David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Tuesday 29 December 2020

Good Bye to 2020!!!

 Goodbye to 2020, a year I am supremely confident very few of us, if any, will be sorry to see the back of, given Covid19's malign influence on ourselves, our families and our friends, not to mention our hobby! I doubt I will be alone in this sentiment, nor in my earnest hope that 2021 will see us move back towards more normal times in all aspects of our lives at some stage. With all this disruption to our lives it's quite hard to summon up the necessary application to produce the usual annual review, but I will do my best in the circumstances.

Firstly games: you must remember them, I hope! Here in GHQ I have not hosted a game since Lockdown Mk2 was imposed. When I look back over the plans I'd formulated with Phil and Jon I'm mostly overcome by sadness at lost opportunities to game with my friends and share the pleasures that our wonderful hobby and friendships bring us. But, not withstanding all the coronavirus malarky, we did have some memorable games while we could. We played 24 games over those parts of the year when face to face games were possible. Of those I won 9, drew 2 and lost 13, clearly a below average performance on my part! A few pictures of more memorable games here in GHQ at least ~

With restrictions on meeting face to face for games here in GHQ or elsewhere for much of the year painting took on more significance for me, as I'm sure it did for others. My major effort since May will not have escaped even the most myopic visitor to Tales from GHQ, namely the building of two 28mm armies for the Punic Wars. I did paint other stuff or course and built some new terrain pieces along the way, but the Punic Wars project occupied the bulk of my effort ~

In all I painted 797 28mm figures over the year, surprisingly not a great increase over previous efforts.

I made a few purchases over the year, leaving aside the three phases of figure purchase for the Punic Wars project, starting with my most expensive acquisition from Germany, a prepainted Vauban fortress, delivered with stereotypical German efficiency I'm pleased to say ~

When I bought these two for £10 in a bookshop in Cornwall during our October holiday I thought they would be my bargain of the year...
I was wrong, as became obvious when I acquired a large box of over 100 Aventine Miniatures Republican Romans from fellow gamer David for what I freely admit was a bargain price! During the year I also contributed to Wargames Illustrated, either in it's hard copy format or in its ethereal Bite Size format; five pieces in all, with my War of 1812 - 15 piece appearing in both formats! 

As we Stand To, waiting with a mixture of hopes, aspirations and trepidation, to see what 2021 brings I am confident most, if not all, of us will be hoping to see the return of wargames shows. With many early ones already cancelled it seems the autumn Partizan 2 might be the first I would attend. Of course even that is contingent on developments outside of our control. I did though attend two Shows this year in early March: WMMS and Hammerhead. The first is already deferred now to 2022 while the second is provisionally relocated to September. Such is the life of a wargamer in the Times of Coronavirus! A happy, healthy and above all safe New Year to you all!

 



22 comments:

  1. A great year in terms of building up two ancient armies David - the paint work is very nice indeed. The Vauban fortress is beautiful too. I do hope you manage to get Covid under control back in Blighty although I must admit I think Bojo and co missed the boat many months ago and not sure when things will start to come right - even the vaccination process will have to be hitting many millions before it starts to make any practical difference I would imagine. Its times like this I dont mind having no wargaming shows or having to pay 50% postage to get stuff to NZ from the UK! Stay safe and hope 2021 does bring some change for the better

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    1. Thank you rross! Fingers well and truly crossed for 2021!

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  2. A good year for GHQ despite Covid and the politicians. That is a lot of figures painted well done. I look forward to following your progress in the year ahead. Happy New Year.

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    1. Thank you George, Happy New Year to you and yours!

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  3. As you say David, I doubt any of us will mourn the passing of 2020! Let's hope 2021 is all we hope it will be and we can return to some semblance of normality. Happy New Year!

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  4. An eventful and yet uneventful year indeed. You do however have two splendidly finished armies amid the chaos, let's hope we can get some games in come May.

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    1. May? God that's a depressing start to a New Year!

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  5. This has certainly been a different year David...

    But you have indeed achieved much... Two beautiful armies and the prospect of new and victorious games.
    I look forward to following your adventures in 2021 and hopefully meeting up for a good old chat... we haven’t put the world to rights for a good long while...
    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly! The world definitely needs putting to rights now!

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  6. A fine collection of photographic memories and almost 800 x 28mm painted is a very respectable result for the year and a positive for 2020. I think we are all looking forwards to 2021 giving us a better time of it.

    I am hugely anticipating the return of the show circuit.

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    1. Thanks Norm! Shows, now there's a thought...

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  7. I havent had a club wargaem since March 2020, but tried solo, not the same, one thought I had was if this situation went on for a few years like WWII, I wonder how this generation of people old and young would cope, especially those, who ignore the rules. I would say Late summer to autumn is when we get back to near normal, I am an optimist but I doubt the July show at Newark will go ahead, more likely the Other Partizan in October is more realistic

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  8. Wonderful pictures and figures David...and all the best for 2021!

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  9. Some splendid stuff which shows how productive you have been. Yes I think we can all agree some normality would be nice........but even Cumbria has fallen into tier 4 from tomorrow. I will not be down hearted though there is much to celebrate 😀

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  10. Like many of us, it seems you have made the best of the situation we found ourselves in. I would estimate July 2021 is just about the earliest shot for something approaching normality.

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  11. I would say you made the best a bad situation and produced a lovely addition to help all of us get through the year. Wonderful work!

    Christopher

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    1. KBO Christopher, it is the only option right now.

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