2010 Wargaming Year In Review

2010 was one of my better years of wargaming for many reasons: I painted a large amount of figures, I enjoyed playing in a lot of games, I hosted several games, I helped coordinate the 2010 Carnage Centuries of Conflict historical game theme and most importantly I made many new friends. Although these milestones aren't listed above in order of importance, let's look at each, one at a time in the order listed.

Here are my painting totals for 2010: 16 28mm foot, 431 15mm figures, 41 15mm vehicles, 21 pieces of terrain/misc, 277 15mm purchased painted or painted via commission.

The 28mm figures were mostly comprised of a single unit, Sargent's Massachusetts Battalion for my AWI figure collection. The 15mm figures were split between four major efforts: the last few units to finish up my Field of Glory (FOG) Roman army, the start of my FOG Seleucid army, the beginning of a Flames of War (FOW) late war Finnish WWII army and my early WWII German Pioneer company also for FOW. Although all of these were exciting projects, I have given the 'photo of the year' award (see above photo) to the Finnish Sturmi platoon I painted up way back in April. These models feature the fun to paint and fun to look at WWII Finnish cammo pattern and scratch-built improvised log armor to ward off enemy bazooka and panzerfaust rounds. This is easily my favorite unit painted in 2010. 

Terrain created in 2010 was mostly centered around laser-created items: 15mm corner ruin objective marker for FOW, 15mm and 28mm versions of a Russian steppes house, and smoke templates for FOW. I also whipped up some barbed wire and minefields for my German engineers to use on the battlefield. Painted figures I purchased were mostly Seleucid units for my FOG army. I also had a large commission completed by fellow blogger Kent from the 15mm paint shack. In my review of Kent's work I also took the time to rate all of the services and companies I buy painted figures from in case anyone is interested in purchasing painted 15mm figures.

I played in many good games this year, many thanks to my good friends at the Northern Conspiracy. I also was able to play in a large number of FOW games at Elite Hobby in Dover and Adler Hobby in Hollis. I attended both Huzzah! and Carnage in 2010 and was able to get in a few games there as well. Not counting the games I hosted myself I was able to play 21 games this year, which is almost two a month! Games I hosted this year included a few 28mm AWI Carnage & Glory games including running one each at Carnage and Huzzah!  My friend Mike C. and I ran a large Magnesia FOG game at our club after a couple of play tests in my basement. I also hosted a couple of HUGE Napoleonic Volley & Bayonet games in my basement as we concluded my 1813 campaign.

The best part about wargaming in 2010 for me has to be all of the new friends I've met. A big chunk of them are the players in the early WWII FOW escalation league at Adler Hobby, but I've also met some great people playing at Elite Hobby and also through my involvement with the Carnage and Huzzah! conventions. To all my new friends, thanks for making 2010 a GREAT wargaming year for me.

AJ