Trying to hit a moving target

This is not a post about the odds of hitting something with a projectile weapon, but a reflection on the wargaming  targets I set myself for this year.  You see they moved, I wasn't looking and suddenly my priorities changed.  Or possibly I became side tracked.  I don't have a laser focussed, hard edged focus on my targets so it was bound to happen.  This year my interest in creating 2mm armies for Strength and Honour was replaced by an interest in completing my 6mm pike and shot army.  If I do anything with those rules I will actually go with my existing 6mm armies.  My focus on DBA armies which are contemporary with my Late Imperial Romans has remained and my wish to build up some Goths and other assorted migration period Germanic types has also survived.  

As a result my painting time has been given over to painting Goth Warbands and 17th century Bavarian Cuirassiers of late.  I'm here to tell you that painting that blue and white checked Bavarian flag is damn tricky in 6mm too.  I'm reminded of the early versions of the FIFA football video game where the graphics were incapable of showing Blackburn Rover's blue and white halved shirts so they instead used an average tone of pale blue all over!  I tried I really did but I just can't get the lozenges the right shape, and that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  My Bavarians will have to live with some dodgy diagonal stripes on their flags.  Still progress has been made and so far this month I have finished two bases of ten Cuirassiers and three of 16 Goth foot warriors.

The Goths as they currently stand (or for the cavalry sit)

Adding those to earlier figures I painted earlier in the year gives me the army shown above.  These can be any flavour of Goth or even Vandals I suppose.  They can fight alongside a Hunnic force as allies and at a pinch stand in for Franks or early Saxons.

Hopefully this will be the Roman view of them, from behind as they retreat

This painting output has had the bonus effect of pushing me over my painting target for 2025, yes folks the lead pile is currently 30 figures smaller than it was on 1st  January.  I'm not 100% on target as I have slightly more foot figures than I started with but the amount of cavalry and miscellaneous stuff like artillery and dragoons I have completed has taken me over the total figure count target.  That includes adjusting for the number of figures bought during the year as well.

But what about the moving targets?  Well I have taken some items off the list and added a couple to it.  The plan to extend my DBA armies out to being basic ADLG army size is no longer a priority.  I doubt I will have time to finish my Hunnic or Moorish DBA forces either.  I do have all the figures for the Moors but would need to buy more Huns to get me over the line on that one.  So I have punted all those down the road for the moment.  I'm still torn over what do about the Early Byzantinian DBA army.  At the moment it is entirely made up of proxy figures, but I am very tempted to grab some of the new Baccus figures to replace the current infantry, who would then revert to their Sassanid allegiance.  I suppose I might just get the Moors over the line if I get some serious painting time in, but then again I might not as there are a lot of light cavalry to work through.

It's good to be flexible I suppose, and important to be realistic about what I can achieve over the next few weeks.  Watch this space, as they say, although it is unlikely I might just surprise all of us before 31 December comes around.

The Painting Table -December 2022 and the 2022 Review.

I'm merging the December Painting table update and the annual review into a single post this month, so eyes down here we go!

HQ's and Generals for Altar of Freedom

The headline news is that the Huns have finally left the table.  Fully painted and based as of 27 December.  To quote the late great Douglas Adams "I love deadlines.  I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by!"  Although the deadline for getting the Huns off the table has passed so many times this year it no longer had the energy to go woosh.  I also got all of the 2mm castings I purchased in November done so I have finished the year without increasing the size of the lead pile, for I think, the third year in a row.  I even found time to finish a single 28mm figure as well.

15 completed cavalry brigades for AoF

It’s also time to take stock of 2022. No matter what else I remember about this year, first and foremost it will always be the year we lost George.  However, sad as that was there are other things to recall too so let’s look at some of them.  This was the year when we started to put Covid-19 behind us.  As a result Sealed Knot re-enactment returned to something like normal.  I made it to the August Bank Holiday event, although Mrs E arranged matters to prevent my taking the field.  She did this by the simple expedient of going off site in the car with all my kit inside!  Probably for the best as the display field was a very steep hill side.  I’m more hopeful of taking part in events in 2023.

