General Update - Into The Future

A belated happy new year!  I had a minor surgery (nothing serious) that side tracked me from writing this update sooner but I'm back in the saddle again.

Well, another year gone and endless possibilities for this year that is ahead.  When I look back on the accomplishments of the past year I'm taken aback at how much has gotten done:

• American Civil War - Lots of progress here with five full brigades done.  That is 25 infantry units (750 infantry), 3 cavalry units (36 cav + dismounts and horse holders), 5 artillery batteries (50 foot, limbers, guns and limber teams) and finally command for all brigades including two army commands.  Fleshed out and published a v1.0 set of rules to use for this period (they need more work but are a start).
• Modern - This really came together in the final months of the year going from nothing to essentially complete in just a few months.  23 vehicles, around 70 figures for good and bad guys and a whole new Iraqi city board with scatter terrain.  I also got the Bolt Action Modern rules underway with army lists.
• Renaissance Naval - Thomas Foss brought the Battle of Lepanto to life using my ~50 ships for his Galleys, Guns & Glory rules.  Not only did the ships get done but I was able to get an article published in Wargames Illustrated for the game (despite the "issues" with the publication errors).  Another period that went from nothing to done this year.
• Dead Man's Hand - I painted three new gangs and added a few new terrain elements (such as the impressive Saloon).
• World War 2 - Tons of progress here with new terrain, lots of new vehicles and troops.  Hell's Highway proved to be a great convention game and added most of the new vehicles to my collection including armoured recovery vehicles for both sides.

I certainly played many games spanning SAGA, Muskets & Tomahawks, French Foreign Legion, Napoleonic's, modern and WW2 Bolt Action, GGG, Star Wars Armada, Victory at Sea, ACW and Dead Man's Hand.  I also attended three conventions (DundraCon, PacifiCon and KublaCon).  I'm happy with that progress ... I don't post about every little thing I do but I do try to cover most things with the blog.

So ... what about this year ...

I have several projects that will certainly come to a close this year and others I think are on the bubble depending on how much gets done and priorities - or perhaps distractions?  That being said, I've got a great start on some of my projects and I'm itching to start a few others.  For the stuff I have a high confidence in completing, I've got the following:

• Omaha Beach - Bolt Action WW2.  Should be running this at KublaCon.  I have everything in my possession.  Most of the beach obstacles are assembled.  I have 40 x US casualties getting painted to put on the beach.  The landing craft I need to assemble and then build the two main bunkers.  Other than the casualties I have all necessary figures painted for this game.
• Modern - I have some additional insurgents and civilians getting done.  I plan to play more games and keep the rules up to date and keep adding/clarifying them as needed for my purposes.  I've printed off some Saddam murals and will be adding road signs, technicals and others bits to modernize the battlefield and make it look more Iraqi.
• ACW Gettysburg - I'm targeting running three specific scenarios with my ACW collection.  Burford's stand and the arrival of Reyonds on day 1, the Little Round Top on day 2, and Pickett's Charge on day 3.  I'm very close to having all the troops done for all three scenarios.  I will be adding ACW specific terrain this year, including completing the Seminary College build/paint job.  I'll also be adding teddy bear fur for the fields.
• Dead Man's Hand - I'm adding (just about done) a train station, church and stables to the collection.  I've also built a bunch more scatter terrain to make the setup more interesting.  Lastly, I have a 28mm train ordered and coming so I'll be running a train related scenario at DundraCon in February.  I will be painting the Cowboys (my 6th gang) for DundraCon and by years end I want to add the Banditos, Renegade Indians and Civilians to my gangs (completing all 9 gangs if you don't include the down under stuff).  I also have regular old civilians to get done to just put around the town.
• World War 2 Normandie - I already have a great collection for this ... but I plan to replace my core city/town buildings with all the great stuff from Crescent Root.  My order for Crescent Root was already submitted and a large collection of their series 3 stuff should be arriving in a couple of weeks (complete with roads, blocks and such).  I plan to take the layout to the next level with scatter terrain and such.
• World War 2 North Africa - My DAK army is painted and I just need to finish basing it (vehicles are all done as well).  I need to get my British army done including their vehicles.  The Crescent Root buildings for modern will do "double duty" here and some of them can be used for buildings in Africa.  I also have a SAS airfield raid scenario drawn up and have all the figures, vehicles and terrain to do this ... including some impressive German aircraft to put on the airfield.

