2013 Round Up

I thought I had better do a recap of 2013 before I change the side bar.

The past year was a great year for my wargames projects and I certainly seem to be going some way to reducing the unpainted lead mountain.

The major painting projects worked on were my Japanese and British for the Battle of Meitkilla project that culminated in the well received game at the first Partizan in 2013. Alongside this I managed to make cracking progress on my El Cid Almohavids and they also made an appearance these were used at our Battle of Valencia game at the inaugural Cannon Event in Retford and at both Colours in Newbury where they won best painted, at 'The Worlds' in Derby where I placed third (by the fluke of not losing any games) and the Carve Out a Kingdom campaign day in Peterborough.

Other troops painted included a load of Saga Vikings, both for myself and chum Lee. Despite having painted about 100 Perry Desert Rats already I'm, also currently working on even more of them for our 1941 East Africa campaign games to be presented at both Canon in Retford in March and Salute in April. I'm currently also painting a platoon of Perry AfrikaKorps for chum Quint.

Slow progress is being made on a platoon of Australians and a troop of Honeys for Jon who purchased the Flames of War Desert Rats and AfrikaKorps that I sold earlier in the year. In fact all my Flames of War armies were purged in defence cuts this year, the Soviets to chum Lee, the aforementioned to Jon in the US and the US Airborne and PanzerKompanie to Thomas in Germany. I really cannot get on with the game (actually it's a lot of the players) and the production quality control issues really put me off buying any more.

Back in April I assisted Steve Jones with his Dux Bellorum games at Salute where my Early Saxon Kingdoms made a rare outing

I also ran the El Cid day at the Polly in November and that seemed to go down very well, looking forwards to next year I'll be running a similar Age of Arthur event in March that is already fully booked.

One lowlight of the year was losing the Maunsfield Gaming venue, it had been on the cards for a while and was obviously limping along. Mansfield Wargames Club moved to the Rifle Volunteer for a few weeks but that was not really working out. Then we found the most excellent Polly Bowls club and I hope we remain here for many years to come.

Well it's time for the old side-bar to go and be replaced by a new one, but I'll reproduce it below for posterity.

The Challenge 2013

Fighting the battle against the lead mountain - 2013

Figures Painted and Based: 569 28mm figures: 

• 103 Assault Group/Bolt Action/Artizan 14th Army plus 3 Mules 
• 74 Assault Group Japanese 
• 35 Foundry/Artizan/Shieldwall/Gripping Beast Vikings 
• 141 Gripping Beast Berber Infantry 
• 2 Crusader mounted Christian Spanish characters 
• 2 Perry Miniatures Christian Spanish knights 
• 4 Gripping Beast Christian Spanish casualties 
• 2 Crusader Christian Spanish characters 
• 18 Gripping Beast Berber Cavalry 
• Die Waffenkammer Universal Carrier 
• Die-cast truck 
• 99 Perry Miniatures Desert Rats including 2 3" mortars and 2 Vickers machine-guns 
• Perry Miniatures Universal Carrier 
• 2 Gripping Beast Ponies 
• 7 Gripping Beast Saxon casualties 
• 12 Gripping Beast plastic Saxons 
• WI Joshua Chamberlain 
• Partizan Martin Schwartz 
• Crusader Gladiator 
• Musketeer Jarl Sigvaldi the Jomsviking Raider 
• 6 Perry Miniatures Muslim Civilians 
• 12 Hat Camels 
• 2 BlitzKreig Miniatures Matilda II 
• BlitzKreig Miniatures M3 'Honey' Stuart 
• 15 Perry Miniatures Afrikakorps 
• 2 unknown manufacturer pack mules

Other Figures Painted and Based: 

• 76 Adler AWI Continental Infantry 
• 3 Adler AWI British Artillery pieces and crews 
• 4 Adler AWI American Artillery pieces and crews 
• 30 WWII United States Navy Ships 
• 19 WWII Imperial Japanese Navy Ships 
• 103 Adler ACW dismounted cavalry, horse holders and casualties. 
• 16 Adler ACW Casualty markers 
• 18 Adler ACW Confederate Cavalry 
• 11 GHQ DAK microtanks 
• 60 Adler DAK infantry & gun crews

New Figures Purchased: 322 

• Two Bolt Action 2" mortars and crew 
• Two Bolt Action Burmese Scouts 
• 20 Assault Group WWII Japanese Infantry 
• 28 Assault Group WWII Gurkha Infantry 
• 4 Artizan WWII Sikh Infantry 
• 76 Perry Miniatures Desert Rats 
• Die Waffenkammer Universal Carrier 
• Perry Miniatures Universal Carrier 
• 22 Gripping Beast Berbers (eBay) 
• 50 MDS Berbers (eBay) 
• 82 Artizan / Gripping Beast Moors (Steve) 
• 6 Perry Muslim Civilians 
• 16 Perry Desert Rats Support Weapons 
• 12 Hat Hadendowa Camelry 
• 160 Adler ACW (not included in total)

Unpainted Figures Acquired: 

• 14 Perry Miniatures French Hussars (Christmas Present) 
• 88 Adler AWI Militia Infantry (Birthday Present) 
• 76 Adler AWI Hessian Infantry (Birthday Present) 
• 27 Adler AWI British Dragoons (Birthday Present) 
• 27 Adler AWI American Dragoons (Birthday Present) 
• 8 Adler AWI Generals (Birthday Present) 
• 24 Assault Group WWII Japanese (Anniversary Present) 
• 15 Assault Group WWII British (Anniversary Present) 
• 2 Perry Miniatures First Crusade Knights (Gift from Andy) 
• 5 Shieldwall Miniatures Vikings (Gift from Jonny) 
• 4 Gripping Beast Normans (Gift from Tony) 
• 12 Foundry 'bits and bobs' (Exchange with Matt) 
• 38 Perry Miniatures Desert Rats (Christmas Present) 
• Pair of Perry Miniatures Vickers MG (Christmas Present) 
• Pair of Perry Miniatures 3" Mortars (Christmas Present)

Toodle pip for now, I hope you all have a very prosperous 2014 and may all your dice roll well.