I managed some actual wargaming during the year too.  Both the solo games I blogged about and latterly some remote gaming via Zoom with Trebian’s Monday Night Gamers, you know the ones who meet on a Tuesday evening.  I also played my first games of ADLG version 4 following an invite to spend a day in York getting to know the rules from Paul Dawson.  By my count I managed one western shootout, four Tuesday night games (spread across history from Alexandrian by way of the Reconquista to Normandy in 1944 via the French Wars of Religion), and two games of ADLG.  I even won one of the ADLG games albeit with some substantial mentoring. 

In the autumn I began attending a modelling club, which had started recently, here in town.  It has an interesting mix of attendees ranging from GW Warhammer kit builders through diorama makers, model truck and train makers to me with my Wild West town builds.  Most of the Warhammer fans have never actually played a game and were unaware of historical wargaming as a hobby (The GW blinker effect as I have taken to calling it) they were stunned that you could by figures without needing a mortgage too.  My Wild West shootout stuff has created some interest in trying a game though and there is talk of them even playing  some actual Warhammer.

My painting has taken a bit of a backseat to modelling this year and I have made my first 1/56 scale scratch built buildings as well as my first MDF kit in that scale.  In fact the uncovering of the 28mm old west figures in my lead pile earlier in the year has triggered a return to skirmish gaming for the first time in nearly half a century!  The 2mm ACW project will be complete soon I only need the models for the outstanding artillery units to be done.  

I suppose I should look back on the objectives I set for the last year if no other reason than I don't actually recall what they were!  So I'm guessing I may not have done particularly well in meeting them.  (Brief intermission while Elenderil changes screens to check the 2022 spreadsheets).

BBC test card F - This takes me back

Intermission over we now return to our program.

My objectives for 2022 were adjusted mid year to remove the War of the roses DBA armies and the armies and enemies of EL Cid DBA armies.  What was left was this:

• Complete the 2mm ACW armies
• Create a base line Hunnic army
• Reduce the lead pile
• Recount all the figures |(for ego and insurance purposes)
• Play some actual wargames!

As mentioned above I haven't quite finished the 2mm ACW armies so that's a narrow miss.  Rolled over to 2023 ready for some games with real life opponents.

Base line Hunnic Army I'm calling done as I have sufficient light cavalry and need to add some heavy cavalry and subject allies.  New objective required for 2023 of complete the Hunnic Army.

I have played some actual games - so objective met there.

In terms of the lead pile I have 84 less 6mm castings than I started the year with.  So only the odd 1,200 6mm figures left to deal with!  2mm/3mm is down by 25 3mm vehicles although I have painted way more 2mm ACW than that but these were the November purchases so in strictness those 882 figures balance out (maybe I should count castings rather than the figures they represent in future?).  Lastly the 20mm plus lead pile is down by 7 foot figures.  So The lead pile has shrunk -objective met.

And I recounted the completed figures - another objective met.

All in all I did better than I thought, and as an aside creating and publishing objectives has actually kept me close to being on track over the year.

So without further ado here are some objectives for 2023:

• Finish the 2mm ACW armies
• Play some face to face games of Altar of Freedom using those armies
• Complete the DBA Hunnic Army (probably going for the army of Attila)
• Complete a DBA Gothic army
• Reduce the lead pile
• Attend some wargames shows (Vapnartak and one of the Newark shows?)
• Finish painting the 28mm Wild West figures
• Build at least a small main street for 28mm gunfights (lets call that a minimum of six buildings/corrals)
• Finish Painting the 6mm WW1 aeroplanes

That should keep me going for a while.  So that's 2022 all wrapped up onwards we go for another trip around the sun.

A sheepish painting admission

 Yes I'm painting some sheep and not in 6mm either.  Lurking in the furthest reaches of my lead pile were some 25mm sheep from Irregular Miniatures.  These must have been gathering dust for the best part of thirty years as I got them when I visited the workshop when they were based in Norton.  In fact I was discussing Dark Ages figures and Ian gave me some sheep as a freebie with the comment that it would give the armies something to fight over!

I suppose I should flock these?

They are actually rather nice models similar to the Herdwick and Cheviot breeds seen on the Pennine uplands.  I have a solo gaming scenario in mind that they will feature in.  To that end I have rooted around and found a handful of Dark Age figures in  (gulp) 25-28mm.  There I said it, I'm straying from the smaller scales for once.  I'm thinking of a scenario where a couple of Norse farmers go hunting and have to cross the table top encountering various animals or humans.  The objective is to bag a few rabbits or Ptarmigan etc for the pot and get back unscathed.

