On Wargaming and Blogging: Thinking Aloud

In Norm's 14 JAN 2026 post on his Commanders website, his essay Thinking Aloud and a Reduction in Output may strike a familiar chord with other bloggers.  The post certainly got me to thinking.  In Norm's diary entry linked to above, he offers a reflection on the value and sustainability of blogging within the wargaming community.  For those having followed Commanders and its sister blog, Battlefields & Warriors, these ruminations are not new.  Since neither site offers the ability to comment, I offer my thoughts on Norm's post here.

The recurring theme of Norm's Thinking Aloud post centers on the tension between pouring significant effort into creating thoughtful, detailed blog content and seeing minimal interaction or feedback in return.  This one-way communication leads to questioning whether maintaining a wargaming blog (two in Norm's case) continues to be worthwhile.  When compared against simply enjoying gaming without the increased overhead of writing about gaming, the answer to this question, to some, becomes clear.

This diary entry argues that blogging has evolved from simply a means of sharing our enthusiasm for wargaming into another hobby of blogging about wargaming. This sub-hobby demands time, energy, and emotional investment often without reciprocal engagement from readers.  This lack of encouragement may lead to a sense of fatigue and a recalibration of priorities.

Norm concludes that disillusionment about the current state is not the major driver of these reflections but one of reorientation.   Perhaps reorientation allows a reclamation of the undistracted joy of gaming, itself?  There may be times in which each of us asks similar questions.   The answers may be different for each of us, but the theme may rhyme.   Responses likely depend upon why we share our wargaming adventures through blogging and what motivates each of us to continue.

In the end, should wargaming be a private pleasure rather than a public performance?  Do you share Norm's concerns and frustrations?

The floor is open for discussion.

Year in Review: Figures Painted

I really did not set out a goal for the number of figures I wanted to get painted at the beginning of 2025.  What I did make as a recurring goal was to paint more figures than purchased.  Even without a goal on the number of figures painted, 879 figures crossed over from unpainted to painting in 2025.  Not bad.  On the painting more than I buy front, I still came out with a reduction in The Lead Pile of 481 figures.  Not as substantial as the 2024 result of -945 figures but respectable.  Had I not succumbed to some late year purchases, totals would have been more in line with 2024.  I plan to keep up the effort of reducing The Lead Pile in 2026.  Wish me luck.

Looking back through the Painting Log over the last 32 years, the last two years have shown a gradual decrease from the 1,000 figures or more painting output.  Still, a good variety of projects saw some activity to explore a bit later.  For figures painted, one foot, one gun, and one cavalry figure each count as one.  No increased counts for horse and rider.   

Let's examine the 2025 figure counts in more detail.

Monthly Totals
As the chart below shows, much of 2025 averaged a monthly output of about 60 figures.  Not helped out by the big drops in May and October.  As is typical of my seasonal painting output, production began to pick up as the year closed out.  January and September saw big spikes up in production.  As seen in the September/October bars, a big increase in one month is often followed by a drop in the next.  A big push in one month is likely followed by exhaustion, I suppose.  

Totals by Era and Scale
Switching from the monthly bar chart to a pie chart, the total effort given to the SYW project continued into 2025.  Nearly 30% (259) of all figures painted were in this period.  While the FPW project popped into second place in 2024, 2025 saw FPW take top honors with 288 figures painted.  Biblicals rounded out the top 3 with 119 figures painted.  After several games featuring the Reconquista project hitting the table in 2025, 49 additional figures were added into the collection as my motivation was high to push out just a few more units.  I managed to almost deplete The Lead Pile of these figures.  Well, not quite as successful as first thought.  I recently uncovered about a dozen packs of Artizan and Crusader figures for the Reconquista.

Translating actual figure counts to Painting Points, the 25/28mm projects see some gains in their capture of the overall percentages.  Good to see the Great Italian Wars project climb out of obscurity from the "Other" category.

When the counts are broken out by figure size (scale), it is no surprise that the emphasis on painting 15/18mm SYW and FPW figures pushed the weight to that figure size.  As in 2024, more than 60% of all production was in the 15/18mm figures sizes.  The chart below illustrates that nearly 64% of all figures painted fall into the 15/18mm classification.

When these actual figure counts are translated to Painting Points, 25/28mm figures shift the emphasis and effort to their side of the painting ledger.  Now, almost 57% of effort is concentrated into the 25/28mm projects.

In summary, 2025 was a solid year at the painting desk.  2025 saw a slight reduction in figures painted from 2024 but not much change, really, especially since 2025 saw more 25/28mm figures painted than in 2024.  What about goals for 2025?  Well, that is something to ponder another time.

Putting the Ox Before the Cart

The 1460 Battle of Wakefield is next up on my gaming table.  Battlefield has been laid out and troops mustered for battle.  Now, there are many theories on the battle and why the Duke of York attacked out of Sandal Castle against what seemed unfavorable odds.  A recent study by Lawson and Grummitt (Battle of Wakefield of 1460 Reconsidered) proposes that there was no battle at all! 

