The year thats's gone and the twelve months to come.
I’ve finally managed to round up the low brow ingrates that constitute the Baccus workforce from the gin palaces and sleazy dens of iniquitous behavior that they frequented over the festive season. With them safely chained to the casting machines once again it is time to move to more uplifting work and regale you all with the annual bout of reflection and prediction.
Like most men of letters I feel that I have the makings of an author of a great work of literature that will demand the respect of my peers and stand the test of time. Sadly, I am forced to squander these talents on what follows…
Let’s start with an overview of what we managed in 2019. The first point is that once again, we have continued the trend of being ever busier with lots of new customers coming to 6mm from all around the globe. To meet this demand, we’ve increased staffing and the hours of those working. We’ve also had to take time out to completely reorganize and expand the size of the workshop. The end result is a far more effective layout with increased and more efficient mould storage, room for an extra casting machine and improved facility for photography and presentation. The downside to this was the process took three months of creative time out of our development and release schedule. However, on the plus side, this conveniently provides our excuse for missing predicted release targets.
With the preamble out of the way, it’s time to see how well the optimism of January 2019 fulfilled its promise when faced with the pitiless face of an uncaring and harsh Universe.
We’ll do this the boring way – point by point…
Let’s kick off with the WEC range. This will definitely be completed.
Well here’s a great place to start as the WEC range was indeed completed with the addition of sundry Highlanders, Clubmen and Irish codes. As the latter were never actually mentioned as being part of the range until they actually appeared I will even claim a bonus point here for going above and beyond.
We WILL finish off the Great War in the East with Austrians, Italians and Serbs.
Mmm…typing ‘will’ in capitals may have been overstating the case a wee bit. Perhaps ‘SHOULD’ would have been more appropriate. Yes, we did get the Austrians and Italians out and in production, but the Serbs missed out. Given that in real life they actually started the whole thing off, this really was quite a big miss.
Staying with the Great War, once the East is dealt with, we’ll be doing a quick diversion westwards and adding some Belgian forces before finishing off with some much-requested British Highland troops in kilts..
Ah..yes. Belgians. Scots. Those chaps. We didn’t quite manage to fulfil all these bold promises, and by quite manage I suppose that I mean completely and utterly failed. There are many good and valid reasons for this and when I think of any of them I shall share them with you all.
…and that will just about to do it for the Great War…except that it won’t really. Expect to see some more vehicles and interesting bits and pieces over the coming months.
Er…not exactly covered in glory with this one are we? I can only point to the completely believable and accurate points made above with regards to the lack of appearance of these things.
Let’s go kicking and screaming backwards a couple of centuries or so. With the actual completion of the WEC range being a real possibility that opens up the possibility of the late seventeenth century range finally strutting its stuff, and with a liberal sprinkling of the ‘If’ word, maybe even the semi-legendary Great Northern War resculpt will finally be making its entrance.
Okay. It’s a fair cop. You got me here. No resculpted Great Northern War range. Not even a new sculpt to point to. However, and in what I consider a very fair swop, we spent the time on a related Wars of the Sun King range which has delighted many of you to judge by the sales.
Continuing the chronological retrograde leaps we’ll finally begin to build on the foundations laid by our wonderful Crusades range to add the codes needed to cover Western Europe including the wars of the Plantagenets…
Bit of a pattern here. A no-show, but to be honest more of a near miss. They were scheduled for release in the last couple of months of 2019, but the squeeze on time resulting from the workshop move and a frantic Autumn and pre-Christmas show and mail order season we just didn’t quite get the moulds made and all the pre-release work completed. A real shame as these are first rate figures as you will soon see.
Finally, on the modelling side of things, you will see a steady expansion to the WW2 vehicle and artillery codes as we steadily expand and deepen our coverage of the subject.
And here we really did begin to deliver with a steady stream of British releases ranging from a bewildering range of Airborne jeeps to artillery, tows and trucks.
