Board Game: Axis and Allies

/ Shane / 1 Comment

It wouldn’t be fair to talk about Acquire without mentioning the OTHER best board game ever, Axis and Allies.

Axis and Allies is like Risk on steroids. In fact, after you’ve played Axis and Allies, Risk seems so un-strategic and pointless, it is hard to ever play it again.

Like Risk, you have a certain number of units that “fight” against an opponents units by rolling dice. That’s about where the similarities end though, because in Axis and Allies there are many different types of units, and each need to roll a different number for a “kill”. For example, if I am attacking you with my infantry men and my fighter jets, my infantry needs to roll a 1 to kill one of your guys, but my jets need to roll a 3 or lower (obviously a jet is a lot more powerful than an infantry men).

So why wouldn’t you just have only jets then? Well, much like Risk, you gain “points” during your turn based on how much territory you control. In Axis and Allies, these points are money, and you can spend them on units. This is where some of the strategy comes in: do I buy a ton of cheap infantry to throw into the breach and eat up bullets, or do I buy something more expensive, like tanks or bombers? Do I spend money on a navy, and patrol the Atlantic with wolf-packs of subs, or do I blitzkrieg my panzer divisions across Africa? Or maybe I should be going  Luftwaffe all the way?

As you’ve probably picked up, this game is centered on World War II, and is eerily accurate, historically. In fact, the initial setup of the board is to replicate the troop placements of a specific year of the war. I’ve seen alternate setups online where you can replicate the troop placements of other years of the war. And if you make the same historical decisions (good or bad) made by the countries in those wars, you tend to have the same results those countries had. I am always amazed at how accurate the whole thing plays out (like the way Russia is almost forced to sacrifice ridiculous numbers of infantry men to buy time against the German army, or the way the U.S. has very little effect on the war until the end, when they become a powerhouse. The “sleeping giant” indeed!) History classes should be forced to play this game; I think they would learn a lot about why certain decisions were made.

However, the game gets interesting when you DON’T follow the precedent of history. Russia captured by Japanese invaders from the East. Britain fighting Pacific naval battles from a base in Australia. A powerful Russian navy (strategy-wise, this is about as bad as it sounds). D-Day taking place, but in Africa, or Scandinavia, or some other strange location. Now we’re talking!

The downside to this game is that it takes a long time to set up and an eternity to play. If you have people who don’t know all the troop placements off the top of their heads, it can literally take 45 minutes to an hour to set up. An hour before you can even begin playing! But that’s nothing compared to the game itself. I’d say 6 hours is not unreasonable.

This is crazy talk, you’re probably saying. 6 hours or more to play one game? Well, sometimes a long game can be immensely more satisfying than a short one. These are games that you’ll be recounting years later (no joke!). It is also technically possible to play a game over a couple sessions, unless you have kids or a cat. Seriously, I swear Nala just *has* to lay in the middle of the board! In high school we used to keep a game going in the back of Mrs. Jones’ class, and she would keep curious kids from messing up the board. Then we would run in and take a turn in between classes. Games would last for weeks! And don’t even get me started about the ill-will we generated playing a game entirely through the night on Christmas eve.

Anyway, I don’t know that I’ve ever enjoyed a gaming session as much as I’ve enjoyed a session of Axis and Allies, but it’s pretty intense, and the length of the game makes it difficult to play very often. If you have a chance though, it’s well worth it!

Another day, another species of zombie is born

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Alright, nature, I think you’ve reached a new low.

Here we have a virus which infects caterpillars, and turns them into zombies. The virus forces them to climb up in the tree and grab on, where they slowly liquefy, raining down virus-infected body-goop to affect other caterpillars and begin the circle of caterpillar zombie life anew.

This particular virus only affects gypsy moths…as if they weren’t bad enough to begin with. However, as awful as the gypsy moth menace is, I can’t condone turning things into zombies. That’s just bound to go wrong. As long as we live in a world where a zombie-producing virus lives, there’s always a chance that virus mutates into something that can affect humans.

This kind of reminds me of the zombie ants. That’s right, we now know about a kind of zombie created by a fungus, and another created by a virus. And you people scoff at my zombie preparations! Who’s laughing now?

Link via Sara who enjoys nothing more than horrifying me.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

/ Shane / 4 Comments

Someone taught Evie the rhyme “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” and now all decisions must be made this way. What will you eat first off your plate? Which crayon will you use? Who should put you to bed tonight? Always, eeny, meeny, miny, moe, like it’s some sort of infallible magic 8 ball, with all the right answers.

Evie’s actually learned a few of these lately, although eeny, meeny, miny, moe seems to be the rhyme of choice.

Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish,
How many pieces do you wish?

These really brought back some memories, I haven’t thought about a lot of these since I was a kid.

Engine, engine, number nine,
Coming down Chicago line,
If the train goes off the track,
Do you want your money back?

The part that is funny is that everybody has their own set of “add ons” onto the base rhyme.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe,
If he hollers, let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miney, moe

Now here’s where it starts to get interesting:

My mother told me to pick the very best one

I would assume the purpose of these add-ons is to allow you to select the outcome you want: if you don’t land on the right thing, just tack something on the end and keep going.

