Hmmm…2016. I had great plans:
- Complete the 20mm WSS Les Higgins brigade (hopefully) for the March game. 2-3 battalions. 1 regiment of cavalry. 1 gun and limber.
- Complete 2nd Battalion of Altefritzenburgers for Ayton. And maybe 12 cavalry. And some battalion guns… Probably…
- Modern Microarmour – finish off Belgians and Brits and sort out the remaining Soviet stuff.
- Punic War – I ‘probably’ don’t need to do anything for this but… I have just signed up to the latest Forged in Battle Kickstarter and can see myself grabbing some Punic War related stuff come June and maybe finally getting some pikemen done… and some re-basing…
- Start the Lion Rampant stuff. Not urgent as needed for Ayton 2017! But I’d like to try another game before then
I totally failed on the WSS. Attending the game at Gary’s didn’t happen and without the driver of a game the painting just didn’t happen. Painting for Ayton went OK. I got the cavalry regiment I wanted finished and battalion guns. 
The 2nd Altefritzenburgers are still on the painting table. Twelve of them finished but the rest just primed. We shall be returning to the C18th at Ayton 2018 so they’ll be done for then!
Modern microarmour saw little progress apart from basing up some Brits.
The Punic War game did happen! Apart from a little rebasing and some command stands I didn’t do the massive rebase I planned but it was enough for the game in November.
And against all odds I did stick together some Normans and start painting for Ayton 2017!
I also had plans for:
- 10mm Sudan – I got the Black Powder supplement for Christmas and still intend to do this this. Honest…
- 15mm AWI – sort and re-assess. Clear out what’s not needed and re-base a few
Neither of which happened! 10mm Sudan seemed a little daunting but the arrival of The Men Who Would Be Kings may make it more manageable….
And on a more general note:
- Sort the attic to free up the game table (again!) so I can actually play a game up there!
- Get in one game a month at either the Tyneside or Whitley Bay clubs
- Sort out moving my blog content to the website and generally do more updates
- I’d quite like to get a game of ASL in as well….
- And finally, I’m going to resurrect the whole Wargaming Neutral thing..
The table has been cleared, covered, cleared and is now covered again! I did manage a small ACW game and intend to clear it again soon for another game! I tried to get to a local club each month. It started well with the Whitley Bay club where I managed 3-4 games. Then life got in the way… I didn’t even manage a game at the Tyneside Club…
The blog has been ticking along and this year saw the 10th Anniversary of my blogging efforts. Moving content to a website is ongoing… maybe this year…
ASL – nope… 🙁
Wargaming Neutral… – nope 🙁
So not too bad really but could have done better. So what else happened in the year?
Ayton was its usual excellent weekend of C18th campaign fun run this year by Henry Hyde: Day 1 and Day 2
Having managed a solo Fire and Fury game in July I finally decided to embark on a re-basing and re-painting of my 15mm ACW collection. Quite a lot of work but worth it in the end.
I still have some stuff to do (some re-basing of newly acquired stuff, markers, terrain) but now have decent forces for both sides. And I’m hoping March will see it all on the table if I can get the LAW chaps (EB, W2D and GM) up for a game!
October saw a minor LAW gathering in Framlingham for a couple of excellent little games. A DBN game on Day 1 and a lovely early C19th Colonial game in Day 2. 
November saw myself, EB, W2D and GM descend on the Foundry venue for our To the Strongest game and most excellent it was too!
December had me dealing with my 95 year old Aunt and getting her moved into a home so the end of the year really slowed down. However, I had made the excellent Battleground show and did get the 6mm SF acquisitions re-based over the Christmas holiday.
Other event? I made a few shows. Partizan in May was great. It was my birthday on the day and Iain Burt very kindly gifted me his 10mm WSS figures:
And 2016 also saw big changes at Miniature Wargames magazine when Henry Hyde departed. I was pleased when Henry took over as editor as I’d not been keen on the direction the mag was taking before then. New blood at the helm seemed to really lift the mag and I was happy to re-subscribe. Having seen the first few issues of the new style mag I’m still not convinced. I don’t object to SF and Fantasy. However I have a pretty limited interest in that and although the new content is in addition to existing historical stuff it just doesn’t ‘feel’ right and regardless of the respective page counts for each ‘genre’ it feels like the historical side is getting sidelined. My sub runs another couple of issues so I will see it through and I hope John Treadaway finds his feet and his own style and things change. But Henry has moved on and it is equally good to see him now writing for both the other mags.
So, there we have it. A little review. Not a bad year really. Plans for 2017 to come!