Gaming goals - February update

February has been a bit slow in ticking off boxes on my games goals chart.


Painting

Finished the fyrd! In time for the next Dux game later this month.

Had a pleasant evening of glue and plastic as the local What a Tanker gang seeks to increase its 1:72 options for the next battle: added: 2 T-34s, 2 Stug IVs, a Lee/Grant and a Semovente 75/18. Next episode: spray cans

Also got a bunch of 15mm tanks built and sprayed: Crusader, Shermans, Stuart and Matilda. Can be used to oppose my Italians in What a Tanker,

Got some work done on the Italian 47mm antitank guns for Flames of War.




Playing

Got in my game of Dux Brittanniarum, with the fresh fyrd doing as well as they could be expected. Still, it's a tough campaign for my warlord, Wealdhere, while the Vikings seem to have all the fun. The tables will have to turn somewhere soon or Wealdhere will lose his king's confidence.

U-Boot arrived early in the month, so that's now on the list to play. I put it on the list for the holiday in early April. Given the size of the rule book, it will require some homework before I can set sail.

I did play some board games, but none from the list.


Projects

PolderCon happened, and it seems a lot of the 140 participants enjoyed it. That's good. Given that I want to spend less time organising and more time playing I decided that I would step down from the organising committee.

Now wondering what game to host next year. I noticed a lack of games using 15mm minatures or smaller, which I think is a shame. On the one hand Hordes of the Things might be good to introduce people to the De Bellis Antiquitatis family, and I don't have to worry about painting. DBA itself is also interesting, but that would require painting (there's 6mm Carthaginian army lying around somewhere) and finding an opposing army.

An alternative would be U-Boot or 7TV since those kickstarters should attract some attention because of newness. The latter also requires painting, but probably more terrain as I can use some near future stuff I already have.

But I also made the brave decision to go ahead with project Skavendome (although not setting a deadline). To prevent my slow painting proving a bottleneck, this has been avoided by buying up a sizeable collection of painted Skaven. It will also ease development of rules and playtesting.


Decluttering

I managed to sell my Prussian Napoleonics to somebody who will actually use them, so that's a win-win. There's still a few stragglers that I need to finish.

However, I did buy some more stuff at PolderCon: a couple of 1:72 additions for What a Tanker, some palm trees as desert terrain for my FOW Italians. And some other stuff helping out Bad Squiddo's move from general shop to focus on her own miniature lines.

PolderCon happened

This weekend, PolderCon happened and good fun it was. The idea behind the convention is that a number of people host games and others come to play (a fair number switches during the day to do both). It's not a buying convention, although we had a few traders.

Tank painting workshop Mitchell Basran

After cajoling people since August I was glad to have as many games on as we did. We averaged around a 100 slots in 30+ games in each session. There was a workshop in advanced tank painting and a presentation on modern tactics by a former senior officer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Blood & Plunder

Gaslands

Cruel Seas

Star Wars Legion

You can't always predict what will work and what won't. Recently published games always do well, with most of those slots filled up.

Assassino

Assassino

Barsaman

Sometimes, self made games do well on the reputation of their designer or the appeal of their terrain and miniatures.

Zierikzee 1304

Defcon

Redders van Erda

Generally, I think that self made games deserve more love. They may not be as smooth as the best commercial sets, but they often are more true to the theme, off the beaten path and prepared with more love.

Mythic Battles

Memoir 44 Overlord

The experience with board games is mixed. It could be that the skrimishy, miniature heavy ones (you know, the ones that get kickstartered with multiple boxes of plastic) do better than the more abstract ones in this miniature friendly environment.

Anyway, see you next year!

Non Star Trek Space Battles

 

Gaming goals - January update

[Skips obligatory excuses for not blogging enough]

So there was a challenge for playing boardgames at Therewillbe.games and although it was silly to expect me to play 10 games 5 times, I thought I should manage to at least once play 10 games that I received/bought over the past few years and were gathering dust on my shelf.

I selected Secret Weapons of the Third Reich, Gothic Invasion, Bioshock Infinite, Mighty Empires, Quarantine, Bemused, Blood Bowl Team Manager expansions, Who's She? (a kickstarter then still to arrive), Mission Red Planet, and U-Boot (another kickstarter yet to arrive). Secret Satan then gifted me 5 Cucumbers, Dairyman, CIA vs KGB and Nyctophobia, which I added to the challenge.