And out you go with a dirty, dirty dishrag on your big fat enormous toe

However, it never worked that way for us; we always did the whole thing, all the way to the end.

Signed by the U.S. of the A.

And yes, I have Evie doing all the extras now.

Sara thought all of these extra additions were pretty hilarious, although I never really considered them much before. I probably learned them from my mom, they kind of sound like something she would do. What about you? Did you stick with the eeny, meeny, miney, moe, or did you have your own extras at the end? Were they the same or different from what we had?

Quote Monday likes the seat down

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Oliver couldn’t reach the crayons that were on top of the microwave, so he ran and got the stool. He still couldn’t reach it, so he ran and got one piece of paper, put that on top of the stool, then stood on it and tried to reach again. Surprisingly, he still couldn’t reach.

Me: “You know, they have French dressing too.”
Evie, laughing: “French dressing?? I could believe Italian dressing, but French dressing? No, you’re going to have to prove it to me.”

::Sara and I cruelly forcing Evie to sit on the potty::
Evie: “My pee pees and poo poos are not coming. I think this is not their flight!”

Evie: “Grandma, I am getting tired of following after you putting down the toilet seat!”

Coconut Tres Leches Cake

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The Reason:

This recipe was specifically requested by Sara. A long time ago, we had a delicious coconut tres leches cake at a restaurant, and I promised to make one for Sara’s birthday. I almost forgot, but she didn’t! So here we are.

For the record, “tres leches” is Spanish for three milks, which will be demonstrated shortly.

The Journey:

The idea here is to make a very light and fluffy cake, which will absorb the milk mixture and turn into a nice, delicious, pudding-y mush. This is all about aerating everything, and in this case it requires separating the egg whites from the yolks. This is something I have always had a lot of trouble with, until Sara showed me the trick of doing it in the actual egg shell.

Basically, you just crack the eggs in half and then dump the yolk back and forth between the shells until all of the white is out. Seriously, I’ve tried all sorts of little tools and things, and they just never work. I can’t really explain why this works better, so you’ll have to take my word on it.

After that, it’s just a lot of mixing to put air in and make it light and fluffy.

After the cake is baked, you poke holes in it and pour the milk mixture on top, to let it soak in. You’re going for that tiramisu-sort-of-texture, where everything is just soft and delicious.

Note that this picture only shows a half recipe’s worth of cake, because we made two halves and froze one. We haven’t gotten out the frozen one yet, so I can’t vouch for it, but it certainly seems like the kind of thing that will do well frozen.

I do believe we made a full batch of the whipped cream and toasted coconut, which we didn’t need since we froze half. But wait a minute, what am I saying? When do you not need more homemade whipped cream and toasted coconut??

The Verdict:

It was awesome, and specifically a nice change of pace from a regular cake.

However, it wasn’t exactly perfect. I blame myself more than the recipe. The cake itself was a little dense, and I’m not sure why. Was it the substitution of whole wheat flour? Maybe I didn’t beat eggs enough? Perhaps the holes I poked with the toothpick were not quite big enough to let the milk soak in?

I don’t know. If anybody gets better results, let me know. But these were really minor issues and didn’t take away from the deliciousness at all. I think I’m just being hard on myself. But hey, I set a certain bar with Sara’s cake last year, and I wanted to do a good job!

The Recipe:

This recipe is adapted from chow.com.

  • Butter, for coating the baking dish
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour (we substituted whole wheat flour)
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 2/3 cup evaporated milk (not nonfat)
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened canned coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon dark rum, such as Myers’s, plus more as needed
  • 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
  1. Preheat the oven to 325°. Grease a 13-by-9-inch glass baking dish. Whisk the flour to aerate and break up any lumps (I didn’t do this, but maybe I should have).
  2. Split the egg whites and yolks into separate bowls. Add the sugar to the yolks and beat on high until pale yellow, about 5 minutes. Whip the egg whites on high speed until medium peaks form, about 1 1/2 minutes.
  3. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolks. Sprinkle the flour over the egg mixture and gently fold it in, just until there are no more white flour streaks. (Do not overmix.)
  4. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake until the cake is puffed and golden and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan, about 20 to 25 minutes.
  5. Meanwhile, place the three milks and the rum in a large bowl and whisk until combined.
  6. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack. Using a toothpick or wooden skewer, poke holes all over the cake and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Pour the milk mixture evenly over the cake and continue cooling, about 45 minutes more. Tightly cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
  7. When the cake is ready to serve, spread the coconut in an even layer in a large frying pan. Toast over medium heat, stirring often, until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Immediately remove from the pan.
  8. Place the heavy cream and powdered sugar in large bowl and whisk until medium peaks form. (If you like, flavor it with a teaspoon of dark rum. We opted to go rum-free on the whipped cream.) Slice the cake and serve topped with a mound of whipped cream and a sprinkle of toasted coconut.