Fred’s 2022 Painting and Gaming Diary

[fred.]

Tasty! The halberds look great en mass, and the snow on the Ogres is a nice touch

Thanks - I'm pleased with how the halberdiers look like this - its not really any different to how there were, but it seems to work better!

I don't recall why my Ogre army is snow based, but it does give them a good look

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Lovely job Forbes

[toxicpixie]

Thanks - I'm pleased with how the halberdiers look like this - its not really any different to how there were, but it seems to work better!

I don't recall why my Ogre army is snow based, but it does give them a good look

Yeah, something about snow basing makes it pop nicely!

Halberds - I think it's just the sheet *heft* of the unit!

[fred.]

Summary of 2022

I don't often write these - but inspired by a few others' recaps, I have had a look through what I did in the year, not least to remind myself what happened this year. 

Gaming
This is been fairly regular for much of the year, with Friday evenings continuing to be the standard gaming slot. There was a bit of break in the summer due to holidays and then being ill with Covid. I did manage to host 3 full-day games, which is good and its always nice to be able to play a bigger game without worrying about needing to finish for a time. Feels that this year I have hosted far more games, I'm only seeing photos from a couple of games I went to, which is unusual. Games have been a mix of remote and in-person. Most games have been 2-3 people with few 4 player ones, and I don't think any larger ones - which all feels a Covid legacy. 

Rules & Periods

O Group - battalion level WWII rules probably - these were the most played rules of the year, with most of the games being France 1940 ones following the campaign supplement. These were new rules that took a bit of getting into, but once we understood them they flow well and give a good WWII feel to the game. Probably the only negative is that they give a fairly small game - and I have loads of WWII models to get on the table. No great painting done (or needed for WWII) mainly rebasing of figures to provide patrol markers and MGs on smaller bases. Whilst it was good to get the French on the table, there are so many more WWII figures sat in boxes awating a game. Thinking about some more Rommel perhaps, or back to BKC just to allow big games. 

If the Lord Spares Us - WWI divisional level rules. Only got one outing this year after a lot of play in 2021. Have been looking at Russian figures, either WWI or RCW, and my mate has painted up late war French so I think these will get more table time in 2023

Fistful of Lead - Cowboy Skrimish (28mm) - this hasn't had too many outings this year but we got a couple of linked games in late in the year. We had been looking at these as a generic skirmish set - and I have most of the rules, but we haven't got the fantasy or Sci Fi games on the table. 

Sharpe Practice - Napoleonic large skimish game. With the new Peninsular figures arriving and getting painted a set of rules was needed. I had played a bit of Rebels and Patriots, but it didn't really grip in any great way. So we gave Sharpe Practice a go - its large skirmish with 3-4 units on a side, each reperesenting around a platoon. Gave some very interesting and evocative games. I got a lot more figures painted to give more options on the table. After having avoided Napoleonics for decades I've really enjoyed dipping my toe in with this project. Also got a lot of buildings painted up. 

For King and Parliament - English Civil War army level game. In looking back over photos of games, I realised that I had played quite a few game of FKaP this year. We played a number from a fictional scenario book, and a big all day game of Edgehill too. FKaP allways gives a fun game, which can often be over quite quickly - or in the case of our last 4 player game take for ever due to the inability of either of the infantry commanders to inflict casualties on the enemy! Painted up a couple more units for this period, but no great painting progress. 

Irregular Wars - IW is a Renaissance era small battle ruleset and has been a long-time favourite - it gets plus points for quick setup and flexibility of forces. I now have lots of figures that can be used for these rules as well as others. This tended to be used as a pick-up game when we hadn't planned properly! Painting wise got a number of units painted up - mainly European ones, Adventurers or Irregulars, and Prates / Ships crews. Which are useful units to round out a number of forces. 

Fantasy - allways a core 'period' for me with multiple armies painted up, and others waiting in the painting queue. We tried a couple of new rulesets, but while some of them seemed promising to start with we found holes in them fairly quickly. Towards the end of the year we have revisited Warmaster - with a tweaked version and played a couple of big games with those rules. Which seem to work pretty well. Which is good as getting these armies back on the table will be good. Painted up quite a lot of my Warmonger Landsknechts which are very nice figures and have been languishing in the lead pile for too long. Lots of rebasing done primarily of my Empire troops to move them over to 40x40mm bases for both WM XL and Hordes of War.

Sci-Fi - lots of different things tried in this 'period'. 

Kill Team skirmish game were played early on, I do like this as a system, a definite improvement from v1 of the rules. And plenty of detail to the army lists. 

Full Spectrum Dominance - played the beta of this - I quite enjoyed the game and looking forward to the full version being published soon. I'd probably like more models on the table but definitely an intersting game.

Epic Varient - I think only one big game of Epic in the year, but always good to get the table filled with tiny Sci-fi tanks!

Star Wars - using Mantic Firefight rules and 3d printed models - a mate's project that I got to play - seems to work pretty well and great to see two entirely new armies on the table


That was a longer and more varied list than I was expecting!

I think Napoleonics in the Penninsular would count as the major project of the year, both from the amount of figures painted, and the number of games played. 

But behind that there are a number jostling for runner-up spot. And writing up the above as reminded me of a few that only got the odd run-out. And there were some games like In Her Majesties Name that despite buying the updated rules, and additional figures for never even got close to the table.

Not sure what will be a focus for 2023. 

WWI Russia certianly seems likely. More WWI games - and painting up more of the figures I have. More WWII games, more Fantasy games. More time for gaming!






 

[fsn]

By Milady's dimpled ankle! That's a lot of games!

[fred.]

By Milady's dimpled ankle! That's a lot of games!

It does seem that way when listed out all together! I wonder if I have done more gaming than painting this year? It's hard to compare them. 

Halberds - I think it's just the sheet *heft* of the unit!

Realised I hadn't shared this photo of my Empire army - which was pre the recent rebasing. Had to do a bit of a count up and realised the army had grown!

[Raider4]

Oh my, that's an impressive size!


On the re-basing - the artillery certainly looks much better on the 40x40 bases.

[paulr]

  just a few then

    

[fred.]

Thanks both - feel I should do some actual counting of figures - as I have no idea how many figures make up this army. There are around 350 halberdiers for starters...