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[Primarch]

With 2015 over and the 2016 gaming yet to really get rolling, let's take a look at what we enjoyed playing last year. Considering that for 2013-2014 I mainly played large scale games such as BP, 2015 saw lots more small, skirmishy games taking over my gaming time.

This Is Not A Test was one game I got into last year. It is a skirmish level game, maybe 12 minis max, with a Post Apocalypse setting. Heavily influenced by the Fallout series of PC games, it is a fairly solid rule set. The campaign system looks ok, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

Hunters of Ruin, yes, I am biased on this. I'm happy that folks seem to have enjoyed playing it so far and I'm hoping to keep developing it this year.

Infinity just sneaked in before the end of the year. My initial reaction is that it looks to be a very tactical game, with a lot of options. Definitely want to try it out in more depth.

Malifaux is a favourite of mine and the current 2nd edition rules are a big improvement over the 1st edition.

Ronin was one I didn't get to play much, but when I did, it was quick and simple. The 'bidding' system it uses fof attack and defence is cool once you get your head around it. A similar set of rules called En Guarde is coming out from Osprey soon focussing on European/American swashbuckling in place of Samurai.


Which games did you enjoy last year? Any stand-outs or recommendations?

[Spevna]

JDMG and BA for me.

Very little need to flick through the rulebooks while playing. Not clunky at all, and great fun.

I reckon will spend more time playing them this year too.

[The Other Dave]

Dropzone Commander turned out to be, frankly, quite a lot more fun than I expected it would be. A couple fiddly bits aside (close quarter battles, I'm looking at you) the rules are super smooth and simple in play, and it's always nice to push pretty futuristic space tanks around a table.

[YellowStreak]

"This is not a Test" for me as well. I'm looking forward to some campaign games.

Last year was also my first full year of Bolt Action.

HoR was fun, have to give it some more game time this year. I did play a game of JDMG, but other than the setting, it didn't really stand out -- but I don't think the gangs we used were well matched as it was pretty one-sided.

I played a little of Gates of Antares beta, and want to try it out a little more this year as well.

[Lovejoy]

JDMG and BA are immense fun and definitely my current standouts, I can see myself playing them into my dotage, setting them aside at times if necessary but always coming back to them. In fact Naghammer aside, a lot of Dredd, a little BA, and a couple of HoR games (coming along nicely) were pretty much all I played in 2015.
I now definitely want to vary my gaming a bit and begin to play several new systems (new as in recent or new to me) this year alongside them.
Pretty much decided on what those games will be. Frostgrave, Lion Rampant, Antares, 3rd Ed Fantasy I think. And Malifaux..keep forgetting that.

[me_in_japan]

JDMG got the lion's share of my gaming time last year, with a bit of Malifaux thrown in for good measure. I played one game of HoR and a couple games of Infinity. Looking back in review, the one thing that stands out clearest of all is that I just gotta get in more games. Anyway, for 2016 I'm likely going to be dividing my time up into smaller and smaller bits, so shorter skirmishy games will be the order of the year. More Dredd, Mali, Infinity and HoR, and Satoru is asking me to play Frostgrave, too, and I figure why not, I've probly got figs for it somewhere...

40k, btw, was played only at Naghammer, but that doesnt mean I dont still enjoy it. Its biggest issue for me is the mahoosive amount of figures (= painting time) that it requires. 12 minis = entire Malifaux crew, with swap-in replacements when needed, entire Infinity army, or Dredd gang. But for 40k, those 12 minis are one, maybe two units out of potentially 9 or even more. The numbers just dont support the time required to paint armies for the game, which is a terrible shame, as the minis are still darn nice. I just wish we had a game system where we could play 40k, with 40k models, but at skirmish scale. Rather than 6 squads of 10 aspect warriors, how about just 6 different aspect warriors? Meh, a guy can dream. I saw those starter boxes they have just now for 40k. It's a 10-man squad, plus vehicle, plus commander, all for about 40quid (if you shop around). Still not cheap, but if that was the entire buy-in it'd be well attractive. They have one for each faction. But, as it stands, that 40quid will buy you a small fraction of what you need to get started. Shame, really - I do want to use my 40k minis, I just can't spare the whole year it'd take me to paint the army for one game

[Primarch]

@M_i_J - Yeah, I think a lot of us are 'time poor' at the moment and painting up full armies takes time. Add in other factors like transporting and storing minis and bigger games do wind up with a lower return on the time invested into them. While I don't think that the number of minis in a 40K game is that high, I appreciate that there is a big difference in terms of effort that goes into painting a Wraith Knight over say a 19th century infantryman. I'm sure if you asked, Spevna or Konrad would be able to hook you up with some skirmish rules for your 40K minis. Inquisimunda or Gangs of Nu-ork or somesuch.

[ashmie]

Last year I enjoyed Malifaux, HoR and Hail Caesar.
This year I'd like to play more of those plus Black Powder, Pike and Shotte, Dredd and some more Space Hulk and maybe even some Heroquest. That could be a nice painting project.
Also going to be playing some Frostgrave this year as the Warhammer battle scenery works well for this.

[job]

Last year: 40k, BA, Black Powder, Gorkamorka, Neceomunda, FoW

This year: Try to play as before, but remember to insert DZC and DFC into the mix.

[kojibear]

I am in the process of painting for Nagoya Hammer, and as Me_In_Japan said, it does take up a lot of painting time. I enjoy 40k - the Grim Dark universe more than the actual game to be honest - and have a great time at the event. But by the time Nagoya Hammer has come and gone, I really feel like I am all 40ked out, and am happy just to play it a couple of times in the rest of the year.

The majority of 2016 I would like to focus on playing more Bolt Action, and skirmish games like Malifaux and Infinity. Like Prim, I found Infinity to be very interesting - a real firefight feel with lots of complexity. This is Not a Test - TNT - was also fun, as was Hunters of Ruin.