2025 in Review and Looking Ahead

Fort Magherita at Kuching

2025 was another good year for wargaming.

Once again, I count eleven sessions. Many of the sessions saw new friends whom I gamed with for the very first time, and a couple of them saw decades-old friends whom I reconnected with during the year and join on the tabletop once again after a gap of decades.

Of the games I umpired, they can be broken down into two main categories: grid-based mass battle games in 15mm, and conventional skirmish games in 28mm. I foresee that we will continue to play these games in the coming year.

In particular, I think I have gained enough understanding of Peter Pig's Conquerors & Kings rules to plan scenarios and army lists to give challenging games to both sides. In fact, I have two historical scenarios planned for the coming year, featuring armies which we have yet to pit against each other on our table.

Unplanned acquisitions for this year were the 28mm Baron's War figures, and 28mm Perry Miniatures for Napoleonic skirmish. I have more 28mm figures for these two periods lined up to be painted in the coming year, with games to hopefully follow; after the effort the gang have made completing their respective Baron's War retinues, I certainly owe it to them to run a few more games!

On the 15mm front there have been additions to my existing armies, mainly to fill gaps and allow me to use them to represent different army lists.

I also added to my terrain collection.

While wargaming had been thriving, the same cannot be said of RPGs. My weekly session have had to be canceled on many occasions due to poor attendance.

I am hoping that the delivery of the new Lone Wolf RPG kickstarter next year will result in a new campaign and revival.

Have a good gaming year ahead.

Everything I painted this year

28mm Historical

Terrain

Another Trio of Terrain

Here are a trio of terrain pieces I painted/made for our Siege of Delhi game.

The first is a mosque from (I believe) JR Miniatures. I bought this around two decades ago, but only recently based and painted it. It is rough by today's standards, and you can certainly find many better models in MDF or 3D prints, but I think it has its Old World charm.

And our second model today is indeed a 3D resin print of Red Copper Miniatures' Arab Souk, shown here with some Essex miniatures porters and Red Copper's Arab civilians. The print came in two main pieces - the ground level and the upper floor - with the trade goods being separate, small pieces, which made painting easier.

Finally, here is a cardboard building I made, meant to represent Hindu Rao's House at the Siege of Delhi. The structure is made using cardboard, reinforced with Jenga blocks, and the exterior is from Iliada Games Studio. It is by no means an accurate model, but I think it feels right for the period.

Hindu Rao House defended by the Sirmoor Battalion

Conquerors & Kings - Warring States China

Loy, an old friend I have known for four decades joined us for a mid-week afternoon game of Conquerors & Kings. The two armies, wahj's Qin and my Zhao, were painted 17 years ago by the now-defunct DJD Miniatures, so this game was a long long time in making.

C&K does not have lists for Warring States Chinese armies, so I created two lists based on the Han Chinese list from the Army Book, and in any case the lists were limited by the figures we owned.

We set up the terrain using the rules from the book, and went at it. The Zhao had an advantage in cavalry, but the Qin had better and more infantry. Terrain placement went in the favour of the defender, and the Zhao sat pretty on a ridge, with rough hills guarding one of the flanks, while their cavalry deployed on the other, open flank.

wahj decided to settle the issue quickly by pushing his chariots up to meet teh Zhao cavalry, but they were defeated. He then tried to break the Zhao centre with his superior infantry before the Zhao cavalry could roll up his flank, while sending the fierce convinct swordsmen down the other, weaker flank, which was guarded by two units of archers and a unit of levy spears.

The plan almost worked: all along the line there was savage fighting, and a gap appeared in the Zhao centre. But Loy was prepared for this - using the Advance Tactic, he moved his Veteran foot he had held in reserve to plug the gap, and his cavalry was able to charge into the Qin flank.

While we were all impressed by the deployment of the Zhao reserve, we had only scorn for the Qin convict swordsmen, who failed their movement roll to exit the rough hills to attack the Zhao flank - I had given them Shock and the Erratic Tactic, so we were all looking forward to see how they would perform. Alas! we will have to wait for another day.

I apologise for the lack of photos and close-up of the figures - I was busy with running the game and making rounds of Chinese tea. This was the first time Loy had played these rules, and it is a testament of the system that he was able to grasp them quickly and secure a victory on his first outing.

There were still a couple of things I missed in the combat resolution, and I think I might make some widgets to help me remember them. The next C&K game I am planning will be a scenario game, but we will be playing something else next month.

Have a good year-end holiday!

