One year old today!

It was one year ago today that I kicked off this blog. It wasn’t my first – I’d been using blogger to catalogue some of my ASL games in my ASL Stuff and Nonsense blog – but it was the start of my proper return to figure gaming. I won’t reiterate the background again here (you can look at the earlier posts) but I would like to review things a little bit.

The blog started as AWI Stuff and Nonsense as the AWI was the focus of my interest then. I found some great sites and blogs with similar interests (exemplified by Giles’s Tarleton’s Quarter) and several forums (WD3, General de Brigade, TMP) that gave me access to a much wider community of gamers who have entertained and inspired me over the year.

I even started a few visits to my local club (Tyneside Wargames) although in the last year I’ve only managed two 15mm AWI games, a 28mm WW2 skirmish, a 15mm SYW game and one game of Field of Glory! The vagaries of family life with two kids under four does rather limit my time! But getting back to the Club has been a great experience and I’ve enjoyed every game I’ve played. The generosity of Richard (for a huge French SYW army) and Ian (for my Ancient Spanish and our weekly meetings at work to keep me ‘keen’) have been a great help in keeping me going when real life makes hobbies seem of too little import to bother with. And I’ve enjoyed putting together the website and blog for them which I hope brings in new blood to the Club.

But the biggest change has been that shift from a purely AWI focus to broader fields (of battle). My current focus on 15mm Punic War is the continuation of a long interest (my last return to gaming in the early 90’s was with 15mm Punic armies and DBM); and I will slowly get round to rebasing the SYW French and maybe beginning an Imagi-Nation with designs in the New World to bring them into conflict with my ‘AWI’ armies! WW2 has been a slower burner. I have a few 28mm painted and a few more to do but I’ve always felt that if I want to game WW2 I really only need ASL! However my erstwhile (and neglected) ASL opponent Neil has just bought a 20mm Stalingrad ruined building and some Russians so I may acquire some Germans and paint those for him!

And ASL has taken a severe back seat for reasons mentioned in other posts but I WILL return to it soon and hope to make the Heroes Tournament in Blackpool next Spring (time, work, wife and kids permitting!)

I’m really looking forward to the next year’s gaming, to making the odd show and putting faces to some of the – occasionally worrying 🙂 – online personalities I’ve encountered. And hopefully, as family life settles a little (i.e. we all get more sleep!) to getting more games in, both at the club and I hope at home as I now have a little space to set up a 6’x4′ table in my attic – though there is talk of moving house so that may all change!

And I hope this blog continues to grow and that people continue to visit and comment on my endeavours. It makes it all a little more worthwhile!