Remembering PRESTAGS

Fix Worked And The Beast Roared

Brilliant, option A did the trick.

Arghhh! My new Mega Beast does not run ATG

Spetz is king of the Mega Beasts. Personally I blame Charlie. Mi'Lord blames his children. Both are correct:

After installing ATG for the very first time, and you run it, you get a horrid error:

When the tears dry from your eyes, you recall that Vic, one of the designer of ATG, gave you a fix years ago. Of course, you did not save it. Of course you did not put it into a PRESTAGS post for future access. After all, the last one was the Mega Beast to end all Mega Beasts. You would never need another, or so you told your confessor/beloved.

In case Vic's post ever goes missing, here is the text:

(a) option A

What might be the case is that your system is missing 'MSVCR100.DLL'.

You could do a search (see magnifying glass on your taskbar) for this filename first.

It should be properly re-installed with this microsoft installer:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5555
(restart computer afterwards)

(b) option B

What might be the case is that your system is missing 'VCRUNTIME140.DLL'.

You could do a search (see magnifying glass on your taskbar) for this filename first.

It should be properly re-installed with this microsoft installer:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52685
(chose the x86 version, and restart computer afterwards)

An important update relating to COVID-19

Spetz warned me about The Chump. Repeatedly. And yet he has surpassed himself by making the USA the hotbed of COVID-19. I was warned.

We now must find a way to avoid following The Chump's lead towards being a s**thole country. We had the opportunity to sacrifice a 78 year old virgin, but turned it down, so we have to just settle into Social Distancing - no FMW, no visits to Happy's while visiting parents, nor Fortune Village while you are meant to be dignified, no Gold Class or Golden Harbour Pippies, no whining about dignity when it only involves rolling out of bed and stumbling to the dining room table.

We snowflakes have to Man Up! Whatever that means! Probably works better in the original Russian and three shots of vodka with Puti.

(That bastard would have nuked us if ordered to!)

So what to do over the Easter weekend when family is a 30 minutes phone call and friends a 45 minutes Zoom?

Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs don't worry about social distancing! Alas they are extinct!

But a video game can bring them back to life. ATG would be so much better if it had dinosaurs. Some of those hunting dinosaurs from Jurassic World: Lost Kingdom would quickly fix an AI++ in ATG.

Needs must when the devil drives! So I treated myself 10 minutes ago with Dawn of Man. A mammoth is not that far from a dinosaur

While I am waiting for it to download, I am learning what to do. Apparently I have to get these two to make a lot of babies

and eat lots of meat

so that they can take over the world. I'm in!

What is Python up to

As a hint it has nothing to do with staff under cutting each other to produce a funerary pyramid to honour their bosses' desks.

New Game, New Rules, New Opportunities

One of the disadvantages of ATG is that you cannot stack the city count in one player's favour (like in EDEE) so it makes for a competitive 2 on 1.

Our last two attempts at 2 on 1 stopped early and with some frustration by the players. The Chardonnay swilling, bleeding heart liberal in me suggests that the format is not conducive to a relaxing, fun escape from dignity that it should be. So I propose a new format that will last a little longer and a novel scoring system. Very much the way John Michael Young thought when he devised PRESTAGS.

• Three AI+, not allied.
• Three humans not allied.
• King's peace until the last AI city falls, then on for young and old.
• Human may ally after the end of the King's peace (= no sharing tech before).
• When one human surrenders, they get 0 points, highest VP gets 3 points, other player gets 1 pt.
• Bonus point for the biggest kill, power, raw and oil rank - from the charts.
• What about strongest land unit, naval unit?
• Scores tallied over many games for bragging rights.

So I expect the game to play out this way

1. We all struggle with our AI for a few turns while we work ourselves out.
2. We crunch the AIs and get some valuable tech.
3. As the AIs falter, we start to reinforce our borders.
4. The last cities falls and we stare at each other for one turn and then it is on.
5. Lots of slugging as we get through Kursk like fortifications
6. Someone breaks through, or hopefully more than one
7. Someone throws in the towel
8. We tally points and start another

For example, this would get Mi'Lord a point

This would get El Magnifico a point

This would get Python a point

For the record, this game started with:

• XX Large
• 3 Humans + 3 AI+
• Stone Age
• Normal tech costs
• Full Country start
• Roads

Let me know how you find it!

The Beef Wellington Excuse Just Doesn't Cut It

Python's pathetic excuse to avoid an ATG smash session because he had to cook Beef Wellington for a 'Christmas in July' dinner party just doesn't cut it.

On the day we were saved by his considerate better half, who enabled the smash session to proceed.

However, for future reference the Beef Wellington excuse won't work. Why not?

Because the Beef Wellington can be prepared in advance.

I wonder what recipe Python will use when he pre-cooks his Beef Wellington, thus giving himself plenty of ATG time. The one from Mary Berry looks good.

Even if Python absolutely insists upon cooking fresh the day of the dinner party, there is a recipe for Mini Beef Wellingtons that only involves 15 minutes preparation time. Easily achievable while Precious (aka the Bastard) does his ATG turn.

This is so quick, that Python can even whip up a nice Spicy Cucumber Salad  - 10 minutes preparation time -while Spetz does his ATG turn.

Yes, Mini Beef Wellingtons with Spicy Cucumber Salad. We should lock it in for the next FMW.

 

Of Cucumbers And Ravioli

I have found a recipe for Python - it's Cucumber, Herb and Four Cheese Ravioli Salad.

The recipe is on the Buitoni Pasta Website.

I reckon you could use meat ravioli instead of the four cheese one if you wanted.

I have also found a recipe for cucumber sauce suggested for ravioli, but (frankly) it sounds disgusting.

The photograph of this food travesty is even more disgusting.

The vodka sauce recipe that was immediately after sounds a lot better.

Ravioli with vodka sauce - very nice, and very quick. Lots of time for an ATG turn before the guests arrive.

 

This Is What 200 Nothing Burgers Look Like

The Dutters Held On

Penghu fell, but the Dutters lost many brave troops and were still cut off.

Nevertheless, the Dutters managed to hold on through the enemy turn.

To be rescued by the right wing just in time.

 

Dutters Paras At Work

The Dutters elite paratroops first wave survived the drop, and were reinforced by the second wave the following turm. The enemy gun factory is in sight:

The third wave met with disaster by jumping blind into a large nest of enemies:

However the second wave of brave Dutters was still able to capture the gun factory:

And while rations are running low, the reinforcements on the right are about to arrive. Dinner in Penghu is the next target:

 

Tut Tut

Bad Python.