A Year In Gaming - 2020

It's New Years Eve, and that means we're finally about to leave the hellscape that was 2020 for the fresh, unblemished year of 2021!

Thing's can only get better from here, right?

Thanks to Covid-19, I think it's safe to assume that everyone has been playing a lot less games this year, even with so many hobbyists taking to online venues like Tabletop Simulator. That's certainly been the case for me. Here are the game I played this year:

• ADLG - 1
• Battletech - 2
• Bolt Action - 5
• Brother Against Brother - 1
• By Company Into Line - 1
• Cruel Seas - 1
• Domari Nolo - 1
• Dracula's America - 1
• Et Sans Résultat! - 1
• Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket - 1
• General d'Armee - 1
• Konflikt '47 - 1
• Man O' War - 4
• Middle Earth SBG - 3
• Mordheim - 4
• Muskets & Tomahawks - 1
• Rebels & Patriots - 1
• Red Book of the Elf King - 1
• Triumph! - 1
• Warlords of Erehwon - 3
• WHFB: Renaissance - 1

That's 35 games total, only a little more than half as much as I played in 2019. The pandemic and the subsequent shutdown and social activity restrictions are, obviously, responsible for that. And even with the vaccines, a large part of 2021 will likely also be as difficult to put games together for. 

The shutdown and lack of gaming did, however, give me plenty of time to work on my various projects, and 2020 was definitely one for the record books for my painting progress:

• 10mm Artillery - 12
• 10mm Cavalry - 16
• 10mm Infantry - 528
• 15mm Artillery - 4
• 15mm Cavalry - 2
• 15mm Infantry - 270
• 28mm Artillery - 3
• 28mm Cavalry - 20
• 28mm Infantry - 135
• 28mm Monsters - 4
• 28mm Vehicle - 16
• 6mm Vehicle - 19

Wow! I know I've only been keeping track of my painting tally since 2018 (so that's a five year dark period), but I'm pretty sure that's a record amount of finished miniatures. 

It was also the year of 10mm miniatures, thanks to my work on the ACW project. Even 15mm got some love this year .

Even with so relatively few games played, that doesn't mean they weren't fun to play and great to look at!

Brother Against Brother

By Company Into Line

Cruel Seas

Domari Nolo

Et Sans Résultat!

General d'Armee

Konflikt '47

Man O' War

Mordheim

Muskets & Tomahawks

Rebels & Patriots

Warlords of Erehwon

So here's to a happy new year, and the hope for lots of hobbying in 2021!

Painting Update - Warhammer Fantasy

It's been a bit slow around here, with the holidays coming up and Covid spiking. I've also hit a bit of a slump with painting as well.

After the last game of Warlords of Erehwon, I decided to get back to work on my Orcs & Goblins project. I've only got a few units to work on left, one of which was this group of Orc Boar Riders.

I also picked up a unit of Trolls from Satyr Art Studio, which I found through a Black Friday sales promo. These are fantastic metal miniatures, with lots of life and detail. 

Skirmish in the Sylvan Forest - Warlords of Erehwon AAR

Warlords of Erehwon is a great set of skirmish rules for generic fantasy gaming. It's amazing that Rick Priestly turned a system intended for long-range, sci-fi action into a bloody fantasy melee. 

John hosted a game intended to help those unfamiliar with the rules, and to perhaps get one more game in before the year's end. Brandon and I led the forces of evil with a dread alliance of Orcs, Goblins, and Barbarians. John and Sam combined to command the forces of good, with Olympians (fantasy Greeks) and Nymphs (fairy Elves) defending a series of river crossings. 

The horde of evil rumbled on to the table, with the Greenskins on one flank and Barbarians on the other. 

Arrayed against them were the Olympians and Nymphs.

The horde, with its lower quality troops, had 20 dice while the defenders had 15.  

Also, a good look at John's hobby bunker! It's a dream of mine to have something half as nice as John's space. 

My Orc Warboss lead his Orc warriors and cavalry over the river and into the woods. Unfortunately, we misread the rules for rough terrain and thought any movement through it halved a unit's move speed. It turned out that the unit needs to take an agility test, which for the Orcs was a 50% chance. 

This could have given them a better chance at getting into the fight, but this wing of the forces of evil never really got into combat. 

All of the sections of river that weren't fordable could be crossed, but at the risk of being attacked by a lesser cousin of Charybdis.

Brandon lead the charge against the Olympians with his Barbarians, while my Wizard led my Goblins and artillery in support. 

John's Nymphs were also split. He moved his Hero, Guard and treekin to counter my Orcs, while the rest of his force raced to support Sam's Olympians. 

With only one area to cross the river, most of the combat between the Olympians, Barbarians and Goblins was ranged. Here the forces of evil had a definite advantage, although Sam had a flying unit of Harpies that could throw rocks off the cliff that the waterfall emerged from. 

Brandon's Berserkers and Chariot raced to get across the ford and into the thin line of Olympians, who had left the hoplites at home and had instead brought smaller units of skirmishing cavalry and peltasts. Out-manned, out-gunned, and out-magicked, Sam could only hold on as he watched the Nymph reinforcements race down the river's edge. 

The Berserkers tore apart the unit of Peltasts blocking the river but Sam's Warlord and some supporting fire forced the raving warriors back. Likewise, the Chariot was charged by the Olympian hero and, thanks to a number of pins that was already on it, was destroyed. 

It was the unit of Wolf Riders that first managed to make it out of the woods. Having sprinted to do so (they have a special rule that allows them to sprint four times their 6" move instead of the normal three times) they didn't get a chance to fire their bows at the Nymphs. This allowed the Nymph Guard to charge into the Wolf Riders. 

The combat , however, end in a draw - no casualties on either side! Both sides backed off, with the Goblins nervously looking for their supporting Orcs foot troops. 

With the Olympians close to breaking, the Nymphs finally reached the battle, sending a group of Goblin archers fleeing off the table. However, the elder folk's light armor wasn't effective against the return fire of black-fletched arrows and fireballs!

Unfortunately we had to call the game there as we ran out of time. The group felt that we had gotten a better handle of the rules, and rescheduled for another game in January. There's also talk of a campaign, with the greenskins as the antagonists. 

Painting Update - ACW, Battletech

With Covid-19 cases rising in the area, gaming has slowed down, and unfortuantely my painting enthusiasm has flagged. I'm still chipping away at various armies and projects here and there. 

I finally got back to completing my 10mm ACW project. I had drifted away from it after working on the infantry regiments, and I only had the artillery and limbers to work on. So I pulled them out of storage and focused on them. That's the project complete! 

I may add more brigades over time. It seems like four brigades of four regiments each (and each regiment made up of five bases) makes for a good sized force. At the moment I have half those numbers, so they'd be good for either smaller engagements or for combining with someone else' collection. 

Recently I got my pledge for the BattleTech: Clan Invasion kickstarter, which produced newly redesigned plastic miniatures of older, iconic battlemechs used by the Clans and the Houses of the Inner Sphere.

I've painted my mechs as part of Clan Jade Falcon. 

The Clan Command Star contains a light-class Mist Lynx, and two medium-class mechs, a Shadow Cat and Storm Crow.

Also included are a heavy-class Summoner and an assault-class Dire Wolf.

And I also completed my last lance for my mercenary company! This lance contains two heavy-class mechs - a Warhammer and a Rifleman - a medium-class Phoenix Hawk, and a light-class Wasp.