The Cat and the Tower

life, the universe, and everything

My best friend Duncan asked me if I’d be interested in a copy of the board game the Cat and the Tower.

I hadn’t heard of it before so I clicked on the YouTube video that Duncan shared with me about the game.

The theme instantly grabbed me. I didn’t make it to the part of the video where it went into the actual game play.

I’m not a big dexterity player. I think I have just the one dexterity game in the collection. That being the amazing Tokyo Highway.

It’s not to say I haven’t played dexterity games. I’ve played Rhino Hero which is the first one that came to mind after Tokyo Highway.

However as a genre it’s not one that has grabbed me, say like trick taking games have.

The YouTuber basically summed up the following in his opening introduction to the game.

“”Hang on Mama, I’m on my way!” Toto the black cat said, skittering towards the lopsided tower looming before him. Having been told that his mother left the world of the living to become a star in the sky, Toto and the rest of his feline friends bound unwaveringly for the top of the tower in the hopes to meet her again.” Taken from the Cat and the Tower bgg page

I was welling up just at that part.

So many questions started to enter my head.

Such as how this comes through in the game play, if at all?

Is this a game like Alice is Missing that provokes a strong emotional response?

I could have looked at the rest of the video and try and get answers from the reviewer’s comments.

I have a rough idea of the game play after skim reading a review on bgg.

But that reviewer wasn’t looking at the game with the lenses I would be approaching it with.

I’m curious, intrigued about this game.

I have a lot of emotional baggage that as you can tell even just hearing about the theme caused an emotional response.

Yes I have a lot of issues that are not buried that deep.

As I type this post in my garden, Dolly and Loki on my lap, and Diogo lying at my feet. I look up and there is Nico’s grave. I talk to him a lot.

We are enjoying the spring sun. Well the little monsters are. I’m suffering the warmth of the sun for them.

I’m one of those people that believe games whether cardboard or video can deal with very serious and deep subject matters. Not only that but create an emotional experience.

Whether that’s a game like Brenda Romero’s Train (I really want to play this now infamous game) or Alice is Missing. Both games known for the subject matter they deal with and the emotional responses they create.

It’s from this angle I want to look at Cat and the Tower.

So I can’t wait for it to drop through my letter box and it hitting the table.

Road to UKGE 2026 #3

#RoadToUKGE, Brew kit, UKGE

One thing I’m going to need to do while at the expo is eat and drink.

That doesn’t change if I’m camping or driving there and back each day.

What I don’t want to be doing is paying expo prices for hot drinks and food.

That stuff ain’t cheap, and with the current cost of fuel (which I don’t see dropping before the expo) I’m going to need to keep expenses as low as possible.

So I’ve put together a little brew kit to take with me to the expo.

I’m going to have the Keith titanium canteen set with me anyway. There are free drinking water refill stations scattered around the NEC. So staying hydrated is easy.

This is the rest of the brew kit I’ll be taking.

  • Kupilka Platter 44
  • Kupilka 21 Classic Cup
  • Small Nalgene bottle containing Bioethanol Fuel
  • Fire Maple titanium lotus stove
  • My home made stove
  • Alpkit folding spoon (plus maybe my titanium chopsticks)
  • Hanging Ear Drip Coffee Bags
  • Silver Ant titanium coffee grounds container
  • OutIn Foldable Coffee Spoon
  • Serotonin Pocket Mini Table

All this (except the canteen which has its own case) will be in a haversack.

Throw in some food (noodles, snacks etc) and I should be all set each day.

I made a stove!

#backtothehills, Brew kit, Camping/hiking gear, Cooksets, hiking/backpacking/camping, outdoors

Many, many months back I bought a compact blade care kit that had this small tin of blade balm in it.

That small tin was calling to me to do something with it.

The it being to turn it into a stove.

So after cleaning it out, and purchasing some carbon felt. I cut a strip of carbon felt to go inside the tin and put the carbon felt in it.

This turned the small tin into a spill proof meths burner. Probably the simplistic stove you can make after just pouring fuel into an empty can.

A meths burner that works very nicely with the Fire Maple titanium lotus solid fuel stove.

