2023 Wargaming review

[paulr]

It is time, once again, to summarise the wargaming year.

Painting
Only one painting project this year, the Russo-Japanese Naval War 1904-05.

	Russians	Japanese
Battleships & Cruisers	41	36
Smaller vessels	20	46
Total	61	82

Significantly down from last year's 1,300 figures.

Gaming
I normally maintain a spreadsheet with a record of games played each year, this lapsed in May. So, the following is a brief summary mainly from memory. I shall try and do better with my record keeping next year.

The year started off extremely well with 6 games in February but then settled into a more leisurely couple of games a month plus a few extras.

The rulesets played were:

• DBMM: 20mm Romans v Ancient Britons
• Big Battle DBA: 10mm First Crusade
• For King & Parliament: 10mm Montrose's campaign in 1644-45
• Sail Age Grand Actions: home brew rules with 1:1,200 scale ships rather than my own 1:4,800 scale
• Volley & Bayonet: 10mm Wing scale AWI
• homebrew 20mm Napoleonic rules of our regular host
• Volley & Bayonet: 6mm 1812 Napoleonic
• Volley & Bayonet: 10mm Wing scale Indian Mutiny / First Indian War of Independence
• Black Powder & Glory Hallelujah: 20mm ACW
• If the Lord Spares Us: 10mm WWI
• homebrew 20mm WWII of our regular host, including a new Commando raid/large skirmish variant
• General Quarters I/II: WWII New Georgia campaign
• Modern Spearhead: 6mm 1980s Cold War goes hot

Plenty of variety and all very enjoyable games.

Highlights for the year include:

• For King & Parliament: 10mm Montrose's campaign in 1644-45, more on this in the new year
• Sail Age Grand Actions: with beautifully rigged 1:1,200 scale ships
• Marking the 80^th anniversary of the New Georgia naval campaign
• Preparing to mark the naval side of the 120^th anniversary of the Russo-Japanese War.

A number of my forces again haven't made it to the table this year:

• Age of Sail fleets – but I used my rules with beautiful 1:1,200 models instead of my own 1:4,800 scale
• Pre-Dreadnought naval
• 6mm WWII Spearhead forces.

Most of these forces haven't been on table for 3 or 4 years. I will have to again try and address this next year.

I'm pleased to say I did manage to get three forces back on the table after a number of years:

• 10mm First Crusade DBA
• 6mm 1812 Napoleonic Volley & Bayonet forces
• 10mm WWI forces for If the Lord Spares Us.

   
Scenarios
I continued to have the pleasure of working with d_Guy and Pierre the Shy on scenarios and optional rules for For King & Parliament for the Celtic Fringe. I've learnt a huge amount about Scotland in 1644-45. I'm looking forward to learning as much about Ireland 1642-49 next year.

I created a five-game narrative campaign for the naval battles during the WWII New Georgia campaign. It seems to be generating interesting battles and is still close with one battle left to play. The Japanese have adopted an appropriately fatalistic approach while the Allies remain slightly overly optimistic.
 
I'm working on historic scenarios for the Russo-Japanese naval war and converting a campaign David Manley wrote 20 years ago to fit with our Pre-Dreadnought variant of General Quarters I/II.

Plans
To my surprise I haven't been pondering my plans for next year as much as usual.

I seem to have decided to focus on making better use of the forces I currently have, rather than continue with painting projects and ending up with more forces that won't see the table each year.

I continue to be inspired by some of the narrative campaigns discussed on the forum and my first attempt has been reasonably well received. I've created several more scenarios and want to spend some more time on these and others. I also want to look at linking them.

The naval Russo-Japanese War will be a major focus, as will Ireland 1642-49.

Some possible distractions next year might include:

• Some more DBA armies, 1066 is a possibility (but what to use for the Welsh)
• Ancient Galleys, if I can find some suitable rules for a high level game
• League of Augsburg using a variant of FK&P
• Something else entirely.

My thanks to all the forum members for the interest, support, information, entertainment, and confusion they have contributed over the year.

PS I'm heading down to Christchurch tomorrow to visit my son and his partner so probably won't be checking the forum until I get back on 6 January. So, to all a Happy New Year.

[Steve J]

A good mix of games and projects there Paul. It seems a theme across various Blogs of trying to concentrate on what we have, finishing those off and playing games with tem, before moving on to new pastures.

Happy new Year to you too!