Ok, so that is the stuff I'm 100% sure of ... but that isn't it ... other projects I've started in various ways and hope to finish and at least get enough done to start playing this year ... that list is:

• World War 2 Winter Patrol - I have all the awesome new winter troops from Warlord Games for the Germans and US.  I plan to do a 6x4 winter layout to represent the Ardennes/Battle of the Bulge.  This will be infantry and support teams focused with only a couple of vehicles per side (if that) ... but it will be very "wintery" in both the painting and terrain.
• Rorke's Drift - I've had this collection from Warlord/Empress Miniatures for some time now.  In fact, I have enough to do Isandlwana but that will be a much more future project.  I'm looking at about 60 British with around 240 Zulus for this one.  The good news is I have all the miniatures and terrain ... just got to get it assembled and painted.  For rules I'll be looking towards Matt Hilzendragers "Come Hell or High Water" rules that he uses for the French Foreign Legion games you've seen me blog about.  That is another thing, hopefully he can get them into a publishable state this year ... we'll see.
• Robotech - Other than Star Wars Armada my only other non-historical game.  I have the first batch of bad guys done with more on the way ... and I have destroids and some of my valkyries painted.  I have terrain partly assembled (using the 4Ground buildings for Hawk Wargames) and I have a table from Games & Gears (again, for Hawk Wargames) that I've been waiting for almost a year to arrive (good news, it is on a ship to the port of LA to get shipped to me).  This game should really not be in the "bubble" category as I know we'll get playing this year ... but I do have more work to do here to get it going ... and god only knows when the tabletop will show up.

I'll be attending DundraCon in Fedruary (running Dead Man's Hand and Modern Iraq), KublaCon in May (planning a big showing here with Modern Iraq, WW2 beach landing and updated Normandie layout and ACW Gettysburg with Pickett's Charge) and CelestiCon (still planning on what games to bring here) in September (yes, back to CelestiCon for me and the group).

That is about it ... we'll see how I make out here.  Either way I'll get to these ... this year or next but I like to have a roadmap so I can keep on track.

Dead Man's Hand Game & Gang Sheets

I pulled out my Dead Man's Hand stuff yesterday to play a game with Roy Scaife.  We played through The Dawn it Will Come scene ... more on this shortly.  I setup the town with the standard crossroad configuration.  This was the first showing for the old west town mat I purchased from Terrain Mat.  The mat worked out great and the added space allowed me to use all of my buildings I have built - with some space to spare (yay, I can build more buildings).

One of the things I've been meaning to do for a while is to make some sheets to remove the need to put the activation cards on the tabletop.  I did up gang sheets for the gangs I've painted so far.  You can see pictures below (and a link to download if you choose after the pictures).

I place the cards just under the picture of the figures.
When you pick the card up you can see the statistics
for the figure being activated.

Desperados

Lawmen

Outlaws

Pinkertons

US Cavalry

You can download the gang sheets pictured above here.

I always forget how much fun it is to play Dead Man's Hand.  We don't pull it out nearly enough to play and that is something I will be fixing in the near future.  I also still have the remaining gangs to paint (civilians and casualties as well).  Anywho ... on to the game.

The first scene was In The Silence Of God.  I played the Pinkertons and Roy played the Outlaws.  In this scene one of my good guys sees a no good dirty bad guy sneaking around a wagon.  He checks it out and things turn bad.  Both sides have a single figure with another single figure in reserve.  Neither of our reserves made it onto the table as the scene ended when my good guy blew that no good varmint out of his boots with a 19 on the die roll!

Scene two was Like Blood Across The Sky.  The early morning events have roused the rest of the gangs and they are not happy about what happened.  I was able to draw an extra card into my hand for winning the first scene.  This scene ended when either side lost two figures.  We used our full gangs but without the leaders (so six figures a side).  I was able to pull the victory off here as well ... but just barely!

The final scene was Dawn It Will Come.  It is now full on warfare in the streets!!  One gang ambushes the other in order to end things once and for all.  We both had our full gangs and I was able to once again draw an extra card into my hand.  As I also won the first scene I was deemed the ambusher and Roy's poor fellers the ambushees.  All of Roy's models had to start in the open (essentially out in the middle of the street) while my guys all started in the buildings (with the exception of one guy that had to be out with the rif raf.  This was a bloody encounter.  Apparently Pinkertons make horrible ambushers.  We both lost over half of our gang ... with Roy pulling out a big swing in the last two in two hand-to-hand combats that forced me over the half way mark.  We both owed big nerve tests in the last turn and I managed to pass mine while Roy failed his.  Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good!

In all it was a great game from start to finish - and bloody!