Wednesday 16 May 2018

First Anniversary


It's the blog's first birthday today, and I'd like to thank everyone who has helped, inspired, commented and visited over the last twelve months. Your support has been very much appreciated here at TWA Towers!

As befits the occasion, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to reflect on the past year and then give the crystal ball a quick polish and try and take a sneak peek at what's in store for the future.

In The Beginning
The very first post revealed that I was back into gaming, and enjoying Old Skool D&D sessions with a small social group of friends, an Oldhammer fantasy battles campaign related to the D&D adventures with one of those friends, and skirmish games set in an alternative history vision of Britain in the form of Winter '79 with the same opponent. I was also playing a few 'stand alone' games of All Things Zombie while I learned the rules and built up a collection of terrain and minis for the apocalypse.
As a footnote to that initial entry, I said "and there's STILL an English Civil War itch waiting to be scratched!" Well, that comment was prophetic.
I've now got enough troops to be able to start gaming with Victory Without Quarter and The Pikemans Lament rules (when King Charles gets round to raising the royal standard in Nottingham), and of course there's the up-and-running Witchfinder General campaign already taking place in the same era.

But what of the other games from back then?
The fantasy campaign continues to move along but at a snails pace, since we only play D&D as a group very occasionally, and then it's more as a central focus for "social gatherings" than 'hardcore gaming'.
Our Winter '79 games suffered when we agreed to the use of IED's  by the anti-establishment "resistance" forces. The whole idea of booby traps and car bombs soon became very ugly once we'd brought them to the tabletop, and the campaign stalled as a result. The majority of the terrain was made up of pdf model railway buildings, and the boards were knackered damaged beyond repair while in storage at my opponents house.
The card driven activation system should make the game suitable for solo play, and since I still have the minis and vehicles I might revisit the game again in the future - without the IED's and after assembling more 1/72 buildings!
The "Oldhammer" (Warhammer Fantasy Battles 3ed Edition) switched over to Dragon Rampant, which gave us quicker and more enjoyable games (as well as smaller 'warbands'). Again, the activation system lends itself well to solo play which means that I can play through engagements in the campaign when my opponent is unavailable.
Of all the original games, ATZ is the strongest survivor (quite apt really!), and on the 8th of June I started the campaign which is still going strong as I celebrate the blog's birthday.

So what's new?
Apart from the above mentioned  fantasy and English Civil War genres, in June last year I decided to revisit one of the old classics and picked up a copy of Napoleon's Battles, the 'bookcase game' from Avalon Hill. No sign of any miniatures yet, as I continue to hum and ha over what scale to go for - no point in rushing into these sort of decisions is there?!
I started working on a Blade Runner campaign based around The Department For Fabricant Management rules last September, which made it to the table in March this year - the month that also saw the arrival of a whole bunch of stuff for the skirmish game set in feudal Japan, Test Of Honour, which I've just made a start on painting minis,

so that brings us slap-bang up to date in time for a look at........

Plans For The Future?
Simple - "Less painting / modelling, and more gaming!"
After twelve months of "expansion" it's now time for "consolidation". There's still plenty to do for all of the existing projects, so I want to try and avoid any new genres this year (Ha ha).
Having said that, I have been tempted by Burrows & Badgers - not only because I just LOVE the look of the cute minis, but it's a game I'm sure I could get the Financial Dictator roped into playing. Apart from joining in with the social gatherings for D&D, she merely 'tolerates' my gaming activities, and it would be nice to get her more involved. To this end, I ordered a copy of the rulebook from my favourite "discount book seller" on ebay, and since it arrived yesterday, it just creeps in as one of last years new ventures!
All I have to do now is resist the urge to get some WW2 stuff, and Vietnam, oh and Wild West, Doctor Who, Steampunk, American Civil War............................ lets just move on and come back in a years time to review this one shall we???

Thanks again for visiting, and I hope you can put up with some more of my ramblings between now and the blog's next birthday!



