Les-TA-Jon

Jamie Vardy ban confronts Leicester and Ranieri with major bump in the road

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/apr/20/leicester-bump-jamie-vardy-premier-league 

...apparently. Of course Vardy is vital to us and has started our last 45 matches. But what this article fails to recognise is that we still only need 8 points and that total can only go down. We could beat Swansea and Spurs draw a game and then we only need 3 points!

Ranieri buyout less than £1m apparently...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/6996505/Claudio-Ranieri-can-be-prized-away-from-table-topping-Leicester-for-just-1million.html 

What do we all think of this weirdness:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03hr7gl

What's all this about Dyers wife?

Any links?

Phil McNulty admitting he was wrong about us at the start of the season:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/35098742

Glad he admitted his mistake. But he still comes out with a load of tosh. 

He just simply, without justification or evidence dismisses our chances: 

despite being the undisputed team of the season in the opening months of the campaign, it is too much of a stretch to imagine Claudio Ranieri's Leicester upsetting all odds and winning the league.

 

Then despite not using our form or past seasons as a trajectory for us, he does use deterministic approaches to justify Chelsea being in trouble and Arsenal/Man City being the real title contenders. 

And despite all the evidence saying otherwise he predicts we can't finish in the top 4:

it is with a heavy heart that the prediction is for Leicester City to finish outside the top four

 

The logic of these pundits is a bit strange to say the least.

- We absolutely destroy the Championship playing attractive, direct and effective football - unanimously tipped for relegation. 

- We struggle for large parts of the season - unanimously tipped for relegation

- We pull off the great escape and finish 14th in PL and then add to the squad, only losing Cambiasso - unanimously tipped for relegation

Bournemouth meanwhile...

- Finish top with 90 pts, playing attractive football - unanimously tipped to stay up and be the 'surprise package' of the season

- Sign Gradel, Tomlin, Distin, Costa, Mings, and...? - unanimously tipped to stay up and be the 'surprise package' of the season

Haha even if the tone of that game wasn't so misplaced/offensive how on earth was it meant to be fun?

Here's a question. Oh your right/wrong. Here's some points. Maybe.

Woohoo.

I have... 3 X-wings, 1 Y-wing, 1 B-wing, 1 A-wing, 1 E-wing, 4 TIE fighters, 1 TIE Advanced, 1 TIE Bomber, 1 TIE Phantom, 1 Z-95 Headhunter and a Lambda shuttle.

I bought my bro-in-law a Millenium Falcon for his wedding anniversary, as he owns a few too and so far we only ever play round his house since you need a bit of space. I also own this 3ft x 3 ft mat...

to play it on. I know... sad.

I've got 4x X-wings, 3x A-wings, 3x B-wings, 1 Y-wing, 2x HWKs, 2x Falcons, rebel transport and tantive

6x TIEs, 3x interceptors, 1 bomber, 2 firesprays, 1 advanced, 1 shuttle

So not much...

Edit: tonight's apprentice is about designing a boardgame and features Matt lees from shut up and sit down.

I must say I never realised that there was such a huge range of board games and that they were so popular among adults - haven't played for years and the only ones I can really remember are Monopoly, Game of Life, Battleships, Cluedo and one my mate had as kids called Payday!

I think the thing is (at least my interpretation) that years ago gaming generally meant video gaming, which meant everyone huddled around the same TV playing co-ops and shoot em ups. But video games have increasingly become about sitting in the dark on your own. Don't get me wrong they're still great with higher and higher production values and dramatisation.

But board games are social. You and your friends have to physically come together to play. Also they lend themselves to a family setting too - in laws, parents, children etc.

On a deep level everyone likes games - they might just not know which one is for them. 'Niche' board games have seen a massive boom in the last 10 years. They're innovative, they can fit almost any theme and they are great social events.

Seriously check out shut up and sit down, tabletop (season 3 starts tomorrow and all the episodes are on YouTube) get a feel for some games and start playing. You won't be disappointed.

I know he bought a couple of miniatures, not sure if they were 'expansions' or what not but it definitely sounds interesting.

Player interaction is not really a biggy, we've got plenty of games for that. The role-playing/theme of Suburbia sounds quite fun, I like games where the strategy kind of links in with the theme.

Role playing is a strong word for suburbia. But it's definitely a game with very very strong links between flavour and mechanics. Every single tile makes sense.

And yes there's tons of x wing expansions. I may own most of them...

I think my friend has something to do with X-Wing, will have to ask him about playing.

Couldn't resist, Suburbia orderered.

Haha! It's good fun. A lot of reviews say that there's not much player interaction. It's at the lower end of the scale but it's still definitely there.

Seriously have a try of x wing. It's a great system. Really fast and fluid. Really feels like you are dogfighting.

Also while I promoting Star Wars games such as x wing miniatures, have a look at Star Wars imperial assault too

Another /r/boardgames frequenter!

How have you found Suburbia? I'm looking at getting that or Keyflower at the moment. The SUSD review on hex-laying games sold both of them for me but I'm not sure which to order first.

I had my eye on suburbia after seeing the SU&SD review too. But alas it was out of print. It got reprinted recently. I got it from monkeyswithfire

Very enjoyable. I've got my eye on the expansion too.

Use to play this when I was a kid, not sure we used to play it properly though...

I'm really surprised so many on here are into 'niche' board games. I didn't think the two demographics of football fan and board gamers would mix.

I've been steadily building up my collection:

Ticket to ride

Smallworld

Descent

Settlers of Catan

Suburbia

Pandemic

Forbidden desert

Coup

The resistance

Machi koro

Jaipur

Space hulk

Anyone mad for Star Wars like me? If so if you've not heard of or seen x wing miniatures then look it up! It's an awesome dogfighting game.

Also for really good and entertaining reviews check out:

Shut up & sit down

The dice tower

Rando runs through

/r/boardgames

Are all good sources too

The worse thing about Terminator 4 is that it's basically not a terminator film.

Federer's record could be in danger at this rate! 

Hewitt beating Federer is a big surprise indeed!

I think the biggest adjustment for Federer over the next few years is to be slipping down the rankings and not winning EVERYTHING....

I think he could still play until his mid 30's - Agassi won his last Grand Slam at 35 - but whilst I think Federer will win at least a couple more Grand Slams I don't think he'll ever beat Nadal in a Grand Slam final again - injury to Nadal aside of course.

You were saying?`

haha yeah!

Now cue everyone saying Federer will never win again - just like after the 2008 straight sets French Open loss to Nadal.

Federer vs Nadal Final then....