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Wednesday 2 January 2013

Past...

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

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It's that time of the year, or rather it was that time of the year last year, and everyone else is doing it so here's my look at the past year of gaming and what the future might hold. However I've decided to split my usual Past and Future post into two to be able to go into a little bit more detail. Here's what I've been playing during the past year.

Board Games
Peekaboo!

Not surprisingly Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition was my top played board game. We started playing the campaign in August and almost finished it, but then took a long break until December to actually finish it. We had a great time with the new rules and the lenght of the campaign felt just right. I have ordered the expansion and next time Micke has promised to pick up the Overlord mantle. Looking forward to it!

Second on the list (same as last year!) is The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. I've come to the conclusion that this game is not all that fun when you are four players. It's simply too easy and quickly becomes uninteresting. However, it shines with two and three players and now that I have the complete Mirkwood cycle of cards I've started dabbling in proper deck building which is fun. Writing about it now makes me want to bring it out to play actually.

This might come as a bit of a surprise, but my third most played board game of 2012 is actually Space Alert! It was back in April/May when we kind of re-discovered it with a new group of players. We played it a bunch of times, but often had to start from the beginning to allow new players to learn the rules. We still haven't got to internal threats or using the fighters. :(

After this it starts to get muddled; Gears of War, Lords of Waterdeep and Runewars have been played to an equal amount. As have High Frontier which I'm really happy about! It has met with some resistance in my group but I think a couple of them are starting to see the light. Anyway, we've also played some Arkham Horror, Twilight Imperium and A Game of Thrones... among others. I'm sad to say that last year's most played board game, Earth Reborn, haven't had single play in 2012! Need to remedy that.

Roleplaying Games


2012 has not been a good year for roleplaying I'm sad to say. During the first half of the year it was me who was tired of always having to GM and during the second half as I felt a bit more energized my group proved resistant, seeming more interested in simple board gaming. We did manage to squeeze in a session each of Fiasco, Diaspora and recently the demo adventure for Only War, but it's not nearly as much as I would have liked.

To be honest I'm not sure how to remedy this situation. I've said before that the best solution would probably for me to find a new group to play roleplaying games with, but this is a tricky thing as I'd like to play with people similar to myself rather than the usual suspects at the local games store. I'm going to see if we can get The One Ring or some other cool game going but I don't have high hopes. :(

Miniature Games

Rebels raiding an Imperial convoy for supplies.

Well, 2012 haven't been the year of roleplaying but it has been the year of miniature gaming! Star Wars: X-Wing manages to just barely snag the top position as not only the most played miniature game but the most played game of the year! While we experienced a break from the game during the autumn the Kessel Run event helped push the plays up. I'm having a great time with the game and it just becomes more fun as you start learning how to maneuvere better and the importance of formation flying. Certainly a game I'm looking forward to seeing more of during 2013.

Just a single play behind X-Wing is of course Dust Warfare. It was finally released in May last year and we had fun playing the initial battles where I was loaning models from Anders. It was with the release of Campaign Book: Zverograd and the new SSU faction that I really started to enjoy it though. I think the Russians are a lot of fun to play as and their style suits me well. While they have been missing some troop types, limiting their tactical options, these have recently hit the street in the form of Campaign Book: Hades. This latest book also includes a simple, yet fun looking campaign system that I think we'll start to try out during the coming months.

Finally we have Infinity which have slipped down a couple of places since last year. The reason is two-fold: X-Wing and Dust Warfare have taken most of my miniature gaming/painting time and I have been waiting for the Paradiso campaign book. Of course, the book is out now and I'm feeling the urge to get into some serious tactical action rising! There are certainly more models that I want to paint for my Yu Jing, but I'm seriously considering getting myself some mercs heavy Qapu Khalqi as a second faction.

I've also tried Task Force Zeta and Judge Dredd the Miniature Game - two games that I really enjoyed and would like to play more of in the coming year. The 1.1 version should also be making its' way to me courtesy of Robin Fitton so I see some 15mm gaming in the not too distant future as well.


