State of Play: Six months in…

  

 

This marks my fiftieth post for A Fast Game…, and the six-month anniversary since I began blogging again after a rather extended hiatus. What started as an attempt to hold myself accountable to a self-set 6x6 challenge – six hereto unplayed games played six times each – has grown into something I didn’t anticipate.

Source: Wikipedia Commons

In the beginning, my intention was to write up a post or two a week, describing my 6x6 games and whatever else I’d been playing, then writing up a more in-depth review of a game after I’d played it six times. That was it.

Maybe two months into writing it, the blog began to change direction. I had ideas about wargames, things that had been bubbling way in the back of my head for a while, and suddenly I had an outlet. I’ve become more serious about what I post, and am more conscious of posting at least twice a week, and more often when time permits. Blogging has become a wargaming-adjacent hobby

Now I’ve posted nine reviews – easily the most popular component of the blog – and six “Stripped Down for Parts” unboxings, the second most popular addition. I write these State of Play pieces at least weekly, mostly to capture my thoughts regarding what I’ve played that week as a mnemonic device. Barely anyone reads them, but that doesn’t worry me; I really write these for myself, and writing them as a play-journal has encouraged me to branch out into further reviews and the unboxing photo-essays. I know some of the folks from Wednesday group read the occasional one, usually when pictures are involved. This is primarily a board wargaming blog, but if the opportunity arises, I’m happy write about a minis game, mostly to show off the hardware (B owns some truly spectacular miniatures).

I have a dozen or so more reviews I want to write up just as soon as I’ve played through the games a few more times; seven Charles S. Roberts Award winners and nominees, and a handful of other noteworthy games, and well as the remaining five 6x6 games I haven’t yet considered. I don’t believe in reviewing a game on a single run-though where I can. I take the Women’s Weekly Test Kitchen approach to reviewing; cooks in the test kitchen would bake a new recipe it at least three times to be sure it would provide the same result every time. I want to give a game a couple of goes before I’m willing to pass judgement on it.

I don’t want to commit myself to a schedule, but I’ve made a broad list of the games I’d like to get to reviewing in the next six or so months. I’ll be giving priority to the 6x6 and CSR Award recipients and nominees, but I’ll pepper these with games I think deserve some attention. I’ll still do the Stripped Down for Parts posts sometimes, and I’m looking forward to presenting some designer interviews in the not-too-distant future as well.

Six months ago, when I started this project, I wondered if I’d have the time and the impetus to keep it up more than a few months. Even though my 6x6 goal is flagging a little, A Fast Game has grown into something separate from that. I’m looking forward to a busy next six months.

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Review prospectus

What follows is a list of the games I have short-listed for review. I’m hoping to get to all of these in the next six or so months, with Stripped Down for Parts treatments for the pretty ones. No promises, but it there's something in particular you'd like to see reviewed, mention it in the comments.

6x6 games for review

This War Without an Enemy (designer: Scott H. Moore)

French and Indian War, 1757-1759 (designers: Mike and Grant Wylie)

Napoleon 1806 (designer: Denis Sauvage)

Great War Commander (designers: Roger Nord and Pascal Toupy)

Brief Border Wars (designer: Brian Train)

 

Charles S. Roberts Award winners and nominees

Skies Above Britain (designers: Jerry White and Gina Willis)

Flashpoint: South China Sea (designer: Harold Buchanan)

2 Minutes to Midnight (designer: Stuart Tonge)

Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683 (designer: Robert DeLeskie)

Almoravid: Reconquista and Riposte in Spain,1085-1086 (designer: Volko Ruhnke)

Undaunted: Stalingrad (designers: David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin)

Into the Woods: The Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862 (designer: Richard Whitaker)

CSR Award-related reviews already posted:

 - Caesar! Seize Rome in 20 Minutes! (designer: Paolo Mori)

 - 414BC: Siege of Syracuse (designer: Maurice Suckling)

 - 1569: Siege of Malta (designer: Dan Fournie)

 - Plains Indian Wars (designer: John Poniske)

 

Other games earmarked for review

1759: Siege of Quebec, 2nd Edition (designers: Grant and Mike Wylie)

The Late Unpleasantness: Two Campaigns for Richmond (designer: Steven Ruwe)

Undaunted: Battle of Britain (designers: David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin)

A Glorious Chance: the Naval Struggle for Lake Ontario during the War of 1812 (designer: Gina Willis)

Salerno ’43 (designer: Mark Simonitch)

Banish the Snakes: A Game of St. Patrick in Ireland (designers: Kevin McPartland and Jerry Shiles)

The Barracks Emperors (designers: Wray Farrell and Brad Johnson)

Task Force: Carrier Battles in the Pacific (designer: Ginichiro Suzuki)

Plantagenet: Cousins’ War for England, 1459–1485 (designer: Francisco Gradaille)

Brothers at War: 1862 (designer: Christopher Moeller)

Barbarians at the Gates (designer: Kris Van Beurden)