Review of the Year - Gaming

It's time to look back at how the dice rolled over the past year, with a brief review of my gaming adventures. There's a similar review of the year's painting if you have not already seen it. Most of my games are played in Matt's gaming dungeon and you can find his blog here.

At the beginning of the year we were already well started with a Dux Brittaniarum campaign, with the luckless viking Ivar Sveinson attempting to invade England. The game mechanics proved easy to pick up and we enjoyed a good half dozen or so adventures. The campaign system seemed less than satisfying, and after 2 campaign years we came to a faltering halt. I have often thought that, with a little tweaking, the rules would form the basis of a nice little fantasy skirmish game.

Spring arrived and I was busy painting my Lion Rampant retinue. A few games were enjoyed (by me at any rate) in Matt's dungeon, it's a shame that the rest of my group didn't really take to the system. I even managed to get in a couple of games in my more modest gaming area. It's more cell than dungeon so can be a bit limiting on my 5 x 3 dining table, but it looks good with my homemade terrain and mat.

Summer came in the usual damp and dreary British way, and with it the bombshell that was the destruction of the Warhammer world. I had not played the game much over the past few years, but I was pretty sad to see the old game destroyed like it was. The replacement system I tried a few times, but as a skirmish game I think there are better alternatives, and the new aesthetic leaves me cold, so it felt like the end of an era. 

Much of my gaming over the summer months was down in Matt's dungeon, where we enjoyed a good number of games of In Her Majesty's Name in a Victorian Cumbria setting. Matt has also started to play Very British Civil War using mostly Bolt Action rules and I tried a couple of games of that too. The picture below was borrowed from Matt's highly entertaining blog.

Towards the end of the year we have been playing more fantasy games again. We tried adapting Lion Rampant, but found more success in Fantastic Saga, a fan-written mod to Saga. I was able to dig out some old friends in my dwarf and undead armies. 

A decent gaming year, I would have liked to have seen my Lion Rampant force get on to the battlefield a bit more, but it was good to get out the old fantasy figures. More Fantasy Saga games are on the agenda, with Dragon Rampant and Fanticide and even Of Gods and Mortals still to be tried out - so lots more fantasy gaming in 2016. I am also determined to get my oriental gang adventuring on the streets of Victorian Cumbria, and hopefully even get together a little steampunk set up of my own. And that's just the skirmish games!