Past - 2015

The time has come to look back a the past year and see what games I actually managed to play and how much fun I had with them. Generally I haven't played as much during 2015 compared to years past, which is entirely natural considering the newest addition to our family. Still, while roleplaying and miniature gaming took the largest hits I have managed to play quite a few board games!

Let's have a look at the top three lists...

Board Games

My top played this year is another card game. However, Star Wars that held this spot last year has been dethroned and decapitated by Netrunner. This was the year that I finally got absorbed into the game properly! While I still really like Star Wars the choice to go with Netrunner when it's time for a two player card game has been an easy one. Yes, Netrunner can run on longer, depending on the match-up, but it's still the better game overall. The large amounts of bluffing and trying to figure out your opponents thoughts combined with the well integrated theme makes for an exciting game that I think will be part of my collection forever. This year we also discovered online play which has allowed us to play a lot more than we'd ever be able to do face to face.

Number two is... actually the same as last year: A Few Acres of Snow! This year I've been able to play the (beautiful!) physical copy a bunch of times though, as well as some plays at Yucata.de. It really is such a good game and while I have now accidentally discovered the Halifax Hammer I simply feel like you can just play it and avoid that single strategy. I've also become more interested in the period of the game more generally and I think I might have to see if I can source Wilderness War by Volko Ruhnke that covers the same period but in much more detail.

Number three is a newcomer and it's... *drumroll*... MYTH! While I played it once last year it didn't really take off until I got hold of my own captain's pledge and started painting. Yes, the 1.0 rules were all over the place, but we've now moved past that and the game is a lot of fun. Since I always end up the GM/Overlord/DM in my games I felt I needed at least one coop dungeon crawler and MYTH was the one I liked the look of the most. Beautiful minis, unique gameplay and a very interesting non-generic setting. I also personally really enjoy the modular bits that invite you to create the story as you go so that appeals as well of course. With Journeyman turning up next year I think MYTH will see even more play in 2016.

Behind the top three we have K2, Camel Up(!), MERCS: Conflict and Imperial Assault. Then there's Troyes, Eight Minute Empire: Legends, City of Iron, Star Trek Fleet Captains and Pax Porfiriana. To name an eclectic selection. The only thing I really miss this year is heavier titles like the COIN series or most of Phil Eklund's games. The COIN games generally require a bit more preparation and I have one person who really can't stand Sierra Madre Games' stuff so that is why. Will try to turn this around in 2016, especially since we have High Frontier 3 coming our way!

Roleplaying Games

This will be a short one as 2016 almost became a year without playing a single roleplaying game (although reading many!). However, in the nick of time a couple of friends hit me up to see if I wanted to test the latest version of the Swedish OSG game Fantasy!, which I immediately jumped at of course. Fantasy! turned out the be pleasant enough with a simple yet interesting system that I think has potential but sorely needs polish (even though this was version 3.0!). I played as the thief Slocum and together with my two companions we traveled to an ancient temple to find a legendary stone. All very OSG-ish! It didn't end well for me as I was killed by (literally) two blows from a reanimated corpse. Yes, if you're not built for combat it can be extremely deadly. Really enjoyed myself though and while Torchbearer is my OSG game of choice, I'd love to play more Fantasy! next year.

Besides that single instance there's been nothing. We haven't really had the energy/time to get our Mutant: Year Zero campaign back on the tracks and we want to do that before continuing with other games like The One Ring or Svavelvinter. Here's hoping for 2016!

Miniature Games

While most of my min gaming this year has been of the introductory sort and not full fledged battles that does mean that I have potentially more players to be able to play with next year!

In first place with a meager two plays is Infinity. My buddy Claes got into the game early in the year and we have a couple of learning/tutorial game to get into the rules. Which of course has been great for me as well as there's a bunch of new stuff in N3. We haven't really touched hacking yet and camo and droptroops only made a brief appearance, but we're having fun!

Speaking of droptroops. Dropzone Commander manage to qualify with a single play (that you can ). It's also the mini game I've done the most hobby work for - unless you count MYTH which is technically a board game - so I think I'll put it ahead of X-Wing which also saw a single play. While my friend who bought into DzC at the same time as I did still hasn't really started modelling his stuff I'm hoping we'll see a turn around on this in 2016 with the coming of Dropfleet Commander that three of us have pledged for.
read about here

As you can see Deadzone has gone completely off the radar and I'm doubtfull it'll appear again anytime soon. Dust Warfare hasn't been played either but that is certainly not for lack of will. Me and Anders have been talking about doing a follow-up to the 150pt battle report we did a couple of years ago and build on the armies we used there. Would have liked to have tried MERCS but since the KS shipment has been delayed by almost a year (hey, it's a kickstarter) no dice there. Oh, and speaking of mini gaming kickstarters, my Games & Gears battleboard for Dropzone Commander that I pledge for in December 2013 and was supposed to be delivered in May 2014 still hasn't arrived. They're saying it should be here in January but they said that a year ago as well, so yeah. Haha!


And that was my gaming year in 2015. I'll put up another post soon about the stuff I look forward to play and paint in 2016. Happy new year!!