We're back...

The holidays are but a distant memory. It's back to the coal face for us. We got back this week to around 500 emails and a load of photos of people enjoying WoT over the festive season.

Funny tales abound: of families playing War on Terror on Christmas day; of devilish 10-year-olds double-nuking their parents; of a husband and wife each giving the other WoT as a present; of general tears and glory and possibly best of all - a photo sequence of some nutter skydiving in an EVIL balaclava.

We've also updated the EVIL gallery for your special enjoyment and perusal.

Meanwhile, we're 'mopping up' a few stragglers from last year's order orgy. If you have a 'problem order' and have heard nothing yet, don't worry, we know about you and we'll be getting round to it very soon. Apart from that, we're basically planning our assault on 2007. Lots of stuff in the pipeline, so looks like it's going to be a busy year.

IT'S CHRISTMAS !!

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Of course there's a whole lot of you out there who couldn't give a shit that the season of mince pies and over-shopping is upon us. But for us independent board game publishers it means lots and lots of people buying things for friends and demanding that it's delivered before that special day, when Jesus was born.

Yesterday was our cut-off date for getting UK orders to you in time for xmas. For everywhere else it was last Friday, the 15th. Due to a poor bit of timing from 'the web community' we also got 'boing-boinged' on the 15th, which in turn caused a flurry of blog activity as lots of people decided to help spread the good board game word.

We're planning to descend into the dark depths on the 22 DecemberSo we, and our distribution partners, have found ourselves with something of a Christmas rush on. We're trying our best to make sure everyone gets their games as quickly as possible. Sorry if things haven't been too clear at times. We've made at start at better transparency with a delivery information page. Hopefully things will settle down in 2007, the large number of pre-orders followed by Christmas was a little tough.

On the 'tough' note, we've decided that WE NEED A HOLIDAY. Three years of fighting this particular 'war on terror' has taken it's toll and we're going to head back down into the bunker, smoke cigars, look at our maps and plan our assault for 2007. We're planning to descend into those dark depths on the 22 December and will not come up for air until 10 January.

Our 'Games Day' last Saturday in Cellar Bar 8 went well. We had a fair few Cambridge people come down and see what all the fuss is about. Pretty much everyone who came walked away with a set under their arms. Usually with some discussion as to who was going to carry it through town, as we had forgotten to bring bags. We also learned that one of the sets we sold was destined for Moscow, our first foray into Russia.

We're getting some great feedback on the game and some very silly photos, keep 'em coming. And just in case the game's not crazy enough with six players, someone's come up with a seven player version.

We're Winning!

So the Foreign Office has asked ministers to ditch the phrase 'war on terror', just nine days after we filed our petition to launch an independent inquiry into the legitimacy of the 'war on terror'. They're running scared, but little do they know that we've already sold 40% of our stock and we can re-brand as many times as they do.

We're also just about winning the fight to get the games out to our customers around the world. It's been a chaotic few weeks here and we've come to realise just how much work it is to distribute a game to the entire planet. We're sorry about all the delays, do get in touch with us if you think your order is taking too long, include your Order ID and that helps us out.

"Spectacularly Controversial" - ForbesFor those poor people in the 'Rest of the World' who pre-ordered the game all those many months ago, your games should be arriving today, in fact, if you're in Japan, you've already got yours.

We've set cut-off dates for getting the game before Christmas, if you care about that kind of thing. For UK orders it's Wednesday 20 December, in the morning at some point. For everywhere else, it's now.

The small alternative bookshop in Cambridge has now sold 50 copies of the game, which is how many copies Borders Cambridge wanted to stock before they got told not to by head office. We've managed to get it into a few shops around the UK, we're hoping that list will continue to grow in the new year.

If you're in Cambridge UK and you're still not sure what to get mum for Christmas, then come on down to the Cellar Bar 8 tomorrow, Sat 16th Dec from 1pm to 5pm, as we're hosting a 'Games Day'. Come along, play the game, wear the balaclava, meet the designers and illustrator, buy the bugger and even get it signed if you want.

Other news, Forbes has declared the game "spectacularly controversial", we've had our first EVIL Challenge winners, our first semi-pornographic balaclava photos and we've been hearing interesting stories of pub games in Oxford finishing abruptly with strangers up-ending the board in disgust.

It seems people either love it or hate it, which is a shame, because it's all about the grey area.

Parliament Square Protest Game and Petition

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The night before our protest and launch party, a large package turned up containing 300 spare balaclavas.

As well as providing us with many EVIL challenge prizes, we thought it would be almost impossible not to have fun with so many balaclavas. As soon as we get our act together, you can expect a series of bizarre and scary videos, featuring a cast of thousands. Well, three hundred.

So anyway, we'd applied to protest on the day of our launch party at Parliament Square. We were down in London anyway. May as well complain about something while we're there.

