2016 Game Year in Review

Time again to look back at the year that was and decide how it was...or something like that.  Back in January I had some ideas on what I wanted to do with this year as it relates to my hobby.  You can read about my predictions for the future if you like.  Taken as a whole this years was not as productive as I would have liked or even as I expected it to be.  The blog posts were way down from usual too.  The main reason for that is some health and personal issues that just made it really tough to concentrate.  I still managed to get in regular gaming and I also managed to complete some projects but I was not very good at sharing my experiences this year.  So much for the pro log, time to get to the details.

Flames of War - WW2

I had high hopes for this game this year and things started off well.  I managed to get in about 16 games and about half of these came in January and February for the Shifting Sands event.  I played my early war French tank company and I really had a blast.   Later in the year I manages to get in a few more games with other friends on a one off basis.  It was good times but I would have loved to play even more.

On the painting and collecting front, I purchased and assembled a large US Marine force.  No paint as of yet.  I also started on a late war German Panzer company composed of models I have had for some time and some new additions.  I made no progress on my 11th Panzer Division for 1942 or on my Normandy Panther company.  All in all WW2 was a bust on the painting front this year.

Flames of War - Great War

I got in 4 games of Great War this year and really had a good time with it.  My friend Tom and I started a little ladder campaign and are almost done with it.  I also painted some additional units for my Germans.  I managed to acquire a US Army Brett's Brawlers box set.  A very good year for this game and period.

Flames of War - Fate of a Nation

I painted my Israeli tank company and managed to get in 4 games this year.  I did not manage to win any but they were all a blast.  Another success for the year.

Bolt Action and 28mm WWII

This has been an interesting year for BA.  The year started off with finishing up projects in preparation for the Gathering in the Desert event.  This year was a North Africa themed event and I played my Perry 8th Army.  I had a great time.  I then moved on to painting the rest of my British Para collection.  I now have about a company of 28mm paras.  In the later part of the year my friends Tim and Tom decided to plan a large Tank War game based on the Point 213 battle in Normandy.  We have been collecting and painting a large number of tanks for this game.  Tim and I played a test game a few weeks ago to test the concept.  I also purchased a US Marine army box and have been adding more models.  Nothing is built or painted yet but the plan is starting to come together.

Bolt Action 2nd edition was released this year and I have purchased it but not yet played the new rules.  I also added several more Bolt Action supplements to my game library.  Even though I only got in about 12 games this year I count this game as a success for the year.

Black Powder

At the beginning of the year I thought that we might get in one large ACW game this year and I would have been happy with that.  As it turned out we did not get that going after-all.  We did manage to get a relatively small game of Napoleonics on the table.  I painted a whole bunch of French Line troops this year along with a couple of guns.  I also purchased a large number of Russian Napoleonic troops.  We did start a plan for a big ACW game for early next year and I have been working on terrain and other items for that event.  I also purchased the Glory!  Hallelujah book ad read through it. All things considered this was a pretty good year for this game but not really what I thought it would be.

28mm Fantasy Gaming

Kings of War was a big hit this year.  I only managed to get in 4 games but I had a blast with each one.  I made lots of progress in reconfiguring my old WAB Saxons and Normans for use with KoW.  A few of my friends and I even started the KoW campaign using the rules that were released.  Good times.

Frostgrave was a bust really.  No games played and other than purchasing a couple of supplements I didn't add anything to the collection.  I am not ready to give up on this however.

SAGA

What can I say about SAGA?  Games were played and fun was had.  I recently acquired the Rus supplement but I will not have time to add that army to the collection this year.  I wanted to get my Normans ready for SAGA and I did make some progress on the rebasing and whatnot but it did not make it to the table so I cannot claim that one yet.  I purchased some Saxon Miniatures Saxon figures with the plan of adding an Anglo-Saxon army to the collection but this it still in the planning stages.  A good year but it probably could have been better.

