Progress Review 2012

2012 Review

 
Interesting year 2012… on the whole I think creating my project list for the year was a good thing as I can’t remember such a productive year in terms of getting things done, however it also went to prove that I am indeed a Wargames Whore that flits from project to project as the latest new shiny things hits the market.

 
So what have I managed to get done in 2012?

 

1.    From the lead backlog

·       I finished my Franco Prussian War Collection in 6mm

·       I made up several ‘vignette’ style stands using 6mm Timecast Buildings and accessories I had knocking around

·       Made a significant dent in my ongoing 10mm ‘Generic Medieval’ lead mountain and added to the mountain by including some generic spear armed units

·       Finished a 10mm Polish/Commonwealth Army for FoG Renaissance

·       Finished a 10mm Ayubbid Egyptian Force for FoG Ancients

·       Started my 10mm Viking army

·       Finished off the last few remnants of the Secrets of the Third Reich US and German forces as well as a couple of additions for Incursion 

 

2.   Progress on things I ‘Originally’ planned to do in 2012

·       Purchased a French and Austrian army in 10mm for FoG Napoleonic. The French are based and the Austrians are rather shamefully still in their bags. However (and in my very weak defence) I put this project on hold waiting for the last few bits from Pendraken’s range to be completed. Which was completed in October but I didn’t get around to because I had been distracted by…

·       I had hoped to have collected and made a start on a Falklands Project in 10mm but again put this on hold as the range was incomplete. This has since been rectified but I didn’t get around to fulfilling this dream because… OK, so there is a theme emerging here, but I have already admitted I am a Wargames Slut.

·       I planned to do some matching forces for Maurice using Pendraken’s League of Augsburg range but again this project is on hold pending release of the LOA cavalry and artillery

 

All in all my lack of progress is clearly down to those pesky Pendraken Kids.

 


3.   Things I didn’t plan to do but got distracted into in 2012

I did make a few 10mm purchases this year (Spanish Civil War for A World Aflame and Post Romano-British) however 2012 has been the year of the skirmish game and for me a distraction into the 28mm Market.

 

Whilst there has been no progress on the SCW and Arthurians, I did pick up several really cool rules sets which appeared in 2012 – SAGA, Muskets and Tomahawks, Dux Brittainarium and Bolt Action to name a few.

 

These have all led me down the path that is 28mm – something I genuinely believed I would never have as much time for, but a scale I am definitely warming to.

 

SAGA

·       I have completed two matching 6 point warbands - Anglo-Danes and Vikings

·       Completed a Jomsviking mercenary force

·       Bought and based a Gall Gaedhil mercenary force

·       Bought and Based a 6 point Scots’ Warband

·       Bought and Based a wagon and farmers set

·       Bought a couple of MDF laser cut buildings from 4Ground which are beautiful!!!

 

My Saga collection inspired me to purchase Dux Bellorum and Dux Brittanarium rule sets and I am looking at buying a Romano-British force in 2013 to go head to head with my Saxons.

 

Muskets and Tomahawks

No purchases other than the rules set at this point but with the new ‘Frontiers’ building range from 4Ground hitting the market and Artizan Designs bringing out more and more French Indian Wars figures I think this will be high on my agenda in 2013.

 

Bolt Action/Rules of Engagement

This range has probably had the best of my attention since the summer and so far I have collected 1500 points or so of Krauts and Commando’s which I am making astonishing progress with.

 

I also invested heavily in 28mm terrain and went the route of buying pre-painted, pre-built stuff purely because my own modelling skills are appalling. To fund most of this I sold off a number of projects I was never going to get around to.

 

4.  Funding the habit…

I sold off the following projects in 2012:

 

·       10mm Armies for Warmaster/FoG Ancients -  Carolingian, Rus, Samurai and Welsh Medieval

 

5.  Things I didn’t quite get around to in 2012

Due to a whole host of reasons I didn’t make any progress at all on a few of the smaller odds and ends I need to get around to doing including:

 

·       Matching ACW forces in 6mm – really not sure what to do with these as 1) its not my period and 2) I can’t find a set of rules I like. If I thought I might recover what I paid for these via Evil Bay they would go that route, but judging by recent sales on the site I am highly sceptical.

 

·       WW2 Landing Craft in 6mm – these would take seconds to do but just keep slipping under my radar

 

·       Matching Colonial British and Zulu Armies in 6mm – I reckon if I put my mind to these they could be done in a weekend. It’s just finding a clear weekend in my hectic social calendar…

 

·       Parliament and Royalist Forces in 10mm – I am already considering doing these as generic Renaissance Forces to pad out my Swedes and Catholic Germans for Pike and Shotte. It is the volume of cavalry that is in each force that is putting me off (which anyone who followed my threads on painting cavalry will be able to appreciate)

 

·       10mm Byzantine Army for Warmaster – I couldn’t bear to part with these in my last purge, but if they are still around this time next year I think they will have to be found a new home.

 

6.  Things I stumbled across in 2012 that I forgot I had

Storage of my wargames goodies is a massive issue given my burgeoning family and invariably things have found themselves being relegated to the attic. Amongst the wargaming paraphernalia I rediscovered was the following:

 

·       A 6mm Future War Commander ‘Not Squat’ army - undercoated and based

·       A 6mm Future War Commander Andrayan army ­- undercoated and based

 

I quite like FWC and haven’t played for sometime so these babies really do need to be got on with.

 

·       A significant quantity of 6mm WW2 Early War German kit – for BKC. They were bought specifically to do an Operation Seelowe game which never happened.

 

Clearly 2013 is going to be another busy year!

