2021 Review/2022 Plans

 

It's still only mid January so I can just about sneak in a "what I did in 2021/what I plan to do in 2022" blog post.

What I Planned to do in 2021 and Actually Did!

The big one was undoubtably Waterloo60, with most of the early lock down being spent doing terrain, and most of the summer! There were also at least 4 practice games, 2 by Zoom, so quite honestly I'm not surprised if my plans to do other things took a beating (not that they've improved since August!).

Painting wise I did some ECW, some more Russians (2 batches) and some WOTR - so at least a bit of each. Post August seems to have been mainly on different varieties of Albedo ACP164 figures! I did in my defence paint 6 entire armies - all in 2mm - for Napoleonic and WW2 ready for my portable wargame.

Games wise I did manage to get through four different 1984 period Company-level rules sets as part of the Company Mega-Test, and will get started on the WW2 rules in the next month or so. I did managed the 2nd Battle of Newbury, twice.

There were several games of ACP164 (Pebble Park should be in MW&BG shortly - second article I wrote in 2021), and of Stargrave and Five Parsecs and hybrids. ACP164 still wins as a on-the-table game system although Five Parsecs has a nice campaign wrapper.

And that was about that!

What I Planned to do in 2021 and Didn't Do!

Most of this lot!

No Napoleonic decadal battle, only one batch each of WOTR/ECW/Nap, only one ECW battle, no WOTR battle, no modern 28mm (to be fair the Kickstarter still hasn't arrived!). The 10mm WW2 was bought at Salute but is still next to paint. Apart from the MegaTest no further on BAOR gaming, but plans for the urban terrain gathering. Figures bought and painted, scenery made and boxes filled for the portable wargame, but no game played yet! Given COVID (that's my excuse) not battlefield walks or visits, but lots of  Zoom lectures!

What I Plan to do in 2022

Waterloo61 planning has started, hoping to do in May, which means that the we may even get to do Quatre Bras in the autumn. Luckily no new terrain needed for Waterloo61, and probably little for QB, and figures wise I just want to do about 6 new French battalions as I had to use some really ropey Airfix ones for Waterloo60. Also plan to do at least one Russian batch, and possibly a British Peninsular batch. One decadal battle and finally play General d'Armee and possibly one or two  of the other new Napoleonic sets (assuming more don't come out in 2022!)

One more WOTR batch (last before I move on to 100YW), and possibly last for a long while ECW batch. At least one battle for each period (well underway already for WOTR!).

Paint the 10mm WW2 and use them to complete the Company MegaTest. Possibly start the Battalion MegaTest (looking forward to playing 'O' Group) but that might be 2023. Do at least one BAOR game. Build out my 10mm urban terrain. Warrior/BTR in 10mm possibly towards the end of the year.

Once the 28mm Moderns arrive (Ultramodern Kickstarter) actually get them on the table. Get the ACP164 ILR Assault troops painted and on the table, and also play with the ACP164 terrorists (start the Almata campaign?) Probably not much else SF unless I can start a Five Parsecs campaign as a background task.

Try and write 3 articles (not counting Pebble Park which comes out in 2022 but was written last year). Have drafts for at least that many so should be do'able.

That should keep me busy! There is also one huge project starting, but more on that anon.

What I Plan to do Somewhen

A couple of ideas have been on the list for ages, but I've still not got around to them, and can't see that changing in 2022:

• A "Dark Materials" wargames army in 28mm, and find a suitable set of rules (just love the idea of painting all those daemons!
• Creating a 3D Catan set out of Hexon terrain hexes (have almost all the bits, just need to sort how to do roads and towns)
• Play some games with the 1/2400 (?) WW2 Naval I bought nearly a decade ago!
• Play Phil Sabin's Fire and Manoeuvre on Hexon 
• Finish the 100 Days campaign Nick and I started well pre-COVID (just needs the Battle of Hal - one for Rose Hill Wargaming Group?)
• Start a new Napoleonic campaign with Nick - central Europe?
• Start my own ECW campaign
• Bigger 2mm armies on 10cm hexes for BIG Napoleonic Battles on a small scale

That should all keep me busy!

