Heroscape for Kids

As a father to a couple of young kids, I am always looking for ways to include them into my gaming interests. One game in particular which is holding my attention is Heroscape.

Its a hex-based fantasy battle game that comes with pre-painted figures and battle units. It reminds me of some of Games Workshop's better family/visual based boardgames. My eldest daughter is interested in "little statues" and with hopefully a developing interest in rules and playing boardgames, I think this game will do the trick.

Has anyone bought this game or could recommend a similar or better game?

pete_darby (194.60.106.5)

30th Nov, 2007 14:20 (local)

Got it, play it with my nine year old, it's no stretch for him at all, quite fun (though takes as long to set up as to play... but is fun to set up)...

Search for it on the Argos site, they often have it for £7.50 or under...

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lawbag (86.149.178.39)

30th Nov, 2007 14:44 (local)

cheers, Ive seen them advertise on their website.

the game is meant to be £40 so 7.50, they are keen to offload it then?

my 2 daughters are 5 and 2 (give or take a few months)

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pete_darby (194.60.106.5)

30th Nov, 2007 14:55 (local)

Yeah, they were clearing out the old master set to make way for the new one at xmas... nothing on the website now, but ebay often has them around a tenner + postage.

5 should be okay: the only math intensive part is army building.

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seriouspaul (75.40.237.38)

30th Nov, 2007 14:43 (local)

I've been seriously considering purchasing it for my kids, as they're nearly old enough to start grasping the concepts. They love game night at my house-and enjoy watching me and my friends game.

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lawbag (86.149.178.39)

30th Nov, 2007 14:45 (local)

it was Animallball threads that really interested me.

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seriouspaul (75.40.237.38)

30th Nov, 2007 14:47 (local)

I haven't read any of them in recent months, but I know in the past that both Brasky and Mike have dabbled in it. Before they started posting about it a friend of mine, Gyro-who games with us-bought it and brought it over. Since then I've seen potential in it for kids.

I know they do Marvel Superheroes, and a few other cool and easily recognizable lines.

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Pregnancy No. 2

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Pregnancy No. 2

Right, the wife has announced that she is pregnant, well, I kinda guessed as much too, but then it hit me. That means when sprog no. 2 turns up (a) no gaming for quite some time (last kid was almost 2 years!) and (b) the snip.

I've heard of gamers retiring, or hanging up their dice bags and passing them on to the next generation, but role-playing is such a part of my life, that I will not go gently into the dark light. So what other gaming possibilities are there?

Lets do a little review, but not in a scientific way, just anecdotal or rubbish one.
(a) online games, replacement table-top gaming - well apparently none of these work well enough, plus you still have to get the group together (problems with transatlantic players etc) plus the amount of work required just isnt fun
(b) play close-enough PC games e.g. Dungeon Siege or World of Warcraft etc..., well these work, but only for a short time. Not really suitable for the casual gamer because of the power levels of the other players.
(c) other forms of postal gaming using a forum, IRC or email. again these just dont work due to lack of discipline, plus they tend to wander into storytelling and might as well be fan-fic based on you current game. The adventures tend to be about games you could never run in a group session.
Im sure there are other forms of gaming, role-playing that is, but I'll just have to read about other peoples games before one day coming back. Be interesting to see what games arrive when I do!

TV Prompts Discussion

Me and the wife were watching TV last night, and we are getting to know the kind of programmes each of us likes watching, (in a proper married kind of way), and next up was a programme about people with a mental disorder in which they were hypochondriacs attempting to heal themselves of their obsession over medical issues.

A hypochondriac is someone who believes themselves to be in need of medical attention or medication, usually inventing their own symptoms to suit which ever disease they are reading about that week.

I'm mentioning this, because my wife is a borderline case. Every ache and pain she gets is cancer, and every bump and cough and sneeze emitted by anyone in the household is caused by cancer.

