6x6: First Quarter Update - some catching up to do

 

I first started writing this blog as a way of keeping on track for my stated commitment to a 6x6 challenge; playing six selected games at least six times throughout the year. I added some further stipulations; these had to be games I’d owned for a year or more but hadn’t got around to playing yet, and I had to play them against a face-to-face opponent for them to count toward the tally – I chose to not count two-handed solo games. Three months in and I’ve already fallen behind on my stated goal. So far, I’ve managed to get two games from my short list to the table, a total of five times; twice for Napoleon 1806, and three times now for Undaunted: Normandy. So, I’m four behind the nine I should have completed in three months to maintain momentum. The goal is still achievable, but I’ll have to be more goal-oriented in my gaming, at least in this respect. To be fair, the majority of January was lost to sickness, but I did get a handful of solo games to the table, as well as playing some family games with my wife, and much enjoyment was had.

The struggle is real

This isn’t to say I’ve been sitting on my hands. Most weeks I have two game opportunities. Mondays (usually, sometimes it gets pushed through unforeseen circumstances to Tuesday), I’ll get together with my brother-in-law, T. Early in this project, T graciously agreed to help me in my 6x6 quest, and he’s been my opponent for all five completed games played thus far. Due to various circumstances, we don’t usually get to begin playing much before 9:00pm*, so whoever is hosting will set up a game beforehand. So when we’ve played a T’s house, it’s usually too difficult to bring a 6x6 game and set it up, then play through an entire game (although we have done this once with Undaunted: Normandy; I’d selected and ordered the tiles and built the decks and draw stacks earlier in the day for a quicker set-up time).

I also have a regular Wednesday night gaming group. When I joined the group, about sixteen years ago, it was almost exclusively for roleplaying games. These days (and about eleven personnel changes later) our nights are spent fairly equally between RPGs, boardgames and miniatures battles (our host, B, has an extensive collection of minis from a variety of eras and conflicts, but Napoleonics is a group favourite). This provides the variety in my gaming life, and introduces all of us to games we probably would not have otherwise ever come across. I’m not a minis guy myself, but I appreciate the opportunity to push lead around the table once in a while.

Since the beginning of January, I’ve played no less than eighteen different games. Of those, five have been dedicated solo games (Skyhawk, Tarawa 1943 and the three Great Sieges Series games from Worthington); one (Chancellorsville 1863) is a two player game with a solo option; two were two-player games I played tow-handed solo (Ball’s Bluff and LaPrimogenita) two were Napoleonic miniatures rules-sets (Shadows of the Eagles and Lassalle); and three were boardgames that, while involving conflict of one manner or another, I couldn’t in good conscience call a wargame (Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition, Banish the Snakes, and Apocalypse Road).

Non-list wargames played included Commands and Colors: Ancients – Greece and the Eastern Kingdoms and Battle Line (arguably also not a wargame, but the dressing and mechanics suit the depicted situation very well); both of these were Monday games with T. While we’ve played a lot of Roman-era C&C: Ancients before, the Greece and the Eastern Kingdoms scenarios were new to both of us, even though we’ve owned a set each for four or five years. So, that’s an accomplishment of sorts as well.

Keeping this record has made me more aware of what I’m playing, and how lucky I am to have two face-to-face gaming opportunities a week. It’s also made me put more thought into what I want to play, and what games I buy. I’ve noticed I’m thinking a lot harder about what games I want to get to the table, and about the kind of “aspirational purchases” I’ve made in the past. I have a bit of the completionist in me, and some games I’ve bought simply because I had the fist one and the other ones make a set. I’m trying not to do that anymore. Well, at least not as often. And I’m making a greater effort to play the games I already have. I haven’t stopped buying new games, but I want to be sure that I will actually play them.

Doing this has also made me think more deeply about games, about the philosophy of play, and about what I’m looking for in a game. Everyone has their own expectations, their own ideas oof what makes for a good game or and worthwhile simulation. This is something that interests me deeply, and I’d like to do more introspective, navel-gazey stuff in the future. Feel free to skip these posts if it’s not your thing.

I’ve also started putting reviews up on this blog. I started writing movie reviews for my local gaming group’s newsletter when I was fifteen, and through my years at university I spent way too much time writing all kinds of reviews – books, CDs, films, art exhibitions, theatre and opera performances – and too many interviews to count for the uni newspaper. I always intended to write up considered reviews of my 6x6 games, after I’d played them half a dozen times and gained some deeper understanding of them, writing reviews felt like a natural progression from the State of Play reports I was already writing, so expect more of them.

You’ll only read reviews for games here that I really enjoy and I think deserve a wider audience. I’m not going to be hitting companies up for review copies of games because I only want to write about games I feel positive about. Everything I review will be either something I’ve bought myself, or somebody else’s game that I’ve played and thought deserved some attention.

This project has gotten larger than I anticipated, and I’m enjoying the writing as well as the playing. I made myself a promise that I’d keep this going through the end of 2023, but as long as I’m enjoying it, I’ll keep posting stuff here.

 

* Due to the later start on a Monday, we usually have a window of about 1½ hours or so to play a game. This is the reason why we’ve clocked more Commands and Colors games between us than anyone else I know; For the first seven or eight years we only played C&C: Napoleonics, at around forty-five or so games each year. It’s also the reason, “A fast game is a good game,” became a kind of mantra at the table, and was the obvious choice for the title of this blog.