A Long Due Update (Happy New Year 2024!)

Blog Update

First of all, Happy New Year 2024! I haven't updated this blog since January 2020 in favour of releasing YouTube videos, however, the more YouTube videos I release, the more I realise that blogs and videos are very different media that serve different purposes. Based upon the traffic this blog gets, it is clear that blogs still remain much more searchable than videos. I suspect that it has to do with limitations on how YouTube videos are scraped for words, versus the written text of a blog. 

Anyway, enough shop talk. 

Life Updates

A lot has happened since my last update on the blog in January 2020. First, my wife and I managed to secure excellent employment with a tech company in California, which later morphed into a role that is largely on the road. This then led to us making the decision to move to the cooler climes of Washington state. The impetus behind this was my wife's family moving en masse to the Dallas area in Texas. Since we weren't keen on swapping the dry, hot Bakersfield climate for more-or-less the same, we moved North and were able to purchase our first home. 

We are now a household of 2 dogs near the sea, and loving life up in Washington.

 

Playing Games

One unintended outcome of the move to Washington is that I have found a regular gaming group, just across the border in Canada. How I met the main chap from the club was certainly serendipitous. In November 2022 I happened to be at Warfare in Farnborough, in the UK. I was in the UK ostensibly for work, but managed to stay over the weekend. I took the last-minute opportunity to attend the wargaming show with some purchases in mind. (I ended up spending about $500, so only small purchases) 

 

I had stopped for a pie and a cup of tea at the little snack area, when a man with a "North American" accent approached me and asked if he might share the table with me, since there was nowhere else to sit. I obliged, noted the accent, and asked him where he had come from. He said, "Vancouver, Canada." To which I said, "oh, I live 15 minutes from Vancouver." What luck! We chatted for a bit, and it turns out that I can see his town from my house, I am just across the water from him. Well, this led to emails and some sessions with the fabled White Rock Gamers, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Having a regular gaming group to play with has re-invigorated my hobby as I am playing almost every week, and more importantly, playing historical wargames again! 

Examples of the stunning games we played in 2023:

A very small part of a very large Leipzig refight using Shako 2

Canvas Eagles

Action in the Sudan, Battles for Empire

My dastardly gunman finishes off a helpless supine opponent in What A Cowboy

Painting Miniatures

2022 was a very fruitful year for me in terms of painting. Especially considering that I was jumping off from a position of inertia. 

I'll share some snaps in this blog post, but they are but a small sample of everything I have been working on. Suffice to say, the prospect of playing with my miniatures has turned up the tempo. 

 

The numbers are as follows:

• 28mm = 21 Infantry
  
• 15mm = 42 Infantry
  
• 10mm = 24 Infantry | 3 Artillery & Crew
  
• 6mm = 36 Infantry | 3 Tanks
  

By project:

• 28mm Seven Years War = 6 Infantry
• 15mm Carthaginian Army = 24 Infantry
• Warhammer 40k Eldar = 5 Infantry
• 28mm Early Imperial Romans = 10 Infantry
• 6mm War of Spanish Succession British = 36 Infantry
• 10mm Franco-Prussian War French = 24 Infantry
• 10mm Franco-Prussian War French = 3 Artillery & Crew
• 15mm American Civil War Confederates = 18 Infantry
• 6mm World War II Polish = 3 Tanks
  

Goals for 2024

The Great Hobby Reawakening™ is well under way, but these are my goals for 2024:

• Get a gaming table set up in the basement, nothing fancy, but I would like something around 8 x 6 feet-ish. Initially I will use mats or cloths for coverage, but I would like to try my hand at MDF boards. 
• Finish up the Pendraken 10mm Franco-Prussian French force that I have and begin work on the German opposition.
• Paint up the Republican Roman opponents for my 15mm Carthaginian army. I ordered some from Old Glory 15's on January first.
  
• Finish up painting the remaining Baccus 6mm War of Spanish Succession British army that I bought in 2022. 

 In Closing...

I am on holiday in Greece at the moment, in the quest for some sunlight, and will only be home again at the end of the month. I am hoping to make more regular contributions to this blog in the coming year.