Sadly the flame is too big for the mocha pot, going up the sides.

However it works perfectly with a canteen. Plus it just needs to boil enough water for my Kupilka 21 Classic Cup or maybe some noodles.

I do have plans for this particular setup of my stove, the Fire Maple titanium lotus solid fuel stove, and my Keith titanium canteen set.

But I’ll go over them in another post.

April 2026 Gaming Round Up Part 1

Gaming roundup

After what I can only describe as dismal March for gaming, April has got off to a flying start. In fact this first half of the month has seen me play more than February and March combined!

Obviously I’m not expecting the later half of the month to be the same. But TI4 should be hitting the table twice! Which will be amazing.

Ok so this is what has hit the table.

Star Wars Unlimited: a visit to Dave saw us playing the spotlight decks from the last two releases for the first time. The “rebellion”/hero decks in these two releases do seem stronger than their opposite deck. I played a couple of times using the “empire”/villian deck from the last release and came closer to winning than Dave with those decks. But still I lost. I’d be interested to see the play testing data for these decks.

Pili Pili: a fun trick taking game. One rule sees you bidding the number of tricks you think you will win, and then pass your whole hand to your right. I got royally screwed on that one. But in the following game I was able to return the favour. Chaotic trick taking at its finest!

Pixies: an interesting drafting and set collection game. It’s rather cheap as well. So I can see this joining the collection.

Snow Colony: an interesting race to build an engine game with dice drafting. The penguin pieces are minuet, I’d say too small. It was fun.

Joyride: Survival of the Fastest: Chaotic! That is the only way to describe this. The chaos reminds me of Robo Rally. It’s fun. It helps not to make any plans and embrace the chaos. The state of the board is so fluid between turns you can only decide in the moment what you are going to do at the start of your turn.

Bella Vista: this game has table presence. Each round you are “building” one of your buildings in a city according to the rounds placement rules, and scoring to that rounds scoring rule and if you are the highest building compared to adjacent buildings. It’s pretty and puzzle like. I like it.

44 BCE: I warmed up to this game. However it seems too con-fluted for what it is! I think a misplay in the penultimate round cost me the game. But in the end the theme doesn’t really come through. At its heart it’s a bloated area control game that is ok. It didn’t blow me away.

Tir Na Nog: we played with the mini expansion subplots, and from the Blessings and Burdens expansion the Blessed Realms module. Although the Geas cards have been mixed in with the others, we were using the recommended first play Geas cards. I liked what the Blessed Realms module adds to the game, it makes the card you disguard at the end of each round matter. The colour and value of the card influence the positioning of the respective colour on a track. At the end of the game the colours position decides how many points that colour is worth for the biggest block in that colour.

Trio: a memory game that also didn’t blow me away. At best it’s ok. I won. But it was not by having a good memory.

Bonanza: set collection with trading. This was a blast. And I lost on the tie breaker! I think this is one of those games where your experience will vary depending on who you are playing with. Like other games you can’t change the order of the cards on your hand, and can only play the front card. Trading cards from your hand helps you get rid of cards. Going through the deck three times seems like a lot at the start. But the final two times that happens very quickly due to cards being removed to track points. This will be in the bag each club night I think.

Heat Peddle to the Metal: a six player championship game. We played the 1961 Championship. Which is the British, American, and Italian race tracks. This was crazy fun. I liked the advanced rules we played with. Each track in the championship also having a unique rule was cool. The sponsor cards were super powerful. The drafting an upgrade each race was fun, and saw the car get better each race.

Keltis: I’m not sure what the theme of this Knizia game is. It’s none existent really. The basic board is a quick race up the various tracks. However the “expansion” board on the reverse is much more gamer oriented with its more variable setup, collection of gems, and tracks that cross and swap colours. It’s the side I prefer, and not just because I won. The playing cards in ascending or descending order in their respective suit is a nice mechanic that can see you just discarding on your turn as you look for a card you can play. Yeah a nice game sadly out of print.

