I got some game playing in with my nephews and a friend. I also got to some back issues in the final week of the year. No painting, terrain building or buying, though.

Without delving through the year's magazines, TMP's and my emails, the memorable "trends" of 2010 were the

1) Explosion of 15mm SciFi;

2) A boom in plastics of 28mm;

3) Khurasan miniatures opening up all sorts of esoteric historical armies (ex. : http://khurasanminiatures.blogspot.com/2010/12/chaco-war-1-paraguayan-infantry.html) and varied 15mm stuff;

4) An increase in the prevalence of Hardcover Rulebooks (something I like for my library);

5) Miniature Wargames becoming a house organ (that may have been last year; but the subject matter of the articles has started);

6) Jervis Johnson being sacked at GW (I found the Miniature Wargames interview with Jervis Johnson a bit sad as it was evident he was pushed to the side at GW. Rightly or wrongly, he was a major player in the development of that company. My stock is not going anywhere);

7) Historicon Moving (the locale is definitely nicer, the location is better for many travelers and change is always hard); and,

8) Fall In moving ( a bad thing as I will miss the battlefield).

I am sure there is more but this is what I recall...

All in all, I played a lot of games in 2010. I got all of my 34 years of collecting/building/painting out of storage and saw how large it really is. Too many years of moving, playing with different groups and the like, so now I have so many periods. Long gone are the days of only three periods. Part of me wishes I had never had strayed. Another part of me enjoys the ability to "chinese menu" a game across varied periods. The best example: on the second to last day of the year, a buddy came by with his boys to play three games over the course of the day (ECW in America [Royalist vs. Puritans vs. Indians]; FRAG and a 15mm Fantasy battle of Lizards vs. Hobbits vs. Amazons vs. Undead). We were going to play a French Rev game but the day waned.

Resolutions for 2011--not my style. I guess if forced, I am going to try to paint more and continue to play. If all goes well, I hope to have my painting table cleared of all but a current project and at least 52 miniature games by year end...stay tuned.

As for the BLOG versus email debate. It was resounding email preference. I will post the tally and the edited emails to the BLOG for those of you who like that. I will definitely trim the personal information as the blog is too easy to find with a simple google search. Not that someone is searching for me...

Card and Boardgames Played:

None.

Miniature Games:

We finished the FRAG tournament—Spencer won through artful playing, clever strategy and artistic destruction. His character became so powerful no one wanted to continue past game four. Good game but a tournament requires more than four players as one person can quickly advance beyond reach. I thought he was beatable but it would require some strategy others were not willing to invest. We also played an unrelated game of FRAG on the water boards. That added a whole new piece of terrain. Unfortunately, I never got to use my lightening gun for a killing spree because as soon as people saw I had it, they got out of the water--I should have shot the lifeguard before he blew the whistle.

Four of us played a 28mm game of the ECW in America. Royalists and Puritans were seeking to control a nearby grist mill. The locals were not happy. To make matters worse, a band of Narragansetts decided the time was right for a raid. We ended up with a four way skirmish over the MBA mill. The Puritans dominated the Royalists and the unaligned militia only to run off by the Indians. All parties played historically, the results were believable and the game was fun. The early period rules modifications were used for Drums of War on the Mohawk by Bill Protz.

The Fantasy 15mm figures had their first game in a long time. Armies were constructed with figures from Splintered Light, RavensForge, GW, Irregular, Mighty Armies, Essex and Demonworld. I used a Zulu kraal as an Amazon village. As a Lizard army came out of the Swamps, a Lich Lord cast a spell opening the Crack of Doom to unleash undead hordes. A hunting party of hobbits on warhounds rode into the fray in a hasty alliance with the Amazons (perhaps with ulterior motives?!?). Unfortunately the day waned before we fully resolved the battle.

Terrain:

No work here.

Projects:

American Civil War.

Carlist Wars:

Colonialism/VSF:

Deadlands:

Doctor Who:

Fantasy/Dungeon Crawls:

French & Indian War:

French Revolution:

Lace Wars:

Modern:

Pulp:

Pony Wars:

Post-Apoc:

South American Wars of Liberation:

Seminole War:

Science Fiction/40K/Rogue Trader (not the RPG):

Spanish Civil War:

Trojan War:

Vietnam:

War in Pacific (1879):

Wildland Firefighting:

World War One:

World War Two:

Painting and Painters:

Nothing.

Magazines:

The December Issue of Wargames Illustrated is worth the purchase. The issue focus was the Samurai. It had some new stuff and some rehash: a little histroy, some information, a scenario, painting instructions, etc., with the themed article making it worth getting if you ever planned on doing Samurai. Included within was an adaptation of the Samurai to the LOTR/LOTOW rules system. Having played LOTR and enjoyed it, I think this particular rule set may lend itself to Samurai. I also enjoyed the spotlight on the WW1 Stormtrooper (there goes that WW1 thing again) and an article on Medieval Hunting games using a variant of Tooth and Claw. Terrain making was represented with a good article on making 15mm Desert buildings. Additional articles were on some convention observations, Carthaginians, Battery of the Dead, US Tank Destroyer Tactics, Ancient Naval Warfare and the Battle of Bussaco. All in all, good stuff. I also noticed that Flames of War came out with some great early war stuff. As for their Late War line, two items that almost restarted my WW2 collecting: LCVP's and Beach Landing Infantry.

The December Miniature Wargames was also a good one. There were a series of articles of varied and non-affliated items: the big one was an exclusive interview with Rick Priestley. The second installment of The High Ground, a review of Historical Books Games and Trends was good. I enjoyed Kevin Dallimore's article on Drybrushing. The other articles were a review on DBMM, (not for me), The Siege of Harfleur, The Battle of Geborra, Gaming Pancho Villa (where did I put those Federales?), Dark Horizons (a review of Historical Books Games and Trends) and a piece on Donnington Miniatures figures and plans for the future. All in all, it was also a good magazine.

BLOGS:

Tons of good stuff here from Holiday wishes to what "I got for Christmas" right on up to game reviews and AOR's. The best way to see what people were up to is to log onto the BLOG where I set it up to show you which ones I follow and what is new...shameless plug.

My favorite this week was the pictures from Buck's Blog of the New Year's Eve Santa Clause Gaslight game (http://bucksurdu.com/blog/?p=241). Back when my kids still wargamed (last year for one and earlier this year for the other), we had an annual game of Santa's Wars which involved the forces of Christmas trying to penetrate the Iron Curtain and deliver presents to the children behind the Iron Curtain...maybe next Christmas.

PodCasts:

I did not listen to anything of note here, just news and the year in review.

Mark