2010 - A New Year's Project List (Part 1 of 2)

In the past week I'm seeing more and more bloggers with end of year and New Years lists so I thought I'd join the club. As for my best of list I'm keeping it short and sweet and listing not only new things but the best of what I've enjoyed most, discovered or rediscovered this year.

1) The Too Fat Lardies Yahoo forum. A witty, rambling roundtable of information and tomfoolery from wargame fans around the world, the only ingredient missing which would make this the best site online is hearing the accents of all involve. A bonus read if you actually own a set of their rules.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Toofatlardies/

2) The Meeples and Miniatures podcast. And here you actually hear the accents! Coverage of all types of miniature and board gaming, Neil really covers the gamut in a delightful way. His weekly video reviews are a joy to watch. New for me this year.

http://meeples.wordpress.com/

3) The Perry Brothers figures. I've purchased figures from Perry on and off over the years, mainly 40mm Nappies but this year I dove into their 28mm AWI line and I'm dumb struck by the quality of casting, sculpting and posing in this range. Building up forces to do AWI with the supplement and scenarios from the TFL specials. Better looking figures than I've seen in Juggs magazine.

http://www.perry-miniatures.com/

4) The 2 Half Squads Podcast. What could be better than 2 guys sitting around drinking beer and scotch talking about the best board war game ever designed. Dedicated to Advanced Squad Leader and it's continuing expansions they discuss rules, tactics and the joy and despair of the dice rolling life.

http://www.the2halfsquads.com/

Next time I'll try and get my house in order and lay out a plan for purchasing, painting and playing games for 2010.

Sirens of lead

Once again, part way into a new project it's tossed to the roadside for a shinier, newer interest. It seems a word, a reference, a link within a forum or on TMP will zombie like steer me off course. Oh the sirens of lead men call me constantly! Within the past four months I've reorganized, rebased, purchased figures, dabbled with painting, bought books for research, and generally shuffle around both my painting area and my gaming table the following bit and pieces.
28mm ECW figures for a skirmish play test rule set from TFL
10mm ancients for Impetus (painting and rebasing)
28mm ancients for Impetus (painting and rebasing - purchased more figs)
28mm US Airborne for M&B WW2 (finishing out a weapons platoon - Actually got this finished)
28mm Dark Age figures for a skirmish rule set rumor heard on the TFL forum
36mm German WW2 figures purchased as a lark
28mm AWI Perry figures for Sharp Practice (this after finally reading "This Land Divided" a supplement for SP)
Advanced Squad Leader - pulled out my old board games and set up not one, but 3 different scenarios to relearn the rules for this monster from my past.
Rejoined my board game buddies at the local game store for a Combat Commander campaign game every other Sunday.
..and finally, Ambush Alley. I'd purchased a big handful of 20mm modern US and insurgents for this game and as usual started basing and laying down a base coat of paint about 6 months ago and put them away for something newer. Now I find an opponent living just 1/2 hour away and have promised to meet up after Christmas. Can't let my fickle nature distract me from AA till I have at least 40-50 figures finished.
Pictures to follow this weekend of what I have finished, promise.

Mud and Blood WW2 Playtest

I finally had a chance to try out the playtest version of the Too Fat Lardies rules "Through the Mud and Blood" as adapted for the Second World War. Originally a WW1 rules set, the mechanics were felt to be an improvement over their TW&T platoon level rules.Quite a good feel at first try and looking forward to our second game after the holidays. Have to paint up another squad or two for each side to bring it up to 2 platoons per side and see what happens. I'm really pleased with the quality (both production and mechanics) of the latest rules coming out of Lard Island. The Winter special is due to be released today with over 100 pages of scenarios and articles for their rule sets "Merry Christmas" to me!