Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Storm the Pass

After collecting enough skulls from the Skeletal Legions of the Soublights and slaughtering their leader... twice... the Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile marched on...  They travelled along a valley heading for another pass through the Ademaitine Chain of mountains, hoping to make it to the coastline. 

As they neared the pass, however, they noticed a force of their hated enemy, the Stormcast Eternals, were also marching on the same pass from an adjoining valley! 

Suddenly it was a race to seize the entrance to the pass! 

"Go! GO!! SEIZE THE PASS!! Let not the hated Lightning Bloods get there first!"

Goretim the Reddish called out for his Bloodreavers on the flank to veer off and try and slow the Stormcast's advance! 

Before they could get far, the Stormcast surged forward with alarming speed and were well on their way to making it to the pass... 

Then MORE of them arrived, riding the lightning from Azyr! (While arrows from the Stormcast archers thinned the ranks of the Bloodreavers. 

Then the Stomcast came crashing into the Bloodbound lines.. 

The Bloodreavers and Khorgorath were overrun, but Goretim the Reddish stood firm and smashed down many of the foe, sending the BACK to Azyr to be reforged... 

The Blood Warriors and the strange cos-playing Cultists of Karanak, neared the entrance to the pass, having flanked around a large rock outcropping. 

But soon the tide of Stormcast turned their attention to them. 

Bob Bloodblob shouted to the remaining bloodbound "Let the blood Flow! Even if it is your blood! I will carry off this treasure to make better weapons with which to destroy our future enemies and attempted to flee with the Emberstone Shards he had gathered in the valley. 

But the GREED of Sigmar's puppets is insatiable... and they chased him down, beat him to a pulp, and stole all his ember shards... and his lunch money... and gave him a wedgie...

And THEY call themselves the "good" guys... 

The Blood Warriors sold themselves dearly, taking down three of the hulking Annihilators, before the soulless Reclusians stormed in to remorselessly beat them down into the dirt of Aqshy, like the unthinking automatons that they are... 

The survivors dragged themselves, and others that could not drag themselves, back down the valley from whence they came... The Slaughterpriests enacted blood rituals to seal the wounds of some... but others were so damaged from the ordeal that they would never recover, bearing the scars for the rest of their days... (Bob Bloodblob ended up with Unyielding Blisters battle scars and The Red Marauders also ended up bearing Smouldering Scars!)

They felt little shame in their defeat, however... Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows... and the blood did flow on this day! 

Despite the grievous loss, the horde gathered three more Emberstone Shards along the path of their retreat - and Goretim the Reddish further enhanced his anti-wizard abilities (advanced on the Path of the Slaughterer to the MIGHTY rank and took the Breaker of the Arcane ability - he can now unbind spells as though he was a Wizard (Level 1!) AND each time he successfully does unbind a spell, the wizard attempting to cast it is reduced one level in their wizarding ability (to a minimum of ZERO!) for THE REST OF THE GAME!!! 

Another fun game with Matt! 

The scenario background suggests the two forces are trying to seize a land bridge, but I though the entrance to a pass would work just as well! I thought it was one of the two scenarios I hadn't played from the Scorched Outskirts battleplans - the ones that you start with until you have accumulated 20 Emberstone - but then realized after the game it was one of the scenarios from the Gnaw's Edge, the scenarios can move onto once you have accumulated 20 shards... ah well... 

Wow... just getting pummelled in these games. I mean, in terms of fluff.. the blood is flowing, so Khorne is pleased... sooooo... yay...? AND I am still collecting SOME Emberstone Shards and the army is sort of getting better... but being tabled EVERY GAME means the units are starting to gain battle scars... 

Mind you, so far, it has not hindered them TOO much. The Blood Warriors that have Scorched Limbs (-1 to Run and Charge rolls!) rolled a SIX for EVERY run roll they made this game (three of them!) so the scorched limbs don't seem to be slowing them down... 

Fourteen Men in the Solomon Islands

Thursday, 17 June 1943

Earlier in the month, the men of 25th regiment of the 93rd Infantry Division landed in New Galloway. After some initial setbacks (and personnel losses!) involving a new tropical disease and a Japanese air attack on their camp, the First Platoon of  Company J finally saw some action. 

They were tasked with snatching a prisoner for interrogation. In the initial month the were on the island, the men of the platoon made some good friends among some of the local villagers and rather than mounting an attack on the Japanese front lines to grab their prisoner, they enlisted the help of some of the locals who were able to lead them on some local pathways through the dense jungle around the Japanese front like to a small village in the mountains that were a much smaller force of Japanese were billeted. 

The village. 

The men of First Platoon, Company J, 25th Regiment, 93rd Infantry Division making their way through the jungle as they approached the village as the trail would certainly be watched! 

Another group of men on the other side of the trail 

The platoon approaching the village. 

One of the BAR gunners - PFC Gonzalez - snuck up to the edge of the Jungle, and spotted the Japanese guard in entrenchments before the village and fired off an extended burst at the machine-gun team, causing the gunner considerable distress! 

