It was often said in the Stalingrad pocket that it was better to have a cousin in the Luftwaffe than a Father in Heaven.
–Heinz Schroter
Seventy years ago this month, in a place between the Don and Volga Rivers, the Soviet Red Army broke through the front lines of the Germans and their Italian, Rumanian, and Hungarian allies. The 250,000 men of the Sixth Army were encircled, and over the course of the next ten weeks, starved, defeated, and destroyed. Few of its survivors saw their homes again.
Some years later, people with overactive imaginations and a lot of time on their hands invented a way to recreate these events using cardboard squares with numbers on them, paper maps covered in hexagons, and some six-sided dice. Want to drive a make-believe German tank over your dining room table? At one point in time, you could walk into many Toys R Us in the United States and buy a boardgame with a panzer and some German landsers on the cover, or Hitlerian code name for a title, like “Wacht Am Rhein”. Right down the aisle from Raggedy Ann and Andy. Now we download complete games about the war on the Eastern Front from the Internet and leave the stuffed dolls by themselves.
After the jump, we’re doing the War in the East thing again Continue reading →
Scrabble, like football and dealing with roommates, is all about controlling territory. Anyone can drop letters on a board to make a word. Bug! Nation! Crass! Veal! Expressly! But you’re not actually playing Scrabble until you’re watching the triple score squares as closely as you’re watching your tiles. QatQi, a new iPad game that understands the importance of the territory under the letters, takes worldplay to unexplored depths.
After the jump, yeah, it’s called QatQi and no, I have no idea what that means Continue reading →
I dig tabletop RPGs. More specifically, I dig the tabletop RPG: Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah. So? I like D&D. Don’t look at me that way. Unless you want a fight on your hands. Brah.
Honestly, most people are more curious than dismissive when I mention playing D&D. I always explain it as an interactive story that you tell with your friends, but with rules for combat. And when your friends are actors, or improv comedians, or writers, you can tell a pretty neat story.
Recently, Wizards of the Coast released their newest iteration of the rules (called D&D Next) for public playtesting. Over the years, countless Nerds have attempted to court Nerdesses while using this ever-evolving social game as a backdrop. Last weekend, I joined those hallowed ranks. Jealous? Cause you, uh, totally should be. Seriously though: I will fight you.
After the jump, an explanation Continue reading →
Not since Lincoln has the Qt3 Movie Podcast been so divided on a movie! If you want to avoid Life of Pi spoilers, fast forward to the 59-minute mark for this week’s 3×3 of our favorite movie epiphanies.
Next week: Killing Them Softly
Podcast (movies): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
