A Very Happy New Year 2011

A very happy new year to everyone out there! And my very best wishes for 2011.



2010 was a pretty good wargaming year for me. Of course, there was a lot I planned which I didn’t get round to, but the balance was firmly on the positive side of the wargaming ledger. Right up at the top of the achievements ledger was meeting some new gaming friends at the St Albans club and at shows like Salute, SELWG and Burton. For me, sharing experiences with old wargaming friends, getting figures on the tabletop, playing games and welcoming new members to a wargames club or group are what the hobby is all about for me.

This year I also started this Blog. I’d like to thank everyone who’s followed, commented and read it. The comments and things people have said have been really appreciated – each and every one of them! What started out as somewhere to post a tutorial about building trench terrain has become a bit of a focus for what’s going on in my wargaming hobby. It’s added a huge dimension to my modelling, terrain building, painting and gaming and I’m really looking to continuing it in 2011. I’d also like to say a HUGE thanks to the other blogs and podcasts out there in the wargames community, whether historical, fantasy, sci-fi or RPG which have inspired me this year. There’s too many to mention, but some of my favourites Blogs are listed on the right hand of this page under “Great Wargaming Blogs”. Again, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for all the inspiration! I only hope I can give something back…

So, what’s in store for 2011? Well, I’m usually a bit nervous about predictions and New Year’s Resolutions. However, what I am hoping to do first is post two or three battle reports in the next couple of weeks covering some more of our trench raiding games over the Christmas and New Year period.



I’ll be blogging photos of some new trench raider figures I’ve finished recently and some no-man’s land terrain boards which I’ve been working on for these games.





Towards February and March, I’m intending to do a successor modelling project to last Autumn’s “B” Battalion of the Tank Corps. The focus in the Spring of 2011 is going to be on a troop of Lord Strathcona’s Horse from Moreuil Wood in March, 1918. I think cavalry have been slightly overlooked in Great War wargaming, and I hope I can persuade a few people to look again at this really interesting dimension on the battlefield.

Later in the year I hope to be play-testing some divisional scale Great War rules based on, and evolving from, TooFatLardies’s rules for the Great War in the Middle East, “If the Lord Spares Us”. Richard Clarke and myself have been building armies in 10mm scale for this, with the Germans finished and the French and British still to go. I’ll be putting some terrain together for these rules, which I’m hoping will be fun to do.

Finally, the ‘Big Project’ for this year will be a new army, probably starting after the summer. I’ve a French army from Scarab Miniatures waiting patiently in the painting queue, but Great War Miniatures’ Americans from Belleau Wood and the Meuse-Argonne are looking very tempting.

Whatever happens, it should be fun. And however you spend your 2011, I hope it will be healthy, happy and filled with great wargames.