The number of games played in 2025 nearly reached the 100-game mark. Close but not quite. Gaming in 2025 saw an increase to 97 games played compared to the 76 games played in 2024. Why the increase in games played? Well, Commands & Colors saw a huge increase in the number of games played and that in a F2F setting. With the large number of Commands & Colors games, the mix between remote and F2F saw a significant shift too with F2F enjoying a resurgence in frequency.
I ended up hosting 40 out of the 97 games played. This seems a lower proportion than years past, but that may not be true. My impression is that I hosted fewer games, though. As mentioned in last year's review, games remotely hosted by others dropped off in 2024. Records show that I participated in 17 hosted remote games in 2025. Without going back to confirm, that is likely an increase over 2024 totals. Remote games hosted by me totaled 23. That is a pleasant and reasonable mix in hosting vs playing in remote games. Nice having the workload spread around, isn't it?
Let's get on with the games played review! In a gaming retrospective, these 97 games were distributed over a variety of rules and periods. I take a look at each area individually.
Rules
2024 saw 14 different rulesets in use. The number of rulesets to hit the gaming table jumped to 17 different rulesets. In the graphic below, note that ten of these rules are first time playing for me. That is quite a lot of new rules to encounter. The core rules that I use for remote games continue as in previous years with Basic Impetvs and Fields of Honor seeing repeated action. Although seeing repeated action at the gaming table, these two rulesets witnessed a marked drop off in play throughout 2025. Perhaps these rules will see more action in 2026? As mentioned above, Commands & Colors (including CC Hoth) saw heavy rotation. Sliding into second place is my Work in Progress WotR rules, Blood 'n Roses. Expect to see more activity here in 2026 as more battles are brought to the table for testing. The table below shows Counts of Games Played by Ruleset in 2025 for details.
Wargaming Period
What if these total games played are broken out by wargaming period? What were the popular periods in 2025?
Memorable Moments
2025 continued the trend of my hosted games refighting a particular historical battle multiple times. Below is a listing of some of those memorable games. I expect this trend to continue into 2026. I wonder which battle will be first out of the gates in 2026?
Battle of Agnadello: Great Italian Wars - 2 games.
Battle of Solden Hill: Wars of the Roses - 3 games.
Battle of Mortimer's Cross: Wars of the Roses - 4 games.
Battle of Zallaqah: Spanish Reconquista - 4 games.
Of course, every game has memorable moments but with repeated playings, one gains a deeper understanding of the battle, its likely direction, crucial decision points, and possible outcomes. I always learn a lot from these repeated outings with respect to rules, scenario design, and scenario development. Thanks to all who played in one of these games. I always enjoy your willingness to join into a game.
If you participated in any of these battles or simply read some of the battle reports, which game or games stand out to you?
The next time I return to the yearly review, I dive into the Painting Log and see what 2025 held.
I wish I could get close to 100 games in a year. You do seem to have the balance between Face to face and remote gaming, probably boosts the number of games you can take part in. For games, I enjoyed Mortimers Cross as it was part of your rules development
ReplyDeleteF2F games with CCA being the most dominant can crank up the game count. Glad you enjoyed the Mortimer's Cross refights!
DeleteThat's an impressive number of games Jonathan! While I enjoyed all your game series I think I enjoyed your Italian Wars the most so would like to see more of that.
ReplyDeleteMore Italian Wars...got it! I have many new battles to fight.
DeleteFantastic effort to play all those games and then to post AAR's Jonathan.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I have a favourite but the games with the repeated plays are great to read as different players use different strategies.
Thanks, Ben! You nailed one of the reasons why these refights are so interesting. That is, players bring something different to each repeated trial.
DeleteHappy New Year! While WotR was third in number of periods played. I think it was the standout as you refined your rules for this period.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Peter, and thank you for so many enjoyable games in 2025!
DeleteVery impressive totals Jon, a good year I would say, as for favourite battles, being and 18th fan it had to be Quistello, 3 good and interesting games and some lovely figures on the table, It was nice to see a WAS game as well as opposed to SYW. Looking forward to the next part of your review.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the Quistello games very much too. The battle provided unique challenges to both armies.
DeleteA busy year indeed Jon and some splendid & memorable games played. I don’t get to play Command and colours enough as I enjoy the system. Here’s to a happy and productive New Year 👍
ReplyDeleteThank you, Matt! CC is a terrific system that I can get even non-hardcore wargamers to play. Sure happy that we got our remote gaming series back on track in the latter part of 2025.
DeleteI enjoyed reading through your review. What tidbit that interested me is that you used 17 different rulesets, I used 14 and we don't have a single one in common! There are a lot of rules out there.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you and all who meet here.
Stephen
Thank you, Stephen! It might seem odd that between our combined 31 rulesets there was no overlap but many of mine were “home brew” or non-commercial systems. Happy New Year to you!
DeleteA very productive and interesting year across all fronts there Jonathan, long may it continue through 2026. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteLong may this experiment continue, indeed! Happy New Year!
