It seems to be traditional to end the year with some sort of review. 2011 has been a very busy year for me - it has had a lot of 'real life' in it, which has, at times, frustrated my wargaming hobby. To be fair though, a lot of the 'real life' has been great fun, and it's been a really good year in all sorts of ways. Perhaps even, in many ways, my best (or happiest?) year yet.
So, what about the wargaming part of the year? Well, it's been a bit odd in some ways. I've found it hard to settle to any one project, unlike the previous two or three years, when I was very focussed. I think that's partly because of being tired through being so busy, but also because my 'Britannia' and 'Fire in the East' projects are, to all intents and purposes, complete - bar for adding odd units here and there. Having got those two more or less finished, I have spent some time casting around for something else and not really finding anything which 'grabs me' to the same extent - yet!
There have been some notable successes though. I have, more or less, finished 'AVGVSTVS to AVRELIAN' - my Roman rules. Paul Darnell and I put on a successful demo game at The Other Partizan MMXI in September. I made masters for two little accessories - a bag of sling bullets, and a case of javelins, for my third century Roman army, which Matt from Elhiem Figures cast for me.
So what does 2012 hold for me? I'm not sure. I'd quite like to carry on with my 'Pyrrhus' project, but I'm not very inspired - I need to think of colours and a style which 'work' for the Pyrrhic army, and which are distinct, but not too distinct, from the style of the Republican Roman army which I've done some work on. I've primed a box of Perry Wars of the Roses plastics, which are awaiting decisions as to livery and so forth, though I have thought out most of the colour scheme.
I am wondering about writing a set of rules for gladiatorial combat, possibly basing them on the mechanics of an RPG system, in order to get sufficient 'detail'. This would be a fair bit of work, but does sound fun. It won't require a lot of figure painting though - but perhaps that's no bad thing at present.
There are things I'd like to add to my 'Britannia' and 'Fire in the East' armies, but no-one makes them (yet!). Roman horse archers for both Roman armies. Contarii/cataphractarii for the 3rd Century army. Dismounted Savaran (nobles) for the Sassanid army. And I'd like to sort out some 'Dura Europos' fortifications for Fire in the East siege games. And make a marching camp for Britannia - and possibly a chunk of stone fort (or Hadrian's Wall?) too. Hmm, perhaps those projects aren't quite so dead and buried after all! But there's not a great deal of point in 'Dura Europos' without some dismounted Savaran to assault it.
So, without further ado, my very best wishes for 2012.