That is so-o-o-o last year!

They say, if you want to know where you're going you've got to know where you've come from. I'm not sure who 'they' are but 'they' are always credited with wisdom or power, so I'm not going to argue. I feel I'm at one of those decision points in life generally. Not some 'mid-life crisis (I'm too old for that, and I'm broadly happy with my circumstances). So no fast cars or motorbikes. I would grow a moustache, which I hear is de rigeur with bloggers d'un age certain, but with my eyebrows it would just look stupid. Like a lot of folk with a 6 in front of their age, thoughts about retirement plans have made their way to the forefront of my mind. Not that it something likely in the next few years - not unless ERNIE does me a big favour. But those sort of 'real life' questions also provoke questions of what I want to do in my spare time, long term as well as short-term.

No conclusions have been reached just yet, but a bit of 'state of the nation' reviewing wouldn't go amiss. What is my current level of activity like? What am I doing? Does it satisfy my wants? That sort of thing. So here's a review of last year's wargaming related activity. Other hobbies/pastimes do exist in my life, mainly swimming and following Grimsby Town, and a short summary of last year for both would be "not enough". Have I done enough wargaming?

Reading/'Research'

Let's start with reading (or more broadly 'research'). It always starts with reading. I bought and read 13 military history books last year.  By period this breaks down to:

• English Civil War - 2
• War of the Austrian Succession - 2
• Seven Years War - 2
• AWI - 2
• 18th Century more generally - 5

The last category is hard to breakdown by wars since they all covered several decades. E.G. the Army of George II, or the biography of James Keith. All 5 spanned the WAS and SYW though. So that gives you a clear idea of my focus.

Other sources of information plundered: 

Obviously there's t'internet: blogs, Wiki, history websites, YouTube, Royal Collections Trust (great for maps) and last but not least, Kronoskaf.

Podcasts. I've listened to probably 150 military history podcast episodes. Including every episode of We Have Ways of Making You Talk (not my period but interesting, and there are some universal themes), Military History Plus (very broad scope, but with a heavy WWI focus) and the Life & Times of Frederick the Great. Numbers are high because I can do this while driving, painting, housework or DIY.

Modelling

After reading comes the planning, then the assembly of 'armies' and terrain to fight over. In an echo of the volume (but not the quality) of Jonathan Freitag's output, over 1000 figures came off the painting table and were based up. Bear in mind however that mine are all 10mm (AWI and ECW) and 6mm (everything else). Counting cavalry as 2 and each artillery base as 5 (1 gun plus 4 gunners). The period breakdown is:

• AWI  - 92
• SYW/WAS - 965

All the AWI figures are Pendraken and all the SYW painted were Heroics and Ros (save a couple of Irregular officers which were re-purposed). The American Revolution figures were all Brits/Loyalists. The SYW/WAS includes British, Hanoverians, Reichsarmee, Austrians, Spanish and Piedmontese. So not a bad total.

In terms of 'terrain' pieces I only painted up 7 buildings (AWI) and a couple of packs of brick walls. Less good, but I didn't need to do much. This is the great benefit of limiting the scale models used and having restricted geographical scope (Europe and NAM).

Hastenbeck in September

Games Played

OK, how do the actual games totals look? With 21 games played, a school teacher could mark my report "could do better. Splitting them by period we can see a pretty varied scope:

• Ancients - 3 (1 Bronze Age, 2 Punic Wars)
• AWI - 5
• ECW - 2
• WAS - 5
• SYW - 1
• ACW - 4
• Spanish American War - 1

These were all one-off games except for 1 PBEM AWI and 1 solo WAS campaign.

Split by 'mode': 

• 3 games I hosted remotely; 
• 12 remote games hosted by Jonathan Freitag*; 
• 1 was PBEM; 
• 5 were solo. 

No face-to-face games: how very 21st century. Or you could say "should get out more".

* and many plaudits go to Jonathan for his hosting, and scenario preparation, and rules revisions.

Broken down by rules used:

• Jolly Broom Man's AWI campaign rules - 1
• Homebrew WAS rules - 1
• Jon's ECW rules - 2
• Loose Files & American Scramble -3
• Basic Impetus - 3
• Twilight of the Soldier Kings - 4
• Fields of Honor (with period variants) - 7

First off the blocks for 2024. 

Interestingly, I seem to be drifting more into the War of the Austrian Succession than SYW at the moment, looking at the numbers above.

Conclusions and Thoughts for 2024

In terms of games, I want to do more. The main thing that's held back the number of solo games is ....me. I've allowed things to drift. Partly this is motivation - but I want to do more and will get more out of it if I game more. A bit of it is connected to not having a permanent set-up. A part of it is also settin-up big games. Twilight of the Soldier Kings is great because it gives a good, historically plausible game in a few hours. I tend to spend too long on the set-up. If I can find a more efficient way of setting-up I can get more games in.

Painting levels are OK. I don't have a massive lead pile. I have some odds and sods that have been hanging around undercoated for a while, but these are 'ancillary pieces' (pack animals, villagers etc). Having initially said I will keep my Spanish and Piedmontese WAS collection down, I am very tempted to get more. (1) because I like doing them; (2) I am getting into the 'sub-period' the more I find out about it**; and (3) because I really 'need' more ;-). Actually I'll get some games in with what I've got first. If I do go ahead with it, I'll probably do c.1000 figures. The amounts of Spanish and Piedmontese in the total for 2023 was 965.  I know when I have them, I can churn them out.

** in fact, as well as the WAS, there are several battles in the War of the Polish Succession I fancy having a go at too. So don't be surprised to see Guastalla on the table.

I doubt I will be adding to my ECW collection (I managed to get through 2023 without touching them) or my AWI forces.

At some point I really need to think about my book collection. I have outgrown my cabinet and I have to question whether I will read them all again. So maybe some need to go out of the door before more come in?

I will be disposing of some figures soon. The Erbprinz said he wants to store his Napoleonic Prussians at his place when I suggested e-Bay. My Baccus Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese chaps could do with a new home. Some other unpainted figures will be going out of the door sooner than later.

None of this addresses what else I would like to do in the future. Ancients and Colonial have long-been kicked around as unfulfilled aspirations, but nothing solid has been done about it. Partly this is hesitation over acquiring a heap of new terrain and buildings, to say nothing of more books and 'research'. Another 'itch' to scratch is an 18th C Ottoman army. Campaigns figure large in my wish list too. I had ideas for an ECW mini-campaign nearly 3 years ago and have done sweet FA about it. And I keep saying, the Italian WAS campaign is imminent!

The shape of things to come?

Expect some more navel gazing. Oh that reminds me. I have been thinking about buying a handful of 18th C ships (scales down from 1/300th) for the Med aspects of my WAS campaigning and possibly for the Great Lakes/AWI. I can find ships for the Napoleonic era and for the Anglo-Dutch Wars/Pirates period, but nothing specifically for the mid-century. Any ideas will be gratefully received.