A Year In Gaming - 2022

Once again, it's the end of the year and a look back at what I played and painted during that time. 

Let's start with the games: 

• 'O' Group - 4
• Age of Hannibal - 1
• Basic Impetus II - 1
• Battlefleet Gothic - 2
• Breakthrough - 1
• Castles in the Sky - 1
• Command & Colors: Ancients - 1
• Fire and Fury (Homebrew) - 1
• For King & Parliament - 1
• Frostgrave - 2
• General d'Armee - 2
• Mythic Americas - 2
• Naval Thunder - 4
• Pickett's Charge - 1
• Regimental Fire & Fury - 1
• Saga - 1
• Sharp Practice - 1
• Strength & Honour - 4
• The Battlefield - 1
• To the Strongest! - 1
• Wars of Orcs and Dwarves - 1
• Wars of Ozz - 1

I played 33 games in 2022. That's... not great, to be honest. That's two less games than in 2020, the year when the world shut down due to the outset of the pandemic. 

Then again, I could consider myself privileged to have been able to play so many games in the past. I'm sure there are plenty of hobbyists out there who would be happy to be able to hit that number of games, and the variety therein. 

I also note the lack of any campaign or tournament games in the list that would usually come in the double digits. In the years past that would have been games like ADLG, Blood Bowl, Mordheim, and Guild Ball. 

And here's what I've painted: 

• 1/1200th Ships - 31
• 15mm Cavalry - 31
• 15mm Infantry - 162
• 28mm Infantry - 61
• 28mm Monsters - 3
• 2mm Cavalry - 3
• 2mm Infantry - 20
• 2mm Terrain - 8
• 6mm Vehicles - 18

Not so bad a tally once again. Definitely a focus on 15mm this year, and you can see the Castles in the Skies and Strength & Honour projects in the 'weird' scales. 

'O' Group

Age of Hannibal 

Battlefleet Gothic

Breakthrough

Castles in the Sky

Command & Colors: Ancients

Fire and Fury (Homebrew)

For King & Parliament

General d'Armee

Mythic Americas

Naval Thunder

Pickett's Charge

Regimental Fire & Fury

Sharp Practice

Strength & Honour

The Battlefield 

To the Strongest! 

Wars of Ozz

So that's the last post of 2022! I hope everyone has a happy new year, and has plenty of gaming, painting, and general fun in 2023.

Painting Update - Napoleonics

As the year runs down, let's take one last look at what I've been painting. 

I've gotten a head start on my 2023 Napoleonic project with these Cossacks from AB Miniatures (supplied by Eureka USA). I needed three small units, which I'm setting at three bases. 

I also completed a unit of Uhlans, also from AB/Eureka USA. This is a standard unit of six bases. 

Miniature Musings - Happy Birthday, By Brush and Sword!

 Ten year ago today, I posted my first entry on this blog: The Assault on Villa Fontaine - Flames of War AAR. I was just getting into wargaming properly (just starting in college and gaming in my parent's basement) with the 2nd edition of Flames of War, a somewhat unique entry to the hobby that's mostly dominated by Games Workshop.

Handmade bocage and fields (which I still have!), old Citadel Scenery hills, 2D buildings and partially painted miniatures. Ah, simpler times. 

I was also already spreading out into more boutique historical options, like the original edition of This Very Ground for some French & Indian War gaming. 

Of course, Warhammer made an early appearance with some Orks and Imperial Guard. 

Another early post was an AAR of one of my first games with my old Pennsylvania group; a wonderful group of gamers who I still infrequently get the chance to meet up with when I'm in the area.

Not all of my posts were about games. Early on I wrote my first (if infrequent) "Miniature Musings" about the closure of a local hobby shop. While focused on train modelling, Herb's Hobbies & Crafts was a great place for paint, brushes, flock, and terrain; everything a new hobbyist might need to start. It was a shame that just as I was starting in the hobby, a local resource was shutting down. 

I also started posting about painting as well, with my first "Painting Update" featuring the 15mm Fallschirmjager I painted for a friend at the time.

I remember being pretty proud at the time, as not only was it the first "army" I had painted, but I had taken the time and effort to paint splinter camo in 15mm. 

