Musings on 2015 and Future Plans

Time for one of those posts! How did I do in 2015, what did I learn and what mistakes do I plan for 2016...?!

Looking back at 2015, it appears a very ambitious target was set! So how did I do?

Warhammer figures. Nothing too onerous here. I managed to nab a few figures for some of the classic 80's scenarios. As it turns out many of these figures are quite suitable for both Frost Grave and Dragon Rampant. So I'll certainly continue with this objective in 2016.

Terrain. Well! I hit the ground running with this one! Lots of terrain made and/or painted in 2015. As recent posts will demonstrate, there's still more to do though...

Ghouls for Mordheim. The ghouls were painted but the Mordheim campaign never happened. Still, the figures are now useful for Frostgrave. Frostgrave is a game I really want to like. As some of last year's posts reveal though, there are some things I'm unsure on. My main gripe is the D20 system, but this is easily overcome by using two D10s. I have all the campaign supplements (including the new Sellsword mini campaign that introduces Captains), so expect the odd battle report during the course of this year.

Bolt Action. Here I did stumble. I managed to (more or less) finish assembling my 1500 early war German force. But painting stalled and is something I'll probably come back to this year. In my defence, I did manage to assemble, base & prime a 1500 British Expeditionary Force. This means I can at least play games at home with Kyle.

Tank War. Oh dear! Not a lot of progress here - but see above!

Doctor Who. I got into a good stride with Doctor Who early in the year. Figures and terrain were painted. Good progress with painting was achieved for our big Pyramids of Mars campaign, but... Unfortunately things stalled due to waiting for some specific terrain to arrive and becoming caught up with SELWG preparations. Still, I have some DWMG figures back on the painting table, so hopefully there will be more progress on this front soon. In fact, I need only paint 3 figures before we're ready for the first game. However, I'm trying to make sure I plan ahead for all games. My concern is that we start the campaign and stall after the third game because I've not prepared enough in advance. Clearly this will be one of my objectives for 2016. The fact Warlord Games have decided to jump on the bandwagon with their own version of the game should make things interesting later in the year.

X-Wing. Good progress here. We pretty much have every ship available, our Tantive IV arrives on Monday. Through various online deals and vouchers I managed to nab this huge ship for just £2.49! Google it and you'll see what a deal this was. I'll post a photo when it arrives. One thing about huge ships though - they benefit from a larger playing area. I have a nice 3 x 3 star field for standard sized games, but need to go 6 x 4 for more epic battles. I already have my ticket for Salute ;-)

Gaming events. We did manage to attend most local shows, even running a participation game at SELWG. The participation game was a double edged sword. Guys at the club asked me to do it because I had bought the new Revenant warband for SAGA. Painting figures and scenery for the game completely threw out my schedule though and is probably the main reason I failed to achieve my targets with Bolt Action and DWMG. However, it gave me a target to aim for and meant I painted up a whole Viking Warband and quite a bit of terrain and small scenic items. Of course, it was also a lot of fun actually running the game!

The last thing on my 2015 list was my intention to collect and assemble a division of Ancient Britons for Hail Caesar. Ha! I'm ahead of the curve on this one! Through very good fortune I managed to aquire a fully based and painted Ancient Briton division. I also bought enough boxed models for at least two more divisions and have started assembling and undercoating several units. I'm particularly keen on getting some chariots ready for battle so expect some progress updates on this soon.

So do I have anything different planned for 2016?

I think it's going to be more of the same really. Terrain and figures for both Hail Caesar and DWMG are probably my main targets. But I'll probably be influenced by new games as they are published. Blood Eagle and Congo are definitely on my radar, possibly alongside The Men Who Would be Kings. There's also a rumour that a new supplement will be published for SAGA. No title yet, but it's anticipated this may introduce Arthurian warbands. If that happens all bets are off I'm afraid! (edit: that didn't take long! Looks like we have Age of Arthur to look forward to!)

Well, enough rambling - it's time to glue sand to my woodland boards...