Private Jackson was the next to open fire, putting a bullet through the neck of one of the other guards!?

Other Japanese rushed from the buildings and dove into the trenches, returning fire!

One gunner on the machine-gun was killed, taking a bullet through the head as he looked up to fire his gun. The loader took over firing and one of the newly arrived riflemen aided the loader. 

Another rifleman was hit and went down before he even made it to a trench! 

Flanking Americans made it into the trenches on the extreme of the Japanese right flank. 

A burst of machine-gun fire took down Platoon Sergeant "Hard" Avery Jackson! 

Another of the machine-gun crew was killed, with a bulled in the shoulder that blew out his back as they swivelled to fire upon the Americans rushing the trench immediately to their right. 

A burst from the machine-gun knocked down one of the Americans in the trench. 

The commander of the Japanese forces leapt out of his trench to run and check on the downed soldier. 

A grenade was tossed at the Americans at the edge of the jungle, but it bounced off a tree and fell behind them, startling and lightly wounding Private Masters who was still behind the front line! 

After squad-mates lay down some suppressing fire, one of the Americans rushed the nearest trench and fought the Japanese soldier therein in hand-to-hand combat. They fought viciously and it was clear there was no stopping or subduing the Japanese soldier short of killing them, and so that is what he did... 

More Americans moving up and preparing to rush the Japanese position! 

The Japanese commander got to the downed soldier and got them up and moving again. 

But they were about to be overrun! 

The Japanese commander was shot. A trooper rushed the other one in the open and stabbed him through with a bayonet. 

The machine-gun position was finally rushed. 

Checking the Japanese casualties, two weren't yet dead... but severely injured and, lacking medical personnel, they did not survive the trip back to the American's positions... 

How This All Came to Be....

I recently traded away a bunch of American World War Two forces to my friend Orion (like, last week!?). She wanted to try out Bolt Action that weekend - which we could have done, I have no shortage of forces that could be fought against each other... but she was getting a few of the Americans painted, very quickly, and I suggested trying out Five Men in Normandy, as only a handful of miniatures are required to play... 

Five Men in Normany (.30 Calibre Edition) and Five Men at Kursk are from Nordic Weasel Games and written by the same designer as Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderlands. The games are modular and can be played as a solo game, a competitive game (where both players have their own squad rolled up and face off against each other) or as a player versus Game Master. We did the latter. 

Initially we planned to use Five Men at Normandy and she rolled up a force and ended up needing FOURTEEN!? She was painting them up as African-Americans of one of the segregated divisions and decided we'd play a WHAT IF scenario - What If the 93rd Division saw considerably more action than they did?! (Historically the division was mostly used for labour and guard duty and saw very little action) (also, historically, they would have been wearing tropical fatigues... alas...) 

Orion rolled for backgrounds and motivations for two of the figures... 

Background - Drifter - On the fringe of society, doing odd jobs and staying alive. At least the meals are regular now.

Motivation - Survival - You've known a lot of brave men who won't be coming home. You intend to make it.

Maybe that's the sarge...?

Rolling for the next character.. 

Background - Criminal - Small time crook, hardened gangster or an enemy of the state. Out here, no one cares. Roll a negative morale die.

Motivation - Political - You're a model democratic citizen/communist/fascist willing to die for freedom and the cause. If group morale is currently 0 or positive, roll a positive morale die.

Yikes! 

I mean...  a "criminal" with political motivations in the United States at the time, could simply be someone with socialist leanings that joined the army to escape prosecution. So we decided the officer could have been a Lawyer with the NAACP with associations with socialists and communists, that stirred up too much trouble and was falsely accused of some sort of treason or other trumped up charges and told; "hey why don't you join the army and go fight Japs or we gonna throw you in jail for a long, long time..."

So the Sergeant was the drifter that signed up for three square meals a day! 

Initially, with the negative morale dice roll and he size of the force, we decided the force was what was left of a platoon. Fourteen of the original forty surviving (not ALL battlefield casualties, a fair amount of attrition could be due to sickness - put a large group of malnourished men in close proximity in less than entirely sanitary conditions and so many tropical diseases...  PUBLIC HEALTH NIGHTMARE!) Some of those would have been battlefield casualties and maybe that was because higher-ups kept demanding that the Lieutenants platoon be assigned the lead platoon for ALL the actions and given the most dangerous missions... in an attempt to make sure he doesn't come home from the war!? 

Rolling for the mission and enemy force, I got:

Mission type - Military mission - Your group is assigned a mission intended to further the war effort in some way.

Location - Urban area - A small hamlet, the outskirts of a village or the suburbs of a larger city.

Mission - CAPTURE - An enemy soldier needs to be captured to get information and intelligence. (good luck with THAT!) 

Enemy Forces - Defensive Position

• 1x Machine-gun Team - two soldiers 
• 4x Soldiers with bolt-action rifles
• 1x Commander with pistol and sword!

If I hadn't rolled a soldier with a sword, I totally would have put one in anyway... just... because...  

