#escape from colditz

[retrocgads]

UK 1991

[boardgoats]

23rd June 2020 (Online)

23rd June 2020 (Online)

Maybe it was the really hot weather, or perhaps it was the prospect of playing something we all know and love, but people seemed in a slightly brighter mood this week.  Pine commented that every time Purple moved her head he could see the swastika on the box for Escape from Colditzbehind her and he was finding it disconcerting.  After she had shuffled her seat, Purple commented that it was hers…

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[wolfleblack]

Escape from Coldtiz Review - The Great Escape

Escape from Coldtiz Review – The Great Escape

Designed by: Bob Brechin, Brian Degas, Major P.R. Reid M.B.E., M.C. Published by: Osprey Games Players: 2-6 Time to Play: 180 Minutes

Despite having reviewed a fair number of board games now on this site, I’ve not once reviewed a game where you roll dice to move. It wasn’t something I had thought about until I played Escape from Colditz. Even though my childhood was filled with games like…

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[theboardgameshow]

Escape From Colditz Board Game Review, The New Edition

Escape From Colditz Board Game Review, The New Edition

I love microcosms. Take the classic WWII German submarine movie, Das Boot. There is an inescapable immersion generated by the movie’s cramped quarters, the interplay among the submariners, and the life and death struggles that demand excellence and cohesion in crisis after crisis. Since prisons practically define microcosms, I’ve had my eyes on Escape from Colditz by Osprey Games since the…

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[colditzcastle-blog]

[beantownbailout-blog]

If y'all wanna be my friend y'all need to know this

I like war films. A lot.  I like Sharpe I really like Zulu I really really like Escape From Colditz And Das Boot And Female Agents And The Sea Shall Not Have Them I just really like badass soldiers being all badass and sassy and awesome and brave

yeah... 

[newtothetable-blog]

Why it took me twenty years to play a board game.

Hi.

I've briefly mentioned in previous posts that something horrible happened to me that put me off board games for more than two decades. Here's the tale.

I was 13, the year was 1990. I went next door to my mates house to play a little Atari ST SpeedBall, 2 player. We often got together and could spend hours just racking up tournament scores of 112-98. Best of 3? Best of 300 more like.

This friend of mine was educated to a slightly higher standard than me. He went to the local boys grammar school, I went to the grotty mixed comp on the other side of town. But, like Huck Finn and… his… posh mate(?) (Oh, I don’t know,I never read it) we became really good mates in spite of our differences. We shared a mutual love of our Atari ST’s.

So, on this eventful day, I walked into his living room (you could leave your back-door open in them days, son) to find him and a bunch of his posh mates crowded round the dining table playing a board game. Escape From Colditz. It wasn’t a game I was familiar with. My friend looked busy. So I made my excuses and left. Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that the game was too complicated for me, I have in fact since learned that it is a really easy game for STUPID POSH LOSERS. But factor in a high level of feeling generally intimidated by all these new faces looking down their noses at me and I didn’t go round to play a board game anyway and that’s why I left.

I got halfway down the path to my house and my friend caught up with me. Told me to come and join in. “Meet the gang”. So I met, Jimmy, Squash, Ralph Rotter, and Strangely Brown and listened patiently as they, rather haughtily, explained the rules to me. I didn’t get it. They could tell that I didn’t get it. I was about to make a fool of myself. And at the moment when I placed a Nazi guard inside a locked cell (or something stupid and inappropriate) I was asked politely to leave the game. My friend was gracious and said I should stay anyway. So I did and… I’m shuddering as I recall this… his posh mates said I could be the official dice roller.

I was so happy to be included in this complicated game for grown ups that that is what I did. Like some kind of common servant or dice-rolling trained chimp I shook the dice in my hands, blowing for good luck and everything. The game was played. There was a victor. I went home. My mum asked me what I had been doing. “Playing escape from colditz” I said. “Did you enjoy it?” “Didn’t really understand it, but they let me roll the dice.”

They. Let. Me. Roll. The. Dice.

Only then did it dawn on me how stupid they must have thought I was. That poor slow kid from next door. Let’s let him roll the dice so he feels included.

I avoided next door for a few weeks, spent most evenings in my room playing Speedball. One evening there was a knock on the front door. Mum shouted up, I went down and he was there, stood there with those same mates, on my doorstep. I got an invite to hang out with them. I said “nah” and started to close the door. MOTHER INTERVENTION! And I found myself stood outside on the step with the front door closed behind me. Mums are ninjas like that. So, I went round, expecting to find another board game waiting, ‘Historical Times-Tables For Poshies’, or something equally fun and exclusive. No board game. Just the old back room CRT Telly and the Atari ST. The Bitmap Brothers logo flashed across the black screen. I sat down cross legged, picked up a joystick and selected 2 players. And waited for my silent invite to be accepted.

You know what happens next. One by one, each dejected, defeated schoolboy made his excuse and left. Until it was just me and my mate, playing SpeedBall, talking about going halves on SpeedBall 2 when it comes out.

Horrible board game experience ends in happy video game experience.

It sounds trivial but it genuinely put me off board games for a long time. Twenty-odd years later, here I am. Converted thanks to the words of Robert Florence, Shut Up Show, Wil Wheaton and more. I wonder if they have a horrible board game story.

*looks and points at camera*

DO YOU??

KJ @SonAndGames