Review of 2023

 A Very Happy New Year to all !

Many thanks for reading this, and for all those of have made time to read any or all my blog this year. And especial thanks to those who have taken the time to leave a comment - it really is greatly appreciated.

I had hoped that 2023 might see a world of less conflict and suffering than in 2022. It seems fair to say that hasn't come to pass. But hope springs eternal - I hope that you will join me in hoping for a more peaceful, prosperous and happy world over the next 12 months.

On a much more trivial scale, 2023 has been a difficult year. I have found my work difficult, my cat died & I haven't always been in the best health. I have many things to be very grateful for, which I try and keep to the forefront of my mind, and usually manage - but this year has been stressful, there is no denying it. And that has generally had a negative impact on my gaming, either from having literally no time to do it, or feeling so drained that I haven't really felt like making the commitment of mental energy and time to play even quite smalll games.

That said, there have been at least a few achievements and highlights. I finished the Too Fat Lardies' pint-sized campaign, the Gembloux Gap.  I finshed my playtesting of the set of WRG-inspired rules being written by John D Salt: which retro-fitted the old WRG 1950-1985 Modern set into WW2.  These rules are more or less finished I think and John has said he intends to get them published when he can. I finshed playing through a;; of the marvellous scenarios from Neil Thomas' book One Hour Wargames.  For the games this year I have used the Polemos set Ruse de Guerre. I only managed to get a single big game of Ruse de Guerre in though: Talavera. 

This shows off that I managed to finally get my garage set-up to play some quite big games: I could extend to 10'x4' if I needed. I am trying to get one more small table which would allow me to configure it as 6'x6' if required also.

Of other gaming, there was only a smattering. I managed to get in a game of 1st edition 40K with my 7-year old, and great fun that was. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader book.  I managed to sort out a game of the Battle of White Mountain scenario using the Twilight of Divine Right rules which I really enjoyed, and also a go at Wimpfen.  There were a few other 6mm WW2 games and a 15mm WW2 game, but there really wasn't that much.  I was delighted though to get in the game of 'The Nutcracker' designed by Arthur Harman - it was such a perfect Christmas game!

I didn't even get many boardgames in, just a little bit of  Europe in Agony and Over the Reich.  I also managed to get Heroquest to the table a little bit, with the little one.

I did get to do some more role-playing games in though this year, mainly Shadowrun and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but also Twilight 2000 and Original D&D. I discovered The Alexandrian blog and videos this year, which has been a great find for my role-playing games. My older bairns really enjoy Shadowrun, so we have been having great fun with that.

In terms of buying models and painting and so on, for the first time in ages I have built up a bit of a lead mountain and plastic pile, I just got far less done this year than in other years.  What I have managed is some reinforcements for my WW2 French, US, German, British and Soviet armies, primarily armour and artillery support.  I also put a credible Polish force together. I did paint some Zulu War Zulus and British, as well as some Agincourt-era Knights for my son. He has seemed to enjoy them! A fair few of the models are in the bits box for repair now however, they aren't really robust enough for child play. I managed to fill out my C17 forces with some more East European light horsemen, rebased everything to make them more flexible and equally at home with both Twilight of Divine Right and Polemos: ECW, and got a few bits of additional terrain I needed, primarily additional earthworks.

Review of 2023

So, how did I get on against my plans for this year?

The Plan (Playing):

 

1 - Finish the Gembloux Gap campaign:  ideally want to get hold of a few terrain items to make one of the scenarios look a bit better.

COMPLETED.

2 - Play the Caesar's Camp pint-sized campaign (think I have all the necessary forces for this).

NOT STARTED.

3 - Play some more WW2 company-level games (have bought some Polish WW2 forces for this, with some French on the cards too. Other armies will get additions on an as-and-when-needed basis).

DID A LITTLE BIT.

4 - Continue to play through the Neil Thomas' One-Hour Wargames scenarios. If I should complete this, then I will move onto Grant's Programmed Wargame Scenarios (I have all the necesary figures and terrain for this)

COMPLETED THE FIRST, NOT STARTED ON THE SECOND.

5 - Continue to play the same scenarios with the Napoleonic Historical Wargames Society of Toronto as far as I am able.

DID A LITTLE BIT.

6 - Play the scenarios from the Twilight of Divine Right scenario books (I have all the required figures but need to paint up a few more Eastern European light horsemen.  I also need to make some new/additional earthworks for a couple of the scenarios).

DID A LITTLE BIT, & COMPLETED THE EXTRA MODELS.

7 - Play more dungeon crawls (THW Dungeon Crawl, Heroquest, Imperial Assault, Space Hulk)

DID A LITTLE BIT.

8 - Play more WW2 air war scenarios (will use a mixture of models and boardgames)

DID A LITTLE BIT.

9 - Get a 1/4800 Napoleonic naval game to the table (have the models, don't have the rules)

COMPLETED. OKAY, ONLY A COUPLE OF VERY SMALL GAMES BUT I DID DO IT, AND QUITE ENJOYED IT.

10 - Experiment with WW2 squad-level skirmish to determine best 'small-board' set-up.

NO.

11 - Continue to play RPGs with the bairns.

COMPLETED.

The Plan (Hobby):

1 - Paint up a few more bases of 6mm C17 East Euopean light horsemen.

COMPLETED.

2 - Paint up a reinforced company of early war WW2 Polish.

COMPLETED.

3 - Finish purchasing a reinforced company of early war WW2 French.

COMPLETED.

4 - Purchase and paint up some missing WW2 German elements (Panzerjager I, some aircraft, engineers, assault rifle-armed infantry, Volksturm).

