Games played in 2015

List of games played in 2015.  Fewer than in the last couple of years but still good variety Necromunda	7
Wings of War	6
Algernon Gets it Off 2nd ed	5
Lion Rampant	5
Force on Force	3
Dux Brittannicum	3
Chain of Command	3
Bolt Action	3
Check Your 6	3
DBA 3.0	3
Sword and Spear	3
Malifaux	3
Kiss me Hardy	2
Rapid Fire	2
Corvus	2
Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End	2
Washington Club WW2 Naval	2
Dungeon Saga	2
WRG Ren 2nd	1
King of the Battlefield	1
Band of Brothers	1
Bloody Barons	1
Lord of the Rings	1
In Her Majesty's Name	1
Kings of War	1
Galley's, Guns and Glory	1
Muskets and Tomahawks	1
The Gatling’s Jammed	1
Guns at Gettysburg 2nd ed	1
Arc of Fire	1
Naval War	1
Red Dawn	1
Mythotopia	1
Legion of Battle	1
Daisho	1
Bathgate Club Pulp	1

 

Ah well

I haven't posted for a while - after spending ages trying and failing to get photos onto the blog I had rather given up  - decided to come back for  review of 2015 and look forward to 2016


Watch this space..............

Gaming update

Since my last post I have upped the gaming tempo playing the following






Wings of Glory (WW1) x4


Algernon Pulls it Off  x3


DBA 3.0 x3


Necromunda x2


Corvus x2


Irregular Wars


Check Your 6!


Washington WC House WW2 Naval


Malifaux


Guns at Gettysberg


King of the Battlefield


Bolt Action


Chain of Command


Sword and Spear






So that is 23 miniatures games and in addition I also played a couple of board games as well.




A highlight was a trip to London where I managed to fit in a game on each of my free evenings.  Thanks to Central London Wargames Club and Gavin McKenzie in particular for taking me through a game of King of the Battlefield. Loughton Strike Force were also gracious hosts and it was very interesting to take part in a playtest of the second edition of Guns at Gettysberg in a multiplayer gaming including the author Dave Brown.  I will certainly be looking forward with interest to the final version. I must also thank Gary for helping me get too and from the venue.  Two cracking clubs that I hope to get back to again sometime.






The Falkirk annual trip to the Scottish National Museum of Flight was a great day out with lots of participation in our Wings of Glory and Bolt Action Tank game.  The key to these public events really is to keep the rules as simple as possible.  A number of visitors went away with details of the rules so we may have planted a few seeds there.


Last, but by no stretch of the imagination least, is Carronade, the annual show hosted by the Falkirk club.  For my sins I am on the organising committee and am pleased to report that, to coin a phrase, it was our best show ever.  More visitors, games, traders, flea market tables sold and painting competition entries.  Including visitors, people putting games on, traders and club members we must have had best part of 1,000 people attending which was great.  There is going to be a spread in August's Wargames Illustrated so keep a look out for that.
Hopefully I will start to up my posting count over the next few weeks.  I have still not fixed the problem which has made it impossible to attach photos - if I can get that done it will give me more incentive to post regularly. (edit)  Getting the spacing right also seems to be a pain

Variety is the Spice of Life

I have had a good start to the year playing a variety of games, namely:

Check Your 6!

Piquet Band of Brothers

Force on Force (twice)

Sword and Spear

Arc of Fire

Necromunda (twice)

Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World’s End

Lion Rampant

Legions of Battle

Muskets and Tomahawks

Wings of Glory

Lord of the Rings

The Gattling’s Jammed

Washington Club WW2 naval

Sixteen games is a bit behind the pace if I am going to hit the target of 100 in the year but the most important thing is that I am getting an awful lot of fun from my games.

The highlight of the year so far had to be on Saturday at the Albanich show in Dumfries.  The Falkirk club put on an Indian Mutiny game and I was one of the leaders of the ‘Freedom Fighters’, defending a couple of villages against the Imperialists.  Throwing caution to the winds I threw the tribal levies forward on the left flank and, despite taking horrific casualties, managed to break a brigade of Ghurkhas.  Great fun and we were pleasantly surprised to win ‘Best in Show’ for the game

Irregular Wars – First Impressions and Plans

We had our first run out of Irregular Wars – Conflict at the World's End last Monday.  They simulate small battles fought in the 16^th and early 17^th centuries and in particular in the New World, North Africa and Asia, although the fringes of Europe are also covered.

