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.