I also worked on my French & Indian War miniatures (18mm, from Old Glory/Blue Moon. I started out pretty focused on smaller scales!). 

It's interesting to look back at how I used to set up mini-dioramas for my miniatures, instead of the light box that I use now. Part of that was the ease of being able to leave my hobby supplies set up in my parents basement (as opposed to my own smaller and basementless home now). With the better camera on my phone in the present, I almost miss that old style. 

As for numbers, I've written 469 blog posts in the past decade (470 including this one). 322 of those have been after-action reports. Painting updates have taken up 99 posts. Musings, reviews, and scattered other posts make up the rest. 

It wasn't until 2015 that I started my end-of-the-year posts reviewing what I had played. The next year I actually kept track of how many games I had played, and in 2018 I started tracking what I had painted. It's actually a shame, when I think about it; what information have I lost in those years when I didn't track those numbers?

So, what the future for the blog? 

I'm not sure. I worry at times that burnout will eventually see me finally abandon the blog on my own volition, or if Blogger finally ends as a service (it's been going since 1999 and has managed to limp along in the current dumpster-fire environment of social media). 

I've had friends and other wargamers express appreciation for the pictures I take of their games, as ways for them to remember the effort they've put in and fun they've had. And I think that's the main motivation for continuing this blog. It's a way to document the experiences of an engaging hobby that's helped me meet a lot of great people and learn so much, while also providing a lot of entertainment. 

I can't say if it'll be here in another decade. But here's hoping!

Teste of Strength - Battlefleet Gothic AAR

This month's SJGA game was Battlefleet Gothic, run by John Stanoch (who, I will note, came up with all of the ships' names). 

John was using a modified version of Battlefleet Gothic Remastered, which is an ongoing project to update the Battlefleet Gothic rules and keep them available to new players. John's modifications included a grid-based movement system (which also affected weapons and ordinance) and a chit-draw activation system (combining a player's fire and ordinance phases into a single turn). 

The scenario was an ambush, set up by the Imperials by the theft of a Chaos artifact. With a Word Bearers fleet in pursit, it would be up to the Imperial players to pounce on the pursuing enemy fleet. 

The Chaos fleet was composed of:

Desolator-class Emperor's Testicle (Brian)

Slaughter-class Soulless (Brian)
Repulsive-class Bringer of Despair (Sam B)

Inferno-class Hellspace (Sam B)
Acheron-class Chaos Eternus (Phil)

Hades-class Injustice (Phil)

While the Imperial fleet was made up of:

Armageddon-class Hammer of Light (Robert)

Lunar-class Justicar (Robert)
Tyrant-class Zealous (Sam W)

Dauntless-class Abdiel (Sam W)

Dominator-class Hammer of Justice (Dick)

Dauntless-class Uziel (Dick)
Retribution-class Cardinal Boras (Tim)

Firestorm-class Gold 1 (Tim)

The Game started with a fell omen for the Imperial players. Robert failed his first command roll to order his ships to move "All Ahead Full". The Chaos ships, sensing an opportunity, passed their rolls to "Lock On" and mauled the Hammer of Light and Justicar.

Sam, realizing that Robert's lone ships wouldn't last much longer under such concentrated fire, moved his ships onto the table from the back edge, eschewing the optional rule to wait and deploy further up the table edge (5 squares per turn). 

The Justicar was the first Imperial ship to fall, becoming a drifting hulk. 

As Sam moved up and launched torpedoes, he was joined by Dick's squadron. 

There was a brief lull in combat as the Chaos Fleet was broken up, having to dodge between the waves of torpedoes launched by the Imperial ships. 

Seeing the formation scatter, Tim brought the intimidating Cardinal Boras in from the opposite table edge, accompanied by the single escort from Gold squadron that was included in the Imperial fleet. 

The Abdiel was destroyed when it was caught by a broadside of lances from the Emperor's Testicle. 

The Chaos Eternus and Soulless launched attacks against the Cardinal Boras, but the heavily-shielded battleship emerged unscathed from the enemy cruisers' attacks and set its sight on the grand cruiser Bringer of Despair. 

More and more Imperial ships were being destroyed, picked apart by weapons batteries and lances from the Chaos Ships. Caught between the Emperor's Testicle and Injustice, the Uziel was shattered. The Hammer of Light fled the failed ambush, moving to the edge of the system and opening a warp gate. Gold 1 was also caught by the Bringer of Despair and destroyed. 

