I know that you are all now seeing this type of post on your feeds and I know that they can be quite annoying! But, I want to continue to do this as I have fun doing it, and also like to somewhat try to plan out the year and then hold myself accountable. So brace yourselves for The Players’ Aid New Year’s Gaming Resolutions for 2025!

With that being said, New Year’s Resolution is a phrase that I am not sure we all truly understand….or maybe, we do but are just bad at keeping them. We resolve to change our lives, do something better, more often, when the calendar turns and time moves on to a new period of 365 days that we refer to as a year. But we very rarely follow through with that resolution for long. The definition of the word resolve is to “decide firmly on a course of action” or “firm determination to do something”. Keeping these resolutions for less than 30 days is hardly resolved or a firm determination. I think that we should change our use of the words resolution or resolve to wish or desire…but desire may be too strong a word as well.

Well, no matter what your thoughts are on the practice of making and keeping New Year’s Resolutions, we all make them, try futilely to keep them diligently and ultimately fail and give up due to many reasons. So, I decided that again this year I was going to create a list of personal resolutions as well as blog related resolutions. I won’t bore you with my personal NYR’s as they are just that…personal. But I will share with you my goals for the year with gaming and our little blog and YouTube Channel.

You see, when we started this endeavor in April 2016 (almost 9 whole years ago!), I don’t know that either of us knew how our blog/YouTube Channel would be received or what progress we would ultimately make…if we ever made any progress to speak of at all! I think that we thought if we got a couple hundred views per day that would be great or if we had 30 visitors per day or if we happened to make anyone smile, or laugh or think about a game in a different way. But our little venture has grown and we are now having to decide what we really want to become…you know, when we finally grow up. With that being said, I have created some blog/YouTube Channel centric resolutions, a few gaming resolutions and of course several off the wall, oddball, humorous ones! I am going to present my new ones but if they are related to last year’s resolutions then I will start those off with how well…or not so well we did as the case may be.

Complete 70 New Designer Interviews on the Blog

Our staple post on the blog is the Monday Designer Interview where I send out a list of questions for a designer to fill out and send back to me to then post on the blog about their upcoming or most recent design. I want to say to all those designers who have done one of these with us over the past 9 years that we are truly grateful for their time and effort! I know that everyone is busy and that no one wants homework assigned to them. But, when someone agrees to one of these and then follows through with some fantastic insight into the game’s design, it just warms the cockles of my heart and I know that our readers enjoy them as most of the posts garner several hundred views over the first few days of being posted and then usually over a 1,000+ in the next 4-6 months. They really are an anchor to what we do here on the blog and I not only enjoy doing them but find that it offers lesser known games and designers an opportunity to get some exposure. Since the blog started in April 2016, we have posted 521 of these Designer Interviews, which is an average of 58 per year!

In 2024, the blog hosted a total of 70 written Designer Interviews, with an additional 7 video interviews from WBC and SDHistCon last year. That means that sometimes I do multiple interviews per week and I would say that when this is the case it is because we are covering a game coming up on Kickstarter or Gamefound and we have released that interview on launch day, which might fall on a day other than a Monday. In this post last January, I set a goal of doing 60 of these and I blew that out of the water. I am going to try my best to match that output in 2025 and have set a lofty goal of doing 70 of these again. Am I crazy? Maybe, but I think that I can do it. I just need to buckle down and get er done!

Here is a list of our Top 5 performing interviews in 2024:

Fabrizio Vianello – The Fate of All: Alexander’s Campaign Against the Persian Empire from Thin Red Line Games – this interivew had a ton of views with 2,437 and Fabrizio is one of my favorite people to interview as he has a keen ability to speak effortlessly in the jargon of the subject.

Mark Simonitch and Arthur Dieterly – North Africa ’40: The 1940 Expansion to North Africa ’41 from GMT Games – this interview had 1,875 views and is one of my favorite interviews I have done because we got some Mark Simonitch, a seasoned and very prolific designer, along with comments from a newcomer in Aurther Dieterly.

Carl Paradis – Battle Commander Volume I: Napoleon’s Italian Campaigns from Sound of Drum Games – this interview had 1,647 views because Carl Paradis is just a stud!

Sam London – Firefight Tactical from GMT Games – this interview had 1,455 views and that is very good for a 1st time designer and a dice placement type wargame.

Volko Ruhnke – Hunt for Blackbeard from Fort Circle Games – this interview had 1,361 views and is such a very interesting subject and take on the history. This one is very much on my anticipated game list.

