White Scars vs Dawnrush Talons 12/30/20

I set up and played out an Open War game, a simplified ruleset for 40K, to let a friend play out the first battle round in a 62 Power Level (around 1,200 points) game between a selection from my White Scars and my Talons of the Emperor force for Crusade play.

The mission we generated from the Open War deck for 9th edition was simple--kill as much as you can on the opposing side. There were no objectives. We did draw a Blinding Sun twist to the game, but promptly forgot about it once the dice started rolling.

My friend (who chose to play the Talons) had to go home after the first battle round, so I finished out the game on my own. The combined Custodes and Sisters of Silence force, not hampered by having to hold objectives, delivered a sound thrashing to the White Scars, who perhaps unwisely spent a turn focusing fire on a nigh-on invincible Shield-Captain who was not only -1 to hit, but also -1 to wound, had a Toughness of 5, a 2+ armor save that would ignore 1 point of Armor Piercing, a 3+ invulnerable save, a 6+ Feel No Pain rule to shrug off any wounds that did get through, and a bonus wound to his maximum on top of all that. Not one wound got through on said character in several rounds of shooting and combat.

I recorded one point of Requisition earned for either Crusade force, though no agendas or experience points were tracked for the game this time.

2020 GOTY

 2. XCOM Chimera Squad

1. Animal Crossing New Horizons

2020 has been mostly an off-year for me and video games, and I'm not going to try to remedy that in this post, but I did definitely want to record for posterity my choices for game of the year and an honorable mention, as above. Nothing else released this year came close in terms of time played.

I stopped keeping track of games I finished this year, because I don't really think about games in those terms like I used to. And many games don't fit neatly into the shape of something that you can finish. And also because I find myself less and less interested in the type that still do. Anyway, here's a list of games that I spent a good amount of time playing this year, in lieu of the old pile of skulls:

Hitman 2

Assassin's Creed Origins Carcassone Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin Genshin Impact Super Mario Bros. 35 Spelunky 2 Super Mario 3D All-Stars JYDGE Necromunda: Underhive Wars Tabletop Simulator Cube World DOOM Lord of the Rings Online Fire Emblem Awakening Wasteland Legend of Grimrock II Space Hulk Tetris 99 Legends of Runeterra Animal Crossing: New Horizons Horus Heresy Legions Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Destiny 2 Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Jack the Ripper Ring Fit Adventure Blood Bowl 2 Assassin's Creed Syndicate Warhammer Underworlds Online Fallout 76 XCOM: Chimera Squad XCOM 2 The Elder Scrolls Online Magic: The Gathering Arena Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Elite Dangerous Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr Dicey Dungeons Juno's Darkest Hour Slay the Spire

I can pretty safely recommend the majority of these games, for what that's worth.