2013 – Review

First off, Happy New Year to everyone. A little late I know but… 🙂

2013 was in many years one of highs and lows as far as gaming was concerned. I started the year quite well as I began the painting for the Ayton game in May and the creation of my Savage Swans etc. for the C19th. Using the Spencer Smith FPW range I managed to get everything done and even added a band using the Stadden British marching band. The full write up and links to the galleries are here: Ayton 2013. As ever it was a great weekend with everyone supplying contingents of varying size and weirdness to supplement Tim Hall’s stunning ACW collection.

Then that was it for the summer. I got a little more painting done on some projects but the next game was not until October when several of the Ayton crew gathered at the (huge and stunning!) home of Paul Bright in Scotland where the some of the forces of the recent campaigns in Byzarbia headed into the south of the Dark Continent in search of wealth and did battle with assorted natives, wildlife and some old enemies! It was an excellent weekend and played out in a great venue and in great company. The writeup for the game appears in Miniature Wargames with Battlegames Issue 368. I have a huge number of photos from the game and these will be going up here in a few weeks along with the latest entry in Private Lamm’s Journal. But in the meantime… And that was the gaming for the year. Two games. Not a lot but two great games which make up for the lack of anything else! Although I managed to pop into the local Club to say hello on a few occasions I never actually made it down for a game which is a little sad really… Maybe this year…

As mentioned above, painting went well for the first half of the year but then tailed off. To spur me on for the next few months I have entered the now annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I’m aiming for 1000 points but seeing as to date I only have 5 it’s not looking good! I do have a lot of stuff ready to go but the first few weeks have been spent finishing off some odds and ends for my ImagiNation stuff that’ll I’ll post about in a day or so and then I can start in earnest as I have sent rather an ambitious list to Henry for this years Ayton game…

I managed a few shows. York, Derby and Smoggy being the highlights. Call to Muster was good as well and it’s nice to have another show in the area. I missed both Partizans due to holidays and a puncture. And I missed Border Reiver as I had to work that day. It being a week earlier than usual had thrown me…

The down side of the gaming year centers on WD3. This forum was really central in rejuvenating my interest in figure gaming 4-5 years ago. Although I had been working on my 15mm AWI and Ancient armies the people at WD3 got me hooked on 28mm ImagiNation with the first Ayton game in 2011. I’ve developed some great friendships through the site and it was my first port of call online every day. Back in October the site went down, and again in November due to hosting and domain name troubles. The first time I set up a temporary home on my own hosting space and then after the second failure I organised getting a new forum setup on a new host and the old forum available as an archive. Things finally looked great and stable for the next few years – a novelty for WD3!

Then came the big fall out. I’ll not go into things here as it really doesn’t need resurrecting again, but suffice to say is I no longer have anything to do with WD3 and at the moment don’t foresee my returning there. Which is a shame and could so easily have been avoided…

I’m currently residing at The Loose Association of Wargamers forum with some fine chaps and am enjoying the place rather a lot. Even if I wince every time the Adminer announces he’s planning to change something! 🙂

So that was 2013. Not the most gaming filled year but in this case quality far exceeds quantity.

Plans for 2014 coming soon…