Second Battle of Beneventum, 214BC

The Carthaginian lines

Carthaginian cavalry try to turn the Roman flank

I apologise in advance for the jumbled-up photos, but the technology is quite beyond me...

For our December game we had a new player Rafael join our group. I planned on running a Punic War scenario using a scenario from Across the Alps, the scenario book with Little Wars TV. I initially wanted to run the Battle of Metaurus, which had a more interesting terrain, but when I learned that Rafael had a large Spartacus' Revolt army, I switched to Beneventum instead. Now I understand that the Roman slaves and convicts probably wore Roman uniforms for the battle, but I wasn't about to let the opportunity for a guest's army to grace my tabletop go to waste.

The battlefield

Rafael and I played the Romans. Having had some experience with the rules, I decided to consciously stack the odds in my favour for combat. Playing conservatively, I deployed my half of the army deep, both to protect my flank from the Numidian light horse, and to support the units in the front rank. After some skirmishing, where both sides attrited their skirmisher units, the Romans charged up the slopes. My front units managed to gain a toe-hold, but immediately faced Carthaginian counter-attack on three sides. The dice rolled in my favour, and the Romans managed to fend off all attacks. This was enough to allow a second wave of attack to push the whole Roman line onto the high ground. The Carthaginians rolled poorly to rally, and after flanking attack by the cavalry was repelled, the game was up for them.

Rafael's Slave Revolt army

This was the first game we played using a scenario instead of the random terrain set-up we had used previously. I was also more deliberate in the army lists generation, choosing a mix of units that would allow each side to capitalise on their Battle Tactics.

I think both sides played well, and a large part of why the Carthaginians lost was due to them failing their General movement and Battle Tactics activation rolls at critical points in the battle.

I am now planning for another game of C&K this month, to hopefully let wahj and I finally put our Warring States China armies onto a table. Stay tuned.

Critical point of the battle, when the Roman attack, surrounded on three sides, manage to fend off the attacks and secure victory

Battle of Klyastitsy

View of the table from the Russian end

Last weekend we had a new player, Eugene, join the group with his Russian army. I chose the battle of Klyastitsy for our game.

This was an unusual set-up, with the game played across the length of the table. The French were deployed in three areas, while the Russians are entered the table from a narrow front.

The French army strung out along the road

The Russians originally planned a feint to their left and then a thrust on their right once the French had shifted their forces to their right. However, the attack in the left flank went better than expected, and the Russians managed to gain a foothold on the ridge forming the French first line.

At one point the Russian momentum faltered as their advance meant their generals could not keep all their troops within their command span. The French were able to exploit this by bringing up their other divisions, but fell victim to the same problem soon afterwards.

We called the game before the game clock ran down when a unit of Russian cavalry managed to capture the village of Klyastitsy (and we assume Oudinot's carriage, as they did historicall), and it became clear that the French could not hold their first line of defence; at the same time, there was not enough time for the Russians to get organised to press their advantage before sunset, so we decided that the French would abandon their guns and escape across the river under the cover of darkness.

Closer view of the cardboard buildings

One again the rules took some getting used to by the new player, and we encountered situations which necessitated some revision to the rules, but all in all I feel they suit our purpose.

The scenario required quite a lot of trees, and so wahj and I bought some, while FG completed his Woodland Scenics ones. I also bought a pdf of Russian houses and built several cardboard buildings, which will probably see us ready for future games in the 1812 campaign,

Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket

After weeks of work, we finally played our first game of Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket with our Napoleonic figures. It occurs to me that despite Napoleonic skirmish being a major thing in the writings of Donald Featherstone and the British wargaming magazines I used to read in my youth, this was the first Napoleonic skirmish game that I have actually played.

I used the scenario from a Sharp Practice campaign (which FG and I used to fight our Sludge campaign), pitting three squads of French soldiers - the 26th of the Line, the Legion du Midi, and the Hanoverian Legion - against two of British - the famous 95th Rifles. The Rifles had the advantage of range, and started hidden and in cover.

The rules were easy to pick up and remember, but despite only giving the Leader and Second traits (instead of giving every figure traits as per the rules) we had difficulty remembering to use them. The need to spend a full turn reloading after each shot made shooting less effective than in more modern games, so the French decided to force the issue with a bold advance into hand-to-hand combat. This turned out badly for them, and they fell back from the village.

Overall the rules are fun and quick, although I find that the use of a d10, while OK in shooting, makes hand-to-hand combat too swingy. I enjoyed the rules enough to want to expand my collection so I can provide both sides for a game that I can take to future conventions.