So there we have it, a quick rundown of my gaming 2012. I have to say that my favourite gaming purchase as well as gaming experience is Phil Eklund's High Frontier! While it's not my most played game it's just such a different experience from anything else I've played! It's a game that demands a little more from the player in form of pre-planning and coming to terms with the very open sandbox play style, but once you get it the reward is great. You can read my two session reports right here on the blog: Going For the Asteroids in High Frontier and Going Interplanetary in High Frontier.

I'm eagerly looking forward to the next expansion and also picked up another Sierra Madre game, Bios: Megafauna, that I'm hoping to try out soon.

Well, that's the first part done! Next up will be the ...and Future part where I'm looking forwards at the year to come. Happy 2013 everyone!

7 kommentarer :

  1. Great wrap-up, I've now added High Frontier to the wishlist! Looking forward to what you've got for 2013, it's always inspirational.

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  2. You beat me to it! http://www.polyhedroncollider.com/2013/01/my-most-played-games-of-2012.html

    There's some good games there and you're yet another person to recommend the Lord of the Rings card game. I'm now torn between buying that and Netrunner.

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  3. @Mik - High Frontier can seem a bit dry, but stick with it and you'll discover an amazing game. The next part should be up today or tomorrow I think. :)

    @Steve - Ooh, pie charts! I'm impressed. Haha! I'm really envious about you having A Game of Thrones in your list. I've only managed to play it once, and that wasn't to conclusion. Really need to sort that out.

    I really like The Lord of the Rings card game. It works really well solo if you got the craving but no one to play with. But at two and three players it's a great experience! Often tense and nailbiting and quite tactical. The art is beautiful and FFG has learnt and the scenarios are getting better and better.

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  4. You've played a hell of a lot! I am curious what you thought about Only War?

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  5. @Kosta - Sorry for the delay. :)

    Only War was fun! But since this was only the demo adventure and didn't really contain any of the mechanics that sets Only War apart from the rest of the 40krp line, it could just be because it was a fun adventure. Reading the previews I'm fairly interested, and it seems like fun playing as a tank crew or something.

    It's not something I'll run out and get at once though. :)

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  6. @Steve - Lord the of the Rings: The Card Game is a game that I'm also quite fond of. I bought the game mainly because it's also possible to play it solo, but it has turned out that I mostly play the game with my girlfriend when there isn't anything better to do. I think it works best with two players, that way the tension in the scenarios is maintained. I only got the basic set and half of the Mirkwood sets so far but I'm steadily collecting. To sum it up. Some really lovely card art, solid mechanics that flow well after a few tries, cooperative play and no blind buy like Magic the Gathering. All in all a fun game that I can highly recommend if your in to card games.

    On the side note: Paizo, publisher of the Pathfinder Roleplaying game and anything Pathfinder related, is releasing a card game based on Pathfinder and the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, Golarion. The game is called Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and it's based on one of the first adventure paths Paizo released, Rise of the Runelords.

    Now, I have heard really good things about Rise of the Runelords. It seems to be a very fine campaign with a good plot and epic villains. Since I don't play Pathfinder and none of my friends do, the chances of actually playing or DMing the campaign are quite slim.

    So when I learned that the card game, based on Rise of the Runelords, is coming it peaked my interest. What has been told of the game so far rings quite a few bells for a LotR: The Card Game player. It's scenario based, card expansions are modelled like LotR: Card Game expansions and the focus is in cooperative play. While the actual mechanics might be quite different, I'm liking the idea already.

    While I'm not really fan of the actual Pathfinder roleplaying game, one of the main draws for me has always been the visual design of Pathfinder. There are a few dodgy art pieces here and there, but for most of the time the art is really good and it's consistant. Much of this is thanks to Wayne Reynolds who makes the books covers and designed the original iconic character class characters which are used through out the Pathfinder lines.

    So in my mind Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is a product pretty much made for me as I get to enjoy the visual design and play through the much hailed campaign. The game is due to come out in August with bi-monthly expansions. I'm going the keep my eye on it.

    The actual game:
    http://paizo.com/products/btpy8x6n?Pathfinder-Adventure-Card-Game-Subscription
    Some Paizo Blog entries for the game:
    http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lei1?The-Pathfinder-Adventure-Card-Game-Gets-Ready
    http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5le0n

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