56:37 AM »

Thanks for sharing news of your trip!

I've been after something from Hong Kong for a while now, I wish I knew you were going, not that I'd have wanted to disrupt your trip.  That shop looks amazing!!!!

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General / Re: would you open them?

« on: January 17, 2024, 07:45:20 AM »

It's been almost 2 months.... What did you decide!