It’s fair to say 2025 has been proving to be pretty fun. Mainly unexpected fun, which is okay, although I tend to favour tried and tested fun with a decent amount of preparation time.
The biggest change has been stopping Sunday night gaming, and not surprisingly the amount of time I have to play Kings of War has reduced considerably. However, as a result of this I’ve had a bit more time to invest in other, broadly related avenues. Currently, I’m managing to sneak out for a tournament most months and I think I’m now enjoying them even more than I have previously. So far this year I’ve been playing with my Halflings quite a bit, but I have two other armies I’m keen to get out of the cupboard and decided to give the inhabitants of the Kings of War Fanatics Facebook Group the decision on what I play next weekend. They decided it was time to get the Ratkin back out again, so I’m taking what I think is a fun list of hordes and war engine teams up to Northampton next weekend. I’m really interested to see how it all works, although I’m not expecting big results.
The Kings of War Champions release has proven to be an amazingly welcome diversion. My son has been dipping his toe into Kings for a while, but a whole range of challenges (although principally time) has made it difficult to get games in on anything approaching a regular basis. Champions has really changed all of that. I really wasn’t sure about it when I picked it up. I’m not a fan of Ambush, there are a lot of things that don’t work for me (but I understand the role it fills, and I can see why people enjoy it). Champions blows it out the water and provides a really slick intro to rank and flank with the fun of a smaller, faster game. Last week I picked up the Nightstalker faction, as that’s my son’s favourite, and I’m really looking forward to finding out how the game plays with another force. Having read their rules, I think the creatures from the void are going to be really interesting to play. I’m massively looking forward to the Halflings coming out, and, of course, hoping that rats are not too far away.
The most exciting thing this month, has been picking up the beautifully produced second edition of Burrows and Badgers. This is probably my favourite skirmish game because of how beautiful the models are. In addition to this the small family run operation is one of the best in the business with fantastic customer service and a great overall package. I’ve not had time for anything more than a cursory overview of the book, but the key changes seem to be around faction organisation and objectives, with quite a few new scenarios. I really welcome this because the first edition was starting to become quite spread out with rules across a number of journals that all added to the game, so I really wanted to use them. I recommend everyone to have a go at this game because it’s simply brilliant.
Something I really want to do on the blog in future is to do some write ups of Burrows and Badgers, and Champions games. There are a couple blockers, such as getting the games themselves in, but I’m also trying to work out the best format. We’ll have to see what the future holds.
Finally, a quick note on the second book in the Amzharr series. It’s progressing. I am getting some regular writing time in, although there also seems to be regular distractions, but the first 20,000 words are in the bag and the story is filling out nicely. I’m having a little continuity problem with a certain drinking establishment now having at least five different names, although I think I’m edging towards The Lapsed Penitent.
That’s it for now. Although you might get a bonus post in the week banging on about how great rats are (and other scientifically established facts).
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The Wizard's Bookshelf 