Happy New Year! Final Post of 2025

 Where has the time gone? Here we are on the cusp of 2026!

So with that in mind, here is the last post for 2025. I did a lot of gaming during December, so lets see what I was up too.

We started our Necromunda Campaign. I played my Malstrain infected Nomads against Elliott's Spyre guys. We were trapped within some ruins & needed to find the exit. There were 6 doors which we would need to open to determine whether it was truly the exit, or just another dead end.

Due to the deployment rules for the scenario, Elliott's truck had to begin within some building ruins & took some damage exiting it.

My Malstrain Coalescence amongst the ruins.

I had an additional member join my gang, but he didn't even last turn 1 with the Spyre having 2 actions each.

As I was checking a door, terrors arrived & swarmed my Nomad & Malstrain.

The Coalescence did get into melee with one of the enemy, but was taken out shortly after. All my gang were taken out of action, with the death of one of my riders & the other having an eye injury. This portion of the campaign does not allow for replacements.

On the 20th of Dec, Craig had the gang over for Cthulhu Wars. I got to play a new faction & managed to win the first game by 1 doom point. We then switched up the factions we were playing & played again, I believe Arlene won the 2nd.

On the 21st I went to pick up a local sale of Rising Sun. All the figures were painted & there was the Daimyo Box & 2 other expansions as part of the sale

As with all my figures, I immediately pulled them out & started getting washers attached to them. Also as the figures are painted, I have now begun to get the bases prepped with gel, primed & will be painting & flocking them. That will be continuing into the new year.

The figures are all shiny, so will get a matte overspray once they are done.

On the 28th I was invited over to Bob's to play some Fistful of Lead with another long time gaming buddy & his son who were visiting family in Edmonton.

I was playing the forces of Evil & there were 2 scenarios unbeknownst to Will & Arthur. For the 1st Scenario I had Igor attempting to dig up a corpse in the cemetery to collect a brain. I also had Frankenstein's Monster who was trying to nab a young woman & Drusilla. Additional forces for me, were some swarms of rats & bats.

Pitted against me were Will playing the Scooby gang, while Arthur played Buffy the Vampire Slayers gang.

I was able to nab the girl, but was forced to drop her when I got swarmed by the Buffy gang. Drusilla who was running interference was taken down quite quickly.

Igor held his own with the assistance of some Rat swarms, but was eventually taken down. With the forces of evil defeated, Frankenstein's monster fled. The rescued girl informed the 2 sleuth groups that there were catacombs beneath the chapel.

The gangs enter the catacombs. They still had the wounds received from scenario 1, as they had no time to recover. Velma quickly encountered a trap. For this scenario, each side could have a max of 2 figures per hex unless a piece of terrain was also within the hex, then it was limited to a single figure.

The arrival of the forces of evil was based on a die roll. I eventually got Dracula on the board, who was by himself for a few turns. The Sleuths split up, with Buffy heading off through the door. We wouldn't be seeing them again for some time.

With Fred & Daphne both injured, Dracula went for their blood. Which is just about when both of us kept failing to land hits on one-another. Daphne was the first to fall however. Meanwhile the only member of Buffy's team to join the Scooby team encountered another trap (see the big red hand).

Eventually some rat swarms & the Frankenstein's Monster arrived to help Dracula.

Soon Fred was down, leaving only Scooby & Shaggy. This was a long battle.. Dr Frankenstein arrived & was battling it out with Zander. By now all the rat swarms were defeated.

Scooby was able to take down Frankenstein's Monster, but then was removed by Dracula. By this time the Bride of Frankenstein had awoken & moved into the chamber with the remaining Evil forces to await Buffy. She was slain by the duo & that left Willow as the sole member of the Sleuths.

As Willow entered the hex, she stumbles into another trap, taking yet another wound. Dracula & the Bride made quick work of her & resumed their evil plots. Thanks Bob for inviting me over & as always, it was great to hang with Will again over a gaming table.

On the 29th I was off to Scott's for a Noon start of Alliance! The Columbia Napoleonic game that our friend Bruce was part of making.

We randomly drew our nation & I got France. We didn't have a 7th player, so Spain was a NPN (Non Player Nation) that began under French control. Scott used one of his 54mm Napoleonic figures for the turn marker.

Thing started off well, I was able to capture Rome & Naples & was working my way through the Neutrals in Germany. Meanwhile Britain & Prussia were squabbling over Denmark & Sweden. However France lost control of Spain, which then became under the control of Turkey who invaded & succeeded with insane dice rolls against the fort. This is the turning point of the game leading to Turkey's winning the game.

All the other factions in Europe decided that France was bad & created a Grand Alliance that lasted the rest of the game. By 1811 France could only hold onto the VP spaces within France. I was able to oust the Spanish from French Territory, but was never able to push outwards due to always having to rebuild forces for the next wall of opponents. England did eventually land in Spain & began seizing the VP locations, but by then the Ottoman Empire had already won.

So a couple of things we noted about the game, which needs to be addressed.

1) Scott didn't find a turn marker, so he used a model. 

2) The board that comes with the game is so small, we placed a single block on the map & it covered an entire location. We were lucky that Bruce lent us the light mouse pad enlarged map, which provided lots of space for blocks.

3) There are not enough nation flags for marking control of Neutrals. France ran out of them on turn 2, & we started pulling them from other areas that didn't have VP's

On a personal note, this game plays much like Empire in Arms in that if the other nations just gang up on France, it can't hope to win, as it cannot break out anywhere. If Napoleon wins a battle, the other Nations are chipping away elsewhere.

It would be good to have National Objectives for each nation that they should be trying to attain, whether it be the creation of Poland, Turkey creating the Ottoman Empire, Prussia/Austria/France trying to sieze the German Neutral States, etc.

 The advantage I saw with Empire in Arms is that if France defeated a Nation, it was prevented from attacking France again through Diplomacy for another year, which would allow France to focus elsewhere. With that said, we didn't have a nation get defeated, so were unable to see the effects of that. With that being said, it is a good game, that flows fairly well, though it was hard getting used to trying to roll 1's in battle.

Today I stopped into the Post Office & had a parcel of another Kickstarter arrive.

This was for Ascending Fate

As stated at the beginning, it was a busy December, gaming wise & now I am settling down to watch the finale of Stranger Things to bring in the New Year.

Thanks to those who follow & visit my little blog space. Here is to another year of gaming in 2026. Cya on the flip side!