New Year Round Up

Well, 2013 was a long year, and a good one overall. I started it bedridden from a Christmas operation, and ended it with ten days of celebration with good friends and family.

I got published for the first time this year (Miniatures Wargames 367 if anyone wants to find it), and got a job in the industry - subsequently lost, but still!

Due to illness, work and general Real Life, I didn't get as much tangible hobbying done this year as I planned, but I do have half a dozen wargames and RPGs in alpha stage condition, which is nice.

If anyone wants to beta test them and get an acknowledgement in the finished product (maybe more!), they are:
- Capes & Courage: A fast play WW2 pulp game for re-enacting the likes of Captain America, Commando! and suchlike.
- For a Dollar & a Gun: A diceless, rulerless set of cowboy skirmish rules, usable 20mm+. I use pound store cowboys and a poker set - job done!
- Art of War: A mass combat fantasy card game, which just needs adapting for points, really.
- Silent War: A modern fantasy/horror RPG, kind of like a monotheist version of Cthulhu with two-fisted heroes.
- Matter of Legends: A roleplaying game for bringing back the mystical side of medieval fantasy.
- Magisterium: A roleplaying game set in an 18th century city where everyone is a wizard. Bartimaeus trilogy meets Jonathan Strange in the middle of the Seven Years War.

Feedback on any of them would be appreciated.

Compared to 2012's total of 1099 models, 17 vehicles, 80 pieces of terrain, 32 game aids and 300+ flats, how did I do?

Bearing in mind that "models" equates to 1 15mm infantryman (larger scales and mounted models counting for more), I got: 1370 models, 6 vehicles, 29 terrain pieces and 2 game aids. An increase in models with a decrease in everything else - largely made possible by a secret squirrel project coming out in a magazine near you in the (hopefully!) near future.

So this year will be more models, more terrain, and hopefully not a lot more purchases. I need to cut down the lead mountain a bit, especially since looking for my girlfriend's ring showed me just how much of the Underbed has been seized by the Kingdom of Boxes! There is much painting, inking and basing in my future. Now if only I could get the missus to be a painter as well as a roleplaying gamer...

I have a Pulp Alley campaign to look forward to with Mr Woodward, and lots of sci-fi, ECW and Nam stuff to paint and build in 15mm. In 28mm, more Saga, more Dux Bellorum, some In Her Majesty's Name, Of Gods & Mortals and Fistful of Kung Fu, more Chain of Command and IABSM, and new projects in FIW and WWI.

Gosh. Looking at that list, it almost seems like Osprey is tying with TFL in my affections. Utter madness!

New Year's Resolution: Put up at least one blog post a month. If any of you are still reading a year from now, feel from to chuck stones at me for missing it if you fancy.

And to sign off with, an official preview of Mr Morris' quite frankly amazing Salute Secret:

Creatively anachronistic Scots launch a charge against..?

Happy New Year everyone!