End of Year Review 2021

A Common talking point amongst friends and family in the build up to Xmas this year has where has the year gone and what did we actually do? Common consent seems to be not a lot given the rather obvious fact that we have all been living in the shadow of Covid and the on/off lockdown situation (As I type we are waiting to hear if there will be any new restrictions in England, such as those that have come into force in the parts of the UK). Added to this as a family we have only really felt able to go out once our son, who is classed as clinically extremely vulnerable, was finally freed from having to self isolate as much as possible in late Summer. 

So with the above in mind and the chaos of Xmas out of the way for another year, it feels a good time to take stock of my wargaming year and possibly consider what passes for plans on my part for 2022. 

Rules Bought

Neil Thomas' Wargaming: An Introduction

Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd Edition 

For Whom The Die Rolls

Shadow of the Eagles 

Spartans & Successors 

Quite a quiet year for me on the purchases front, given that last year I made the conscious decision to focus on a few core rulesets and this is still the case. So why more rules you might not unreasonably ask? Well the Beneath the Lily Banners I'd been pondering for sometime for use with a planned project based around the 1690's or thereabouts and the Glorious Revolution. I was swayed by seeing some of the nice AAR's of games by Keith & Co down New Zealand way earlier in the year. The book is a joy to own and has lots of eye candy, period flavour and interesting rules. I've yet to give them a try but I hope to do so in 2022.

Shadow of the Eagles was a freebie from Keith Flint, the author and a good friend and gaming chum of mine. I like his approach to rules and game play so was very happy to receive these and help scratch that niggling Napoleonic itch. The rules work really well, are easy to pick up and most importantly give a good game with a nice Napoleonic feel, without oodles of detail, tables etc to make the mind ache. More games are planned once I've painted some more of my mdf figures, which are on the table waiting for me to find a free moment in the kitchen to get started.

Wargaming Books Bought

The War of King Monmouth by Ralph Mitchard

The Williamite Wars by John Childs 

Osprey WWII Balkans War by Pier Battistelli

Report on Foreign Manouevres in 1912 

Thunder on the Danube Vol 1 by John H Gill

Operation Bagration by Steven Zaloga

Kursk by Lloyd Clark

Sicily '43 by James Holland

The Winter War by William Trotter

Battle Tactics of Napoleon and his Enemies by Brent Nosworthy

Osprey Russian Civil War Armies

Osprey Russian Red Armour

A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes

Operation Sealion by Paddy Griffith & John Curry

Battle tactics of the Civil War by Paddy Griffith

The Secret War by Max Hastings

The Hollow Crown by Dan Jones

A positive pot pourri of books and periods at first glance, but there is some method in my madness! Many were bought to flesh out my interest in the early WWII period, such as The Winter War which covers the Russo-Finnish War of 1939. The Russian Civil War is a period I know little about but am keen to learn more, with some possible games in the future. If nothing else it will provide more ideas for my AVBCW games. Not all have been read but the ones I have read have been excellent and I have high hopes for the remainder.

Miniatures Bought

Red Eagles Miniatures WWI plane

Commission Figurines ACW MDF figures

Soviet WWII reinforcements mainly AFV's

WWII Norwegians (using WWI Austrians as proxies)

WWI Russian Civil War figures

6mm WWII Aircraft

Medieval bits'n'bobs

AVBCW bits'n'bobs

WWII Italian artillery

Leven Miniatures Castle Components

Battlescale Russian Village Set

Not much really this year, with mainly small purchases to flesh out existing forces or simply the "ooh that would be nice to have!" Frankly I have more than enough miniatures already sitting in the attic as it is and next year I aim to have a good cull, so that I can focus on key areas of interest and not get distracted from these. More on this in another post I think...

Miniatures Painted

Pz I's, Pz II's, Pz III's, Pz IV's and command tanks

SCW/AVBCW command bases and vehicles

19thC Europe ImagiNations figures

Medieval figures

Commission Figurines MDF figures

With another year of virtually no FtF gaming, there has been little impetus for me to get much painting done. I did have a couple of concentrated spells, where I completed a load of early WWII German armour, as well as my mdf figures for my generic early 19thC ImagiNations forces. I found motivation hard for most of the year, which might have been helped by a dedicated painting area. Alongside this I also have the distraction of other hobbies, such as gardening and woodworking, both of which I prefer to do when the weathers nice. I think there is also a hangover from my days as a modelmaker when painting seems too much like my old job, when I want and need a break from this. When the muse is upon me I do enjoy the process, but not as much as in the past. Maybe a combination of being a house husband, full time carer and the Covid issue also play a factor in my reluctance to paint at times?

