2021 in Review

 As is tradition around here, I review my gaming experience during the year, Let's take a look.

2021's Top 5

These are my most viewed posts from 2021.

# 5 is the Tomb of An-Makeran, a Khamen & Candorra RPG adventure.

# 4 is Battle of Blastof Heath Using MicroBattle. wherein I play the classic scenario from Young and Lawford's CHARGE! or How to Play Wargames.

# 3 is Trouble at Threshold Station, wherein I adapt a Hero Kids adventure to my own RPG rules.

Technically, my second most viewed post this year was my assessment of Squad Hammer. It gets disqualified because I wrote it in 2018, so

# 2 goes to my analysis of determining to hit in RPGs and my application to my own RPG rules.

And # 1 is MicroBattle 2021, my quick-play rules for battles using very small figures in small spaces.

2021's Trends

In January, I was playing around with my MicroBattle rules and even applied them to an RPG (Trouble at Threshold Station as mentioned above.

I began a new horse & musket campaign in February. Once again, my imagi-nations of Bluderia and Redgrave battled for supremacy.

The campaign was interrupted when I got bit by the Byzantine bug. I managed a Byzantine scenario

But I spent a lot of time prepping for my resumption of LARPing and my establishing a Byzantine-themed unit.

My Byzantine garb.

And a new unit shield.

This new kick did lead to experiments with gladiator fights and chariot races. I still need to finish painting my chariots so here is a picture of two fantasy figures fighting in the arena.

In the summer, I was inspired by the new Osprey grand tactical Napoleonic rules, Absolute Emperor. I returned to my horse & musket imagi-nations and finished the campaign. Once again, Redgrave reigned supreme.

I then toyed with a Byzantine-themed skirmish project, but it never really went anywhere. Instead, I resumed an RPG campaign with my "heroes" Tweedle & Dunh. Most of their adventures were "theater of the mind," but I managed a few shots with miniatures.

Then, I briefly did a sci-fi scenario inspired by West End Games' Price of Freedom RPG, essentially an RPG version of Red Dawn. My cat, Cooper, watched over the battle.

For Halloween, I did a virtual RPG session with my wife and brothers (one lives in New York City and the other a few miles away in sunny South Florida). They unraveled the mystery of Caede Manor..

And then my gaming went into a major slump. I made a few posts about LARPing, but I didn't play any games for several weeks!

2021 Prognostication Review

I look back at my predictions for 2021 and see how badly I did.

• LARP posts - with vaccines coming out and COVID restrictions ending, I expected to post more about my LARPing hobby (call it 1 to 1 wargaming). I got that right as I returned to the LARP battlefield and posted about it 8 times during the year. What I did not expect was to go on a Byzantine kick and develop a unit and persona based on that theme (no pun intended).
• MicroBattle - I planned to expand MicroBattle to skirmish and RPG. I managed to use it for RPGs, such as my Tweedle & Dunh adventures from September and October. I never managed to work up a skirmish set, largely due to the lack of figures for skirmish game. No, I did not complete a final version by year's end.
• Settle on a Character - I kind of did this, focusing on Tweedle & Dunh this year.

OK, not horribly wrong.

What I did not expect was my horrible November - December slump. I went several weeks without a game, and did not even bother to post anything some weeks.

A Mini Minis Game Project

Last year, I moved my 3mm MicroBattle miniatures and accoutrements to a nice 9" x 12" box. I then picked some more boxes of the same size from GMT Games, planning to move my 10mm miniatures and RPG items to those.

Well now, that leaves me with a couple of nice 6" x 8" boxes. On a whim, I decided to create a mini mini game set up that will fit in the box.

Here is my initial version.

On the left, inside the box itself, I have:

• A plastic box that I will use to store miniatures. The picture shows it with blocks.
• Some dice

On the right, sitting on the box top I have:

• A 5" x 7" gridded board made up of felt glued to cardboard
• Various terrain (river, hills, woods, and a road. No buildings yet)

My initial experiments with MicroBattle featured armies of 4 units. I think I'll return to that setup for this kit.

I want to add buildings and 3mm miniatures. Here are my plans.

• I ordered Monopoly style buildings from Pico Armor. I'll paint them in Roman and northern Europe styles.
• I will build two ancient/medieval armies composed of 3 units each of heavy infantry, light infantry, and cavalry.
• I will use my left-over Magister Militum cavalry and archers
• I need heavy infantry so I ordered some O8 legionnaires from Pico Armor
• I plan to use MicroBattle, possibly with enhancements based on Sellswords and Spellslingers. I may transcribe the rules onto index cards.

That's the project so far. Stay tuned for updates.

Inspiration from Sellswords and Spellslingers

I have been intrigued by a recent post on Lead Adventure forum that compared Ganesha Games' Sellswords and Spellslingers (S&S) to Rangers of Shadow Deep.

I have Rangers although I never played the rules. Nevertheless, I really like the background and scenarios, and have adapted them to my own RPG rules.

I've heard of S&S before but refrained from picking it up because (a) it uses D20s and (b) it uses cards. I have an aversion to both of these traits. Yet some of the comments on LAF about its solo suitability piqued my interest. I decided to get it and see.

