2014 Year in Review

It is that time of year again.  Time to take a look back and see how my hobby time turned out compared with how I thought it would turn out.  This is a popular exercise with us miniature bloggers.  I guess we just like to see how pointless it is to try and predict what we will be doing 6 to 12 months in the future.

Back in January I posted my thoughts, and for a lack of a better word, goals for 2014.  If you like take a look at the original post.  Once you have perused that lovely piece of work take a look at how things actually turned out.

Flames of War

The winner and still champion, of my personal gaming time, is Flames of War.  This was by far the most played game for I don't know how many years in a row.  The year started strong with the Shifting Sands Kursk event.  I took a 1500 point Panther company and won best German, which was amazing as I was 9th or tenth overall.  The best general was also a German player so I was actually second best German.  Anyway it was a great honor to play in the event and I am shocked I did that well.

In the summer Tim and I started working on late war forces for Market Garden.  I painted some Stug III, King Tigers, Tiger I and some more Fallschirmjagers.  We played a lot of games for the period and recruited others to join in.  In September I tried to run the Market Garden Firestorm campaign.  We had 6 players and got one great game day in.  It was tons of fun but personal issue prevented me from keeping the campaign going.

I had some big plans, or ideas at least, for starting Arab-Israeli War forces.  I had planned to start collecting tanks and figures.  I did lots of research and actually had a plan but I never got around to buying anything.  It is probably just as well as there is now a new book out.  This looks like a 2015 project.

The release of the Great War was almost exactly what I wanted for World War I gaming (actually, I really wanted them to start with early war but as I was told by many, there are no tanks so Battlefront will never do it).  I jumped in with the German company box.  I assembled it all and purchased the new trench system.  No paint yet but this project will happen soon.

I acquired many new models for other WW2 projects.  I have lots of tanks for a mid-war Panzer company for an eastern front winter army.  I have an almost complete late war German grenadier company ready for paint.  I have several BF Panthers to add to the late war collection as well.

With 30 games in and 2-3 new armies added to the collection, as well as a new period and lots of new figures, I rate this year a good year for Flames of War.  I have taken a few months off from this game but I will be getting back to it very soon.

28mm World War 2

I did play in the Gathering in the Desert event in February, as well as a store event the following week.  Once those were done Bolt Action and 28mm WW2 in general really fell off the table for me.  I did manage to paint a new British 8th Army force using Perry plastic figures.  I did not have very high expectation for this game/scale this year so I feel proud of what I was able to get done.

Black Powder

We did get in one big ACW game this year but I really wanted to do much more than that this year.  I was hoping for 3-4 games and maybe the first Napoleonic games of BP.  It was not to be.  I have not painted anything new for this game this year but I have added some items to the paint queue.  My French Napoleonic project did see some progress with collecting figures.  I now have a few hundred that need to be painted and I have started work on this.  I am a long way from having this on the table.  One of our gamers has dropped out of the 28mm Napoleonic project so we will need to rethink where this is going.  All things considered this was not a good year for this game.

Hail Caesar

Her is a game I had some hope for this year.  No really big hops but something much better than it turned out to be.   I wanted to get my Dark Age armies converted to HC and maybe get them on the table.  This did not happen but I did manage to create some leaders for my Normans.

I did not manage to get in any games either.  I was invited to a few but it never worked out.  I also wanted to start collecting Greeks but did nothing.  This was a big fail for me this year.

SAGA

This was shaping up to be another fail for the year - up until a couple of weeks ago that this.  We finally got this game back on the table and I have gotten in about 8 games this month.  I also managed to paint some new figure for my Dark Age collection.  The first DA figures I have painted in many years.  We now have 5-6 people interested in playing and I am getting my figures out and dusting them off.  I rate this one a success for the year!

Kings of War

Total bust...

X-Wing

I got in a few games this year but I was really hoping for more.  It is a great game that deserves more table time.  I have a nice collection of ships and would love to justify getting more.  I will probably get in a couple more games before the end of year.  I must rate this as a disappointment.

