Review of the wargaming year 2017-18

The fourth year of my blog has now been completed and the number of hits seems to have reached a plateau, only 90% compared to the previous 12 month period. The USA remains the leading source of hits, followed by Russia (but a lower amount than last year), then the UK, France, Ireland, and Australia. There is a good worldwide distribution from many far flung places, but I’m still seeing bursts from Russia (which I assume are spurious ‘fishing’ hits) and this confuses analysis of the blog. The most popular post was my review of the rule set ‘For King & Parliament’, with that for ’10 Essential Boardgames’ in second place. I still would like to see more comments but overall I’m happy with how the blog has gone. My main purpose is to keep a diary of my activities for my own record, and I’m happy that others may find this interesting.

The games I have played this year are listed below:

	Period	Rules	Type	Scale
2	Gladiator	Jugula	Opposed	28mm
1	Old West	Dead Man’s Hand	Opposed	28mm
1	WW1	Square Bashing; French v German	Opposed L	15mm
1   2	Ancients NKvHittite Ancients TurkvHung	Sword & Spear	OpposedL   Solo	15mm
1 1	ACW Riverine	Hammerin’ Iron	Solo OpposedL	3mm
1	Medieval	Lion Rampant Teutonic v Pagan	Solo	28mm
1	Samurai	Impetus	Solo	28mm
2	Napoleonic	LaSalle	Solo	28mm
2 1	ECW	For King & Parliament	Solo OpposedL	15mm
1	ACW	Fire & Fury	Solo	15mm
17

 

I have played many fewer games compared to last year (only 17 compared to 47) and have only played 7 opposed games, most of which I have lost. Most of my gaming continues to be solo which is disappointing and is due to an overly packed social diary preventing me from attending club meetings.

It is difficult to pick out wargame highlights for the year, but I think the release of ‘For King & Parliament’ is clearly one. I missed out on the ancient version (To The Strongest) but had heard good things about the game, so FK&P gave me the opportunity to try the system, and it did prove worth the time and effort. I’m not sure it will become my favourite ECW rule set but it will make it to the table in future. I also liked the release of Saga v2 but have yet to play any games. I plan to get the Crusader listings to use with my Teutonic armies. In relation to actual tabletop games I think the most enjoyable experience was Hammerin’ Iron; I really want to play more games using the system.

In summary 2017-18 has been a very quiet and disappointing year. I must play more regularly next year. I don’t have any specific plans in mind, which is unusual for me, but maybe I will get some inspiration following the upcoming Colours show in Newbury.