28mm Sci-fi

I gave Corvus Belli, and their local agents, a large quantity of cash this year for Infinity models and books.  This game has me all messed up to be truthful.  I really love the models and the back story is very interesting.  The rules, however, are pretty complicated.  The complicated nature of the rules has really kept me back from the game so far.  Part of this is due to my inability this year to focus on stuff like this.  The miniatures are also very intimidating to me.  They are such amazing sculpts I just don't believe my painting can due them justice.  I did start some painting but failed to finish as single figure.  I also manage to get in a very small test game and really enjoyed it.  I am sure we barely scratch the surface and probably even screwed some things up but it was still fun.  This was a real bright spot of the year that deserved much more effort than I was able to put into it.

TANKS

I was really interested in this game when it was released over the summer.  My friend Mike gave me a demo and I thought it had lots of potential.  The problem was the stater sets were impossible to find.  It took months to get.  I did get one more game in this year and I am really looking forward to exploring this game more.  The mechanism is reminiscent of the X-Wing system but without the complicated dial movement system.  I like that I can use mu Flame of War tank and terrain collection to have really nice looking games.

Parting Thoughts

All things considered it was a pretty good year for the hobby.  Almost every aspect, from blogging to gaming, could have been more what I managed to get in was still good.  Stay tuned for my, otherwise, worthless plans for 2017!

28mm Field Works

I recently completed, well almost completed, a large terrain project for a big Black Powder ACW game my friends and I have planned for February.  We are planning the second day of the Battle of Chancellorsville which requires some field works.  I have built 12 feet of straight along with some angled connectors and 5 gun positions.  My friend Tim did a nice post on how these are actually constructed.

Not only will these be used for ACW they can also be used for many other periods and conflicts.

British Para Army for Bolt Action

My hobby funk issue last month inspired me to just grab some stuff and start painting with no real concern as to why.  I pulled down a large assortment of British paras from the shelf above my paint bench and got to work.  A month later I have added 47 miniatures to this collection.  I realized that this collection has been documented in bits an pieces going back to the start of this blog 10 years ago.  It now seems like a good time to do a full documentation of the collection considering I have now painted all the miniatures I have for this force.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have never really build a 28mm army for Bolt Action specifically and this collection is no exception to that.  The first figures in this collection were acquired from my friend Tom more than 15 years ago.  These first figures were painted by another friend, Kevin.  Even though I was not a huge fan of the paint jobs on these original figures I never went back to repaint them,  As you will see below, I think they still match OK with my painting style.  A style that has evolved over the years.

Since this collection was not built with Bolt Action in mind it is WAY too big.  This is really a company of paratroopers and more than I would ever use in one game.

Company HQ and Support

First up we have Major Howard, a limited edition figure from Warlord Games.  He is accompanied by a Crusader Miniatures para with a captured MP40.  These are both recent paints by me.

This is my para sniper team.  The sniper is a Foundry model painted years ago by Kevin.  The spotter is also a Foundry model painted by me this week.  

The flamethrower is a Foundry model painted by Kevin and the assistant is a Crusader figure I painted about 10 years ago.  You can see the differences in the colors and style that make the figure painted by Kevin stand out.

The forward air controller/forward artillery observer team are Foundry miniatures.  The radio operator was painted by Kevin years ago and the observer was painted by me 10 years ago.

The medic is a limited edition miniature from Warlord Games and is a recent paint job by me.  I am really excited to have this one in the collection!

The 6pdr anti-tank gun team are Crusader models and recently painted by me.  This is a nice set but the gun is a little flimsy for a game piece.  I orginally had the gun and the team on a single base but I did not like the look.  With BA2 now specifying individual bases I will attempt to stick with that whenever possible.

First Platoon

The first platoon commander is from Foundry and was painted by Kevin.  Back in the early 2000's it was still fashionable with my friends to paint eyes.  I got over that years ago.

