Games review of 2019

Here's my games review of 2019.  Not a bad year overall, even if time was a bit limited in the last few months. Sorry, there's no pictures in this post. 

The rules and the number of games played were; 

Black Powder - 6
A mixture of AWI, Napoleonic, SYW and GNW. Still a whole lot of fun for me.

Hail Caesar - 6
Again, a lot of fun. Most games played in 28mm, though one was played in 15mm and was just as much fun.

Cruel Seas - 3
Reasonably fun games with small boats, but we were surprise to see larger and heavier merchant vessels turn far easier and more quickly than the MTB's.  

Warlords of Erehwon - 3
This is a fantasy game based on the Bolt Action mechanisms. Games were quite fun, though the Bolt Action mechanisms guarantee that every unit will get to do something. Sadly, there's no variable turn-end that would put a spanner in the works,and these type of games tend to get favoured by deterministic players who like every unit to do take acion by radar control.  

It's an OK game, and I did buy a goblin army cheap to use with it. The whole Bolt Action / Warlords game mechanism would be greatly improved if an end of turn dice was put in the bag.  

Bolt Action - 2
Yes, it's still being played, though with so many new fads coming along, it's not got the appeal it once had at the club. 

Blitzkrieg Commander - 2
This is a world war 2 game based on the old Warmaster mechanisms. I wanted to use it for games on the 75th anniversary of Kursk. We played in 15mm, because lots of us still have Flames of War stuff in boxes. I think it's fun, but it didn't seem to catch on at the club, maybe because ... 

Battle Group - 2
Some of chaps have taken to this, though I find it a bit slow and dull.  It's another 1 to 1 scale game, so 1 model equals 1 tank etc. The firing mechanism introduces a spotting die roll before the actual firing die roll. It's OK, and a nice idea, but it does up the die rolls required in the game, and that just takes time. I prefer simple shoot and save mechanisms.

Breakout: Normandy - 2
This is the boardgame by Avalon Hill. Still a great favourite of mine, and we played it for the 75th anniversary of D-day.

Maurice - 2
Another favourite, though I fear it's going to get squeezed out by other games. Still, two of us really like it, so I hope we can play more this year. 

The following games were played only once in 2019. 

Bataille Empire 

This is the new Napoleonic set by the chap who wrote Art de la Guerre. It looks an OK game, though we came across a couple of odd things in our first game. We probably got things wrong, and we'll play it again. 

However, the club fad merchants who jump on every new product are pushing for it, and I do have a fear that the competition crowd will spoil it. But we'll see how it goes in 2020. 

Flames of War
I did a game for the 75th anniversary of Kursk, but people in the club seem to have given up on FoW. 

I ain't been shot mum
Lardy sh*t on WW2 at the same scale as FoW or Battle Group. It may be OK for 1 vs 1 game, but if there are more people on a side, the whole card turn mechanism because a slow snooze fest as players wait for the one player to take his turn. 

Lion Rampant
I think it's a great game, but sadly too many other games have crowded it out. And the deterministic, radar control players never seemed to like the idea of a unit failing an activation test and doing nothing.  There's nothing quite as funny as seeing control freaks going in the huff because they can't control a unit.  

Rebels and Patriots
The latest incarnation of the Lion Rampant / Dragon Rampant system. It's for horse and musket era games, and we played with one chaps AWI figures. A great little game, though sadly too many other games will mean it won't be played as much as I'd like.

DBA
Venerable, justified and ancient. Just a great little game, and I'm glad some chaps suggested it. Got several games in on the one night. 

And finally, boardgames (though I did put Breakout Normandy above). 

Cambrai - an area movement game on the WW1 battle.  Great fun, with fixed lies of advance for the British and limited initial reserves of the Germans. 

Commands and Colors Napoleonics.
Still a favourite, though didn't get to play more than one game in 2019.

It Never Snows
This is a nice big little game on Market Garden. Big in that it covers the campaign. Little in the sense that it has lots of small scenarions. We played to commemorate the 75th anniversay. Again, sadly, the British could not hold the bridge. 

Stalingrad: Verdun on the Volga.
Played two games of this. It's an area movement game by the same chap who did Cambrai and others, all of which are based on the original Storm over Arnhem / Breakout Normandy system.  A nice game, though I don't know when I'll get back to it, so it will probably go to ebay. 

Powergrid, Spain and sundry other Euro games. 

Fun games for nights when we want to do something lighter. They are multi-player, usually involve minimal set up and are quick to play. We can usually get in a few games in an evening. 

And that's it for 2019. Not a bad total. My main disappointment is that some really good games got pushed aside by new games, and I fear this will continue in 2020. This may well see me pulling back from the club for a bit to concentrate on painting and playing things I want to play. 

A couple of local chaps have suggested playing more Lion and Dragon Rampant, Pikeman's Lament and DBA. This has got my vote, and I'm going to try to completely finish painting my Wars of Roses figures for Lion Rampant, and some other fantasy stuff for Dragon Rampant. 

And who knows - maybe some 28mm pike and shot will get painted, though I do have some other favourites to get on with, including 15mm Napoleonics for Quatre Bras.  

More later.