2019 in Review

... or, BattleTech and not much anything else

 This blog has been rather inactive in 2019, and I have no hopes it is goint to get dramatically better in this year. Not much time, not enough players (not much time to solo either) etc etc. 

Enough whining, let's look at what I was up to in 2019:

Melee

I have backed the SJG kickstarter for The Fantasy Trip for both small game boxes. I didn't have much hope of playing it, but I felt it would have been (correct tense?) nice to really own the game that I discovered quite soon after beginning my quest.

Still sitting unplayed on the shelf, though.

AoS: Warcry, Warhammer Underworlds

I suckered myself into buying these (Warcry starter box, WHU Shadespire and Beastgrave), it's all my fault. The minis, the terrains, all the possible games... I'm slowly painting through the Shadespire starter, but it's rather an excercise in perseverance than anything else. All these (Warcry in particular) would hardly classify as kids friendly, so no hopes in getting them to the table soon. I really have to stop buying fantasy minis, no matter how tempted - oh, did I mention that I also purchased 16 Warriors of Chaos to make them into Tablut pieces (along with some elves from Blood Island set)? 

Kill Team

Well I do have one game of this under my belt, but it was a solo test game. Turns out that space marines vs chaos space marines make for a rather uninteresting match, and with all these rolls and rerolls before a single hit... I don't know. I like the 30k and 40k lore, I like the miniatures, but the rules are rather meh. Still I hope to play a game of KT using Rogue Planet rules (not being the first to do it) - or maybe Harder than Steel? 

And finally...

BattleTech

The only miniatures game I really played in 2019. I have backed the KS Campaign (late pledge still available!) without any regrets, because plastic 'mechs are exactly what this game needs. BTech indeed goes from strength to strength, even the tiny community in my country grew significantly after the release of the new boxes - from the two tournaments in 2018, where the number of players oscillated between six and eight we went to two tournaments with ten and twelve players - and there are at least four planned as a part of a league for this year!

I took part in two tournaments: One set in the Clan Invasion Era, where I used the plastic CityTech clan minis of  Dire Wolf and Timber Wolf, adding a metal Locust IIc to get my ass kicked. Actually, I won one of the three games (against another clanner), but lost to a SW era reinforced lance (Shame!) and Arrow IV firing squad. Even with general free upgrade to 3/5 warriors, 6K BV2 is quite hard on Clans in mech-only games.

Clan on clan, baby!

The second tournament had a SW Era and max 4 mech restriction, so I decided to put to use the remaining CityTech minis - apart from the Javelin they are rather horrible, but boy do they inspire conversions and mods...

17th Skye Rangers

However, the lance is pretty weak in Succession Wars era - won some, lost some, scored only a single hit with the damn Victor in all three games!!! and ended up in the middle. I had fun though, and I plan to use this lance with appropriate versions in later eras.

The next tournament has the Civil War, mech only restriction, so it is high time to put together the metal RFL-8D and (sigh) the Bushwacker.

All in all, I hope to enjoy pushing little plastic dudes in 2020 and wish you the same!