It's a very small force... I rolled three times, I swapped one of the rolls (single rifleman) out for the Machine-gun team (which you are supposed to do for a Defensive Position if you have not ROLLED a Machine-gun of any type) and then, because I had significantly fewer than the attacking force, I rolled AGAIN... and STILL ended up with a total force of seven!? 

Despite generating all this with Five Men in Normandy, we ended up using the Five Men at Kursk rules. 

Normally taking prisoners can happen in melee combat, if you win and would normally kill the enemy, a player can decide to capture them instead. I suggested that, because the Japanese were notoriously hard to capture and more often than not would fight to the death, if a Japanese soldier was potentially captured due to a hand-to-hand combat result, I'd roll a d6 and on a 1 or 6 the soldier could not be captured alive and was immediately taken out of action. 

In the end I was sick the weekend we were originally planning to play, so we played the following Sunday. In the interim, however, I had played another game of Five Men in Normandy and then read the rules for Five Men at Kursk, and decided to use the latter to play this game... 

Seems like we'll probably be playing again this Sunday! 

I've started a Campaign Page - that I will update with status of current members of the unit and links to all the actions so far:

Fourteen Men in the Solomons Campaign and Characters

Of course, this all got me excited enough that I started rebasing the small force of Marine Raiders I have!

Five Men in Normandy - Landed and Lost!

Well... SIX Paratroopers in Normandy...

I'm off on ANOTHER tangent for the moment. I can't even begin to trace the route that brought me to here, but I ended up picking up PDFs of Five Men in Normandy and Five Kilometres from Leipzig - both from Nordic Weasel Games on Wargames Vault. Both authored by the same designer that did Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderlands. 

(The Anachronistic use of Kilometre in "Five Kilometres from Leipzig" only bothers me a little...)

For some reason, Five Men in Normandy struck me as something that NEEDED TO BE PLAYED!!!

Tuesday, 6 June 1944, 2:56am

Somewhere in Normandy

Due to some wild evasive maneuvers the plane had to make and high windspeeds, LCpl Ching's stick ended up scattered far and wide and, and no where near their official drop zone. For starters LCpl Ching landed in swamp. He did not remember seeing any swamp on any map he'd looked at in any of the weeks studying them before the drop. 

He found on member of his section that had been hit by some shrapnel that had taken half his head off... He found another trooper he did not know who had gotten tangled in gear and parachute and  got bogged down in the thigh-deep water and drown.

When he finally found a member if his section - Pte Messier, the section Bren gunner. LCpl Ching nearly got shot, having started Pte. Messier when he dove into a ditch beside him. They were unable to locate the No. 2 or No. 3 from the Gun Team - with the barrel bag and all the extra ammunition for the Bren. The two could not figure out where they were, but decided they were, at least, a fair way south of where they were meant to be. Pte. Mesier kept wanting to charge off in the direction of any distant gunfire they heard. LCpl Ching had to reign him in and point out they had no idea who was shooting at whom, or how far away they could be. They needed to focuse on rendezvousing with their own units to carry out their mission objectives for this first day on the ground in occupied Europe! When they could make out the moon, they tried to head north, which they hoped might bring them into contact with other members of their unit - or, at least, to the coast!?

They eventually they ran into a few other riflemen. One, Pte. Reddy, was from another platoon in the same company. Another, Pte. Hughes was a rifleman from C Company. The third, Pte. Constable was from one of the British 8th Parachute Battalion!? Finally they ran into Sapper Danforth from the Royal Engineers Who was very dismayed about losing all of his demolition charges that he was to bring to the train bridge at Bures!?

At one point they ran into two American Pathfinders!? Neither party was sure of where they were - and neither was sure which group was further off course, but at least ONE of them was way off, for sure... The Americans and Canadians (and British) eventually parted ways, the Americans heading West, the Canadians continuing North. 

Later they ran into a Lieutenant commanding one of the other platoons in their company. He also had little idea where they'd ended up, but at least he had MAPS! Regardless, they did not seem to be anywhere near any of the bridges they were tasked aiding the Royal Engineers in destroying. They eventually came across another group of Canadian Paratroopers near an abandoned farm. The officer decided to set up a CP and tasked groups to go out in different directions, locate others and send them back towards the CP, determine any enemy locations and troop strength, and report back ANY sort of landmark that might indicate where on Earth they were?!

To the west it looked like there was a low hill that might have a good vantage point to observe things. Also a road wound in that general direction. LCpl Ching's group was tasked with scouting ahead to the hill and see what they could see and keep an eye out for any road signage that the Germans hadn't already destroyed. 

Ching's group stuck to the fields alongside the road, where they could, as much of it was thick mud. As they approached the hill they realized there was a building and a crossroads nearby that could be investigated. But also it looked like there might be Germans guarding the crossroads... 

Approaching the hill and crossroads from the East. LCpl Ching broke the unit up into two groups. Sapper Danforth, Pte. Reddy, and Pte. Hughes would approach the crossroads through the woods on the north side of the road, while Ching, Messier, and Constable would approach through the woods and fields on the south side of the road. 

