2013 – Half Time Report

Half of 2013 is now over and my, was that fast or what? I didn't do a half year report last year, as my hobby time was close to non-existent and consequently I began thinking about quitting the hobby. A lot has happened since then though and I'm now more into the hobby than ever.

So far this year, the biggest thing for me hobby-wise has been joining a club. I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned this before, but I'm now a member of the excellent Little Wars Stockholm along such illustrious individuals as Dalauppror. Despite a long and thorough initiation process I was voted in as a full member in February. Naturally, this had fueled my painting and gaming even more. The only downside is a danger of painting fatigue, as there are so many new cool projects I want to join in on.

In the beginning of the year I made some plans for 2013, and I thought it would be fun to check how I'm doing in the half time break.

Blogging
My goal was to update the blog at least once a week, and except for maybe the occasional slip I think I've managed to do this. I'm now pondering how to make the posts more varied, as I think the usual format of project updates once a week runs the risk of being a bit formulaic over time. I won't change the goal to two posts per week, but maybe I could manage a couple of more each month?

Games played
The plan is to play 26 games during 2013, and I'm happy to say I'm well on my way. Right now the count is 16, and it gives me a nice little "buffer" for the rest of the year. And I might need it as it's notoriously tricky to get games going during the summer months of July and August as well as in December.

The games I've played up until now breaks down like this:

• Saga 1 game
• Lion Rampant (playtests) 5 games
• Muskets&Tomahawks 4 games
• Dux Suecia 1 game
• Dux Bellorum 1 game
• Dux Britanniarum 1 game
• Hail Caesar 1 game
• A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict 2 games

Every game has been fun in its own way, but I do wish we had played some more Dux Britanniarum (and Dux Suecia) as this game continues to be one of my absolute favourites. And it's been a while since we played Muskets&Tomahawks which is a shame because our multiplayer games were really fun. But as always: Too many games, too little time.


Miniatures painted
I wasn't sure how much hobby-time I would get in 2013, and so I only had a very modest three projects planned for this year: M&T French, Lion Rampant Novgorodians and a raider force for the upcoming expansion to Dux Britanniarum. The first two are done, and I've now started on the third (more on that in a week or so).

So far I have painted 64 miniatures, including 12 cavalry models. The model count breaks down like this:

• Muskets&Tomahawks French 22
• Lion Rampant Novgorodians 42 (incl 12 cavalry)

A fairly reasonable result this far I think, for me at least. If I can double that amount until the end of the year I'll be more than happy.
 

Looking forward
When the raiders are done I will do some Reds for our A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict games. I haven't decided yet, but I'm thinking 6–8 militia types and a leader figure. A nice and quick little project.

Dux Britanniarum is a really good game and I hope I get to play it more during the rest of the year. I plan to do all the forces for the game: first a Saxon force and then the Romano-British, and eventually all the forces in the Raiders book too. But I'll only do the Saxons this year, and save the rest for later.

Then there's the Steampunk models from the Empire of the Dead Kickstarter. And I really, really want to build some new terrain – it's been far too long since I did this. And then do some bits and pieces, like markers, baggage, barrels, wagons ... And Dalauppror has mentioned a new secret joint project he'd like to do ...

What was that about only doing three projects this year again?! We shall see how much of this I've actually manage to do at the end of the year – should be interesting!