The medium mortar is from Crusader Miniatures and is a recent paint job by me.  I like Crusader a lot but their lack of variation in weapons team figures makes me sad.  I think I have 5 of the dude pointing.

The Foundry Piat team was painted by Kevin.  Again, the eyes.  Thankfully my eyes are getting to the point that I can't see this except in a picture or if I really study the figure.

This is a Vickers medium machine gun team from Crusader Miniatures recently painted by me.

Squad 1 is a mix of Foundry figures and Crusader.  About half these models are painted by Kevin and the other half are mine from 10 or so years ago.

Squad 2 is almost entirely Foundry with, I think, only one Crusader.  I think all but one of these were painted by me over the years.  

Squad 3 and again we have a mix of Foundry and Crusader.  Paint is also a mix of mine and Kevin's work.  This picture shows the difference in basing from one paint batch to the next.  They don't really match but they still look good together.

Second Platoon

Platoon 2 commander is a Crusader model recently painted by me.

Here we have another MMG team just like first platoon.  Painted by me.

This medium mortar team is from Warlord Games and was recently painted by me.  

Warlord PIAT team is a recent edition to the collection painted by me.

Squad 1 is back to a mix of Foundry and Crusader.  Most of these are older paint jobs by me with  one or two by Kevin.

Squad 2 is another recent edition to the collection painted by me.  These are Warlord Games figures that came in my Pegasus Bridge set. I was a little sad to see one duplicate figure but otherwise a nice set.

Squad 3 is mostly Crusader miniatures with the exception of the Bren team that are Foundry figures.  These are all recent paint jobs by me.  

Even though this represents all the figures I currently own for a British Para force I don't think I can say I am done.  There are still a couple of different gun teams I would like to add as well as Jeeps.  It will likely be a while before I tackle and more projects for this army.

Blogger F'ed Up My Blog

For some reason Blogger decided to remove all my widgets with links or with blog rolls.  Basically, anything referenced outside my blog was removed.  I have spent the last couple of days rebuilding my blog roll but it only has about a third of the blogs it used to have.  If I had your blog on my roll and it is now missing leave me a comment with the link and I will add it back in.  I still need to redo all my links for companies, shops, forums and whatnot.  That will take some time.  Oh blogger, now I understand the need to back-up my blog.

Bolt Action, Konflikt '47, Bolt Action 2nd Edition

As part of my efforts to overcome my aforementioned hobby funk, I have been taking stock of all the games I play and would like to play.  With the recent release of both the Konflikt '47 rules and the Bolt Action 2nd edition rules it is time to take stock of this game and decide where I am going with them.  Before I talk about these new games I think I will start with some rather dull background related to my experiences with Bolt Action and 28mm WW2 gaming in general.

28mm World War II Gaming

My love of WWII gaming began many years ago when my friends and I discovered Battleground World War 2.  Most of us started off with 20mm-1/72nd scale models but one friend had Battlehonours 25mm figures.  I love the look of the bigger figures but they were too expensive compared to 20mm and there was very little to choose from.  Fast-forward a while and we have the release of the excellent (well for their time anyway) Nick Collier sculpted Black Tree Designs (back then they were Harlequin miniatures I think) Germans, Americans and Soviets.  That first batch of figures were great and happily were 28mm and matched will with the only other line of 25/28mm figures available - Foundry.

With these new figures my friends and I began, slowly collecting 28mm forces, mostly for my Necromunda WWII conversion.  This game only required 10-12 figures so it was easy to get into.  As my collection grew my friend Tim and I jumped in to 28mm gaming with both feet.  I sold off all my 20mm collection and invested in 28mm.  This was actually an easy decision as at the time we were playing 40k and we did not want to duplicate terrain projects between 2 different scales.  Eventually, we had enough stuff to play Battleground World War 2 in 28mm and that was a big step.

