The 2024 Bermuda Anglers Club Junior Tournament saw a record 170 participants and a lively weigh-in, highlighted by an impressive 46.7lb wahoo caught by 11-year-old Mackenzie Barnes. A spokesperson said, “Family, fun, sunshine and fish were the hallmarks of Sunday’s weigh in for the 2024 Bermuda Anglers Club Annual Junior Tournament. “A record 170 junior […]

Prize giving for the Bermuda Anglers Club Annual [BAC] Junior Fishing Tournament was held on Saturday [August 31] at the Spanish Point Boat Club [SPBC]. A BAC spokesperson commented, ‘The tournament was a great success. We had 170 kids registered for the event and 70 kids came to the weigh-in. The SPBC was the perfect […]

The LBFA hosted its inaugural golf tournament at Port Royal Golf Course, aiming to raise funds to support youth travel expenses for skill showcases in England and Spain. Related Stories Photos: Cancer Awareness Golf Tournament Photos & Video: Closest To The Pin Charity Golf Photos/Video/360: Butterfield Championship Photos: Summerhaven Trust Golf Tournament Photos/Video: WindReach Adaptive […]

The Bermuda Junior Badminton Tournament was held on Saturday [Oct 12]. A spokesperson said, “Bermuda Junior Badminton organised the first ever national tournament to encourage players across the island to compete in badminton and grow the popularity of the sport. “The 2 day tournament was held at Somersfield Academy and was organised by Emma Moran-Lee […]

Kamali Tucker, Tyler James, Kimoy Cruickshank, and Rai Burch competed in the Grand Caraibe Suriname 2023 – International Horse Jumping Competition. The competition was held at the Ponderosa Equestrian Center in Suriname, and Bermuda, Jamaica, French Guyana, Martinique, and Suriname all participated. The course was designed by Bfyan Lo, with Gail Issa the Judge of […]

Ocean View Golf & Country Club hosted its second Ladies Cancer Awareness Golf Tournament on October 26, raising over $13,000 to support the Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre. A spokesperson said, “On Saturday October 26, the Ocean View Golf & Country Club hosted its second Ladies Cancer Awareness Golf Tournament, with proceeds to donated to […]

Rosewood Bermuda raised $50,000 in charitable donations during the annual Rosewood Cup which was held last month. A spokesperson said, “Rosewood Bermuda, the island’s premier luxury resort, raised $50,000 in charitable donations during the annual Rosewood Cup which took place from Oct. 11-13, 2024. This prestigious tournament, held at Tucker’s Point Golf Club, is supported by title […]

Antonio Pierce — whose father is Bermudian — has been named the Interim Head Coach for the Las Vegas Raiders. The Las Vegas Raiders said, “The Las Vegas Raiders have named Antonio Pierce as the Interim Head Coach. Pierce is in his second season as linebackers coach the Las Vegas Raiders, has seven years of […]

The Las Vegas Raiders have officially appointed Antonio Pierce as their Head Coach, confirming his promotion after a successful interim period. A spokesperson said, “Antonio Pierce has been named Head Coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Pierce, a nine-year NFL veteran player and a former Super Bowl Champion, team captain and Pro Bowl selection, posted […]

The Paul Lepercq Memorial Traditional Karate Tournament will be held on Sunday [June 23] at the Whitney Institute. A spokesperson said, “Get ready for an exhilarating showcase of martial arts excellence as the Paul Lepercq Memorial Traditional Karate Tournament returns to Bermuda on June 23, 2024. Organized by Shotocup, this prestigious event pays homage to […]

The Paul Lepercq Memorial Traditional Karate Tournament was held this weekend. A spokesperson said, “The Paul Lepercq Memorial Traditional Karate Tournament concluded with spectacular displays of skill and determination from Bermuda’s finest martial artists. Held at the Whitney Institute, this prestigious event showcased athletes across various divisions, culminating in an exciting showdown that highlighted the […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Icons from karting, street biking, dirt biking and powerboat racing will be inducted into the Bermuda Motorsports Hall of Fame at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on Sunday [March 26]. The Bermuda Karting Club [BKC], the Bermuda Motocross Association [BMA], the Bermuda Power Boat Association [BPBA], and the Bermuda Motorcycle Racing […]

Following his recent victory in a 5K, Ryan Outerbridge has been named the Male Athlete of the Week by the Northeast-10 Conference. The Bermudian runner competes for Franklin Pierce University, and their report said, “The Northeast-10 Conference released its week one honors Tuesday and senior runner Ryan Outerbridge [Paget, Bermuda] earned Male Athlete of the […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Scott Barnes has been honoured as one of three “All-Star” drivers in the Masters division by eKartingNews – the leading karting racing website. Barnes, who competes in the Shifter Masters class, has been named alongside Maranello USA team-mate Joe Ruch and Niki Coello, of Franklin Motorsport, as the three Masters All-Stars. […]

