2014 Year in Review

As with most miniature gamers who take up blogging, today is the day to write about what we acomplished and did not accomplish during the year.

For myself, all I can say is that 2014 was a huge success for me regarding gaming.  Seeing how in 2013 I only had 2 blog posts, and 3 in 2012, to already finish 2014 with 85 posts is an accompishment all by itself.

On to the actually gaming.......

Bolt Action

At the end of January 2014, I was introduced to a farely new 28mm WWII game called Bolt Action.  Seeing how I always loved the WWII era and have been waiting for a ruleset to catch on world wide, I jumped right into it.  A long time friend of mine (Tim @ Cursed Treasures) was bringing back his 2 day event "Gathering in the Desert" for 2014 and it was going to be Bolt Action (previously LotR).  I had 3 weeks to get an army built, painted and ready for the tournament.  I acomplished getting 1000 points of Soviets completed and had a great time playing in the event and catching up with some old friends.  My son had also played in the event with a borrowed army and also had a good time.  It was now time to get him an army built and painted so we can get some more games in.

I finished 1000 points of US for him, plus we managed to get a German army done and also added some new units to our armies.  I was able to get in 21 games for the year, most of them were in the first half of 2014.  After the summer my gaming and blogging took a little hiatus and I was concentratng once again on my personal health and exercising more.

We still have a lot more models to paint up and complete for this game, hopefully we'll get them done in 2015.

X-Wing

X-Wing really surprised me in 2014.  At first I did not want to get into 'another' miniature game with all my time contraints, but I am glad that I did.  My son was playing the game for most of 2013 and finally on my 40th birthday in March of 2014 I had him give me an introduction to the game.  Boy did I really like the game.  First off, there is nothing to paint (sure you can paint the models if you really wanted to, but I feel Fantasy Flight Games did a really nice job on the pre-painted models).  Second a standard game is 100 points which is to be played in 75 minutes.  This was a huge plus for me.  I really do not care to spend 3-4 hours playing one game, so to get a game in just over an hour was a huge benefit.  And finally it's 'Star Wars'....

I managed to get 20 games in for the year (with the last game being yesterday afternoon) and I see many more games for 2015.

Warhammer Fantasy

This was a bust for me.  I had some hope to revive this game in 2014 and managed to get 2 games in.  I also dug out a lot of my old models and started to touch some up, but the summer came and once again this game slid from me.  The time and money to get a unit completed in this game is starting to get ridiculous with Games Workshop pricing.

Flames of War

Another bust.  I also had some high hopes for this game seeing how I already had some models for this game.  I had my friend (Rob @ Drunken Samurai) re-teach me the game and also managed to get a game in with my son.  But seeing how at the time I was really into Bolt Action, another WWII based game (and in 15mm scale) was starting to look slim.  When Bolt Action released their Tank Wars book, my son and I did manage to use our Flames of War models to play some of the Tank Wars games.

Dungeons & Dragons

In August of 2014, Wizards released Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.  I always wanted to really get into D&D and did manage to find a group back in 3E, but that did not last long.  Before I bought any books for 5E, I went to find a group to play with.  I managed to get a hold of a Dungeon Master playing at Desert Sky Games who offerered to run a campaign for me and two of my sons.  We then also recruited another player and the adventure began.  We are now playing every Sunday from 12pm-2pm at Desert Sky Games and I am really enjoying playing 5th Edition.

Well that is about all for 2014.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on what to expect for 2015.

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FOW: US Tank Company

Here are some pictures I took a little over a year ago for my US Tank Company for Flames Of War. I am just about done with adding an Armored Rifle Platoon to the Company and those pictures should hopefully be up later this week. This army will be playable in both Mid War (MW) and Late War (LW). In MW its just about 2100 points. For LW this list will come out to about 1500 points. Also for LW, I'll be replacing two of the Jeeps from the Tank Destroyer Platoon with two M20 Utility vehicles.

Once I get the ARP finished, I'll start to concentrate on the Soviets for awhile. This will then give me two playable armies. I'll eventually also add some Germans and other Axis and Allies.

US Tank Company

Company HQ

Tank Platoon: M4A1

Tank Platoon: M4A1

Tank Platoon: M5A1

Tank Destroyer Platoon: M10

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June Is REALLY Here

Boy did May really fly on by. Seems like I didn't really get much done, oh wait I didn't. Here is a recap what I did do in May, along with what I hope to accomplish for June.

LoTHS:

As you can see, I finally did get my Pirate crew done for Legends of The High Seas. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the Pirate campaign that was scheduled for May 15th. Last minute our family had to go out of town for the weekend. I am really hoping that John invites me to the next one and that I can attend. At least my crew is done for now.

LoTOW:

Nothing to report here. No models painted yet, and I wasn't able to get any games in. Now that my "TV" shows are done for the season, I'm hoping to get some more weekday gaming in. "Hoping" is the key word. June is already starting to look pretty busy.

W40K:

Imperial Guard: I did manage to assemble all my Infantry for my 1750 point IG Army minus 2 Officer's. I still have 8 Chimera's and 2 Devil Dogs (Devil Dogs are due out in August) to assemble to complete my IG list. Currently I'm in a GW funk, so we'll see how much gets painted this month. My "goal" is to have my IG done by October in time for the "Wild West Shootout" in Phoenix.

