And We're Off! Or, How I Learned, After 45 Years, To Just Do What I Want, And Ignore Everybody & Everything Else

Well, as I type it's the 4th of January 2026 and I am recovering from buying 9 kitchen knives with a £450 price tag. We've all done it I know, nipped into a bistro attached to a cutlery manufacturer and design museum (how niche is that combo?) for a quick coffee and a cake, and walked out with some kitchen weaponry, you've always dreamed of owning?

Well, that was the situation on Friday.

In my defence, I have already bought and paid for all my gaming stuff - well, 98% of it - for 2026, and paid the painter in full for enough work to apparently keep him fully occupied for 2 years by his own estimation. I say he'll crack it in 18 months, but it does mean that your correspondent has to seriously consider adding anything not already painted, to the collection.

Now, I don't know exactly what my painter already has, but  off the cuff ,it's 450 Dark Elves, 5 Dark Elf War Eagles, 220 Chronicle 'Small' Orcs, 10 Ackland Orc Wyvern Riders, 50 Angels and Gargoyles, about a dozen of the old metal based Eagle and the crew for 4 Ackland Orc War Machinesand probably a few things I have forgotten, I'd sent.

On Friday afternoon, the postman delivered the infantry for the Northern Dwarf army I sent to my painter which I got stuck down to element bases yesterday and double varnished this morning, ready for the Memsahib to start work with groundwork.

OK, it's not massive, but it does have 208 of the Citadel Norse Dwarves which have been for the most part sat in a bag for years, with a few additional bits picked up in the last year.

 Yesterday I sent 6 of the FS series bolt thrower crews, 24 of the old FA cavalry (but I have managed to collect enough of the 'Shetland' pony so that they look better than having that awful leggy pony mixed in) Thorgrimm Branedim, two Clerics (one of which belonged to the late Paul Sawyer) and one of the female Dwarf fighters who will be characters leading various brigades. To finish the army off, I am using the original Citadel LOTR 'Gimli' on pony as the general.

Now, the main rules I set were - must look Northern or be Northern. must be solid based (Gimli was on a solid based pony, so he counts) and I have a very narrow aesthetic idea for them. What I didn't want, was to go down the FT series road. I wanted these to be - as I originally set out to achieve - a Dwarf army which looked a bit different, as I did with the Morrison High Elves. 

I wish I'd allowed myself to go with early slotta too, as there are a couple of figures I'd like to use as character models. But, I set the rules and they must therefore be adhered to.

Those were the days when you could either just buy every blister in the store, or/and order specific models from mail order. The third option was having friends on staff, who would work to a loose brief, when they could go and buy by weight handing over a literal carrier bag of lead for the profit of a couple of beers and travel costs.

In Sheffield, there was a healthy slew of like minded souls, and many a young gamer would take ownership of a GW carrier bag full of lead outside the Moorfoot or Pump Tavern.

The discerning youth could get some very interesting stuff this way.

Anyway, here's the Dwarf army so far:

 

I was not a fan of the 'villagers' but as they were included as Northern Dwarves, I was forced to include a mob of farmers and fishwives. That said, they will be great as a 'forlorn hope' unit and after all, one man's tool is another man's implement of death and destruction.

So, having hit the ground running this year, the whole list of 2026 figures is as follows, all in 28mm of course:

24 Dwarf cavalry

6 Dwarf bolt throwers

18 Dwarf bolt thrower crew 

4 Dwarf heroes 

236 Barbarian infantry
12 Barbarian mammoth crew 

40 Barbarian cavalry
240 Late Roman
82 Late Roman cavalry
400 Pictish infantry 

32 Pictish cavalry 

384 Imperial Roman foot
4 Imperial Roman bolt throwers and 16 crew
42 Imperial Roman cavalry
360 Celtic Warriors
56 Celtic slingers
24 Celtic cavalry
27 Celtic chariots
156 Barons War cavalry
592 Barons War infantry 

439 Sassanid Persians

954 Samurai

500 Russian Civil War 

4 feet of Hadrian's Wall

Roman Mile Fort

Celtic settlement

Pictish Settlement

Late Roman church

Assorted early Medieval buildings

 I've been watching a weekly YouTube channel on British ancient and dark age history called WC21, which has reignited my interest in Roman and Sub-Roman history, and in fact is the reason I have gone with Early and Late Imperial Roman forces, two 'classic' opponents (and the Sassanids because I love the look of them) and two opposing armies for the Barons War because I have had a bee in my burgonet over this for a loooooong time. 

 In fact I can date it to the old Broadsword Miniatures from the late 80s, sold out of a little model shop close to the Elland Rd ground of Leeds United, where I bought the absolute bare bones of an English Feudal army, when I should really have been buying food and paying the rent, but, was instead way too addicted to toy soldiers. I have very strong views on that kind of thing these days, as you may have read in previous posts.

I really took time over planning the purchases for this year, and of course tried to stick to my limitations as laid out in the previous post, which to be honest, was not difficult for the periods chosen.

And foremost was a decision that I really want to just please myself and not be driven by any other fashions or fads, or indeed without feeling that I have to rely on fellow gamers for my gaming. One or two friends have raised eyebrows or grumbled about my choices, but that's fine. It's my money, my hobby and unless I am strong-arming them into something, then they have no input or reason to complain. One friend said 'I want to play but it's not something I want to buy...' and I explained to them that I was more than happy with that, because these choices are mine and mine only.

Being beholden to nobody else is very liberating and very much how many of us probably started out, buying something which inspired us.

I like to think that any period or theme I take up will have enough for 2-6 players 'in situ' so that in effect, a game could be set up pretty much immediately.

I have also taken another look at Hail Caesar, as it offers the opportunity in the manner but not ball-aching complexity of WRG, to play battles across several periods using a standard set of mechanics.

I've mostly been generally geared up towards group efforts, but the fact that friends and associates are literally all over the place, the epiphany has been a strong one, realising that by a more selfish approach, I can concentrate on stuff I really like or which I have deep rooted feeling about, and if anyone else wants to play with my toys, then I am all too happy to oblige.

I don't mean to sound snarky, quite the opposite in fact, but thinking over, planning and executing stuff in this way has given me focus and a badly needed self-inflicted kick up the vent.

I think it will actually be the way I approach all my gaming hereon. I have also decided that where I want to play something but which is not 'first division' in terms of my tree of entertainment needs, I will use the WoFun ranges because the chances are, I'll not want to wait a few years for stuff like that. WoFun will allow me to achieve instant gratification.

I've also found that I have been less inclined to look around for something new just for the sake of it. A hard line approach really does cut down on wasted time and money.

Well, as this is my last day of holiday, I will say farewell for the present and go and do something else as the sun is over the yardarm.

TTFN