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Bermuda [PrivCom] announced the winners of the “Name the PrivCom Turtle” competition. A spokesperson said, “The P1 Bassett class at Heron Bay Primary School named our mascot “Isla”. As Isla is a female name, PrivCom decided to introduce Isla’s twin brother, “Islay”. The two are sure to add […]

Bermudian Shiona Turini has been named one of the Hollywood’s top 25 stylists by Hollywood Reporter. The story said, “It’s been a year — one in which Barbie pink dominated fashion, the box office and the Oscar red carpet, notably on America Ferrera, who glittered in a custom Atelier Versace sheath, courtesy of stylist Karla […]

Bermudian style expert Shiona Turini has been named Stylist of the Year for 2024 by Harlem’s Fashion Row. The title isn’t the first recognition the stylist to the stars has received this year, with Ms. Turini also receiving the Diamonds Do Good’s ‘Diamond Influence Award’ in June. A post on social media said, “We’re thrilled […]

Bermudian stylist Shiona Turini has been named one of the best dressed attendees at Paris Fashion Week by Essence. This is only the latest honour for Ms. Turini this year, after she was named Stylist of the Year for 2024 by Harlem’s Fashion Row in August, received the Diamonds Do Good’s ‘Diamond Influence Award’ in […]

The Wollaton Park Captains Charity Open is set to be held on Friday [Sept 13], with proceeds to benefit cancer-related charities. A spokesperson said, “For more than a century, Bermuda’s biggest fans have been our repeat visitors who have fallen in love with our beloved country. “Ever wonder what motivates a person[s] or families to […]

REVIEW – If you spend any time with a vehicle in the outdoors, you’ll encounter a need for a shovel.  It can be for digging out of a snowbank, cleaning out a fire pit, or for me most recently, seeing an awesome patch of wild roadside black eyed susan and bee balm (wild flowers) to […]

During the early reign of King Charles III (Charles the Simple) in West Francia, the area was besieged by Viking invasions, while the memory of the previous and frequent Saracen incursions was still fresh in the minds of the general populace. The Saracens were Muslim - mostly Berbers from Africa – and had only let up on the Franks because they’d been pushed back by the Vikings. The local nobles were left largely to fend the Vikings off on their own.

In Paladins of the West Kingdom, players assume the role of these unnamed nobles (most likely Dukes), working to keep the region safe and spread their faith (historically: Christianity).  I really enjoy this theme, and in fact, playing the game nurtured my interest in the historical kingdom of West Francia.  That’s why I can tell you that while the rulebook notes that the King lends his Paladins to the nobles to aid them in their quest, I’m giving all the credit for the loan to the designers, Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald.  Paladins are a fictional group of knights in French lore (think of them as similar to the Knights of the Round Table in British lore),  or alternatively, a translation of the Frankish royal title of Palatine Count, which was a noble that focused mostly on judicial and governing matters and was not known as a knight.

I’ve won a few and lost a few games of Paladins. It’s a worker placement game that incorporates card drafting.  At the beginning of every round, players draw the next three Paladin cards in their deck and choose one to play for the round, one to put back on top of their Paladin deck to draw during the next round, and one to put at the bottom of their Paladin deck. Each Paladin boosts faith, influence, or strength (usually more than one of these), and also provides a special benefit. If you’ve got players prone to analysis paralysis, this is where they may get stalled, especially in the first few rounds. After Paladins are selected and put into play, workers for the round are selected by each player and put into their personal resource supply. You have many stations on your player board to place your workers during the round,  and when you do so, your moves are independent and walled off from your opponents (they cannot tamper with your player board or placement of your workers on it). However, there is one area on the general board (the King’s Favour card area) where you can also place your workers and those spots are competitive. Also contributing to player interaction – some of the stations on your player board where you place workers allow you to move resources (monks and outposts) from your player board to the main board, consuming a competitive spot that provides a placement reward. And all the resource cards on display around the main board – the townsfolk you can hire, the walls you can build, the outsiders you can attack or convert, the tavern cards you draw workers from, and the suspicion cards you gain $$$ from, are all lucrative items for which players must compete. So we’ve got a good mix of independent action and player interaction in Paladins.  There are not a lot of opportunities for  “take that” behavior in this game, other than perhaps timing your draw of suspicion cards to trigger an inquisition when you know your opponents will suffer a penalty and be forced to take on more debt.

Giving the game more intellectual weight, worker placement on your board and the actions workers trigger often have additional requirements beyond number and types (i.e., colors) of workers. The actions triggered by worker placement may be constrained by your strength, faith, or influence level. And some spots or actions triggered by placing workers in those spots require money or provisions. All of these prerequisites can be gained as rewards from prior actions triggered by various worker placement, so much of the game is finding the most efficient ways to obtain prerequisites associated with the series of actions you’d like to take as the game progresses. I worried this decision making would be a weak point for analysis paralysis (I’m a pretty good candidate for testing potential AP, as I’m prone to it) and while there can be a bit of that during the game, nothing excessive was logged during our plays.  

