2021 Debriefing

Well, 2021, what can we say about it? A friend called it "the year in which nothing happened, again."

I've been busy hobby-wise, holding back waves of depression and anxiety with paint brush and dice. And shopping. Bought more books and miniatures this year than ever before I think. But otherwise it was very much the same, except more focused on the Napoleonic Wars than last year, 2020 seemed to have been more diverse.

But, I knocked a bunch of stuff off the leadpile, some of which had been maturing for years, having sat in boxes for over a decade or even 15 years.

15mm

I painted something for every period except 15mm Seven Years War, Samurai and Colonials this year I think.

15mm with repurpose plastic toy

15mm Forged in Battle for O Group

3D printed figures have been a new thing this year too. Cars for the gangsters, Orcs for Mordor, and a 15mm AFV.

28mm Knucklebones 3d printed Orcs

3d printed cars

The huge, totally unexpected effort this year turned out to be Napoleonics. It is where I started so many long years ago, and I've returned to it with some maturity as a player and painter, and a deeper wallet than when I was a callow youth with only Airfix figures! The results have been pleasing.

This knocked a big whack of very old stuff off the leadpile. Of course, I also seemed to add a bunch too. Fortunately, I've gotten most of it painted, so the leadpile has still seen a net decrease. I think.

Warlord Prussians

Old leadpile

New period/project always prompts new terrain too.

Perry Prussians with Warbases houses

Discovering Front Rank figures has been a joy, I must say. I'm glad I went out of my comfort zone to order some before the company got sold. 

Front Rank Russian command base

Perry Prussians

Front Rank civilians

I always liked the Prussians, and am finally building that force that I've always wanted, but the Bavarians were a completely unplanned and happy accident when I determined that I would get more play value out of the Russians and Prussians if I built an in-house opponent for them. I've always wanted a Bavarian army too because of the Ruppenhelms. An ancestral connection to Bavaria made them even more special.

Boom! Not bad for 6 months work.

First Bavarian unit. Hat figures

Perry Chevauxleger. Really happy with the officer

Front Rank schutzen

Front Rank command group

Perry limber. It's nice being able to afford limbers, caissons and wagons too!

Super economical MDF wagons with metal horses from Warbases

I thought games had dropped off this year, but a late flurry in the fall with an easing of Covid Restrictions really boosted the numbers back up. This year I had 20 games, which was the same as last year.

• 5 virtual (Coastal Command, What a Tanker, Packing Heat, CoC x2) 
• 9 face to face (GdA, O Group, Infamy, SP, BtH, DR, IABSM, TCW, Zombies) 
• 6 solo (BtH x3 SP x2, DR) 

I naturally thought the focus was Napoleonic, but the games were different form the painting output obviously:

• 9x WW2 (including 4x Bag the Hun)
• 4x Napoleonic 
• 3x fantasy
• 2x Gangster
• 1x ancient 
• 1x WW1

Looking back at last year's retrospective produced a fine list of Things I Planned, But Didn't Do This Year:

 

There's some nice 15mm WW2 and SF pieces in the stash I should build. Also a platoon of German paratroopers started. And Goths, Prussians Swiss and Samurai to paint.

For terrain I still want to build some urban ruins and clear the collected crap out of the way. Same with my 15mm science fiction. Corridors and room modules for a colony are on the list. 

Game wise, more of last year plus I want to take a look at adapting Contact Front to my Firefly in the Expanse games. Adding a ship component with scratch built ships is in the back of my mind too.

So for 2022, I'd like to

• Play more Napoleonics, or air, or Middle Earth, or WW2 or anything really 
• Build a castle for Middle Earth and Medieval
• Build urban ruins for 15mm WW2
• Build SF corridors and Off-world Colony terrain 
• Sort out my ideas for a SF/Contact Front hybrid
• finish the Bavarians and Prussians
• keep smashing the leadpile down
• buy less, but keep painting output up

New projects? Who knows? Maybe this year will be the year I add a proper Dwarf army to Middle Earth? But I've also just discovered 3D printed proxies for Epic 40K, which is a game I regret getting rid of.

My gaming projects always seem to be a series of happy accidents. I hadn't planned on Napoleonic Bavarians this year either.

Watch this space.