Brand New Year, Same Old Stuff? Well, maybes...

Swanning about in Panther country; The Isle of Sheppey
Border Horse seek their prey

Intro     

     So, what with it now being the third week in January 2020 I should maybe do a review of 2019 but no, I reckon a summary will just about cover it. 

     

Gaming 

     I have managed to fit in a fair few games over the last year. Never as many as I would like, that's fair to say (and no where near as many as Travis Hiett on Tabletop CP; how does he find the time??) but still enough to satisfy my needs (though not my "wants"...just saying). Certainly I have played more games than I have blogged and pretty much all of them were of a narrative nature; my preferred type of game.

     By far and away Bolt Action was the game I played most and pretty much all of those games were part of a campaign; Market Garden, The Bulge, D Day (down at Warlord Games) and, latterly Fortress Budapest.

      I also took part in two Sharp Practice campaigns; one Peninsular War the other French Indian War, both of which were great fun.

      Lion Rampant is getting more attention of which I am glad. Danny and I have an occasional campaign of sorts going on set in the Baltic Crusades period. There's more Lion Rampant in the offing at the Falkirk and District club with another campaign looming but more of that anon. I would like to have played more In Her Majesty's Name but I guess you can't have everything but at least I got a couple of games in. 

      New games that I bought into include Gangs Of Rome, Test Of Honour and Bag The Hun; I have put together a warband for Test of Honour and a gang for Gangs of Rome which I enjoy and I think will get a bit more attention in 2020 but I really need to make some inroads into that pile of plastic planes I bought for Bag The Hun....and get a hex mat for it.... 

     It was at Deep Fried Lard that I was introduced to Bag The Hun or, to be more precise, Bag The Mig as the game was set in the Korean War. I did a mini-Walter Kiam and bought the rules, the Two Fat Lardies company not being up for sale and anyway, I probably couldn't afford the amount of cooking lager they would want in exchange for it.

    I even managed to fit in a game of What A Tanker at the end of the year and here's the proof. We played two games with one Panther v two Shermans;  both of which the British won I'm sure....certainly we won the second game as my Sherman emphatically blew up the Panther (in an act of revenge as the Panther had just as emphatically blew up my Sherman in the first game; an eye for an eye and all that biblical jazz, what, what) Next time around we'll play a Tiger v three Shermans.

"Driver; forward!" Tall ho, we're off to bash the Boche!!

Gunner "Panther fornt!"...Commander "Well fire, you silly sod!"

The Panther plays it cautious

That's it; you keep him occupied, I'll get him from
behind!!....or not, as the case was

     I also, finally and at long last, got to play The Pikeman's Lament....and got soundly thrashed but it was worth it. A cracking good game and I hope to play more of it in 2020. Especially as there's a Pikeman's Lament campaign day ran in the latter part of the year down in the Galashiels hosted by Dicing With History which I couldn't attend due to work commitments in 2019. But hopefully in 2020 I'll be better prepared.

Painting

     I have painted a lot in 2019; figures, vehicles and terrain; and most of which I have used in games....yippee! But not all. But I have painted lots....and there's more to come. I started one new army, which was the Soviets and I am glad to say I painted all of the starter set and then some. nd, naturally enough, there are more waiting to be done. 

     More recently I have been working on a variety of figures and trying out the triad or three shade method of painting that is championed by Kev Dallimore in his Foundry Miniatures Painting Guide; a copy pf which I received for my birthday. And I must confess I really like it. My intention over the next few months is to replace my Vallejo and Army Painter paints with Coat D'Arms paints with a view to having all the necessary shades for the projects I am working on. Meanwhile here's what I had done since my last update...  

British 95th Rifles; painted in the three shades manner then gloss
varnished; yes, gloss varnished than matt varnished for extra
protection!! As recommended by Kev Dallimore and adopted by
Jim Bob

Dungeon Saga baddies; ghosts, necromancer and banshee

All done, bar three undead Trolls

Dungeon Saga terrain pieces just about done too

...but what's this, the undead Dwarf King has a hand and hammer
 missing!! Bummer!!

Yep, definitely missing. I have since contacted Mantic Games,
who produce Dungeon Saga and they are sending a replacement.
...which is very nice of them. I've included this photo as, for me,
it shows the validity of the three shades approach. No more mixing
various amounts of paints, hoping to get the right shade. I just really
like the shading on this cloak. I know, I know; self praise is no praise
and all that humble jazz 😁

Events

     Only made it to three events this year; "In A Most Despicable Place" Sharp Practice FIW event run by Dave Hunter at Bristol Independent Games, and attended by a whole load of really nice people; which was excellent fun. And the Warlord Games D Day event in Nottingham which was good (though with room for improvement; see my post about it for my reasons why) and finally, of course, Deep Fried Lard in Musselburgh; which was also tip top fun.

       And that is it for my summary of 2019; a very good year for me from a hobby perspective. We are now into 2020; I have played quite a few games so far; Lion Rampant, Dungeon Saga and, just this evening.........

A  most marvelous Christmas present

......but more of that later....but not much later, in fact quite soon 😉

Pip Pip

GJ