Another gap in routine posting is over!

My extended family went off to Maui for a reunion and we had a bit of a trip. First there was the individual who decided to steal a Q400 Dash-8 and crash it into Puget Sound the night before we left. That was the plane my family was supposed to be on early the next morning and so we were delayed by a day and a half trying to get flights to line up to Kahalui, Maui.

Once there, it was beautiful.

We had a great first bit which included snorkelling with sea turtles, but sadly Hurricane Lane decided to head towards Hawai’i in the second week. I watched with great interest as its pressure went from 950mb down to 929mb, which is quite the low. Luckily the easterly trades broke up the hurricane into a storm before it really got us, but we were confined to our accommodation for a bit as the winds and water rushed by.

During this time, I played a game that I must mention here. It is an escape room game called Exit, the Game, and it was wonderful. By far the best and most interesting board game I’ve played in years. It’s a cooperative game in which everyone is working at solving puzzles to get more clues with a view to escaping a themed area (in our case a castle). There are logic problems, ciphers, and really neat puzzles. I cannot say enough about how fun it was. The one downside is that each game is only playable once – you actually will be cutting up cards, weaving bits of paper together, tearing apart the box etc in order to get out. The games are about $15 – 20 CAD online, which may seem pricey, but for 4 people to play for an hour or 2, it works out to great value for money. I’ll be posting more about this as my group plays it.

As for the storm impacts, there were high winds and lots of water (and a massive brush fire nearby). Interestingly, as soon as the run-off increased, the water got murky and the sharks popped up right near us just as the shark experts said. Funny that.

This local resident was much more interesting than the sharks, but disappeared before the storm hit:

All in all, it was a good time out and about. I even got a little bit of wargaming done! My uncle, who shall be known as Gruncle on this site hereafter, painted up some Essex Franco-Prussians as a (very kind!) gift, and we duly threw them at each other to learn the nuances of The Men Who Would Be Kings (TMWWBK). It is very similar to Osprey’s other offerings so easy to learn and quite fun, though definitely aimed at a heroic skirmish rather than grand battle style. The artillery is excellent for pinning units, and seems to be most useful in preventing activations rather than its shear damage output. This game would be great fun with varied terrain and some clear objectives.

As for the gift – they are lovely miniatures, and I’ll be posting more of them here shortly. I do have some 15mm armies, but the focus has been Chain of Command and Dux lately, so they’ve been sitting neglected (if unpainted) or ignored (if painted). The weather here is nice and cool, and the terrible smoke from our forest fires has dissipated (for now), and I hope to get more time moving my 15mms around the table and the Prussians and French will likely be first up in a week or two.

More soon!