2020 Review - 2021 Plans

 

Needless to say COVID had a pretty big impact on my gaming for the year - however a lot was rescued from the ashes.

I had no face-to-face games in 2020, although Nick and I managed a Bolt Action game on Tabletop Simulator and to refight part of Waterloo over Zoom/Jitsi. I also played a number of games at VCOW (and am looking forward to February's VCOW2021), and loads of solo games.

The biggest single change was that for the first time in my life I have a dedicated wargames room (well doubling as my home/office) big enough for an 8' x 6' table as standard - and the ability to push to 10' and maybe even 12'. That means I can leave games up (although that wouldn't have been an issue this year!) and potentially even have 2 games going at once (although time just doesn't allow that).

In terms of my planner, this is what I managed:

Dec: 🎨10mm WW2*, 🎲BAOR Mega*
Jan: 🎨Cara*, 🔪Cropredy Bridge *
Feb: 🎨ED*/Cara*, 🎲WW2 Pl MegaTest *
Mar: 🎨WOTR*, 🎲WW2 Pl MegaTest *
Apr: 🎨🎲ACP164*, 🎲WW2PMT*
May: 🎲WOTR* , 🎲WW2PMT*,🎨NapGen*
Jun: 🎨1987*, 🎨NapRus*, 🎲ACP*
Jul/Aug: 🎨NapRus*, 🎨ACPDead*, 🧱
Sep: 🎨BAOR*, 🎲Moongrunts(BARC*/SG*/MW&BG*)
Oct: 🎨BAOR*,🔪OcanaX2**,🎲NATOBC*
Nov: 🎨WARPAC*, 🎲Waterloo*
Dec: 🎨 ECW@, 🎲1987x2 @>>

🎨 = paint figures

🔪 = historic refight

🎲 = other wargame

🧱 = 1:1painting!

* = done

@ = ongoing

@> = finishing

This year (2020) I didn't plan the whole 12 months but just the next 3 at a time, pulling stuff of a backlog. The backlog at the end of 2020 was looking like:

🎨 Nap: 2mm, Rus@
🔪 Nap: Wagram; FdO,Albuera
🎨 ECW: Last(3)?
🔪 ECW:  MarstMoor(37k), 2nd Newbury
🎨 WOTR: WOTR, WOTR
🔪 WOTR: 1stSA,Blore Heath, Ludford Bridge
🎨 WW2: 10mm Coys
🎨 BAOR: Urban Terrain, Warrior/BTR60 Coys?
🎲 BAOR: 10mm CWO, NATO-FC, SPI, ScenBk
🎨 Mod: 28mm US/Sov,
🎲Mod: 28mm skirmish>>
🎨 SF: Albedo civilians/ILR Assault

🎲 SF: Albedo campaign@

So I suppose I got the core done, but not the cream.

I'm sticking with the same approach for 2021, starting with the backlog pretty much as was at the end of 2020 and not adding anything really in to it. The first 3-4 months look like:

Jan:  🎨ECW@, 🎨NapRus, 🎲1987x2
Feb: 🎨WOTR, 🎲ECWx2
Mar: 🎨WW2, 🎲WOTR (DOK?)
Apr: 🎲WW2CoyMega?

And hopefully by the summer (Indian?) we can start to get some face-to-face gaming in as Nick, Adrian and I really want to do Waterloo 60 before it turns into Waterloo 61!

2017 - Year in Review

Don't think I've blogged a formal year in review before, but here goes.

First the summary:

Jan: 🎨20mmNap(2)*, 🔪ECW*
Feb: 🎲ww3*
Mar: 💤
Apr: 💤
May: 🎨100YW*, 🔪Auerstedt*
Jun: 🎨20mmNap(2)*,🔪Agincourt *
Jul: 🎨RusNap*, 2mmNap*
Aug: 🐝
Sep: 🎨20mmNap(2)*
Oct: 🎨ECW1!, 🔪JenaBde*
Nov: 🎨ECW2!, 🔪Eylau/2mm/Div*
Dec: 🎨20mmNap(3)@, 🎲ECWcmp

No idea what happened in Mar and Apr, lots of real work I think, but hardly did anything, which resulted in a bit of scaling back from the original plan (one battle slipped to 2018, 2 ECW batches became 1.5, but not too many other major casualties!