He'd given the groups strict orders to approach stealthily and NOT to engage if there were Germans present until the Lance Corporal could assess the situation and numbers of enemy. Only on his signal (by opening fire) would they assault any position. Otherwise they would regroup back at a burnt out barn a half mile down the road to the east they'd found in their approach after an hour. 

LCpl Ching's group moves to the edge of the woods. 

DAnforth's group does likewise on the other side of the road... they spot sentries that were on the top of the hill having a good look at the chaos in the distance! After a moment they headed back down the hill. 

When the Moon slipped behind some thicker clouds and all got very dark. LCpl Ching ordered his group to try and rush forward across the field to the hedgerow. 

The sentries gathered at the sandbag emplacement for a brief discussion. 

When the Sentries started down the road away from them, Danforth, Hughes and Reddy moved out of the woods, using the crest of the hill as cover, maneuvered to the top of the hill.

The moon came out from behind clouds and the whole area lit up... There were three German soldiers in plain view down the road clear in the open... they weren't going to get a better chance... so Hughes opened fire, the other two on the hill followed suit. One German was killed and another winged and knocked down in the road. Two others were set to flight by the sudden violence - running all the way back to the building they were billetted in. One of the two broke and fled out the back door running for his life. 

 Pte, Constable moved up to the hedgerow. The German in the street who had been injured was just recovering. A few shots from Constable encouraged the German to scramble over/through the hedge. 

Ching moved up and sprayed the hedgerow opposite which set the German to flight, around the building and through the fields opposite... 

Pte. Messier joined the other two at the hedgerow and observed the building to see if anyone popped their head up. One did and threw a grenade at them! It sailed far over their heads and exploded harmlessly out in the muddy field behind them - spattering them with a bit of muck. Fire from the Bren and Sten guns encouraged the German to hide back inside the house. 

Meanwhile down at the crossroads, Hughes asked the others to cover him and he rushed down and tossed a grenade into the sandbag emplacement. 

When Hughes snuck up to peer into the emplacement, the Feldwebel, hunkered down within took a shot at him with his MP40! Hughes ducked and then put a bullet through the German. And then three more, just to be sure! 

Hughes started taking more fire from the second story window of the house. 

Ching and Messier took this as an opportunity to climb over the hedge, one at a time while covering each other... hoping the occupants were all distracted by the explosions and fire at the crossroads - at least one was firing that way... 

A second German was clearly still in the house and popped up at the window to shoot at Messier, hitting him in the arm!

At the crossroads fire from the house had obliged Hughes to fall back across the street and take cover with Constable. 

Meanwhile Ching charged into the house! On the main floor he filled the German crouched by the window full of lead. Then he charged up straight up the stairs to engage the German shooting out the Northside window. So startled was the German he couldn't even react and Ching took him down with a short burst from his sten gun. 

LCpl Ching and Pte. Messier made a quick search of the house. They found some old letters that were left behind when the place was abandoned - confirming the address. Searching the bodies of the "Germans", the papers they carried seemed to indicate they were actually Polish...? 

Constable and Hughes did a quick search of the crossroads and sandback emplacement. The Germans had indeed torn down the road signage... but being lazy, had just tossed it in the ditch where it was discovered by Constable. This further confirmed their location. 

Still up on the hill, Danforth and Reddy had a good look around and were able to identify a few features in the distance and take a bearing on them.

The group regrouped and compared notes and decided to head back. LCpl. Ching expressed his disappointment at the group on the hill NOT waiting for his signal. After it was determined it had been Hughes that had opened fire, he and Constable got into a heated argument, Constable insisting it was a rash decision that could have gotten them all killed! 

They bickered all the way back to the temporary CP at the farmhouse. 

More troops had made their way there and with the information that LCpl Ching's group was able to provide, a route of march was established and the lot of them moved out to the Northwest to try and regroup with the 8th Parachute Battalion which should be trying to blow up bridges across the River Dives.

What's going on...? 

I played out this scenario using Five Men in Normandy from Nordic Weasel Games. I picked up the PDF the other day and it seemed really interesting and I had a lot of stuff I could just use right away without any modifications (though I DID rebase the Paras, so I could put names on the bases... It's something I want to get to anyway...)

I thought the system would be fun to play out a little campaign of Canadian Paratroops in Normandy - given the chaotic nature of the drop, the system seemed perfectly suited for playing out the adventures and escapades of a small group of troopers dropped way off course and deep behind enemy lines.

I started with rolling up a random section and got two with sten guns, three with rifles, and a bren gunner. 

I called these guys "seasoned" even though they'd never seen actual combat - I figured it would reflect their more intensive training. 

I rolled for some specialist equipment and got a Medical Kit and Boots that Actually Fit. Both are one use and then gone and can be used by anyone in the section.

I rolled for skills and got Alert and Brawler. I assigned Alert to the Bren gunner and Brawler to one of the troops with a Sten Gun and called them a Lance Corporal. 

Rolling for known people I got two Allied Soldiers and one Officer from Own Unit. Initially I wasn't clear if these joined the unit...? but later I found events that allow a known character to join a unit, and so these are just people that have been met that COULD join in... 