Another, more traditional theory suggests that York attacked out of Sandal Castle to counter attacks against a returning foraging party.  The foraging party theory is the one that sets the stage for my tabletop battle.  To provide York incentive to come to the rescue of the foraging party, Rutland is placed at the head of the column.

Working up a scenario for refighting Wakefield, I needed to field a cart or two to make up a foraging column. The figure collections held no suitable rolling stock in 28mm for the game.  Digging into The Lead Pile, I pulled out two ox carts from 1st Corps. These figures jumped to the front of the painting queue and are ready for Monday's first trial of the battle.

As for the battle, the table is set and Battle Briefing written.  Despite latest research, a Battle of Wakefield will still be seen on my table.  

Scope Creep?

With the 18mm SYW project expanding to include armies present in the War of Austrian Succession, War of Polish Succession, and a British Army in the early stages of development, expanding the theatre to include the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion seems only natural, right?  Scope creep or simply a reasonable expansion?  Well, this expansion seemed a natural byproduct to me.  

Having said that, the first Jacobite units muster out from the painting desk.  First to muster out are Lord Ogilvy's Regiment (blue flag) and Gordon of Glennbuchat's Regiment (white flag).  Both of these 23-figure regiments represent Lowland regiments.  Highlanders are up next.  Figures are Old Glory foot led by a Eureka mounted colonel.  Yes, painting Highlanders in tartan is up next.  After the Jacobites receive a half-dozen units or so, it will be time to crank up the production line to push some Government troops through.

Lots of other projects are seeing activity at the workbench so British will be in waiting until I return to painting 15mm figures.  

Tuesday saw a recommencement of hostilities on the plain at Pharsalus.   After seeing my four-game Caesarian sweep of Pompey at Pharsalus two weeks ago, Kevin dropped in for a rematch and lunch.  This time, we swapped sides.  I commanded Pompey and Kevin guided Caesar.  As in the previous outing, games were fought using Commands & Colors with 6mm armies.  In yesterday's four-game series, Caesar came away 7-1, 7-3, 5-7, 7-3.   In Caesar's 5-7 loss, Caesar was killed in combat.  Over the eight-game series, Caesar came away 7 and 1.  Pharsalus seems a tough task for Pompey.

With the New Year barely out of the gates, games are already on the docket for Saturday, Monday and Wednesday.  Starting the gaming year off with a bang!  Monday's game will feature a return to the WotR as a refight of Wakefield is in the offing.  Plenty of work to do to design and develop a scenario before then.  Which theory of the battle will be presented?  Stay tuned.

Next time, perhaps my annual painting review.

What Have I Done?

I suppose I have held a lifelong interest in WWI aerial games.  Beginning with Milton Bradley's Dogfight in the '60s, play moved to The Avalon Hill Game Company's Richthofen's War in the '70s and '80s.

The '90s saw me take to the air with miniatures using Canvas Eagles (CE).  I have vague recollections of a campaign game or two using these rules besides many one-off contests.  Having played CE, who can ever forget the stat sheet for each aircraft?  We really played CE a lot and I began building models so that I could take to the air.  I only maintained a small assortment of 1/72nd kits but I was always on the lookout for more.

Aircraft stat sheet

Meikraft Models of a German Pfalz DIIIa

While Canvas Eagles remained a staple when games took to the air, the late 2000s saw playtesting of Watch Your Six.  I wonder whatever happened to that ruleset?  Even more models were purchased as opportunities arose but the pile of unbuilt kits was not so great.

OK, maybe I exaggerate a bit.  There were probably more models than realized once I began discovering bargains on eBay.  I even managed to buy small chunks of large collections.

By the time COVID disrupted everyone's lives in 2020, WWI aerial combat had transitioned to remote play with players from far-flung reaches of the globe.  A long-running campaign was fought using Richard Lindley's Knights of the Sky which was perfectly suited to remote play via Skype, Zoom, or Google Meet.  In one of these campaigns, my pilot made it all the way through the war only to be met with disaster on the last sortie of the war.  Curses!

All along the way of this journey, newly acquired unbuilt kits were added into the tubs in which these models were placed for storage.  By this time, there were two such large tubs.  Oh, and a few that would not fit.  Did I expect to build and see these kits in a game?  Of course.

Knights of the Sky via Skype

Baron von Freitag's last flight

Where does this rambling trip down Memory Lane lead?

Well, to gain a sense of the scale of the number of models tucked away, I brought the two tubs out of the storage room and emptied their contents out onto the gaming table.  Stacking them up in a quasi-sort by size and manufacturer, I made a count.

Plastic Pile of WWI Aircraft

Now, many of these models are long out of production.  Some go back to the '60s.  How many are there?  More than 140 kits.  Some of the kits have more than one model and were counted as one unless I could verify.  I noticed several bagged kits had more than one model.  Such an interesting assortment of planes and manufacturers.  I had no idea the size of this collection.

