2020 - Hobby Update

Hobby Update:

Despite my ambitious plans for 2020, this year has got off to quite a slow start hobby-wise.  I did begin my campaign to refight Caesar's Gallic War but after fighting a few battles, I have temporarily abandoned this, hopefully only for a little while.  This has been for a few reasons:

1 - It has been an unexpectedly busy period at work and the campaign lost impetus.  This has also affected my gaming more generally.

2 - I have wavered between different rulesets for the battles.

3 - Despite lots of thought to try and pre-empt problems, there were a couple of niggly issues in translating the action from baordgame to wargames table and back again, which is the key thing that has to be got right for a campaign to work well.

4 - I have had to endure a couple of bouts of illness over the last couple of months.

So what I have achieved, so far?  It boils down to a bunch of 6mm Ancients' battles, which I am slowly beginning to write up for this blog, some role-playing (more of which at a later date) and some painting:

Reconditioning a female warrior (top-left) I got from Bad Squiddo at some point but which got damaged during a house move, plus more Baccus 6mm Roman generals and ballistae (centre, left)...

...and another batch of 6mm Napoleonic Russian Grenadiers, also from Baccus

And a completed batch of Baccus 6mm Napoleonic Russian Light Infantry

Lots and lots more Russian artillery pieces and generals, plus some more marshes/ponds.

Now on the painting table, and nearing completion, are some 6mm Napoleonic Wurttemberg infantry and artillery, some Napoleonic Bavarian infantry, some Napoleonic Austrian artillery and a few 6mm WW2 vehicles (Marders and Cromwells).  In reserve are a few 28mm WW2 US infantry, some 28mm VC, some 6mm Thirty Years War' Foot command figures (as discussed in an earlier post, these are for some experiments to see if I can create some interchangeable command elements for C17 Foot, to allow my refight of the TYW to be done with troops with those lovely flags rather than simply using my WotTK figures as proxies) and a couple of random fantasy figures.  Put that like it sounds a lot maybe, but realistically that is probably a week's worth of stuff for me.  That said, I am re-basing some 6mm WW2 stuff too, so that is maybe another week of work on top of that.  But it is the Hammerhead show today (barring a last-minute Coronavirus cancellation!), so every chance of me picking up a few reinforcements!  On my provisional shopping list, I have:

6mm Ancients: additional Celtic command figures
6mm Napoleonics: additional Napoleonic Dutch (to use as Prussian Fusiliers (!)); maybe some more buildings
15mm Modern: maybe some bits and pieces for Team Yankee/Twilight 2000 scenarios
28mm Vietnam: some US Special Forces types; or maybe some ANZAC infantrymen
1/600 WW2 aircraft: maybe some additional stuff - French? Italians? Japanese?
I really want to pick up some more Zvezda 1/100 vehicles, but I don't think any of the traders going stocks them....does this strike anyone else as odd?

But hey, it is a show, who knows what I will find...

I did go to the Vapnartak show for the first time ever, since I happened to have an errand in Yorkshire that day.  I was neither in the best of moods nor the best of health that day so I wasn't in the best frame of mind for it, and so haven't done a set-piece review of the event.  Overall impressions were that it has a very good mix of traders (better than the East Midlands' shows I typically go to); it was pretty crowded, especially early on and the layout struggled to cope at points; it had a pretty friendly atmosphere (I seemed to have a few more random chats with other punters than normal!); the demonstration and participation games were situated oddly, too close to the main pedestrian "flows" and with table edges next to walls and windows and so on, which made the games slightly difficult to engage with.  There were also fewer "wow!" games than I am used to at Partizan, for example, being more similar to my mind with those at Border Reiver, although the the latter is a much smaller affair.  But I am hoping to get back to it at some point to make a more considered view of it.

After this weekend, the emphasis is going to be on re-starting the gaming: the Gallic War campaign, a couple of Napoleonic scenarios (there is one on my table right now), some interesting WW2 stuff and more air wargaming.  Wish me luck!  And I in turn wish all blog readers all the best in coping with these troubled times..