That was a year, that was.............

As no doubt many people of a certain age notice, time seems to move much more quickly and so we come to the end of another year. It would be very easy to write a bland retrospective of 2015, and this post will probably end up as one, like as not. However I will attempt to make it more than what I intended to do, and found I didnt do, for whatever reason.
I started writing this in 2015, and have finished it in 2016. Basically because the revels took over, spilling into the very early hours of today.
 2015 for me has been a shocking transition, in that from being gainfully employed I suddenly found that I wasnt anymore, and that I needed to find a reason to basically get out of bed.
 For probably a lot of younger wargamers, this would sound like a dream come true. But one cannot paint all day everyday, unless of course you are a professional painter. You also cannot be dabbling in the hobby all the time, because basically it stops being a hobby.
 What I did find useful, was the chance to catch up with my reading, [ not learning to read] so that I was able to read some of my many books that were sat untouched.
 I think 2015, was a productive year for wargaming generally and certainly there was a large number of rules published that promise some good games.
 I have been particularly impressed by the releases from Osprey and think their approach to good value rule books should be encouraged. Honours of War and Lion Rampant certainly were the standout ones for me.
 Obviously I have previously mentioned Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules, which brought me back into the Napoleonic fold. I hope his new Ancient rules are as good.
   Figure wise, I have been impressed by large amount of new figure releases in several periods, even ones that wouldn't normally tempt me. Fireforge certainly are releasing some very good figures in plastic.I was particularly impressed by the smaller companies, especially Crann Tara, and Black Hussar.
 One of the books I received for Christmas, was Professor Duffy's very detailed account of the Jacobite Wars, and using this as a reference, I can see me buying the Crann Tara range of Jacobite figures, to create a nice sub period to the Seven Years War. [just what I dont need]
 I had hoped that Warlord Games would push on with their release of the Pro Gloria plastic landsnects, and Gendarmes, but I understand that these are on the backburner, which is a real shame.
 Amazon currently sell a very interesting series of books by Arttor Somogye, that retail at £9.99. These books concern various periods in Hungarian military history, and contain loads of illustrations of the renaissance period for both Hungary and Transylvania.
 You can see where this is leading cant you. So again I am tempted to start a new sub period to face my Turkish Renaissance army.
 Previously I mentioned about a new show for the North East where there would only be participation games exhibited.I would like us to put on a game at the show, so I better get my finger out and put together some forces for the event in July 2016. I have a few ideas kicking around, but since I have never ran such a game, I'm still a bit wary.
 In an earlier post, I stated I intended to downscale my collections, and this still holds good.
 I definitely need to free up both space and also generate some monies to use to complete my main projects. So the first to go will be various 28mm units that I never used, followed by my WW2 Italians and British.
 A key part of my change of circumstances in 2015 was the ability to fight a wargame virtually every week with Colin and John. However sat in my house is a large wargames table that is vastly under used. This will have to change otherwise what was the point of building the damned thing.
 Again I have a couple of ideas about this, and this will hopefully develop and be posted about in the next few weeks.This will see an increase in the number of games I fight.
  I've been posting on this blog for several years now, but not being internet savvy I could never understand how to promote the blog, to gain more followers. So a further idea is to attempt to increase the number of followers.
So overall my 2016 intentions that I hope I can fulfill, are more games, less armies, but several linked smaller periods to complement my main interests, increase the readership of my blogs by any means possible.
 Oh and by the way, a Happy New Year to one and all.