These enabled us to get our first higher formation packs out for the period in the shape of British infantry division and supports and Airlanding brigades. We also got out our first set of German vehicles, setting the scene nicely for some major releases in 2020.
The Joy of Six continues to deliver. What a show it was this year! More games, traders and attendees than ever, a jaw-dropping standard of presentation and a sense of enthusiasm and energy unrivalled at any other show on the circuit. We always have an after-show meeting to discuss how things went and wonder how the next show can possibly match what we have just seen. The strange thing is that the next show always surpasses the previous one. JOS 2020 is shaping up to be a blockbuster already, but more of that below.
So, the usual mixed bag, but despite some absences it has actually proved to be a pretty good year for new releases. Most of the ‘misses’ were us simply running out of time rather than not actually getting the work done, and ranges such as the Great War Serbs and Feudal Europeans will actually surface in the next couple of months as you will see. The time lost to the workshop move has made for a much improved working environment for all concerned and gives us a really solid base from which we can continue to expand and develop our activities. From a ‘bigger picture’ point of view, the trend that I highlighted last year of many new converts continues as the way that wargames are played seems to changing with a greater emphasis on smaller figures for larger games.
Enough of the waffle. Most of you will already be familiar with the disappointments, so it’s time to build up all those hopes and expectations. Here’s what you can/could/might expect to see from Baccus in 2020…
To start with, we certainly have not finished with the Great War. The Serbs that we promised last year will shortly be available and behind them we have a full range of Belgians, dog-towed machine gun and all. We will expand a couple of existing ranges by bringing out Highlanders for the British and some Stormtroopers for the Germans. Extra tank models will also be forthcoming.
There will be no Great Northern War redesign as the very talented sculptor will have his hands full with another project, however by way of recompense you will very shortly be able to purchase some fine figures for the Scanian War, all of which, will double up very nicely as Swedish troops for the early stages of the GNW.
The Feudal European range will continue the great work started by the Crusades figures with the release of some dismounted men at arms, English, Scots and Welsh troops.
The WW2 range will continue to expand steadily. Lots of late war German vehicles and kit with the aim of getting some higher formation packs in place to match those that we’ve already done for the British. There will be more British bits and pieces to come and lots of tanks. American kit will surface in the latter part of the year and we may even be looking at something Russian by this time in 2021.
Which brings us nicely to the final new releases scheduled for 2020. It’s been rumoured for quite a while that I intend to get the ‘Pony Wars’ rules reprinted. Well, that project is finally going ahead.
We are in the final stages of layout and planning. The rules themselves will be a stand-alone project done outside of Baccus. The rules are generic in terms of figure scale, originally being staged using 15mm castings and they will be aimed at the whole wargames market, not just 6mm. They will be funded by subscription and pre-order. I will be posting more information and details in the next few weeks as the project takes shape. Alongside this however, Baccus will be releasing a full Pony Wars range. These will be based directly on the requirements of the rules and provide all the colourful bits and pieces demanded to play the game. I am also working on getting a range of game-specific scenic items produced. The aim will be to allow anyone to play this spectacularly fun game on a reasonably sized table for a reasonable cost. The theme will be Hollywood rather than History….the prime source material will be John Ford films, Wagon Train and the Lone Ranger. I hope that this will delight more people than it disappoints.
Finally, we have Joy of Six 2020. We’ve had more initial enquiries about staging games than ever before and more requests for trading space. To this end we are taking on more space in the building to accommodate the expansion. I’ve had some previews of some of the planned games and it is already looking quite epic. This year the Joy of Six will take place on Sunday 5th July. Get that in your calendars and make the trip to Sunny Sheffield – if there is only one show that you get to in 2020 make sure that it’s this one!
Which brings us to the usual bit where I say, ‘Thank you’, to an ever-growing list of people; those who work for, with and around Baccus; those who support us by buying what we sell and without whom we could never exist; those who play games with our little men; those who attend the Joy of Six and those who just collect and game with 6mm figures no matter what their make or origin. It’s a pleasure to be associated with each and every one of you.
On behalf of the Team Baccus may I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2020!