We called World Peace, which remarkably everyone agreed on, even Andy T who had just been bombed to kingdom come.After an early start, we rocked up bang on time and scuttled over with our banner, table, chairs and game. First thing we realised was that Parliament Square is a "public space" - complete with benches and pleasant flower beds - that's surrounded by a four lane roundabout of constant traffic. Not one pedestrian crossing exists from the pavement around the edge to the space in the middle. Brilliant.

We set up the game, eager to play, and erected our banner urging everyone to sign our petition. Sadly, only a handful of brave souls risked life and limb to cross the road and do so, but still plenty of drivers/cabbies/busfulls of tourists saw us.

Brian Haw came over to check us out. We felt a bit pathetic at first, protesting for just an hour in the face of Brian's two thousand day peace protest, but there was no pecking order here. Brian was just happy there were other people doing something and trying to make their voice heard.

We got a few names to kick-start our petition but weirdly our petition still hasn't been approved by the team at no.10, so we can't link to it yet. Sorry.

We even sold a game, surreptitiously, to one lady who couldn't resist the £10 Parliament Square discount.

But all of this was mere distraction to the main event - a full game of War on Terror in Parliament Square. In doing so, we broke two of our three EVIL challenges. So come on, you've seen how easy it is.

We upped the starting stakes as we knew time was tight and the world was tri-partitioned in the blink of an eye.

Andy S turned up some great numbers, including a lucky city on an 8 in the unlikely wastes of Nowhere.

Andy T was in the Americas and Australia, obviously hoping, at some stage, to pincer movement Tom in Asia.

Fighting soon broke out in Europe in the no-man's land between the three Empires and before the second round had barely begun, Tom went and nuked the British Isles. Andy T was understandably miffed at this and was about to launch a murderous assault in retaliation when the Old Bill came up and informed us our time was up.

We tried to slip him a quiet 50m note to look the other way and let us carry on, but to no avail. Fun and games over. We just had time to call World Peace, which remarkably everyone agreed on, even Andy T who had just been bombed to kingdom come.

So no one was hurt, no one shot, arrested, or even slightly ruffled. There was one strange bloke who insisted we were "new world shills", whatever that means. But apart from that, everyone was lovely and supportive. Maybe this is the first of many 'protest games'.

War on Terror Launch Party!

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So finally it's arrived, the day we 'officially' launch War on Terror, the boardgame... 1,343 days since we first had the idea.

We got to the Frontline Club nice and early for set-up, a great venue for the party, huge Don McCullin Vietnam war photographs on the wall, a big stack of the games in the corner, our life size cut-outs and a couple of games set-up for people to try out.

Luckily not everyone we invited turned up, as we'd sent out 300 invites for a 100 capacity venue. But the party soon picked up as friends, family, journos and 'industry people' started to show. Before long a couple of people had found some WMDs and won themselves EVIL Balaclavas, which got the festivities flowing.

The Terrorist Pinata was one tough mother and it took about seven people and three Andy T knuckles before it finally burst it's guts all over the floorMr Pete Um was doing wonders on the decks and the beer and wine was flowing nicely. After some power-mingling it was time for speeches, taking to the stage Andy S explained in some detail how this was a 'serious product', which must have worked as we sold most of our stack of games by the end of the evening. Andy T chipped in with his usual 'fuck 'em all' and 'lets have fun'.

Which was the war cry to start Terrorist Bingo! Everyone had their cards in their hands, puzzling over grainy photographs of odd looking men, women and beards. Due to our loose definition of 'terrorist' (we did try to track down an internationally agreed definition, but with no luck) people soon started complaining that it was a bit tricky. A few people shouted BINGO only to be told that they didn't know their terrorists and getting sent back empty-handed.

Just when we started to worry that we were losing the crowd, an old friend Laz comes up trumps and walks away with an original Tom Morgan-Jones illustration. Seconds later a Small Fish dude wins a framed WoT world map... Shortly followed by Justine who takes home a set of WoT, which her boyfriend illustrated, so maybe she'll get it signed.

Bingo over and everyone starts to get the fever. More dancing, drinking, dice rolling and WMD hunting ensues. It was soon time for the Terrorist Pinata... The dangerous Caroline is up first and the Pinata is down on the floor in one vicious hit. But it held strong so Andy T took his life into his hands and held it up for a succession of drunk people to swing a big stick at it.

But the Pinata was one tough mother and it took about seven people and three Andy T knuckles before it finally burst it's guts all over the floor and a crazed scramble over the sweets began.

The end of the festivities and people started to head off home with WoT under their arm, smiles on their faces and sweets in their pockets.

The end of the party and we looked around to see that we'd managed to destroy a fair chunk of the Frontline Club, it seems we're too punk for boardgames, and possibly too punk for nice venues. Hopefully nothing too permanent in the damage stakes and we would like to thank everyone at Frontline, and everyone who came along, for a great night.