Pike & Shotte

This game was not on the radar at the beginning of the year as I did not have the rules and was unlikely to buy them.  That all changed when my friend Dave gave me a copy for my birthday.  I just finished reading them and they look great.  I think the game may actually play better than either Black Powder or Hail Caesar.  Years ago I had an ECW army but local interest died off and I sold it.  This game is very likely to get me back into the period and I have been making plans.

Other Game Goals

I envisioned liquidating large amounts of unused game stuff and over the last couple of years I have done that.  I sold off enough stuff this year to add another guitar to my collection.  I think I now have eliminated enough of the dead lead.  I rate this as a success for the year.

Other Personal Goals

I really wanted to be a better friend and more social this year.  I did manage to reconnect with several friends as well as find ways to connect outside of gaming.  I meet many new people this year and add a few that I call friends.  I was able to do this even while going through a pretty dark time at the end of the summer.  I feel really good about this and I hope that it is something I can keep going.  It was a great year and thanks to all my friends!

Another goal this year was to work on the gamer physique.  Well, I started off the year good but lack of perseverance undermined my efforts.  If anything I am more gamer-like than ever.  This was a big fail...oh well.

That is my year in gaming!  Thanks for reading and stay safe over New Years!  See you next year.


Total figures painted

FoW - 49 (23 tanks, 5 halftracks)
28mm Dark Age - 16
28mm WW2 - 38
40K - 15

Total - 118

Game Record

FoW 18-12-0
Bolt Action 1-8-2
Black Powder 0-1-0
X-Wing 2-2-0
LoTOW - 1-0-0
SAGA 7-3-0

Wargames Factory Dark Age Archers

My SAGA Vikings also needed some levies so I broke out the Wargames Factory Viking Bondi and Saxon Fyrd boxes and made some archers.  These two boxes contain the same body and army sprues.  The only difference is the head and weapon sprues.  I build these using a mix of the Saxon and Viking heads.  In this period there would be lots of overlap in styles.  In the end I now have 12 nice generic Dark Age archers.

The Wargames Factory figures are a good value at about $22 for 32 figures.  It is a little disappointing that you only get enough open left hands in the box to make 8 archers.  I did try and convert one of the left shield arms for use with the bow but it did not work out too well and was a bit of a pain.  Fortunately, I had a couple of boxes and was able to build the 12 I needed.  I have a lot more of these figures to build and paint and they will be seeing time in my Saxon armies for Hail Caesar.

Viking Berzerker/Ulfhednar

My Viking figure collection has some holes in it and to really have a good Viking force for SAGA you must have some berzerkers.  I had five of these Gripping Beast Ulfhednar figures in the dead lead pile so I painted up four. 

These are pretty handy in a SAGA Viking army but they are basically a trade off unit.  Don't let them get shot as the armor 3 makes them very vulnerable.  I have used them in a few games and they are fun.

Norman Commanders for SAGA and Hail Caesar

In the last couple of weeks I have finally been able to get in some games of SAGA.  This required me to dig out my old WAB armies to press some figures into service.  SAGA does not use too many figures but you really need a prominent Warlord figure as the army commander.  Since I am also planning to use my WAB Normans for Hail Caesar I figured I would make a couple of commanders.  One will be my HC army commander and the other will be a HC division commander or a SAGA Warlord.

The commanders

Norman Dux with vicompte standard bearer.

Norman Comes

 These figures are Gripping Beast and were painted nearly 15 years ago.  All I did for this project was to rebase the models onto larger round bases to make them stand out from the rest of the troops.  Eventually I will rebase the rest of my Normans for easier use with HC.  I might even add some more models to the collection.

Perry 8th Army Squad 3

I finished up the last of my Perry British 8th Army figures last week.  This completes one box of figures.  All things considered this is a really cool box that makes one complete platoon.

I nearly finished the project before I realized that I had not built any soldiers with the ubiquitous bayonet attached.  These turned out great and now I wish I have done more of them.