Six of us did start a W40K Gentleman's League in May. The games are all between 1000-1500 points and we are using the 3 missions/deployments from the main rule book. We get 3 points for a Win, 1 point for a Draw. The League will last for 5 Missions and 10 weeks. Each mission you have 2 weeks to schedule a game with your opponent. We are almost done with the second mission. I will get my second game in tomorrow night. My first game was a Draw.

Again, I'm hoping to start painting the IG Infantry this month, but we shall see. I have plenty of other 40K armies to play with in the meantime. I still would like to get my son's Redeemer done and another 10 man Tactical Squad for him. But they may have to wait till July/August.

FOW: (Flames Of War)

Here is a new entry for me. Flames Of War. Years ago before I moved to Arizona I had built a US Rifle Company for Flames Of War. I never did learn how to play the game and ended up selling the army.

When I moved to Arizona, I still didn't know too many people that played the game. But I did like the models and I do love the WWII history. My Grandfather was a Major for the Royal Yugoslav Army and was captured in April 1941 and spent the rest of the war in camp. After the war, he was exiled from Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia became Communist after the war) and lived in Austria for awhile before coming here to the US. Anyways, I had decided to purchase some more models and hopefully learn to play the game. I purchased the models, but never learned the game. I ended up building a Mid War / Late War US Tank Company. I can interchange the US Tanks between both time periods. I finished painting all my tanks in Arizona, but stopped when it got time to paint the Infantry for my Rifle Platoon. Seeing those small (15mm) infantry got scary......

Anyways a few weeks ago, my friends in Arizona NOW decided to start FOW. This started to also give me the itch and on Memorial Day I decided to break out my FOW army. My son and I visited a local game store on 5/27 (Games Plus) where they have a large crowd that plays the game. We sat and watched them for the night playing a large battle and we started to pick up on the rules. I've got the movement/shooting down, but still need to understand the assault phase a little better. I decided to pick up some Soviet Tanks so I can also start a LW Soviet Tank Company so I have something to play against my son.

After watching the game on Wednesday night, I decided to start to paint my Infantry for the US so I can have 1500 in Late War complete for the US and about 2200 in MW (US tanks cost more in the MW). They were not as hard to paint as I had originally thought. I went pretty basic with just base colors and then used one of the new GW washes (Devlan Mud) to wash the entire model. They look pretty nice. I have most of the Infantry done. I'm shooting to get them done by the end of the week. Plus I need to get the Soviet Tanks assembled/painted. I put together one just to see how it goes.

My plan is to head back to Games Plus on Friday 6/5 for a couple starter games with my son so we can go through all the phases of the game. (My Mom comes into town today for the next 2 weeks, so its gonna be hard getting out to play, kids are going to want to visit with her. But we'll see what we can manage.)

Like I mentioned earlier, I always had a "love/desire" to play WWII. I am really hoping that I am going to enjoy this game. One of the problems is that Games Plus is about 15 miles / 30 minutes away and they are the closest indy store to me. All the other store are actual Games Workshop stores, so obviously no FOW there. So getting out to Games Plus on a week night is tough. Luckily they meet on Wednesday's and Friday's so I'm thinking Friday's will be my night for FOW.

LoTR:

No models built/painted last month for LotR. I did get in 2 games of SBG which were really fun. 2 weeks ago I played my son in a very friendly "made up" scenario, then last Sunday I played my friend Jamie (AWC LOTR club founder) in "Meeting Engagement". Both games were a blast and it was great to play the skirmish game. I have yet to feel the "love" for War of The Ring (WoTR)

Blue Max / Canvas Eagles:

A friend that I met at the Chicago Bunker when I first moved back kept on raving about a game called Blue Max which is about WWI aerial combats. A group of his friends meet up at his house once a month and play the game.

So last Sunday after my LoTR game, my son and I headed on down to check out the aerial action. What a FUN game and easy to learn. The game we played was on a 4x6 felt mat with 3" hexes, and the models that he uses are the WWI planes from the game "Wings of War". The planes are 1/144 in scale and come pre-painted. The models are then glued to a 6" pole/base.

The original Blue Max rules which were written in the 1980's does not use "altitude" in the game and all the planes can only shoot straight. It keeps the game fast and simple.

Others (Canvas Eagles) have modified the rules slightly and have added altitude to the game and slight modified some of the damage charts.

The rules for the Canvas Eagles edition (which is frequently updated/maintained) can be found here: www.eaglesmax.com

The rules for the original edition of Blue Max can be found here: www.youplay.it/play/bm_GameRulesFull.asp

I think this Friday night while I'm up at Games Plus I'm going to be picking up some planes. My plan is to start to play with the Canvas Eagles rules since they're site is updated with Plane charts and Damage charts (minus the altitude rules, we'll learn those later) and when we meet once a month with my friends, we'll then play by the Blue Max rules. If you know how to play by the Canvas Eagles rules, then playing the Blue Max rules is very easy.

The game is fun and very easy to learn. You can also play on a smaller scale (which I may do if I find the planes).

Thats about it for gaming for May.

Hopefully I'll get more updates for June. Sorry for the lack of them in May.

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