What did I watch/read/play? No particular order, as usual. Not a definite list, but whatever comes tom mind because it stuck there over the year. Go time.
TV Shows & Movies
Arcane was good. I re-watched season 1 with my son and then we watched season 2 together. As I've mentioned on this blog, it's a political show but a good one - and the visual style is impeccable (and, appearently, very expensive to make).
Squid Games as a cultural phenomenon has entered the phase where it can't go anywhere without besmirching its legacy. We even watched the reality TV show that Netflix made (in the same sets as the fictional programme?) as a family. My wife remarked that a format like that only works in a place with little to no social security because it heightens the tensions and drama when everyone is all-in. All in all it got me somewhat jaded.
K-Pop Demon Hunters sucked. There, I said it. It's just another Netflix action piece that posits a moral question in the first half and then just forgets about it because fuck it, violence is fun. And only romantic interests deserve an attempt at rescue. Whoever churns out these scripts must have sociopathic tendencies.
Books
It was a good year of reading for me, especially with regards to the output that my book-club had. I can only recommend everyone form a book club with some friends, it's a great thing to do. What really stood out:
Rogue Male may be a staple read for men in the Anglosphere, it's virtually unknown here in Germany. Fucking awesome book though. The hero being a posh Mac Guyver type fighting Nazis and yet being an incredibly decent human being throughout. Loved every page of it.
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow was a re-read I dreaded a little because I had previously read it in my early twenties and was afraid I'd dislike it now. That fear was unfounded - it's still one of my favourite books of all time. Main character is amazing and I have a thing for her type of woman I can't fully explain.
The Lord of the Rings is still awesome. Re-read it with my son. You still discover new details and things about it. Tolkien was a man whose heart was in the right place, if you pay attention to the real hero of the story (Samwise, of course).
Video Games
Boy did I have something big in the end of the year. Before that it was the usual mix of my comfort foods: Streets of Rogue, FTL, Into the Breach. Got back into Crossout for a bit, killing Russian bots and being killed by Russian players with premium paid-rigs.
Then I went and installed Blue Prince. It might be the best video game I've ever played. I now understand why our fathers played Myst and this might be a hyper-evolved version of that type of game. It's got the replayability of a roguelike with the emphasis on exactly the aspect of that genre I love: Exploration. It has old-world cozy-wealth environments of the kind I love and mechanical riddles that feel haptical and all sorts of clues that make you feel so clever when you figured them out (especially when there are multiple ways of solving something). And then there is the ever-deepening lore behind it. I'm now in hour 50 of playing it and the end isn't close. If there is one.
Board Games
Played mostly family games with my family. Classics. Goose Game. Ladders. Chess (won our family-internal tournament, to my own surprise).
Crafting
Did a lot of tabletop-crafting this year. Made a rat-ogre-cyborg for One Page Rules. Made mechs and monstrosities for MAC Attack. It's fun and I'm happy to be able to make entire fighting forces from scratch without spending more than a few Euros for FIMO and glue.
Podcasts and Music
I still listen to Role Playing Public Radio and Bad Books for Bad People. I also discovered Librivox as a source of free audiobooks. When it comes to music I heard a lot of Lost Souls and saw Nanowar of Steel live.
The Rest
No Idea what else to review here. The year kind of blasted past me. Here's to 2026, I guess.
People who know me know that I like to do hobby stuff on the cheap and that I like to craft things. When my friend Niels gifted me MAC Attack for my birthday, it hit that very sweet spot only a low-mini-count tabletop game made for making your own miniatures can hit. And mechs (MACs) are easier to make than soldiers or even wheeled vehicles (in my opinion). So as my final post for 2025 I shall show to you the force I'm working on:
You're looking at 55 points of horrible alien monsters. As it stands, this is not a legal force to play. There are only two MACs finished (the big creatures) and the game requires at least three. Also, there is currently three formations of auxiliary units (regular army-stuff that isn't a huge MAC) and you can only have as many of these as you have MACs. I will make two or three more MACs in order to make it a 100 points force and then we shall see what it can do.
In the back row to the left you have the Hatchetbug. It's a class 1 MAC that is optimized for jumping at the enemy and attacking with scythes. The phases of the game turn mean that it will often have no chance of actually attacking an enemy as they may move away before the attack phase - but the trick is in the other MAC in the back, the Range Spitter. That one is an artillery unit, supported by younger versions of itself which are auxiliary units which are also artillery. The Hatchetbug will provide target coordinates and these guys will rain hell from afar.
