Games of the year 2018

Here's a quick review of the club games I played in 2018.  In the order of most played to fewest. 

Black Power - 9 games 
Longstreet - 5 games  

No Retreat Russian Front - 5 games

Lion Rampant - 4 games

Hail Caesar - 3 games 

Great War Spearhead - 3 games 

Then the remaining games which were played only once or twice. Command and Colors Ancients, 1914, Maurice, Dystopian Wars ( a last game before I sold off my stuff ), Shako, Flames of War, Sharp (sh*t) Practice, To The Strongest, Blood Red Skies, and The Somme, Vikings and Panzerkrieg boardgames. 

All in all, not too bad for the year. The total was 43 games.    Here are some notes. 


Black Power - 9 games 

This has been the game of this year, as we embraced fun and playability and used it for skirmish games after abandoning the turgid mess of Sharp Practice. We played 4 AWI, 3 Napoleonic and 3 Great Northern War games. The AWI games were played with 28mm figures, the others with 15mm figures.  

Longstreet - 5 games  

We played these games as part of our campaign.  The Longstreet campaign system is not about taking terrain, but about you as a commander, making a reputation, getting your name in the papers and maybe even getting a statue put up in your name.  A great fun game.  

No Retreat Russian Front - 5 games

This was another campaign. My opponent and I took photos of the board at the end of each game night, so we could pick up next time.  A truly great boardgame. 

Lion Rampant - 4 games

Most of this was at the end of the year when we did our Lion Rampant tournament. Still a great fun game.  

Hail Caesar - 3 games 

We played HC with 28mm figures. All fun games, and it's only really lack of time that means we can't play more. 

Great War Spearhead - 3 games 

I played these with a friend's 6mm figures.  Good games so far, though as I get older, I think 6mm is too small for me.  

Shako - 2 games.

I still like this game, though it never caught on much with club members.


Of the other games, I said goodbye to Dystopian Wars as I hadn't played in a while. Maurice is still good to play as is Commands and Colors.  As usual with us, there are too many games and not enough time. 

And this year has started off with a game of Cruel Seas, the latest package from Warlord Games. It was OK, but I'll have to play again.  In one scenario we had a great bash with 2 small boats each, but then the second scenario was an escort to a tanker, and the tanker seemed to be more maneuverable and powerful than the MTB's.  We might have got something wrong, but it did seem oddly weird.  We'll play again though, because a couple of chaps at the club are fans of small boats in WW2.

More later …