Tuesday 23 April 2019

2018 Round-Up and Plans for 2019...

Well, I am certainly a bit late posting this and its going to be a shorter one than usual...

The first half of 2018 was pretty good gaming wise. A handful of games were played, mainly RPG and boardgames but there were a couple of tabletop ones in there too.

The painting table/desk got a fair bit of use and I finally managed to construct a few of the 4Ground and Sarissa buildings constructed.


I even had time to start 'modding' one of the basic Sarissa buildings to something a bit more fun...




I added a literal horde to my painted generic modern/7TV/70's collection, over 100 figures in fact!


February was a bumper month for skirmish games with great sessions of Doctor Who: Exterminate, 7TV2 and Mad Dogs With Guns played.




March saw us attend Cavalier in Tonbridge and play a Texan Revolution battle with Chris, Jon and Graham of the League of Gentlemen Anti Alchemists.


April was Salute month with some great games on display. Managed to play the 7TV2 Apocalypse vehicle rules with their writer Wayne Bollands.


In June I worked with DMB Games at the UK Games Expo in Birmingham. Another great show, very successful and we hung out with the Games Workshop gang who were in the same hotel and had an absolutely mahooosive stand next door to us. Which was nice.



The second part of the year was a different thing entirely. In retrospect it was nothing bad but just a tad stressful at the time. I think I lost my gaming mojo too which did not help, so it took a back seat for a while!

I did manage to add to my Pulp (1930's) and Gangster (1920's) collection but every figure went into storage almost as soon as it had been painted.





So, plans for the year? I will try to keep it brief this time as I never achieve what I set out to!

1) The 70's - I detailed this in my last 2017-18 summary so won't go over old ground but basically, Living on the Frontline, Geezers! "Shut It!" , Aggro and maybe Combat Patrol. I am well on the way to this, at least figure wise.

2) Gangsters - a classic 1920's to 1930's, Prohibition era game. Mad Dogs With Guns are still my rules of choice. Again, I added quite a lot to the painted figure collection, plus a stack of appropriate cars. So just need to get some more buildings and terrain done, as usual.


3) Pulp - still a favourite genre but still never played Pulp Alley. Stupid really as they are meant to be one of the best and I have now just backed the Kickstarter for the 2nd Edition... 


4) Dark Ages / Vikings - still on the list and I have missed my Vikings.


5) Sci-Fi - after an abortive attempt at Rogue Stars we never returned despite our desire to. I have a nice selection of suitable figures just aching to be used. No idea on rules so need to explore the options. Maybe Tomorrows War or the new Strontium Dog will get a look in?


6) More Doctor Who and 7TV - plenty of unpainted figures still to be done. Not Warlord.

7) Finish off my Stargate stuff...so close, so near, but so far!

8) WWII - once again, no WWII gaming in 2018. Chain of Command is still the default set of rules.

9) Anything Darkest Africa or Colonial - Congo, The Men Who Would Be Kings etc.

10) Fantasy - not really my thing as far as collecting and painting miniatures these days by certainly enjoy a game. So many rules to choose from. Song of Blades and Heroes looks to be our default but still need to try the Open Combat and Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish sets. A couple of the gang want to dig out 7th Voyage again!

11) Palaeo Diet - discovered this great set of caveman hunting rules last year and went for it as a mini project. I have a mammoth, smilodon, some wolves, ancient swine and a few cavemen painted so really hope to play this soon. Want to add a few more cavemen, apex predators and herd animals to the collection. They look like great fun! Robafett and I are considering adapting them for use with Runequest as a kind of 'Morokanth' hunting game...


12) Selling Stuff - a major aim this year is to start clearing out my large amount of 'stock' I have amassed over the years. A lot was bought specifically for when I was in the early stages of setting up a games business (that never materialised, obviously) and I need to motivate myself to finally start shifting it!

New potential projects?

I sort of managed to stick to the plan of concentrating on Pulp and Gangsters (and 7TV, natch) but as always, being a massive horror fan I am keeping it on the list. Zombies are likely but something Scooby Doo/Ghostbusters/"Groovy Teenage Monster Hunters" would appeal.

As far as zombie rules, my fave still remains All Things Zombie but Last Days looks interesting.


The only other new project I am committed to is Modern Africa, very much in the 60's -70's 'imagi-Nations' style. Lots of figures and a few vehicles bought already. Rules would likely be Living on the Frontline or Combat Patrol but I recently picked up Wars of Insurgency which look fun. Other options are Force on Force, the 2nd Edition Spectre Operations, Black Ops or Skirmish Sangin but the latter three are probably a bit too 'modern' for the kind of setting I want.



And that's it I guess....

I have dug out boxes of unpainted figures that include Wild West Mexicans, English Civil War (bought for horror games to be fair) and a load of Samurai (Daisho or Ronin) but I doubt they will get any more attention than the last few years!

I have already attended Cavalier 2019 so far this year but for the first time in ages it was quite a disappointment - there were not as many games that interested me, the traders had nothing I wanted  and very few of my usual crowd (even from SEEMS or The League of Gentlemen) were around. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood?

I will be working with Andy and Mark at DMB Games a little more this year and we will be preparing for the next UK Games Expo next month. We are currently trying to develop his dungeon-bash tabletop/boardgame, Rosebyrne Manor.

RPG's seem to have taken the fore at the moment and it is the only real regular gaming I get these days. Unfortunately none of us really have the necessary combination of space and time required to undertake setting up tabletop/miniatures game so various boardgames fill in when we don't play an RPG. Not sure what the answer is other than building an extension on my house...

The age old mantra returns - the main aim will be to try to PLAY more games and finish some projects for once.


M

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