 To be fair we had a few issues.  The first was of our own making as we did not really have enough figures so there was only one 28mm figure per 60mm square base which made it look more like a skirmish.  Also we played Northern English v Lowland Scots so there was not the variation in troop types that would be normal under these rules.

The game itself went OK.  We had the usual issues of finding our way around a new set of rules.  The difficulty that superior troops had in breaking inferior ones in melee induced a bit of head shaking around the table, as did the general ineffectiveness of missile fire.  The element of uncertainty caused by the pre game rolling for disease, desertion etc and by the use of chance cards was more favourably commented on.  We played 2 v 2 with another friend trying to keep us right on the rules.  The general consensus at the end was not entirely convinced but most felt that it was worth giving them another go, which at least 2 of us will do in 15mm (Spanish v Aztec) fairly soon.

This is a set of rules that I do really want to like as the army lists really catch my imagination.  Although I normally prefer more troops on the table (this will look a bit like DBA) the premise is indeed small scale actions with 1000 – 2500 troops represented per side.  I can use some of my existing forces for a number of the armies so if I can persuade people to give the rules a go I certainly intend to play a few more games in 25/28mm.

I have a fair few Elizabethan types who can proxy for general European style troops.  I probably need to paint up about 30 – 40 of them.  My medieval Arabs can be used (and they are painted) I bought some Foundry Matchlock men at Vapnartak to add some shot.  Finally I have some part painted Muscovites, painted Cossacks and painted Mongols that can serve as Tartars.

This gives me Spanish v Berbers, Portuguese v Arabian and Muscovite v Tartar and some progress on painting figures that have been part of the Lead Mountain for a while. If after playing these games (and a couple in 15mm as well) the rules don’t seem worth persevering with then we will call it a day.  However if we like them I can see a wide vista of new armies and possible campaigns opening up.

Belated 2015 plan

I almost didn't post a plan this year, but having got off to a good start I thought I would share my thoughts.  This will hopefully give me some incentive to complete the tasks I have set myself.


2015 is going to be the year of the big sort and reorganisation of my wargames collection.  It consists of several thousand 25/28mm figures (Ancients, Medieval, Renaissance, 20th Century, Fantasy and SF) several hundred 15mm figures (18th & 19th centuries) some 10mm (20th century) and a few ships and planes.  Some are painted to the 'wargames standard'   that I aspire to, some need a bit of work but are usable in a game and others are unpainted or partly painted.


They are currently housed in a variety of cardboard and (some) plastic boxes.  These are mainly box files and document boxes (lidded, slightly smaller than box files but also a little taller).  An element of 'wargames standard' finish is to magnetise the bases. A proportion of the boxes have been lined with steel sheet.


The plan is to move all the completed 25/28mm figures into steel lined document boxes.  Usable but not completed will go into unlined document boxes.  I have 53 of these boxes in total and am hoping that will just about be enough.


The few steel lined box files will be used for 15/10mm completed or usable figures. Unlined will take unpainted figures, as will other non standard boxes.  Ships, planes and terrain will fit into suitable sized boxes, as will the few 25/28mm figures and models that are too tall to fit into document boxes.  I should also be able to get rid of some old and tatty boxes and by the end of it the attic should be very much tidier.


Part of this exercise is to catalogue what I have got, with more detail on completed figures and less on unpainted.  All the boxes will be numbered so I should be able to find what I am looking for much more easily than in the past.


I have so far sorted out 17 boxes of completed 25/28mm figures and 4 boxes of usable figures,  In addition 2 boxes of usable 15mm figures have also been sorted.  This is going to take quite a while to complete but it should certainly be doable.


The second part of this new approach is focussed on the painting table.  My plan here is to clear it completely and then focus my efforts on planned games.  For instance my next games are - Irregular Wars (renaissance 28mm), Legions of Battle (Fantasy 28mm) Necromunda (SF 28mm) and Warmachine (28mm Steampunk).  I am not providing any figures for Irregular Wars so my first task will be to work on my Chaos Fantasy figures.  These need a bit of a tidy up and magnetising so that is my current project, although I am unlikely to complete it this time around.  Once that game has been played I will turn to my Necromunda Goliath figures which just need a little work to complete.  Next up will be to paint my warmachine models.  


I am much less confident of being able to stick to the second part of my plan for a full year but I am determined to give it a good go.


So lets see how I get on.


Other targets - play 100 games in 2015 and blog at least once a month.