2015 was another great year for my hobbies and, thanks to my readers and followers, Horse and Musket. Thank you all!
I closed the year with 109,987 hits to date, just shy of my goal of 110,000. I wrote 56 articles in 2015.
The English Civil War: Royalist Army remains in First Place for all time hits at 943.
The 7eme Hussards remains at 2nd with 683 hits.
The Battle of Bosworth Field , 3rd at 658 hits
HistWar: Napoleon, 4th at 651 hits
Hampshire Yeomanry, 5th at 625 hits
2015 saw the introduction of 1/350 scale Elizabethan/Spanish Armada ships to my collection. This now numbers 7 ships, all modeled in great detail by Julián Fenández de Sevilla of ModelJShip .
2015 being the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, I continued the pictorial essays of my Napoleonic collection with a review of all of the British Heavy Cavalry at Waterloo. I also wrote an article about the visit my brother and I paid to Waterloo for the celebrations.
After my retirement in March, I formed some new friendships with local gamers. I became introduced to Fire & Maneuver. I have not been involved in true Club Games for 45 years since my days in London with the South London Gamers in the mid-late 60's. I realized that I have built a figure collection that is really not designed for the rough and tumble of the gaming hall, although I do play wargames with my sons and good friend Jeff Lower at my house.
I therefore embarked on a new project to build a suitable ACW Union contingent so that I could comfortably field some of my own figures in a club setting. In this endeavour, I was helped immensely by Frank Patterson who painted most of my new wargames collection. These are all Redoubt figures, based on metal stands, to typical F&M rules. My other collections are based on wooden Litko bases. This project was completed very quickly and I now have a Union infantry Brigade (and another in process), a Cavalry regiment (mounted and dismounted), artillery for both Brigades plus staff, etc.
From Frank and other new friends I learned a lot about wargames scenery suitable for a game setting and acquired some excellent hills, houses, fences, roads, etc from Frank. I also added more scenics from Joe Linares and Hovels. I am now well set up to join in club games or stage them myself. 2015 really saw me transition from collector to collector AND gamer. Indeed I enjoyed some very fine F&M games during the year, including Wake Island and St Nazaire.
Since 2015 was also the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain, 1940, I added a few excellent 1/72nd scale Corgi die cast aircraft models to the collection. A number of new boardgames including WW2 land and air, plus ancient Rome, joined the collection. I enjoyed and supported the resources of Boardgames Geek for a second year and came to fully appreciate this amazing resource with its associated Geek Market.
Special thanks to Will and Jeff for our terrific Craft Days, to Ethan (Mad Guru), to Yanni, Carl, Neil and Julián, and to Frank and my new F&M friends.
Happy collecting, painting and gaming in 2016! I plan to enjoy many more games. I'm also working on an Old School Seven Years War collection so that my gaming can include real retro games in the style of Brigadier Peter Young and his seminal book "Charge". This will be based on Minden 28mm figures in a simpler, glossy style, individually based. More on this in 2016...
