2020.. It is almost over…whether you are glad or sad, it is nearly done!
I got some good gaming in. I had a lot of fun, the stinker count was limited, the fun factor was high. My game play informed lots of book reading and vice versa.

This year was a major personal challenge for me. Nothing much I care to say about it, just a very challenging time. But things are heading towards a new normal. on to the gaming wrap up:

Games Played 2020 so far.

WAW ’85 won hands down. Largest # of plays last yr.

Plays By Month

You can see from the above that the Con I was going to in Feb 2020 helped me generate a lot of game play!

It was interesting this year that the site generated traffic from a broader area of sources. For instance, Grognard.com generated 300% more referrals to my site this year than last year. Which is cool. Given I did not submit any posts in 2020. Thus, I’d like to thank Grognard.com for the love! You should check them out, for Errata, game plays and all things historical reference data for your games. Marc Grad does a great job. They are constantly upgrading, enhancing and improving the site. It is a go to place for a catalogue of “everything” ever posted about ANY game.

Which leads me to posts. 344+ posts this year, of all types, AAR/Video/Images and guest posts. Impression were really high overall but I’d say traffic was the same as 2019 and lower than 2018. I don’t really pay much attention to it other than to ensure I piss off as few people as possible, well with a few notable exceptions and try to ensure that what is here is worth looking at. Your time spent on each page and number of views are my primary data for that along with the many thoughtful comments, emails and PM’s received. Im eternally greateful to those folks who feel like friends I have not yet met.

In 2020 through the 10^th of December I’ve have tried 32 new games across 72 plays. We might end up with a few more LNL sessions as I round out a campaign play on the Bulge with their Heroes of Normandy. Ariete will get wrapped up… If I can sticker Black Swan that may see a play also.

The that will clear the decks for 2021.

New Plays to me.

You can see the significant drop for 2020, back down around the 2014 era. But a reflection of a lot of life balance issues. As I think about this, its not a race to play ever more games. This is a marathon of exploration. An opportunity to stop along the way. Dig in, explore more deeply and more richly when games deserve it, warrant it or need it due to its size, complexity or scope. Deadly Northern Lights is a great example of that. The campaign game solo, took mammoth amounts of time not due to counter density or rules complexity, but because it presented huge choice matrixes. Selecting an objective and working how to get to it, secure it and hold it present a significantly higher level of thought and options than I have encountered in a game in a LONG time. OCS took up quiet a bit of time also. I had 3 sessions of it, and two face to face this year. Two of which were a campaign play.

Other titles that I have played at the other end of the spectrum, were pretty straight forward – David Thomson’s recent By Stealth and Sea, was a simply played solitaire game that gave you just enough decisions to keep you in the game and immersed in a fascinating topic. But it did not require 10 plays to understand the system or 30 hours of ‘work’ to appreciate the value and the game play. Players will derive value and entertainment from both spectrums of complexity, choices etc.

There was a time around 2011, 2012 where I felt a need to get ‘caught up’ after 20+ years away from gaming. Which built a sense of urgency to play, understand and appreciate what had happened in the last 20 years. Since then, I’ve come to realize that while new ideas around card driven games, new systems here and there and what not had arisen in the hard core section had left me thinking not much had changed.

Then I think around 2015-2017 it feels like an explosion of new companies came to the market or perhaps I was more aware of them. New expressions and revisions on the revelations of more current and accessible history, new mechanics improved art work, and better quality rules seemed to be ever present. This has muted my desire to explore the ‘missing 20 years’ of gaming. I don’t feel a need to play all these similar but different SPI titles, or GDW titles unless they come highly recommended. 2021 will see an acceleration of that and a divestiture of older games, older systems that just don’t grab me any more, probably in the order of 130 odd titles I desire to shed.

Change in the wind or is that a fart?

There are nearly 5,500 people who follow this blog, and 3 or 4k watching the youtube content. I’ve seen a massive increase in comment on the YT, and quiet a few more here too. All very civil.
I wonder if anyone in that group is noticing some of the undercurrents of discord in the wargame community? I’m hoping the divisiveness, and attempts to derail wargaming, dilute it, manipulate definition etc don’t drive a wedge in an other wise pretty open community.

There were several articles this year talking about the ‘grognard’ being an fat white old evil fascist as de facto truth. That everything is political blah, blah, blah. Furthermore accused of a lack of inclusiveness, hinting at a evolving cancel culture for those who do not conform to ideas of a select few. To date this has been ignored, I think in the main, but I’m all for these waves of change as long as they can be just as inclusive and accepting of existing members as of new members of our wargame community. I trust many of you feel the same as I in that, I want to explore some history, move some counters and roll some dice.

My opponent can be anybody.

However, you don’t get a free pass from being an ass hat or an agitator with me during game time. If I ever reject you to play with, its not me…its you. . I just choose to not play with you, your ‘stances’ have nothing to do with me engaging in a game about military history. The rejection you feel is on you and your feelings, its real enough. I did reject you as a play partner, but not as a human.

Anyway, I bring that up, as it seems no one else will, for fear of being yelled at. Its in some ways been an odd year like that. Guys who I’ve played with in person and via vassal have cut contact over what I would call political in industry bullshit. That is a pity. We have a vibrant growing community; I really hope we continue to be as open and friendly to one another as we have been in the past and more so in the future. In any case, it’s a note in passing, maybe I’m making a mountain out of a mole hill, but life is too short and there are too many great games to be caught up in this sort of babble!

So enough. I’m off to sticker the rest of Black Swan.

#ROLLDICE