In other news, today I plan to make an offer on a house. Gosh and ooh.

Also, last weekend I played ‘War on Terror: The Boardgame’, courtesy of pseudomonas. Gameplay-wise I think I'd have to describe it as one third Settlers, one third Risk, and one third something slightly odder involving the terrorist counters which players have to buy but which can then be used by all players equally. (I would liken that aspect to the role of buildings in Caylus, except that that would dignify WoT:TB with a strategic depth that it really doesn't have.)

I was last to choose my two starting countries, and the UK and US were still available, so I picked them both and played as the Special Relationship. In this role I declared war on France (and won), nuked the Middle East, and believed I had a good chance of winning right up until the last move when I was out-expanded by China. All seemed very appropriate to me, really :-)

It also fell to me to read out the rules before we started playing, mostly (I think) because I happened to be holding them at the time. I rapidly discovered that even if you unfailingly pronounced ‘terrorist’ with three syllables to begin with, by the time you've finished reading out loud a rulebook which uses the word several times in most paragraphs, you will pronounce it as at most two. Presumably this happened to US politicians some time ago, for similar reasons.