There are backgrounds and motivations that can be rolled for. It is suggested that at least those characters with skills be rolled for and others can be rolled for later as they are "revealed". 

I rolled Farmer for the Lance Corporal and Working Class for the Bren Gunner. 

For motivations, I rolled Family for the Lance Corporal and Glory for the Bren Gunner... 

Then I started weaving the narrative together... I decided the Lance Corporal and Bren Gunner would actually be from the same section. The others would be from other units that were equally lost behind enemy lines and were met up with and formed an ad-hoc unit to carry out actions. 

Just to make things interesting, I decided the Bren gun would have low ammunition. 

I thought the first batch of scenarios could be follow-up scenarios - representing a series of encounters through out the night of the drop and following day or so until the unit made it to the Rendezvous Point at the Le Mesnil crossroads. 

As follow-up missions, the troops don't really get to rest and recover or gain new equipment between action scenarios.. Although... reinforcements could be found in the form of just finding other lost Paratroopers... resupply could be in the form of looting corpses...? I don't know... we'll see.

Currently I'm working with the following rule I made up: At the beginning of each scenario I'll roll a d6. If the number is LESS than the number of scenarios played I'll say they've made it back to the RV point and get some limited rest and resupply... 

Also the first scenario(s) are in darkness. I thought I'd roll for a random visibility as the moon slips in and out of cloud cover at the beginning of each turn (3d6"). Targets that shot in the previous turn, but are beyond the current visibility range, may be shot at, but only with Shock Dice. 

Instead of 1+d6 days between missions, these first ones will be 1+d6 hours. Sunrise is 6am. 

IF the unit survives these initial missions and makes it back to the Rendezvous Point, the riflemen will return to their respective units and I'll roll three more times on the Force tables to see how many of their original section made it back to the RV to reunite with them. At this point one of them will gain a skill and backgrounds rolled and new specialist equipment acquired - if any of the initial equipment has been used.  

For the first scenario I rolled a Military Mission (decided that the Officer from their own unit would direct them to do something). I then rolled a Scouting mission - the objective of which is to get within 3" of each of three objectives. Thinking of the terrain I have access to, I decided this could be the top of a hill (to get a look and see if they can figure out where they are), a crossroads (to see if there is any signage that might indicate what road they are on), and a building to see if there is anything that can be found there. 

I decided to add Search Rolls at each - to see if any clues are found. 

The Opposition I rolled were six sentries... that would be sitting on each objective. Two at the crossroads, two on the hill, and two in the building. In my minds eye, I imagined a bored squad of wehrmacht conscripts (possibly from occupied countries in Eastern Europe) being tasked with guarding a cross roads on the night everything went to shit. Three were probably sleeping in the house - which I decided had been abandoned - while the other three were at the crossroads until all the shooting and explosions started. Now two remained at the crossroads, which two went up to the top of the hill to see if they could make out what was going on around them. The other two are still resting in the building. 

There is a squad leader with an MP40, the rest have bolt action rifles.  

For circumstances I rolled a Stealth Mission - so our heroes are sneaking up on the sentries who have to check to see if they spot them... 

The battle was then played through using the Five Men In Normandy rules. I'm not going to do a blow-by-blow, roll-by-roll of what happened when I've already wrote a narrative description of what went down... which I hope is more interesting anyway. 

AFTER THE BATTLE

There were NO INJURIES to roll for the unit! I had an extreme run of lucky rolls... and catching people at less than 12" and in the open was very handy! 

I did roll for ONE event - Argument - Hughes and Reddy - they don't like each other anymore... but it didn't come to blows or lower the morale of the unit. 

Rolling to move the clock forward, the next action wouldn't be until after 8am - well after sunrise. 

Rolling for morale - I had five dice for a successful mission and not taking any casualties - which resutled in a +2 morale. These are points that can be expended each game to prevent a figure from hunkering down or bailing. 

I've started a page to keep track of all the battles and Characters:

Five Men in Normandy - Campaign and Characters 

I'm really liking this system so far. It has fair bit of similarity with Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderlands (and Five Kilometres from Liepzig!) - all of which I would like to explore further... I think I might carry on with this campaign for a bit though, as I've got it started and some momentum and have VERY LITTLE I have to do for prep for any scenarios as I have LOADS of painted WW2 figures and vehicles. 

Just wish I had some better buildings... 

Thinking About Things... Making Plans...

A long and rambling post about miniatures and games and campaigns and what to do when you realize you have more miniatures than you will ever get to painting in your lifetime...  

It has been over three weeks since I played any games - over a month since I've played Age of Sigmar (Spearhead) and I can feel I'm drifting into the Danger Zone... where I loose sight of what I was doing and the mind starts wandering and thinking about and considering... DIFFERENT STUFF! 

I was sick for the last two weeks of August and just starting to feel like I'm on the mend. I've not been doing much and there were a few times I found myself in the basement game room, doing some tidying and just staring at the ridiculous number of drawers that I have all these miniatures stored in and pondering how I acquired them all and thinking about what the plans were and how that has changed and feeling like another wave of change was on the way... 

