It's that time again: time for a retrospective on my gaming in 2025. I started this year with a list of games I was interested in playing. I also started tracking figures painted versus figures bought. So, how have I done?
On the figures front, I managed to achieve my goal. I painted 336 figures and bought 291. My method of calculation was crude here. I only counted castings and did not differentiate between scales or size of figures, so a single mech counted the same as a 6mm infantryman. I'll do the same in 2026. Although a crude calculation, it functions well enough for my purposes.
On the games front, here are all the games I logged on BoardGameGeek:
Sadly, as the table shows, my boardgaming ambitions were mostly unrealised. Bah! Not that I played no boardgames, but rather I played mostly different games to those I had planned to play in 2025. I did play ASL against my brother, so that was cool but most of the games I played were Euro-style games, because I now have a friend and they enjoy that sort of game. I'm not complaining. We have played a bunch of different boardgames this year, and it is nice not to play everything solo! Calico, Dorfromantik, Wingspan: Asia, Everdell and others have seen play. Everdell, in particular, has turned out to be a favourite, with Wingspan: Asia close behind.
I returned to my Scarlet Heroes solo adventures, which were not on the list and I aimed to post those fortnightly as Broneslav Torenescu explored The Isle of Dread. This went ok for a while, but I ran out of steam when I hit a particular point with the mapping. I should have just copied and pasted the map from the module straight into the post, but I have wanted to do my own mapping for Broneslav's adventures. Anyway, I got over that mental hurdle and carried on. How long until the next mental hurdle? Hopefully, I shall finish the whole module in 2026 and then decide where to go next.
On the figure gaming front, I have been more successful. My mercenary company The Full Throttle Lemmings saw outings using 5150: Mecha Warfare, Battle Suit Alpha and Alpha Strike. I have also painted a fair few mechs for Battletech and fitted in a few games of that too, although only using the rules from A Game of Armored Combat. I still need to read the Total Warfare rules. That said, the AGoAC rules give a great game with intro tech mechs, and there is still a lot of mileage in them. Also, a friend enjoyed it when visiting, so I should get more games played next time he is in town. Nice!
I finally played Sellswords and Spellslingers. It did not really do it for me, but at least I have tried the rules. If I change my mind, I can always come back to them.
Oathmark, on the other hand, is perfect for what I want at the moment and I have started a pbem campaign with my brother and the long-suffering Steve. The goal of the campaign is to build kingdoms based on the figures I can field. Each kingdom started with three territories, including its capital. The winner of each battle gets first choice of the next territory for their kingdom, and each territory added ups the size of the next battle by 250 points. The players design their armies and tell me their preferred tactics for the game. I then play the game solo and report the results to them. Rinse and repeat until there are two fully-formed kingdoms. If we get that far, I have plans to add the supplements to the game and to try a standard campaign per the rules.
A couple of games of Lion Rampant 2nd Edition told me that the rules worked for me. I'm looking forward to getting Dragon Rampant 2nd Edition now and plan to play that in 2026. The best part about Lion Rampant was how well it worked as a solo game, so I hope to get it to the table in 2026. The Rampant series is the type of game that should work well for the rare occasions I manage to get a figure game in with my long-suffering human opponent.
I have also started a Forgotten Ruin campaign that is quite fun. It is set in a version of the area where I live and my team are doing well... so far. I hope that success continues into 2026. The campaign is about half-way through now.
While I did manage to play about half the rules I aimed for in 2025, I failed to play several of them and shall be adding the following to my wishlist for 2026, as well as trying to play more games of the stuff I have already done:
- AD&D Battlesystem 2E
- Frostgrave
- FutureWarCommander
- Hardwar
- Horizon Wars
On the figure gaming front, I managed to paint more figures than I bought. Huzzah! Long may this trend continue. I also rebased my 6mm Elves for Fantastic Battles, and plan to rebase my 6mm Goblins to provide an opposing force, so that I can try those rules. I have various odds and ends of 6mm armies lying around that could also make small Fantastic Battles forces, so I shall see if I can sort something out with them if I find I enjoy the rules enough.
The boardgames listed below remain on the list, unplayed this year despite me pawing the rulebooks and clipping the counters for them.
- Barbarossa to Berlin
- Space Empires 4X
- Terraforming Mars (especially with the new solo Automa expansion)
- The Dark Valley
To them should be added the Struggle for Europe series from Clash of Arms. I now have a table large enough to set up the whole thing, so it really comes down to reading and learning the rules before wading in and refighting WW2. Of course, I do not doubt that I shall get distracted at some point, but I really must try to use what I have and not buy new shinies.
A game I picked up this year largely because of nostalgia was Air & Armor: Würzburg, Operational Armored Warfare in Europe, Designer Signature Edition. I used to own the original version of this game a lot of years ago and had a sudden yearning to return to it. This new version has a solo mode, so all I have to do is read the massive rulebook, set the game up and start playing. Yup, it's that easy! Let's see if I can get it to the table in 2026.
That's it really, my gaming plans for 2026, which I broadly hope to stick to, are, in a nutshell: play what I have; paint more figures than I buy; and keep my focus on rules that can be used with what I have and that do not require me to buy into different periods, scales or ranges of miniatures (or to buy whole new armies unless I really, really want to!). Wish me luck!
