2021 in Review

 

The Plan, 2021

With the end of 2021 comes the traditional review of “The Plan”. So how did I do this year?

 

UN Dutch APCs for AK47. Not on the plan!

Phoenecian galleys in 1/2400 to fill out my "Mare Nostrum" fleets for Salamis

Japanese warships in 1/2400 for "Those Who Seek Death"

MT Miniatures' lovely 1/1200 Imjin War models for "At The Height of Battle"

Models:

My 15mm Burma collection got a load of new vehicles as did my Winter Skirmish collection (including a whole new Finnish “army”, but I didn’t even start on the figures. Tweaking the Vietnam rules worked a lot better than I expected though.

I also completely failed to get Mike’s old AK47 armies sorted. BUT I did paint up my entire backlog of AK47 and 15mm Vietnam figures (mainly the ARVN) as well as add quite a few new vehicles to my AK47 collection thanks to the 3D printer.

10mm Vietnam – also a complete non-started

Sci Fi subs – again, I got nothin’

My modelling time did get side-tracked a LOT though, and those side tracks became my mainstream. The biggest add was an absolute horde of 1/1200 and 1/2400 Korean, Japanese and Chinese medieval and Imjin War ships that supported my Asian naval rules sets, “At The Height of Battle” and “Those Who Seek Death”. More on these later. In the last month of the year I also started work on a series of 1/300(Ish) ancient galleys which are going to be aimed at more “fun” style games than serious.

I also worked on a  load of 3D models of my own design, most prominently a series of 1/600 and 1/1200 ACW ironclads and gunboats. And before that some more hypothetical 1/1200 Victorian ers battleships and gunboats. The ACW sets I am particularly pleased with and I’m very happy to see them appearing on playing tables around the world 😊

 

Rules

“Far Distant Ships” hit the shelves early in the year, I didn’t get to work on the Crimean aspects though. Maybe in 2022.

“Project X” was the big thing though. This was the release of MT Miniatures novel line of 1/1200 Korean and Japanese ships for the Imjin War, a first in this scale, and my accompanying rules At The Height of Battle”, again another first. These have done well and Matt at MT is soon to release the next fleets for the game covering Chinese ships of the 12^th-14^th centuries, as well as additional Japanese and Korean ships based on some of my 3D models. I also completed “Those Who Seek Death”, a fleet action set using 1/2400 models.  

The Narrow Seas campaign system stalled again, although I have a generic system just about sorted. I need to work up the first one or two theatre-specific sets of tables and other material, then the rest should flow. I also didn’t manage to get far with the Triple Alliance campaign but that’s coming  on now. Sci Fi subs is on hold for the moment but may accelerate as a subject game for the 2022 Naval Wargames Weekend.

Something i've been working on since lockdown started getting on for 2 years ago is a solo board game covering ASW escorts on the North Atlantic convoys in WW2. Somethong aking to "B17 Queen of the Skies" but in a Flower Class corvette. This must have sparked soem ideas since, having announced the plan and sending out some early drafts I've found there is another "Print and Play" game on a similar theme thats just come out and a major board gme company publishing ANOTHER game on the same theme in 2023. So a boat that I've missed, but I'm still working on my game as its a fun project. Watch out for more on this in '22

Summary

Not a great performance against “The Plan”, but a successful year nonetheless, and I was really pleased to get the Asian naval rules and models out there. I guess I had too many things planned in, and not enough time as a job change affected many things from April onwards. Nex year I think I’ll focus on just a few targets – but will look forward all the same to having the pkan diverted by things that fly in from left field 😊 Look out for “The Plan for 2022” soon. Oh, and a very Happy New Year to all my readers.