The sheep are mounted on UK1p coins and just need basing materials adding to be fully completed.  I will be using flock, thank you for asking.

  

New year - new projects

With the New Year come new resolutions and projects, 2020 was the first year I actually tracked them and I'm going to do the same for 2021 as it helped me to keep on track.  I didn't hit all of my objectives but then again I didn't really expect to.  Those I didn't achieve have rolled over into 2021's list.

The big misses from 2020 was the failure to complete my ECW rules (for what is probably the 10th year in a row!) along with not finishing my DBA Dacian army or to fully convert my Maurikian Byzantine army from Irregular Miniatures figures to Baccus ones.  There is nothing wrong with the look of the Irregular Miniature's offerings other than I simply cannot use the close order castings due to them being modelled shoulder to shoulder.  That means I can't space them on the bases in the way I should like.  That said I met more of my objectives than I failed overall so I'm fairly happy with that.

I have made a good start on the Byzantine army conversion process, with five elements finished and another two on the painting table.  I have figures I can proxy for psiloi but I need Baccus to re-open so I can order some extra regular Sassanid infantry and cavalry to proxy for Skoutatoi and half armoured Byzantine cavalry  

In fact the need to order from Baccus is going to be a continuing theme for this year.  I have set a target of creating the three main armies from the DBA lists covering the late eleventh century in Spain, the age of El Cid project let's call it.  That's going to need a fair number of new figures from ranges I haven't previously ventured into.  Berber and Andalusian spearmen and archers can come from the crusades range using the Sudanese figures, Cavalry from the Bedouin light cavalry or Mameluke cavalry.  Spanish knights will be Norman armoured cavalry and spearmen either Norman armoured infantry or Welsh spearmen, plus Frankish crossbowmen.  I might add in some Gothic medium cavalry for the unarmoured cavalry.

This year the objectives are:

1. Finish the Dacian DBA army
2. Convert the early Byzantine's from Irregular to Baccus castings
3. Finish the 1940 British and German armies I bought 3-4 years ago
4. Finish the WW2 rules I started last year
5. Finish the ECW rules
6. DBA WOTR Yorkist army
7. DBA WOTR Lancastrian army
8. DBA Andalusian army
9. DBA Feudal Spanish army
10. DBA Islamic Berber Army
11. Finish the TD ironclads
12. Finish the H&R WW1 aeroplanes
13. Rebase my 6mm ECW collection

plus I have thought about a small 1980's Cold war gone hot project.  Based about 1982 as that is the war I would have fought in if it had all kicked off.  If I do go with that it will be 6mm probably H&R.  I will of course stray off the path described above as the 'ohhhh shiny' complex will no doubt kick in at some point!

I have already set the ball rolling for this year with the first models coming off the painting queue being Tumbling Dice screw and paddle gunboats or sloops, I can't tell them apart and forgot to label the castings.  It would help if TD had images of all of their range.  These are really nice models and from what I have seen the newer versions are even nicer.  

First off the painting desk in 2021- Gunboats and Sloops

Project management.....what project management

If you have been following this blog you will have worked out that I have a lot of wargaming irons in the fire, WW1 dogfight rules, the 2mm ECW rules project, the ECW in Lancashire project, the Dark Age campaign idea I have wanted to run for about 30 years the list goes on.  One thing this blog has been good for since I resurrected it is stopping my grasshopper mind from jumping from idea to idea without ever really finishing anything.

So to make sure things progress I have listed them in order of proposed completion.  It turns out that the voice in my head (you know the one; it's the one who looks at the Baccus 6mm catalogue and murmurs 'ohhh shiney' to my wallet) does do some project management.  I have decided that in order of likely completion I will focus on:

1. The WW1 dogfight rules
2. The 2mm ECW rules
3. The ECW in Lancashire
4. The Dark Ages campaign (796AD - whenever it ends)
5. Operation Seelowe in Yorkshire

Interspersed with this will be some painting and modelling.  Lots of 6mm stuff in the painting queue and I NEED more Heroics and Ros WW1 aircraft.  Oh and playing some games.  Lets see if this blog can keep me on target.