Review of 2014

Another year has come and gone, and I thought that it would be fun to do another review. Once again I have adopted the approach of highlighting twelve posts; in each case it's the one from each month that totted up the highest number of views.

January

Army Showcase - Wonderland - I started the year by showcasing my Alice in Wonderland army for 'Hordes of the Things'. Now ten years old, it's still one of my most ambitious modelling projects.

February

Battle of Ramillies - Maurice was one of the games which dominated this year, and one of our earliest was a refight of the Battle of Ramillies, mustering every suitable figure we could lay our hands on

March

I Have The New HOTT - A new edition of HOTT was published this year, albeit with virtually no official rules changes. However I bought it. Then got a free copy. I have now have two copies of HOTT 2.1.

April

Return of the Fokker Scourge - I did more work on my Spandau and Lewis WW1 air-combat rules during April and May. Eventually the changes will see there way into a published version. Be patient.

May

Free Comic Book Day 2014 - Up to Sydney for free comic-books and a bit of cosplay. That's not me in the photo.

June

Winter is Coming - More HOTT. I put together an army loosely based on the Wildlings from 'Game of Thrones' and making use of some figures I'd had tucked away for years and years. And years.

July

Paper Figures - Maipo - More new armies. This time I put together two lots of South American Wars of Liberation troops using paper figures. And I refought the 1818 Battle of Maipo.

August

Liberation Campaign - The paper figures continue to occupy my attention into August, as I played around with my simple campaign system. I extended the forces to cover the armies of Simon Bolivar as well.

September

Great Northern War Maurice - Whilst my Risk figures masquerading as Great Northern War armies had seen a few outings in a number of Malburian games, this was the first time they'd been used as the Russians and Swedes they're actually supposed to be.

October

HOTT at MOAB - I get to play in one HOTT competition each year. And this is it. Although this may have been the last time it runs; numbers were well down, and interest is at an all-time low.

November

Best Game of Maurice EVER - Seriously. It was. One of the most exciting and close-fought games I played all year, as once again the Great Northern War Risk figures took to the table and Caesar and I each attempted to be more cunning than the other.

(The second best game I fought this year was also against Caesar, but went undocumented as we were under a non-disclosure agreement at the time. But now I can reveal that it was a game of the forthcoming Blucher rules for big Napoleonic battles, pitting a French army against a Spanish one. As the French tried to launch an attack on a Spanish-defended town, the Spaniards ran rings around them with guerrillas and cavalry. As with the Maurice game it went to the very last turn, with both of us pulling every devious trick at our disposal.)

December

Horrors of the Dreamtime - It has been touch and go as to whether this would make the top spot for December, with some of the One Hour Wargames posts giving it a late run for its money. But thanks to it being linked from another game forum it picked up enough hits to maintain its lead into the close of the year. Once again this post showcases one of my HOTT armies.

So in terms of popular posts that's three covering Maurice posts, five covering HOTT and two covering a variant of HOTT. Other games I have played and documented this year have included the post-apocalypse racing game Machinas!, some square-grid games, mostly involving my Mexican Adventure troops but recently my ACW and GNW troops, and the Napoleonic naval rules Form Line of Battle.

Thank you to everyone who has taken time to read, share and comment on posts here. It's very inspiring to know that people make the effort. Here's to more gaming adventures in 2015.