The Year That Was 2023. Well, At Least The Hobby Part

Well it is that time again, to review my year as far as hobbying goes anyway. It was a satisfying year overall, attended 3 conventions (helped organize one), and gamed fairly regularly, at least a couple times a month. I am really looking forward to the coming year and all the gaming opportunities and challenges it will bring.

So lets take a look at my goals for 2023 and see how I did.

Complete my Mexican American War project.

Finish all my 20mm WW2 and SCW that I have on hand. This will allow me to evaluate what I may need, to complete the SCW anyway. 

Start my Italian wars 15mm stuff. I have a Spanish/Imperialist army based for Gush. This project will see me rebasing those for Impetvs, and getting started on the large bag of figs I have for the period.

Continue the WSS project, probably completing the French.

Paint 1/2 of my troops for Albuera. I have had these for a few years now, I want to get them going. 

Complete my Sea Peoples army in 15mm and possibly my Persian army as well.

Paint my Last Alliance army for MESBG 

Paint two forces for Pikeman's Lament

Start my Mythic Greeks. I have the Bones 5 pack, plus a nice group of Amazons (Wargames Factory, RGD, and a few Lucid Eye) I'm also anxious to paint my Charon I just got from Reaper.

Finish all my 4Ground Terrain (I had some, and bought a bunch during their closing sale.) In fact I have already started and I am almost done with my Norse buildings. Working on the last one now. That will leave the Japanese and the Pirate buildings to finish.

Rework my AWI project to Fire & Fury, rebase and evaluate what may be needed to get me where I want to be.

Start playing some ASLSK

Game 1-2 times a month and, attend at least 2 conventions.

That was quite the wish list, though I think I did pretty good overall.

I did not complete my Mexican War project. I got most of my Mexicans done, just a bit of militia, artillery and supply wagons remain. My US Militia has been started and after them I have little left for the US other than generals, artillery and wagons. I do have a boatload of casualty figures to do up for disorder markers. 

I was able to paint up all the 20mm WW2 and SCW I had on hand, even a few random WW2 guys I found a couple weeks ago. I do need a few items to round out several of the armies but, I can pick those up next year sometime. The SCW is done for the most part. I did pick up a huge lot of painted figures I need to go through. Probably keep a few to repaint and use, most will be sold most likely.

I did manage to sort through my Italian wars stuff, I have rebased what I could, and ordered some additional figures to complete units. This was brought on by my Pavia project I am planning for 2025. I will have 2 Landsknecht pike blocks to paint so I'll need all the time I can get. I do have the rest of the figures that need painting lined up in the queue for this next year.

I had to set my WSS project aside for a bit. I have come to the realization that I will not be able to source enough figures from the Editions Brokaw range to complete it. So, I will need to figure out where to draw the line and what figures to use going forward, quite probably Minifig.

While I did finish my Prussian 3rd Corps for the 100 days, I did not progress any further into my Peninsular War figures. I will be starting those in a couple weeks though.

I did complete my Sea Peoples army. No Persians though.

I did not start my last alliance army, nor anything for Pikemans Lament. Once I started playing SAGA, that really took up that space. In its place were Vikings, and Greeks.

Nor did I start the Mythic Greeks

I did get all my Norse buildings assembled, but that was as far as I got with the 4Ground stuff.

My AWI project is just getting started. I have a spread sheet done, now I can catalog what I have done, and what I need to finish. 

Did not get into any ASL games

I did game at least once a month, if not twice or more, and attended three conventions. Count that one done.

With all that said, what do I want to accomplish in 2024?

I think I gave myself a bit too much last year to complete, so I'll go a little lighter this time.

Complete my Mexican American War Project

Complete my Last Alliance Army

Complete the figures that I have on hand for the Peninsular War

Complete all my 20mm vehicle kits

Get all the painting done for Pavia so I can start playtesting the scenario

Complete all my 28mm Japanese terrain for the samurai

Paint one 15mm ancient army

Complete the AWI project

Start my 15mm project for the '45

Start my 10mm 1864/70 project.

I'm sure I'll squeeze in some other things as well. Maybe a SAGA army or two we will certainly see. I think this list is doable. Of course I will maintain my gaming frequency as well as organizing events for HAHMGS. 2024 should be a fun year of gaming that is for sure.

On the painting front, I had a very successful year. I finished up 2235 figures for the year, almost as many as last year. If I had painted during my vacation, and the time I was working on convention stuff, I would have surpassed last year. Gives me something to shoot for in'24. The breakdown on painting was as follows;

107 15mm Napoleonics

150 28mm Ancient Greeks

12 misc 28mm

179 20mm WW2

242 15mm SYW

588 15mm Ancients

567 20mm Spanish Civil War

390 15mm Mexican American War

Quite happy with that production. I imagine I'll be able to maintain that next year as well..

That is all I have for now. I'll have an update for Pavia in a couple weeks. I hope you all are having a great holiday season, and I wish you all a Happy New Year!