Games and painting 2014

Irregular Wars playtest with counters

My painting to-do list was becoming oppressive, so last year I decided to note what I managed to do rather than what I planned to do. It didn't increase my productivity but it made me feel better. For the first time, I also recorded the games I played.

In first place was Irregular Wars with 14 games. These were all playtest games and consumed most of my wargaming attention for the year. They were played with counters as I still haven't completed any IW armies.

Second place went to Crossfire with 5 games - one Spanish Civil War, one Normandy and three played on my 'Crossfiregrad' (Stalingrad-esque) cityscape.

Now for the runners-up. I played two games each of Command and Colours Ancients, Dux Bellorum, Galleys & Galleons (playtest) and my friend Ian's developmental ancient rules, and one game each of Impetus, Maurice, WWII Micro Armour, Corvus II, Flanders Fields, Warmaster Ancients,  and my friend Ian's developmental WWI game.

10mm ACW Confederates

As for painting/modelling, I finally completed my 10mm American Civil War armies. I haven't yet played a proper game with them, though they did take to the table in connection with playtesting some hex based Nineteenth Century rules that I'm developing. I also added the finishing touches to the 'Crossfiregrad' cityscape.

Finally, I 'progressed' the 15mm Portuguese/Dutch/Spanish and some scenery for Irregular Wars, the 1/450 pirate ships and scenery for Galleys & Galleons and some 10mm ACW buildings. I aim to finish all these ASAP in 2015.

Work in Progress

My interests have come to settle not only on simple rules but also on small armies, at least with regard to any I intend to paint in the near future. I hope this will make my projects easier to complete and easier to get onto the table. I'm currently focusing on the following:

15mm HOTT
I've always had a strong bias towards historical wargaming, but HOTT is good fun and I've ordered some figures to create an Undead army (Chariot Miniatures) and a Pirate one (Peter Pig).

6mm and 15mm DBA
A recent reintroduction to DBA has inspired me to dig out my old 15mm DBM armies for DBA. The figures are all painted but I will need to add some camps/BUAs.

28mm FUBAR IWI
This project is very close to completion. I just need to varnish the figures and finish the vehicles and buildings.

15mm Crossfire 'Stalingrad'
This project is already operational, but to capture more of a Stalingrad feel I'm reverting to green baseboards with black felt roads and am adding pavements to the buildings.