Looking back 2018, looking ahead 2019 - a wargaming perspective

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Here we are on New Year’s Day and I thought I'd write down some thoughts that I have had over the festive holiday period.

Looking back at my gaming in 2018 and in true corporate style, determining what worked and what didn't work!

So, in no particular order.

What worked?

  • The Blog - I finally got fed up with using Web.coms as a website and blog provider. Their appalling customer service and terrible UI finally persuaded me to look elsewhere. Fortunately, Blogger was a readily available alternative. The only downside is all the material I had on my old blog is pretty much consigned to history. Still, I've tried to migrate as much as I can to this blog, although some of the old stuff is gone.
  • Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago - The first half of the year was pretty much dominated by playing this variation of Frostgrave. I don't know why, but this game really captured the imagination of my gaming group. So much so, that we completed 9/10 scenarios and one of them we ran twice because we liked it so much. The only scenario not completed was the one involving the T-Rex nest and baby T-Rexes - mainly because I didn't have the figures.
  • Galactic Heroes - This game only appeared in the Autumn, but it has had an immediate impact on my gaming. Galactic Heroes is a great toolkit for getting unused figures out on the table and as recent posts attest, I've had great fun generating teams for Star Trek, Star Wars, Aliens, Dr Who and Judge Dredd. The game is very easy to pick-up, can be very deadly, has enough problem solving without it becoming too onerous.
  • The Lead Mountain - I took a conscious decision at the beginning of 2018 to reduce the number of figures (new and old) I was buying and to sell those that I would never use or paint. The only new figures that would be exempt from this would be the official Star Trek figures from Modiphius. Having played the FASA Star Trek back in the 80s/90s, I've been waiting 30+ years for official figures to appear! As a result, the number of unpainted figures had steadily declined during the year. Also, I made myself commit to painting any new figures within a month of their purchase - I did try a week, but with my job that was never going to happen! That all said, I know I have some figures due in early 2019 from various Kickstarters!
  • Clear bases - This is a recent trend in wargaming and I only adopted it in the latter part of the year. Got to say I really like the way my figures look on these clear bases and where possible, new figures will be on these. However, I am not going rebase my existing figure collection!
  • Plas Craft Games - I first encountered these guys at Salute a few years ago and bought some of their cyberpunk style buildings. Since then, they've slowly growing their range and every now and then I buy some buildings. Why do I like them? They are easy to put together and more importantly for the time challenged, their buildings come prepainted.
  • Imperial Assault -This has been picked up by my mate JP. As a result, we had quite few campaign games in the Autumn and Winter. It's nice seeing characters grow during the campaign and this game really scratches any RPG itch. Also, with the app, you can have two players playing against a common foe.

 What didn't work?

  • Time to Play - Like most gamers, 2018 was a struggle to find time to game. The beginning of the year started fine. We were averaging a game a week and started to work our way through Ghost Archipelago and completed an Imperial Assault campaign. However, as is always the case, real life started to impact gaming. When you work 50-60-hour weeks, free time starts to become scarce as other demands are placed on it.
  • Rules, rules, rules - I'm normally quite rigid in the rules I play (see Goals below). Historically, I've kept my rulesets to a bare minimum, researching what works well in a particular genre and focussing on one ruleset. Last year I bought more different rulesets than I have in the previous five years! Off the top of my head I've bought Broken Legions, Kobolds & Cobblestones, Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse: A Game of Survival Horror, Dinoproof, the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago expansions and of course Galactic Heroes. Admittedly, most of these were bought at bargain prices from either eBay or Amazon. Most are from Osprey and suffer from the usual lack of after sales support e.g. no QRS! Most are being used for scenario ideas.
  • Shows - I hate to say it, but I only managed to attend two Wargames show all year. Back in February, I attended Cavalier in Tonbridge. A smaller show which has the added benefit of being near to where my parents live. It's quite nice attending the show with my dad and showing off the hobby to him. The second show was Warfare at Reading, which if I'm honest didn't have a wow factor for me. Maybe 2019 is when I get back to Salute!
  • Pulp Alley - Pulp Alley was the game of the year for me in 2017. However, it did not get played at all in 2018 and I really can't explain why it so fell out of favour - I think Frostgrave just beat it for game time.
  • WW2 - Another major genre that I have invested in over the years and it didn't see the light of day last year. Just need that spark to reignite my interest.
  • Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago: Lost Colossus - Ok, so why is this in the 'didn't work' list? Quite simply, it's the fact that it has specific scenary requirements for its scenarios and I wasn't prepared to invest time and money in creating it. Because of this, I've only read the book once. When expansions start to require specialist scenary, I start to lose interest.
  • Galactic Heroes - Ok, so why is this in both lists? There are a couple of negatives for Galactic Heroes. One is that the rulebook really could have done with being proofread more. I have spotted quite a few spelling and punctuation mistakes (not unlike this blog!) and copy/paste mistakes. As mentioned above, Galactic Heroes is a toolkit and from our experience it's attempt at providing Star Wars 'Force' like enabled characters makes them seems underpowered. Maybe some local tinkering will fix this?
   
Looking forward to 2019.

Goals

  • Rules consolidation - As I have got older, I find myself settling on one ruleset for the genres I like. So here are the rules I plan to spend my time on.
    • Fantasy Big Battles - Dragon Rampant
    • Fantasy Skirmish - Frostgrave
    • Sci-fi Skirmish - Galactic Heroes
    • Star Trek Ship Combat - Attack Wing
    • Zombie Skirmish - All Things Zombie
    • WW2 - Nuts
    • Pulp - Pulp Alley/Galactic Heroes
  • More time for gaming and enjoying what I have got - As you can see, I know which rulesets I like. The aim in 2019 is to fine time to play them. It's great to have the choice of genres to play, but there is something quite satisfying on running a campaign and seeing characters grow within one ruleset. Also, I'm at that point in life, where I have enough figures for each of the different genres I play. Which means I can focus on the next point below!
  • Work on the Lead Mountain (and scenery) - Goes without saying. Got to continue plugging away at whittling this down. Taking stock over the Christmas period, it looks like a 50/50 split between figures and scenery now. Still got bring motivate myself to paint 150+ zombies though!

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