2024 Wargaming review

[paulr]

It is time, once again, to summarise my wargaming year.
 
Painting
Very little painting this year, only a few odds and ends for Pierre the Shy's Wars of the Three Kingdoms project.

Gaming
I did a much better job of maintaining my spreadsheet with a record of games played this year.

Seventy two games, averaging 3.1 hours per game, a very pleasing number.

The rulesets played were:

• DBMM: 20mm Romans v Ancient Britons x4
• Big Battle DBA: 10mm Punic Wars x4, 10mm HYW x1
• Ancient naval test games x7
• For King & Parliament: 10mm Wars of the Three Kingdoms mainly in Ireland x16
• Volley & Bayonet: 10mm Wing scale AWI x1
• homebrew 20mm Napoleonic rules of our regular host x1
• Volley & Bayonet: 10mm Wing scale Indian Mutiny / First Indian War of Independence x1
• Black Powder & Glory Hallelujah: 20mm ACW x27 (can you tell this is our regular host's go to game)
• General Quarters I/II pre-Dreadnought variant: 1/3,000 Russo Japanese War x2
• homebrew 20mm WWII of our regular host x4
• General Quarters I/II: 1/3,000 WWII 'Pacific' x3, 1/3,000 WWII Mediterranean x1

   
Plenty of variety and all very enjoyable games.

Highlights for the year include:

• For King & Parliament: 10mm Ireland 1642 – 1649, more on this in the new year
• Marking the naval side of the 120th anniversary of the Russo-Japanese War, Tsushima in the new year...
• Marking the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

A lot less of my forces haven't made it to the table this year which is great. I still need to get my 10mm WWI If the Lord Spares Us and 6mm WWII Spearhead forces back on the table.

Scenarios
I continued to have the pleasure of working with d_Guy and Pierre the Shy on scenarios for For King & Parliament. I've indeed learnt a huge amount about Ireland 1642-49 this year.

I've finished converting a campaign David Manley wrote 20 years ago for the Russo-Japanese naval war to fit with our Pre-Dreadnought variant of General Quarters I/II. I've also finished seven historic scenarios for the Russo-Japanese naval war. We've played two so far and really enjoyed both.

Plans
I haven't been pondering my plans for next year as much as in the past. I seem to have decided to focus on making better use of the forces I currently have; rather than continue with painting projects and ending up with more forces that won't see the table each year.
 
Some possible distractions in the coming year might include:

• Some more DBA armies, 1066 is a possibility (but what to use for the Welsh)
• Ancient Galleys, I'm working on a suitable set of rules
• League of Augsburg using a variant of For King & Parliament
• Something else entirely.

My thanks to all the forum members for the interest, support, information, entertainment, and confusion they have contributed over the year.

[Steve J]

72 games is very impressive indeed   ! A nice mix of periods too.

[paulr]

We are very fortunate that we play most weeks at our regular host's place

Sometimes two evenings a week  

Plus a few club and convention games and it all adds up