And in that kind of coincidence that isn't really coincidence, I already had a shortlist of painting projects lying around, which I then included into a range of wider gaming goals. So I added a number of miniature games that I wanted to concentrate on playing this year (you'll notice some resemblance with the painting projects):

• a Flames of War 15mm desert campaign with my colleague and his friends
• Dux Brittanniarum AD 789 (Anglo Saxons vs Vikings) at the club
• For Reign or Ruin (15mm fantasy rules) at the club
• Muskets & Tomahawks, French and Indian Wars or American War of Independence at the club
• What a Tanker with friends at home.

In terms of painting I had a few units for my middle war desert Italians for Flames of War that I bought at Crisis last November and wanted to add to my small army while we are still playing.

Late last year I also had bought a bunch of Footsore's nice Anglo Saxon levies to build up proper fyrd units for Dux Brittaniarum. The Gripping Beast Frankish warriors that I have used so far are fine, but not based very practically for Dux.

The Prussians are a small lot that would finish a Fusilier unit that I have sold to a friend participating in the Great Game: Waterloo Replayed charity multiplayer event in Glasgow next June.


The French and Indian War French regulars are to round off my small French force that I could use for Muskets & Tomahawks. And the 40K Harlequins are supposed make a basic team for Necromunda or a similar sci fi skirmish game that I have started on but not finished. These three should not take much time to finish.

Then there's three kickstarters that I supported lately: 7TV: Apocalypse which would combine well with postapocalyptic stuff I already have, the wonderful Killer Rabbits by the same guy who did the brilliant Triumph of Death Pieter Bruegel skeletons (shown above) and Galloping Major's Allies on the Frontier provincials for the French and Indian Wars. All should arrive this year.

And finally there's a bunch of projects that I might take up as I please. Stuff for What a Tanker would expand the possibilities of what I already have (like some 15mm British tanks to face my Italians). Overall way too many plans to actually finish it all.

I also decided to include my larger gaming projects. First the PolderCon convention I help organising, and second elusive idea that I have which would become an eclectic MODOSG (Multiplayer One Day Offline Skirmish Game) blend of Frostgrave and Warhammer Fantasy Battles. But that's still very vague and will take shape in the second half of the year.

And finally there's the ongoing projects of decluttering (or rather, making room).


Results in January:

Painting

I managed to finish my Autoblindas for the Flames of War desert campaign with my colleague and his friends. They have already seen the elephant as well! My Anglo Saxon fyrd for Dux Brittanniarum AD 789 are almost done as well, in time for the next game.

Playing

I've now played Bemused, Who's She? and Mission Red Planet. All three fun games to play in friendly setting. Had interesting conversation on the ladies in Who's She? with my girl so that's doing what it is supposed to. My friends loved the premise of Bemused that to take your adopted virtuoso to eternal fame it is better to get his competitors to succumb to doubt and dread.

So 3/14 after the first month on this track.

Managed two games of Dux on one Saturday at the club, 3 games of What a Tanker and one Italians vs Brits in Flames of War. That's also gotten me some way towards my goals (which I may have set rather unambitiously, forgetting that you sometimes can get multiple games in a day).

Projects

PolderCon is almost upon us (Sunday Feb 3rd) and it's been a real handful. Some last minute drop outs and the long run up (I've been cajoling hosts since September) leave me a bit deflated, but at least I've got my stuff done. Let's hope it all turns out well.

Decluttering

No real movement on shedding another games, books or miniatures, although I've lent out King of Tokyo to a friend who has been playing it with his daughters to great success. So I won't mind if it stays there.

Miniature painting projects for last part of 2015

I promised myself two small painting projects for the 2nd half of 2015. I had already compiled a short list of possible projects in the early part of the year.

And then by chance I started off on the 1815 Prussians for the Battle of Waterloo, a game that was put on for the end of August. Somebody put a few batallions up for sale in May and I decided to buy them, including some unpainted stuff, adding up to two batallions of Landwehr. It was a pretty tough job finishing in time for that, but as always a deadline helps.

I've managed to resist the temptation of buying more unpainted lead/plastic, because once this deadline's gone, there's not much chance of me painting it. I bought a bunch of painted limbers and guns and staff officers was offered by someone at the club. Good buy, but it also included a bag of unpainted cuirassiers...

The good thing is that I felt so happy about painting that I picked up another tiny project last Monday, spraying a base coat and putting on three colours on a set of six medieval monks useful for either Dux Brittanniarum or SAGA. And then some more work this weekend! Pretty easy to paint and limited detail, which is good to keep momentum going!

