Greetings Dash28 fans! Wow, where did the time go? Another year of Dash28 and bringing you slews of Kings of War content. A lot has happened in the past year, events and in-person gaming is back, though it has had a bumpy return. I had to fortune to last minute make it to the US Masters and was able to reconnect with many of my wargaming friends who I hadn’t seen for over a year. Some faces were absent, either because they were unable to make it (sorry Canadian friends), had moved onto other games, or were sadly no longer with us.
As the year progressed, I found myself grateful for the small things gaming has brought into my life. The strong friendships, that lasted despite months or years physically apart. The quiet moments of contemplation and relaxation that painting brings me. And the understated joy of connecting with groups of friends, and just playing games, be it D&D virtually, Ages of Empires 2 on Steam, board games in small meet-ups, or of course Kings of War.
In September I went to my first “normal” GT since the pandemic. The Crossroads GT is a big deal on the East Coast, players from Canada, New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and often even the Midwest and Southeast flock to a small town in the middle of New York State and hang out for the weekend. While the numbers were capped at lower than usual, 50 some players still showed up. There were dozens of amazing new armies (the fruits of labor during isolation) and amazingly about a dozen new faces too! When the dust had settled, shockingly I had won the event, going undefeated, coming in Second in Battle, 4th in Sportsmanship, and 5th in Paint, taking Overall for the weekend!
It was a huge surprise, the culmination of years and years of playing Undead, accidentally taking the right list at the right time, AND getting amazingly lucky at pivotal moments. A huge shout out to my 5 opponents for a great weekend, and to Corey Reynolds for running an amazing event
I didn’t paint as much as I would have liked over the year, but what I did finish I was pretty happy with. My favorite had to be the batch of Revenant Cav I finished as well as the Balrog which I painted, despite being intimidated the entire time (it’s such an iconic kit).
If 2020 was defined by everyone being stuck at home, and wishing they could get out and play games together, 2021 for me was defined by the process of cautiously stepping back into gaming, then stopping, and then stepping back in again. Here is hoping 2022 continues the trend of allowing more gaming and more cool minis to get painted! If you want to hear more of my thoughts on the year, check out Unplugged Radio’s Year in Review episode. Now let’s move on to some Dash28 takeaways from the year.
Dash28’s 2021
Dash28 has expanded to be more than just articles on this website. If you haven’t seen it yet and want to check out Dash28 live for some excellent battle reports, complete with live commentary (well live at the time of the game).
We also released our merch store, where you can purchase all kinds of Dash28 goodies!
In 2021 we released 95 different articles! Of that plethora of choices, there were some trends that were easily seen.
Of our top ten viewed articles, 5 were part of our Beginner’s Guide to Kings of War! These articles attempt to address the variety of questions new and curious players may have, such as is the game for me, which army should I play, how do I make a list, and so on. It’s awesome to see new player resources getting so much traffic because it means there is new blood coming to the game!
The rest of the remaining top 10 were Army Reviews, with Undead, Imperial Dwarves, Kingdoms of Men, Elves, and Nightstalkers being the most viewed. You can find a complete list of our army reviews here. 11 of the 28 armies are currently updated for Clash of Kings, armies that have the CoK ’22 updates say so in red text at the top, and changes are reflected in red.
However, while I love our Beginner’s Guide (please share it with all the new players you can) and our army reviews, we have released a lot more quality content. Here are my personal top pics, excluding those series.
Editor’s Top Picks
In no particular order here we go!
Not the Face! Not the Face – The Relationship between Battle Scores on Sports Scoring Mike Rossi delivers some poignant observations and facts on whether or not losing truly means you get a better Sports score.
Nightstalker Tactics: Taking the Wiltfather I love when we get guest articles, and love it, even more, when they offer some brilliant insight into the game. Joey Greek shares why he is a big proponent of the Wilftfather in a Nightstalker army.
Ogres of the Moonlit Hunt Blog Greg Person has been stalwartly posting updates on the progress and findings of his army, the Ogres of the Moonlit Hunt for most of 2021. While all of it is worth checking out, the best bit is him covering his experiences and findings at the US Masters.
5 Important Things I Learned at my First Kings of War Gt Jessica Townshend is the newest writer to the Dash28 staff, but has put out some great content! One of my favorites is this article describing her first Kings of War GT experience!
State of Play: Deep Dive into the Only U.S. Masters Stats the Matter Brinton Williams has a history of churning out well-researched, explained, and thought-out articles on Dash28, this isn’t that, but also is… worth a read 🙂
As Above, So Below: A Case for Soft Scores… a Rambling Introspective Mike Rossi had an ax to grind on soft scores! What makes this article work so well is Rossi flips the narrative back on himself, and his journey as a tournament wargamer.
The Decision Desk vol 1: The Noble Death When he isn’t recruiting people into the Wheel of Time fandom, Keith Randall can really write some solid observations on KoW Strategy. The Decision Desk takes games Keith lost, and examines the “shatter points” where it went wrong, and what he could have done differently.
What is the Best Points Level to Play Kings of War Steve Hildrew brings his pot-stirring wit to the perpetual discussion on how many points is the right amount of points for Kings of War.
A Sweaty Giant Amongst Men: A Eulogy for Jesse Cornwell Finally, we have my last pick for the year, Brinton’s Eulogy for Jesse Cornwell. Brinton managed to capture the essence of who Jesse was, and the traits that best defined his place in the wargaming community, the phrase “he was a form of a human bonfire” defines the way I think about Jesse now. Several of us among the writers helped contribute to the article, as a close friend of Jesse’s I think it is the exact sort of tribute he wanted.
Well, that was 2021 here a Dash28, but what were some of your highlights? What was a favorite article we released this year? Where can we do better? I’m looking forward to finally getting all the armies updated for the new Clash of Kings, and searching for our next “project” as a site!
