Blood and Spectacles: Random- The Close of Another Year

Here we are, the close of another year. It is hard to believe. If feels like the Pandemic started just a few months ago, yet here we are two years in. 2020 has slipped away, and now 2021 has also slipped away. I am getting old! The years are going by fast, but I am pretty sure I still have a few good years left in me.

Like previous years, I made a few goals to try and accomplish this year and to keep me on the rails. As usual, there is nothing binding about them. They are more like suggested guiderails. I think these goals successfully kept me from jumping from project to project.

Like most years, I broke my goals down into a few categories:

Purchases- Things I spend money on
Painting and Modeling- Things I paint and build
Playing Games- The games I play and report on
Rules Writing- New Projects and games I am working on
Miscellany- Other things related to Blood and Spectacles Publishing that do not fit into the other categories.

I think that covers it. Let's get into what goals were and were not accomplished in 2021....

Purchases

Before I get too far, I need to say THANKS! Without your generous support I would not have been able to make the purchases I did this year. As a Game Designer, my goal is not to make money. If I wanted to make money, my time would be better spent doing something else. Instead, my goal is to continue to self-fund Blood and Spectacles Publishing so I can continue to create new content for you. Any purchase you make on the Wargame Vault, on the Osprey Site, or as a Patreon patron helps me continue to meet this goal. Without you and your support, their would be no Blood and Spectacles Publishing!

One of the most challenging parts of creating content for you is the post-production work. This includes getting photos, painting models, artwork, editing, and other elements needed to create a fully-fleshed out product. It takes both time and money. I can not release new content without decent post-production content. Your purchases make this possible!

Thank you!

This year, 90% of my purchases were to support future potential releases for Blood and Spectacles Publishing. Here is what I purchased.

Purchased Models:

Victrix Viking Army for my Viking Age rules project
Victrix Republican Romans for Wars of the Republic from Osprey
Kikko "Not Gundam" Plastic Mecha for my Glittering Void rules project
Reaper Nativity Scene

I also purchased some rules to keep me up-to-date on what is going on in the Wargaming world:

Gangs of Rome PDF - Footsore
Gamma Wolves - Osprey
A Billion Suns - Osprey
Absolute Emperor - Osprey
Stargrave - Osprey

I have also been dabbling with RPG and RPG scenario design. To hep out with this, I have purchased a few RPG books to help me understand what is out there. These include the following:

Paleomythic - Osprey
Dune: Adventures in the Imperium - Modiphius
Ruthless Blades, Righteous Blood- Osprey
Dungeons and Dragons 5E (PHB and DMG) - Wizards of the Coast
Those Dark Places - Osprey
Legend of the 5 Rings 3rd Edition - AEG
Monster of the Week - Evil Hat Productions

I did not get to purchase the following:

Tumbling Dice Korean War aircraft for White Star/Red Star rules
Oathsworn Burrows and Badgers models

Sadly, since Burrows and Badgers is not Blood and Spectacles related, I think they are not going to make the cut for next year.

Painting and Modelling

This has been my most productive year yet for painting! I painted everything I had and reduced my pile of shame to 0! I am surprised I am still alive! I painted 319(!!!) miniatures, that is the most I have ever painted! All of this painting was focused mostly on painting Victrix miniatures for Ancients.

Irregular Infantry

You can see on the Painting Log on the side of the blog about how productive I was as I went along:

Roman 28mm Triarri - 20
Roman 28mm Principes/Regulars - 30
Roman 28mm Hastati/Militia - 50
Roman 28mm Skirmishers - 20
Flying Warships - 2
Roman 28mm Veteran Legion - 20
Roman 28mm Velites - 20
Viking 28mm Skirmishers - 10
Viking 28mm Warriors - 50
Space Mecha - 17
Ancient 28mm Slingers - 10
Etruscan 28mm Hoplites - 30
Etruscan 28mm Axemen - 10
Ancient 28mm Irregular Infantry - 20
Nativity 28mm - 10

Reaper Nativity

Gaming

This was another surprise success! I was pretty conservative with my gaming goals. However, there were some things I knew I would need to focus on. This year, I mostly focused on my own game systems that needed to be tested or promoted. My goal was one game a month, so 12 games. However, I ended up playing 25! That is two a month!

Wars of the Republic - Greeks vs Romans

Here is what I got to play:

Glittering Void - 2

Men of Bronze - 1

Classic Battletech - 2

Blucher - 2

Only the Strong Survive- 1

Blood Bowl- 2

Castles in the Sky - 4

White Star/Red Star - 1

Turf War - 1

Heirs of Empire - 1

Homer's Heroes - 1

Wars of the Republic - 6

In Strife and Conflict - 1

Heirs to Empire

My RPG and Wargame group all got vaccines and boosters pretty early on and that helped us get more games in. In addition to the wargames, I have been having a regular RPG session once a week as well. There we have mostly focused on D&D 5e but have had the occasional One-Shot as well. I even got to GM a one-shot of Those Dark Places.

Rules Writing

I have been writing away, but much of my work is not ready for primetime OR supplements for existing games. I have been slowed a bit by the Post-Production efforts related to some of my new games.

1. Complete Castles in the Sky for Osprey- Complete

2. Update The Games: Blood and Spectacles - Started, but only about 50% complete

3. Try to get a new work published- Made a few pitches, but no new progress.

4. Move a WIP Game to the Wargame Vault - I have gotten three new items to the Vault. Warships: Paper Ships, Steel Resolve, Combat! Starring Vic Morrow, and Revolt! A Wars of the Republic Supplement.

5. Add a WIP game to the Blog- I actually have moved almost all WIP content to my Patreon, instead of using my blog. That is a big change.

I still have a lot of rules in the hopper, but not across the finish line yet.

Coming in June 2022

Miscellany

These are random gals related to "running the business" and other local efforts that may or may not be exciting to my dear readers. However, they are still things I want to get done.

1. I got a blog post up every week!

2. I kept my painting and gaming tracker up-to-date all year!

3. I tied the content of the online presence closer together. The Website is still a bit behind though, that is harder to update than the others.

4. I spent some time talking to other game designers via social media. Not a huge success, but some progress.

5. A new, better website was launched!

A man and his chicken....

Final Thoughts

Overall, a very successful year! Lot's of stuff painted, lot's of games played, and a decent amount of purchasing and rules writing. If it wasn't a Blood and Spectacles game though, chances are it hit the back burner.

Now, to make some goals for 2022!