2025 in Review

by on January 1, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Life

In the wider world, it has been a year of self-inflicted chaos. At home, there’s been a fair amount of chaos as well, for very different reasons.

On a technical end, two computers had failures that took valuable hard drives with them. I need to do more backing up of my data….

Once again, Fox Den is on schedule, with another twelve issues of Campaign out. #111 (the last issue) is due to go out May 1st. After that, I need to finish up a few things that would have been mid-month releases if I’d devoted the extra time and energy; namely Panzerfaust #51, Designing Wargames, and the last three issues of Guidon. That will still take me through near the end of the year, and I need to see about getting Grand Army out, as well as getting on to the republish of No Turning Back.

The blog is about the same. I’ve been occasionally scrambling for a post, and did have a two-day slip from the four-day schedule mid-year. I put out nine Paradox reviews this year, covering about fifteen months of releases, and have another four in the can. However, writing on those is currently at a standstill. Part of the reason for this is that Europa Universalis V is so good that I’ve been spending a good amount of time on it over the last couple months. RPG posts have been limited to one GURPS Dungeons & Sorcery spell collection and a review of Monsters! Monsters!

One side effect of the problems here is there was very little FtF gaming. The regular schedule with Mark and Patch is still going, but other than that, there wasn’t much. That said I, did try out a few things; of the new (to me) board games this year, most disappointing was Rebel Fury. I do like pieces of it, and want to like it, but I have too many problems with the combat. Oldest try-out is Renegade Legion: Centurion (ongoing), which show’s FASA’s common mix of great high concept, good ideas, and things that need a complete rework. France ’40, Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East, and No Peace Without Spain, are new members of series I’ve played before, and The Little Land is part of the Company Scale Series off-branch of GTS. That leaves Congress of Vienna as one other non-series game, and that was more ‘learning’ before putting it in front of the group; involved, but probably worth it. Finally, we just had a group game on the 28th, and tried out Terraforming Mars. Overall, that’s probably the best of them though ACME, No Peace and France are all very close contenders. (By the way, my ACME post got reworked and featured on Inside GMT!)

Meanwhile, there’s been lots computer game playing. Steam shows that despite coming out at the start of November, EU V took second place in time, and wasn’t that far below Stellaris. I had a few other new for me games: Tunic, is a nice adventure game, but far more Dex-centered than I expected (it’s meant to be akin to an early Zelda game), so I got stuck after the first real section. Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a… SF conquest game. That is, take the usual fantasy conquest genre of the AoW series and do SF instead. It works, but also goes for the same pre-built provinces with a limit on how much you can control as Endless Legend. This means I didn’t enjoy it much, and I’m now worried about AoW4. Finally, Atlyss has been a big surprise. It’s a solo/multiplayer action RPG; to a certain extent, there’s not a lot to it, being under development from a one-person show. But, it actually does combat and progression well, and is surprisingly fun.

Final Fantasy XIV has had a good year for me. Smudge and I are still struggling to get everything we want done, but we’re getting closer. Patch 7.4 just dropped a week or so ago, and we’re near to the end of the story there. I’ll probably have a writeup in a month. (I’ve been posting about FF XIV more regularly because of the lack of other posts ready to go….)

I’m down to two outstanding Kickstarters (Free Stars and Empire Builder: Europe), but both should be really close to delivery. Looks like my game spending was $460 this year, higher than I thought. Next year may not be any better, since GMT is threatening a couple of preorders in the first half of the year (Army Group South and Thunderbolt).

Reading went well, with me hitting 47 books this year. Massie’s Dreadnought is the best non-fiction book this year, but that was a reread that I’m glad to have finally gotten to (Catton’s The Coming Fury is also very good). The best new non-fiction would be Atkinson’s The Fate of the Day, but the field is less crowded than I’d like. Notably, The Training Ground, The Prize, and The Homicidal Earl were all good books with problems. On the other hand Sumption’s The Albegensian Crusade and Figes’ The Crimean War are both recommended. Over in fiction, I think The Cartoonists Club is the only non-series item I have to really recommend. I read the second and third Star Trek: Picard prequel novels, and Rogue Elements does get a recommendation from me. Caliban’s War is both too similar to the first book, Leviathan Wakes, and better done for The Expanse. Past that, there’s a number of series books I got to that competently carried forward the series without deserving a particular note, past already-written reviews.

I am still trying to be active on Bluesky and post links to most of my blog posts over there. Follow me to get notifications of reviews and games played.

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Dorylaeum

by on December 29, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Jason came over Sunday last week for a long-delayed FtF game. We had decided to go back to Men of Iron, with Jason wanting to get into the Infidel set. After a bit of indecision, we went with the first scenario, Dorylaeum, from early in the First Crusade, where a crusader vanguard gets attacked. Reinforcements eventually start showing up from the main body, but to begin with there’s two wings of knights, with a bunch of footmen crammed into a camp against a very large wing of medium cavalry (30 units!) and some supporting wings.

