Did you hear about the doctor that fell into a well? He should have tended to the sick and left the well alone! Well, well, well...... look at the time. It sure does fly-by when you are having fun! Before you know it, it will be the end of the year and what will I have to show for it?
It is the end of July and now seems like a good time to re-cap the first half of the year and check how I am doing on my goals for the distant future of 2025. You can see my original goal list here. A post like this one is a bit of a tradition here at Blood and Spectacles and helps make sure I stay on track and do not get to distracted as the year progresses.
In addition to the hobby stuff you see here I have been doing a lot of things in my personal and professional life as well. I won't bore you with the details, except to say that my time and money are valuable commodities that are in big demand at the moment. Hopefully, it won't have too many repercussions on what we are trying to do here!
As usual, I have broken my goals up into five key categories:
- Purchases
- Painting and Modelling
- Playing Games
- Rules Writing
- Miscellaneous
Purchases
This section always starts with a huge Thank You! My purchases are driven by you. Every time you purchase a game from Osprey, Wargames Vault, Drive Thru RPG, follow me on Patreon or support me in other ways you are funding this goal. You see, my Purchasing goals are driven directly by the financial support of readers like you. It is your support that allows me to buy the paints, supplies, miniatures, and rules that grace this humble blog. Your purchases are what keeps Blood and Spectacles Publishing going. The money I earn here goes back into the business of wargaming! Thank you for making all of the publications and projects possible!
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| Turf War |
Going into the year, I had a big list of things I was thinking about purchasing. I am always torn between funding new projects, supporting existing games, or trying to expand the scope and reach of the hobby into new areas via reviews and the like. These guidelines help keep me from chasing the new shiny all the time and focused for the year. So, how have I done? Well, half as well as I would of hoped, and not half as well as you deserve!
- Stay caught-up with the Osprey Wargaming Series- Achieved, mostly because they have not really released anything? I expected Voidfighter to be out by now, but it seems have been delayed. Mike Hutchinson's Pacific Command seems to have been moved up instead, and I have it. Review posted!
- Purchase Victory at Sea or Nimitz- The Tariffs and other uncertainty has kept me away from going all in on this front. However, I did find that Miniature Market had the Victory at Sea rulebook at pre-Tariff levels. I picked it up and you can expect a review later this year. I have not bought any minis, but figure I can use paper templates or even order GHQ models from the US if I need them.
- Purchase Three Fantasy Ice Hockey Teams- That's a negative. This one is more due to not being able to clean off my Painting Desk in a reasonable time frame this year.
- Start one more of the following: Carthaginian, Aztec, Theban, or Late Roman - Big Net Zero. Tariffs, painting, and space limitations have kept me from fully committing to a new "big" project for 2025.
- Start Cowboys- Another disappointing outcome.
- New set of RPG rules - Well, not NEW but I did pick up the Pendragon Gamemaster's Handbook. I really want to give this game a shot but doubt my RPG group will go for it. I still contemplate writing something for it. However, I would rather write something I can monetize. I also still need to review My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic RPG book my wife owns.
- A New Heroquest Expansion- Another win! I purchased and painted up and reviewed First Light and Mage in the Mirror. I also got the Wandering Monks and reviewed and painted those up too.
- A 4th Reaper Nativity Scene - Nope
I did add on something that was not on the list at the start of the year. Before Tariff prices kicked in, I did pick-up an Austro-Hungarian fleet from Brigade thanks to Scale Creep Miniatures for use with Castles in the Sky.
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| Austro-Hungarian fleet from Brigade |
Well, my initial plans for 2025 were very aggressive, so it makes sense that I have not been able to follow-up on them 100%. Plus, some of you may have noticed some chaos happening in the global economy that has impacted my spending and sales for the year so far. Ho hum, such is life.
Painting and Modelling
I went into the year with 1 big project to complete, and that was an Anglo-Saxon force from Victrix Miniatures for use in my Fury of the Northman rules, and other games. Otherwise, my painting desk was pretty clean.
Well, I think I did okay in this category as I managed to paint up 130+ miniatures so far this year. Not a bad bit of painting. I did complete those Anglo-Saxons, painted up my Heroquest expansions as well. Beyond that, I have not gotten too much accomplished at this point. Maybe a couple one-off palette cleansers here and there?
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| Anglo-saxon army |
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| Mage in the Mirror |
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| First Light and other Heroes for Heroquest |
We will see what comes next, as my back log is in an okay place. I just have the Austro-Hungarian fleet to get painted up. Then, my desk is open and ready for the next project..... whatever that might be?
Gaming
Similar to last year, I jumped out of the gate early with a decent amount of gaming. However, I expect that to slow down as we move through the rest of summer and fall. When the weather is nice, there is a lot of things to get done in my region. Gaming tends to take a bit of a back-seat. However, 15 games is not a slouch, even if they are a mix of solo-play, games with my Skumgrod, and games with the True Crit Gaming Guild.
