Bookkeeping

Ugh. Hard to believe the year is half over already. Time just keeps going faster.

I thought I'd take a minute to look over the last half year to see if I've stuck to my plan or if some new plan emerged that perhaps I should acknowledge. If planning posts aren't your thing, you've been warned!

As per my post earlier this year, my goals are/were:

• Play 1 toy soldiers game per month
• Play 1 board game per month (not even a wargame necessarily)
  
• Get at least one Venusian force with options ready for the table
• Bring each WWI force up to three "companies" (H.M.G. suggests 8 figure Bersaglieri and 9 figure Austrian) and 2 MG bases.

Every blog post needs an image. This is from September 2020 when the khaki Brits were being painted. I just love how it looks like their standard is a monument to the ancient snail god called 'Gary'.

 Board games:

Although I haven't played any this month, I've played lot's of board games - well, if Fluxx counts (it's a card game). I only broke out a hex-and-counter game in February, when I acquired Ghost Panzer Worthington has announced they'll be reprinting the supplements and games in the series, which is great to hear and I have my eye on getting them eventually.

Figure games:

No figure games in May and June isn't looking likely either, given I am focused on painting right now.

Venusian Forces:

I have a lot to paint, but that said I've made some good progress this year already, but across factions. 

My plans for each faction changes depending on what rules I am considering.  For example, my original plan for the French was a single unit + gun crew, which is what I now have. However, I decided I wanted two infantry units plus an overall commander, and maybe cavalry, to put them in line with my figures for The Great Game. So, now they aren't done.

That said, both the French and the Lizards are close to being brought up to what I would consider 4-5 units for GASLIGHT / Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles / FUBAR: VSF / In Good Company and similar games. 

Both  are already capable of fielding a number of units for a grid-based game with 3-4 figs per unit, which is something that is likely to be a thing.

WWI

I changed from individually-based to mounting three-to-a-stand for infantry and returned to a One Hour Wargames organization. However, figure count-wise, I have two companies each by H.M.G. standards. Still need to assemble and paint the 2nd MG for each force. 

From the OHW perspective, six units of infantry and two assault units are complete. Plus a commander (for The Portable Wargame, Trench Hammer, and other games where leaders matter). The Italians also have one unit of cavalry which was not part of my initial plan.

 Other

It wasn't planned but I made a bunch of buildings in various stages of ruin for 1:1 skirmishing.  

Plans for the Second Half:

I purposely tried to keep things manageable and not shoot for the moon with my plans for this year. So far, it's panned out. I also planned to spend less time blogging so I could leave comments elsewhere and that seems to be going OK as well. 

For the second half of the year, I am going to give myself some specific goals on the painting front. For games, I still want to play 1 of each kind per month at least.

• Finish up WWI Italian and Austro-Hungarian MG bases and the second Italian cavalry base. I'll probably expand eventually (I have some alpini, for example, and I want to add the other European powers that made an appearance in Italy during the war: Germans for 1917 and the Brits for 1918,  for sure, and maybe add the French for 1918, too), but this will be the solid core force.

•  Assemble and paint the 1/35 French in gasmasks for Weird World War I.
  

• Finish Venusian lizards - I need to finish 6 more SCS Direct lizards, the Iron Wind Metals shaman, and then maybe, just maybe, some figures to act as handlers for the Spinosaurus. I don't need to have the handlers though.
  

• Expand French Foreign Legion force - 7 more in red pants, 3 more figures to man the Gatling. They really need cavalry to compete with the other European armies I have, but that requires purchasing and so will probably wait until next year (or Black Friday). I'm thinking cuirassiers, because why not?

• Paint Tanitian light infantry, redo the elephant, and create a hero or commander figure (I have one in mind). That would give me a reasonable core force
  

• Paint one unit of the Roman faction and name said faction.The triari are some of my favorite figures, so, I will start with the hastati and make my early mistakes there! Unlike the Tanitians, they will not be monochromatic. Perhaps that's why they are at war?

Figure count-wise, I think that's around 50 figures depending on how you count the cavalry. I've painted 27 this year, since April. Theoretically, then, this is feasible if a bit of a stretch for me. Which is fine, if I fall short, I'll still have made progress. The odds of going over though are slim.

As for games, I have no specific plans, but I hope to get one on the table this weekend!