Hi Gents ,
Just a quick hello and “best wishes” for the season. Another whirlwind year is in its final hours… what happened to 2015 ?
My ‘best laid plans’ for this year had me getting the ARVN Rangers out for sale (after near a year on the sculptor’s desk), releasing a whole bunch of terrain items (mostly fortifications.. for both sides), re-organising and re-moulding the ageing production moulds for a lot of the most popular figures, pushing our rule-writing project forward, attending a few conventions, and a planned ‘field trip’ to Vietnam with my wife.
Well …plans ‘never survive first contact’, …the ARVN and Terrain pieces got over the line without too much trouble (thankyou Matt at Reaper miniatures) , the production moulds re-do is on track (..although is a bigger task than I gave it credit for), the rule writing has gone really well, maybe a bit too well**….and I think we have something good to share more widely here real soon. …I never got to attend the two conventions I’d planned for ..one was out of my hands , the other was a “strategic call” not to attend (…was harvest time on the farm). Visiting Vietnam itself was a definite high point … my wife finally ‘gets it’ why I have a love for this country and its’ history.
However this year also came with the opportunity to collaborate with Tim at Gomi Designs on making “crew” figures for his PBRs and a Light Seal Support Craft (LSSC) , which put me to work on top of other things ..but with good effect. The end result of which is now available through Gomi Designs (link below) ..but will also culminate with Flashpoint Miniatures also producing Gomi Designs’ boats in the near future (ie; Monitors, ATC, PBR, LSSC, APSB, PCF, ACV, with a MSSC and a LCM-8 coming soon) … a project / direction I hadn’t seen coming at the beginning of the year..but am very enthusiastic about . Wow !
The “Leading Elements” rules have progressed well, the Combat rules themselves have had a thrashing, the Army Lists sections have ‘arrived’ (and I’ve learned how much I didn’t know) the Campaign rules have matured to allow the player to play out a frighteningly realistic campaign (or mini campaign) in the boots (or sandals) of a Company Commander or Battalion Commander. (…** Umm… problem is that the Communist Commanders’ Campaign Brief also reads like a ‘how-to’ organise and effect an insurgency / terrorism campaign ..a bit too realistic perhaps …so we got a bit of re-writing to do before this circulates further … or we might be facing jail time methinks). Thankyou to the “dirty dozen” of playtesters we have on board with this , and more most sincere thanks to many others who have offered advice, material, feedback and best wishes as we have moved / meandered forward. Yeah .. we aren’t rushing this .. but I think interested parties will be happy with the results.
For me personally, 2015 has been a fantastic year.. mostly because of the legion of most excellent wargaming gentlemen I have had the privilege to meet and correspond with; a quick count in my ‘wargaming emails’ folder says I have exchanged just over 850 emails with this year ! double Wow !
But most completely the “best bit” has been actually getting figures on the table and playing a few interesting Vietnam games with people I’ve newly met. This has reminded me what this is all really about … good times with good people having good fun.
! Thankyou Gents … More to follow . See you next year !
( a Company of Marines arrives upriver by Amtrack, while another Company enters a village expecting trouble )