All good things come to an end and the Battleground guys went out of business.  This would become my first experience as a gamer of having a game I love 'go away.'  I know, we could have kept playing but I hate telling people whoa are interested in a game that you can't get it anymore.  This was the start of The Quest - to find another set of rules.  Tim and I played a lot of different games over the next 8-10 years.  Some were great - Arc of Fire, and some were not so good - Rate of Fire.  Eventually, I decided to write my own rules based on 4th edition Warhammer 40K.  This effort took several years and we played a bunch of games.  I even submitted the rules to Warhammer Historical Wargames but it was just before GW closed it down so nothing ever came of that.  About 5-6 years ago I decided to jump into Flames of War for my WWII gaming and the 28mm collection was put on the shelf, maybe for good.

Enter Bolt Action

About four years ago we got wind that Warlord games was working on a set of rules for WWII.  I was kind of excited as I was really liking what they were doing with other games.  When it the games was released I really hoped to fall in love with it as I had a HUGE collection of 28mm armies and I really wanted a reason  to get them back on the table even though I was having a blast with Flames of War.  Here are the 28mm armies that I owned at that time,

Reinforced platoon of British Infantry
Reinforced platoon of Italian Alini
Reinforced platoon of British Commandos
Reinforced platoon of British Paras
Reinforced platoon of French Infantry
Company of US Infantry plus vehicles
Company of German Heer plus vehicles
Company of German Fallschirmjagers
Company of Soviet Infantry plus vehicles

As you can see I had a lot of reasons to be excited for a good 28mm WWII game but...  I never really fell in love with the game.  I am not sure exactly why this was.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every game (OK maybe not every game) I played.  But after I was don playing I rarely felt excited about playing again.  Some of this might have been from the abysmal quality of the original rules release.  There were some serious issue with the rules at first, due most to poor editing and vague wording.  It was painful to play the game until the errata and FAQ were finally released.

It is not as if there was not inspiration triggered by the game it is just did not reignite the old fire for the scale.  I build one are specifically for Bolt Action in 4 years of playing the game.  I did add some new units and elements to existing armies but this level of output is not at my usual level for a game I am passionate about.  In that same period I probably build 8 Flames of War armies.  In some cases the inspiration was to liquidate items.  I sold off two complete armies - British Infantry and Italian Alpini.  I sold off portions of my US and Soviet forces as well as much of my 1/48th scale vehicles.

So, back to the original thesis - Where am I going with Bolt Action?

Konflikt '47

To be completely honest I was not sure what to make of this game when I first heard about it.  It just did not seem to fit with Warlord's product direction as it seems to a competing product with both Bolt Action and Gates of Antares (sci-fi game and all).  The idea of an alt-WWII/horror WWII game is kind of neat but not all that original these days.  I was really surprised that they went with the 1st edition rules and there was apparently no connection with the 2nd edition team during the development of the game.

I also found it troubling that as they developed this game no one seems to have thought of adding in all the BA errata and FAQ information collected over 4 years of the game.  It seem that they just took the original files for BA and made their changes.  Basically, they phoned it in.  This has led to an almost exact repeat of the first edition Bolt Action release with all of it's faults.

Many of the new units look fun and there are some neat models for the game but all things considered it is not enough to get me to play.  The similarity with 1st edition is also a negative as it will be hard to keep three versions of the game straight.  In the end I will not play this game, or more accurately, these rules.  If I play any alt-WWII games I would use the stats and special rues from Konflikt and just apply them to games of Bolt Action.  This should have been a rules supplement and not a completely 'new' game.

Bolt Action 2nd Edition

Let me start off by saying I do not have these rules yet.  I have not played a game with the new rules and all I really know is what my friends have told me and what I have read on various internet forums and articles.  Having said that I think I have a decent idea of the differences between the two editions and I think the new game may be more fun to play.  I am a bit concerned with the de-emphasis on the pinning mechanism (by way of making it easier to remove pin markers).  I have actually won more than one game by the efficient application of pins to the point of stopping attacks and even destroying units.  It seems with the new edition the focus will be more on kills than pins.  Time will tell, I guess.

