What a year it’s been! Fires, disease, riots and clampdowns. Inspired by Meghan and Prince Harry, it’s time to build better. If the royal couple can leave the country to find privacy, then should we too must seek a quieter, gentler world? Thankfully by signing to major Tech giants, the former royals were able to find their simple life and start again away from publicity. Fortunately, Archie too was able to be shielded from the full glare of the media by his sensitive parents…..
So if the Tercio is to prepare for the new times, we must adapt. We must become media aware in order to share our message of concern. I’m grateful for all seventeen thousand views that this blog has received but we need to do more. Yes, it’s time to embrace the new technology. Not in a cheap, shallow way but in imitation of the media legends that we all know and love, plus a new rising generation who we will hopefully be amongst in 2021. But, we must never stoop to cheap, publicity shots to elicit affection…
Great news in 2020 that the veteran broadcaster of all things D.B.A. , Tony Aguilar ( and the long suffering Mitch Harbuck), have now crossed one thousand subscribers. The channel is going from strength to strength with multiplayer games, unboxings and painting sessions. The quality of painting is always excellent and the armies exquisite. I switch on for the banter and to eavesdrop on a great group of gamers that gather on the games nights.
Two other YouTube stalwarts are consuming much of my screen time; Medieval Warrior and GM’s Alcove. Filmed in France, the Medieval Warrrior has one of the most amazing collections of figures for the Hundred Year’s war that I have ever seen. As the name suggests, most of the YouTube films are filmed using these figures but that really isn’t a problem for us miniatures obsessives. He covers a number of rulesets;notably swordpoint and To the Strongest. The battles are filmed rather than the series of images used by that other veteran Rossfigurepainting .
GM’s Alcove has a very useful muti episode explanation of Impetvs rules. He also covers other rules and actual battles. Rossfigurepainting published a large number of Impetvs completion battles and has subsequently moved on to TtS. GM’s collection of Napoleonics is simply outstanding and he plays my all time favourite Blücher.
For sheer breadth of content you cannot fault the father and son team who publish All miniatures great and Small. The after action reports are really well filmed and edited. A welcome addition has been a focus on Flames of War units; how to paint, organise and build armies with. The style is really welcoming and conversational and I look forward to each post. Speaking of which, we mustn’t forget the venerable Adam Smasher of Tabletop Minions. Although the content is more skewed to the Sci-fi/ Fantasy aspect, he does a number of general hobby broadcasts which are thought provoking.
Amongst the newest gaming sites I would wish to emulate are Little Wars Tv and Baz Battles. The group at Little Wars really are all you could possibly want. They have a superb club venue, massive figure collections and most importantly they all seem to get on so well. Little Wars are also offering a free set of wargames rules in order to get new blood into the hobby. I particularly like the pre-game visits to battlefields that really set the scene and provide an insight into the action. Being based in the US doesn’t preclude them visiting European battles either. The delivery is extremely polished and remains a favourite. Bazbattles concentrates on the history of battles and campaigns but is a great source of information and ideas. Baz has included a large number of battles for the Dark Ages that are particularly noteworthy. Regular readers will know how much I admire the Armchair Dragoons team. They are not just friendly on screen but have a great blog.
Back here in the UK we have the old stalwart Mr. Madaxeman , Tim Porter. Tim’s lockdown podcasts have been great fun and there are some real gems for us diehard ADLG players on army composition. Tim assembles the top competition players to give advice on army builds with links to his excellent blog/ website/ gaming palace. Old pal Simon Clarke has been filming To the Strongest / Slannesh variant. Like Tim’s battle reports the coverage is light hearted and great quality. You will need to join Simon’s Facebook site to access the live stream but it’s well worth it.
The last mad few months have also brought out two new rare talents. There is Tom the Wargamer, a precocious talent who must either be eight or perhaps a dwarf? Either way full marks to Tom- who knows he may end up replacing Lindebeige as the upper class wargamers choice of site? I really enjoy the Triarius site. It is especially strong on TtS but is certainly another site to watch. Triarius is also close with my Total War hero, Pixelated Apollo. PA is currently designing a Total Wars campaign that can be fought with miniatures which is of course my dream gaming system. Fair play to PA for his stance against Creative Assembly and their dealings with the Chinese Communist authorities. If more gamers followed his lead then perhaps we would have been spared CCP-flu and more vitally Mulan 2!
So, there we have it, a none too scientific run through of how I waste a lot of time. Apologies to all those who I have only briefly name checked but New Year’s Eve is rapidly approaching. A sincere thank you to all my readers and I hope to meet with you again on screen in the New Year.Have a great evening and best wishes for 2021. The future is on camera!
Despertaferres 
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