26 comments:

  1. Congrats Greg! Looking forward to following along for another year :)

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    1. Thank you Ivor, I promise to get a better cake for next year! ;-)

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  2. Congratulations for the blog birthday, interesting to see how your tastes have evolved in the last twelve months Greg, but nice to see that your still keeping up with a lot of what you started with. Here's to another 12 months, and hope you can resist too many distractions and new systems

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    1. Thanks Dave, one thing I've learned during this first year is how much temptation there is out there!
      Hopefully "Fore warned is fore armed" from here on :-)

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  3. Happy Anniversary, always a pleasure to visit your blog!

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    1. Many thanks Phil, and rest assured that the feeling is mutual buddy :-)

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  4. Many congratulations on making it this far, Greg. Your blog quickly became one of my favourite sites to visit and I wish you all the best for the future. I really appreciated this post as you looked back and added your plans for the future, much as I do with my Monthly Musings posts. Happy anniversary, mate!

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    1. Thank you Bryan.
      Since "Vampifan's World of the Undead" was the first blog to inspire my own, much of the credit for this humble blog's existence goes to your good self :-)

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  5. Congratulations or definetly in order as your blog has both inspired and entertained over the last year (it's only been a year?).
    I'm sure your plan of new projects will come to fruition, but I prefer your idea of playing more games - that's my current plan too!
    Looking forward to the next year's blog posts!

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    1. Thanks Joe, much appreciated.
      I'm still mining the rich seams of ideas and inspiration for ATZ in the back catalogue of posts on "Zabadak's ZombieWorld", so I'm glad I've been able to return the favour in some small part. :-)

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  6. Congrats on the milestone buddy, your enthusiasm is always evident and generosity is always appreciated!

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    1. Cheers Andy mate, your help with some of the "technical" blogging stuff and your moral support during those early posts made sure I got off to the best start possible! :-)

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  7. Very many congratulations, here's to many more years to come.

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    1. Many thanks Michael :-)
      I'm committed to at least one more year, just to see how I do with my "plans For The Future" predictions LOL.

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  8. Happy 1st Blogday. Lol the curse of the new shiny. I know how you feel I would love to do Test of Honour and Gangs of Rome. I am really loving B&B its fab can't wait to get enough painted for it to start getting games in.

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    1. Thanks Simon :-)
      The "curse of the new shiny" is only made worse when it's presented in the way you and t'other Simon have done.
      Perhaps it's the "Curse of the Simons" ;-)

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  9. Happy birthday to the blog with many more years to come.

    I hope I've said this before, but yours was one of a very few blogs that I really wanted to follow when I started up 5 months ago. The ATZ games you were playing and writing about are some of the best out there and your style of game and prose is exactly what I want to read.
    You are moving into other new areas that I am finding irresistible and so while I miss the dearth of zombies I'm looking forward to many of the new things that are going to appear here.
    I'd also like to thank you for all the advice, help, observations and thoughts you've shared since I've been here.
    Cheers and all the best.
    John

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    1. Gosh! Many thanks John, and I DO apologise for the lack of ATZ posts - if it's any consolation they'll be back with a vengeance........ and SOON :-)

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  10. Many happy returns to you and your blog, Wargame Addict. I was delighted to stumble across it early in its days and have been hooked ever since. Many thanks for taking the time to both post and answer comments, as well as doing the same on my humble blog. You're a credit to the hobby with a tip-top website :-)

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    1. Cheers Simon :-)
      Your support for the blog from the very early days has been much appreciated - so much so, that I've decided to forgive you for all of the temptation you put in my way over on "Fantorical" ;-)

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  11. Happy blogday and may there be many more to come! I always enjoy your output, so please keep it up.

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    1. Many thanks Hugh - sorry for the late reply, but it's been one of "those" weekends ;-)

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  12. Happy blogday WA & here's to many many more mate :)

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    1. Thanks muchly Frank :-)
      We've been really busy with work this week, so I'm looking forward to the first post of the blog's second year!

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  13. Happy anniversary and all the very best for this year :)

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    1. Many, many thanks Hils, and I hope everything is well with your goodself (and Steve of course!) :-)

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