I have plans for one more box which will be more troops and specialists.  I also plan to order the support teams from Perry. 

Perry 8th Army Squad 2

Second squad for my 8th Army project is done.  One more to go.

Perry 8th Army Squad 1

Making a little more progress on this project.  First squad done only two more to go.

Perry 8th Army Platoon Command and Weapon Teams

I have finished the first batch of figures for my Bolt Action North Africa project.  All of these figures are from the Perry Miniatures plastic 8th Army set.  The figures are great but they are much slimmer than most other 28mm figures.  To me this means they will not work on the table with anything but Perry miniatures.  In fact, the size difference is so great that I almost didn't paint these.

This is the Boys Anti-tank Rifle team.  A must for early desert battles.

This is the platoon Lieutenant and the platoon runner.  This is the command team for the army.

This is the platoon Sergeant and radio operator.  This team will be the artillery FO.

This is the 2in mortar team.  I don't really like how BA handles mortars for army construction.  This little mortar was in every platoon but if you want to take a 3in you can't take this one.  I guess they trade them in or something.

These are really great miniatures.  They are a little fiddly to assemble but not bad.  I still have three squads to finish so stay tuned for more Perry action.

Gobbz of Nobz

Finally we have the last of the recently painted Orks - a bunch of Nobz.  The Stormwhatever Ork set I got had 5 Nobz so I built those with a mix of weapons I did not have.  Mostly big choppas and combi-weapons.  I had several powerclaw Nobz and a Waagh! banner already built so I painted those as well.  I am happy with how all this turned out and I am also happy to put the 40K models away for a while.

I have been making good progress on my Perry British 8th Army figures so I hope to have pictures of those soon.

HOOCH Kickstarter

My friend Mike from Da Green Skins blog has a new Kickstarter going.  It is for a new card game called HOOCH.  The game is set in the during the Prohibition era where you build and lead your own crime syndicate.  The game looks pretty cool so if you like these types of car games you should check out this Kickstarter.

Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun

I picked up this model off eBay a while back.  I have been looking for the metal one for a good price for a long time.  Even though this model was already painted, poorly, I went ahead and bid and much to my surprise I won!  The price was great but when it arrived I was shocked and angry.  Turns out it is Finecast and I had just assumed it was metal (always read those eBay listings carefully).  I had sworn to myself that I would NEVER waste my time on a Finecast piece of crap.

When I gave the model a careful examination I was surprised to see very few flaws (though there was one and if you look carefully at the first picture you might be able to see it).  The paint was terrible and being Finecast I was not sure if I should try and strip it or just paint over it. My courage failed me and I decided to paint over and maybe even salvage some of the original paint job.  Turns out I repainted about 95% of the model.

This model has so many fine details it can be tough at times to determine exactly what you are looking at.  This can lead to repainting certain features as you get a better understand of the model.  I painted this guy with a shirt but as the project progressed I realized that he might not be wearing one.  In the end I left it as I think it works either way.

I really like this model but I do wish it was the metal version.  This turned out nice but not good enough to get me to change my mind about Finecast.  I think this is a better looking model than the new plastic version.  The new one looks like Max Headroom to me.  Way too blocky on the facial features.

Mek with Kustom Forcefield

The march of the Orks continues.  Next up is the Mek with Kustom Forcefield.  This is the old metal model.  This model has tons of character and I always wanted to try it out in a game. That probably won't happen but it will look great in the box with all the rest of my Orks.

This is not the end of the Ork updates.  There are couple more in the pipeline!

Grukk Face-Rippa

This is the new plastic Warboss from the Stormclaw box set.  This is actually the only new Ork model in that set, which is bit of a ripoff.  All I wanted was this one model but I ended up having to buy all the Orks from a local gamer.  The good news is that it was a pretty good deal.

I really like this model a lot!  It is so much better than the Warboss from the Assault on Black Reach set.  More Orks coming...

