Into 2012

The year is only a few days old and it seems appropriate to comment on my plans for 2012 and review 2011.

2011, Done and Dusted
I have not written on this blog for a while largely because I burned out with the Rather Large Towton Project. The amount of painting and organising required to get this game to various shows was enough to put me off gaming for quite a while. Nevertheless, it was worth it. We had largely positive feedback for the game and I was rather impressed with the visual effect we achieved. I just wish our terrain had been up to the standard set by groups such as Bert Fegg with their ACW game. That would have really made it a satisfying project to have completed. The fact that we succeeded in fielding around 17000 to 18000 figures on the table and still completed the battle once per day at every show we attended was a great feeling. My other major gaming commitment of 2011 was our Talomir Tales campaign. This is our ongoing Rally Round The King / Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures fantasy campaign. It lurches along with games every so often and benefits for a lack of pressure. We play the games when we have the time and feel like it. That is a great way to proceed and it means that the campaign remains enjoyable. I particularly enjoy the interaction of the massed battle rules with the skirmish rules in the storylines that we run. I have some ideas for new adventures for Brother Cedric in this campaign and am also considering some Olde Skoole adventuring for both him and my own skirmish character, Ragnar. I reckon it could be good fun. Just for kicks I looked up my stats on BGG and this is how last year looks in terms of games played and how often. I'm not sure it presents a wholly accurate picture, because I feel sure that I have not logged some games, but it may just be that some of these games took several sessions to complete, so my recollection is faulty.

Played 4 times:
Odin's Ravens
Rally Round the King

Played 3 times:
Aeronef
Wings of War


Played 2 times:
Red Actions
Small World
Tomorrow's War (second edition)
Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures

Played 1 time:
Age of Conan: The Strategy Board Game
Laserburn
Outrider
Tusk
Warrior Heroes

To 2012 and Beyond ...
I hope to keep 2012 a quiet year in terms of new purchases. The only guaranteed purchase will be some more 15mm and 6mm sci-fi stuff from Ground Zero Games, because I have a discount voucher for them and science fiction is very much on the cards for this year. Terrain may well be on the cards too, because I could do with more and better terrain than I currently have. Other than that, I plan to limit purchases to those figures that are absolutely necessary for any given project. In terms of painting I am also planning a quiet year spent finishing a variety of projects that are currently stored in the attic. I do not plan to put any great pressure on myself because I have to finish my PhD this year, which is rather more important than painting little lead soldiers ... honest! This year will see the return of the project-a-month initiative. I shall set myself small targets each month and seek to achieve them. No miniatures purchases may be made in any month following one where the monthly project was not achieved.  

January is Vikings Month
My plan for January is to complete a 200 point Baccus 6mm Viking army for use with Impetus. This should not prove too arduous. My plan is to assign months later in the year to the production of additional elements for this army to build it up to a 500 point army. I also have a Norman army that will be a project for a later month too.

Other Projects
The main focus of my gaming this year will be:

• Talomir Tales - painting additiional skirmish figures and playing both skirmishes and massed battles.
• The As Yet Unnamed Science Fiction Campaign - a 6mm and 15mm science fiction campaign set in the Traveller universe. The details have not yet been finalised but the basic idea is to play games that are set against the Traveller background using a variety of skirmish and massed battle rules. The individual games do not need to be directly linked but will provide the backstory for later games.  
• 6mm 18th Century - Steve is planning a Lacepunk game that will use our 6mm GNW and SYW armies. I am also planning some historical battles that I need to paint figures for. No campaign is currently planned, but it may evolve as we get figures painted and play games.  
• Impetus - As mentioned above, I shall paint a small Viking army for Impetus in January and have a Norman army in the wings awaiting time for it. I also have the same armies in 15mm and a Viking army in 28mm. These may well become the focus of the monthly projects at some point this year. At the very least, 15mm Basic Impetus armies would make a nice change of visual appearance.  
• Terrain Building - I just never seem to have enough terrain. I need 6mm and 15mm terrain suitable for my science fiction campaign and I need to get more terrain built for our 28mm fantasy skirmishes. Terrain building will be the focus of my efforts at some point in the year too.