Monday 31 December 2018

2018 Roundup from The Burrow


Another year over and from a wargaming point of view I have to say it’s been an incredibly fulfilling and productive one. The major achievement was of course moving all my stuff from the old Man Cave to the new Burrow. Nothing lost and minimal breakages.


Here are some interesting/useless facts and figures, in no particular order:
  • I noticed earlier today that I’ve gone past the 600 mark in terms of posts on this blog, and a quick count shows that I posted 143 times (including this one) in 2018.
  • I somehow managed to squeeze in an impressive 33 games this year. With the exception of three (the Wild Geese Kenilworth event, a trip to the Like a Stone Wall club and the demo game at Battleground, the rest were all played at home. 
  • Six were in the ‘old’ Man Cave and 27 were played in the 'majestic' setting of The Burrow.
  • The range of periods played this year was quite wide but there is a definite trend in terms of the ‘most played period’as is obvious from the table below:

           French Revolutionary Wars x 19
           Seven Years War/War of the Austrian Succession x 6
           Wars of Louis XIV x 3        
           Congo/Darkest Africa x 2
           Crimean War x 1
           Great Northern War x 1
           Thirty Years War x 1



  • The games included refights of Kolin, Prague, Zorndorf, Lobositz and Leuthen from the SYW and Zurich and Trebbia from the FRW.
  • Apart from my regular and growing wargaming circle of friends who live locally I had visitors from Stroud, Grimsby, Falkirk and Adelaide! Thanks to everyone, you are a pleasure to play with and to know.
  • I managed to get to quite a few wargames shows, i.e. York, Partizan 1, Claymore, Partizan 2, Border Reiver, Crisis and Battleground. Special thanks to my wife Katherine and `John the Red for driving me there.

As far as the collection goes, it has grown significantly, especially the armies of the French Revolutionary Wars where I seem to have managed to go off on several different directions from the original idea of just doing Suvorov in the Alps. I have no plans or desire to do the Egyptian campaign but everything else is fair game. My Late 17th century Baroque armies have swelled with the addition of more French, Hanoverians and Savoyards, and lately units of Papal and Venetian troops, and my Polish renaissance army has been reinforced so my Ottomans had better watch out. I managed to sell my entire American Revolution collection as I have fallen out of love with the period, as well as a whole bundle of oddments; stuff that I rediscovered during the occasional tidying up of the Burrow, and that I knew I would never get done. Overall, the number of painted troops has increased a fair bit, but the lead mountain has grown a lot too which was not the plan. 2019 will definitely see me finally finish and base up my Sikh Wars armies, and I also have a French SYW army and some Italian Wars stuff in preparation. 

Hopefully next year will be at least as fun and productive for me as 2018 has been. That goes to all of you out there as well. Happy New Year and keep those dice rolling!

24 comments:

  1. An impressive year Colin and I must admit I really enjoyed your Vendee/Quiberon campaign:). Happy New Year to you and yours and look forward to seeing what you get up to next year.

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    1. Cheers Steve. More Vendee games to come as I never quite finished the campaign. There will also be some early French Rev games and 1799 in Holland to name but a few...

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  2. Happy New Year to you and Katherine all I can say is that your blog, your collection and the Burrow are all inspirational

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    1. Happy New Year to you too Graham. I've never been called inspirational before. I just do what I do to keep me from going insane(er).

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  3. Colin I have enjoyed following your move to the new accommodation and then the subsequent games played. Your collections are an inspiration to my painting and I look forward to another year of enjoyable reading.

    Richard

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  4. 2018 was a fruitful year for you on the hobby front. I especially enjoyed your 1799 and SYW battle reports.

    Happy New Year!

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    1. Thank you. I plan to do more of both this year.

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  5. A memorable year Colin! I hope to make it to the Burrow in 2019. A Happy New Year to you and Katherine!

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    1. Thanks David. Same to you and Sue. Must try and put a date in the calendar.

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  6. Colin, you and your blog is always inspiring.

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  7. What a great year you have had Colin. 33 games is certainly nothing to be sniffed at - only managed 23 myself.

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    1. thanks Mark. Actually I miscounted. It was 30 games although one was played three times over the Wild Geese weekend.

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  8. Looks a good year..hopefully get over for some games this year ...

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  9. Thank you for a wonderful year of your super blog Colin. One of the big highlights of the year for me was my day trip and game in The Burrow and it has been great having the chance to get to know you better on more than one occasion. Besides being just about the most prolific and (yes- inspirational) wargamer I know, many readers might not realise you do all this while tackling pain and mobility issues which you make light of. So well done and may 2019 be a great year for you for health and hobby.

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    1. Chris you are very kind. Keep well and prosper in 2019 for you too.

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  10. Happy New Year Colin and thanks for putting together such a wonderful array of posts full of fantastic figures and terrain this year. Best wishes for a great 2019.

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    1. Happy new year to you too mate. Hope you have a great one.

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  11. Hi Colin. I just want to say how much I appreciate and enjoy the games you have staged both at the old Man Cave and more recently at the Boro Wargames Mecca.
    See you soon for another bash.
    Paul

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    1. Thanks Paul. Much appreciated. All the best for 2019

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  12. Happy New Year Colin, thanks for hosting all them games and sharing with the wider wargaming community, keep on gaming

    cheers

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    1. And to you John. I don't plan to stop as i enjoy it too much, and would do more if I could. Cheers Colin

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