Meanwhile, the Cardinal Boras moved forward, launching broadsides at the fleeing Chaos cruisers that unfortunately failed to connect. 

At the end of the game, the Cardinal Boras was the last Imperial ship on the table, with none of the Chaos ships having even been crippled, let alone destroyed. This ended as a disastrous ambush for the Imperium, and the losses would hinder the Imperium's effort in the sector for a long time. 

This fight was an uphill battle from the start for the Imperials, from Robert's bad luck at the start and their scattered approached to the Chaos battlegroup. This allowed the Chaos ships to dodge their torpedoes and pick the Imperial ships off one at a time. John also pointed out to me that the Chaos fleet likely had too many points for what was supposed to be an ambush. Potentially swapping out the Desolator for a cruiser like a Murder would make the Chaos fleet less likely to engage in direct combat. 

The only suggestion the players had was allowing a little more freedom in placing torpedoes. 

As they were, the torpedoes had very restrictive arcs that made it difficult to line up attacks. You could only place the torpedos either directly forward or to a 45 degree angle to either side. 

Allowing a player to give the torpedos an additional turn of 45 degrees to the left or right would give more freedom in direction, which would have given the Imperials a boost during the game. 

John's adaption of the rules to a grid-based system was fantastic. It took all the ambiguity out of movement and shooting, which made running a 7 player game relatively easy. I would absolutely consider doing the same for Castles in the Skies. John's game also reinforced my thought that less is more. Had each player been running 4-5 ships, this would have been a mess.

I'm looking forward to more Battlefleet Gothic in the future. 

Back to the Brawl - Regimental Fire and Fury AAR

Ted's game last week was a refight of Brawner's Farm, which we played a year ago using Pickett's Charge. 

This time we tried it with Regimental Fire and Fury. Which was great, especially since I haven't had a chance to play these rules for years. 

The setup was the same as the previous game, with the Stonewall Brigade and the Iron Brigade facing off already in musket range, with reinforcements coming on from the table edges. 

The battle started at 5:15, with daylight rapidly dwindling. This is reflected by line-of-sight dropping each turn once twilight hit (on turn 4, if I remember correctly) until units can only see by the light of the moon (8" in game terms). 

I was controlling most of Gibbon's units, while Steve had the artillery and one of Gibbon's units on the far right of the battlefield. He would take control of Doubleday's units once they arrived. 

Chip had Taliaferro's units, John had Lawton's, and Ted would control Trimble's troops. 

Chip had some awful luck at the start of the game, despite the Confederates getting the initiative. Between the Iron Brigade's effective defensive fire and the Stonewall Brigade's desultory offensive fire, it seemed like the rebels were on the back foot. I decided to press my luck and push my regiments forward. 

That luck didn't hold, unfortunately. Despite charging Chip's tiny regiments with my fresh troops, he chased off the Midwesterners. To add on to my troubles, the regiment that had charged managed to run low on ammo as they fired on the way in, leaving them at an early disadvantage. 

I also had John's regiments to worry about as they marched on my flank. 

And John happily pressed into that flank, combining his rifle fire with Chip's artillery to devastate one of my two regiments. 

Steve wasn't having a decent time either, as you can see. The lone Black Hat regiment he had was facing off against an entire Confederate brigade. And Ted's troops were dodging Steve's artillery fire as they marched forward. 

Caught between John and Chip, my regiments were quickly dwindling in size. Steve was rushing Doubleday's brigade up to stem the tide, linking up with my last Iron Brigade regiment that hadn't engaged yet. 

I did manage to push one of John's units back, and Steve sent his regiments to the far edge of the field to block the rest of John's regiments. Off in the far side, Ted and Steve were still engaging on either side of the swale that ran through the property. 

By this point, the light had dwindled to the point where both sides' artillery was useless. 

Two of my regiments were down to four stands or less, and one was low on ammo. Not expecting much from them, I was hoping they'd put up enough of a fight to allow my last regiment a chance to fall back and cover Doubleday's flank. 