I don't know how QUICKLY any of these things might happen... but things will probably happen at some point... 

This actually started months ago... or... years ago, depending on when you could things as having "started"...? 

But within the last few months, while contemplating the collection and considering what I might be able to discard (to make space for some of the RECENT ACQUISITIONS (and there have been a few things I've decided to get rid of... but I haven't exactly figures out HOW to do that yet... I digress... I will probably do this often...) 

THE GREEKS

I'd been looking at the Greeks for a while now... The plan, initially, was to build MULTIPLE Classical period Later Greek Hoplite armies for De Bellis Antiquitatis - to potentially play a Peloponnesian War campaign, at SOME point... 

So much of my planning has been around CAMPAIGNS! I LOVE the idea of campaigns. I just don't love playing one-of battles with no context. They are a little boring to me. Most of the best experiences in this hobby have been through gathering friends and playing through campaigns - either weekend affairs or the occasional extended one. 

Some of my WORST experiences in the hobby have been during those very same campaigns... usually people related, people that just want to WIN and will abuse loop holes or try to find loopholes and constantly demand rulings about this or that and/or complain about rulings or just complain about the rules and things that are "wrong" with them when they don't benefit them... 

Also just the energy and stress involved in trying to ORGANIZE a campaign... getting gamers to commit to things is sometimes like herding cats... and to get ENOUGH together at the same time, one ends up having to invite those sorts of people that CAUSE those very worst experiences... 

Do I keep hope that I will again run campaigns...? Do I just entirely give up on the idea!? If the latter... what do I do with all these!? 

I have to admit, I don't know THAT much ABOUT the Peloponnesian War... I have no idea how I settled on the city states that I settled on... (I have a feeling that it might be that they were the cities in Perikles - a board game by Martin Wallace...?) 

Here's the state of some of those forces... 

Athens... I think some (most) of these were from Crusader Miniatures...? I got two Spear elements done and some Psiloi and Light Horse - and done in my old basing system which involved MORE minatures than the regular DBA rules suggested - because I thought it made the elements look more like UNITS they were representing. 

The bases the unpainted ones are on are temporary painting bases that I put all the miniatures I'm going to eventually affix to multi-figure bases, for something to hold onto while painting. 

(for almost all of these armies I have completed the Psioloi and Light Horse elements - I'm pretty sure I did them all as one big batch one winter, years ago...) 

SPARTA!!! 

Again two elements of Spear completed and Psiloi and Light Horse options... These are mostly Black Tree Design. I bought a lot of BTD at some point in the past. They have MASSIVE ranges and would periodically have sales where a number of the packs within the range were 70% off!? So I would buy many multiples of each of THOSE packs and maybe a few others for variety and end up with entire armies of them... most of the Greek Hoplite armies - other than the Athenians are made up of the BTD minatues.

This box also has a bunch of singly based miniatures for skirmish/role-playing games. A bunch are from Crocodile games and there is a mix of Foundry miniatures in there... these are in this box, because i was running out of room in the more Greek "Heroes"drawer... These were ones I'd specifically painted as Spartans... there was room in the Spartan box, so I put them in here... 

One of the thoughts I've had about this collection is whether or not to continue with the idea of building multiple DBA hoplite armies... or just rebase them all singly for... other games... and WHICH GAMES!? (more on this in a bit...) 

Megara... haven't done any of the Spear... but have finished Psiloi and Light Horse. 

Corinth - Two Spear, plus Light Horse and Psiloi... 

Thebes... Just the Psiloi... 

If I was trying to do the cities from the Perikles game I'd still need an Argos army... 

Of course, I might have had an idea about using Perikles as a campaign system/scenario generator - which, if I recall, might have worked as there was a whole strategic element to the game where your family tried to gain influence in teh various cities... and then there are the battles that are generated by the strategic element of the games turns and then there's a whole combat resolution portion to each round... and I thought a miniature game of some sort might be substituted for the pure dice rolling to determine the outcome of the battles... If that was the case, I might have just decided to just not bother with making specific armies for each of the cities and just tried to make them all as generic as possible and just know that the ones on one side of the table were from one city, the others on the other side were from the other...?

The Greek Heroes drawer... I know the label says "Greek Myth" and some of them are heroes from Greek Myth, but most are just historical hoplites that I was using for Generic Greek Warriors in skirmish games inspired by Greek Myth.

I seem to have been much more motivated to paint individual miniatures - for skirmish/role-playing games! These are a mix of leftovers from the massive army purchases and other things I specifically bought for historical - or MYTHICAL - skirmish games... 

Mythical Greek Gods and Monsters! 

And this is what got all of this thinking started... 

I very definitely have been planning to rebase all of these. They are metal miniatures on metal washers for bases and that is VERY heavy and has been distorting these plastic drawers. I have been slowly (very slowly) working through such collections and rebasing them all to wooden discs or plastic bases. partly to lighten the collections (slightly) but also (slightly) distribute the load, as the wooden discs and plastic based are slightly larger than the washers... (I think the washers are 7/8" and the wooden discs/plastic bases are 1" or 25mm).

