Essen and technology

I have packed, counted my Euros and printed off my Spiel preview.Good to go.
For some reason the intro to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales keeps springing to mind, except its October showers not April though Spiel is a pilgramage of sorts.

Since my last post i have added Merchants & Marauders and After Pablo to the buy list. Merchants is on the list because i am still searching for 'the' pirate game and After Pablo because it looks very interesting ; both theme and mechanics wise. There are rumours that the new FF Civ game will be there and whilst i don't believe it i will be heading to the FF stand first thing Thursday morning. Its a shame that Vinhos won't make the shshow, however it will be welcome when it arrives later in November.

My Blackberry packed up last week so i changed up to a Iphone 4. Before i started playing with it i thought mobile phones were just for calls and emails. The Iphone has changed that - it really is amazing and is like carrying round a computer. Of course i downloaded loads of boardgame Apps :- Neuroshima Hex, Wabash, Samurai , Tichu and High Society. All are outstanding - especially Tichu. Apet from Wabash none of these are games that i play very often and i think a Iphone App is a great way of finding out if you like a game or not, or discovering games that i gave not played before. It might sound odd but i am not that interested in playing games that i love face to face against the computer. i don't think the medium is suited to longer games as the omotional investment tails off after 15 minutes or so.

If i have time i will post my first impressions of games i play in Essen.