Our club copy of Mosaix, a really nice little dice game in a tin box, has gone missing. Lorst and gorn. Where is it? Have you seen anybody suspicious hanging round near it? Have you seen one being offered for sale, maybe at a market or car boot sale? Do you know of an international Mosaix smuggling ring, which steals Mosaix to order and ships them overseas to foreign potentates?

So somebody has got it and we’d like it back please. Please. We’ll turn the lights out and count to 10…

And now, a video.

Andrew writes…

In 1756 Friedrich der Grosse of Prussia had to face the grim reality that half of Europe had formed an alliance against him with nothing less than the total destruction of Prussia on their agenda. I arrived in Berlin nearly 250 years late for what became known to history as the 7 years war, but nicely in time for the 2011 Friedrich World Championships.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game a short explaination follows. One player takes Friedrich himself. A second player takes Russia and Sweden, a third player Austria and the Holy Roman Empire (which as Voltaire pointed out is neither Holy, Roman nor an Empire) and the forth player takes France. Russia, Sweden, Austria, the Empire and France all have a set number of objectives to conquer before fate intervenes and knocks them out of the game whilst Friedrich just has stop them. For the Friedrich player it’s rather like the circus act with the spinning plates, one may be spinning nicely but over on the other side another plate is about to fall.

Each participant plays each of the four roles once; and the four players with the best combined score go forward into the final. There were 20 participants althogether. As well as a strong German contingent there were also players from Sweden, the Netherlands, the US and the UK. The game’s designer Richard Sivél was also on hand, providing a vital role as umpire, organiser, score keeper and in the ordering of pizzas. I was not in the final. I came 18th out of 20 players, which did at least make me the highest ranked British player there.

Everybody enjoyed playing very much. I would certainly return another year and I would also not hesitate to recommend the event to any Friedrich player who fancies trying out their skills against some of the finest in the world.

…and if you want to try playing Freidrich yourself, Andrew is always happy to teach the game at BM!.

Martin is also bringing some Treefrog games to sell. Bring cash money and bundles of it.

Remember, club members get a discount card on their second visit to BM!, giving them 10% off games at any of the Travelling Man shops. Plus TM also has their own excellent loyalty card which gives you even more savings.

We’ve had a bunch of new people lately, but some of our regulars are missing. Time for you to get back to BM!.

Next regular meet is at the RI on Saturday 3rd December 2011.

We meet again on Saturday 19th November 2011 from 10am to late in the day at the Railway Institute on Queens Street, York. Your first day is FREE or if you come after 4pm it’s only £1. …er…that’s it…