 

 

 

Bolt Action Commando's

Quite enjoying doing something different and Bolt Action in 28mm has certainly given me the oomphh i needed to get back into skirmish gaming in a big way.

My latest efforts are some British/Canadian Commando's and there's the bulk of the force - 30 riflemen, nco's and Bren/Vickers gunners.

 

 

Bolt Action Krauts

Finally finished the core elements of this army - only the vehicles to go (2x 251/1, 1x Hetzer and a Pak40 and crew)

Not great photos - one because I'm shite at photography and two because its indoors in very poor daylight due to the weather.

 

Productive month!!

I've had quite an inspired month since getting back from holiday, no doubt helped by my good lady wife going away for a week with mates for a well deserved break.

 

I always find that come March I have five or six days of leave that I cant squeeze in which invariably I end up losing. This year I thought I'd change that by taking the week off and in between school runs, housework and feeding the household menagerie of cat, guinea pigs and chickens, I would crack on with several projects all at the same time - after all variety is the spice of life!

 

 

10mm Polish/Lithuanian Commonwealth forces for FoG Rennaisance

 

 

 

28mm Late War Krauts for Bolt Action

 

 

 

28mm Vikings for SAGA

 



 

10mm Sea Raider (Viking) Army for Dux Bellorum

 



 

10mm Wars of the Roses/Burgundian/Generic Medieval

 



Alongside this little lot (and not yet photographed) I also managed to complete some 28mm Wattle and Daub fencing for SAGA and some pin markers for Bolt Action.

On the workbench, (which I have based up and undercoated ready to paint) is an Arthurian British Army for Dux Brittanarium/Bellorum, a 1000 point Bolt Action British Commando force and the remaining 800 points of Krauts to take on the Commando's.

All quiet on the wargaming front

My last post was back in June when I finally put to bed the Ayuubid Egyptian FoG Ancients army. Normally at this time of year the quietness is down to the summer break, family holiday time, hazy days drinking too much and burning perfectly good food to a crisp on the BBQ, however the quietness this year was down to having too much work going on and the shit weather early in the cricket season leaving an ungodly number of fixtures to be squeezed into a six week window.

I love my cricket, but even I will be glad to see the final over of the season this season.

Anyway, in between work I have been prepping a few armies to keep me going over the dreary days of winter. I have also been spending far too much on 'just another' rule set (six new sets to be exact).

Since June I have picked up:

• DBM V2.0 and the early/late medieval army lists
• Warlord's Pike and Shotte
• Ospreys Dux Bellorum
• TFL's Dux Brittanarium
• Ospreys A World Aflame
• and Warlords Bolt Action

I have read all the rules cover to cover.

I have bought and have even planned for games.

Somewhere along the line though I simply haven't had the time (with the exception of Dux Bellorum and Bolt Action) to make too much gaming progress. 3 games in 3 months - appalling, but not too dis-similar to my batting average this season.

For DBM and Pike and Shotte I have plenty of 10mm stuff to put on a game so no new investment there (other than time!) needed to get a game on.

Similarly I have played one solo game of Dux Bellorum using my 10mm Saxons and Vikings and whilst the Leadership Point system looks to be interesting the game felt quite like DBA. i think it will work better with an opponent.

I'm loving the look of TFL's Dux Brittanarium - so much so that an order went into Pendraken this Monday and was received on Friday. I'm hoping to find the time to base this lot up and get a motor on to see if i can get a game in before Christmas.

Within the recent Pendraken Order were two SCW starter Armies for A World Aflame which looks quite interesting. I have a bit of a dilemna with the basing system as the rules stipulate singular basing which will be a bit of a pig if I try to use the same figures for BKC...

Bolt Action  is seeing a lot of action at the club (pardon the pun) - even the GW fanboys have had a go which is encouraging. The slight worry is that all this 28mm stuff is making an even bigger dent in my bank balance. I am now the proud owner of two starter forces - British Commando's and Late War Germans. I have even managed to paint six of the Krauts!!!

Painting wise

• I have managed to finish my second SAGA Warband - the Vikings. The Scots are still in their box awaiting inspiration.
• I have just started my FoG Rennaisance Polish/Lithuianian Commonwealth army with all those Pancerni and Winged Hussars
• I have painted a solitary stand of six figures (only about 700 to go!) of my foray into FoG Napoleonic French and Austrians
• I made a start (two years after buying them) on my FoG Ancients Vikings in 10mm and have just enough elements painted up to play any or all of the options open to a Sea Raiding Dux Bellorum force. Sadly the game didn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm to paint the remainder but a start is still a start!

All in all although I appear to have had an "all quiet on the front" look, I think I have made some significant dents in the never diminishing pile of lead.

Crusader and Ayubbid Pics

Not a great set of photos sadly as I was far more concerned with getting in a game after several false starts and 18 months of waiting to get these two armies done.

Used FoG Ancients for the game and the Crusaders were soundly beaten. Every death roll I rolled low even when I could only lose a stand on a roll of 1. When it came to combat and to CMTs' I consistently rolled high so it was a pretty bloody affair but well worth the wait.

Rather frustratingly (and increasingly annoyingly) I simply cannot seem to upload half of the photos I had taken for this game...



Ayubbid Egyptians and Crusader rrmies finally finished

18 months after they hit my doormat both armies are finally completed and will get a run out at the weekend using FoG Ancients.

In my defence I did purchase these on a whim and slap bang at the same time when I was on an extended sick leave period awaiting major spinal surgery.

Along the way I also got distracted by other shiny, shinys too.....

Pics and batrep to follow