And so it begins...

Hello and welcome to Gaming in Snowman Land, my new blog about games and in particular boardgames. So the question is why exactly should anyone read this? Who is this "Snowman" person and where does he get off saying the things that he is saying? In short, why does it matter?

Well I'm glad you asked...

To give you a little background I am Mr. Joe Average, one of the cookie cutters of America. I am married and we have a wonderful little girl and I live in Sin City USA. A couple of years ago, I received an IPod from my in-laws and from that point on I became a podcast junkie. Man I love those things! There are podcasts about everything out there! The thing that really got me hooked though was when I stumbled across a couple of podcasts about boardgames.

I am a long time miniature gamer (or at least collector and painter) but my wife and I really enjoy playing boardgames as well. Unfortunately our scope was pretty much limited to what you find in Wally World or Bullseye (come on, you know which stores I am talking about...). The farthest that we had ever strayed from the beaten path was Chez Geek and Sword and Skull. We had never tried these far more exotic games like Settlers of Catan or Carcasonne. Even Ticket to Ride was unknown to us.

The podcasts that I found talked about all of these strange and mysterious games and I was intrigued. I found an online store that had a very good selection and very low prices (always a great combination) and I started digging through my podcasts for reviews to figure out what I should get. It was not long before I decided what I wanted and placed the order. It arrived a few days later and our free time has never been the same.

So what does this have to do with the blog you ask? Well, I decided that I wanted to have my own forum to express my opinions of these games that we play. There are lots of reviews out there of different games but not many of them address someone in my own gaming situation; my primary opponent is my wife. This is both a blessing and a curse. I have an opponent that is almost always willing to sit down and play a game against me but which games will she like? Having a miniature wargame background, I naturally gravitate toward wargames but most of those don't hold much interest for her. Instead I need to find a balance, making sure that the game is fun to play, challenging and interesting. Not always the easiest combination but so far I have managed quite well and I decided to share my success with the world. Awfully generous of me, isn't it? : )

So to sum it all up, basically what you are looking at is a blog by a new game reviewer talking about games for new gamers. I hope you enjoy and remember that comments are always appreciated.