Happy 2nd Birthday Yarkshire Gamer !

So what have you done? Another year over....

My favourite photo of the year SMS Derfflinger at speed

So where the hell did that go ! "The years pass by like trains, I wave but they don't slow down" wrote the legend that is Steven Wilson, a great line, so true.

I like doing my yearly review on the anniversary of the blogs foundation it's great to look back on the "gaming" year, therapeutic and cathartic. For those of you who don't know YG now has a Twitter Feed and a Facebook page if that's your preferred method of communication, the links are, as you can see the titles took ages to come up with.

@yarkshiregamer for Twitter
http://facebook.com/yarkshiregamer for Facebook

Two years ago I got off my backside and went from thinking about doing a blog to actually doing the blog. I am still very much enthused with the process and average about a post a week, I've found it a great way to record my gaming activities and painting escapades, forgot what colour I painted the trousers on those 28mm Spanish Foreign Legion, no problem it's on't blog.

I am not ashamed to say that project 2015 my 28mm Punic War project failed, I only managed 4 of my target units, did I set the bar too high ? Or did I just get distracted by WW1 Naval ? Project 2016 is officially 28mm 3rd Crusade and I am going for 12 units again, distracted me never (although a Jutland refight in November may eat into the time especially when I have no Battleships done)

We did quite a bit of Naval gaming last year; on top of the usual Easter Naval Campaign we went all WW1. With this year's Russo German 1941 game already planned along with Jutland, 2016 will be no different. Like most of you I have too many projects on the go and too many collections to leave gathering dust, most periods get played once or twice a year as you will see if you trawl through the blogs back posts.

Exploding ships

Under coated and in the paint cue we have,

28mm SCW Foreign Legion and Carlists  (for our next game)
15mm SYW British
28mm Crusades  (both sides)
28mm WW1 (Arab Cavalry and Indian Infantry)
15mm French Napoleonics
28mm EotD Werewolves
28mm AWI British Cavalry

Added to that I have over 100 28mm Cavalry in various stages of construction and oil painting for SCW, AWI and Crusades.

Phew, and that's before I get sidetracked.

This is me being sidetracked

Blog hits and reads have doubled on last year and are steadily increasing, we are now fast approaching 100,000, which is nice. So I would like to thank everyone who has visited YG over the year, thanks for all the plus ones on Google, comments on TMP, Lead Adventure, The Wargames Site, Facebook, Twitter etc etc. I do generally reply to all the comments I get so come on down and leave your mark !

So the moment you have been waiting for all year, the Top Ten posts on't blog in the last year. nothing survived from last year, every things new. Each listing has a link back to the original post if you missed it.

THE TOP 10


Cue Led Zep in the background and a DJ voice over....

Bubbling under this week at number 10 is

WW1 28mm Turkish Infantry - From Box to Table

A big surprise entry here, this post proved very popular at the time I posted it, who would think that so many people were interested in WW1 never mind Turkish troops of WW1. Great figures from the Woodbine Design Company made my job as painter easier.

Presented in my Box to Table style tutorial it covers the various stages of prep, paint and basing listing all the paints used.

In with a bang this week at No 9 is a modern classic,

Operation Brevity 1941 a Scenario / AAR

No surprise with this one, the Perrys fantastic range of 28mm WW2 Desert Figures and the marvellous Blitzkrieg Miniatures vehicles have brought many people to or back to this fascinating theatre of WW2.

I often search the net for Scenarios or ideas for our games so I always present our games with the info I would want to run the game from scratch, maps, orbats, scenario rules, background etc.

The first of many Naval Gaming posts is next at Number 8

Fireworks off Malta - WW2 Naval Campaign Part 3

As mentioned above we did a lot of Naval gaming this year and at the start of the summer we had our yearly Naval Campaign. Rather than go through the pain of plotting individual search plane sectors etc I prefer a linked scenario approach to Campaigns, having run a number of these now for me its the best and easiest way to run these games.

This years campaign followed an Italian Convoy on the way to resupply the army in North Africa, each game drew in more forces and this game (the third of four) saw the first Capital ships join the fray.

Next up at number 7 another Naval Post,

A WW1 Naval Deathmatch - GHQ -vs- WTJ 

 
Whilst collecting my new 1/2400 WW1 range I tried a number of manufacturers but these two US companies are by far the best. In the post I compare the two looking at detail, price range etc.

A hat trick of Naval Post as straight in at number 6 is,

The Great Tripoli Dash - WW2 Naval Campaign Part 1 

It does amaze me how many visits these Naval Posts get, its a niche area of the hobby but they do prove very popular. This was the initial post of the Campaign and was a night action involving the Convoy along with some Destroyers and Light Cruisers.

Getting to the business end now and we're off to the States for number 5,

6mm Adler ACW - Confederate Infantry From Box to Table 

We did a "small" ACW game which ended up with over 3500 figures on the table, when we started the game I underestimated the number of Confederates I would need. I had to rapidly produce a Division of Rebs to full fill the games requirements, this post in the Box to Table style covers the journey from bare metal to the table.

Jumping in from outer space at number 4, let hear it for,

X Wing - The Campaign Begins 

Bit of a cheat this one, we have been running an X Wing Campaign for well over a year now, in fact game 23 is tomorrow. This is the original post which covers all the Campaign rules, all the subsequent Campaign posts link back to this one so no surprise that its here really.

Going all Eurovision at number 3 with a French entry,

Panzers in Normandy - Then and Now (and now) 

This post was my excuse to get some boring holiday photos out there and it worked !

The family had a lovely two weeks in Normandy staying close to St Mere Eglise, luckily the boy wonder and Mrs R both like a bit of history so we toured the beaches and sights quite a bit. I used Major and Mrs Holts Battlefield Guide and Panzers in Normandy - Then and Now books as our guides, great memories.

Just missing out on the top spot at Number 2

1/2400 WW1 WTJ Naval - From Box to Table 

Naval action again at number 2, the most common comment I get with my ships is "I like those bases" apart from one guy on TMP who said they look like Fridge Magnets, which made me chuckle, I even posted a photo with one on the fridge holding up a supermarket coupon to keep him happy !

Standard Box to Table format for these covering the making of the bases as well as all the painting.

And at Number 1.......Drum Roll........ is,

Battle of Gaines Mill 1862 Part 1 

A winner from across the pond in the U S of A ! You guys and girls in the States love posts about homegrown battles, anytime I post an ACW or AWI piece my readers from the US shoot up and good on you for that. A healthy interest in ones history is never a bad thing.

ACW is not one of my main periods and I asked our resident expert to pick a "small" game we could have a crack at. Gaines Mill he suggested, now Ian plays Brigade Fire and Fury, I play regimental Johnny Reb, the word "small" was lost in translation.

It was a long post as I put a full regimental orbat on with strengths etc, there was also quite a lot of scenario rules etc included. The game was that big I had to split the thing into two posts.

2016 and onwards

So there you have it the YG year in review, lots planned for the upcoming year, we have an AWI game of 2nd Sarratoga on the table at the moment and a big Spanish Civil War game up next so stay tuned.

King Geoffrey says keep it Yarkshire