Looking back at 2015 - and 2016 plans

I normally don't make any plans for what I want to do in a wargaming sense, but this year 2016 has so many rulesets that I look forward to that I will have to prioritise. But first a look at 2015.

2015
2015 started out with me having two main games - Empire of the Dead and my own reworking of the Muskets & Tomahawks ruleset for a Retreat from Moscow Napoleonic game.

1812 - Retreat from Moscow
The Retreat from Moscow game was not finished by the start of the year but by March we were ready to play our first game. This was a project that I was very keen on, but neither of my regular playing buddies were particular interested in historical wargaming, so I provided everything; minis for both sides, terrain and the board. My friend were nice enough that they played the game with me, but when they would rather play something else, the game is doomed to fail.

Empire of the Dead
My interest in Empire of the Dead goes up and down. I love the minis and the background/setting, but the lack of interest from Westwind to continue to develop the game, let alone provide rules for their Requiem kickstarter prevents this game from really ever kicking off. We continued to have fun though - in particular my friend Michael and I. It seems that we more easily can accept the flaws of the system - the melee rules for instance.

SAGA The Crescent and the Cross
During the Summer I decided to start another project on my own - this time checking with my friends whether they would like to play. The project was SAGA The Crescent and the Cross and I bought minis and the rules for £200, spend another £30 on different materials to make terrain only to find out that I did not like the game! So I decided to sell everything - there were a lot of takers, but unfortunately mishandling of the parcel to the UK meant everything was smashed and the buyer  got his money back. With the broken armies back in Denmark with me, I started the mammoth task of repairing everything - in the end only 6 arab footmen were so damaged that they proved impossible to mend. When I put them up for sale again, they were sold within 24 hours to Germany. I made a deal with the buyer to meet at the border so this time there were no postal service involved.

Across the Dead Earth
In the Autumn two of my friends and I decided to try out Across the Dead Earth, but besides me painting the minis and getting some cars for terrain, nothing more came of it. I lost interest and with me out of it, my friends did not want to continue. So if anyone is looking for 3 painted gangs and the rulebook cheaply let me know.

Other projects
The start of November I was lucky enough to become part of the playtesters for Broken Legions - the upcoming Osprey Games title. This was an enjoyable experience and has provided me with a game where I can play ancients without having to have a huge army. November was also the month were I discovered another upcoming Osprey Games title - The Men Who Would Be Kings, so this meant that I would finally give in to trying out colonial wargaming. I persuaded my friend Frank that this should be a joint venture and showed him the Pathans from Studio Miniatures - he was sold on the idea. By the end of the year several other upcoming projects caught my eye, and the ones I will be investing in will be covered below.

Overall I have painted close to 300 minis, made 3 gaming tables and increased the size of my favorite board The London Docks, so that it is now a 4x4.

2016

Empire of the Dead
I will continue to play Empire of the Dead in 2016 - my minis collection for Victorian Gothic Horror is vast and I really enjoy the look of game on the gaming board. I will keep my fingers crossed that the game will see some development from Westwind, but will otherwise try and incorporate some of the excellent ideas that Pulp Alley provides for story-driven scenarios.

Broken Legions
Broken Legions is another game that I will continue to play - I love the setting and the rules and nice. Hopefully the full release of the rules in the Summer will iron out some of the minor issues I have with them. Presently I am painting a Dacian warband which will hopefully see action on the gaming table.

The Men Who Would Be Kings
While we wait for the release of the rules, I have been making my own version of them based on the Lion Rampant rules. I have also been reading about the North West Frontier and getting some classic DVDs.

Ready for painting are my Artizan Design British/Indian army minis that I got for Christmas - so once my Dacians have been painted I will start painting these. Frank has already started painting his Pathans and hopefully we will be ready for a game in March.

I have been converting my 1812 - Retreat from Moscow board, so that it is usable for both the North West Frontier and Broken Legions.

Congo
The pictures of Studio Tomahawks' upcoming wargaming rules looks so good that I can no longer ignore them. This combined with Foundry's Darkest Africa minis means that I will probably give in and get this game as well.

Blood Eagle
Another game that is yet to be released but has already gathered a following is Blood Eagle - Viking skirmish rules based on the "engine" of In Her Majesty's Name and by the same authors. With my dislike for SAGA I hope that this will provide me with a good ruleset to get a cool looking viking warband together.

Other projects
I still have the Frostgrave ruleset, two sets of wizards, the Frostgrave Soldiers and the Nickstarter Cultist and campaign book. While we had a lot of fun in the two games that we have played, the setting and minis does nothing for me. A lot of my enjoyment of a game is liking the setting and minis, so when that does not happen my interest drops.

My biggest project to date 1812 - Retreat from Moscow is something I have stopped playing for the reasons I listed above. The minis are the best I have ever painted and look superb on the gaming table, but that alone does not help when you don't have anyone to play with, so I am looking to sell all of it. If interested let me know.

