Another Point of Singularity

I peruse blogs quite a bit and interact with a buttload of boardgaming blogs. This seems to be the time of year for people to wistfully proclaim what they played and didn't play in the previous year. Well, I can't do that. At least, I can't present a detailed gaming diary like some of my compadres can, come 01 January. What I can do is talk about trends in gaming, as it applies to me.

Looking back upon the previous year I can see that my boardgaming hobby is starting to overtake the miniatures hobby somewhat. I still love to collect minis, paint minis and run games, but it's so much work any more, I just don't have the time I used to have to do it. So I played in more miniatures games than I ran and I ran less than I did last year.
A disturbing trend.

Boardgames got more play this year, and card games before boardgames. Why? Well, that's simple. I play mostly with kids these days, and they have the attention span of chipmunks. So games that can be resolved in an hour or less are preferred. Big hits in 2005: Wings of War (particularly with Garrett), Balloon Cup (several plays), Battleground: Fantasy Warfare (three plays so far), Cheapass' Give Me the Brain and Very Clever Pipe Game, Castles (I didn't care for it, the kids did), Before I kill You Mr. Bond (it sucks, but the kids like it), Fluxx, Nanofictionary, Once Upon a Time, Cthulhu 500, Gloom.

I played a surprinsing amount of board wargames last year, but didn't keep a diary or anything. Standouts in my memory are FRIEDRICH (multiple plays), WELLINGTON (multiple plays), BONAPARTE AT MARENGO, REVOLUTION: THE DUTCH REVOLT, LILY BANNERS (multiple plays... for a magazine article), 3DOG version 3, GRINGO, DOWN IN FLAMES, FLYING COLORS, WARP WAR, OGRE/GEV, ICE WAR, and quite a few others that I haven't recalled. I seem to recall a spate of pulling out SPI games very early in the year, and playing some S&T games, but I can't remember which.

I played an even larger portion of either Euro, Family, or borderline strategy or fantasy/sf games last year: ACQUIRE (many times), ARKHAM HORROR, WAR OF THE RING, CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE, BOOTLEGGERS, KING OF NEW YORK (yes, I have a weakness for plastic pieces), but also SETTLERS (for the first time) METRO, ARENA MAXIMUS (sucks), CIRCUS MAXIMUS, PLUNDER, and quite a few others that aren't on the forefront of my brain.

PBeM is down, via utilities like Cyberboard and ADC2. PBeM via Web or just via Email has gone up to a great extent, due to the convenience factor.

I've done a lot of solitaire gaming, but very rarely with solitaire designs. Most of this was to try out a scenario at least once for a review I was writing. Sometimes it was something small, like a magazine game (Catherine the Great -- the jury's still out) or playing myself in a microgame (I still like these). I don't have a dearth of opponents, but I do have a dearth of time to get out except for maybe, possibly once a week if I am very lucky. One final thing about 2005-- once again I was not a flavor the week kind of gamer. I played a lot of older products last year.

So those were the prevailing trends of my 2005 gaming.. for what it's worth.

This is around the time of the year I get more new wargames/history games than any other. Sometimes I get review copies (not the 'freebie' you think they are, there's a lot of work involved in these game reviews!). Sometimes I get birthday presents. In any event, here are some recent real wargame acquisitions and my first glance opinions about them.

(have patience... Blogger, for some reason, squishs layout tables and starts them halfway down the page... fie, blogger, FIE!)

First of all, there's REVOLUTION: THE DUTCH REVOLT by Phalanx. A very interesting game (on a small map) on a somewhat neglected subject. Revolution simulates the Eighty Years? War between Spain and the Netherlands. This epic struggle lasted from 1568 until 1648 and eventually brought independence to Holland and the northern provinces. In the south, the revolt was less successful and Belgium did not emerge as an independent state until after the Napoleonic era. Revolution is a game I have been wanting, because I love obscure subjects for wargames, and I like Phalanx as a company. This is one of their more "wargamey" wargames, with the exception of perhaps A HOUSE DIVIDED. It looks like it will be a real hoot to play, if somewhat longish.
The New version of ROMMEL IN THE DESERT (Columbia Games) showed up. This is a great block game simulating a simpler approach to the North African war using blocks to retain fog of war. This game is a closer cousin to HAMMER OF THE SCOTS than, say, EAST FRONT. Logistics cards are very important, much like the strategy cards in Hammer. My only problem with this is that I already own the earlier version of the game! I guess I can trade it off.
BEYOND NORMANY is the British addition to the Panzer Grenadier system by Avalanche Press. This is my first exposure to the system, which looks reasonably straightforward and a heck of a lot easier, than, say Advanced Squad Leader or Tobruk. I intend to give this one a try. The bits are lavish; nice (somewhat glarilnly yellow) folded maps, the standard isometric squad view counters. Surprisingly thin cardstock, I thought, but the art is wonderful. Oh, it comes with 42 carefully researched and playtested scenarios...
Last, and maybe the best acquisition of the bunch, FRIEDRICH by Histogames. I've been wanting to get this one since I played it at PREZCON last February. The system is unique, colorful, easy to play, easy to teach a newbie, but loaded with options (and, yes, a lot of luck of the draw). That's okay with me, I know it's a hoot to play.
And so, with these recent acquisitions, plus the recent CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE, I suspect I've acquired more WARgames than I can play in a year. I hope I can get at least one session in with something soon, and if I do, you'll read about it here.

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