If you are interested in learning a bit more about this Designer Interview process and methodology, I wrote a pretty in-depth look at it and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/11/10/the-art-of-the-designer-interview-a-look-at-the-process/

Also, if you wish you can go to the Categories drop down menu section of the blog on the right side and select Designer Interviews to have a list of all of the posts we have with that tag.

Play 50 New Release Wargames

50 new release wargames is a very ambitious goal! Typically, in any given year, we play between 35-45 new wargames. Some are large hex and counter affairs, some are solitaire games while others are shorter Card Driven Games, so they are not all the same and I know that we can get this done! This means we will have to play nearly 1 new game per week but I think that we can get it done. We just need to put our minds to it and continue to carve out time.

I set this same goal in 2024 and came in a bit under the target number with 45 new games (29 new wargames and 16 solitaire wargames). I was a bit disappointed with that output but one of the reasons for this was that we had the new Shelf of Shame Dustoff! Event that took up a bit of our time and we also played Dune: War for Arrakis from CMON Games a bunch in January and February.

To date, we have not yet received any new release 2025 wargames but we have a few on the way and are really looking forward to another great year of games.

Play 10 Games from our Shelves of Shame – Shelf of Shame Dustoff! Event

We started this event in 2024, and I really was excited about it as we both have so many great games that sit unplayed on our shelves. We set a goal of playing 1 per month in 2024 or 12 games and had a fantastic list chosen which included the following:

January – Ardennes ‘44 from GMT Games (played)

February – Baptism by Fire from Multi-Man Publishing (played)

March – Dien Bien Phu from Legion Wargames (played)

April – A Victory Lost from Multi-Man Publishing

May – Brazen Chariots from Multi-Man Publishing (played)

June – Normandy ‘44 from GMT Games (played)

July – Day of Days from Multi-Man Publishing

August – Almost a Miracle! from Against the Odds Magazine (played)

September – War and Peace from One Small Step

October – The Fall of the Third Reich from Compass games

November – Crusade & Revolution from Compass Games

December – Next War: Poland A Time for Trumpets from GMT Games (played)

After all was said and done, we only got 7 of 12 of these games played (that’s 58.3% for those counting) and ended up actually switching out one in December for another game (changed out A Time for Trumpets from GMT Games and played Next War: Poland from GMT Games instead). I know that is an F but we did our best and have a great time doing it. All in all we had a great first attempt at this challenge.

We plan to do this again in 2025 and we have already identified 10 different titles from our personal shelves. We decided that 12 was 2 too many and shrunk this back to 11 and feel a bit more confident in our ability to see this through. Here is the list for 2025:

Kingdom of Heaven: The Crusader States 1097-1291 from Multi-Man Publishing

War for America: The American Revolution, 1775-1782 from Compass Games

Smolensk: Barbarossa Derailed from Multi-Man Publishing

1776: The Game of the American Revolutionary War from Avalon Hill

Last Blitzkrieg: Wacht am Rhein, The Battle of the Bulge from Multi-Man Publishing

Next War: Vietnam from GMT Games

Axis Empires: Ultimate Edition from Decision Games

Ligny 1815: Last Eagles from Hexasim

Red Storm: The Air War Over Central Germany, 1987 from GMT Games

Combat! Volume 1 from Compass Games (while this is a solitaire game, we are planning to play it together)

The U.S. Civil War from GMT Games

*Keep in mind that this list is not yet finalized and may be subject to change, including the elimination or addition of games to the list. We reserve the right to pivot throughout the year based on our schedules, availability and changing of our minds.

Attend Lots of Great Conventions

I already shared this part in my 2024 Retrospective post last week, but we have big plans for 2025 and attendance at gaming conventions. The following is our plan for the year:

BasementCON – March 13-16th – St. Louis, Missouri – Attending our friends BasementCON again in St. Louis in March and hope to play several big games including Virgin Queen for the 3rd time and possibly War Room from Nightingale Games as well as some other large games.

Buckeye Game Fest – May 1-4th – Columbus, Ohio – This is a staple in our convention schedule and we look forward to playing some games, running some events, including sessions of Nations & Cannons RPG from Flagbearer Games, the COIN Series, Successors 4th Edition from PHALANX, probably Here I Stand from GMT Games and some other larger multi-player wargames.

World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) – July 30 – August 3rd – Seven Springs, Pennsylvania – We are planning to attend again this year probably late Wednesday night through Sunday morning so it will be a bit abbreviated from years past. Have no concrete plans as of yet but it will probably involve 8-10 videos, several games (probably including a rematch with Mark Miklos with one of the BoAR Series titles) and meet ups with publishers to discuss upcoming games.

