My Latest Purchases

After being good for a while I've splashed out on a couple of new projects. The first is 'By Fire and Sword'. I'm going to buy the rules when they come out but in preparation I've bought a skirmish set of figures so they'll be painted up ready for the rules when they arrive.

I wanted to go with the Ottomans but the skirmish set is all cavalry and I'm not a big fan of all cavalry forces. I was more interested in Janissaries and other Ottoman infantry. If I like the rules I'll have a look at the lists and maybe build up a skirmish force rather than going for pre-made. The next set that got my interest was the Cossack set. I was surprised that it was mainly infantry and wagons as I always think of Cossacks as hordes of cavalry, but something about it interested me. After some research it seemed that the Cossack forces are mainly infantry and suit a defensive player. As much as I liked it it wouldn't suit my temperament. So what did I buy? Well I went with the Kingdom of Sweden skirmish set. It appeals to me as it's a good combined arms force and I've always had a thing for Reiters. So here's a photo of the set I've bought.

My other project is one for the future as it won't arrive until September. I gave in and pledged to the 'Heroes of Normandie' kickstarter. I went with the £45 pledge as it was the best value for me. I was tempted by the £90 pledge as you got all of the stretch goals but I didn't want to invest that much in a game that I may turn out not to like.

I'll do a quick review of the BF&S skirmish set when it arrives and hopefully some progress shots as i get it painted up.

My latest temptations.

As I've written before I'm constantly tempted to buy new toys by things I see on blogs or news sites. Some times I manage to resist some times I don't. Currently I have two things calling to me, Heroes of Normandie and By Fire and Sword.

Heroes of Normandie is a squad/platoon sized WW2 board game that seeks to recreate WW2 as it is in the movies. I'd seen lots of mentions of the game because it's Kickstarter is getting a lot of coverage but not really paid much attention to it. Then I was bored and decided to give the Kickstarter a look. The information is very good and there's a couple of videos which give you a flavour of the game.


There's lots of stretch goals which have been achieved and it activated my 'that looks like a good deal' gene. So I'm currently looking at the £45 + £7.50 p&p pledge which gives you the basic game plus most of the stretch goals.

The thing that generally holds me back with Kickstarters is the thought that I'll probably be able to buy the game at a discount and with free p&p once it comes out. The stretch goals though add nine extra tiles and some other bits and pieces that might make it worth pledging. I'm still undecided and as estimated delivery is five months away in September 2013 and I might have gone off the idea by then.

So what's my other temptation? It's the new english edition of the 'By Fire and Sword' renaissance rules. Renaissance is a period I'd like to get into sometime and Anatoli has been writing some nice AAR's and reviews of the rules on his blog. But what really peeked interest was that they include Ottoman Turks. I hadn't really been that interested in the Eastern European warfare but for some reason I've always had a soft spot for Ottomans so that made me give them a second look.



They are also designed to be used for small, medium and large scale games which is a bonus. I understand the the skirmish level game (looks to be about Basic Impetus/Dux Bellorum size forces) is very popular in Poland so that might be an easy and cheaper way into the rules without commiting to a big spend on an army with all the time involved in getting it painted up.
The rules are a bit pricey but are 408 pages with history, painting guides, army lists, scenarios etc all included in a hardback book with high production values so not bad value. They also have a Kickstarter I may take a look at if they introduce some stretch goals.

Wargaming Addiction Yearly Update

About a year ago I made a post detailing the scale of my wargaming addiction. This must have struck a cord with many of you as it was one of my most read posts of last year. In that post I said I was going to keep a record of my wargame expenditure to help me control my spending. Well here is the breakdown of my spending in the last 12 months. This may shock some of you and give comfort to others depending on the state of your own addiction.

Over the past twelve months I've spent £1,111.50 on wargaming. This doesn't include club night fees/subscriptions or travel expenses. This works out to £92.63 a month or £21.38 a week or £3.05 a day. For some reason £3 a day doesn't seem too bad (about the price of a pint) while £1,111 a year seems a lot. I guess that's statistics for you.

However I did sell some Warmachine stuff I didn't need, some figures for Saga as I hated it and a Chaos Space Marine army as I have no interest in 40K any more. This brought in £122.09 so my actual spend was £989.41 for the year or £2.71 a day. As I don't drink or smoke I don't think that's too bad.

So what was the breakdown of my spending.

£396.31 on figures, painted and unpainted
£84.78 on paints including spray primers
£149.78 on rules
£266.34 on terrain
£27.97 on dice
£64.23 on board games

The surprising one for me was the money spent on rules. I'd no idea I'd spent that much, but with the current cost of rules I suppose that's par for the course. I'd like to think that a lot of the expenditure, like dice and terrain, was a one off as I was starting from scratch having gotten rid of my stuff when I quit years ago.

So have I got full value from my purchases? Well let's look at the rules and figures I bought ....

Various models and infantry for FoW some painted most still in a drawer.

Maurice Rules and cards plus two 10mm WSS armies from Pendraken. Not used yet and figures unpainted although still an interest.

FoG:N not used and going to use N@W instead. May be of some use in the future.

Lasalle rules, not used and going to use N@W instead. May be of some use in the future.

Dystopian Wars rules used two or three times. I like them but games take a long time to play. Probably play again sometime in the future.

Johnny Reb III rules and two 10mm ACW armies from Pendraken. Not used and figures unpainted but again still an interest.

Dux Bellorum rules used a couple of times and will use again.

FoG:R rules, not used would like to do some renaissance stuff sometime.

Bolt Action rules and figures. Used a few times and enjoyed them and painted up the Russian figures I bought.

Napoleon at War rules, not used yet and still sorting out my painted armies. My current project and aim to play soon.

Pulp Alley rules, not played yet but looking forward to playing. I have all the figures etc I need to play just need an opponent.

Sadly the main reason for not using most of the above is the lack of an opponent. Most people I know are into skirmish games or GW stuff. So the best I can manage is an occasional historical game which makes it hard to remember the rules and tough to get motivated to paint up the two armies I need to be able to get a game.

So overall I've bought twelve new board games/rulesets in the last twelve months and only played four of them, and some of them have only been played once! Plus the lead and plastic mountain shows no sign of shrinking anytime soon. The amount of unpainted figures I have has convinced me that buying painted stuff from eBay or pro painters is the way to go for now. Although it's more expensive I can use them rather than have hundreds of pounds of unpainted figures stored in the spare room.

I intend to still keep track of my expenditure and I'll post another update next year. It will be interesting to see if things work out as I expect.