2016 In Review

TL/DR

- I played a lot of games

- Ran a Weekend Frostgrave Campaign in February

- Finished an Imperial Guard Company for Warhammer 40K

- Decided to go ahead with the Vimy Project in 2017

- Went on Vacation

- Was awarded a Treasure Token by Joseph McCullough

- Built some trench terrain

- Took the family to ToonCon

- Ran my REGINA TRENCH! game at ToonCon

- Counted up all my toys, painted and unpainted.

- Celebrated 10 YEARS of blogging

Well… that pretty much sums it up… do I really need to expand on any of that…?

Should I bother looking back on the Game Plan 2016 and see what I actually accomplished compared to what I had initially planned…?

Why not. Seems like the thing to do…

First off…

The Game Weekend

I did run a weekend miniature skirmish campaign… but it ended up being Frostgrave instead of Song of Blades and Heroes, as originally planned. It turned out okay. Everyone seemed to have fun. I even played a couple games. Had my initial warband WIPED OUT if the first game on Friday night (like Wizard and Apprentice killed… dead…). Started Saturday with a whole new warband… because I can do that sort of thing… Anyway, you can check it all out here:

Quest for the Skull Sword

Gaming Our Way Through History

We did finish off the final volume of the Story of the World and played most of the board games I’d lined up… I never did finish up the posts about the games we played for Volume Three and Four – like I did for Volume One: The Ancient World and Volume Two: The Middle Ages. I suppose I still could.

We never really did get to doing any miniature games to go along with it… Which was kind of a shame. Everything got a little rushed at the end.

We’ll revisit parts over the next few years and replay some of the games we played and hopefully get a few more games in that we missed along the way.

Saturday Game Afternoons

I did manage to host a number of longer games on Saturday afternoons throughout the year. There was a fairly regular group of about 3 or 4 that came out to many of them. We played a few of the games that were on the list (Firefly, Game of Thrones, Arkham Horror). Most of the others on the list (Soldier Kings, Soldier Emperor, Forbidden Stars, Axis & Allies (1914, 1942, 1940 Europe, 1940 Pacific, Ikusa, Empires Age of Discovery, Joan of Arc, Wallenstein) we totally didn’t get to… but we played other games instead… (Power Grid Deluxe, Railways of the World, Sky Traders,

Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean, Agricola, Age of Conan, etc)

ToonCon

I did take the family to ToonCon and everyone had a pretty good time. I also ran a game there (REGINA TRENCH!), which went over pretty well, I think.

Other Miniature Gaming

This is where I kind of dropped the ball… While I did play a lot of board games, I didn’t really play all that many Miniature Wargames.

I did play a few games of Frostgrave early in the year, but after the Weekend Frostgrave Campaign in February that died off completely. I’ve picked up all the books that have come out this year (Into the Breeding Pits and Forgotten Pacts), but other than a quick skim through them, haven’t really given them much thought…

Later in the year  I was awarded a Treasure Token by Joseph McCullough (author of Frostgrave) – which was super nice, but then I felt guilty because I hadn’t actually PLAYED Frostgrave in ages.

I did play a few games of 40K with the kids and a friend and his sons. Not my favourite game. After actually playing it my kids completely lost interest. They’d still play any of the 40K RPGs from FFG or use the miniatures for other games. But having been raised playing games like Savage Worlds and Song of Blades and Heroes – with balanced forces and strong, thematic, designed scenarios… the idea of showing up at a table with the miniatures they’d lovingly spent hundreds of hours painting only to have them utterly slaughtered by a gloaty-smack-talking-10-year-old who they felt really only won because he had bought better toys... well… it was discouraging… I might go so far as to say they thought it anathema.

I had started the year very excited about En Garde!… painted up a few warbands for it (Swashbucklers!, More Swashbucklers!, Still More Swashbucklers!)… never got around to playing it!?

I had mentioned Flying Lead and Song of Drums and Tomahawks… didn’t get in a single game… (though I did play one game of Fear and Faith!)

Though I painted a fair bit for Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant, I only got in two games – and one wasn’t even with my own toys!?

I also got very excited about The Men Who Would Be Kings when it was finally released. Even painted up a few more Zulus to finish a force to play it… didn’t get to playing it.

I did get in a few games of Star Wars: X-Wing, if that counts… and maybe a game of Super Dungeon Explore!. Oh and Wings of Glory and Broken Legions

Including the likes of Xwing and Wings of Glory I think I played a total of about 13 miniature games all year… far cry from previous years where I was playing at least one game a week... 

Role-Playing Games

We finally finished up the Savage Worlds/Realms of Cthulhu/Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign my friend Bruce was running in the spring. In the fall he started a new D&D 5E Primeval Thule campaign.

The Boy did run a game of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire for us and The Girl ran a quick scenario of Shadowrun. 

I never got around to running anything myself… though I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I’d really like to get a Cthulhu game going –using Fear and Faith - with a bit of a skill system bolted on…

Other Boardgames

As mentioned, I did played a lot of games. The most played boardgaems this year were:

1. Loonacy/Retro Loonacy – 26 games (it takes 5 minutes and my mom can play it, so….)

2. Race for the Galaxy – 25 games (it was really out Go To game when we had an hour to kill for more of the year)

3. Dominion – 14 games

4. 7 Wonders  - 13 games (9 with the  Leaders expansion) (our secondary Go To game…)

5. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game – 13 games

6. Lords of Waterdeep - 7 games (4 with the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion)

7. Nations – 7 games

9. Star Realms – 6 games

10. A Study in Emerald (second edition) - 6 games

11. Timeline: Historical Events - 6 games

12. Monty Python Fluxx - 5 games

13. Pandemic - 5 games

14. Railways of the World - 5 games

15. Dixit – 4 games

16. Firefly: The Game – 4 games

17. The Grizzled – 4 games

18. Pax Porfiriana – 4 games

19. Ra – 4 games

20. Samarkand: Routes to Riches – 4 games

21. Sentinels of the Multiverse – 4 games

22. Smash Up – 4 games

23. Agricola – 3 games

24. Carcassonne – 3 games

25. The Hanging Gardens - 3 games

26. Star Trek: Five-Year Mission - 3 games

27. Linkage: A DNA Card Game - 3 games

28. The Red Dragon Inn - 3 games

29. Rumpelstiltskin - 3 games

30. Angola - 2 games

plus lots of others that I played once or twice - too many to list.

Anyway, that's a brief round up of what I got up to last year - now on with the next one! 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Game Plan 2017?

An Update on the Vimy Project?

12 Days of Gaming (or “How I Spent my Winter Holidaze…”)?