Ghazghkull Thraka

Time for another gear change.  I have been painting lots of Flames of War and I really needed to look at something else for a while.  This usually means painting the old reliable 40K figure or two.  I have finally got around to painting my Ghazghkull Thraka model.  I have had this for several years and I started painting it a couple of years ago.  If you love Orks you have to have this model - it is BAD ASS!

I painted up a bunch of Orks so stay tuned for more updates.

King Tigers for Flames of War

My ever increasing late war German collection now has a couple of King Tigers.  These are Battlefront models and they come with both the Henschel and Porsche turrets.  This makes then rather expensive models but the good news is you rarely need more than two and usually only one.

The Henschels will see there battle debut next weekend at a local late war tournament.  I was hoping to get in a test game or two but it is not to be.

Even though I have no plans to run the Porsche version any time soon I painted up these turrets at the same time to ensure a good match.  These turrets don't fit as well as the Henschels and probably need magnets.

All in all a nice kit and they should be fun to play.  I am not sure what I will be working on next.  I just got more Napoleonic French so I should probably work on that for a while.  But I also got a deal on some more 40K Orks (that I have no need for) and I am really getting the bug to work on those for a while. 

StuG Batterie for Flames of War

Here is my StuG Batterie for Flames of War.  I have always loved the StugIIIG and ever since I started FoW I have dreamed of building this army.  But my cheapness kept me from making any real progress.  The first tanks in the collection were a couple of the original Open Fire! stugs that I traded for.  They were crap and I was sure I would end up throwing them away.  A few weeks ago a friend had all the Germans from the new Open Fire box which included three stugs.  Well, now I was getting close to having a start on the army.  Once I realized that the plastic schurzen from the Plastic Soldier Company stug set could be used to salvage the crappy old Open Fire stugs I was off.  I bought a box of PCS stug and got started.

The complete company.  The army includes Battlefront models and Plastic Soldier Company models.

The commander is from the Panzer Kanonen set.  I did not like the metal schurzen that comes with this model so I upgraded it with a set from PSC.

This platoon is made of the Battlefront plastic stugs from the current Open Fire box.  These models are OK but seem a little too wide to me.

The second platoon is a mix of manufacturers.  The command tank is from PSC.  The other two are modified Battlefront models from the original Open Fire set.  The tanks were one piece casting ans the schurzen has a bad habit of breaking off.  I used my Dremel to remove the schurzen and also to remove the huge casting on the base of the tank.  I then used PSC schuzen as replacements.  The are not perfect but they look good.

This is the StuH 42 platoon and all the models are PSC.  I left off the schurzen (because I used them to fix the other tanks) to help differentiate the models from the stugs.

Initially, I will be fielding this force as the 280. Sturmgeschutzbrigade from Bridge by Bridge.  I will be able to use my Fallschirmjagers to fill out the support.  Some of these models have already been on the table in support of my Fallschirmajagers and they will eventually backup some standard German infantry as well.  All in all these tanks will see lots of table time for mid and late war games.

Dark Angels For Sale

Here are the details of my Dark Angels army that I am selling at Imperial Outpost Games gamer's garage sale on 8/9.  This collection includes 73 miniatures and goes back to the late 90's when I first got into 40K. 

Here is what is included:

HQ -
Captain
Banner
Tech Marine
Apothecary
Librarian
2 robed marines

Troops -

Three 10 man squads with Plasma Cannon and Plasma gun
5 man Scout squad with CCW
5 man Scout squad with 2 shotguns, 2 snipers and a heavy bolter

Fast Attack -

6 man Assault squad with jump packs
6 man Assault squad with CCW

Heavy Support -

5 man Devastator squad with Lascannons
5 man Devastator squad with Missile Launchers

Extras -

2 Sargents with Power Fists
2 Meltaguns

I am looking for $350 for this collection.  I am pretty sure you could not buy this new for that price.  And you certainly can't get a few of these models any more.  There are only a few figures that need some details finished.  I had started to rebase several years ago so the basing is not consistent.  For the most part if the edges were all black they would look fine.

I have no idea how this points out with the new codex but I am sure it is very useable with only minor adjustments.