So what after this short project? This is what I'm thinking off:

• Finish the vehicles for my American WWII Chain of Command force. It will be a bit of glueing, and not too much painting. Mostly spray painting and finishing. It's good to finish a project!
• Scenery for Dark Ages which will be useful for either Dux Brittanniarum or SAGA

More distant and ambitious projects:

• Muskets and Tomahawks. I've got Indians, French and Americans, so I can try both French & Indian Wars and American War of Independence. M&T doesn't require many troops, so doable. With an added Maroon project stemming from my interest in slavery in the West Indies. There's also this big project a number of people are starting for a big AWI battle day...
• I've got loads of Fantasy stuff lying around for some vague project. goblins, skaven, an unfinished batch of bats, and loads more. Tempting. I might also join in the Frostgrave fun, which doesn't require a lot of figures, but with the risk of buying their plastic soldiers set, which will make excellent adventurers...
• Normans. I bought a good sized army but half of it only in base coating. It's already enough for what I intended with them (SAGA), but finishing the force would give a feeling of completion. It does however pose questions about matching the quality and style of the miniatures already finished. That will be very hard
• Vikings and Late Saxons. I've got two Gripping Beast boxes of plastics which with some army painter treatment might finish in good time.
• Welsh. I've got this Welsh starter army for SAGA which can also be used against the Saxons. And Picts. And Normans. And Vikings. And Late Saxons.
• Samurai and fantasy Japanese. Some lovely stuff from the Indiegogo, and some buildings. It's just that my painting technique is not good enough to do it justice
• 
  

Oh well... I can still try to get somebody else to paint some of this stuff, which is what I decided on two years ago.

NYR update January

What's up with my new year's resolutions? Doing reasonably well, actually.

Sometimes it feels like Ospreys don't really count as books

1. The Book. Done considerable reading, but not everything I had wished to do in January. But 11 of which 5 Ospreys is not a bad score (distracted? sometimes). I´ve written loads of notes and over two dozen pages, but it needs a lot of footnoting. So I continue in February with what I had set out for January: 1814 books and the Dutch army and economy. Been thinking a lot about the (dis)similarities between 1814 and 1815. Obviously, Napoleon carried his experiences of the previous campaign with him after he returned and this guided some of his decisions, both politically and militarily. Another point is the difference between the military careers of Willem I and Willem II (and their brothers, both named Frederik).

We've also got the basic framework set up, a possible third author and rough planning. That all needs to be detailed, but the essence is that I need to finish as much as possible on my chapter about the mobilisation before summer. It seems doable, and my partner knows what he´s doing. He´s got maybe 15,000 copies sold in two months, after all. Yes, you read that right.


2. No games bought. Five games played, of which three out of my collection I had never played before. That drives up my played share up from half to 53% (games have popped up over the last weeks from the most unusual places). Good going.

Mag Blasting!

3. No minis bought. It was easier to ignore all kinds of temptations knowing there was a ban.


4. Bought hardly any books, only Napoleonics. My wishlists is still growing but books, even 2nd hand, aren't always cheap. There´s always the library!


5. Did 17 blog posts, which is high by my standards and much higher than my goal of a weekly update. Linking my Goodreads reviews straight to my blog helps.


6. No new projects started. Just musing the post 1815 options. That mostly means considering which projects I would pick up again. And South American wars of independence. Been looking out for that one a long time.


So overall a good month gaming related.  Don´t expect this rate in February, though. Fewer books and games and so fewer posts as well.

But it was satisfying to have over 4,000 hits this month (and cross the 40,000 all time). My post on Andrew Bamford's Bold and Ambitious Enterprise did very well, but I think Uffindel's Napoleon 1814 actually deserves a bit more love, so check that one out if you haven't yet.

New Year’s Resolutions

So much to do, so little time. Which means making choices and focus! Which results in the following resolutions:

1. I’m going to write the book. Everything else is secondary/tertiary etc to that

2. I won’t buy any new games, but play what I’ve got. I’ve registered all my games on boardgamegeek today and found that I have about 240, of which I have played only 120 at least once. I will raise that percentage by playing at least 12 of those this year (one each month seems doable) and shedding 24. Not buying new games will be tough, though.

3. I won’t buy new figures. I might buy some more vehicles for Chain of Command. And maybe some buildings. I will shed some 5% of my lead pile.

4. I won’t buy new books except about Napoleonic warfare. Second hand books under 10 euro/pound on other topics, maybe. I will shed some 5% of my books. Although I have no idea yet of how many I actually have.

5. I will blog once a week. But it's not going to be big thoughts, and not written well.

6. Just to remind myself: I won’t start any new projects. All non-book projects are on hold.

Saying Goodbye To Seth

I'm going to go through all the blogs I follow on Feedly and cast out as many as I can (a quarter would be nice).

