This will be the 72nd post this year and as I can’t see anything else getting finished in the next few days I think it’s time for a look back over the year 2025. A year that took me by surprise but ultimately has been deeply satisfying.
Wind back 12 months and I was talking about getting involved with Ivan (Sorensen) and Graham (Davey), had no idea how many minis I painted, but figured I had played just over 30 games in 2024, and I thankfully made no plans for 2025. Wind forward 6 months and in June I was gently trucking along painting 28mm fantasy stuff in the main and fitting in the odd game at the weekend. Weekends that consisted of getting my painting station set up at Friday lunchtime and sadly packing it back up on Sunday ready for another week of trying to nail smoke to a wall and being frustrated by egos bigger than they deserved to be.
Then in July that all changed, and after thinking hard about what was making me happy, and looking at my options, I retired from corporate life (with a few offers of lifelines if I needed them), and set up a permanent painting station and 3x3 table space where I can set up games at will and play when I feel like it, even over a couple of days if I want.
I admit I was worried about how I would fill my time but further thinking about the kind of solo gaming I wanted to do lead me to writing my own game and with that genie out of the bottle Horrendous Gaming became a publisher!
So the following stats really don’t tell the whole story:
The games I have published have taken my own figures and terrain into completely new areas for me of a science fiction space station, a post apocalypse version of the 1970s, the golden age of piracy, and the wild west. Plus there’s a whole fantasy town and its citizens. The minis I did for someone else then expand the scope further (and I really hope that continues).
As well as my five games, you’ll find my name on Guards of Traitors Toll (Grey for Now Games), Musket to Rifle (Nordic Weasel) and Paranoia - 5 Clones from Alpha Complex (Modiphius).
The 44 games encompass all that, plus of course further fantasy games, and even some other stuff playtesting other games than my own that haven’t been published yet.
Phew!
While I have no idea where 2026 will take me, there are things already in progress of course.
My Adventure level series has another Science Fiction set ready to publish and then a very strange idea formed a little while back for a Time Cops/Time Wars thing where the team is sent to battlefields throughout history but when the timeline gets broken can end up somewhere stranger instead. 28mm giving me an excuse to do 20 figs from loads of different periods. The cover art is the picture at the top of the page. If that’s not enough, I'm already building a log of things to add to the first four existing games. Nearly 100 sales so far is enough to make me feel there is an audience for them.
Then there’s the Skirmish level - 28mm Fantasy armies around 60 figs per side, 12 battles to define a story of a Kingdom under siege from four neighbours. It’s been started before with other rules but now I’ve done my own.
The major project though is what I’m calling Big Battle level. Very new to me as this will be 10mm Fantasy, two opposing armies marching on a map and dealing with supply chains and diplomacy with neutrals until their armies meet and fight, lay siege, raid supply trains, etc. I’m really excited about this so expect it to be a major part of 2026.
Meanwhile, I have no idea how many people actually read this, but I’ll keep posting anyway so there!
Anyway, that’s 2025, and I’m truly looking forward to 2026 instead of being all “it’s just another year” like usual. I hope your 2025 was okay, and I wish you the very best for 2026, and I’ll leave you with a shot from today’s game of Guards of Traitor’s Toll.
Be well, Dean
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