Nations the dice game: 9 years since this hit the table! But Ben had expressed an interest in trying at the weekend. So here we were playing with the expansion. It’s a fun, light, civ game that plays very quickly. Both Ben and Charlene liked it. But like Keltis is out of print. I might take this along Friday, it deserves more love (like every game in the collection).

Furnace: Played with the expansion. Just a great game that we enjoy.

New Arrivals

  • Burgle Bros 3: Future Flip
  • Netrunner Vantage Point
  • Sea Salt & Paper Extra Pepper
  • Pixies
  • Pixies Flower Power expansion

Some morning brewing

#backtothehills, #littlemonsters, #morningbrew, Brew kit, Camping/hiking gear, Cooksets, hiking/backpacking/camping, outdoors

Instead of several posts I decided to just do one big post instead.

I start off with a morning brew using my trusty Trangia burner, triangle stand, and kettle.

I’ve been using these paper pour over filters to make the coffee. They work better with deeper cups. I think they’d also work with loose tea. But not sure how well.

Should be in gallery below!
Morning brew using disposable paper filters

After walking the little monsters I decided to shake things up and make porridge on my Trangia setup using a BCB canteen cup. I used one of my over night oats packs I made for camping. I finished off the oats with some golden syrup (a little packet liberated from the breakfast bar at a premier inn).

Breakfast

Then this morning I decided to finally fire up my SEROTONIN Firefly Mini Stove with the Firefly Easy Pot Stand. It’s been sitting unused for months since getting it.

I used a BCB canteen cup with a third party metal lid.

I did see some of that gasification burn taking place. Which is always cool.

I like the little “table” for protecting the ground underneath and for collecting any hot ash. It’s the reason I went with this model over the Alpkit version of the earlier model. Plus the pot stand is nice.

I used slightly less wood than I did with the Firebox 5” stove to get a boil.

And finally I’m going to finish with some photos of the little monsters.

It’s been fun sitting outside with them, allowing them to enjoy the good weather.

Dolly using Diogo as a cushion

Windy on the Beanstalk

deck building, netrunner

I’ve finally built my first NSG Netrunner deck.

It’s a standard deck. Which means I have been able to choose cards from the following sets:

  • System Gateway
  • Elevation
  • Ashes Cycle
    • Downfall
    • Uprising
  • Borealis Cycle
    • Midnight Sun
    • Parhelion
  • Liberation Cycle
    • The Automata Initiative
    • Rebellion Without Rehearsal
  • Vantage Point

It’s also been built taking into account the Standard Ban List 26.03

Naturally my first deck was going to be an Anarch deck.

I went with Esâ Afontov because he causes the corp to sabotage cards when he takes core damage (the new name for brain damage).

This deck is all about that sabotage mechanic and trying to mill the corp.

In general corp decks are going to be around the 45 card plus mark. Taking into account the opening hand and first card draw from their first turn. The corp will have at least 39 cards in their R&D.

3 copies of Chastushka if successful sabotage 12 cards.

2 copies of Finality allow me to use my runners ability. Plus if successful I get to access 4 cards in R&D.

So just those five cards that put fourteen cards into archives. But they aren’t the only cards in my deck that have the sabotage keyword. There are another fourteen cards that have the sabotage keyword.

To help increase the amount I’m sabotaging the corp I have some cards like Harmony AR Therapy that allow me to get cards out of my heap back into my stack or even better to hand (Katorga Breakout).

I also have cards that increase my hand size. Which I need to do if I’m taking core damage.

Here is the complete deck list.

Esâ Afontov: Eco-Insurrectionist (Midnight Sun)

Event (16)
2x Harmony AR Therapy (Uprising) ••••• •
2x Sure Gamble (System Gateway)
3x Chastushka (Midnight Sun)
2x Finality (Parhelion)
3x Katorga Breakout (Parhelion)
2x Strike Fund (The Automata Initiative)
2x Scrounge (Elevation)

Hardware (9)
1x Demolisher (Downfall)
1x Buffer Drive (Uprising) •
2x T400 Memory Diamond (System Gateway)
2x Marrow (Midnight Sun)
3x Time Bomb (Parhelion)