The first on my list is Seth Godin's blog. Not because it's crap, it isn't. On the contrary, it has been an inspiration over the past few years as I was wondering about what I wanted to do with my life. One of his most important lessons (which I haven't fully internalised yet) is to get going. To start and set off without fear of failure. Now I realise that I must throw of some of the weight of stuff I look at so as to spend more time creating. I'm sure Seth will understand and support my decision.

 I will throw out a few other things work related, where watching should turn to doing as well. The problem is that these days I have this list of blog posts I feel I need to take some time for to read at ease. And this just adds up because I never find the time, the list becomes endless and I just feel guilty.

My best salute to the blogs I'm throwing out is to mention them here so you can check them out. They are all valuable in their own right, but I need to create room and I'm not radical enough to just ignore all blogs, deactivate facebook and twitter. Besides, I still want to communicate with people. More than ever.

Front Towards Enemy (aka Miah´s Tannhauser blog). Previously dedicated to FFG's Tannhauser, but now includes reviews of new Dust (Tactics), Heroes of Normandie and Zombicide products. But it is best for its high quality self-designed stuff, like customised Zombicide survivors and map tiles.

Savage Tales. All things pulp. Nice

2D6. A boardgaming blog with the focus on euro games, but with wargames and some Ameritrash as well.

Lonely Gamers. These guys have such beautifully painted minis: ACW, Napoleonics, Samurai, and the most wonderful colonial.

Opinionated Gamers. The old Boardgaming News site, without the news (which was acquired by Boardgamegeek.com). These guys, with the exception of Matt Carlson, all prefer euros over my beloved Ameritrash.

Military Obituaries. A tradition in the Daily Telegraph. Well written, often interesting people or interesting views on small actions in war.

Senchus. Author Tim Clarkson's blog on Dark Age Scotland.

Plastic Zombie. About zombies, obviously. Just much more creative about it than most other zombie lovers.

Civil War Horror. I'm a fan of Sean McLachlan's military history writing, like his Osprey books on western gunfights and the Battle of Adowa (1896 - Italians vs Ethiopians). He´s also a travel and fiction writer.

Korosho. This is self protection. This guy is a great designer of fantasy/scifi/nearfuture miniatures, with occassionally brilliant posts about the quality differences in 3d printing. So far I've managed to resist the temptation. I don't know how much longer I can hold out.

The Arabist. Some of the most original reporting on and from the Middle East. Puts most western pundits to shame.

Mark Mardell. I've followed Mark Mardell since he was BBC correspondent in Brussels, clearly disecting the behind the scenes issues in the EU. Now in the US.

Bruce Schneier. He's done great stuff on internet security, the surveillance state and how our society deals with non-conformist behaviour, often with a link military issues. That link is to a review of his great book Liars & Outliers.

Steve Buttry. An evangelist on using digital means in journalism. He's obviously ahead of most of the pack that still clings to paper. Good for suggestions on software and digital approach, as well as journalism in general.

Presentation Zen. A blog that looks at presenting from a bit more distance. I go there for inspiration when I have to make a presentation, and from this guy I took the useful rule: NO BULLET POINTS. There's always an image that conveys that point better. I've also learned to make presentations shorter (if you can bring your message in 15 minutes, you can do it in 5).

Fitter, healthier...and more productive - A Year Of Blogging

I started this blog a year ago. Officially it kicked off on June 4th with an obligatory introduction, explaining who I am and why I returned to blogging.

"So think of this blog as a rearguard action. An attempt to retain some of the ground lost to age and commitment (and lose some of the weight I've gained). Think of it as a means of putting dots on the horizon and enlisting the help of others to stay on course."

Me with a WWI A7V tank on display at the Tank Museum in Munster, Germany

But my first real post was on June 10th. On June 14th I set out the projects I had in mind. It may be useful to review to what extent I have persevered with these projects, given that this blog was partially meant to provide focus on a few projects that I could see through to completion.

Grand Projects

Maximum Effort, World War I Megagame. Shelved to focus on another grand project, but I still have it in the back of my head and keep buying books. Reviewed a few on Italy after my holiday there,  the Battle of Adua, then Why Italy came to dinner with only a plate and no cuttlery and Arditi del Popolo. The Maximum Effort blog is now in torpor.

Waterloo, books. Is now a Grand Project. Bought many books in the past year.
Hero of Waterloo? and  Hero of Waterloo II onto 1813-5 battle casualty rates
All is fair in love and war and history and Prussian Infantry Tactics

First Dutchman to lounge in the chair of the First Sea Lord
Admiralty Board Room, London

Minor projects

Mother Russia, the political economy game for WWI. Shelved with the megagame.

Ypres, books. Shelved after reading half to move on to other projects. I reviewed Belgian Patrouilleurs. Unfinished, but drawn the line.

