Is that another year gone already? How the time does fly! Looking back on everything that I have done this year it seems a like some of the events took place only yesterday and some took place in a different era. Temporal perspective aside, let’s have a look back at 2022…

Gaming

My target for the year was 52 games i.e. an average of one per week. I actually achieved 47 games, equaling last year and my previous high score.

Just over half the games (51% to be exact) were Ancients, with To The Strongest still being the ruleset of choice. This tally also included one day when I fought six different battles, which is a new record for most games played in one 24 hour period.

Next up in terms of popularity was the Pike & Shot era, with 26% of games played. I used For King & Parliament for these, the 17thC version of TTS. Note that many of the games were actually set not in the English Civil War but on the eastern front (Cossacks, Poles, Muscovites) using rule adaptations from the Tales from the Wargames Shed blog and then my own additions. Army lists for the period can be found here.

The next most popular period was WW2 at 13% of games played, all using I Ain’t Been Shot Mum. Not as many as I would have liked, but all memorable games including one brilliant encounter at the Operation Market Larden Lardy Games Day when it seemed as if my tanks and anti-tank guns just couldn’t miss.

Finally a smattering of other periods: two games or 4% from each of the 19th Century (using the Neil Thomas Rules for 19th Century Wargaming) and Napoleonics (one Sharp Practice and one Age of Eagles); and one sci-fi game using my own Quadrant 13 rules. Both Napoleonic games were brilliant battles: the SP game was also at OML, the AoE game memorable if only for its sheer size.

Painting - Overview

A great year for painting where I managed to beat my old record in the Painting Challenge by a significant amount. My previous high score (set in 2019) was 2,004 points, this year I achieved 2,077 points, an increase of 4%. Now all I have to do is to do it again and more next year!

Painting - New Armies

Although I added eight new armies to my roster (Ancients: Vikings, Burgundian Ordnance; 17th Century: Swedes, Muscovites, Ottomans, Transylvanians, Polish Lithuanians; WW2: Afrika Korps) I have to confess that they were all acquired pre-painted except for the Swedes, and they consist of only a full set of command stands to order appropriate-looking troops from my other 17th Century armies, and the Afrika Korps, and they are currently only a dozen tanks strong.

Well I did paint a single unit of Saxon Town Infantry for the Transylvanians, but that doesn’t really change the fact that effectively all my new armies were bought ready painted: something I have never really done before.

I’m not actually sure why: I’d like to say it’s because (in the case of the Vikings) an irresistible E-Bay purchase of one unit meant I had to then commission a whole army from the same painter just to find a way to use them and (in the case of the 17th C stuff) there was a bargain offer on Lead Adventure Forum but I think it’s more than that. I still enjoy painting, but am finding it more of a chore than ever before. Interesting, and we will have to see what 2023 brings.

Painting - Existing Armies/Re-Basing

Major projects completed this year were the 17th Century Cossacks and motorising my WW2 Poles. This last I am quite proud of as it involved a lot of research and the commissioning of unique models from Syborg 3D printing including, I am sure, the only accurate C4P artillery tractors in the marketplace (see post here).

Otherwise, I have added bits and bobs to my Gebirgsjaeger; Sumerians; Brute; French Napoleonics; Indians and various sci-fi armies; and painted up the Kesserine Western Desert boxed set from Battlefront (Afrika Korps and US tanks).

But one of main focuses this year has been re-basing, with the Crimean Russians and Crimean British being huge jobs, and the Sassanid Persians also being significant. The Ruskies have already been on the tabletop (versus the French) and the Brits will see action next weekend, against the Russians as it happens.

Publishing

Pressures of real-life did, however, mean I failed to complete either of the two publishing tasks that I had set myself this time last year: no, or rather little, progress has been made either on the early war Far East Theatre Book for IABSM nor on a scenario pack for TTS.

I have, however, written the first seven scenarios for a new IABSM scenario pack, using an idea that had been bubbling away for some time, but that is also now on the back burner: I just don’t seem to have the bandwidth any more!

Well, perhaps not at the moment.

Work has been really busy this year, and I did pass my Wing Chun kung fu black sash grade (which means I now have black belts in jujitsu, kickboxing and kung fu) and all that, along with my other jujitsu work and associated Japanese kobudo weapons training, and, of course, the family, have left me little time to actually sit down and write. Hardly surprising really!

Looking forward to 2023

So what do I want to achieve wargaming-wise in 2023?

Obviously more games: let’s try for the 52 target again.

More painting: I don’t think I’m going to be able to hit the heights achieved this year, but we’ll aim at 2,000 points in the Challenge.

And then let’s re-set the publishing targets of last year - the IABSM theatre supplement and the TTS scenario pack - and add the already-started IABSM scenario pack to the list.

Thanks for your visits, likes and comments throughout 2022, and I look forward to seeing you all throughout 2023 as well.

R