Review Of 2020

Well, what a year that was, eh? It all started off really well and then suddenly went ... very strange indeed.

Despite COVID restrictions I managed to fit in what I think was a reasonably full year of gaming. This is mostly due to the fact that, firstly, I have a wife who isn't averse to playing things and, secondly, I'm quite happy playing solo as well. Our club ceased operations for about three months, but otherwise I've generally managed to fit in a game on a Thursday evening as well.

From a personal point of view it's been a bit of a roller-coaster. I took part in my first burlesque competition, and then developed a new act which I was finally able to perform in a show in September. I also marched in Sydney's Mardi Gras parade for the first time. And my son got married. But I also had major upheavals at work which, combined with the general uncertainty and strangeness around June, led to a minor mental breakdown needing regular, ongoing and, in case you're worried, very helpful sessions with a therapist.

But what of the games?

Well, my biggest thing this year has been my HOTT 52 project, in which I committed to play at least one game of HOTT every week. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, but I got through it, played all the games and, I hope, used a wide and entertaining selection of armies.

In terms of other games I continued to develop my ECW version of the Portable Wargame, and this is now published as part of an anthology of rules in 'The Portable Pike & Shot Wargame'. It's actually the first time I've ever had anything commercially published, so I was very excited. I also helped develop the sci-fi variant of 'Battlesworn' called 'Challengers of the Great Beyond'.

I have played a lot of Nic Wright's games this year - prehistoric hunting with 'Palaeo Diet', lots of naval actions using 'Galleys & Galleons' (which is fast becoming one of my favourite games) and some gladiator action with 'Blood, Sweat and Cheers'. I've even just picked up his chariot-racing game, 'Faustus Furius'. At our club I dabbled in 'Black Seas' and we've done some more 'Gaslands', whilst at home I did some more development on my WW1 air game, 'Spandau and Lewis'.

Oh, and this year has actually been my most active year in terms of number of posts since I started this blog.

And what of 2021? Well, thus far I haven't set myself any goals. I'm not doing HOTT 52 again, nor another 6 x 6 Challenge. I have a few potential small projects lurking at the back of my mind, but none of them are quite at the stage where I'm keen to dive in and get started on them. We'll see how things go.

So on with the review. As I do every year I have picked one post for each month, it being the one with the most views. This is no assurance that it's the best post of the month, but together the twelve posts create quite a good impression of what I've been up to.

January

The ECW Portable Wargame - At the start of the year I got my ECW variant of the Portable Wargame to the stage where I was happy to post it online for other people to read. Since then, as I mentioned above, it's been included in the rules anthology 'The Portable Pike & Shot Wargame'. Since then I've had a few ideas for changes to the rules ...

February

Kobolds! - Despite my nom de plume I'd never had any kobold miniatures in any scale. This year I changed that, buying and painting a small force for use with the skirmish game 'Battlesworn'. They're lovely little figures and include, of course, a Kaptain.

March

Instant Thunder - Board and Counters - I' not sure what inspired me to get the abstract modern air warfare boardgame 'Instant Thunder' out again, but I did, and I found it as enjoyable as ever. This time I put together a nice board and counters, and in this post I made them available as downloads for anyone else who wats to use them.

April

Army Showcase - Boxers and Foreign Devils - My first popular HOTT post of the year showcased my Boxer Rebellion matched pair.

May

Galleys and Galleasses - I started playing more 'Galleys & Galleons' this year, after finishing off a few Renaissance galleys that I'd started last year. This was inspired by my finding an easy way to depict oars and to do more attractive bases on my scratchbuilds. This post is a report of one of the many games I played, and features my galleasses.

June

Galley Fleets - I liked the ships I'd made in May's post so much, that I made some more, producing two Lepanto-inspired fleets of about fifteen galleys a side. This post was simply the showcase; they had an outing in a full game later in the year.

July

More Classic Hott - Although most of my HOTT games this year were part of the HOTT 52 project, I did play a few rogue ones. This is the report of one of them, and is a classic clash between Dwarves and Elves.

August

Burlesque Update #15 - As I noted above, despite various COVID restrictions I managed to fit in some burlesque this year, both classes and performances. This post contained a couple of announcements of forthcoming shows, one of which happened and one of which didn't, plus a photo of my 'new' look.

September

Hunting Bipeds - The prehistoric hunting game 'Palaeo Diet' has been an interesting diversion this year; I liked it so much that I bought both of the supplements. I haven't done much with the pulp version yet, but the game in this post made use of one of the new creature types from the 'Fireside Tales' book.

October

HOTT 52 - Week 44 - Aztecs vs Inca - This is the first of my HOTT 52 games to make it to the top post of the month, probably because October was a relatively quiet month in terms of other games related posts.

November

Blood, Sweat and Cheers - I played a fair bit of 'Munera Sine Missione' earlier this year, but in November I came across 'Blood, Sweat and Cheers', downloaded it and somehow ended up helping to playtest the second edition of the rules, including the solo mechanisms and a campaign game. This post is a review and first impressions of this excellent game.

December

HOTT 52 - Week 49 - Daleks vs weird WWII Americans - I finished the year of popular posts with another HOTT 52 game. Who would have thought that Captain America and Daleks would be popular, eh?

Here's hoping that, despite everything, your 2020 gaming included some moments to remember, and here's hoping that 2021 will include many more.