A quick look on my BoardGameGeek account shows I had a good
year of gaming, despite largely taking the summer off.
I managed 24 games in the Borg family (mostly CCA and CCN).
Added to this were another six Worthington games using a hex grid. There were
also a small number of one-off games at the club and Bruce’s house and at home.
What strikes me most is that I have clearly forsaken
traditional dice and measuring gaming (excepting perhaps Maurice with its
lovely card-driven activation). I was surprised that I didn’t even play a
single game of DBA or HoTT this year. And, you know, I don’t miss it at all.
This makes me wonder if we’re seeing a generational shift in
tabletop rules. I’m not predicting the end of dice-and-measures rules. This
approach has lots of momentum and adherents—just like desktop computers do… .
But the ease of teaching and play and opportunity to flavour
rules that come with card-driven mechanics (and, to a lesser degree, hex-based
playing surfaces) is hard to deny.
In terms of painting, I expect I'll crest about 1300 figures this year. Not bad given the summer and autumn painting doldrums.
I’m planning to go back to finish an
HO-scale town I started last winter. To kick this along, I’ll also be doing up
some 1/72-scale cops and robbers. But the big project will be a 1/72-scale
Persian army I picked up at the MayDay auction.
I also have some more 1/72-scale Germans and some Greeks to
attend to and I’llstart rebasing my AWI and War of 1812 guys. I also have a few
things to thin out of my collection. And if I get time, I plan to pain my
Battlelore playing pieces. And I have a few commissions I’ve agreed to take on.
Games-wise, likely more CCA, CCN and perhaps more on my Riel
Rebellion game.
My take is that cards are 'in' and tables are 'out'. Dice and rulers will remain with us. I do find I'm preferring the lack of ambiguity over LoS/ range with hexes more than I thought I would. Far less disagreements...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think cards are certainly the trend in activation/command mechanics. I quite like iconic (versus numeric) dice, although I recognize the limits they impose. Grids do a lovely job of solving LOS and making maneuver much quicker--no more agonizing (or watching someone else agonize) over the perfect position or wheeling correctly. Its not for everyone, but it has improved my gaming experience immensely. Even simply stuff like the movement/turn "sticks" in X-wing are a huge improvement.
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