One year anniversary - reflections and plans

 Man of Tin likes to call this a "blogaversary." Guess it's my first one, and I'm a little surprised I managed to keep it up this long. Honestly, blogging has kept my interest in gaming going - though it has also slowed it down quite a bit simply because I'm trying to document it!

What I achieved this year:

Sixty (!) blogposts. Not quite one a week, as early on I was doing two a week and then things settled down. Work has kept me busy - and too exhausted when I get home to do more than read a lot.

Read a lot, both games and history. In particular, I discovered Pen and Sword, and that the Hoopla app has nearly all their books. Lots of good stuff there. Picked up and experimented with several of the Osprey "blue book" games, too.

Eighteen battle reports, and a little RPGing with Glory: 1861 and Over the Hills and Far Away.

Twenty-nine followers. Not something I'd have considered before getting into this, but the support makes a difference. Really.

Two remote games! Very interesting, both of them, and something I would never have considered before work forced me to use Zoom all the time. I hope to get more in.

What I didn't achieve:

Library gaming. Not much at all, though we have two healthy boardgame programs at my work - traditional board-gaming for the kids and chess for the adults. I don't have much of a hand in these, and though I've experimented with wargaming in the past during both I wasn't able to this year.

Significant progress on my campaign games - a '45 campaign that kept switching rules, Glory:1861 which hasn't gotten past the construction of one side, Over the Hills and Far Away which has had two "sessions," no work on The Sword in Africa at all...

American Civil War gaming, particularly my Picacho Pass scenario I was hoping to run on its 160th anniversary last month - I misplaced the figures! Will try it another time.

What I hope to achieve this year:

Library gaming - starting in two weeks I have programs planned for miniature painting and Dungeons and Dragons. 3D-printing has been up and down but I have plenty of old Warhammer Fantasy minis to give away, and picked up some Citadel paints tonight. Playtested the new XD20 simple RPG rules today with some success and some weirdness; I have high hopes. I'd also like to get some naval games in during summer, as this year's theme is Oceans of Possibilities. Heck, our kickoff is on the eightieth anniversary of Midway, though I doubt I can get away with running that.

Finish my solo '45 campaign.

Start a solo colonial campaign using The Sword in Africa.

Run some more of Over the Hills and Far Away.

Run some more of Glory:1861.

Play some more Portable Wargames, if only for the support of the incredibly enthusiastic and active Facebook community.

Go to a convention! Have never been to a wargaming convention, though there are two in Orlando every year and most of the local group go. (This is the other reason I was unable to run Picacho Pass.) I will try to make time in September for it this year. I also hope to go to Supercon, a local comic/fantasy/etc convention that my work might have a booth at.

Well, that's enough to go on, I should think. Thanks to my readers and commenters for the support; I'll have more for you soon.