State of Play 2015

I meant to post an article along these lines at the beginning of the year, but I was so busy with terrain I simply didn't get the chance. Oh well better late than never...

After packing away my paints and figures for the best part of 20 years, my son convinced me to unpack my old lead back in September 2013. After a quick forage on eBay, I managed to nab a great deal that included the Skull Pass box set and a whole sackful of paints. For the first 6 months I learnt how to paint again and got to work on the new plastic Dwarfs that we used in quite a few games of Warhammer (using the 7th edition ruleset). I enjoy Warhammer, but these new fangled rules didn't quite do it for me. I bought 8th edition, but don't think we've ever played a game with them...

Looking back at my 80's collection of undead I realised that I enjoyed the atmosphere and scenario driven narrative based battles of 2nd and 3rd editions. It turns out that I'm an Oldhammerer! Battles will once again be fought at Orc's Drift and a certain skeleton's head will be reignited!

Around February/March last year I met a fellow Oldhammer fan who introduced me to the Friday Night Firefight Club. This isn't an organised, committee driven club - rather a collection of friends who meet up once a week to enjoy a wide range of games. On my first gaming night, I was introduced to SAGA and much of 2014 was spent building up three warbands - two of which I managed to fully paint. I even attended three tournaments. Other games that I was subsequently introduced to included X-Wing, Bolt Action, Doctor Who, Mordheim, Kings of War and Hail Caesar (amongst others).

That's quite a few games and it's easy to over collect and try to do too much - with the result that little is actually achieved. I'm therefore trying to be focussed with my collecting/painting and I have set myself some objectives for the year. So what do I hope to achieve for 2015? Making lists like this can can come back to haunt you, but here goes:

1. Continue to collect figures for Warhammer. Kyle likes his Dwarfs (and Elves!) and I have a fairly significant undead army that just needs rounding out. I'm also well on the way to collecting all of the figures I need for Orc's Drift and the various Lichemaster scenarios. My undead army can also be used in Kings of War that we play on occasion. I don't intend to paint many of these figures this year, although I may complete the odd one or two here and there for fun. I certainly don't intend on painting many (any?) units.

2. Work on getting basic terrain features completed. As my previous blog post shows, I've already made good progress with this. There are other items I'd like to complete, but these will now have to wait until the autumn/winter.

3. Paint up some ghouls to join existing undead figures to create a Mordheim warband. This is now achieved so hopefully our campaign can get under way soon.

4. Collect, assemble, prime and paint 1500 points of Early War Germans for Bolt Action. This is my big 2015 project and I have already collected most of the figures I need, with about 1000 points primed. I'm hoping to pick up the last few units at Salute. I've even started the painting. See here...

 

 

This lot just need to be varnished and the bases finished with static grass (the machine gunner will man a Hanomag and is on a temporary base for now).

5. Collect, assemble, prime and start painting a late war German tank division for Bolt Action Tank Wars. Two Panthers have been assembled.

6. Collect, assemble, prime and start painting a US tank division. Three Shermans have been assembled.

7. Collect, assemble, prime and start painting figures and terrain for several Doctor Who scenarios. I have much of the terrain completed for The Sontaran Experiment and only need a few figures for Pyramids of Mars. Hopefully Salute will deliver the outstanding Egyptian tomb robbers and native diggers. I'd prefer to post photos when everything is painted, but here's a peek at a game we played a few weeks back.

 

 

The figures are not yet painted, but if you squint you might just be able to spy the Sontaran Spaceship, Transmat Circle and Communication Module (you'll really have to squint for that last one - it's right at the back!). I've finished a few more terrain pieces since that game, so the next one should look a bit more like moorland.

8. Continue to collect ships for X-Wing. We have most of the current range of Imperial and Rebel craft and I've just bought Most Wanted. X-Wing is a great Saturday afternoon game, although I must find a way of defeating Kyle's Decimator...

9. Continue to support local gaming events such as Broadside, Cavalier and Skirmish. I'm also looking forward to this year's Sci-Fi by the Sea on Father's Day at Herne Bay. Ducat is organising another SAGA event in the spring and I may well attend other localish tournaments.

10. Last but by no means least I intend to collect, assemble and prime at least one, maybe two Division(s) of Ancient Britons for Hail Caesar. I may also start painting these, but given the large numbers of figures needed I suspect painting these will become my main project for 2016.

 

Well there you have it. Let's see how well I do! Since SAGA was my main 2014 project, I've deliberately not included much SAGA related stuff, although I still have a Viking warband to paint. Like Warhammer, I may well paint the odd SAGA figure for fun between other projects. Oh dear, looks like the list is already starting to crumble...