WHILE considering this (well... considering whether to do the Greeks with plastic bases OR wooden discs) I started to wonder about all the other Greek miniatures in the OTHER drawers (above) originally slated for multifigure bases for DBA... MAYBE it was time to give up on the idea of DBA and rebase the lot of them onto individual bases and just use them for other games (and/or get rid of a bunch of them!) 

What games though...? 

There is Dragon Rampant (or Lion Rampant, I guess, but Lion Rampant is more specifically for Medieval forces and battles)

I could put a bunch of Geneic (or not-so-Generic) Greek Hoplite forces together for these and use THIS to play out any games - or even a campaign... 

It's been a while, though, and I feel like a game of Dragon Rampant takes a bit more time than a game of DBA... and the thing I like about DBA is that games can be played in under an hour and you can thus play out and entire campaign in a weekend!?

So I got thinking and realized... there is One-Hour Wargames... and it has a Classic Period set of rules. I haven't played those specifically... but I did play and entire campaign using the Machine Age Rules from this book for a "Back of Beyond" campaign set during the Russian Civil War, which WAS a LOT of fun. 

Further making me consider the rebasing of ALL THE GREEKS are the Amazons... these too were originally slated to be a Hordes of the Things army - which I figured I could use with all the above Historical Greek Hoplite armies in a more fantastical/mythological campaign... These were rebased a number of years ago (from the temporary painting bases to metal washers) as I'd kind of given up on Hordes of the things...

(there is MORE to this collection - a bunch of light cavalry and a chariot or two... the chariots are stored elsewhere - for the moment as there just wasn't space in this box - the Cavalry was moved out of the box, temporarily, to possibly be rebased!) 

I'd given up on Hordes of the Things because it seemed ridiculous to me to have two of so many things - one set on individual bases (for skirmish/role-playing games) and another set of the same things on multi-figure bases (for Hordes of the Things). The nail in the coffin Dragon Rampant - I liked it much more than Hordes of the Things and it didn't require multi-figure bases. 

(Yes, I KNOW you CAN play Dragon Rampant with figures on multi-figure bases... so I COULD have just left them on the multi-figure bases and been able to use them for BOTH games... but ultimately I figured everything on individual bases would be more versatile and I probably woudln't miss playing Hordes of the Things all that much!) 

My army of Centaurs and Satyrs - which WERE orignially based for Hordes of the Things and used in games... AND I'd had a mix of miniatures on multi-figure bases for Hordes of the Things and a handful of others on individual bases... now they're all on individual bases and I am much happier... though they are all on metal washers... so not THAT happy, as I will need to, as some point, re-re-base these onto plastic (or wood) bases... 

So... is it decided...? am I giving up on Later Greek Hoplites DBA armies and a Peloponnesian War DBA campaign...? Is everything going onto individual bases!? Maybe...  Probably... 

Which game will I reorganize these all for...? How much will I keep and how much will I discard?! I don't know... on one had, I feel like I should just leave them be until I'm actually INTERESTED in revisiting Classic Greek Wars... but on the other hand, I feel like some thought and planning could consolidate some of this collection into fewer drawers (freeing up space for other things that are needing storage!!). On the other other hand (my third hand!?) I am concerned that if I DO start that level of planning I'm at risk of getting COMPLETELY SIDETRACKED from what I HAVE been working on (Age of Sigmar!) and go all in on rebasing and painting GREEKS??!

If I do get to reorganizing, I think the level of decisions I'd have to make is what could make up an army in the other games and how many do I need to keep - complete armies of each city state I'd want to represent in a campaign..? Or just two (or four?) more GENERIC Greek hoplite forces to play out games one (or two) at a time that are generated by whatever campaign system/scenario generator that I happen to settle on... Keep the miniatures necessary for THOSE and paint and/or rebase as required/when necessary... 

Dammit... You know what...? Now that I'm thinking about it, I think it was seeing Airborne Grove over on the Give 'em Lead blog going off on a Greek Mythology side track that may have gotten ME thinking about all the Greeks - mythological and otherwise - again!? The dangers of looking at other people blogs... 

Oh, I realized there was also THIS game on my shelf next to One-Hour Wargames, which I'd picked up at some point when I was getting really excited about Neil Thomas' games... I realized I'd never even looked at it... it's a more involved game and looks like it ALSO uses multi-figure bases... so... probably not...  

Of course with too much time on my hands while sick the last week or two... and it being too long since I've played any of the games that I've been trying to focus on... all this thinkifying and considering expanded to OTHER collections... 

THE ROMANS

The Roman collection is in much the same state as the Greeks and has a similar origin... 

Thinking about this collection was likely also inspired by watching the first season of Those About To Die on Prime last week...

The collection began with the acquisition of a HUGE lot of old Early Imperial Romans in a trade years ago... (maybe decades...?) Again, the idea was making multiple DBA Early Imperial Roman armies and using them for a fictional Roman Civil War campaign... 

I was motivated enough, at the outset, to complete ONE DBA Early Imperial Roman army... 

