2020 Roundup

 Well, what a year 2020 was, wasn't it? Who would have guessed that our entire way of life would have changed so drastically in twelve short months? With the UK going into full lockdown and then various levels of Covid-9 restrictions, despite the misery that it has caused, I have been able to continue my wargaming, both in terms of painting and playing and remaining in touch with the wider community. This is a bit of a 'blow your own trumpet' post, but I'm just going to lay out here the positive things that have happened to me personally over the last year.  

First of all, painting. With the lockdown stopping me from travelling to and from various offices or sites I was able to use that commute time to turn my attention to my outstanding lead pile. I lost count after painting about 700 figures, sometime during the summer, so the actual amount is now more like about 1,000 figures painted. This doesn't include the numerous vehicles and scenery that I was able to complete as well. It began with Japanese Big Men and ended with Roman Stable Blocks... At one point I really was down to my last sets of figures in the pile. That has changed, however, and you'll be pleased to know that the pile has grown once again! I also took part in Per from Rollaone's charity 6mm project, in which I painted a unit of Cavalry. It was a great community project and allowed me to paint something I normally wouldn't. 

I think the biggest achievement has been the growth of my Youtube Channel. I began 2020 with about 380 subscribers, which I thought was a great achievement anyway. However, as 2021 rolls into view I now have 3.1K subscribers! Some how over the year I have managed to pick up over 2,700 subscribers! I am hoping this trend continues into the new year and my next personal goal is to hit 5k subscribers, I intend to continue doing what I have been doing and ensure the channel is concentrated on historical wargaming, with plenty of painting videos, reviews and solo AARs planned, so if you haven't please do subscribe. I was hoping in 2020 to have more videos of wargaming shows, but as we all know, they quickly disappeared. Maybe 2021 will be better as I had plans to make the next set of show videos a bit more than just filming the tables. But we'll just have to wait and see!

As a consequence of the rise in my channel I was asked onto several podcasts over the last year and I was very honoured to take part in each. I've listed them here should you be interested in listening to me waffling on about wargaming, archaeology, Youtube and other topics (click the links below):

God's Own Scale

And the GOS Christmas special

Across the Pond Wargamers

Henry Hyde Battlechats

Firepower Gaming

I was honoured to be asked by Little Wars TV to provide the voiceover for their AAR video of their new Dark Ages rules, Ravenfeast. You can watch the video HERE. I hope we can do some more collaborations in the future, as they are one of my favourite Youtube wargaming channels. 

I also wrote a few articles for other magazines, including Six in the Head and the 2020 Lardy Magazine. Over on my Patreon page,I sorted out the rewards and began writing more content for Patreons. Thank you to all those who considered me worthy enough to throw some money at, it all goes back into creating content for the Youtube channel and helps me with costs like equipment, editing software, time and a host of other associated expenses. 

Besides all this, I was also able to take part in the three Virtual Lard online wargaming events set up by Jeremy Short. These were an excellent opportunity to play Lardy games with other gamers across the world, one game of Chain of Command was played by five people with a distance of about 6,000 miles! 

So, despite all the doom and gloom across the globe, 2020 has been very busy for me, here's hoping 2021 is equally as busy and as much fun. Than you to all those that asked me to take part in your content, and a huge thanks to all my subscribers, Patreons, readers and viewers!