2023 in Review

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So that’s another twelve months almost over, which means it must be time for a “year in review” look back at 2023.

Gaming

Action from the Crimea: one of the few non-Ancients games that I played

My target for the year was to play 52 games (i.e. an average of one battle a week) with my previous highest score being 47.

Well I smashed it this year with a grand total of 65 games!

This was definitely down to my decision in March to play in all the To the Strongest (TTS) tournaments that I could, with 47 or 72% of all games being Ancients, and 24 or 37% being competition games.

Of the other games that I played, eleven of them were Pike & Shot, leaving just a smattering of WW2, fantasy, Napoleonic and 19th Century for the rest.

Tournament Results

Back in March this year, friend Peter asked me to help at the new TTS European Championships he was organising.

This would involve helping set up, keep the scores etc or, if there were uneven numbers, stepping in to play. As it happened, due to an unfortunate drop out, there were uneven numbers for the first few games, so I got to play with a lent-to-me Burgundian Ordnance army. This gave me a new-found taste for competition gaming, with the result that my trusty Early Imperial Romans (at time of writing, the only complete 28mm army I own) fought in another five tournaments over the next nine months.

Just to demonstrate why you should never get rid of any figures, the Romans had spent the last 40 years in my Mother’s attic!

This is how I did:

So not bad for my first year of competing, and a good foundation for playing in more tournaments in 2024, beginning with the Welsh Open at the end of January, where I shall also debut my new competition army: love them to death, but I need a change from the Romans!

If you play TTS, I highly recommend trying a competition or two. They are always played in the best possible spirit, and are a great way to meet (and hopefully beat) new opponents!

Painting

Although unlike last year I didn’t achieve a new personal best in th Painting Challenge, I did manage to get a pretty healthy score overall with between 1700-1800 points dependent on what I do today!

The biggest project was the 15mm Normans using Museum Miniatures’ superb CAD designed range, with enough figures painted to field any type of Norman army, an Anglo-Norman army, an Early Crusader or, my favourite, a Sicilio-Norman army. That’s about 100 cavalry and over 300 infantry in total.

15mm Normans from Museum Miniatures

Another major project was to re-base a large amount of 28mm Romans to add more flexibility and potential points to my competition army, with the result that I could have provided all 200 points of Romans for Peter and I’s force at the Doubles.

I also finished off my 15mm Burgundian Ordnance army. This started life as a purchase of second-hand core units (knights, pikes and crossbows) with this year’s painting adding handgunners, organ guns and mounted crossbows.

Finally there were an assortment of other figures completed either to fill gaps in the collection or just because I like them. These included some great one-off figures for my 15mm Marian Romans (Scipio, warhounds, a medicus); more ECW/17thC figures; and the start of my new competition army for 2024 (top right in the gallery above: can you tell what it is yet?).

Painted Figures

I also spent quite a lot of money on painted figures this year.

First up was a complete 15mm Timurid army that are now only missing a yurt or two as a camp. This is a beautifully painted army using Khurasan figures.

Then it was enough figures to complete my 15mm 17thC Transylvanians from the Fire & Sword range.

I think I will be taking a break from buying painted figures in 2024…

Wargames Shows

I’m not quite sure why, but in 2023 I went to more wargames shows than in any previous year.

The full list comprises: Overlord (Abingdon); Salute (London) ; Campaign (Milton Keynes); Partisan (Newark); Attack! (Devises); Britcon (Nottingham); Colours (Newbury) and Warfare (Farnborough). On top of this, I attended the Operation Market Lardon Lardy Day in Evesham.

Richard Clarke in the Lard Zone at Britcon

They were all good days out, and I shall be adding some of them to my “must go” list. The stand-out show has to be Partisan, with only the long drive being an issue. Next in line were Colours and Britcon: at each a slightly separate Lard Zone was worth the price of a ticket alone. I recall the Salute 50th as a bit disappointing, but it can’t have been that bad as I still managed to spend six hours there without much effort.

I’d like to get to at least as many shows next year, but am not sure if that is possible with the fairly hefty competition schedule I’ve set myself.

Summary

So all in all, 2023 proved to be a packed and very good wargaming year.

As always, a big thank you to all my gaming chums and opponents whose good natures and dedication to the hobby have made the last twelve months so much fun.

And to all those who have read Vis Lardica throughout the year: thanks for your visits, likes and comments throughout 2023, and I look forward to seeing you all throughout 2024 as well. Incidentally, we should pass the 500,000 page view mark in February or March, and that’s with not being on Blogger either. If you do own a blog of your own and like this site, please add VL to your list of recommended/favourite links: it seems a shame for all this content not to have a wider audience!

Here’s to doing it all again next year!

Cheers

R