Another year is rapidly coming to an end and joining rather more of them than I care to think about in the rear view mirror of life. It's been a mixed year with health problems both for myself and the esteemed Mrs E. Mine seem to have been dealt with fairly successfully but Mrs E has appointments, potions and lotions to be attended, consumed and applied. Hopefully in that order as I'm unsure how to attend a potion! Wargaming and modelling life has continued in the usual fashion and as usual I have reviewed the year to keep me motivated. The key points (and I know you are gagging to know this stuff) are as follow.
The objectives I set myself were
- Complete the following DBA armies and ideally extend them to ADLG size:
- Early Byzantine Army (its about half way there),
- Goths (Ostro and Visi),
- Hunnic
- Other Germanic types (Franks, early Saxons, Lombards etc).
- Early Moors
- Finish the year with less unpainted stuff than I started with
- Rebase my 6mm British Civil war troops
- Build a couple of 2mm armies for Strength and Honour
- Play some ADLG
- Play some Strength and Honour
- Put together some sort of AI system for use in solo games
So how did I do?
The Goths, other German types and Huns can now field a m9inimum of the full 12 element DBA armies. The other Germans achieved this by means of proxying Goths and Anglo Saxons though. The Moors are still short of the basic DBA twelve elements but the missing figures are in the paint queue. The Early Byzantines stalled mainly as I couldn't decide if I should buy the new Baccus figures to replace my proxy figures. Lets call that a 3.5 from 5 score.
I finished the year with a smaller lead pile than I started it with, even with the additional figure purchases taken into account. I started with 1,123 6mm figures and vehicles unpainted and ended with 1,080. But during the year I had added 640 figures so the total output for the year was 683 6mm figures and vehicles. I even reduced the world war two 6mm lead pile by a mighty eight castings! The 25mm plus pile of shame hasn't moved although some work occurred but without anything being actually finished. But again it is a win.
All my British Civil War figures were rebased and some unpainted ones painted and based for the first time. I even extended the army by moving into the Thirty Year's War with new figures. So that is a definite win.
I also created a small Russo-Japanese War naval fleet which was not on my radar for 2025, but, you know how it is, enthusiasms come (and go).
Now we come to the outright fails. I sort of lost interest in building 2mm Strength and Honour armies partly because I saw some of Mark Backhouse's 6mm work and thought that it would be much easier to use my existing 6mm ancients for the game system. I abandoned the solo AI system as I found a couple of existing systems that seem to have solved the issues I was getting bogged down in, not that I have bought anything as yet.
As for playing some games of Strength and Honour or ADLG. Well what can I say I have had a very poor year for actually getting games on the table so It should come as no surprise to find I failed these objectives. Must do better as my primary school teacher used to say.
Overall I'm happy with what I managed in 2025, I'm not getting any younger and sooner or later will have to accept that I should dial back on my hobby ambitions, but this is not that day! So on to new objectives for 2026.
These are:
- Finish 2026 with a smaller lead pile
- Complete the following DBA armies:
- Early Byzantine
- Hunnic
- Early Moors
- Add more TYW units
- Play more games
- Add 6mm WW2 to database
- Add 6mm WW1 to the database
- Add 20mm and larger scale stuff to the database
- Add buildings, camps and other terrain to the data base
In general I want all my collection catalogued, you know just in case some has to dispose of it without my help. I will probably not add any further DBA 6mm armies other than those listed, although I may extend some of those I already have beyond the basic DBA lists. It seems a updated version of DBA is on the horizon and also I'm intrigued by the concepts within the new fantasy version DBF, especially the points system so I might get side tracked there. Come on now, you know me of old, the one constant is I can never stick to a plan!
POST SCRIPT
I managed a full recount of unpainted 6mm on hand on New Year's Eve and it was slightly higher than expected at 1,143! But the actual movement between castings added and castings completed and based still reflects a net reduction of 43 castings. So still a win even with an extra 63 castings on hand.
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