Time for the annual round-up!

Overall, it’s been a good year for playing games and not such a good year for painting figures.

Gaming

Another record-breaking year, with 78 games played, six more than last year’s previous record total.

By far the most games have been Ancients/Medieval at 61 games, followed by Pike & Shot on ten games, and then a smattering of WW2 (4), Napoleonic (2) and 19th Century (1).

A Magnificent Table for the “Storming the Starmerskaya” Game At This Year’s Operation Market Larden Games Day

As with last year, one of the reasons for the huge number of games played was playing on the To The Strongest tournament circuit - about half the Ancients/Medievals games played were in tournaments - and it tended to be at shows that I played other periods.

Sharp Practice

For King & Parliament Eastern Front Variant

One of my resolutions for 2026 will be to play more games from other periods.

Tournaments

I played in eight of the nine “official” To The Strongest tournaments in 2025: all great fun and the usual mixed bag of results.

The only result I was unhappy with was the 19th position at the World’s in February, but my poor Romans had an absolute ‘mare: losing five Legionary units in one turn against the Dacians; and then being up ten coins against the Persians and then suddenly collapsing!

Where have all the Romans gone?

At this point, the Romans were winning easily...

Obviously I was very happy to retain my title at Britcon for the second year in a row: it was hard fought tournament that, after four games, all came down to the fifth and final clash.

Facing the Hoplites in the final, deciding battle at Britcon

Many thanks to all the organisers and my various opponents: all the games I had were played in the very best of spirits, with none of the unpleasantness I’ve sometimes seen at other events. I do remember laughing a lot when playing, always a good sign.

My thanks also to all my opponents throughout the year. Just looking through the AARs has made me realise again how much I enjoyed all the competitions I entered this year, and I would highly recommend the To The Strongest competition circuit to those who fancy a bit of “competitive gaming without numpties”.

Painting

2025 was not a good year for painting: only the second time I have scored under 1,000 points since the Challenge began.

Nearly all my painting time was taken up with creating the various Arabic armies of medieaval times: from the Arab Conquest to Ayyubids to Fanatical Berbers. The vast majority of the figures used were 3D prints from Red Copper and 3D Breed: beautiful figures that paint up really well. Overall I painted 618 Arabic infantry, 122 mounted troops and three camps.

Other than the Arabs, all I painted was a smattering of troops to bulk up existing armies: a few Hittites, some Polish/Lithuanian types and even some more Venetians.

New Year’s resolution number two is to do more painting in 2026.

Shows

A light showing on the show front in 2025, and even those were mostly connected to tournament play. I missed out on Salute and both Partisan shows, but did manage Roll Call, Overlord, Warfare, Colours and Vanquish.

All the shows I went to had an incredibly high standard of demonstration games that really motivated me in a year when I was very busy with work and other real life issues.

Lust for Glory playtested at Colours

Amazing WW2 table at Warfare

Dare I say the highlight of my day at Colours!

The Competition area at Warfare

I think NYR #3 must therefore be to do more shows in 2026.

Summary

So that was 2025: a good year for games (the best ever so far) but a bit light on the other aspects of wargaming.

Thanks for your continued support to Vis Lardica - over 100 posts in 2026 - and a special thanks to those who have Bought Me A Coffee of two: very much appreciated and you can be sure the money went on more wargaming kit!

I’m very much looking forward to 2026, and hope to see you on the other side of a tabletop sometime in the next twelve months!

All the best

R