 

Terrain Made
Aircraft hanger - scratch built

Stone Circle

Walled Field

In contrast to painting, I do love scratch building terrain as it takes me back to those articles in the Airifx magazines and guides that used to inspire me as a child. I enjoyed the aircraft hanger made this year and haven't made much else as I have most of the terrain I need. However I do have some projects planned for next year, mainly making more detailed BUA's for a variety of games, hence some of the recent purchases from Leven Miniatures and Battlescale. I hope to provide more updates on this in the near future.

Projects

BKCII campaign

OHW Scenarios 

Lion Rampant 

Honours of War

ECW & LoA games

On the whole I managed to get in a couple of campaigns, one played by PBEM and the other a narrative one played solo. Both were fun, with the former, set during the SCW, taking a lot more time and effort compared to previous ones set during the 18thC. Honours of War made it to the table quite a bit, often linked to playing through the One Hour Wargames Scenarios. By and large these have been fun but some have worked better than others. Moving forward I will think more about the forces involved, victory conditions etc to try and improve the gaming experience. Still these are a great resource and I will continue to use them. The ECW & LoA games never got off the ground, despite having planned to give Beneath the Lily Banners a run out earlier in the year.

Games Played

The Portable Wargame Pike & Shot - 1

BKCII - 7

Pike & Shotte - 2

Honours of War - 6

Rebels & Patriots - 3

Shadow of the Eagles - 5

Post of Honour - 1

A very stop start year on the gaming front, but even so, at least I managed to get in a game about every two weeks. The vast majority were solo, with some PBEM and thankfully three FtF ones which were a real pleasure after so long away from friends. I fully expect solo to continue to dominate for the early part next year and then we will have to wait and see as to whether FtF gaming becomes a realistic prospect once again. One can but hope.

 

Wargames Shows Attended

CWD

Partizan

After over two years of no wargames shows, it was great to be able to attend a few, both within the space of a few weeks. The Cotswold Wargames Day was the first and as in previous years, a great day out with other gamers in a nice and relaxed atmosphere, with a good variety of games on show. Many have commented that it feels more like a club all dayer rather than a show and is frankly the better for it IMHO. The other was Partizan which I had never been to before, but was a lovely show with stunning games on display. I could have gone to other shows later in the year but with Covid cases going through the roof where I lived, I though it wiser to stay at home and wait for another year.

End of Year Thoughts

Needless to say 2021 has once again been a funny old year due to Covid and the impact it's had on our all lives in various shapes and forms. At least our wonderful hobby has for the most part been able to carry on, whether via solo games, PBEM or Virtual Gaming, with wargames shows returning in force towards the tail end of the year. Alongside these Blogging has once again shown how useful a tool it is to keep us all in touch with the various projects, games and shows from all over the World. It has really been a boon during these difficult times.

Personally there was little change in 2021 compared to 2020, other than the fact that finally I was able to meet up with friends for some FtF games as well as attend a few shows. It's only when you miss something that you realise how important it is to you. Whilst solo games are good, you really can't beat gaming with good friends and all that goes with it. 

Looking Forward to 2022

I've never been one for New Year's resolutions, but I though I'd jot down some plans and ideas I have for next year, subject to Covid of course:

• Carry on Blogging. I know this appears to be less popular than before, with Facebook and Vlogging supposedly taking over, but personally I much prefer the whole Blog thing, as it just works for me on many levels. As others have mentioned on their Blogs, it would be nicer if more people left comments, but I'm grateful for those regulars that do as your support is greatly appreciated.
• Campaigns. I tend to find narrative campaigns much more satisfying than one off games as they give a much richer experience IMHO. I plan to run some across various periods, both solo and hopefully by PBEM again.
• The Lead Mountain. I had planned to reduce this in early 2020, but then put it on hold when Covid hit. Given the current ongoing uncertainty, I'm going to look to sell stuff online, rather than at shows, so that I can focus on core periods and not spread myself too thinly.
• Rulebook Library. Rather like the lead mountain, the plan was to offload rules that I know I will never use, leaving me with core rules that I know and love. Again this will have to be done online at present rather than at shows.
• Painting. My initial aim is to finish my two mdf forces so that I can play a variety of games with them. This will allow me to then paint other forces as and when time and the mood takes me.
• Wargames Shows. All being well I hope to attend more next year than I would normally do. This is completely out of my control and decisions will have to be made closer to the time. Fingers crossed for this though!
• FtF Gaming. I really hope that this can resume but am not getting my hopes up too much at present.
• Terrain. I want to make some modular terrain to add more detail for my BUA's, that will also allow them to be used across a variety of periods. I have plenty of ideas, so it's really a case of putting them into action.

It will be interesting to see what, if any, of the above I achieve next year. Obviously Covid will have a big part to play in many of my 'plans', but one can but hope that things will ease off and we can get back to some semblance of normality. So it just remains to thank all of you who have stopped by in the past year and left comments, which are greatly appreciated!