Leaving Frankfurt.. reflections #1 A house divided

I'm leaving Frankfurt  to return to Melbourne this Sunday.
Leaving  may smarter, cuter half, heretofore known only as "She who Must Be Obeyed" or SWMBO for short, to battle on  against the elements alone.

in the last 3 months I've done a bit of gaming here but not much.. some episodes follow:
[originally posted on boardgamegeek.com 10 December, 2009]

"... I arrived in Frankfurt a month ago for 3 months and  as I will almost certainly be moving here in a few years and am spending all my winters here from now on (yes crazy, pass up an Australian summer, but the heat kills me and I happen to be head over heels with the Woman concerned!)

The process of slowly finding out about the gaming scene here in Frankfurt is an interesting one.

I have met and arranged my first game, it will be AHD against (tellus on bgg), who I located through a german miniatures  forum as I found the frankfurt mob here on BGG  just seem to do euro stuff, though I do plan on making trips to the Cafe Vorspiel in the future.

Tellus and I are both fair to say of a certain age and our collections, his and mine, and tastes reflect that; I suggested AHD as he seemed to have a few ACW gaes in his list (I converted him onto BGG muhahaha!) and it can be fairly short and easy to get a complete playing in a limited session, as I have no gaming material with me apart from a lot of lead to paint, I suggested one from his list. I suspect he'll be hooked into and demand a few more playings once he's tried it is addictive. I think he said its a GDW edition or a german "GDW-like" licensed edition.

Tellus has opened AHD and played a few turns out solo sometime back, so this will be a first play for him against "the living" as Han Solo said once.

He's chosen to play Confederate and so I will defend as Union.. We talked AHD and games miniature and board both over Früstück (or brekky I as I say in Melbourne); the Phalanx edition, which I have not seen except for photos on BGG, while it is truly beautiful and exquisite and the components divine, I realized I prefer the GDW map for a few reasons:

1. it is a clear, effective communication tool as any LINK or LINK design will testify to.

2. its READABLE. why is this important? Well sad to say a lot of us are getting old and in the ast 6 months I have noticed on a lot lists and boards players are beginning to ask questions and making choices with their vision in mind. Contrast, Colour, Size  and Typography for matter for communication as much as beauty in Design.

So I thought of a vote, on whatever basis you like for your preferred board.

Indications of owned and/or preferred editions and if your vision is hawk-like, codger-esque or Magoo-opic are encouraged but, of course optional.

I own GDW 2nd and vision-wise would love to say I'm a codger, but in reality, I'm a Magoo...."