Aside from the broad goals for painting, posting, gaming, and expenditures (ahem!), it's time to think about more specific plans for 2025. That was made a bit easier recently, when HMGS revealed their theme for Historicon 2025, The Us Army. As I have no Americans (at present), that will have no impact upon my Historicon planning this year!
Histioricon
1) Games with To the Strongest
I'm definitely thinking Chariot Wars theming this year - Egypt, Hittites, Sea Peoples, Libyans, Assyrians, Babylonians. I have a number of friends considering TTS! games, and those would all probably be set in later eras. This will require a modest expansion of my Sea Peoples and Libyans; the Lead for those is already in hand, as well as some terrain additions, some of which are ordered and some must be built.
2) Big Napoleonic Game with Field of Battle
The plan is for this one to be Peninsular, perhaps Bussaco or Fuentes de Onoro? That will require chiefly more Portuguese troops, the lead for which is all in hand, and painting of which is well under way.
3) Avoid over booking - yeah, right! :-) Run no more than 1 game per day, so that I have some time to shop and play in other games for once! We'll see!
HAVOC
I'm considering attending HAVOC (in Massachusetts, early April) again this year, especially if Thomas will go so that we can share a room and the car drive. If so, plan would be to perhaps run a Hussite or Punic Wars battle with To the Strongest!, and perhaps a Napoleonic Battle with simple rules (Waterloo in Two would work, as would a variant on Eagles Cheaper than Brain Cells, for a little more depth and a slightly longer game (HAVOC slots are usually 4 hours).
New Period(s)?
I have 2 new Periods in mind to start, probably later in the year:
1) 1066 and all that - i.e., Vikings, Anglo Saxons, and Normans - blame The Last Kingdom, as well as the upcoming Bretwalda KS game.
and that lead to supporting this project in 2023; delivery due (hopefully!) May 2025.
2) American Revolutionary War (it's about time I had some American troops!)
Both would be 25/30 mm scale for figures, but I am very uncertain as to what manufacturer(s) to use. Old Glory has a decent range, and I'm thinking about using Crusader Miniatures. Once again, I am sure there are a great many other options I haven't even considered. Organization for the 1066 project would be straightforward as I'll use To The Strongest! for rules, 60mm bases, 2 bases for light infantry and all cavalry, 4 for formed infantry, and 6 for Warbands.
For the American War of Independence, though, rules and organization are yet to be determined, and I'm undecided as to what manufacturers to use... Perry, Brigade Games, and Fife and Drum all have pretty good ranges. I am sure there are a number of other s as well! Obviously determining the rules to be used is key to determining organization, etc.
So here's where I'd really appreciate some input from my readers as to manufacturers and also rules for the AWI!
Non Wargaming:
My long range plan was to probably retire, or at least cut way back on my hours at age 70 1/2 (which used to be the age that one had to start withdrawing funds from retirement accounts, but that is now up to 73+). However, as I have been explaining to my patients the past few months, "I found myself a new job"! I have been teaching medical students from about my second year in practice, so nearly 40 years, and am presently Clerkship Director for Family Medicine for my employer of the past 8 years, Nuvance Health Network in CT and NY states. Nuvance itself is set to merge with the much larger Northwell Health later this year once the state of CT gives us approval (NY state already has). Anyway, "Clerkship" is the rather archaic term for the clinical rotations that medical students do, traditionally in their 3rd and 4th years, and most last 4 to 6 weeks each. I really enjoy teaching, and usually have a medical student with me most of the time.
I practice in New Milford, CT, the birthplace of Roger Sherman, the only man to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and the author of the Connecticut Compromise (which is why we have the House of Representatives, with number of Congresspersons for each state determined by population, and the Senate, with 2 senators for each state regardless of population). New Milford Hospital merged first with nearby Danbury Hospital in 2010, then became part of the new Western Connecticut Health Network when we were joined by Norwalk Hospital in 2014. My office moved into the hospital itself when I became employed in 2017. WCHN in turn merged with the 4 hospital Health Quest network in Western NY and Sharon, CT in 2019, just in time for the Pandemic! This pattern of mergers and acquisitions (and a rapid transition form self employment to employment by large entities by physicians) has been widespread across the US the past 15 years or so, for a variety of reasons, mostly the Law of Unintended Consequences, bought on by the US Government's well intentioned but ill advised and ever more extensive meddling in the US health care non-system.
In any event, since we joined with Danbury Hospital, which has quite a number of Residency programs, I have been nudging them to establish a residency program in Family Medicine. Last year, they started serious efforts to plan for doing just that, and in October 2024, we got preliminary approval to start the program, with the inaugural group of up to 4 Residents to start in July 2025; final approval is due by the end of this month. As a part of this, I agreed to become one of the three Core Faculty members of the program; my primary responsibility will be teaching, supervising, and evaluating Residents, especially in the office setting. They will use the office space in the Hospital where I am presently practicing, which had a major expansion in 2023. I will still treat some of my own patients, although that will dimmish gradually over time, as the 3 year program grows to a maximum of 8 Residents in July 2026, and 12 Residents in July 2027 (and the 2nd and 3rd year Residents spend increasingly more time in the Family Medicine office). I figure that's going to keep me working at least 3 days a week for another 3-5 years! We have assembled a pretty impressive core and supporting faculty for the program, and have already started recruiting and interviewing for July; the rather odd "Match" system for allocating candidates to Residency training programs finalizes in late March.