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The year 2025 in historical games

 My posts fell off in the latter part of the year. So here are some end of year posts

 

The year in historical games

 

Blackpowder (Epic Waterloo set & some 28mm Zulu wars)

This is probably my game of the year. A new fella started attending our club and had painted his entire starter set +. I felt I should play a game with him and that spiralled into about 10. This isn’t the Napoleonic simulation to end all others. Warlord games are action orientated and use the mechanics you know and love with a few twists. It does perform quite well despite all that, skirmishers are required for screening French columns, big cav charges are a huge gamble and the command and control mechanics make coordinating attacks challenging. If I was to critique its historical qualities I could argue with some aspects of the randomness but I think the bigger thing is reserves. I am not sure holding reserves helps much in this game.

As a game this rocks. I have ME/CFS and sometimes want to just play of a QRS throw dice and drink beer, and this serves up. The gambling command and control system encourages foolish risk taking and the unit tactics have some subtlety. Critically whilst it includes a few special rules the game isn’t dominated by them.

 

Broadside and Salvo

I felt the need to freshen up pre-dreadnought games so I switched up rulesets to this. Its great, easy to teach and play and has better damage model and VPs system than many of its more complex rivals.

 

15mm Ancients rulesets.

This is still a search for me. I tried Basic Impetus and Sword and Spear in 2025, both were ok. In 2026 hopefully I will try Age of Hannibal and or Civitas Bellantes. The search continues.

 

Dux Bellorum

I played with my 28mm romans and goths and felt very proud of my miniature collection. The rules again were ok. Lacked something in terms of excitement and something in terms of historical flavour. Hopefully Midguard Heroic Battles is better.


Blackseas

Warlord doing what Warlord does well. The standard accessible version of the game you want. Blackseas is a good time. It rewards risk taking with close in rakes of your opponents ships and punishes sailing into the wind. It is a real naval game.


 

Miscellany

Attending a club and local events leads you into various obscure games. I played a card drive tactical Vietnam game which was insightful but frustrating. I wrote a blog article about a Russo-Finnish wargame that I played that could also be frustrating but was much funnier. I think I prefer bad die rolls to bad card draws, not sure why. I played in a huge DBN game of The Battle of Nations which was an incredible experience.

 

In 2026

I want to finish my 6mm Great Northern War project and played some Twilight of the Sun King, and try out a few more Ancients rulesets, hopefully finding the one. 
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