The two beetles in the front right are Carrier Beetles, heavily armored auxiliary units that can transport infantry. That comes in the shape of four squads of Leeches, which have close combat weaponry and hooks. I believe that once these hook onto an enemy MAC, they will deal damage every turn and they could also fight enemy infantry if they get in range.
The other MACs will need to be more focused on the medium range. Maybe some kind of armored slug that sprays fire and armour piercing spines or something keeping with the theme.
Not painted: My first MACs, my growing human force:
Much more mecha-conventional. I will show more of those once they're all made up to look as good as my aliens.
With that I shall be back in January with some yearly reviews.
No, this isn't about the political situation in the USA because, let's face it, I have other problems. I just finished watching the excellent Arcane with my older son. And besides all the themes on family, love, loyalty and all that jazz I noticed that the second season towards the end pivots into three sides battling for the future of Piltover and mankind (including all those other races shown on screen, I assume) in general. You have the scrappy alliance of Piltover and Zhaun representing freedom (more or less). You have Viktor and his posthumanism. And then you have the fascist menace: Might makes right, strength is all that matters, also our goons wear masks to you don't see them as people but as a highly trained and unified fighting force. Which is probably what they see themselves as, the way they act.
It is a good story, with an immense amount of details and emotional depth. It doesn't hammer its points home. And that is probably what makes it effective. It never mentions fascism. It just shows thing being done. Has characters explain what they do. And you feel it's wrong.
I believe that is where antifascist media that don't come from _the left_ succeed. Of course, in a polarized society, there are those who will call anyone left of them radical and anyone right of them fascists. I'm not talking about online-shouty-people. I'm talking about the silent majority, the actual mid of society.
Coming from a farely left-leaning family I always felt that authors from the very left make for very bad storytellers, at least when and if they try to push an agenda. China Mieville may be the exception to the rule – although he doesn't really push an agenda so I don't know if he counts.
Good antifascism comes from the middle of society. Why? Because that's who you need in order to defeat fascism. You can have your crew of scrappy activists but if you speak that language of discourse, you're already losing the middle. What is good antifascist literature? One that respects what the middle has to loose. Three examples:
Krabat by Ottfried Preußler - a book taking place sometime in the 17th century, long before fascism was even invented. But it was written by that author as a way to deal with his own youth in Nazi-Germany. It's about the temptation of the easy way to power by evil means. And that love can and will conquer hate if given the chance. Excellent YA book.
Harry Potter - Rowling is by now a hated figure among a lot of people and I won't go into that debate here. The Harry Potter series is, however, starkly anti-fascist. The evil wizards always want to rule over those they deem inferior. You have bureaucrats who will gleefully support their cause once they gain power. It's these people who made fascism in Germany possible. Umbridge is the small public servant who uses a new system for evil and is probably more despicable than Voldemort ever was.
Lord of the Rings - while a lot of nerds kind of misread the text (yeah, the author has some racist ideas. Doesn't mean he was one of your kind), this epic has exactly three important messages to tell: Fascism is bad. Environmental destruction is bad. Friendship is the best damn thing we have to face horrible circumstances that fate and the times we live in may drop us in.
I would put Arcane in that list. Yeah you can go all-realistic, show the horrors of, say, Nazi-Germany. But that makes it very concrete and easy to mentally avoid. "That's Germany. In the 1930s. Not my place and time." If it's about teaching values that go beyond specific locales, I think fairytales and fantasy stories may be the better choice. And don't hammer the point home. Subtext is, after all, not just for cowards.
So, I went, this time with my books and my standup banner and all that jazz. Took my place in a row of actual authors and really enjoyed these two days. My kids went about, playing table top strategy games against whoever and I told people about my book series and sold all ten collections of stories I had brought. Could probably have sold twice that but I hadn't had a clue how much would have been realistic and also I was above budget for this whole thing anyways. So I can say that it went great.
It's interesting to see how other authors do things. All of us had "real" jobs. Conventions are the place to sell books. Online is dead unless you really like playing the social media game. Community was really nice. Christian Günther borrowed me a table cloth right when I showed up and without it, my table would have looked like crap. Laurence Horn (and his son) and Finja Stoldt (with her brother) were my direct neighbours – and rather nice as such. I was in good company. Even did a little reading session in a literature jam. Five minutes is a really tight timeframe and I was somewhat nervous and a little too fast but I think people liked what they heard.
I'll be hitting more conventions like this in the future. Let's at least make this hobby pay for itself.