Of course, that's when Chip received reinforcements. While they were tiny regiments, they were fresh, crack troops, and accompanied by a battery of horse artillery; exactly the weapon that the Confederates needed to pierce the beleaguered Union defense. 

Steve was managing to hold his own against Ted and Steve, but was hard pressed; there was a sea of grey and khaki that outnumbered the boys in blue. 

We ended up calling the game after turn six, if I remember correctly. The Confederates won a minor victory, having caused heavy casualties against the Union force and, had we continued, likely would have had enough troops to push the remaining Union troops out of the field. 

This scenario is definitely an uphill fight for the Confederates. The Union regiments are big and reliable, and not likely to shift unless the Confederates can direct enough fire against them. Discussing my choices with Chip and John, it may have been a better idea to, after Chip's opening volley had left my units unscathed, to fall back to the snake-rail fences and move into extended line, giving my troops a much better defensive stance and providing some cover from the Rebel artillery. 

Maybe this is something I can try if we play the scenario again. 

Counter Attack Orsha - Breakthrough AAR

My final game at Fall In was my only theme-centered game (this year it was "Vehicles of War: Trains, Tracks and Trucks"). The players would be taking command of Soviet and Russian forces during Barbarossa, with both sides clashing during the Orsha Counter-Offensive. 

There were four Soviet players (of which I was one) that controlled a division each, facing off against two German players with two regiments each. 

Our plan was to strike on the left side of the table where we had a distinct advantage in numbers, while the other two divisions would hold back a little longer. 

The Germans had the initiative and began to move out along the roads from town to town. 

Meanwhile, the German player on my side of the table roared forward to engage, leaving the Soviet forces on the backfoot. To prevent them from having an open access to the Soviet rear, the bridge on the nearby stream was blown. 

The Soviets had two problems to deal with: numbers and terrain. 

With so many units on the table, they could only squeeze so many men and machines in an area small enough to engage the Germans, which gave the Germans an advantage with their better stats. The river in front of my division also required an entire turn to cross, apart from the temporary bridge that an engineering unit set up. So when my troops were forced to fall back across the river, it took two turns to bring them back (and that didn't account for disruption markers gained from their poor leadership). 

Seeing that the left flank was stymied and holding on, the other two Soviet commanders charged their divisions forward, engaging the more strung-out German forces. 

A "turn" in Breakthrough represents 8 hours of real-time combat, so every third turn is a night (which I've represented through a vignette filter). Usually this is a good time to halt your advance and rally your units to prepare for the next day. 

Yet again, however, the Soviets were on the back foot. Our opponent had played a night fighting card (Breakthrough uses decks of cards for each national for some additional flavor that gives bonuses), and so could ignore the negatives of fighting at night. And as Soviets, we couldn't change our regiments postures from Attack to Defend, but had to shift to Reorganize first. Which would be fine, if there weren't two relatively fresh German regiments ready to pounce on any Soviet regiment that stopped its attack. 

I was pretty involved over on our side of the table so I wasn't entirely sure of what was going elsewhere. But from the picture, I see a lot more disruption tokens on the Soviet units than I see on the German. 

Notice, however, that the Soviet 17th Division had gotten a regiment of tanks over the river...

The dawn of the new day started with a German offensive directed at the command to my left. Through a series of absolutely incredible dice roles and some nerves of steel, the German attack was foiled by the Soviet player. This forced the Germans to fall back and, over on my side, move into a more defensive position and give me some breathing room. 

Through the open terrain on the other side of the table, the Soviets launched a new attack, forcing the Germans further back.

By the afternoon, both sides were fairly beat up on the Soviet left, and I had brought my reserve infantry regiment over the river to try and take the remaining Germans. 

But the real action was happening in the Center, where the 17th's commander had manage to surround one of the German regiments. Caught between two tank regiments, the Germans crumbled.

While the Germans had given the Soviet forces a beating and formed a decent defensive line, they were now split in half with the Soviets able to concentrate their forces as they wanted. 

We ran out of time here, and the game was declared a minor Soviet victory. Both sides were bloodied, but taking out an enemy regiment had given the Soviets a slight edge. 

Breakthrough was an interesting set of rules, and certainly the large "scale" of battle I've played yet. I think I'd like a second chance with them before solidifying my opinion. I did have a great time during the game, however, and that's what really counts.