After reading through it, I won't be playing it as is. Instead, like many games, I'll convert it to my MicroBattle rules. However, there are some aspects about its solo mechanism that I like and will look to incorporate.

• I like that you never roll activations for the NPC bad guys. Instead, failed activation rolls for your troops translate to possible enemy activations, depending on the card draw. This seems like a streamlined way to handle enemies. I may ditch the cards and create an enemy activation table instead, but I like the general concept.
• Enemies don't roll in melee. Instead, you roll for your figures. If they miss, the enemy hits instead. Again, super streamlined. I'd like to experiment with it.

I've been dabbling with these mechanisms and will post about it soon.

Merry Christmas!

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord." (Luke 2: 8-11 NIV) 

May Christ bless you on this most blessed day.

More Twelve Games

Looks like I am proceeding with the Twelve Games of Christmas during my vacation time. Here's what I have played.

Game 1 (Sat. 12/18) - As I previously mentioned, my wife and I played Forbidden Desert.

Game 2 (Sun. 12/19) - I played The Lost Expedition solo, although my cat Thomasina watched.

I picked this up during a short-lived jungle exploration kick. By the time I got it, my interest waned and it sat unopened in my closet. Looking for something to play, I decided to give it a chance. I'm not going to do a full analysis here. Suffice it to say that it felt very random, and naturally all my explorers died.

Game 3 (Mon. 12/20) - I recently discovered Operation Last Train, a free sci-fi game by Joseph McCullough (of Frostgrave et. al. fame). The concept is that a small force of soldiers drop onto a bug-infested planet to save any survivors. Rather than play the rules as written, I adapted the concept to MicroBattle.

My troopers (bottom) arrive at an embattled farmstead. They see some green hellions (I don't have bugs so Khurasan's mini-hellions filled in) near the main building.

Communications failed so no pictures (translation - I was too lazy to document the mission fully) Privates Able and Baker advanced on the left, reaching the left-most buildings and rescuing 6 survivors. 

Sergeant Hawke led Privates Charles and Daniels on the right. They were attacked by a swarm of hellions. Charles went down but they managed to wipe out the little beasts. Sergeant Hawke reached the third building, when five of the hellions jumped him. He went down, followed shortly thereafter by Daniels.

As the hellions rushed at them, Able and Baker escorted the survivors onto the waiting dropship (off board) and managed to lift off.

As they began to fly, they noticed that Sgt. Hawke had activated his rescue beacon. The dropship managed to swoop down so they could grab the sergeant.  

Per the rules, there is a chance for downed troopers to make it out. Sgt. Hawke made his roll, so I created this little bit of fiction. Charles and Daniels, however, ...

Then they blasted off from the planet.

This was a fun game with quite a bit of suspense. I used MicroBattle's random activation/movement, which increased the tension. Just meters away from the dropship. Able's group of survivors froze for 2 turns while the hellions drew nearer. Fortunately, heavy gunfire cut the beasts down before they could get to the survivors.

Game 4 (Tues. 12/21) - Met up with my brother, who is visiting from NYC, to play Dual Powers. My brother gave it to me last Christmas, but I never had a chance to play (I did not realize until today that it has solitaire rules).

It is essentially a resource management game set during the Russian Revolution. I played the Whites vs my brother's Reds. We muddled through learning the game, and made a lot of mistakes. In the penultimate turn, I was able to wrest control of a key sector of the capital, winning the game.

Game 5 (also Tues. 12/21) - To entertain our cat, I pulled out a game in the evening. I chose an oldie but goodie, Elder Sign. I played solo and was a bit pessimistic about my chances because I am a very bad die roller. But I got hot, and easily sealed off the gates before Yog Shothoth appeared.

Game 6 (Wed. 12/22) - My wife fell asleep early so I could not set up the gaming table lest I wake her. But I had to play a game for Thomasina. Therefore I took to my Switch and played video Yahtzee. It counts. right? Sure, why not.

Game 7 (Thurs 12/23) - I tried to make it across the Oregon Trail. Here's how my characters did.

In my first expedition, Lil' Jeb died of dysentery, Jim Bob died from a snake bite, and then Mary Sue succumbed to typhoid. The numbers show how far along the trail they got before dying. Given that you need 50 cards to get to Oregon, the expedition barely made it halfway.

I tried a second expedition, but brothers Zeke and Zeb both died of rattlesnake bites. And it was a very short game!

🎲🎲🎲

And so this is where I stand as of last night. Stay tuned for more games over the coming week.

Twelve Games of Christmas

We kicked off my Christmas vacation with a game!

My wife and I played Forbidden Desert, a game of archaeologic adventure in a, well you can guess.

Picture from the manufacturer's website

Does this mean that once again I have taken up the challenge of the Twelve Games of Christmas? It wasn't my intention. In fact, I have not attempted the challenge since 2018. However, I have been remiss in gaming lately, so maybe this is a way to redress the imbalance. We shall see.

No Bull

Wow, I have been silent for far too long.

I have been busy with LARP preparations and so have not done anything wargame wise.

Last weekend, this was our LARP opponent.

I spent a bit of time making the axe. The costume was simple. Some brown clothing combined with these horns.

Alas, I forgot to take a picture of the Minotaur.

Anyway, we initiated a couple of new players into the fold. I posted our story on my Paladin's Path blog.