I think there are three big stories for the year. First, I finally took my Battle of Kadesh game out into the world. I had been talking about running that participation game out in public, and I finally did it. That took a few years to get off the ground. The second big story was getting Castles in the Sky back onto the table after a long hiatus at the club. The final one is that I have been getting Heroquest out and on my table for a solo-campaign using the App.
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| Battle of Kadesh |
My RPG night has been rolling along, but we have been mostly in a D&D 5E campaign all year. I have not had a chance to DM much of anything yet. In addition, I got to one board game night and played a Clue-a-like game. The name is escaping me at the moment. So, my non-wargaming stuff is going okay as well.
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| Castles in the Sky |
I am still looking at getting my Under the Martian Yoke solo-campaign finished off this year. That is a good winter task. I am also hoping to bring something new to the table for the Gaming Guild as well, but I am not 100% sure what yet.
Rules Writing
Going into this year, I did not have a clear idea of what was going to get done, and what was not going to get done. Some of the stuff I was the closest to finishing the writing on, I was far away on regarding post-production. I did not have the miniatures, art, or photos for some of my projects that were furthest along. I found in 2025, that the games that get done first are the ones that I have the post-production components for! That means, I can get them done much faster if they are based off my existing games and I all ready have miniatures for it. If not...... well...... those take a lot longer.
Surprisingly, I have 4 games/books that I added to my catalog all ready for the year! I was not sure I would get any finished by this time, much less four!
This is a campaign supplement for Men of Bronze. Therefore, to get the most out of it, you really need Men of Bronze or Wars of the Republic. When I was playtesting the original rules for Men of Bronze, I often set those games during the Corinthian War so I do not know what took me so long to make a supplement for it? I mean, the historical campaign had big Hoplite battles, raids, naval battles, sieges, and everything to make a great campaign!
I have been into writing and playing RPGs lately. This one actually came about when I was working on the mecha dogfight game; Hostile Space. The wargame had some detailed dogfighting mechanics, but that seemed to be missing one of the key components of the Space Mecha Genre. The videos always seemed to be about the characters and their relationships. Therefore, it only made sense to expand and write the game as an RPG.
Typically, my RPGs are relatively rules-lite, narrative driven affairs for quick play. Not this one. This is the crunchiest RPG I have ever written. This thing was a beast to write, and I did it all in a relatively short period of time. The post-Production however took me another 5 years or so. It has everything you need to play including QRS, Character Sheets, Index, and a starting Op to get you going.
Going into the year, this game also was not really on my radar. However, I had the miniatures for it and I based it on the same general template of Homer's Heroes: Bronze Age Bad Boys. Therefore, I had the bones and the post-prod pieces I needed to make this game come together quickly. Amazing how that works! That said, this is a great little Skirmish game that is model-vs-model and very cinematic. It is great for recreating the more fantastical Viking Sagas.
The final game I got onto my Publications page was a Role-Playing Game more akin to my style. This is a rule-lite, narrative focused RPG for Wild West or Weird Wild West adventures. I noticed that Poker and Cards were common in Wild West games, so decided to build the resolution mechanics completely around playing cards and Poker hands instead of the normal dice mechanics I use. This was a stretch of my design skills. This one has the rules, character sheets, and a starting adventure to get you going.
My Patrons have been getting previews of some of the work I have been doing on other games like:
- Rise and Fall- Carthaginian Supplement for Wars of the Republic
- PHUCK- Fantasy Hockey
- Barbarians at the Gate- Late Roman
- Gods, Glory and Guns- New World wargaming
- Super Sexy Swingin' Spies- 60's Super-Spies RPG
- Mobile Fortress: Verdun- Land Ironclads compatible with Castles in the Sky
Other Stuff
I had a pretty light load on this front this year. I only wanted to keep my Painting and Games tracker up-to-date on the blog. So far so good! That often forms the basis for these updates.
The only other big news is that I have been slowly downscaling my Social Media in the form of Facebook and Instagram. Instead, I have now opened a Blue Sky account to start pivoting towards.... maybe. I am still getting the hang of it there, since it is a bit different from my other Social Media accounts.
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| Restless Sun |
Conclusion
I guess 2025 has proven to be more productive than I expected it to be. Like I said, there has been a lot happening on the personal and professional front. However, I have been using a different technique in my writing process that has helped me be more productive. Maybe I will stay productive over late summer and fall into winter? I hope so, but who knows.
What keeps me motivated is hearing from YOU! I love it when people send me photos, share their war stories, and post about their own adventures online. That is a big motivator. Feel free to drop me a line anytime on any of my Socials, the MessageBoard, or directly at Eric@Bloodandspectacles.com.
Until next time!
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