It’s been nearly five years since I plunged back into miniature wargames, like so many people did during that first 2020 lockdown. I thought it might be interesting to take stock of the games that I’ve played in that time, not counting my own, and look at the games I’d still like to get to the table.
Battletech / Alpha Strike
You know I love a great value starter set, and the Game of Armoured Combat set is pretty fantastic at providing a generous box of content, meaning you don’t really need to pick up all that much outside of it. Getting this thing on a whim, taking it home and digging into it was a real treat.
You also know that I went and bought a load of extra stuff and pivoted into their simpler Alpha Strike game on the side.
There’s a lot that I love about Battletech. Surprisingly, I think I prefer the clunky old classic version, managing heat, precise hit locations, and weighty hex movement. My main complaint has been that games are slooooow, but I’m told that if I play in an era with better weapons then there’s less chipping away at armour and more decisive strikes.
Of course, I’d rather play MAC Attack now.
Blood Red Skies
That podcast ends up costing me a lot of money. I had no interest in a WW2 fighter combat game before I heard Andy talk about some of the more interesting design decisions, then I knew I had to try it out. It’s a fantastic system, one of the best examples I’ve seen of “easy to learn, hard to master”. So far I’ve humiliated myself in almost every game I’ve played, but I’d love to play some more and finally get good.
Gaslands
Converting hot wheels and matchbox cars into post apocalyptic death machines is some of the most fun I’ve ever had with miniatures. It got me excited to hit the toy aisle in my local supermarket and find more vehicles, so much cheaper than miniatures!
While I’ve had fun playing the game I always forget that it’s reasonably complex, and in particular I’ve found it difficult to teach to new players. This feels rather at odds with its attention-grabbing premise, so I always tell myself I’d like to toy around with writing up an ultra-streamlined version of the rules for one-shots and new players.
Warhammer 40k 9th and 10th Editions
One of my best friends is a real GW loyalist, so we’ve reached a pretty good compromise where he’ll try out whatever new game I’m excited about and occasionally I’ll play whatever the current edition of 40k is.
It’s not really a fair review, as I feel like I spend the majority of each battle re-learning how things work. The foundations are simple enough. Moving and attacking has never been simpler, but there’s a lot happening on top of that with objectives, command points, stratagems... all stuff that I’m sure becomes second-nature if you play regularly, but for me it feels like I spend as much time digging through the rulebook as I do surveying the battlefield.
Warcry
I thoroughly enjoyed painting up the Blood Harvest starter set. Love the warbands and the terrain. Played it once aaaand... now it’s in the cupboard.
Which is strange, because I enjoyed playing it. The random scenarios are fun and games are quick enough that you can blast through a few of them in one sitting. Using dice as a metacurrency for special powers isn’t really my sort of thing, and here I found it a touch fiddly, but I suspect that would pass with experience.
So why haven’t I played it again? I suspect it’s in a weird middle ground where my GW friends don’t play it, but neither do the non-GW players at my local club. Maybe I’ve got an unconscious bias against seeking out strangers to play a GW game, something I’ve happily done for other games. Wait... I’m getting a flashback to being 11 years old... I’m at a games workshop game night... playing against some random teenager and... no.... not the hydra sword!
Kill Team
I only played this one, but I quite enjoyed it. I liked the sort of stealth system, I thought the basics of combat worked, and while I was hoping the new edition would be more like sci-fi-warcry, I can see the appeal of the added grit here. Would happily play this if somebody else wants to buy and paint up a starter set.
Epic 40k Third Edition
One of my holy grail games. After decades of waiting I got an old set, played it out of the box with no house rules, and it was a good time.
Simultaneously streamlined and... a bit fiddly with it comes to assigning hits and resolving assaults but I still love that pitch of “this single roll represents an entire 40k battle”.
Something inside me resists Armageddon, I’ve just got a lot of affection for this version of the game. I’d be keen to try out the new GW Epic system, but only if I can bring the Marines and Orks that I’ve already painted.
Bolt Action
This is still a lot of fun. I love how fast it plays, while still bringing that feel of attritional suppressive fire and unit morale. I’ve made the classic error of only really playing pitched battles, so I’d love to try some more unusual scenarios.
Five Parsecs from Home: Tactics/Bug Hunt
I’ve only managed one game each, and they’re my sole experiences playing wargames with a GM. If you’ve never tried it, I can’t recommend it enough.
The systems themselves are fast and solid, as you’d expect from Ivan Sorensen.
Saga
I played this for the first time last week and naturally I’m now neck-deep in Vikings, trying to get my own warband ready for the table.
I thought I’d hate the saga dice system, as I typically avoid extra layers outside of the battlefield, and... look, I’m still undecided, but I definitely don’t hate it.
The thing I love is how dynamic it all feels. You can activate each unit multiple times giving them these huge sweeping moves, or send them rampaging into the enemy ranks. However, this causes fatigue, which enemies can use against you. It’s a lot of fun and a very different feel to just activating each of your units in turn.
Looking through the rules now there are lots of little quirks and exceptions to keep track of, but I’m very keen to play it again.
Xenos Rampant
I’ve only played a handful of this game. It’s a lot of fun building a force using its super modular system but... I’m a little bit underwhelmed by the gameplay itself. Remember how I praised Saga for its fast, dynamic play? I found in Xenos Rampant I’d often have turns where it felt like I achieved very little at all, or just took obvious actions.
Now this could be down to scenario choice, or army design, but I also think this particular ruleset might just be better suited to a different flavour (more on that next week).
Void Admiral
I’m playing this tonight! So far I’ve only had small introductory battles, but tonight I’m braving a full-sized affair.
So far I’ve found this ruleset sits in my sweet spot in terms of rules complexity. You’ve got a few quirks and exceptions to the core rules, but they’re mostly consistent. You’ve got Saga/Warcry style powers used by spending metacurrency dice, but they operate in a much less involved way here. I glance over to my ability board now and then but otherwise my eyes are firmly on the ships drifting into battle. Factions have some unique twists but are still based on the same foundations as each other.
The Renegade Warfleets supplement adds a few more options to customise your ship, so now you can have that surprisingly fast destroyer or a corvette that trades its armoured prow for overpowered lasers. I appreciate this extra room to make ships feel unique.
Next week I’ll look at the games I want to get to the table this year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.
If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.
