2023 in Review

Let's take a look back at my year for gaming.

2023's Trends

• It's been a slow year for blogging. Looks like it's my lowest year ever in terms of posts.
• All in on counters - I even sold off most of my miniatures.
• Napoleonics - I never really took up Napoleonics before, but in the first half of the year I completed a mini-campaign set in northern Italy.

French vs. Austrians

• I tried out some different counters. They look nicer than the top-downs, but I could never decide which side was the front.

• I toyed with a summer Song of Blades & Heroes campaign, but it never got off the ground.
• I made some new counters for a fantasy Imperials campaign. I still haven't printed them.

Fantasy Imperials

• Then I just kind of stumbled through the last few months of the year.

Not exactly a banner year for gaming.

Prognostication Review

Every year I try to guess what the year will hold. Let's see how I did this year.

1. Counters - I predicted I would go all-in with counters. That's pretty much correct.
2. Purge - accordingly, I figured I'd get rid of a bunch of figures. 2 for 2.
3. Finalize rules - I wanted to get my rules into final shape. Never happened.
4. Sci-Fi boxed set - I went on a very short-lived sci-fi kick in January. I wanted to put together a sci-fi set, but it never happened.

Score for the year - 50%, Actually not bad for me. ;)

Quickie Medieval

After trying out a quickie Napoleonic battle, I decided to do the same for medievals.

Battle 1

I recently have taken an interest in Slovak history. Inspired by this new interest, I set this battle in the area of Samo's Empire.

The warlord Samo tries to impose his will on a neighboring village. The chieftain Raduz defends.

I randomly determined the forces:

• Samo (white) - 1 heavy infantry (with leader), 1 medium infantry, and 2 light infantry
• Raduz (red) - 3 medium infantry and 1 light infantry

Here Samo approaches the village.

Samo's light infantry chases its counterpart out of the village but Raduz's medium chase the light away.

Meanwhile, Samo's heavies and mediums take a beating from enemy infantry.

Samo loses his medium infantry.

And a unit of light. Despite some success on his left, Samo must retreat.

GAME NOTES

I planned to do a follow-up battle but haven't got around to it yet.

I determined the forces randomly. I think Samo got the short end of the stick. No matter; I think I may give him some Frankish cavalry next time.

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 the savior's peace be with you this holiday season and in the years to come.

Merry Christmas!

Quickie Counters

 I've been inspired to embark on a new counter project.

It's largely because of my quickie Waterloo game. A reader made a comment about the Prussians arriving, which gave me an idea for a follow-up battle. In this reality, Napoleon manages to force Wellington to retreat, but now he must face Blucher. One problem - I don't have any counters for the Prussians.

So this leads me to a new project. I'm been toying with the idea of creating simpler generic counters so that it is easier to change colors in the file and create a new army. I played around and came up with these.

I created the base set in red. There are only 3 troop types - close order infantry, loose order infantry, and cavalry. In my quickie MicroBattle rules, I assume that artillery is attached to other units. This means I don't need separate artillery.

Note: I don't need artillery, yet. However, I am toying with the idea of adding artillery grand batteries.

As you can see, I created SIX different quickie armies. And these are generic enough that I can use them for ancient and medieval battles as well!

Note: Make that SEVEN armies. I later added a brown army. It'll work great for the Hyenids.

One thing I've struggled with when using generic armies is distinguishing between different types of formed infantry, such as blades, warbands, auxiliaries, etc. Instead of creating distinct counters, I'm toying with the idea of using markers. For example, green marker on a formed infantry counter could identify lesser quality troops.

Stay tuned for more on this project.

Quickie Waterloo

I managed to squeeze in a quick game.

A Fast Play Version

Time was short so I decided to try out a extra fast play version of MicroBattle. Some of the features of this version.

• Each unit represents a corps of troops.
• You'll notice there is no artillery. I assume that artillery is attached.
• The battlefield is a 5 by 5 grid.
• I roll a single die per attack. A success means the attackers win; otherwise they lose.
• Losing units take a disorder marker (2 = eliminated). I also roll to see if the unit also must retreat.
• A unit can attempt to rally rather than taking other actions.

The Scenario

I loosely based this scenario on the Battle of Waterloo, using this map from Absolute Emperor. I created the orange boxes to identify the corps.

This gives 6 corps for the French and 4 for the British. I simplified the setup greatly; Here is how it came out.

The British are outnumbered but they only need to hold on until the Prussians arrive. I rolled randomly to determine how long that would be. Turns out Napoleon needs to defeat Wellington in 4 turns.

The Battle

The French advance. The defenders repulse them from Hougoumont (left). But the French have more success in the center.

Note: The red markers indicate disordered units.

The British counterattack. They rout the French attacking Hougoumont and hold back the attackers on the ridge.

But the French push back and rout a corps on the ridge.

And then the French finish off the defenders on the ridge.

Napoleon wins!

GAME NOTES

By and large, I'm using the MicroBattle rules. 

There are 2 major differences.

• Each army has fewer than 6 units.
• Units are automatically disordered if defeated

As a result, game play only lasted about 10 minutes. Just what I was looking for.

Vacation

Well, my winter vacation has begun. I am technically off work for the next two weeks.

Lowered expectations

I'd like to lounge around, like Napoleon above. I hoped to do some gaming every day. I even toyed with reviving the Twelve Games of Christmas. Increasingly, however, it looks like I'll have little gaming time. I just have too many chores to do around the house - take the car in, paint a fence, clear out my father-in-law's apartment, and even do some work work! As a result, I don't expect as much gaming. :(

A new interest

Over the past few weeks I've developed a new historical interest - the Slavs. This arose due to preparations for LARP. In February, I will again attend Mythic Adventures. I went last March and it was a bit of a disaster. This time, I'm making a few changes, including a change in character. Based on my traveling companion's preference, I'll be making a character based on medieval Eastern European culture.

My grandmother was born in Slovakia (when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was still a thing!) so I want to base my character on medieval Slovaks. There is not much information online, at least not in English. However, I am looking to Great Moravia as inspiration.

I found a Slovak series on Prime video. Called The Slavs (aka Slavonia), it seems to be telling the story of Samo's Empire of the 7th century.

Anyway, all this has given me a hankering for some medieval Slavic battles, perhaps against the Avars. I just have haven't got around to setting anything up.

Napoleon?

In my last post, I mentioned that Ridley Scott's Napoleon piqued my interest in the period. I started a campaign and have done nothing with it since. I'd like to get in another game during the break.

What about RPG?

I last played a session with Ser Killian in October. He is now ready to try Axeholm again, but again I haven't had the time or energy. I hope to get a session in over vacation.