The artists (Shem Phillips on graphic design and Mihajlo Dimitrievski on illustrations) have printed helpful indicators next to each placement location on boards and cards to identify any prerequisites as well as rewards. It’s an example of how the designers have worked with the artists to layer meaningful game information into the layers of artwork. In fact, all of the symbols implemented across the game components are really quite helpful. Bonus: once you familiarize yourself with them in one of the West Kingdom games, you’ll have learned them for the entire series as the artists reuse the same symbols in all three titles.

Beyond the iconography, the illustrations and other artwork are lovely. As with the iconography, the same style of artwork is implemented across the entire series and it carries the theme well. There was a good mix of cisgender representation, but not a lot of racial diversity, especially as would be suggested by the historical setting of the game (for example, Berbers in the area had skin tones ranging from light to to dark brown).

The components for Paladins of the West Kingdom are well made.

There are wooden meeples, an assortment of foldable boards constructed from cardboard, and various plastic coated card decks. We found the rulebook to be clear and direct, and there weren’t any items we had to look up online. It would have been nice if the designers included a player aid in the components, but I was able to compensate for the oversight by downloading a detailed player aid another user uploaded to the forums on BoardGameGeek.com.

Paladins of the West Kingdom is my favorite game of the West Kingdom series. All of the worker types and available actions make sense within the context of the theme, the mechanisms (worker placement, card drafting) integrate tightly with the scoring system to provide opportunities for building a victory point engine, and the game is complex and interesting yet still accessible for new players. The game is also a great value at its price point (approx $50) given you’ll get dozens of multiplayer games in before even a hint of same-o same-o creeps in. Many games with comparable replayability and complexity are double the price of Paladins. There’s also a solo play mode, which provides an additional way to explore the game.

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Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Players: 1-4 (We played with 2)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 2 hours per game
Game type: card drafting, worker placement
Retail Price: $50

Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

[This is a guest post by Michael Witzel] A few months ago you published a discussion of whimsical surnames. Since then I have paid attention and have found new ones in  almost every news broadcast. It is said that there are 1 million (!) surnames in the German speaking area of some 95 million people […]

The House of Commons has just refused to allow pardons to men convicted decades ago of sex offences that are no longer illegal. The issue has stirred up the inevitable hornets' nest of Twitter and Press comments, and we are left with the illogical situation that those men (yes, all men) who have died will be pardoned but the living remain with a stain on their character.

I suspect that the furore is largely a matter of semantics; a 'pardon' has a defined legal meaning, but in common parlance it has different implications. If I offend someone, or tread on their toe in error, they my well pardon me for the wrong that I have done them, and that is that. However, a pardon for  a crime looks to the layman as if the offence was indeed committed , but the Queen will overlook it. That is not at all what the convicted men are looking for, but rather an apologetic wiping clean of the slate. Only the archaic concept of a  royal pardon looks to be possible in law, unless legislation can be changed.

Common compassion suggests that the huge shift in public attitudes to same-sex relationships should be reflected in the law. It is a small  matter in the great scheme of things, but means a great deal to the men affected. Parliament is rammed to the doors with lawyers: surely a couple of them could draft a swift form of words to clear up this relatively minor injustice? 

The current Press coverage that has featured Lord Chief Justice Thomas reminds me that I met him a few times, and heard him speak on several occasions. A rubicund Welshman with tufts of silver hair, he came to my court during the formative phase of HM Courts' Service. and was always full of accurately targeted questions.

As part of the process of setting up HMCS I attended a large meeting at the QE2 Centre in Westminster, representing benches in my part of London. Thomas was part of the platform panel, and I shall never forget his reaction when an HMCS Regional Director got to his feet and asked why, given his responsibilities, he could not be a member of the local Justices' Issues Group (as I was). Thomas delivered a devastating reply, which touched on the independence of the judiciary and the need for the new Courts' Service to get on with its job, rather than interfering in judicial matters. We all sat there spellbound, never having seen such a demolition of a public servant. Thomas' immaculately reasoned speech ended with him steepling his fingers, his elbows on the table, and stating with finality: "and furthermore, I shall not permit it."

We all breathed in again, but it wasn't over. The unfortunate RD still had the hand held microphone, and he got back to his feet as we all cringed, thinking "stop digging" but he raised the mike and said "Thank you". He looked squarely at the platform and said "I'll take that as a 'no' then" He brought the house down.

I mused in the train on the way home about His Lordship. As a schoolboy he must have developed a pretty robust style, having been given the name of 'John Thomas'.