2022 in Review Part Two: Painting

I could almost call 2022 the 'Year of the speed-paints' having discovered the new army painter speed paints and put them to use on several projects! They have their advantages and disadvantages but when they are suitable for use they produce a decent result very quickly! Apart from a few odds and ends added to various armies this was my main output...

Art de la Guerre Palmyrans

A bit of nostalgia here with a sort-of reproduction whole army of my first ever metal ancients army, 25mm Hinchcliffe Palmyrans which I'd sold many years ago.

Irregular archers:

The mighty Cataphracts:

Field of Glory Renaissance TYW/ECW

Four speed-painted 28mm pike and shot units join the ranks:

Men Who Would be Kings/Sharp Practice Northwest Frontier

Another speed-painted army, this time Colonial Sikhs mainly in 20mm.

Bengal Lancers:

Sikh Infantry:

Rommel 1940 British

Additions to my Late War British army to allow me to field 1940 British.

The tough as old boots Matilda's:

Bag the Hun US Navy and IJN

Complimentary air forces also for use in Cruel Seas.

Japanese Zeros:

US Hellcats:

Cruel Seas US Navy

A cheap boxed set I picked up from Ebay continuing the Pacific War theme.

Landing craft:

Sub Chaser:

 

PT Boats

Cold War Commander British Army of the Rhine and Warsaw Pact

Two 6mm armies, easy to paint and cheap to buy!

Harriers:

The stars of the Warsaw Pact force, BMP-1's:

No actual use yet Evil Fantasy Army

This 15mm army had been in a box unpainted for many years. A few days speed-painting later and they are now ready for action should they ever manage to get a game!

Death Whisperers:

Orcs:

Wolf Riders:

What is on the horizon for 2023?

Field of Glory Renaissance

More Pike and Shot units, several units of Horse and some Croats.

Kiss Me Hardy

A French fleet box set, eventually I'll make a start on this.

Chain of Command

A complete Norwegian army I just bought from Great Escape Games. I also have an Afrika Corps army which has failed several attempts to paint it so I might pass that on to someone else!

Cold War Commander

A Norwegian army which shouldn't take long to finish at all.

Apart from the above there are the usual odds and ends of various armies to finish at some point. I've also started thinking about the possibility of doing a 28mm Renaissance Italian Wars army but really shouldn't go there!

2022 in Review Part One: Gaming

A full year saw me play a total of 51 games in 2022, almost one per week which were played variously at home, at Central London and at Cowards clubs.

Art de la Guerre

A total of eight games all with different armies (Syracusan, Later Carthaginian, Swiss, Palmyran, Venitian Condotta, Neo-Babylonian, Early Carthaginian and Hunnic). 

Still a remarkably popular rule set at Central London and including an outing for my newly painted Palmyran army:

Art de la Guerre Renaissance

Written by my club mate Simon, ADLG-R is gaining popularity at Central London. I played eight games including three in one day for the ADLG-R competition Simon organised. Not so much variety in the armies used (Chinese x 3, Polish x 2, Later Royalist, Holy Roman Empire and Italian Wars French). 

The Ming Chinese on their way to competition victory!

Sharp Practice

Eight games also for Sharp Practice, a bit of a revival for the rule set as I'd not been playing it much. A fair bit of variety in the armies as well (Napoleonic Austrian, Napoleonic Wurttemberg, AWI British, Indian Mutiny, NW Frontier British and three outings for the 15mm Dervishes).

Dervish hordes attack:

The Men of Company B

Four games (two VC, one ARVN Special Forces and one USMC) plus a game of Charlie Don't Surf. Both Dave and Gary enjoyed the games and were happy to play again (no solo games this year!). CDS was interesting to play at a Lard Day but I don't think I'll start playing them instead of TMOCB.

The Temple of Doom:

Space Weirdo's

Four games. An unusual entry as I normally have little to no interest in fantasy/sci-fi/role-playing games but Gary's Space Weirdo's campaign was great fun with easy to understand rules and allowed me to get Steed, Mrs Peel and the Bentley on the table!

Steed and Mrs Peel:

Rommel

Four games, one as the Germans in a D-Day scenario, one as Late War Americans and two with 1940 British.

British battle it out with Germans somewhere in France:

Cold War Commander

Three games in my first new period of the year. (BAOR one game, Warsaw Pact two) Not quite sure why I tried this as I have never played 'Moderns' (do the 1980's count as 'Modern's any more?!) but surprisingly I really enjoyed them, they are an interesting set of rules which seem to bring out the need for combining your various units very well. 

Warsaw Pact forces rumble forward:

Blucher

Only two games this year using 1806 Prussians and French.

The 1806 Prussians in their first game:

Kiss Me Hardy

Two games as well, both with the Spanish.

The fleets engage!

Bag the Hun

Another new rule set for me which was partly inspired by adding more aircraft for Cruel Seas. The USN and IJN took to the air twice with both games demonstrating the superiority of the USN aircraft!

Massed dogfight!

Field of Glory Renaissance 

Two games, one with 15mm Polish and one with 28mm Later TYW Germans. Despite the advent of ADLG-R I still really enjoy FoGR and managed to get a couple of games in and would love to play more.

TYW Germans take on Royalists:

Chain of Command

Just a single game where my Japanese took on Tim's USMC. A remarkable drop from last year's nine games perhaps as I didn't play any pint sized campaigns.

