2014 in Review

First off, a belated Happy New Year everyone!

Gosh, is it another year already? Well then, it seems I have to do the traditional report on what has happened during the last year

In 2014 my hobby was of course affected by the arrival of our new baby. This has caused a bit of an upheaval on the home front, to say the least, but I've actually had more time to paint than I thought, when I haven't been too tired that is. However, getting away for an evening of gaming has been more or less impossible since mid October. Up until then it was a very good year gaming-wise though, with lots of fun games and a great mix of periods – from the dark ages through the medievals to the 17th and 19th centuries. Highlights include finally starting our Dux Britanniarum campaign, getting my complimentary copy of Lion Rampant where we've been part of the play testing as well as helping Michael with his splendid Invasion of Gotland article in WSS #75. Another special highlight was of course finally getting to visit Salute in London, which was every bit as impressive – and wallet emptying ... – as I imagined it would be.

For this year, I'm really looking forward to getting back into some regular gaming when things have settled down a bit on the home front.

A quick rundown of my goals for 2014:

Try at least one new period with one new rules set

Achieved! And by somewhat of a margin too: War of 1812 and the Thirty Years War, using Black Powder and Pike and Shotte respectively. Also, the Scanian War using Donnybrook.

Finishing Saxons for Dux Britanniarum

Achieved! Very easy this one, as it was only some 10 models left on this project from the year before.

Bit and bobs

Achieved! I made several terrain pieces – fences, walls, houses and a church – and painted up some loot markers, several types of cattle and domestic animals, medieval civilians, monks and also updating/re-basing my old casualty markers.

Italian Wars French

Fail! Well, what can I say. I lost my painting mojo over the summer, just as I was getting into the groove of this project which meant that even though 10 bases of pikemen were finished, it left me just short of two complete units which is not even close to the goal I set for this year: 2 units of pikemen, 2 units of gendarmes, 1 piece of artillery and a couple of commanders. When I said this was a long term project, this wasn't exactly what I meant!

Romano-Britons for Dux Britanniarum

Fail! Sigh. Not even started.

Instead of painting French and Romano-Britons I managed to finish some other stuff:

Fantasy skirmish

Achieved! To reinvigorate my painting after the "summer slump" I decided to do a smallish fantasy project using Song of Blades and Heroes. For this project I painted up 8 models and made some themed scenery. I really enjoyed doing a quick little project like this, and this is something I could see myself doing more of in the future.

Håtunaleken – Lion Rampant

Partially achieved! This was a club project that was started in November and naturally I had to join in. The first goal for everyone was to paint up a 12 point host for Lion Rampant. I managed to paint up the first unit of 12 foot sergeants and very nearly managed to finish the second unit of 6 mounted men-at-arms too. I'll post some pictures of these units when I get the time to take some snaps of them.

Looking at the numbers, I painted 74 foot and 4 mounted 28 mm miniatures during 2014. These are certainly not very impressive numbers, not when compared to my output from 2013 (137) and 2012 (171). However, in addition to these 74 models I also painted 6 loot markers, 15 animals, 2.8 meters of walls and fences. I also built and painted 5 buildings, including a pretty big church, and painted another 4 pieces of terrain in the form of ruins for the fantasy project. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with my output even though it of course could have been much, much better.

So there it is – the result for 2014. I want to say a big thank you to all you followers who have read and commented on my rambling during the year – it really means a lot to me! I also want to take the time to say a big welcome to all the new followers who have joined during the last couple of months!

I hope you all will have a great year ahead, and that you'll stick around here for some more projects. My plan is to get this blog back on track and go back to the usual routine with updates once a week.

I'll be back with my plans for 2015 in a couple of days.