Looking Back at 2017

I tend to do this every year. Look back at the GAME PLAN for the year and see what I actually managed to accomplish. Not sure why I do this. I guess because I feel like it’s always good to have a plan and some means of assessment and self-reflection – a way to look at what you’ve been doing with your life and see what’s worked and what hasn’t and then make some changes to the plan to move forward in a more positive, focused way.

So, how’d we do…

Alternating Friday D&D

We played ten more sessions of the D&D 5E Primeval Thule campaign my friend Bruce was running…. Then it kind of fizzled over the summer. There were many reasons for this. Everyone was really busy. Bruce was burning out a bit after running this campaign right after running the Masks of Nyarlathotep. There was also a fellow that joined the group and… just wasn’t working out…

In the fall, I started running a role-playing game again, however, with a (mostly) new group: Tales from the Loop. It was supposed to be every other week, but it seems to be turning out to be once a month. We had to cancel the last game – two weeks ago – because two couldn’t make it and three others were exhausted. And the same happened just this evening – three were out and I was just too tired… I’d planned on running a short campaign until the end of the year. We seem to draw out the adventures and haven’t finished the first (of FOUR) I originally planned to run. I had planned on preparing a new campaign for a new game in the new year… but… Seems like we might just try to get together ONE MORE TIME and finish off the one mystery and then call it. Next I’d like to run Rogue Trader!

50 Games

I had a great plan to play a lot of games… a list of 50 games I wanted to make sure I played this year – one a week. I tried to encourage the kids to do the same so we each got to play a game we wanted to play each week throughout the year… We got off to a pretty good start, but things fizzled through the summer. In the end, I only played 12 of the games on my list. The kids had shorter lists – Finnegan played 16 of the 25 games he came up with, and The Girl managed to play 25 of the 37 games that ended up on her list!

Oh, we still played a LOT of games. According to BGG I played a total of 253 games this year… Most, but not all were with the family. The most played games this year were:

1. Loonacy /Retro Loonacy x27

2. Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)/Primeval Thule Campaign Setting (5E) x10

3. Just Desserts x9

4. Pax Renaissance x9

5. Race for the Galaxy x8

6. Codenames: Pictures x7

7. Kingdomino x7

8. Hero Realms x6

9. Monarch x6

10. Warhammer 40,000 (Eighth Edition) x6

11. 7 Wonders x5

12. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game x5

13. Splendor x5

14. Tales from the Loop x5

15. High Frontier (3rd edition) x4

16. Kingdom Builder x4

17. Star Realms x4

18. Abyss x3

19. Carcassonne x3

20. Dominion: Intrigue x3

21. Faustus Furius x3

22. Firefly: The Game x3

23. Five Tribes x3

24. For Sale x3

25. Nations x3

26. Only War x3

27. Secret Hitler x3

28. Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game x3

29. A Study in Emerald (second edition) x3

Saturday Afternoon Games

The plan was to organize longer board games on Saturday afternoons to play with Finnegan and other friends while Amanda was out taking The Girl to her Saturday dance classes. I did pretty good with this January and February, and April through June… but then it fizzled as summer began and renovations with it… Hopefully I’ll be able to get it going again in the new year…

Skirmish Saturday Night

Just didn’t happen… NO campaigns, no one-offs… I played very little miniature games in the first half of the year, and then only a few games of 40K in the 2^nd half of the year. I think this was due to me being super focused on the Vimy Project for the first three months… and then… just tired and busy doing other things…? Renovations…?

Vimy

Didn’t happen.

For half a year I was super-focused on this one project - I got all the miniatures ready and then as I was gearing up to finish off the terrain… Amanda decided she NEEDED to have a new kitchen THIS YEAR!!! …and that kind of killed it right there…

There, I admitted it… that’s actually what happened. I didn’t run out of time. If she hadn’t decided to get that ball rolling in March I totally could have pulled it off. She’d probably be a little cranky if knew I’d mentioned this… Luckily, I don’t think anyone that knows her actually READS this blog… I’m not blame-throwing and I’m not super bitter about it or anything (okay, I might have been – just a little bit – at the time). To be honest, I was a little relieved. All the late nights trying to get it all organized WAS taking a lot out of me and a lot of other things I should have been doing were falling by the wayside.

One day I will finish up the terrain and set it all up. Not going to be this year…

Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend

I didn’t really do one this year. I think Brent came over on the afternoon of my birthday and he and Finnegan and I played a couple games of Pax Pamir and then I played a game of Race for the Galaxy with the family… and that was it.

Family Day Weekend

Two weeks before my Birthday, however, was the Family Day long weekend in February and I organized a weekend FULL of playing boardgames with family and friends.

Summer Skirmish Weekend Campaign

As I wasn’t planning a skirmish campaign for February, I thought I might organize one over the summer… didn’t happen though…  

ToonCon

The whole family did make it out to ToonCon again – and it was at a new location that was WAAAAY closer to our house – like a 15-minute bike ride (as opposed to a 45-60 minute ride – depending on wind direction and energy levels of younglings). There’s a full report of the weekend here:

ToonCon 2017

Things I didn’t plan for…

While I was still working on the Vimy project - and for a while after – I got pretty excited about the English Civil War again and for breaks between units of Great War Canadians I cranked out units of English, Irish and Scottish pike, shot and cavalry. I only ended up playing two games of The Pikeman’s Lament… then the interest died off in the summer.

I got so much of the ECW stuff done, I’m a few units away from finishing all I need for a few forces of English and Scots – enough for a small CAMPAIGN. I would like to get back to those this year…

Then, in the summer, I picked up the new edition of Warhammer 40,000.

I played the original Rogue Trader when it came out back in 1987 – 30 years ago! But kind of stopped just before second edition came out… Sold my copy of the rules and most my minis (STILL kicking myself over that…!). I picked up miniature for it from time to time – because they’re fun – and between editions used ones could be picked up realtively inexpensively on ebay. I also picked up used copies of 4^th and 5^th editions (really cheap after the next edition came out). I picked up 7^th edition when I found out a friend and his boys had picked it up and were building up forces. I tried to get my kids excited about it and tried to play a couple games, but it just fell flat.

I read a lot about 8^th before it came out and decided to give it another shot. The rules seemed a lot more streamlined – compared to 7^th – and so we tried out a few games and it wasn’t so bad. The kids are back into it, and now it’s my major focus for painting and planning. Who knew?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

December Boardgame Round-Up and Game Plan 2018  

(Maybe an Astra Militarum Super Heavy Tank!?)