Resource (10)
2x Cookbook (System Gateway)
3x Avgustina Ivanovskaya (Midnight Sun)
2x Light the Fire! (Midnight Sun)
3x Cacophony (Elevation)

Icebreaker (6)
2x Buzzsaw (System Gateway)
2x Num (Parhelion)
2x Rising Tide (Elevation)

Program (14)
2x Chisel (Downfall)
2x Botulus (System Gateway)
2x Fermenter (System Gateway)
2x Leech (System Gateway)
1x Hush (Parhelion)
3x Nga (Parhelion)
2x Monkeywrench (The Automata Initiative)

7 influence spent (max 15, available 8)
55 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Elevation

Screenshot

Ideally I’d like to be hitting 45 cards in total. But at the moment I don’t know what I can cut. Play testing will help with that. So at the moment I’m trying to find someone to play the corp starter decks for me to test against.

I’m curious if mill is a thing in Netrunner.

Morning brew 7Apr26

#backtothehills, #morningbrew, Brew kit, Camping/hiking gear, Cooksets, hiking/backpacking/camping, outdoors

“One from the vaults…” Frankenfurter

Today’s brew was made using a stove from my stove archives (2008) and is a real blast from the past. This stove is called the gram weenie!
This whole setup is about 110g if memory doesn’t fail me.
Yes that is an American Heineken tin as the pot, and chicken wire as the pot stand.
The stove has a wick inside, not sure what the stove is made from. I think the base from some small aerosol can if I was to hazard a guess.
I can’t remember who made the stove, but they are a genius.

Here is a video I did 17 years ago of the stove.

You are not going to be doing anything but boil water with this setup. Plus it’s not the most bombproof of setups. Well the burner might be. But the rest.

It’s a fun stove for the ultra light.

Morning brew 6Apr26

#morningbrew, Brew kit, Camping/hiking gear, Cooksets, hiking/backpacking/camping, outdoors

This morning I brewed up using the Polymath Phantom. Which is the perfect meths burner to use with the BCB Crusader Mk1.

I really like the Mk1 as a complete system. I particularly like the stove firm factor. Sadly it doesn’t work with the Trangia without using a stand of some kind to put the canteen on.

However it’s not the end of the road because the Phantom, Speedster, or just the Fire Dragon fuel blokes can be used with it.

I’m trying to think why. But I’m becoming a big fan of canteen cups. I just like using them to cook or boil.

Even if I didn’t use the water bottle and mug from the Mk1, and took just the stove and canteen cup. The burner, fuel, lid, plus stuff for the brew would all fit in the canteen cup.

Ok would it be as light as say a similar set up with titanium pots etc? There wouldn’t be much in it I’d imagine.

Is it the form factor? Do I prefer the shape of the canteen cup over the “traditional” round pot? I think I do.

The only thing I’d change about this setup? I’d prefer a metal lid to the plastic one.

Operation A Dog Named Sue! #10

#littlemonsters, #livefromperu

This is technically both an Ace update and a Diogo update.

But primarily it’s to share a couple of recent videos of Ace.

The I spoil you with one of the most brutal videos you will ever see. Forget the Dare Devil corridor fight scene, John Wick, or the bus fight from Nobody. They look like kids fighting with foam weapons compared to what you are about to watch.

For your viewing pleasure I managed to capture two duelling Jedi, it’s brutal to watch. You have been warned.

Morning brew 5Apr26

#morningbrew

Easter Sunday and my morning coffee today was made using my Kelly Kettle Trekker.
I always use my KK on the support that comes with it to protect whatever is underneath from the heat. It works really well using it like this.
Yes lots of people will use it to heat/boil/fry while the water is boiling on top of the KK. I’m not one of them. For me using it that way is pointless. Considering how fast this thing boils the pot isn’t on long enough to do anything really of use. Plus it blocks up feeding the wood from the top.

This stove is so fuel efficient when boiling water. I used so little wood. I didn’t even use any of the birch chunks I cut yesterday.
On a side note I love the hobo stove attachment. It’s such a simple addition to the stove to make it useful for more than just boiling water.

I love the simplicity of this wood burning stove with it.