What really has me excited, more than the rules themselves, is the opportunity for a fresh start with the game and with 28mm WWII gaming.  I think the new rules will really help me get back into large scale gaming for the period.  As already mentioned I have a large investment in models and I would really love to get them back on the table and work on new projects.  My friends and I are already planning a large tank game for early next year.

I think another issue I have had with Bolt Action is the way I have been playing the game.  For the most part I have always played the game as a point matched, tournament style game.  Scenarios have been randomly picked from the 6 in the book.  We have never delved into the campaign books or seriously considered different ways to play the game.  The only real exception is and adaptation of the rules for 1 to 1 skirmish that we played in an event this year.  One of the hallmarks of my 28mm WWII gaming in the past is a more freestyle approach to games.  We generally do not use army comp, such as points, fr putting our games together.  Being gentlemen, no one would dream of abusing this to gain an undue advantage.  I would love to get back to more of this type of game where scenarios are more important than armies.

Armies are obviously very important to the game and this is an area I need to work on.  You see I have large collections of figures, but I have really never designed an army specifically for Bolt Action.  Even the one army I have build since playing the game, my British 8th Army, was not build as a specific Bolt Action force.  I just bought some figures and some cool models, as I normally do, and then made a list out of what I had collected.  I would really like to change this approach with the new rules and try my hand at designing a specific force with Bolt Action in mind.  Of course, just getting to the point of thinking about Bolt Action armies rather than 28mm WWII collections might help with the motivation.

Another area that has been severely neglected is terrain.  My Flames of War games benefit from an extensive terrain collection I have built over the years.  With very few exceptions I have not added any terrain for 28mm games since Bolt Action was released 4 years ago.  This lack of terrain, I think, is a big part of the motivation issues I have.  The solution is to spend some money on terrain.  I have already started with the purchase of the Pegasus bridge set I purchased earlier this year.  The vast amount of new laser cut kits that have been released in the last few years is truly amazing and it is long past time I invest in some of this stuff.

I guess I have really just made all this too complicated. Basically, I am excited about the new version of Bolt Action.  With this new version I am planning to re-evaluate my existing armies and makes some changes.  I am also going to plan an army specifically for Bolt Action for the first time.  I would like to expand my terrain collection for 28mm gaming.  I would also like to plan some bigger games or games that are more scenario drive rather than just point matched, tournament style games.

Stay tuned to see how all this pans out.  I have a feeling the Bolt Action content around here is really going to start picking up soon.

Fallschirmjager Reinforcements for Bolt Action

Last weekend Tim and I decided to play one last game of Bolt Action first edition.  The 2nd edition books were just hitting the stores and everyone was excited for the new rules but it didn't seem right to not have one last go at a game we have enjoyed for 4 plus years.

In an effort to get over my recently commented on game funk I decided I needed to finish up a few lingering figures before the game.  These models has sadly been on my paint bench for many YEARS.  It has take some long to finish the mortar team has actually been used in multiple games with incomplete paint - shock!

It felt really good to finish these units up and the 80mm mortar and the 105mm recoilless rifle were put to excellent effect in our game.

I am in the process of painting some more items for Bolt Action so stay tuned.

Return of the Hobby Funk

It was bound to happen sooner or later, considering my hobby activities of the last couple of years, but I have officially fallen into a bit of a funk with the hobby.  It is a thing that happens to many of us but for me it has been several years since I have felt like this.

I have a general lack of excitement for just about all aspects of the hobby.  I have managed to get in a bunch of games this year and have had fun playing but for whatever reason I don't feel excited about playing.  Even planning for a game fails to get me excited about playing.  The lack of consistent games or long term plans related to a game might be part of the issue but who knows?

