Review of 2024

A Happy New Year to All! I hope that 2024 was all that you hoped it would be, and that 2025 will be.

2024 was very much a continuation of 2023: a somewhat difficult and wearing period of my life - possibly the year I have enjoyed the least in perhaps two decades - which has had some effects on my gaming. The second half of the year in particular has been a bit of a damp squib, gaming-wise which has reflected a very frustrating time more generally. But we should concentrate on the positives, and there have been some.

The first project combined some playtesting of a new set of WW2 rules written by John D Salt. Regular readers of this blog will remember that I did some playtesting of his re-creation of the 'missing' set of WW2 WRG rules, and that is all finished now; so I have moved onto playtesting an entirely new set of rules. For doing this, I used the vehicle of re-creating the first of Just Jack's 'Kampfgruppe von Klink' campaigns, set in Poland in 1939: re-named Kampfgruppe Heller, it wasn't strictly a campaign (one battle did not really have an effect on the next) but a re-fight of the battles in someone else's campaign, since they were so perfect for testing out a wide-range of different tactical situations and equipment types with manageable numbers on a small board. In any case, both the rules and the games were a highlight. I played about a dozen, but have waited a while to do the last few battles, whilst John was finishing some revisions. They are complete, so I am now looking to get that campaign finished off very shortly, and then move on to some more campaigning in France and Belgium...

The next project was refighting a real campaign, this time a Napoleonic campaign set in Northern Italy and published back in Miniature Wargames 30. I did this as a PBEM campaign, with two players and myself being the umpire, and playing out the battles solo. It worked really well, the players were excellent and it produced an excellent game from my perspective, and the players said that they enjoyed it too. There are a couple of tweaks to be made should I run something similar again to make it a little easier on the players, but I was very pleased with how it worked out.

The last distinct gaming project in 2024 was continuing the refights of all the major Thirty Years War battles. I have reached late 1632, so just about to do Lutzen. This has gone reasonably well, although progress has been more slow-and-steady, and I had definitely hoped to do more. The Twilight of Divine Right rules have given some good games, although there was one element which I have been doing wrong since I first started to use them - I was not alone in this misinterpretation apparently! But it is good to sort these things out, particularly before I start my mooted Thirty Years War campaign.  I have played a couple more games of Europe in Agony, just to keep my hand in ready.

The Swedish and Imperial armies face off at Breitenfeld.

 

There has been a varied set of other games played. I have had a go at a couple of the classics of wargaming: Grant's Mollwitz from The Wargame and Featherstone's Road to Saint James from Wargames (although using modern rules). Both gave really good games, and I might do a few more games like this next year. Perhaps I will revisit Blasthof Bridge and Sittangabad, and maybe some of the Terence Wise scenarios from his Introduction to Battle Gaming. I refought a few actions from the Jacobite Rebellions, including a couple of games with the new 'Tricorn and Bonnet' rules, and very interesting they are too. I would be quite interested in doing some of these wars as campaigns, if I can find the right rules or boardgame for doing so. I managed to get some small Napoleonic actions to the table too, which is always fun: despite a few reservations, Ruse de Guerre does give some great games, because the play is so smooth. 

Mini-Mollwitz. Same number of figures as the original approximately, but rather smaller board...

Outside of wargaming, I have DM'd a few games of Shadowrun and WFRP for my bairns, which is always good fun. I have spent a fair bit of time converting the epic Call of Cthulu campaign Beyond the Mountains of Madness into a version suitable for WFRP 1e, and I am looking forward to giving that a run out in 2025. I have managed to get a couple of games of Space Hulk and Heroquest in with my youngest, and some games of Mansions of Madness in with the older bairns. They are all really good games, leave you wanting more and wondering why we don't play more often. 221B Baker Street also gets a few runs out as our after-dinner game, which my wife really enjoys.

I made it to a few shows: both Partizans and Hammerhead, plus Britcon, Joy of Six and Border Reiver. All the shows were good, although I wasn't really feeling the vibe for the latter two (for personal reasons, nothing to do with the shows themselves). I think that I do need to perhaps re-think a little about what I am going to shows to do, exactly. I don't find them that great for shopping, since they are either too busy (the Newark shows) or don't quite have the range (Britcon and Border Reiver). JoS is great of course, since if it is 6mm, then it is going to be there, pretty much.

I didn't make a significant dint in the lead mountain or plastic pile this year. Some stuff did get painted: some 28mm Romans and some Space Marines for my youngest, and some additional 6mm stuff for me. This felt equally split between various WW2 things and some more WSS stuff: I now have a fair-sized Dutch (or at least, in Dutch pay) force, along with some extra units for the French and British armies: more artillery, both little and big, some Cuirassiers, some Hussars, that kind of thing. All the major WW2 forces have more tanks and artillery. I have just finished a contingent of Napoleonic-era Saxon infantry, plus I have added some more units of French and Italian infantry. The C17 forces have had some more bits-and-pieces added. There are some more buildings done, including some ruined buildings. So, some positives. But the pile of stuff 'to do' is getting quite big. On a quick survey:

6mm WW2: US Airborne, Volksturm, aircraft, some basing and rebasing and tidying up.

