perfidy

Comrade,

Well, I'd love to be there, but it's the youngest child's birthday, so my presence (and accompanying presents) id expected at home... sigh...

When Axis & Allies first came out, it became a huge hit at our local wargame's store. So much so, in fact, that it was given the same treatment as all other popular games. We made it bigger!

The A&A board was painted onto a 4X8 sheet of 1/2" plywoord, and covered with a thin sheet of clear lexan, and molding on the edges. Now we had a REAL board! Eventually the game pieces were replaced by 25mm scale metal minatures, etc. Lots of fun, and plenty of room to put stuff on the board.

We also had a like-sized board for both Diplomacy and Rail Baron. The former we played once a month, or so, complete with formal dress for the players, glasses of Port and various Liquors, canapes, etc.

If you've never played Rail Baron, it can be very addictive. It's similar to Monopoly, but with railroads, and a giant map showing all the lines, along with their respective heralds.

For those able to get 4 or 5 players together for a few hour's fun, Rail Baron is highly reccomended.

Respects,

Axis and Allies? That was a favorite during the long duty weekend when I was on Barracks duty.

It's 21:00, I'm up for the 03:00 - 07;00 guard shift. Do I hit the rack for five hours or play a 'quick' game of A+A? All to often the lure of the game overcame common sense. Which was just as well since the game was played in the brown bagger's bunk room and they were not quiet affairs.

Brian,
Really? A+A instead of sleep?

I indulged in different activities which resulted in me spending, at the First Seargeant's "urging", a few sessions at a different AA...

AW1 Tim,
Custom big boards? Man you don't play when you, ah, play.

Btw I used to know a P3 crewman. Did it for a few years, lots of ASW work, never once saw a periscope but did almost get busted smuggling in his aircraft.

I will have to check with my better half about the availability of the date. I know we have a function to attend in Charlottesville around that time. I don't know if it is that weekend or the one before... It goes without saying that the reason I don't know this is because I am a man and have a lovely wife to remind me of things like "social visits."

Geeklethal,

Yeah, back in the day tere was a thriving market for various items of both legal and extra-legal items. The favorite spot on the P-3B was the aft fairing of the spotlight under the starboard wing. We also had a custom-made rach that set up into the bomb bay, Could hold about 40 cases of vino, all pressure and temperature controlled :)

Turkish carpets and tapestries, Greek marble and bronzeware, Sicilian Ouzo and "Fire of Etna", Spanish Port and Sangria, Blankets and sweaters from Iceland, Whiskey from Scotland, Mateus and Goat Cheese, and scrimshaw from the Azores. It was a veritable airborne clipper ship of goods. Heh.

I had a LOT of tracking time on various Soviet subs, especially boomers. Lots of fun.

Respects,

Well, this dude brought in weed. Somewhere in the Pacific, don't remember where. Thinking early '80s.

You know what else was a super fun game? Supremacy.

Heh,

One of the fellows in my squadron found a whole bale of grass washed up on the beach in Bermuda. Covered in plastic, but torn a bit so it got soaked in seawater.

He took the whole bale up to the barracks and stashed in a storage locker on the roof. next, he scrounged some lumber and a washtub, and soaked it to get the salt water out, then built these long drying racks to air-dry it.

Kid made a fortune.

There was also a pretty fair east coast traffic in hash from Turkey through both NAS Brunswick and NAS Jacksonville squadrons.

Respects,

I've heard good things about Rail Baron before. Never took it seriously, but if AW1 Tim's going to vouch for it I'll believe it.

Supremacy was one that I always wanted to try but never did. Didn't have too many wargaming friends, so it was difficult to get a good group together. And I basically had to buy anything I wanted to play and hope that I could convince some others to devote the time. It wasn't like I had buddies who had their own games.

I had a deprived childhood, obviously. Or else I could have taken part in the big geek contest here a while back.

MO,
Don't sell yourself short- you *are* a geek. Just because you're not competetive with the big dogs doesn't mean you can't be the best geek you possibly can! Now turn that frown upside down li'l camper, and get back to daydreaming about boardgames you'll never play!

AW1 Tim,
There was a thriving LSD business in my barracks in Germany.

The way it worked was, a coupla guys would rent a car, drive to the Netherlands, buy up as many sheets as they could, and drive back hoping that the random border searches wouldn't choose them. Cut and sell. Repeat.

It was popular because it didn't show when you had a piss test. Became unpopular when a dude I ran with got busted by CID- I missed it by like 15 minutes I'm told, but MPs and CID stormed in like on COPS.

Not that I trafficked in illegal substances, mind you. I was an affable drunk, not a drug dealer.

You know, hash from Turkey was not uncommon in martial life either. Not common, but not terribly hard to get either. A couple guys I knew took a bit on exercise with them- park the '113 in a remote spot, lock the thing up from the inside, and smoke up. Probably looked like Specialist Cheech and Private Chong climbing out of that thing after they got their smoke on and popped the hatches.

An NCO I hung with smoked me up once in the barracks- terrific high. The whole unit was on exercise 'cept us (he was short; I had orders to Kuwait but didn't go- long story) so no chance of bust.

Those were dorm-style barracks, 2 small 2-man rooms that shared a bathroom. His neighbor was an Air Force guy who was basically never home. Sure his room was locked, but a butterknife or the edge of your dogtag could readily defeat the lock on the bathroom door.

Anyway, this NCO stored his stash in the Air Force pogue's freezer. Har.