The same is true of hobby related purchases.  Generally, I look forward to planning projects and acquiring the models but lately I have had little motivation to purchase and this is likely do to a lack of focus.  I just don't have any real compelling plans to keep me excited.  It is true that I have some big projects in the works but for the most part the models have already been collected.  This brings me to...

...painting.  My painting production has been way off this year.  I seem to be caught between doing what I want and doing what I need to do.  Nothing really new here except I don't know what I want to do and the things I 'need' to do I don't really think they will pan out.  This lack of painting activity has impacted the blog as it is mostly focused on the painting aspect of the hobby.

What to do about this?  How do I get my gaming 'Mojo' back?  In the past I have just stopped working on anything that I felt I needed to do and just grabbed the first models that got my attention and started painting.  I am not sure this time around that will be of much help.

I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with games and potential projects.  So far this year my gaming has been spread over 9 different game systems with 2-3 others that I would like to play but have not yet found the time for.  In addition I have been tempted by several new games that I have managed to resist getting involved with.  Add to that 2-3 new games coming down the pipe that I have some interest in and things are clearly getting out of control.  In the past my gaming has been much more focused on 3-4 games systems total which helped keep all aspects of the hobby pointed in the same direction.  This lack of focus on the game side has translated to the painting and purchasing side of the hobby.

The question remains - what do I do about this?  Another approach I have taken in the past would be to look to my game friends for inspiration and focus.  Unfortunately, many of them are just as flighty with their game projects and many are even worse.

Maybe I need to de-emphasize an aspect of the hobby such as purchasing, painting or playing.  The purchasing part seems like the obvious place to start.  If you have no motivation for any particular project then there is nothing to buy...or maybe there is.  I just made a deal to day to buy some cast-off items from a friend.  It was a good deal and there is certainly potential that these items will be used but none of it helps me regain my hobby focus.  No am I not sure I can stop buy stuff in a general sense.

My painting has really slowed down this year so maybe stopping for a while would be the ticket.  The problem with that approach is that I see this hobby as mostly a modeling and painting hobby so stopping that aspect is like giving up on the hobby.  If I stopped painting completely I would be very likely to give up the hobby completely and that is something I am not prepared to do.

That leaves playing games.  Ironically, this is the area I have had the most fun this year.  I am averaging a game a week so far this year and I have really enjoyed the games while I was playing them.  I am not sure having LESS fun is a good therapy.

There you have it.  I am in a bit of a funk and I don't know what to do about it.  Whine and complain I guess.  At this point I am open to suggestions but I will likely just have to let this run it's course.

SAGA Fatigue Tokens

After my last SAGA games I realized that my bead counters were a little cheesy and I decided to step up to a classier solution.  I picked up a set of the SAGA Fatigue Tokens.  Some friends also use these and I really like them.  I wanted mine to be distinct so I took my Prismacolor markers and colored them in.  You get 24 of these for about $11.50 which is a pretty good deal.

French Napoleonic Army Update

Wow!  Six battalions painted and 2 guns for my French Napoleonic army.  I started this project nearly 5 years ago but in the last year I have made lots of progress.  I am working on the commander for this force and then it will be back to troops.

I plan to add 2 battalions of Warlord figures painted as Swiss.  These will be large units and I think I will add in mounted colonels.  I have some GMB flags on order for these units so they should pretty spectacular.  I will brigade the Swiss with the French so that will give me enough figures for t brigades for Black Powder.

After that I am going to paint 4 boxes worth of Warlord French as Italians.  This will give me a four battalion brigade for Black Powder.  These should be a breeze to paint as they are pretty much all white.  Once those are done I will be complete with my immediate plans for French and allied infantry.  Then it is on to either French cavalry or maybe Russians.

Tau Army For Sale

Here is another army that belonged to my friend.  This time we have a nice sized Tau army.  This army will be a featured item at our local gamer's garage sale this Saturday.  I am asking $600 obo for this army.  I don't know much about the different Tau models so Take a look at the pictures to see what is included.