The Japanese defend the beaches:

Men Who Would be Kings

A single game also using my North West Frontier force against Afghans.

The column enters the Afghan badlands:

Strength and Honour

Another new rule set, from the Lardies and depicting huge battles ideally in 2mm scale. One game using 15mm Mithridatic against Romans to see how the rules work.

Not quite massed armies but still a fair few figures!

What failed to get played in 2022?

Fire and Fury

For the second year no F&F which is a shame as I'd love to play more.

Cruel Seas

My main opponent moved to the distant North, another period I'd like to play more of really.

Infamy

To be honest I didn't find Infamy that interesting and am regretting painting up two armies for it! At some point I may try to convert at least one to an ADLG army.

For King and Parliament

Another set of rules I wasn't that impressed with, I definitely prefer FoG-R for Renaissance games.

What could be new in 2023?

In all honesty I am going to try to avoid starting any new rule sets/periods this year! It is both a joy and a curse to have so many options to play which has ended up with the production of several armies that get used once or twice then abandoned. One exception will be the TFL 'What a Cowboy' rules that should be out soon and sound good fun. An advantage of that is that I already have all the figures and scenery required so, in theory at least, all I will need to get is the rules! 

 

FoGR TYW Later German Imperialist v ECW Royalist

The last game of 22 saw my first FoGR game for a considerable period with the under-used pike and shot army playing as Later TYW Imperialists against Bill's ECW Royalists. Not having played 28mm before we went for 650 points on an 8x4 table to give a bit more space.

Both sides deployed with the traditional infantry centre and mounted wings:

Initial manoeuvres with both sides closing: 

The left flank with the Imperialist artillery firing ineffectively!

On the right the Imperialist mounted await the advancing Cavaliers:

As the Cavaliers seem unwilling to advance further the Kurassiers turn to support their infantry. In the distance Dragoons battle it out in the field:

The Imperialist artillery finally manages to hit some Cavaliers:

As the infantry lines close an opportunity arrives for Imperialist horse to attack Royalist musket only armed men in the open:

The Dragoons hold on in the field while the infantry lines begin to exchange fire:

Mounted clash on the left! The Imperialists get the worst of it and lose a base:

Imperialist horse charge into the exposed musketeers:

The infantry fight intensifies:

Units charge home!

The battle rages on with neither side giving an inch:

The Royalist musketeers break and some of their infantry are fragmented:

The Dragoons have routed and the Imperialist right flank is wobbling:

At this point we called the game as it was getting late, the Imperialists probably had a slight advantage but the Royalists could easily have come back into it.

Great fun playing FoGR again, they are still one of my favourite sets of rules and I'm sure we would have got a result if we had not been so rusty and had to look a lot of stuff up which we had forgotten or were unsure about.

It was also a great looking game, increasingly I'm going back to preferring 25/28mm games and, with most of the army being plastic, they were not that heavy to carry! It has also inspired me to continue with the Swedish painting project as well.....

FoGR TYW Swedish

A while ago I picked up a Warlord Games 'Battalia' starter set cheaply on eBay with the vague idea of using it as the basis of a Swedish or Parliamentarian army to face my Royalists/Imperialists. 

As the project was making no progress I thought I'd try speed painting an infantry unit to see how they looked, being relatively simple uniforms they seemed suitable for speed paints. 

The 'Blue' unit:

The 'Greens':

The 'Yellows':

The 'Reds':

All four units with a General I got as my prize from the ADLG-R competition:

I must admit I think they came out well considering how little effort it was to paint them (I'm sure it took longer to make them, undercoat them and base them than it did to paint them!). The Flags of War flags really help as well and as with my other 28mm FoGR units can be changed to represent different nations (the flag just slides over a wire the standard bearer holds).

I have two units of Horse I could paint the same way though I'm not sure they will be so suited to speed paints and a couple of bases of Dragoons. Of course that isn't enough for an army so to have two armies I'll need to add some more, otherwise they can just be used as extra units for my existing army.

Sharp Practice AWI British v American

An encounter battle saw my British taking on Pete's Americans on a fairly open terrain in another Sharp Practice game.

First to arrive were the Queen's Rangers faced by some American skirmishers across a field:

British Line quickly followed in support of the Rangers:

Remarkable shooting from the Rangers sees three of the American skirmishers out of action in one round of fire!

Inspired by their success the Rangers charge across the field causing the skirmishers to flee behind some Continentals. Militia lurk in the walled field as well:

The Light Dragoons arrive and spy some more Continentals in the distance:

The Dragoons gallop towards them but don't quite catch the skirmishers shielding the Continentals:

The Continentals get a volley in but it isn't as effective as they had hoped:

One man down and five shock, the Dragoons gallop on!

They crash into the Continentals!

The Continentals are wiped out!

Meanwhile the Americans have been exchanging fire with the Rangers who are slowly taking losses:

The Dragoons move on to the second group of Continentals but come off much worse:

The Dragoons flee:

The Rangers regroup into a single unit:

Fire from the British Line routs the American skirmishers breaking their army:

A bit of a different game on a more open than usual table where the quality of the British units paid off. Pete was very unlucky though with the dice with his initial skirmisher unit and failure to dent the Dragoons before they got into combat.