Number 36…Probably the last entry in this Year of Our Lord 2021.
Last year I made a “non top list” video entry but this time around I am not in the mood – the table is being used with Captain’s Sea play through recording, and gladly the Admiralty did not commandeer the table to be used during the festivities.
The tradition states that one has to make entries about top games of the year and hobby plans for the upcoming year, and given I already shared my top 5 of 2021 beforehand a while ago and I’m not that good with hobby plans ( hint: hobby ) and go with whatever I feel like doing at any given moment/day there’s little I can write about.
I will continue to improve my hobby by adhering to the Rule of Three and if you read the Coffee Break #15 entry you will be familiar with the concept and many good folk do the same in different ways.
That being said I lost interest in pursuing the previous Solo Campaign as is and in fact moving onward to another one, in a new map, with new factions and all while wanting to do it better. I acknowledge many mistakes I’ve done while achieving some successes. The methodology is solid but the execution was poor, mostly due to a fragile book keeping process but lessons learned.
At the same time will also look forward to complicate things and introduce another layer of combat resolution when the need arises and instead of using only Dawn of Battle, which is for the big battles, I’m looking forward to miniatures and Songs of Blades and Heroes for its resolution of more “special operations” and “encounters” such as scouting parties skirmishes or assassination attempts missions. Stuff like that adds a living pulse level to the setting and promote the outcomes to be incorporated in future development of the storyline.
At the same time, in a parallel course of events, I intend on running a season of Ironsworn and based on the same map/setting as the Accursed Solo Wars, except I will be following the journey of someone in those lands. It will help me develop the setting and add more character to non wargaming aspect of the world. Where in the campaign is about big cities, settlement, armies and river crossings and forests, and in the skirmish is all about lords, knights and retinues, with the role play is all about getting to know the details of locations, the lifestyles, the smells and sounds.
This is the plan – to marry all three aspects of wargames – boardgame, miniatures and pen and paper – and use them to run and wherever possible to cross over for resolution at the most convenient level. If the character of the pen and paper sees itself drawn into a skirmish, then it is obvious it will see its fate decided not by the rpg rules but by the skirmish rules.
Captain Croft chronicle has been put on hold for the moment being as the youngsters are exploring other gaming possibilities and going on a sci fi drive. Some interest have been shown on participating in Five Parsecs from Home when I got the squads ready to play.
This doesn’t mean there’s a stop to household games, simply that the wargames-rpg Capn’ Croft campaign has been halted.
So what about immediate 2022 plans ?
None whatsoever except to BUY less and PLAY more.
To improve on the video side of things. Learned a LOT during this year and I must be thankful to all the positive and negative inputs I was exposed to – my hobby is the games, not the channel – and this was the most important lesson I took from the many content makers I’ve had the pleasure to follow, and still do. Some are definitely here for the games hobby. Others are there for the video content production and themselves. Their hobby is the media production and marketing and that’s is perfectly fine.
( and then there’s those that do deliver games hobby with great production !!! )
Definitely want to improve the writing and as such the blog will hopefully grow. Have an solid idea for the Anabasis series of articles and hopefully can gather enough data to see it through.
The Coffee Breaks will be the mandatory company whenever.
wargamer.coffee.break 