How many games have I played?

I started my Saturday Afternoon Wargames (penultimate Saturday of each month at Stately Crawley Manor) because I realised I was spending a lot of time on preparation for wargames (modelling and painting) and relatively little on actually playing.

Of late, this train of thought has taken a branch line: which rules do I actually play and which are really just useless padding? I thought I’d try and work out how many games I’ve played over the thirty-something years I’ve been messing about with toy soldiers. After much cogitation (and a little creative blank-filling for some of the older stuff) I came up with this list:

Hordes of the Things, played over 130 games

Arc of Fire, played 20

Tac: WW2, 12

Cold War Commander, 8

Rapid Fire!, 7

Flight Leader, 6

Squad Leader, 6

Challenger, 6

Firefly, 5

My own Wars of the Roses skirmish rules, 5

Air Force/Dauntless, 4

Sixth Fleet et al., 4

DBA, 4

The Fire and the Rose, 4

Air War, 3

WRG 1950-85, 3

Airfix Guide WW2, 3

WRG Ancients, 3

Spearhead, 2

Square Bashing, 2

The Sword and The Flame, 2

Corps Commander, 2

Hell in Microcosm, 2

Dirtside II, 2

Disposable Heroes, 2

Hell By Daylight, 2

Future War Commander, 2

Shock of Impact, 1

Striker, 1

Megablitz, 1

Ancient Principles of War, 1

19th Century Principles of War, 1

Polemos GNW, 1

Volley & Bayonet, 1

Warhammer, 1

Bayonet Point, 1

Fox Two, 1

Dragon Pass, 1

Fistful of TOWs, 1

WRG 1685-1845, 1

General Quarters, 1

Plus various one-offs with a fine selection of home-made rules. I’ve probably missed a few - I vaguely recall some computer-moderated Napoleonic naval rules and a mid 19th century set that used cardboard counters instead of figures.

The first thing that strikes me is how few games I’ve actually played a large number of times. It looks like just over half of all the wargames I’ve played have been Hordes of the Things!

I say “played” but I should add that a lot of the time my wargaming takes the form of setting up and refereeing games. If you were to restrict me to games I’ve actually played in, HOTT would probably be closer to 90%.

The next thing that this exercise has flagged up is the “acquired but never played list”:

WRG Renaissance

Renaissance Principles of War

DBR (sensing theme here?)

Crossfire

Hell and Uncivil Disorder

Hell and Fateful Decisions

Armati

Mr Lincoln’s War

AK47 Republic

Les Gens Braves

Tactical Commander

Six Gun Sound

DBM

DBMM

FEBA

They Died For Glory

Perfidious Albion

Blitzkrieg Commander

Chaingun, and finally...

... the almost unplayable WRG 1950-2000.

It’s scary how much work I’ve put into some of these games in the past!

Finally, some good news is the high position for Cold War Commander. It’s only relatively recently that I started playing this game but it’s already in the top four. It seems the Saturday Afternoon Wargames are having an impact!