No doubt my head will  be turned towards other projects, but hopefully I will be able to resist. The amount of new rules that 2016 will bring means that I have to put a halt to new projects. With a new baby there will be less time to play and too many projects means that I will probably end up not giving a ruleset a proper run before settling on something else.

Across the Dead Earth - Gangs

After finishing my SAGA terrain and the gaming board itself, I had promised my friends that I would paint up the three gangs for Across the Dead Earth that we bought together.

Coming from painting Gripping Beast, Perry and Fireforge miniatures I must admit that these miniatures are less detailed. They are easy to paint up and this being a post-apocalyptic setting the ink effect from The Army Painter gives them the dirty look that I want them to have.

The colours are fairly dull which is intentional. For The State minis I decided to paint most of their outfit in a deep sea blue colour, which gives them a bit more colour than the all black that I first had in mind.

Next up for Across the Dead Earth is making terrain pieces of the many cars that I have been picking up in the past month. Before that I will be painting up the Empire of the Dead minis that I bought from Simon (Brummie) - 221B Alliance and some Requiem characters incl. some Kickstarter exclusives.

General update

Have done a lot of painting in the last couple of weeks, and so I have an update for all four of my chosen games:

1812 - Retreat from Moscow
I played another game of 1812 - Retreat from Moscow almost a fortnight ago, and as it turned out I actually won! My first victory ever in the game. I took no pictures whatsoever as I was concentrating so much. This victory inspired me to look for more options for both the French and the Russian army, and on ebay I picked up a set of 6 painted French Dragoons. Almost half a year ago I picked up some French Cuirassiers but the daunting task of painting them had put me off getting started on them. But now they are about 70% done. Still have not figured out what I should get for the Russians, but I am thinking Hussars - and as usual Perry have some nice ones. An artillery piece for each army would also be nice.

Across the Dead Earth
With almost all of the SAGA figures painted I have finally come to Across the Dead Earth miniatures. They have all been cleaned - not much needed and base coated. The look like they will paint up very easily. Been collecting some old miniature cars from booth sales as well to use as terrain, and I am still hopeful that my normal Empire of the Dead boards are usable for Across the Dead Earth.

Empire of the Dead
Bought some singles and kickstarter exclusive miniatures from Simon "Brummie" who sadly decided that he was never gonna get any more Empire of the Dead done. Simon had some fair prices and I am looking forward to getting the miniatures in the post hopefully this week. Since Michael and I have found out that EotD actually plays better on a 4x4 table I have been thinking about what to do with my two dedicated EotD boards. The solution I came up with was to make a 4x1 and 3x1 section that will fit both boards. So I will be getting back into some Gothic Horror board building again

SAGA The Crescent and the Cross
Mutatawwi'a warband, I have now finished the bases and given them a mat varnish. Once the varnish had dried I lined them up in my miniatures cubboard - it is really so nice to have this.

Uploaded my first video to YouTube of the warband, so here you go:

Two weeks of painting and I now only need to base the warlord before the Mutatawwi'a warband's adversaries the Templar Knights are finished. Pictures should be up this week.

Have also started on making terrain for SAGA The Crescent and the Cross, but besides houses I am unsure what is suitable.

Anyway updates should be flying in in the next few weeks, especially with me still having a week left of my holiday.

Merging of blogs - and new projects

Decided to merge my two blogs London by Midnight and 1812 - Retreat from Moscow into a general blog The Dane's Wargaming Blog. First of all my interest in several different wargames and going back and forth on these makes it look like nothing is happening on each blog.

 I have sold of all my Malifaux stuff - having not played the game for a year, I decided that selling in order to fund new games was a good idea.

The money has already been spent - did not take me long I know. I have looked at many games but have settled on two: Across the Dead Earth from Dead Earth Games and SAGA The Crescent and the Cross from Gripping Beast.

Across the Dead Earth is something my friend Chris and I have been looking at for a long time, and we finally decided to try it out. My other friend Michael also liked the sound of it and he is always willing to try something new, so the three of us ordered the Across the Dead Earth deluxe set, which will give us the rulebook, a PDF version of it, a gang each and some additional PDFs. Good deal and I'm thinking that my London Station board that I use for Empire of the Dead could be used if we make some terrain pieces that look overgrown etc. Time will tell.

SAGA The Crescent and the Cross will be my next big project. With the 1812 - Retreat from Moscow game I have found out that I like to get myself involved in a larger project - learning new rules, creating a new board and terrain, and of course the minis. 1812 - Retreat from Moscow also showed me that I quite like having smaller units on the table. Friday evening I placed a huge order with Firestorm Games for the core rulebook, two sets of SAGA dice, and a lot of minis so that I can build both a Knights Templar warband and a Mutatawwi'a warband.

So I'm very much looking forward to painting up a lot of minis for both games and to get them on the table.