SPIEL Essen – October 23-26th – Essen, Germany – This is the one that we have wanted to attend for a long time but just have not had the opportunity (nor the cash). But this year we are going to make it work and plan to travel to Europe a few days early to get to tour places like Normandy, Waterloo, Holland and maybe some other sites. We have yet to finalize anything but are really excited to give this one a shot. We would also love to meet many of you at the convention and say hello. This one is going to be one to remember!

There might end up being others that we add but our slate is pretty full with these conventions and we hope to see many of you there! I have considered trying to attend Circle DC in late March but am afraid it will conflict with my family’s spring break trip to Florida (with Alexander and his family!). I also keep threatening to make the 2 1/2 hour drive over to Columbus, Ohio in June to got to a few days of Origins but June is always so busy for me at work.

Read 10 Books

I know that many of you read 10 books a quarter but I am just too busy to commit to much more than 10 next year. With my children at home, who are very busy with school and church activities, a very busy job and trying to keep up with this blog and YouTube thing, that is what I can do. I was able to read only 4 books in 2024, which is a few more than I had read in any year the past few years.

If you also didn’t know, we have this ongoing series on the YouTube Channel from From Cover to Cover where we read a book and then do a video about it discussing a few wargames on the subject as well. In fact, in 2024 I did 2 such videos, one covering War Along the Wabash: The Ohio Indian Confederacy’s Destruction of the US Army, 1791 from Casemate Publishers and another on The Longest Winter The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II’s Most Decorated Platoon from Da Capo Press, which has not yet found its way to the Channel.

If you are interested, you can check out the video on War Along the Wabash at the following link:

But, I have had a new resurgence in my desire to read and wargaming is one of those catalysts for this goal. As we play a great game on an interesting subject, I just can’t help but to find a good book on said subject and buy it….typically only to have it gather dust on my shelves! But in 2025, that is going to change! I am going to try to read the following 8 books that I currently own and then will acquire a few new ones to read as I am moved:

The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America from Oxford University Press

Operation Biting: The 1942 Parachute Assault to Capture Hitler’s Radar from HarperCollins

An Insider’s Account of the Plot to Kill Hitler, 1933-1944 from DaCapo Press

Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation from Knopf

Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion That Opened the West from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

History of the Second World War from Konecky & Konecky

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West from Simon & Schuster

D-Day – June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II from Simon & Schuster

I have so many other books that I could read but these are the ones that I have either recently purchased or that have piqued my interest. Wish me luck and let me know what books you are reading right now.

Don’t Buy Anymore Games Until Every Game is Played in My Collection

This is not a real resolution! At lease not for me. I have to buy new games just like I have to breath air. If I didn’t have something to look forward to or to motivate me, I would never get anything done in this hobby. There are just so many great looking games coming out each month that it would be impossible to not acquire some of them. At least with Alexander, he can get some of them and I can get some so that I am not buying all of them. I will modify this one to say only 12 new game purchases in 2025. That would be just one per month and I can handle that. Now of course, there will also be the publisher provided for no cost (nothing is free as we have to do a play and review) but that can supplement my need to buy in some ways. Wish me luck on this one! But I assure you that this one is not reachable.

Attend at Least 1 On-Line Convention

Believe it or not, I have never attended an On-Line Wargame Convention. There are several to choose from, including SDHistCon in the winter and fall as well as The Armchair Dragoon Assembly every year. I will plan to attend at least one of these On-Line Conventions this year. Maybe even as early as February’s SDHistCon Winter 2025. Hope to see some of you there.

Clip and Organize 20 Games and Ready Them for Play

I always say that you cannot play a game until that game has its counters punched, clipped and organized. Those really are the first steps for me and I just cannot bring myself to play a large hex and counter wargame without becoming intimately involved in the game by punching, clipping and organizing. I have at least 20 games on my shelves that are in a state of non-readiness and I have to get them ready or we cannot play them. This is a good goal and is probably a little low as I usually clip 2-3 games per month but recently, and with my other more lofty resolutions such as reading more, I will have to work to get this one accomplished.

If you want to hear a bit more about my Love/Hate Relationships with counter clipping, you can read the following on the blog: https://theplayersaid.com/2024/04/05/the-love-hate-relationship-counter-clipping/

I hope that you have enjoyed my attempt at both a humorous and a serious outline of my gaming/blog/YouTube resolutions for 2024. I appreciate all of you who read the blog and watch our videos, the many publishers that have worked with us, the great designers who have provided us information for interviews and most importantly, my good friend Alexander! Here is to a great 2025 filled with gaming.

-Grant