Blog posting has not been my strong suit this year. The last few years I'd posted  two to three times a month. This year it's been about once a month.  Most posts were battle reports or pictures of what I painted I seem to be getting the games in and have been painted a fair number of figures. I think what has cut down on posting is that we've started watching some TV shows that require my full attention while watching and multitasking has been cut out.

So that brings me to this post of three games played. Two games of A Gentleman's War and one of Chainmail Bikini. The first AGW game was with my 28mm figures. We played a Hubberton scenario modified from the Black Powder Rebellion book. Howard took the Crown forces while Matt T and I split the Patriot forces.

American rearguard forms up.

British deploy across the river.

The battle begins.

The 2nd NH skirmishes with the Indians on the flank.

Game two finds us seventy years ahead playing an ACW game of AGW. I pulled out the 15mm troops for this. The scenario was Daybreak at Hangman's Creek from the Black Powder rulebook. Again Matt and I teamed up on Howard, we being the USA and he being the CSA. We were a little over enthusiastic about the size of this game running three brigades of five units each and hoping to set up play to a conclusion and break down  all in two and a half to three hours but it was a great looking game with all that lead on the table.

Union troops move into the town

The Rebel line is faced by a lone Union regiment.

The Union line awaits the onslaught.

The Confederate brigade attacks as the Union troops attempt to reinforce.

The battle heats up.

More Union troops move up to support.

Lastly Howard and I played a game of Chainmail Bikini. The game was set in China. I controlled the Monks holding a relic, while Howard had a Wizard, his daughters and a number of thugs hires to steal the relic..

The Temple

A day of mindfulness.

Respect for your elders.

The thugs bust through the front gate.

The Monks outnumbered do a fair amount of damage to the Wizards force.

The relics Foo Dog guardian awakens and wreaks havoc on the thugs.

Three great games. All better entertainment than a TV show you can multitask through. Thanks for reading.

We just got back from visiting our daughter down in North Carolina. Ten and a half hours of driving broken up by a stop at the Petersburg battlefield. We didn't want to stop long so it was a quick stop with a movie at the visitors center and three of the eight stops. 

Confederate #5 battery

The Dictator

Gun and caisson.

Battery #9

Start of the Union tunnel

Approach to the tunnel.

The Crater

Widow Moore's bridge.

The view from the Patriots side.

The Patriot earthworks.

A 3# field piece.

Whig view of the Loyalists advance..

From behind the earthworks.

I should have written this when some of the questions were fresher in my mind but I didn't. Part of the reason for that w=is that the floors are being re sanded and we spent much of the weekend moving things, more things than we should have. Part of all this is why playing The Portable Wargame was the choice for this weeks game.

It was just Howard and I as Matt was working and Nate is enjoying his newborn. We decided to give PW another try this time using my 15mm ACW figures. I pulled out the Salem Church scenario done by Johnny Reb as it's seemed to be the right size for this game. I used one stand per unit of infantry and three gunners for the artillery. I didn't have commanders but should have used at least two per side.

The Union advances.

Confederate's delay the Union advance.

Reinforcement arrive for the South as the Northerners advance on the left.

Yankees flanking the right.

Reb artillery dueling with the invaders.

The Union closes in on the Confederate left.

The Rebs have been flanked on the right.

An enjoyable game all in all. The squares are 2.5 inches and the board is eight by thirteen squares. I think I should have used two stands per unit to get a better look. Most of my figures based for Johnny Reb2 are on inch squares, four per base mostly. The fences were place in the center of the square to show which square would get the benefit but I think putting them on the edge would be better appearance wise and still show which square benefits. Maybe some new fences will be needed.

It being January I feel a need to review the last year and set plans for the new one, late as usual.

2015 was fairly successful on the gaming front we managed to get in 2-3 games a month at the local Hobby Town mostly Frostgrave but also some Little Britons using either OHW or With MacDuff to the Frontier as well as play testing Flint and Feather an upcoming set from Howard Whitehouse

Painting wise although happy with my output I bought way more than I should have. The stats, painted 146 bought 324 for a minus 178 on the year. The big purchases were some John Jenkins Warring States and the Watchful Studio Warring States Kickstarter to be used for a pair of Pulse of Battle armies.These will keep me busy for the rest of the year and hopefully nothing new comes along to temp me. All in in all a good year for the hobby.

Now on to the plans for 2016. The year has seen Three games so far, Sharpe's Practice AWI, Flint&Feather and Frostgrave, thirty eight miniatures have been painted with a good start on a dozen more.

An order has been placed for the final two cavalry units needed to finish the Little Briton project as planned. I am considering adding more to this project as I want some French, German and West Indian troops.

I'm starting to catalogue my collection and hope to get through a least four periods by the end of the year. The first is the AWI 28mm and then ACW 15mm. The Little Britons are mostly done but I switched formats so may move these over.

The plans for gaming will depend on availability of opponents but the one group I'm in is showing interest in Sharpe's Practice and Carnage & Glory for the AWI and perhaps En Guarde when it comes out. Locally word is that others are interested in Frostgrave so a campaign with that may be in the future. Dragon Rampant has been ordered so I'll be looking to play some of that using my Games Workshop LOTR figures. Once again Huzzah is on the calendar. Last year was a lot of fun. I played in the Hawks "Not Quite Seven Years War" game using modified Charge rules and fantastic 40mm figures.



So there's the layout for the next year. I'm shooting for twelve blog posts for this year with them being a recap of each months activity. It will most likely be weighted towards the beginning and end of the year though as the warmer months tend towards outdoor fun.

Thanks for reading.