PARTIALLY COMPLETED; STILL NEED TO COMPLETE THE VOLKSTURM & AIRCRAFT.

5 - Purchase and paint up some WW2 US armour and artillery (Shermans, M10s, various artillery, some aircraft?)

COMPLETED, EXCEPT AIRCRAFT.

6 - Purchase and paint up some WW2 Soviet artillery (and a 'maybe' for some Soviet Naval Infantry)

COMPLETED, BUT DIDN'T DO THE NAVAL INFANTRY (BUT DID DO SOME MORE ARMOUR).

7 - Purchase and paint up some minor additions for WW2 British (primarily tank destroyers and artillery, perhaps some more transport and aircraft, maybe some landing craft); some Desert War stuff from 2d6 wargaming is a 'maybe' here.

PARTIALLY COMPLETED.

8 - For the Age of Sail naval stuff, my new plan is to go back to first principles and buy a Featherstone book or similar and go from there.

COMPLETED.

9 - Purchase and paint up some 1940s-era agricultural, industrial and railway buildings.

PARTIALLY COMPLETED.

10 - Build or purchase some more earthworks suitable for C17-early C19.

COMPLETED.

11 - Obtain and prepare a 3'x3' terrain board for some  'slightly bigger small board' games.

NO.

12 - Obtain and prepare a 6'x4' terrain board for some slightly bigger summer games.

 COMPLETED.

13 - Purchase and paint a few more 28mm Napoleonics to build on existing forces (British, French and Austrian), in particular a few horseman and perhaps an artillery piece per side.  This is partly for Sharp Practice but also for some Neil Thomas' type gaming. 

NO.

14 - A couple of very minor additions for my 6mm C18 forces (including some more Lowland Scots, a few Cuirassiers, some small field guns and some siege guns)

NO.

15 - Finish off the lead-pile, including: some additional 6mm Napoleonics (mainly German state troops plus minor British Allied forces); early 1/300 WW2 aircraft; a few 6mm Cold War troops;15mm Cold War (East Germans and militia/terrorists); some 28mm fantasy/early medieval bits and pieces.

 NO.

16 - Some touching up of my C17 and Wars of the Roses collections, which are looking a little scruffy. 

NO.

17 - Arrange my models and terrain more effectively to allow quicker set-up/take-down and thus more games.

PARTIALLY COMPLETED.

18 - Arrange and modify some of my playing areas for greater ease and comfort in playing.

PARTIALLY COMPLETED.

19 - Write an article for a wargames magazine.

NO.

20 - Complete my re-writes/amendments for WFRP, Shadowrun and Twilight 2000.

NO, BUT SOME PROGRESS MADE (Shadowrun is largely done, T2000 is nearly done, WFRP is well in hand).

 

21 - Consider the following potential projects:

6mm Chariot Wars

6mm Late Romans/Dark Ages

6mm ACW (Commission Figurines)

6mm Colonial (Sudan, NWFP/India being most likely) 

6mm Pony Wars

C20 Naval

Byzantines 

NO (EXCEPT A FEW TESTER BYZANTINES & PONY WARS & ACW BOUGHT).

Plans for 2024

I didn't do so badly against my specific plans for 2023, it was more that as well as generally 'feeling low', my lead pile did somehow seem to grow. So my plans for this year should focus on sorting that, as well as keeping a bit of my current gaming impetus. I am very much in the mood for more campaigning this year, so the main questions are whether I need to do any preparation for that, either in terms of more testing or practice with the rules or campaign engines I intend to use, or whether a few judicious purchases will really help with those campaigns. 

Play:

1 - Play the Caesar's Camp pint-sized campaign. 

2 - Play the scenarios in Grant's Programmed Wargame Scenarios.

3 - Catch-up on the scenarios from the Napoleonic Historical Wargames Society of Toronto.

4 - Play some more 6mm Napoleonic battles, using more of the scenarios from the collection of Michael Hopper scenario books.

5 - Play the scenarios from the Twilight of Divine Right scenario books.

6 - Start another Ancients or Horse-and-Musket campaign (exact details TBD).

7 - Start a Nuts! or similar campaign.

8 - Start a Five Leagues from the Borderlands or similar campaign.

9 - Play many more WW2 air wargames.

10 - Try the Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames simple scenario techniques on some more actions.

11 - Play some more Heroquest.

Hobby:

1 - This one is easy: finish off the lead pile by October 2024. By my birthday, I don't want a single thing left.

2 - Obtain and prepare a 3'x3' terrain board for some  'slightly bigger small board' games.

3 - Buy and paint some more fortifications for various periods.

4 - Finish my RPG modifications for Shadowrun, Twilight 2000 and WFRP.

5 - Complete my collection re-arrangements to allow easier and quicker setting up and taking down of games.

6 - These are very much to be considered 'stretch goals':

A few additions to my C18 forces.

Complete my 6mm Byzantine army.

A few additions to my Napoleonic armies, ready for some more serious Napoleonic campaigning in 2025.

6mm ACW armies.

Hopefully these goals manage to be both ambitious and achievable!

And lastly, I want to thank all those bloggers out there who are still producing really interesting content about wargames, history, game design and suchlike. I try and comment and congratulate when I can, although I type it less than I think it. For those, I want to share this article from the Guardian: although blogs are perhaps less popular now, and certainly Tweets and Youtube videos and clips have their place, I think for the kind of long-form writing that blogs contain, accompanied with pictures, it still remains an excellent medium of expression and communication. And wargames thinking has often been in that form - the magazine-type article has always been crucial to discussion of our hobby and I think of blogs as an extension of that. And there are plenty out there doing excellent writing on games: I both salute and thank you!