Similar to my incomprehension of the song by Blind Guardian, I am unsure as to what happened on this Thursday evening. It all started, as most winter's tales do, on a quiet and cold night. The air cold with the promise of coming frost, shadowy figures could be seen darting from street light to street light before doing a mad dash for the pool of light, warmth and comfort that is the Gamerkins hideout. Once inside all thought of the bone chilling atmosphere is forgotten. For all Gamerkin smile at you as you enter and greet them warmly. All ? Yes all! Even the dastardly Olivier. Anyhow I am losing track of the point of this story with all these recollections of happy new year wishes and good will. Because once all the tables were set, the Gamers inside and the hellos spoken. Game on. Swords are drawn. Teeth sharpened. Friendships broken. Spirits destroyed. This is not Sparta. It is worst. It's a table of "Quartermaster".

Some kept enjoying themselves cleaning windows in Azul. Smiling and laughing and merrily scoring their points here and there. One table away though war was being prepared. The second world war to be exact. Only... Time is not a constant it seems at the Gamerkins. And though the Allies in fact won both games we played. They won... Strangely at best.

The first game was not utterly unthinkable. Germany rather than pushing hard westward decided to annihilate the Soviet Union. I was Germany, and I annihilated. However in the process the U.K. and U.S.A took over all of Europe. In fact in that scenario not only did the Allies win, there would never have been a cold war either as the U.S.S.R was all but destroyed. The second game took another stranger turn. The Soviet Union declared total war on Western Europe, and whilst Italy and Germany expanded after cleaning up the red tide, the U.S and U.K. well... Decided that E.U. really wasn't worth it to be perfectly honest and instead took over the rest of the world.
So if you are a learned woman or man, please explain to me: How do such amicable friends become such avid enemies on the same evening ? What the hell are Blind Guardian talking about in a song, I think, about a movie I barely remember other than good old Harrison Ford starred in it. Why is it the Gamerkin is such an incredibly wonderful place to be every Thursday night ?

All I know is that we all wish each other a grand new year, full of games and laughs. We also wish the same to you. Happy year 2019