Now thematically:

PAINTING

The big aim of the year was to "finish" my 6mm and I did that, with batches of Medieval, ECW (2.5) and Napoleonic Russians. I'll post more on the outcome and forward plan for this in probably the next blog post.

I'll just about hit my target of nine 20mm French Napoleonic, the minimum I need to do to fulfil my part  of the Waterloo refight planned (Nicks doing about the same number and Adrian 3-4 times that!). This years troops included Middle Guard, more Cuirassiers, Guard Lancers and I'm just doing some Light.

NAMED BATTLES

With the Medievals done I did Agincourt using Hordes & Heroes. For ECW I did 1642 so Edgehill was the big one, but didn't get the time to do any others (3 more planned, a major Mar/Apr casualty). For Napoleonic I did the left overs from 1806/2016 (Auerstedt, Jena) and Eylau from 1807/2017, with Friedland slipping into 2018 (and Rivoli abandoned). I find doing these games, even solo, a great way for focus reading (and book buying) around specific battles, and then use the medium of the game to understand the terrain, issues and tactics better.


WARGAMING

I did get my 1984/Cold War vehicles and troops rebased on to 4cm hexes for use on Hexon and played out a couple of games, one a trial to learn CWC and then the Mohner Gap game.  So that moved forward nicely and will continue in 12018 hopefully with a campaign, but still after the ultimate set of rules.

I did also manage to revisit and rebase my 2mm Napoleonics, with a D6 BOD based set of rules inspired by my experiences with Blucher and H&H. Definitely to be continued.

I didn't manage to get the ECW Campaign underway, but that is tops for 2018.

I did manage the start a 100 Days Blucher campaign with Nick and Alan, 1 battle down, 1 or 2 more to go I expect.

A number of other games with Nick and Alan including a Blucher test game, a Blucher Scharnhorst generated game, a small war in Africa skirmish game, and even some D&D!.


BATTLEFIELD WALKS

Nick and Alan and I got to stay at Hougoumont and re-explore Waterloo (without the re-enactors). We even played a Hougoumont SPI type game in Hougoumont!

The new dog is likely to encourage more walks, and we managed to do both Towton and "new" Bosworth.

I managed to combine a conference trip with a visit to Busaco - and a stay at the Busaco Palace Hotel!

BOARDGAMES

I bought Kingmaker and had a great game of it with Jo and Tom on a long weekend in Barmouth. Played a few other games that Jo bought. And Hougoumont in Hougoumont as mentioned!

CLUBS and SHOWS

My attendance at Dragoon's Den faded away after things became busy after my father-in-law died, and the dog arrived. Will try and restart next year. Still no time to visit a weekend club. Good weekend of Borodino at Liphook. Only made it to Salute show-wise.


SOFTWARE

No progress on the Campaign or tactical versions of Combat60, or on the Virtual Osprey idea. However I did make a nice prototype for a BattlefieldAR app which I'll try and progress next year.

ODDS and SODS

These were the other things on my to-do list:

ECW Campaign Start - failed
Next Nick Campaign - yes, in the guise of the Blucher 100 Days one, but not a "big" one
Cloth - Green - failed to buy a cloth!
Try Cold War Commander - done! Then a new edition came out! 
Base 6mm Modern Warpac & NATO  - done!
Brigade sabots - done! (for 6mm, to turn 2 x Bn into 1 x Bde)
20mm Sabots - started, ready for Waterloo60. Just about go the size right.
Rebase 6mm Nap @ - ongoing, lots are based on 20mm plastic card and warped badly
More 6/15/20mm Rivers - failed
More 6/15/20mm Hedges - failed
2mm nap again? - done! Lovely blend of wargame and boardgame
Articles (0/3) - failed. ECW Campaign one in hand though for early 2018.
Medieval/ECW/Modern/WW2Des 6mm bldgs. - bought a few medieval, less at Salute than I'd hoped
CWO Bde?? - no, CWC*

And I added to that starting writing BOD versions of Medieval, ECW and Napoleonic rules.


OVERALL

Not a bad year given what else was going on. And a good outlook for 2018 particularly since the move from 6mm to 20mm should ease the painting load a bit!