2011 in Review

Well it's New Year's Eve and time to be all retrospective.
Here's what I posted at the start of the year:

So here's what I'd like to do this year:
1. get enough 15mm SYW Austrians done to have a viable inhouse opponent for my Prussian army.
2. play with said SYW armies!
3. get another platoon of Fallschirmjaeger done
4. finally play a game with said FJ!!
5. finish the last few units of German armour.
6. push other periods forward too by moving some more Colonial, VSF and Medieval troops from the unpainted to the painted box.
7. play some ancients. Too much to hope that I'll get any more legions done, but if I start playing the period again maybe the enthusiasm will strike.

A modest check mark beside 1 & 2, since I did get enough Austrians done to be able to play a game with them. But the Austrians need more troops to be able to take the field without the earthworks.

Item 3 is a late starter; inspired by reading v.3 of I Ain't Been Shot Mum! I got a second platoon of FJ scraped, primed and last night gave them their black undercoat. I had hoped to piggy back them with Brian's FJ, but his commission turned out to be big enough without adding another rifle platoon to it. But thanks to that game in August with my nephew, I do get to put a big check mark beside point 4!

If we don't count the last packs of Opelblitzes and halftracks, and the two Sdkfz234 ACs a friend gifted me, then #5 is a big check mark. (And I don't see myself getting any more.... maybe...)

No action on point 6. Kept getting distracted by other things like commission jobs and Romans.

Big surprise on point 7 with Hail Caesar. My ancient armies saw a lot of the table this year.

Not too much progress on terrain either. I did get my big trestle bridge built and have found 2nd hand pieces to make a blown up version. The SYW earthworks were a big addition too. But I still need some fake fur fields, more bridges, and individual trees for orchards.

Warlord Games threw temptation in my way and unhorsed my pious determination to maintain No new Scales! No new Periods! this year by getting me started on 28mm Romans and Napoleonics.

Some pretty good progress on commission work this year, and I managed to stay pretty close to my carefully thought out plan:

Obviously interspersing commission work with my own projects and breaking up big commissions into smaller lots has been successful.

Job wise things have stalled at the Buy Food. The Boss is nice enough, and the pay is OK, but it's not enough to get ahead, and I've gone as far as I think I'm able to there. I have begun networking and applying to other jobs. My other job as a COATS (Cadet Organization Administration and Training Service) Officer with the Army has finally taken off and the extra income from going on courses has been a big help this fall, even if it has cut into painting and gaming and writing time.

My blog posts are up by about 30% this year over last. Having my own camera at long last has helped with that.

Game-wise I don't think I'm any further ahead this year. I'm going to change my routine and try scheduling games for Friday evenings instead of Saturday evenings now and the occasional weekend afternoon. If I can change jobs and free up my weekends from retail slavery then that will help a lot.

Speaking of which, I'm off this afternoon to test drive I Ain't Been Shot Mum v.3 with Lorenzo and his Russian army. Talk to you later!