As is usual around these times (best wishes to all readers and their
miniatures, BTW) one gets slapped around the ears with a bewildering variety
of reviews of the just departed year. Not being one to miss a chance of
boring you all to tears, I will jump on said bandwagon as well.
2005 has been a fairly good year for me in the toy soldier department. First
off, two statistics:
* There have been 91 TTM posts in 2005
* I painted 32 figures (is that all?)
TTM has been going strong throughout the year, although there have been a
few periods where there was more than a week between posts (as, for example,
has been the case in the previous weeks). This is not for want of material,
I think, as I have several post ideas and unfinished series lying around,
and I'm just one of the authors on TTM. This is simply a case of competing
interests for what little free time we have available. As the major factor
driving traffic to this site is the updates to it, and as we all (well, at
least I do) like increased traffic, one new year's resolution is to post
more.
Next is the painting. I had a good feeling about my painting this year, but
it seems that on examining my records (well, the pictures I posted on my
[Flickr Account](http://www.flickr.com/people/robartes), plus two painting
competition entries
[featured](http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/73597/) on
[TMP](http://theminiaturespage.com) ) I only painted 32, with a big gap
between January and May. That gap is easily explained, as that was the
period where the house was being (not) finished and we moved into what was
more or less a construction site, but I had thought I picked up that
painting pretty well after that. So, new year's resolution number two is to
paint more figures. This will need to be done by lowering the time I spend
per figure (as more free time will remain a distant dream), or in other
words, by (finally) dropping standards for wargaming figures so I can paint
one in less than an hour. It will be interesting to see whether I:
1. actually do this
2. stick to my layering technique, and figure out a way to speed it up
(reduce to two layers, probably, but which ones?)
3. go for a different technique
Time will tell...
For the rest of the year, I played quite a number of games (now that I have
a wargame room -- although that is currently in a state of flux, having served as
guest room over the holidays and having to serve as bedroom for child number
two which is on the way), the majority of which were Blitzkrieg Commander or
WAB.
I'm quite proud of the [WEC
campaign](http://www.nirya.be/snv/sections/WEC) which really took off this
year, but the other 'big' project I launched, a WWII virtual game has died
an ignominous death for want of attention.
And then there's also the big Arnhem game we put on at Crisis, which was a
marvel of cooperation, with Alan doing the figures (millions of the little
buggers), Phil providing the game system (netting us a 'Best Participation
Game' award) and myself doing the terrain. The game was well received, so
that was good.
That's about it for my year in wargaming - pretty positive, I find. How was
everyone else's year?
TT tags: miniaturesgaming
In case you are wondering, here is the amount of layers I put on my figures:
ReplyDeleteskin:3
clothing:2
belts,weapons,guns etc etc:1 unless it covers a very large surface, then I might put on a highlight.
I probably spend at least as much time per fig as you do but then again my painting output this year was a mere 20 figs (who still need to be based) and this after a very very long hiatus, so I'm sill rusty.
For me the year was marked by: an excellent Napoleonic campaign game with the guys from Cheltenham (and the good news is that I am Napoleon ahgain for this year's game - more to follow), a fun outing to Anderida where we (just) improved on the previous year's debacle and the discovery of Blitzkrieg Commander. Indirectly the latter lead to the Crisis game, which of course was a big success.
ReplyDeleteI painted zillions of 6mm WW2 figures, as Bart has said, but also a fair number of 28mm Saxons, some WW1 Germans (for an abortive project) and various bits and pieces in 15mm ancients.
This year, GW (our Graham here in Brussels, not Games Workshop) wants me to paint 7.5mm Marlburians, of which he has fooloishly bought many thousands from Baccus. Another 25 Saxons will see me home on the WAB front (this is now delayed slightly by the fact that I accidentally sprayed 8 shields with black paint instead of varnish). And for the rest, we'll see.
Actually, I am more interested in doing some gaming this year than painting. There are two interesting Megagames coming up, the Congress of Vienna and then the Somme. I might join in. Then there is the new 1813 Nappie game in Cheltenham, Anderida (the theme is armies of the Holy Land) and Kortrijk DBM tourney in February. Plus I think we should do some more scenario and, dare I say it, campaign games this year.
So what campaign game would people like to try (and hopefully even progress on) this year?
Alan: So what campaign game would people like to try (and hopefully even progress on) this year?
ReplyDeleteI would indeed also like to game a bit more in 2006. I have neglected my wargaming a bit the past years, thereby actually becoming one of those persons who talks all the time about grand games and mega-campaigns from a bar-stool, but not actually getting any gaming done.
So, change is ahead. My real plan is to organize a game once a month, and the first one (All Quiet on the Western Fron) already was a success. The second one (Siege of Lowenheim) has been booked full already as well. We'll see whether the pace of one game a month can be kept. THe real problem is that I'm not really satisfied with standard games in which 2 armies meet. I want multi-player games, with personal briefings, lots of twists, splendid scenery, the works ...
As for painting, I haven't really been buying new figures for the past 5 years or so (apart from the occasional 10-figure impulse buy), so my percentage of painted figures in my colelction is actually increasing.
Phil, this is good news. I rather agree with you that the formula of two army lists and a bit of terrain is rather unsatisfactory. So, I'm very much looking forward to your game at the end of the month. I'm also participating in a multi-player Napoleonic campaign, which is currently a he map e-mail campaign but will culminate in a table-top game in March.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would rather like to do is a current affairs or, perhaps 20th Century, type politico-military game, with teams represening nations/powers and having a major crisis to resolve. There are not really figures or scenery involved, so I don't know if anyone in the group would be very interested? It could be a Gulf War, Russian invasion type scenario or maybe something more sci-fi, eg alien landing, or Chinese invasion of India, etc etc.
Alan
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ReplyDeleteAlan wrote:
What I would rather like to do is a current affairs or, perhaps 20th Century, type politico-military game, with teams represening nations/powers and having a major crisis to resolve. There are not really figures or scenery involved, so I don�t know if anyone in the group would be very interested? It could be a Gulf War, Russian invasion type scenario or maybe something more sci-fi, eg alien landing, or Chinese invasion of India, etc etc.
----
Alan, I would be very much interested in something like that myself. I think there's also a group in the US that runs various games like that at conventions, but these are usually BIG games (> 100 players).
The key with this sort of games is that they need good preparation, and all participants have to be in the right mindset.