DeleteAn impressive number of games there Jon and nice to see the rise in the FtF games compared to previous years. Looking at the stats, when playing C&C, you often seem to be able to get 4-6 games in the time that a 'normal' game would take to play, which might be the reason why C&C is way out in front? As for the favourite game of the year sort of thing, anyone of the Italian Wars gets my vote as it were, due to the sheer visual spectacle.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve! I will work bringing an Italian Wars game back to the table. Yes, F2F saw an upturn in 2025. First games of 2026 will likely see a battery of F2F CCA games next week. True, we can get in three to four and even sometimes more CCA games in the same duration session as a normal game.
DeleteThat is an impressive game total, and I admire your record keeping. My only record is what I put on the blog. As you say CnC is a good way to boost the stats, in my case I suspect the total would be boosted by lots of Dominion of the Spear or related games.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Martin! Record keeping is easy since I list all games played under the Scheduled Games header tab. Then, I simply export the text file and perform a bit of data wrangling and analysis. Yes, CCA like DotS can help increase game stats.
DeleteI know you are separating out the game and paint stats, but those things taken together (i.e. with 97 games played and high painting numbers), 2025 has been a fantastic year for you.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed your wars of the Roses troops ….. though an early return of biblicals would be would be very easy on the eye :-). Best wish
Doh - ‘sausage fingers on the send button!’ - the last sentence is obviously Best wishes for 2026.
DeleteThanks, Norm! Productivity on both gaming and painting fronts was satisfying in 2025. Can 2026 keep it up? I guess we will see in a year’s time. More Biblicals and WotR, noted!
Deletehmm. i thought a clever reply to your outline of the year of gaming had been made earlier tonight. I must not have sent send. you will have to suffer me the short version, a post here means a good read and a friendly conversation about games, gamers playing in groups and singly. a dollop of techno wizardry on battle reports and some really nice panting of smaller scale armies.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year
PS
more 7YW and FPW ,please.
Your perseverance appreciated, Joe! Some of my most insightful and clever comments have been lost through error. Your second attempt is a good one still! I have a couple of SYW scenarios sketched out so that is possible in the New Year. FPW now a possibility too. Happy New Year!
DeleteAn impressive number of games Jonathan!
ReplyDeleteNeil
Thanks! Would enjoy seeing you at the table, one day, Neil!
DeleteWow. Those are some very enviable numbers you've detailed, Jon. My favourite of your games has to be all the head to head encounters we've had. They were all just the greatest fun and always left me buzzing regardless of result.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Richard! We had some great head-to-head matchups, didn't we? Always great fun to face you across the table. We will carry on into 2026!
DeleteBloody hell nearly 100 games! Doubt I got up to 20 last year!
ReplyDeleteHad some great online games, think my favourite was Quistello.
We did have some great games! Quistello was a good one! Buckle up for more games in 2026.
DeleteIt was a fun year's gaming, Jon!
ReplyDeleteSure was! I really enjoy playing CCA with your 28mm armies.
DeleteA spectacular effort Jonathan. The thing that stands out for me is the spread across periods, even if heavily weighted toward Ancients. I'm still waiting for C&C to come back into print and am kicking myself I didn't purchase more of it when I had the chance.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Many of the CCA modules are reprinted on a regular basis. The base game may be on its 7th printing. I see them regularly on eBay too.
DeleteTerribly impressive number of games, combined we make it to 100,as I managed four games! Agnadello gets my vote, Im considering a big pivot back to the Italian wars this year, so less Napoleonics!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Agnadello is a good pick! I enjoyed that one a lot too. I ought to bring those armies back out for a new battle. I have some new units moving through the painting queue for motivation.
Delete97 is a great total. You ran some memorable games too. Quistello was probably my favourite as a participant (though it's hard to choose).
ReplyDeleteI thought that Quistello might be high on your list of games if forced to choose. You really drove the Piedmontese from the field with your determined attacks on the left.
DeleteAwesome wrap up of your 2025 gaming year. Your near-100 tally of games played is astounding!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dean!
DeleteHappy New Year, Jon - lets home 2026 is equal to or better than 2025 - which will be a tall order, based on your review. Your gaming goes from strength to strength, and you are keeping up a prodigious output at the painting desk too!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you, Keith! I appreciate your encouraging comments.
DeleteA very impressive total of games, of course. My score might be in single figures, and a good proportion of them were hosted by you! Many thanks for all those - strangely enough the one I think I enjoyed most was Agnadello, partly because I actually managed to be on the winning side. Somehow the ones where my dice-rolling was disasterous and I got thrashed were not quite such fun, can't think why!
ReplyDeleteHappy to help in getting your game count up, David! We enjoyed many a good game regardless if you were the winning side or not. Agandello was a good one, for sure but the others were just as entertaining. Thanks for playing along!
DeleteA diverse and numerous portfolio of gaming there Jon!! I can but dream for now... :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mark! When you have Zoom and other gamers’ toys to play with, the sky is unlimited.
DeleteA lot more games than I got in 2025. You really are living your best life 🤣. My favourite battle with you this year was Quistello 1734, played over two sessions that couldn't have been more different from each other.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lee! Quistello was a good one!
DeleteIt being the only game I played, I thoroughly enjoyed Mortimer's Cross, and your rules.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Vol! Another WotR battle is on table now ready for when I return to a game.
Delete