So, this year I'm in an exhibiting role at NordCon again. I've ran BrikWars-battles in the past. I've presented my board game. This time it's a bit more serious: I'll be promoting my series of pulp novelettes. And, yesterday, I was asked to be on stage for the literature jam in the evening as well. Which is today.
It would be an understatement to say that I'm a bit nervous. I originally didn't intend to publish Jon Danger. Then I had an interstitial phase where I expected to do so unter a pseudonym. You know because of how much of yourself you lay bare when writing. And the sex stuff. Oh well. Too late for that and the German law makes it hard to legally self-publish under what isn't your own name. At least the website has to have my actual name (and adress) on it, after all.
Wish me luck, whoever you are reading this. I've never read anything of my own stuff on an actual stage. I shall talk about it all in a later post (and also about what my kids were up to at the convention).
Lately, my son and I have been having table top strategy battles of different flavours. We used mostly One Page Rules (Grimdark Future FTL Warfleets and Grimdark Future Firefights) and some Brikwars (Quickwars-Rules with some house rules attached). I'm not sure where the sweet spot is but as somoene who has been burned by Games Workshops as a teen, I really like systems where you do not need a massive army of minis to fight cool battles on the table.
Like I stated before, anyone can make space ships for Grimdark Future FTL Warfleets from scratch. When it comes to infantry in something like Grimdark Future Firefights, I can't make those myself but one investment into, say, a WH40K Tau scout squad, will set you up with all you need for less than 40 Euros. That's what my son did last week. He could conveivably make two armies of 300 points each out of that set but he only wants to make one anyways.
Anyhow I noticed that there are several very different aspects of the miniature wargaming hobby you can enjoy (or not):
1. Planing your army. Thinking about what to take into battle, what to equip, what their background is. I really like that part.
2. Building your minis.* Some buy whole, some like to craft fine details and customized the crap out of the minis. Others will just take Legos and be done with it.
3. Painting your minis. A distinct step from the one above because people will take stock 40K-Marines and turn them into works of art but eshew any actual crafting in the process. I always disliked painting minis (a lot).
4. Actually playing the game (!). Whether cometitively or just for fun and laughs with friends (different games demand a different level of seriousness, after all). Rolling dice, measuring distances, outwitting your enemy. Like.
*Making a tonk is fun. Playing it is as well. Look at what these two guys (blokes?) are doing with it:
Fuck yeah! The kids and I built several tonks by now. The only downside is the massively printer-unfriendly (but free!) rules doc.
But lets ramble on back to our four kinds of enjoyment of the hobby. I'll go through all table top strategy games I've _ever_ played and rate them on the fun-scale on each four accounts. Also how many units you'll typically field and how much of a money sink they are because yes, that is a big factor.
Warhammer Fantasy Battles (sometime in the late 90s)
1. Planning?
Very fun. Lots of options, a ton of armies to choose from, highly customizable. Liked it.
2. Building?
Medium. You could mod stuff but with metal figures it was hard and also GW didn't like too drastic a change (or god forbid third-party-minis) if you wanted to play tournaments at their stores.
3. Painting?
Lots of painting to be done, that's for sure. For a lot of people this was the main draw of the hobby. I myself didn't like it but that's just me.
4. Actually playing?
Slow and tedious but all together okay. It didn't really help that we all had different states of information and that the chaos players always seemed to be cheating.
5. How many guys?
Lots. My dark elves army had like 100 minis in it and that was a normal-sized army.
6. How much money?
Too much. Fuck you, GW. I spent most of my pocket money on dark elves for several years and then they rebootet them, making my entire army worthless.
Warhammer 40K (sometime in the late 90s)
1. Planning? Pretty much the same as with Warhammer Fantasy.
2. Building?
I think there are more opportunities for customizing in 40k, because there are more weapon-loadouts and more war machines you can modify.
3. Painting?
Same as fantasy.
4. Actually playing?
Didn't play as much 40k as fantasy. I remember that my dark eldar sucked.
5. How many guys?
I think it was fewer models on average than fantasy but it's in the same general area of army-size. Many.
6. How much money?
Too much, I still think.
BrikWars 2001
1. Planning?
Almost too many options. You gotta think up a theme and then stick to it. I loved it, still dream myself into the paracosm I made up as the background of my three different armies in BrikWars.
2. Building?
It's Lego. If you love it, you love it.
3. Painting?
Nope.
4. Actually playing?
Fun but don't expect a balanced experience. Also it can take a while if you have complex vehicles (worst of all: robots and/or super-power-users).
