Games, Goals, and 2013...

I’m a little late on the trend of blogging about what we plan to do with our spare time in the coming year; and my blog today is really a way for me to consolidate some disparate ideas into one fixed location.

My key goals for 2013 all revolve around a resurgence of interest I’ve had over the last 12 months in miniatures gaming.  There are some projects here I want to finish, and some I want to begin.

Family game time:

Now my son is getting older he is more ready to be able to sit and play some basic games with y wife and I, hopefully we’ll be able to provide plenty such opportunities for this in 2013.  My wife and I are also hoping to be able to make a regular games night, something that had fallen by the wayside with our second child.  Such times are wonderful ways to while away an evening.

For myself...

Song of Blades and Heroes, Dux Britanniarum, & Dux Bellorum:

This is a small skirmish game by Ganesha Games, the PDF is available for a small price online at Ganesha’s website, and is an excellent, short and highly enjoyable little game.  Some of the things I really like about it are that it requires only a small number of figures per side, that the rules are simple but both efficient and flexible, and that it plays in a short amount of time.  The game is also a vastly improved experience with scenarios, plenty of which are available online, and many more are easily created through the application of some imagination.

I still have my Splintered Light miniatures to finish off, so a key goal for me is to get those painted.  I also have additional Song of Blades and Heroes spin-off rules: Arthur and Merlin (exactly as it sounds), and Flashing Steel (musketeers, pirates and the like).  I’d love to collect a small force for each of these as well.  

For the Song of Arthur and Merlin rules I’d love to get some 10mm figures that could also be used, at a pinch, for other dark age games I have, such as Dux Britanniarum and Dux Bellorum.

Dux Britanniarum is especially appealing because of the inbuilt campaign system that looks like an immense amount of fun.  10mm figures have the advantage of being quicker to paint, easier to store, and cheaper - so for me they seem a good scale choice that will allow me to play multiple dark age games.  We shall see.

Dystopian Wars:

From the Spartan Games website...

My brother and I have decided to grab some fleets for Dystopian Wars, a steam punk combined arms (naval, aerial and ground) miniatures wargame by Spartan Games.  The models look absolutely fantastic; I’ll be collecting some stuff for the Covenant of Antarctica, while he’ll be playing the Russian Coalition.  Getting the opportunity to play the game, as well as painting up the models, will be a key goal for the coming year.  One I might add that I’m much looking forward to - Dystopian Wars seems a really interesting, tactical and fun game.

Terrain:

I have some more terrain I want to build, I have some forest and hill pieces waiting to be put together, and wouldn’t mind making up some islands and other terrain pieces for Dystopian Wars.  Another key factor in regards to terrain is finding some form of storage solution that manages to leave as small a footprint on our house as possible!

The playing of games:

The key games I am particularly keen to get to the table at the moment are Song of Blades and Heroes, Dux Britanniarum and, of course, Dystopian Wars.  I’d to design and play a couple of campaigns for Song of Blades and Heroes, and have the Song of Deeds and Glory supplement that provides some rules for campaign play, so we’ll see how that goes.  Of course, I’d also love to get Dystopian Wars to the table - this is the ‘hot’ game at the moment, the one that is bouncing most noisily around inside my mind and screeching for attention.

In any case, these are some of the goals I have for 2013 in terms of gaming.  Here’s looking forward to much more table time as a family!  2013 also represents something of a shift in my gaming focus, so I hope to get a lot more painting, modeling and table top gaming in this year - we shall see!

Cheers,

Giles.