Review of 2020

With the wargame table packed away for the Xmas festivities it is time to review how the past year progressed.

As with previous yearly reviews I will revisit my plans for the year to see how they panned out and will add any unplanned events!

Text in italics are taken directly from my years' plans.

Before I start I should mention there are 2 events which will impact on my wargaming this coming year. From mid February I will be away for 5 weeks. The second, and rather more impactive, is a house move. Assuming we manage to sell our house ok we intend to move before the end of the year. This will severely restrict the gaming side of the hobby although I hope to maintain at least a degree of figure painting. One of the criteria for our new home will be it possesses, or has the potential to possess, a wargames room. So, all being well, normal service should be resumed in due course. It may of course give me the opportunity to experiment with skirmishing in 6mm. Chain of Command on a coffee table looks promising!

We managed to get away for 5 weeks returning to the mayhem that was Covid-19! This also clashed with our house move which fortunately, was completed in April. My worst fears about not having wargame space were not realised, and even better still I had slightly more room than previously! So normal service resumed.

WARS OF THE ROSES:

Battle of Shrewsbury - From the Kingmaker campaign. 400 - 500 figures need to be painted, the first of which has now been primed and on my painting table.

Completed with AAR on the blog.

Continued -

ECW:

The linked battles of Glastonbury and Chewton Mendip. With the figures now painted for Glastonbury this will be the first game of the year. Followers of the blog will be aware that this period is one of my all-time favourites since joining the Sealed Knot in 1971. It has been a long time since I gamed the period and itching to get this onto the tabletop. Even more so since I discovered 'Forlorn Hope' rules by Peter Berry which suits my style of gaming rather more than other recent offerings.

Glastonbury completed with Chewton Mendip still to be played.

AWI (10mm):

White Planes - From British Grenadier scenario books. There is still a question mark over whether this will get played and if I continue with this scale. As it stands I hope to play it through before making a decision on the future of 10mm.

This year finally saw the curtain close on 10mm for me. There was nothing wrong with the scale and the Pendraken figures are outstanding. It was more of a conscious decision to focus purely on 6mm for practical reasons.

NAPOLEONIC:

2nd Battle of Brandenlea - A fairly small French v Spanish action from my Warplan 5/5 campaign. It will be my intention to get this played and to push along the campaign.

Completed with AAR on the blog. In fact I comfortably exceeded my expectations for the Napoleonic Campaign for the following additional battles completed:

The Battle of Tourane Peninsular which saw Best's Hanoverian Brigade once again escape to fight another day with Chasse's Dutch/Belgian force pushed back into the Peninsular setting the scene for it's last stand.

Skirmish at Rock Valley, Spain. Three Swiss battalions en-route to reinforce the French 6th Corps were ambushed by Spanish Guerillas and suffered considerable loss. This was the first 6mm skirmish of the campaign.

ACW:

1st Battle of Winchester 25th May 1862 - A continuation of working through the Guns at Gettysburg 'Stonewall' scenario books. ACW had a good year this year so will probably restrict it to just this one battle.

This was completed and included the first trial use of a Tiny Wargames mat. 

WW2:

Op Compass to continue but I have yet to identify the next suitable engagement. As soon as I have done so I will update the 'My Collections and Projects' tab above.

This particular project was discontinued and replaced with a campaign version based on the old Avalon Hill map from its boardgame "Africa Korps".

Three battles were played out, 2 air battles one of which was a precursor to the main campaign, and the Battle of Matkila which saw Selby force defeat the Italian defenders.

Prelude to campaign.

RAF intercepts Italian bomber formation escorted by fighters.

Matkila part 1.

Matkila Part 2.

Reconnaissance in Strength - This is a mini-campaign set on the Russian front and I intend to play it through to completion. At present I hope to complete this before the end of the year.

This project has been delayed until 2021 primarily caused by the availability of figures and vehicles required (and the need to paint them!).

Allied Landing on Rhodes - from Op Nostalgia campaign. Although this is an intention I would estimate a 50% chance at best that this will get played given my commitments next year. It is though a campaign I would like to progress and if not completed it will be a priority for 2021.