5. How many guys?
As many as you want/have. I think the biggest battle I ever fought had around sixty minifigs on my side but also like two dozen vehicles.
6. How much money?
Lego isn't cheap but if you already have it...
QuikWars / BrikWars Lite
1. Planning?
Much quicker than the original BrikWars but also much less detailed. If you obsess over the difference between a sabre and a warhammer or a revolver and an uzi, this isn't for you.
2. Building?
It's Lego. But you will likely destroy much of it.
3. Painting?
Nope.
4. Actually playing?
Quick and messy. Played this with my kids a few times. It's usually quite the massacre.
5. How many guys?
Easier to handle large numbers of dudes than the original but still, I wouldn't want to have more than a few dozen units on the table.
6. How much money?
Same as BrikWars 2001.
Next Generation Special Force
This one I made myself. It uses Lego Technics dudes and weapons I made mostly from cardboard and warhammer paint. It's for having small squads fight each other.
1. Planning?
Takes a lot of planning. I made the rules myself but it is a complex game.
2. Building?
You gotta make any weapon from scratch. Also all other gear for your Lego Technics-guys.
3. Painting?
Equipment and weaponry not included. Make it.
4. Actually playing?
Very detail-oriented: Kneeling, being prone, sprinting. How many shots to fire in a turn. It's for the people who enjoyed video games like Jagged Alliance.
5. How many guys?
I only have eight figures for this but that seems close to what I can handle anyways. You could conceivably double that but I think more than that and it gets too bogged down with paperwork.
6. How much money?
Don't know. Second hand figures go between 5 and 10 Euros upon my last check. You could build a squad for around 30 Euros.
One Page Rules Grimdark Future Firefight
1. Planning?
Takes a moderate amount of planning. I make little cue-cards for each warrior of a squad.
2. Building?
You can but I'm better at making war machines and that is more for the regular GDF.
3. Painting?
Like the original Warhammer Fantasy and 40k. I don't really like it but my son greatly enjoys it.
4. Actually playing?
Fun! We've played quite a few battles with this system and my son also plays it with his friends. The turn order and the streamlining of attack-dice compared to Gamesworkshops systems is good. Nobody sits around for half an hour while the other player does their turn.
5. How many guys?
Depends on your army, of course, but I've seen between five and twelve minis fielded in a regular 300 points game.
6. How much money?
Even if you buy original Gamesworkshop figures you can get a 300 points squad in a single box. My son got himself a Tau squad with drones and his friend has a pack of tyranids and that's all you need. Also you can use third-party miniatures or even print and play little cardboard standies, which is basically for free.
One Page Rules Grimdark Future FTL Warfleets
1. Planning?
Quite a bit because you'll be customizing each ship you have. In the end you have a fleet sheet with all the info on it and I like it.
2. Building?
If you want, you can very much build everything you need for this game yourself. I myself have made several fleets and so did my kids. It's fun.
3. Painting?
Oh yes. You can and should paint your ships.
4. Actually playing?
It's good. Four turns of intense space battle are fun.
5. How many guys?
Not guys but ships. A fleet will have five to ten ships plus squadrons if you want those. Nothing too taxing.
6. How much money?
None if you make it all yourself. Well you need dice but you get it.
Tonks!
1. Planning?
Not much. Basic tonks are mostly the same. You _can_ do some customization but these are the "advanced" rules.
2. Building?
Fuck yeah! You can (and must!) make your own tonk. If you don't like crafting, you could use a toy or model tank but seriously, it's about TONK. I use wheels from Kinder Überraschung vehicles for turret mechanisms. You can also use bits of soap dispensers or magnets. Have fun making a crazy tank! If you can't do a turret, a Sturmgeschütz will do as well - just have the cannon attached directly to the hull.
3. Painting?
You probably wanna paint your tonk. But its's not a must. Do what you please.
4. Actually playing?
Short, fun, crazy tonk-battles. Very good.
5. How many guys?
The game posits that every player should field only one tonk but you could conceivably go up to three vehicles per player.
6. How much money?
None, if you do it right.
Wasteland Carfare
This is my own home-brew remake of Gaslands. Play the original if you want more in-depth driving mechanics and stuff. I will release this sometime this year (in both English and German).
1. Planning?
You gotta stat those postapocalyptic cars. It takes some planning.
2. Building?
Take toy cars and upgrade them to postapocalyptic war machines. It's a lot of fun and a great way to use surplus parts from other wargames. Or plastic framing. I used plastic frames and parts of food containers to create some vehicles from scratch even.