Through the Mud and the Blood, WWI miniatures. Although delayed many times, I have actually started on them recently. However, this is all prototype and no production line. I'll get back to this soon.

Barbarossa, books for the megagame. I did review one of the books I'd read, but not all. Unfinished, but drawn the line.

Dux Britanniarum, Dark Age skirmishing. Bought minis, had them painted (also here), generated my characters, bought more and had them painted too, played a battle. Read a few books but did not review all of them. Here´s Britain After Rome. Even played Struggle for Rome. On slow burn now.

King John, books and possible megagame. One of my first posts. Bought more books, read none. Founded the King John Appreciation Society in response to the resurgence of love for Richard III. On slow burn.

Essen 2011, boardgames. I did play most of the stuff bought in 2011. Like Guards! Guards! Unfinished, but drawn the line.

Leipzig, books and megagame. Now a sub project for Waterloo. Been doing my reading, but not much reviewing. Game is played in two weeks so maybe I can do some more reviews afterwards.

Playtest for Master of Europe and Maps for Master of Europe

Me posing with a T-33 trainer on Vancouver Island

Projects started later

Vietnam, megagame Lost Youth. Read about counterinsurgency, played the megagame. Finished.
 
Essen 2012, boardgames. Started October 2012. I have played most of the games I bought at least once, but still some work to do in the coming four months, like Signum Mortis. And there's reports of games played as planned, games played unplanned, games unplayed and Metro 2033. Ongoing

Al-Andalus, books. Reading up for my holiday in Andalusia last May. Read the books, but only finished my review of the big one. Others to follow.



Humanitarian intervention in the 1990s. Preparation for Crisis in Binni megagame. Read the books. Finished and reviewed. But I need to get the report on the game itself on screen from my notes. Soon! Posts: Zero Dark Thirty, Lessons of Humanitarian Intervention, Crisis Caravan, Black Hawk Down, Crisis in Binni Game Materials 

Me in 2008: fitter, healthier, but not as productive

Conclusions

I still get distracted too easily. A megagame or a holiday is enough to get me sidetracked for a few weeks. And that´s only the projects. I also lost weeks on analysing what makes a real wargamer, reports on boardgames such as Civilization (the game I have played the most over the last two years), bookshops and general musings about the state of the hobby.

For the coming weeks I plan to close off the humanitarian intervention and Al-Andalus projects, then in the following months I should try to focus on Waterloo and Essen 2012. I hope to play some Dux Britanniarum. WWI and King John will be on hold until better days.

The temptations of Essen

Weight loss. On aggregate, I have lost no weight. It was no official project, so I'll make it official now. Let's get it structurally to under 90 kgs by next blog birthday.

Closing remarks

Although I have been graced by many viewers over the year (not all of it referrer spam), the best experiences for me have been to get comments from you. The blog soapbox is nice, but I actually prefer discussion and exchange. Thanks to all of you who have honoured me by entering the conversation.

Elastic Retreat

While this blog was set up to document the strategic withdrawal of gaming in my life, there are tactical successes masking the extent of the ground lost.

Last Monday I broke the barrier of 5,000 pageviews, coupled with a daily record of 123 views on the previous Friday. That was a day I didn't post here, but my links from Fortress Ameritrash served me well.

Reaching 5,000 hits in just over four months is an amazing feeling and outstrips what I expected and hoped or even dreamed possible. It's thanks to a few lucky breaks, like Ray and Fran's 20 questions, that I'm slowly finding a broader audience. And I guess I haven't exhausted all avenues for self promotion yet.

I'm very thankful to all you visitors, whether you comment here, or react on Facebook, on Twitter, at the Fortress or anywhere.

While increasing blog stats count as tactical success, a strategic victory for family and gaming is that next year I will go to working four days a week instead of five. This will give me the opportunity to structurally take over some time from my girlfriend looking after the kids, allowing her to work more, as well as giving me more time with the kids which seems to have beneficial effects on how we get along. Of course this also gives me some more time for myself = gaming and military history.

However, it seems this time has been claimed already by two writing and publishing ventures I am very excited about, but cannot tell you yet. Don't worry, you will find out if and when they go live.

The last two weeks have been mainly focussed on Spiel and boardgames, and more will follow as I start playing those games. But I hope to be able to give you some more military history, especially in the Napoleonic era.

As projects go, I'm afraid this means that WWI will take a step back, to the benefit of my other plans for 2013. Dark Ages I hope to see more of, although Dux Britanniarum is higher priority than SAGA. There may be diversions as megagames and holidays interfere with normal programming.

But all this gives me a good feeling. Don't underestimate the rear guard!