So while we watched this show, my missus admitted to me that she has a genuine fear of me dying, in addition to which she believes that one day I just wont come home, as I have died somewhere without her knowledge. Now I could have taken it 2 ways, one to laugh it off as nonsense and just normal paranoia, but the other is to take her fears to heart and realise that everyone should be concerned over this matter. I was quite touched by her openness, and giving thought as to how I can alleviate her fears on a daily basis, whether by emails, text messages or other methods, so that she knows I am still around and living.

pete_darby (194.60.106.5)

21st Feb, 2007 12:13 (local)

I think my sweety still doesn't quite get this about me; whenever she is late, I worry that she and the kids are tangled up in a mess on the motorway somewhere. Especially if I can't get her on the mobile.

It's also why I text her all the time, tell her I love her all the time (and the kids)... because it would just be my luck that the last thing I said to them was "The cat's crapped on the clean washing, sorry, got to run for my bus, haven't got time to clear it up."

It's also why I got really hacked off when she had a bad asthma attack a couple of weeks ago, but phoned everyone else but me because she "didn't want to worry me." Sweety, worry means care.

Russian Food Funnies

Im married to a Russian woman, not a mail order bride or even an online mail order bride, but some poor woman who seemed to like me more than I liked myself.

But being Russian means she loves eating Russian food, and we are lucky to have 3 shops in the area that sell Russian food.

Well this blog today is about the food she buys. And today she bought some chocolate balls which taste just like Ferrero Roche, but due to bad translation end up as something else.



And thanks to Russian translation for the ingredients they become;



Sexy "Balls in Chocolate Power".

Mr Roche will not be quaking in his boots, and nor will our Russian guests think we are spoiling them.

Missing Reviews

sorry about the lack of reviews - I wrote about 6 of them on my phone, but the phone went wonky and is due to be upgraded in the next 2 weeks, but I have them saved on a memory card which I shall pull them off once the new phones arrive. RIP Orange M2000, long live O2 XDA Exec!

Children's TV for Adults

No this isnt an entry about pornography, but rather a review of children's TV, specifically CBeebies, the toddler channel from the BBC.

With a 3.5 year old running around who cries at the thought of not catching the latest episode of the Shiny Show or the Fimbles in the same way we hit the roof to miss Star Trek or Dr Who, I end up watching a lot of children's TV.

The reason it is CBeebies is (a) is available on freeview, (b) its from the BBC meaning it has a certain agenda which is visible and trust worthy, (c) advert free.

We try, as parents, to limit her viewing for the sake of her eyes, plus I dont want her to become a couch potato.

While I am not going to be reviewing any of the shows now, I will shortly, Im listing below the ones that I at least enjoy, in no particular order.

The Shiny Show
Big Cook, Little Cook
Come Outside
Lazy Town
Fimbles/Roly Mo Show
Teletubbies
Tikabilla
StoryMakers
Balamory
Boogie Beebies
Bits & Bobs
Boo
Smarteenies
Lunar Jim
Little Robots
Fab Lab
Doodle Do
Bobinogs
Tweenies

Im only going to review the ones Ive watched more than 5 times, and those she watches, you will see there are quite a few I havent mentioned, simply because I dont see them.

Remember my reviews are going to be from an ADULT's perspective giving ratings according to

educational information - i.e. telling me things I didnt know
entertainment value - it is agonising to watch or does it surprise
production value - even though you can spend a ton on a show it can still look crap
presenters - including both human and puppets etc...
emperor's new clothes - this is the one Im most interested in (apart from the last), are we learning the same stories (sharing toys, be nice to your mum and dad, never tell lies) but with different characters?
adult value - would you shag the female presenters, do they wear clothes that are inappropriate for the show, are there in-jokes and sarcasm lost on children that adults find funny (Doodle Do)

Well here goes. I hope to review all 19 by this time next week.
Each show will get a short write up, good and bad points, then each of the 6 (so far) sections will be rated 1-5, and a total at the end. And just for completeness Ill throw the figures into an excel spreadsheet and see what comes out the other end.

Any comments or extra criteria I should add?

Amelia Rosina

baby no.2