2013 Reflections and 2014 Resolutions and Predictions

2013 Reflections

Last year seemed to be a WW2 themed "project year", aka 'Battalion Attack' (from  Phil Sabin's, Simulating War) and finally painting my platoon of Platoon 20 late war British Infantry - which tied in nicely with the "Chain of Command" rule set I picked up from the Two Fat Lardies. One frustration of 2013 was too few quality wargames taking place during the 52 weeks and how long it took to learn 'Battalion Attack' and in turn spread the knowledge out to half a dozen fellow wargamers (we never got past the learning scenario in the book) and then get on to road test it with randomly generated scenarios (still a WIP continuing for 2014).

Even more remiss was the opportunity to do a comparative study against other miniature rule sets (Command Decision, Spearhead, WWII BattleFront and BGC).However the project has built up its own momentum that should be able to do this in 2014.

2014 Resolution and Predictions

Having said all the above I seemed to have acquired in 'dribs-and-drabs' during the year a fair amount of miscellaneous wargaming material in the process had a rather 'naughty' (guilty secret feeling) as my eye falling on three boxes of 20mm WWII and Modern models bulging out my loft space when I was digging out the Xmas decorations. So I need to make or discard, so my first resolution is to .. make (not necessarily paint) all those AFV kits still boxed this year or discard then to a better home (shock horror eBay). 

What follows naturally enough on from this is my first prediction that 2014 will become the year of the spray can (undercoating at least all the above and perhaps going as far as to lay down a base shade too), perhaps going as far as mastering the Army Painter painting technique

My second resolution is to assemble the few 28mm plastic Ancients (Impetus), Dark Ages (Saga) and Renaissance (Impetus) figure kits I have

My third resolution (on a roll now) is to stage The Fist Battle of Mantinea (418 BC) in 15mm using BBDBA rules, then convert my Ancient wargaming games to Phil Sabin's "Lost Battles/Strategos 2" for a more historical/realistic or sophisticated game. Related Note: An interesting solitaire board game I have is The Peloponnessian War from Victory Games which I hope to semi-automate the game process with my computing skills.

My forth resolution is to also return to a WWI (North Sea BCF Battles) and WW2 (Pacific/Med cruiser battles or a "Sink the Bismarck" hide and seek) naval theme and play with my little ships :)

Naturally my second prediction is that anything past the first New Year's resolution should be viewed as a complete and unexpected bonus ;)