3. Painting?
Not strictly necessary but if you want, you can make small works of art out of your vehicles.
4. Actually playing?
I love it, my son finds it meh. I guess your mileage varies. A 100-points-battle usually doesn't last longer than half an hour.
5. How many guys?
A 100-points-warband is between three and six vehicles, usually.
6. How much money?
If you already have toy cars, then practically none. If you don't they are dirt-cheap (or search the sand-pit of a playground near you. You're bound to find some that are even pre-aged for more postapocalyptic style).
An unnamed Kaiju game by my son
My son invented a mech-vs-kaiju-game played with legos in a little lego city.
1. Planning?
You gotta stat your mech or kaiju before battle. There are a number of modules/upgrades/skills to pick from. It's quick enough.
2. Building?
Lego it up. If you like it, you like it.
3. Painting?
Nope.
4. Actually playing?
A battle is through in around 15 to 20 minutes. It's fun enough but probably needs more balancing than a 10-year-old is willing to go for.
5. How many guys?
Just two (plus support in the shape of parasites and tanks, if you choose those).
6. How much money?
If you already own Lego, it's free. If not, then not.
An unnamed Star Wars space battle game by my son
Also made by my son. This one is about space battles and involves ship-to-ship boarding actions and lots of shooting.
1. Planning?
You pick your ship classes, you write down what systems they get. It's fairly quick.
2. Building?
Lego.
3. Painting?
Nope.
4. Actually playing?
Space battle lasts anywhere between ten and thirty minutes. It's cool that you can attempt to board enemy vessels and it can even backfire if you lose your crew. That aspect I like most about it.
5. How many guys?
We played with four vs four ships, which was manageable.
So I decided that I need some gaming to relax my mind. Like, really relax it. That got me an idea: What if I take an old favourite of mine, Sir, You Are Being Hunted, and turn it into a walking simulator? No threat. Just the moody, gloomy, but ultimately pretty and relaxing British countryside and the need to eat every once in a while? The game certainly makes that possible, without having to be modded or anything. Here's part two:
The pier of the North Island greets me
in gloomy weather. It's the industrial island, which in this mode is
a paradise for urban explorers. I'm just a hiker though, so I decide
to spend as little time in this gloom as possible.
With my binoculars I spy a church in
the fog. I decide to go there first and check it out.
I get drunk on mess wine found in said
church and enjoy the sunrise.
The next larger structure that lures me
closer with its bulk is an old warehouse, I assume. I decide to see
what's up in there.
Dynamite! Lot's of it. While there are
not enemies to speak of in this world, in real life a bunch of
dynamite in a depopulated area means fun so I pocket as much as I can
sensibly carry.
I arrive at the outskirts of the
industrial town. It still feels like trespassing.
The place is a dump. Literally. I think
I'm climbing over a junkyard to get into town.
I normally like waterside properties. I
wouldn't want to live here though. But that may just be the weather.
I decide to follow a sprite I see. I
don't want to stay on this island forever.
There we go. I don't know what route I
took to get here but there are two telebits in somewhat close
proximity to each other. In a regular game of Sir, this would be
dangerous because you'd have to deal with at least two teams of
hunters at the same time. Here it's a nice convenience.
I see the bog monster and toss a stick
of dynamite at it. No idea if the explosion drove it off because I
overshot by quite a bit. Next time I'll pepper the freaking thing
with lots of explosives. Also I realize that the pier is right here –
I must have walked around most of the island.
In the dark I use the flashlight to
follow another sprite towards the last telebit of the island.
At a factory building I find even more
dynamite. I can't carry any more so I do the sensible thing: I get
utterly wasted on sherry and toss a bunch of dynamite sticks into the
landscape. Blowing stuff up while drunk is the sort of irresponsible
fun one can do when alone in post-apocalyptic Britain.
There's the last telebit. After
restocking my dynamite stores somewhat, I go and get it.
The way back leads me past an ominous
tower. It reminds me of the electric towers at the edges of some
villages I know from middle Germany.
I go through a village with the funny
name of Misty Cheating. Sounds like a porn starlett.
And discover the overgrown ruin of a
factory.
It reminds me of two things: First, an
old factory I urban explored on Rhodos. And then of an old monastery
church somewhere by the Mosel where we pitched our tents and slept
when I was a teenager and we were doing a long-distance tour with the
school's rowing club.
When it gets light again, I reach the
boat. Time to go back to prettier shores.