6mm Modern: Some Cold War Soviets and British, plus some Vietnam War US and NVA to finish off.

6mm Ancients: A few units of Carthaginians, some Cataphracts

6mm Medievals: A C11 Byzantine Army.

6mm C18: Some Ottomans. 

6mm Napoleonics: Mainly odds and ends - a few more Prussian infantry, some dismounted French Dragoons, that kind of thing

6mm Colonial: A Mahdist Army for the Sudan, plus some Anglo-Egyptian opposition. 

6mm ACW: A few Commission figurines to paint.

6mm SF: More a tidy up and basing exercise than any actual painting.

15mm Modern: Some West and East German infantry to finish off, plus a smattering of vehicles left to complete.

28mm Napoleonics: Some French and British Dragoons, some British Riflemen

28mm Ancients: the bairn would like some Greeks, Gauls and Romans doing

28mm Fantasy: quite a few Heroquest figures, plus a batch of Beastmen

28mm WW2: a smattering of odd figures

20mm WW2:  a few model kits to make up and figures to paint

 

So, how did I do against my aims for 2024?

Play:

1 - Play the Caesar's Camp pint-sized campaign. Failed, since I didn't finish the Poland KG Heller campaign.

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

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

4 - Play some more 6mm Napoleonic battles, using more of the scenarios from the collection of Michael Hopper scenario books. I did play a few of these, so technically successful. I had rather more in mind however.

5 - Play the scenarios from the Twilight of Divine Right scenario books. I did make at least some appreciable progress on this one.

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

7 - Start a Nuts! or similar campaign. I guess the KG Heller one 'sort of' speaks to this. Not really the same though!

8 - Start a Five Leagues from the Borderlands or similar campaign. Another technical pass, although I had something much more extensive in mind when I wrote it.

9 - Play many more WW2 air wargames. Failed

10 - Try the Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames simple scenario techniques on some more actions. Done this. They work really well!

11 - Play some more Heroquest. A very little bit, but I had something much more extensive in mind.

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. Failed, totally.

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

3 - Buy and paint some more fortifications for various periods. Did this to an extent. The Irregular stopping 6mm production put a bit of a dent in this one though, as does Leven concentrating on sales through Facebook.

4 - Finish my RPG modifications for Shadowrun, Twilight 2000 and WFRP. Did complete these, more or less.

5 - Complete my collection re-arrangements to allow easier and quicker setting up and taking down of games. Still a work in progress. This one has involved a lot to trial and error and I still haven't got it right. TBF, this is the one thing where I am being hampered quite a lot by circumstances rather than me just not getting around to it.

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

A few additions to my C18 forces. Yes! Done.

Complete my 6mm Byzantine army. Not a sniff - total fail.

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

6mm ACW armies. Fail.

So a very very mixed bag, all-in-all. But I am not getting marked on this stuff, so I suppose I should emphasize the positive! But I should take note that given my life circumstances aren't necessarily going to get easier in the next 12 months, I should re-calibrate some of my ambitions and expectations accordingly. In any case, there will be a lot of roll-overs from 2024...

 

Play:

 

1.  Do the Caesar's Camp campaign.

2.  Finish the Thirty Years' War refights.

3.  Design and publish more Neil Thomas-esque scenarios.

4. Play a few more of the 'classic' wargame scenarios.

5. Play more higher-level WW2 wargames. 

6. Play more Mansions of Madness.

7. Play more Heroquest.

8. Play more Space Hulk.

9. The stretch goal is another PBEM campaign.

 

Hobby:

 

1. Finish off the lead-pile by 30 September 2025. No ifs or buts. Don't buy anything additional that increases the risk of not achieving this goal.

2. No new armies, only filling out gaps in existing armies and navies.

3. Concentrate on more terrain improvements - making the most commonly used pieces of terrain more attractive, whilst retaining portability and flexibility. 

4. Make a comprehensive shopping list for after the lead-pile is tackled, to make any future purchases in a more deliberate and rational way.

5. Make some changes to allow slightly better game photography.

6. Continue the project of increasing accessibility and portability, to reduce the level of effort and fuss needed to get a game on the table.

And lastly - as always, but rightly in the place of honour - thanks to all those bloggers who provide a continuing source of gaming inspiration, resources and ideas to modify, emulate and steal. They continue to making my hobby better, and for that I am genuinely grateful. It doesn't matter if people stop, or take an extended break, or post more often than I can keep up with for that matter, one good post is its own justification.