What have I done?  Well, bought more models than I can possibly build or use.  Will all of these models ever get built?  Almost certainly not by me.  One resolution for the New Year is to grab a model or two out of the pile and build it just to remember the joy (and frustration) of putting these kits together.  Who knows, perhaps I will take to the skies in 2026?  At least, all of these kits actually made it out onto the table.

Year in Review: Games Played

 

The number of games played in 2025 nearly reached the 100-game mark.  Close but not quite.  Gaming in 2025 saw an increase to 97 games played compared to the 76 games played in 2024.  Why the increase in games played?  Well, Commands & Colors saw a huge increase in the number of games played and that in a F2F setting.  With the large number of Commands & Colors games, the mix between remote and F2F saw a significant shift too with F2F enjoying a resurgence in frequency.

I ended up hosting 40 out of the 97 games played.  This seems a lower proportion than years past, but that may not be true.  My impression is that I hosted fewer games, though.  As mentioned in last year's review, games remotely hosted by others dropped off in 2024.  Records show that I participated in 17 hosted remote games in 2025.  Without going back to confirm, that is likely an increase over 2024 totals. Remote games hosted by me totaled 23.  That is a pleasant and reasonable mix in hosting vs playing in remote games.  Nice having the workload spread around, isn't it? 

Let's get on with the games played review!  In a gaming retrospective, these 97 games were distributed over a variety of rules and periods.  I take a look at each area individually. 

Rules

2024 saw 14 different rulesets in use. The number of rulesets to hit the gaming table jumped to 17 different rulesets.  In the graphic below, note that ten of these rules are first time playing for me.  That is quite a lot of new rules to encounter.  The core rules that I use for remote games continue as in previous years with Basic Impetvs and Fields of Honor seeing repeated action.  Although seeing repeated action at the gaming table, these two rulesets witnessed a marked drop off in play throughout 2025.  Perhaps these rules will see more action in 2026?  As mentioned above, Commands & Colors (including CC Hoth) saw heavy rotation.  Sliding into second place is my Work in Progress WotR rules, Blood 'n Roses.  Expect to see more activity here in 2026 as more battles are brought to the table for testing.  The table below shows Counts of Games Played by Ruleset in 2025 for details.

Wargaming Period

What if these total games played are broken out by wargaming period?  What were the popular periods in 2025?

While the graphic above shows that 17 different periods saw action, Ancients was far and away the most popular period to see action on the table.  Star Wars (both in CC Hoth and Squad Hammer) and Wars of the Roses round out the Top 3 gaming periods.  Quite a diverse mix of periods.  Who could have predicted that Sci-Fi floats up to near the top of the chart in 2025?  Not me! 

Memorable Moments

2025 continued the trend of my hosted games refighting a particular historical battle multiple times.  Below is a listing of some of those memorable games.  I expect this trend to continue into 2026.  I wonder which battle will be first out of the gates in 2026?

Battle of Agnadello: Great Italian Wars - 2 games.

Battle of Solden Hill: Wars of the Roses - 3 games.

Battle of Mortimer's Cross: Wars of the Roses - 4 games.

Battle of Quistello: War of Polish Succession - 3 games.

Battle of Zallaqah: Spanish Reconquista - 4 games.

Adobe Wells: Western Gunfight - 4 games.

Of course, every game has memorable moments but with repeated playings, one gains a deeper understanding of the battle, its likely direction, crucial decision points, and possible outcomes.  I always learn a lot from these repeated outings with respect to rules, scenario design, and scenario development.  Thanks to all who played in one of these games.  I always enjoy your willingness to join into a game.

If you participated in any of these battles or simply read some of the battle reports, which game or games stand out to you?

The next time I return to the yearly review, I dive into the Painting Log and see what 2025 held.

FPW 12th Hussar Regiment

Painted units continue to back up at the photo box while other activities take priority and painting motivation flourishes.  A large variety of projects sees action at the workbench in a year-end uptick in time spent at the painting desk.  Well, except for the forced hiatus during a long Christmas weekend when we hosted a houseful of family.  With a little luck, today will offer a meaningful painting session since the house has gone quiet. 

Out from the photo box today is a 12-figure regiment of Prussian hussars for the FPW project.  Figures are from Old Glory and these troopers muster out as the 12th Hussar Regiment.  With two more foot regiments, I can field Alvensleben I's IV Corps in total.  Progress!  Unfortunately, I have been distracted by so many other projects that getting back to painting FPW may take a while.

In a recent post, I lamented that the wallet can take a hit during the sales' offerings as year-end approaches.  While several boardgames came in-house during these trying weeks, I managed to hold (mostly) firm on figure purchases.  Well, until recently, that is.  One lot of 18mm Eureka SYW British cavalry and artillery came up in my eBay feed with a low opening minimum.  I made an offer and it was accepted.  Hmm!  Anyway, I ended up with 134 cavalry and 84 artillery for about 70% off retail.  And, postage paid!    Really, who can pass a bargain like that?  Not me, for sure.  Now I have lots of cavalry and artillery to bring a fledgling British Army up to requirements.  Of course, having more than 80 artillerymen requires an order to Eureka for guns!  Seems this is a never-ending cycle...