Past...

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!