Jason took the Seljuks, who went first with Arslan’s three lines of cavalry, who pretty much eliminated the front Crusader line of Robert of Normandy’s knights (only one retired), forcing retreats and disorders all over the place. Thankfully, he failed continuation and Bohemund of Taranto’s knights galloped to the left and fell on the Seljuk flank, forcing back part of Gazi’s horse archers, and eliminating about three units. Two of the knights got disordered in the process, and Bohemund ended up dangerously out in front from repeated attacks. I got continuation to start redressing Robert’s forces, but there was still much to do as initiative passed back to Jason.

Flight points started piling up for Jason as he took losses. The knights do well against… well, almost anything else. But certainly as long as I could avoid getting disordered, charges and counter-charges are very powerful, and the main problem for me was just the number of units that were all getting to go at once, and get on the flanks and rear where I couldn’t countercharge.

The real problem for me was the area near the banner filled up, and I was having trouble clearing it, since it requires rallying, and then a separate activation to move, and I felt I needed to move the banner before that even. To help out, I moved forward the Norman foot under Stephen of Blois. Being largely pikes, they were useful as long as the Seljuks were agreeably in front, but I should have refused my flanks more. (That probably wouldn’t have been enough, but it could have helped.) In short order the infantry was getting cut up, and my flight points started catching up to Jason’s.

Afterword

We had to call it around there, with both of our flight points in the 20s or so. I was higher, but the limits are 45 to 75, so at this rate I should get a win. I had gotten above him in flight points (part of this was losing a leader), but it was looking likely we’d stay close the entire way, and the lower limit for the Seljuks would force Crusader win.

I’d only just recently made the reinforcement roll, so I could start bringing in more groups of knights. And I was going to need them. Jason had pressed on to the camp, and was starting to hit the Sicilian Norman foot under Tancred, as well as some of the retired troops. Sorting that out before a collapse might have turned into a problem, but there was still a few of Bohemond’s knights around to hit them from the rear, if I could get them going.

It’s a good scenario, though the low ability scores on the Seljuk wing commanders mean that the action is going to be concentrated on the main force (Jason got something like two continues all day). It shows off both what the knights can do, and how much trouble they can get themselves into with a numerically superior foe.

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Dragon’s Soul

by on December 25, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Okay, from the beginning, I have questions that are never answered. It’s part of a setup that is fine in it’s own right, but you do have to wonder at the biology.

Teku is a fifth child. Which doesn’t seem like it should be odd, but it is here. In this village, every…one is paired. The particular focus family has a mother and father, and two sets of twins. This is normal. And then they also have Teku, who is not.

This is odd enough that I was wondering if the inhabitants were even human, since there’s not a lot of early description, but yes, they are.

Of course, four kids per two parents is a pretty good population growth rate… if child mortality is very low. It sounds like that’s not a major problem, but we don’t see enough to have any idea.

All of this is really just important for the first chapter, as it is part of the initial equilibrium setup. From here we quickly get into (literal) transformative fantasy, which is the backbone of the story.

The second unexplained bit is the character’s sudden transformation from male human to female dragon. There’s at least some hints of unknown forces operating for this part, which at least makes it feel less ignored, and that maybe there’s an answer that the characters (and reader) don’t get to know. This a fairly obvious allusion to wish fulfillment for being transgender, including a renaming of the main character to Blaze. She struggles with the change in status for the rest of the story… but outside of that it generally isn’t a problem. Unique? Yes. But it obviously happened, and therefore there’s no point in tying themselves, or Blaze, up in knots about it.

So, this is man vs self, but instead of struggling with a choice or essential nature, it is a struggle to accept her own self-worth. (It’s kind of in the vein of the classic Andre Norton trope of a misfit finding their place in the world elsewhere, but with less struggle, and more spontaneous transformation.) External plot meanwhile is generated by the fact that dragons are in charge of ensuring magic—which is needed for life—flows through the land properly, and everything remains growing. Blaze’s old village should have been dead, but magic was flowing until just now, causing things to come full circle as the characters go back to investigate for a conclusion that has no plot twists whatsoever. (And it’s said that once an area is dead, you can’t just bring it back by re-establishing the life stream there. So, what took care of the world before the dragons took over?)

The general writing is good, and if you stay concentrated on what’s going on through Ember’s eyes, it’s a decent enough story. It’s not trying to be great, which is good, because the various unanswered questions hold it back already. If the description sounds interesting, go ahead and get it; it is by no means bad, it just has some problems that in the end don’t interfere with the story.

