Random- Noon of a New Age 2022

The end of July, the High Noon of 2022.  We are half way through the year so it looks like time to look at what has been accomplished so far.  At the beginning of the year, I put out a high level road map of what I want to accomplish.  At this point, I review those goals and make adjustments as needed.  Keep in mind, my roadmap is just a guide.  Nothing is set in stone, and I often jump over the guard rails for various reasons.   However, now is the time to talk about it and take stock of 2022 to date.  

As usual, I have broken the year down into five categories; Purchasing, Painting and Modeling, Playing, Rules Writing, and Miscellaneous stuff.  I find these categories help me stay focused.  

Purchases

I feel it necessary to start this section of the Goals with a huge "Thank You!".  As I have said many times, you make this section possible!  Every time you purchase a product from the Wargame Vault, buy one of my books from Osprey, or become a patreon; you are helping keep Blood and Spectacles Publishing moving forward.  Without your purchases, I could not get the products for me to review, the artwork for post-production, the models for the painting desk, or the terrain in the featured battle reports.  Your support makes this all possible, and allows me to keep making games.  

Thank you! 

With that said, creating games requires more than just writing rules.  The hardest part is the play-testing, editing, and post-production work.  The purchases I have listed below fall into two main categories.  The first, is items I need to complete or finalize rules and supplements.  The second are research or marketing items to keep me making new content.  95% of purchases are to help expand and grow Blood and Spectacles Publishing and get more games into your hands! 

So, here is what I wanted to purchase for 2022.  This I have completed are in green, in progress in blue, and not started is in regular text.   

• Dark Age Irish from Wargames Atlantic to help complete my Viking Age project
• Gripping Beast Dark Age Miniatures to complete my Viking Age project
• Tumbling Dice Korean War aircraft for White Star/Red Star rules
• Victrix Persians for an Ionian Revolt supplement for Men of Bronze
• Stay caught up with the Osprey Wargaming Series
• Purchase The Silver Bayonet for Review
• Purchase 1+ Indie wargame rules for review   
• Miscellaneous miniatures for a few Horror Games I am working on
  

That leaves my  Dark Age models.  I am debating about skipping more Dark Age models and moving onto some Aztec themed, Assyrians or Late Roman age models instead for other projects.  That is one problem with painting to support the wargames I am working on.  I am always moving onto the next project.  What do you think?    

Painting and Modeling

The last three years I have been super productive on this front.  Therefore, going into 2022, my back log of things to paint is clean.  Last year, I painted 300+ models, and the two years before were closer to 150+ each year.  However, this has cleared my desk so that I can work on the new Purchases.  

• A Dark Age Irish Army from Wargame Atlantic
• Victrix Persian Army for Ionian Revolt Supplement
• Korean Air War aircraft from Tumbling Dice
• A Unit or Two of Gripping Beast Dark Age troops
• Two Trireme fleets for Poseidon's Warriors

Two out of five big painting projects done, and a third is half way to completion.  Not a bad start.  I have painted 150+ miniatures this year, and am on track to hit my record for 2021 at 300+.  I hope I can keep up the pace!  The Persians will be another 130 or so models if I finish them off.  If I go with Dark Age Troops and not others, that is another 100+ or so.  

Gaming

Typically, I get about 12-18 games in a year.  2021, I got 25 games in!  I do not expect to repeat that success.  I have a long running, regular RPG group commitment now as well as my wargaming group too.  That said, I expect to get about 12-18 games in this year, with a lot of Castles in the Sky getting played since it is launching in June of 2022 from the Osprey Wargaming Series.  

• Play 4-6 games of Castles in the Sky
• Play 4-6 Ancients games based on one of the Blood and Spectacles systems
• 2-4 games of White Star/Red Star
• 2-4 games of other systems either from Blood and Spectacles, Work-in-Progress or other systems

I completed my goals for Castles in the Sky and for White Star/Red Star.  I am also on track for my overall games played this year with over a dozen all ready!  That is good progress for me.  I also had the book launch for Castles in the Sky.  

Rules Writing

Well, I did have a few games I intended to get finished in 2022, a few to keep tinkering with, and a few to put pen to paper on.  Typically, I am consistent in getting product out, and I will be featuring a lot of my WIP designs, Lines-of-Battle, upgrades, etc on my Patreon as we go through 2022.

Here is what I have finished and put up on the Blood and Spectacles Wargame Vault page so far....

• White Star/Red Star
• Blood and Spectacles - 2E
• Under the Martian Yoke
• Fury of the Northman 

That's just what I have put out this year all ready!  I have been chugging along on the wargame writing front.  Most of these have been in the works for sometime, but I got off my bum and finished them off and published them to the Vault.  The third rule of wargame design is Finish the Game! 

I have made considerable progress on the following projects, but they are now in Post-Production. That means they need polishing, photos, images, and other work before they are ready for prime time.  

• The Ionian Revolt - A Persian focused supplement for Men of Bronze
• Homer's Heroes: Bronze Age Bad Boys - An Iliad and Greek Myth inspired skirmish game
• The Glittering Void- A Space Mecha Theatre Role-Playing Game (Yes, not a wargame)
• In Strife and Conflict - An Assyrian themed historical game based on the Men of Bronze engine

Of course I have also started work on a few other projects as well, including various historical rules sets such as Aztecs and Conquistadors, Late Roman, and Darkest Knights.  That is a lot of rules writing going on!  

Other Miscellany

This year, I have been working hard to help build my local community of wargamers.  It is this base that helped me launch Castles in the Sky with a book launch to help drive support for our local art store, Gestalt Studios.  It is this base that also will help me expand my efforts to other "local" FLGS stores.  

I hoped to get to a gaming Con this year, but various "complications" in my personal schedule and flooding/road damage make this seem unlikely.  Oh well.  There is always next year.  

Conclusion

Once again, thanks for all of your help and support!  You folks are what make Blood and Spectacles what it is today!  Your support, input, interactions, and purchases are what keep me going both financially and creatively.  

This has been a pretty big year for Blood and Spectacles Publishing so far, with a variety of games going live.  Thank you!  

Of course, there is still a lot of year left, so let's all push to get our goal and projects done for the year.  I look forward to seeing you share some of your own goals and progress in comments, the message board, facebook, and instagram!  Onto the second half of the 2022, the Rest of a New Age!  

 

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As you can see, this has been a pretty busy year so far.