Saturday, December 28, 2013

The State of the Hobby – 2013 in Review


If you were to ask me how much I gamed, painted and blogged this year I’d more often than not tell you “not enough.”  New Years resolutions are cliché and “hoping” for a good year isn’t my style so I thought a well thought out blog post on the State of the Hobby for this year was a good way to put thoughts to electrons (formerly pen to paper...).    I have broken what I feel is a good compartmentalization of my hobby into a few key categories:

·         Painting

·         Army Creation

·         Procurement

·         Gaming

·         Research & Development

Painting: I painted a ton of miniatures this year, although not much to show for it sadly.  Probably one of my biggest faults is moving onto other projects before finishing one.  The big numbers are 336 total figures, to include troops, vehicles and some scenery for 2013.  Not bad – but just imagine if 336 was a single genre like Napoleonics or SYW, or even WWII for that matter.  I’d be “mission complete” for a project.  Big plans for 2014 – the World War II project continues with some old projects coming back to light as well as hopes for finishing some 15mm units you all haven’t seen yet like Brit Paras, German SS and MODERN 15s like US, Soviet, Israeli, and “client states.”

Army Creation: This has to be the most successful of all my wargaming endeavors this year.  For starters there were entirely new units created to field Flames of War units, which as everyone knows has an insatiable thirst for vehicles, prime movers and infantrymen.  This year, Soviet Battalions were formed and finished as well as German heavy and Grenadier Kompanies.  Same with my Shako and ACW Horse and Musket 15mm armies.  Not bad for taking a 3 or 4 month hiatus while we moved into our house.

Procurement: Classified.  Not even my wife (household-six) knows the full amount diverted towards miniature military expenditures.

Gaming: I didn’t game nearly as much as I would have liked to.  Ideally, there is a game per week playing different genres ranging from skirmish to full-fledged Napoleonic battles.  That’s something to shoot for in 2014 where the gaming room is now well-established and I have large projects underway.

Research & Development: I haven’t the foggiest clue about how much time I’ve wasted day dreaming about creating my micro armor rules and then trying them out and failing miserably (I should really let someone else determine if I’ve failed or not...).  I’ve also been very successful at Terrain R&D creating cost-saving alternatives to some of wargaming’s most expensive aspects – terrain.  My tree stands are looking good and the cork road-bed was a life saver for my gaming board as felt proved too sticky for the surface and snagged the roads each time.  I also was able to successfully “scratch-build” a line of “corporation troopers” for 20mm science fiction gaming.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good year. I too am guilty of keeping Domestic Niner (we Canucks call the boss "Niner") a little in the dark about procurement, but I think she is shrewder than she lets me think.
    Good luck to your projects in 2014 and most importantly, keep having fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a good year, Michael! I like Domestic Niner - I'll have to use that sometime. The SOUND OFFICER CALL defense expenditure budget is about US $30 per month. Not much to "keep 'em fightin' " but we manage around here! So obviously there are budget loopholes and "blackbook" expenditures ;)

      Have a great 2014 and continue to have fun yourself!

      Cheers,

      Steven

      Delete
  2. There is an additional criterion that ought to carry some weight, it seems to me: how much fun did you have? For mine, this year I have painted a few figures, acquired (usually by the generosity of friends unloading their surplus stuff) hundreds, done or begun several vehicle refurbishments, developed my artillery device, played a campaign and taken part in a one-day HoTT competition, built up several terrain pieces (buildings mostly, but trees also) for my Army Men project...

    I'm getting nowhere really, but having fun doing it!
    Cheers,
    Ion

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ion,
      In the final analysis - that's all that really matters isnt it? That we had fun with our toy soldier battles? Thank you for commenting and have a wonderful New Year!

      Cheers,
      Steven

      Delete