Game Time

Game Time

During my dating career, whenever a girl would break up with me…and they eventually would…I would find myself with idle time.  Before the Devil could fill my dance card I would break from the routine boredom.  Not necessarily with a ‘bucket list” per say, since I was closer to the starting gate than the finish line…but with things I now had time for.

I won’t rehash history that I am a buff of…well...history…specifically World War II.  I immerse myself in everything associated…movies, books, artwork, models… and board games.  Somewhere around the age of 10, if I wasn’t falling into sewers, I was partaking in these historical board games.  Risk and Stratego were Milton Bradley’s mainstream, but we delved into detailed games where rulebooks resembled novels.  On rainy days in the summer, we would set up shop in a hobby store.  The proprietor preferred our presence as it attracted attention to his gaming inventory.  In 1983, as I went away to college, time for this went away too.

It had just turned 1991 and dumping me was apparently on someone’s New Years resolution list.  With time now on my side, I sought out a solution.  It had been 7 years since I had war-gamed and I had the itch.  Business at my old hobby hangout had long since ceased.  I needed to locate a new locale where I could find fellow gamers.  I let my fingers do the walking, and I discovered a destination.  This new store had a bulletin board for messages, it was facebook of its time.  I noticed a flyer with a new game starting, Empire in Arms.  I called and was invited to join.

I had a hard time locating their venue and arrived a bit late…and that perturbed the players.  It was an interesting group.  I am EXTREMELY competitive and I started to size up the competition.  You had the alpha…he immediately stood out as the one to beat.  Not so much to become alpha myself, but to silence his bravado.  I could also see he pegged me as a rube.  That’s fine, let him think less of me…it will certainly piss him off when I show more.  Then you had the biker dude.  I was glad he preferred to kill things made of cardboard instead of flesh.  I knew I could use his aggressiveness against him.  A third was the biker’s complete opposite.  He was laid back.  He preferred a drag on his cigarette and a gulp of beer than having to actually move the pieces.  The 4^th I would soon learn was the die roller.  Like a gunslinger in the old west, you did not want to go one on one in a rolling shootout with him.  The final foe was the host.  Friendly and sarcastic…I could have been his brother, which I was mistaken for on later occasions.  This group was older, and being 25 and looking 18, I was nicknamed The Kid.  By the way, I won that first game.

The group gathered in this incarnation for several years.  Eventually, the biker dude dropped out, or was arrested…not sure which.  The laid back guy lost interest…shocking!  They were replaced with two gamers who were friends with each other…and they fit right in.  By the turn of the century we would break away from Alpha, as it became less about fun and more about winning at all costs.

The remaining group still gathers frequently today, but as good friends now…and not always for gaming.  Vacations, weddings, birthdays…and funerals.  In 2006 we lost one all too soon.

In 1991, I went looking to fill some idle time…instead I wound up filling a lifetime.