Two landings played -

British Para landing at Lindos.

Landings at Falaraki. 

Unfortunately this game was only part way through before I had to terminate it (see main posting for reasons). This lead to a re-evaluation of this project with a difficult decision made to cancel it. 

CAMPAIGNS

WARS OF THE ROSES:

Kingmaker campaign to continue with the Battle of Shrewsbury up next.

Completed - see above. 

NAPOLEONIC:

Warplan 5/5 campaign to continue with the Battle of Brandenlea.

Completed - see above

WW2:

Reconnaissance in Strength - This is a mini-campaign set on the Russian front (see 'Battles' above).

Not completed

Operation Nostalgia - With the preliminary air and sea battles fought the landing on Rhodes beckons.

Part completed with the project ultimately cancelled.

PAINTING/MODELLING

Wars of the Roses: 400 to 500 will be required for the Battle of Shrewsbury in the Kingmaker campaign which is a priority for the new year. 

Completed.

Napoleonic: 1,000 - 1,200 figures for Talavera required, mainly Spanish. Unlikely these will be completed this year but aim to make more progress.

Over 400 Spanish painted.

Colonial: Overall 1,000 Zulus and around 150 British will be required for Rorkes Drift. It is not my intention to play this battle next year but hope to make progress in painting up some of the forces involved.

500 Zulus and a dozen British completed.

WW2: For Reconnaissance in Strength mini-campaign, Russians and German SS troops and vehicles will be required. As this is destined to be played this year these figures and vehicles will be a priority. Approximately 400 figures and 90 vehicles & guns to be painted.

Almost all completed. Campaign scheduled for 2021.

Unlike in previous years I have not set a precise number to be painted for each period unless required for a specific battle to be played. Instead I will set a target for 6mm figures. Normally I can paint up to 3,000 (including mounted) in a year. With expected commitments next year I will set a more modest target of 1,500!

Target beaten! This is unusual for me. A total of 2,364 figures painted along with 130 x vehicles and AFV's, 12 x 1/3000 ships and 77 x 1/600 aircraft.

TERRAIN:

Upgrading of tress to be completed followed by more pine trees to be based and improved.

No progress on pine trees but rest completed.

Buildings and terrain pieces to be constructed for the following games -

Gettysburg

Small number of buildings completed but terrain still to be done.

Rhodes

Completed

Reconnaissance in Strength (this will primarily be battlefield clutter suitable for WW2 such as telegraph poles, dugouts etc).

Terrain pieces completed.

More desert terrain to be completed, particularly dunes and palm trees.

Nothing added this year!

I also hope to continue sprucing up my existing commercially built terrain boards.

All road sections completed. River sections to be upgraded in due course.

SUMMARY

So a little less ambitious compared to previous years but the amount of impact on my time is something of an unknown quantity. It will potentially give me the impetus to experiment with playing skirmish level games on small tables/boards and hopefully give gamers ideas who are severely restricted on space. Although not a fan of skirmish games I can see a fun value when incorporated into a larger campaign.

Space problem resolved.

I have also taken note of comments about the length of my After Action Reports on the 2019 review posting. Unless a particularly short game, I will break AAR's down into parts making it easier to digest in a short sitting. I will also be experimenting with battlefield maps to provide more regular overviews as the battle progresses enabling the reader to have a better understanding as to what is happening on the tabletop.  

Still working on the format for AAR's but my latest (XXX Corps breakout) has worked out quite well. 

The only notable addition to the planned battles was the recent XXX Corps Breakout game as part of the Operation Market Garden project.

XXX Corps Breakout.

Overall then a remarkable (for me) achievement to keep reasonably on track with my plans. The only major deviation was the cancellation of Op Nostalgia and the commencement of the Op Compass campaign to replace it.

I will shortly post my plans for 2021 which, notwithstanding Covid-19, should be a more settled year and hence more wargaming!

In the meantime I wish all readers of the blog a happy and safe Christmas. Hope you all get some nice wargame related pressies!