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Two Rounds of Plain of Alsace

by on December 21, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

After going on patrol, Patch and I went to our normal round of Commands & Colors: Ancients. This time was “Plain of Alsace” from Expansion 3. Germanics versus Caesar, with both sides about equal, but the Romans have Julian regions, Caesar, a second leader (the Germans just have Ariovistus), and two more cards.

Patch started the first game as the Romans with Order Four Right to get the Heavies into action and do one point ranged. I Ordered Lights to solidify my line. Patch Ordered Three Center to move his Mediums up, and Move-Fire-Move got me a hit on three different units. Patch used Line Command to get his right into contact and knocked out a Warrior, and did one block each to two others, with one evading, and the other retreating to the base line; but took three hits to a Medium in return.

Then I used Line Command to come into contact across the board, finishing off the Medium, destroying an Auxiliary, doing two damage to Caesar’s Heavy, three damage to an Auxiliary, and causing a lot of retreats, but I lost a Warrior outright. Patch Out Flanked, wiping out a Warrior, and trading blocks on other units. I Ordered Mediums, doing two hits to a LB, and an Auxilia, but whiffed on a one-block Auxilia, and took a few hits in return. Leadership Any Section let Caesar move into the center and destroy another Warrior. I Double-Timed into the center and my right, forcing a couple of retreats and finishing off a Medium. Patch used Leadership Any Section again, finished off a Warrior, did three blocks to another, and then finished him off, killing Ariovistus, after losing a three-block Medium. 4-7

I started the second game with Order Light Troops, doing one block to a Warrior. Patch Ordered Two Left, and did two blocks to an Auxiliary and took one in return. I Out Flanked and destroyed a weakened Warrior. Patch Ordered Three Right, forcing retreats with one loss. Order Two Left let me nearly knock out a Warrior with two banners. Line Command let his right move up and finish off an Aux, and then killed Crassus with a single hit on an evading MC.

Coordinated Attack did three hits across two units for no loss. A second Line Command re-engaged Patch’s right, doing four blocks across three units without me battling back. Order Mediums let me do some damage in the same area, killing Ariovistus on the second hit on a Warrior. Patch then Ordered Mediums to finish off a MC. I Counter Attacked to do a couple of individual hits and finish off an Auxiliary. Patch Ordered Three Right to finish off a Medium and do three hits to a second one. Inspired Right Leadership did nothing… except get Caesar ready to go into action.

Patch Ordered Lights to finish off an Auxiliary, and do two other blocks of damage, taking two in return. Leadership Any Section finished off an Auxiliary and forced a Warrior to retreat off board. Patch Ordered One (Mounted Charge) to finish off a Medium and do a block to an evading LB. Order Three Right got Caesar to the the Barbarian base line where he destroyed a Light and MC. 7-6

Afterword

Given the various Roman advantages, especially the hand size, I figured the Barbarians would be doing well to get more than a couple banners. But both of us had pretty good hands as the Barbarians, and did better than I expected. I might have done better with the Romans, but was holding my right hoping that Patch would finish off a one block Auxiliary and come into range of the Heavies. In the end, I pressed that just in time to wrap things up.

Overall, it’s a good scenario, and there’s plenty of tools (if not cards) on both sides. It is very cavalry light, with just three MC on each side. Losing the two leaders early in the second game was a big surprise, and cut down options.

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Rogue Elements

by on December 17, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The third Picard novel finishes up the initial run of prequels of the series (the fifth novel is a fourth prequel…). And it is easily the best of the lot.

Following in the trend of The Last Best Hope, I was expecting this to be full version of the background that eventually spills out during later parts of season one, where Rios was executive officer of the USS Ibn Majid, and has is career wrecked after the ship encounters a pair of androids.

Instead, we get a much looser story centered around how he got the La Sirena. Which is at least as logical a choice, and one we haven’t gotten anything on before.

It works well, and the story turns into a sprawling mess ranging from action, to the good ol’ Traveller campaign premise of making payments every month (only ever alluded to), to caper. It works because there is a bigger story than the La Sirena serving as a backbone for all this.

The main MacGuffin of the novel is the “actuality”, a particularly high-fidelity holographic recording. Particularly, some done by a particular artist that are exceptionally ingenious, and deservedly sought after. That comes a bit later of course, since we start with just getting the ship, and then complications start setting in. Overall, the plot structure is sound, and very well done.

Along the way, we get a lot of call outs to various parts of Trek lore, ranging from TOS to characters reappearing from TNG episodes, and events from The Undiscovered Country. These all naturally flow into the novel better than I would have thought if told beforehand. Miller takes a common premise (tramp freighter captain), adds a few things we know are coming (the emergency holograms), gets Rios going with a bit of action, hands him a problem (a debt that he can’t ignore—no matter how hard he tries), and then starts layering in the plot twists. Rios gets to grow past the immediate trauma of losing his Star Fleet career, and Miller keeps an air of fun the entire way.

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