I think I have enough to do at least two, possibly three, MORE armies... 

I also started collecting up a few enemies of Rome - that could intervene from the peripheries... Early Germans and Picts... 

Though the Picts have ALREADY been rebased to individual bases! 

Also, similar to the Greeks... I've acquired a bunch MORE Romans, that I have individually based (for skirmish/role-playing games) and have made good use of them! 

I ran a Gladiatorial campaign using Savage Worlds for some time. I may have used them in games of Song of Blades and Heroes. I know I tried out Broken Legions at least once! I LOVE the Cthulhu Invictus setting (for role-playing games - Call of Cthulhu initially, but I think Savage Worlds has a Weird War Rome setting at one point...?) and have tried to get a few campaigns going with that... 

And then there is Song of Shadows and Dust - probably my favourite iteration of the Song of... Game Engine. I know I played a number of games of this, at one point, and had GRAND PLANS for a map campaign of a fictional ancient mediterranean city where players would take over different neighbourhoods - and control of certain neighbourhoods would confer some sort of benefit within the game. I painted up enough minis that I could field a number of separate gangs for it...  

I even toyed around with the idea of figuring out a way to make multiple quick generic factions with plastic miniatures - Song of Shadows and Dust Faction - to sell or give away to friends to encourage them to play the game with me! 

I digress... 

So... what to do with ALL THE ROMANS?! 

Do I continue with the plan to build multiple DBA Early Imperial Roman armies to play out a fictional/semi-historical Roman Civil War campaign...? Or do I just rebase the ones I need to field a couple of armies for Dragon Rampant or One Hour Wargames and dispose of the rest!? 

As I'm typing this, I feel like I'm making up my mind... 

fun fact: I sometimes don't even write these thinking that anyone's even going to read them anymore... (Oh, I know there's, like, three of you that still do and I GREATLY appreciate that you still find these interesting! Thank you!) it's become more of a journalling process to figure things out for myself. Through the process of DOING them I make realizations and decisions, rather than fully thinking it through and THEN ANNOUNCING the decision that has been made!?

Again, though... probably NOT going to just start rebasing all of these next week (after completing the Greeks)... but then...? 

THE DARK AGES

Now... this is a collection that I for many, MANY years SWORE i would NEVER re-base... NEVER... They are a COMPLETE collection and Ready-to-Play a 1066-ish campaign - like the DBA DARK AGES CAMPAIGN I already ran 12 years ago! I still have that map! It's currently sitting in my living room! 

Of course... it has been TWELVE YEARS and despite these sitting here, "Ready-to-Play", I HAVEN'T run the campaign again... It's been years (possibly a decade!?) since I've even used them in a game of DBA!? 

All this sort of thinkifying over the last week has me remembering the adage: Never say NEVER!!!

Could THESE be turned into useable armies for Dragon Rampant or One-Hour Wargames!? 

One thing I've noticed from my brief perusal of the pre-gunpowder rules for One-Hour Wargames is that there isn't really so much room for maneuvering, like there could potentially be in DBA or HotT... you have six units, instead of twelve elements... there is some initial maneuvering - albeit on a fairly small battlefield... but once units are stuck in, there is NO leaving combat they just stay there until one unit of the other is wiped out! It's just a static dice rolling game at that point - no pushing each other back and forth - like is possible in DBA.

I guess I should try and play a game or two before making any hasty decisions... 

In each of the drawers there are already a mix of multi-figure bases for the DBA army and a bunch of individually based miniatures - some were just leftovers from making the DBA army - others were specifically bought with the idea or skimishing or role-playing games in mind! 

The Vikings, the first of my Dark Age armies. Before I ever used them as a DBA army, elements were used in Warhammer Ancient Battles!?

(Huh... I'd forgotten about that until just typing it now... I guess THAT's ANOTHER option for games... I still have all those Warhammer Ancient Battles books SOMEWHERE!?  Although, in theory, that's meant to be played with miniatures on individual SQUARE bases... and that just NOT going to happen... though I'm sure the rules could be modified or sabot bases/movement trays could be used!) 

Some of the miniatures are old, OLD Citadel miniatures - from when they made historical miniatures! Most of them are from Old Glory - back when they were available through the Sentry Box for reasonable prices... and there is a mix of odds and ends from different manufacturers...

MOAR Vikings... because I'd just acquired enough to make two armies... why not make two... 

Dark Age Anglo-Saxons or Anglo-Danish...

MOAR Dark Age Anglo-Saxons or Anglo-Danish... 

I think one was destined to be a dedicated Anglo-Saxon army and the other a dedicated Anglo-Danish army...? I don't remember... its' been over a decade since I last made decisions about this collection. 

The Normans... 

Pre-feudal Scots... 

The Welsh... 

The primed black ones in the back were originally purchases so I could make enough elements that these could also be used as early medieval Welsh and have enough archers for all the options (I feel like the Medieval Welsh were split into Northern and Southern and ONE of them was almost entirely make up of Bow elements...). I've long since given up on that idea and based the extras on individual bases thinking they could be used as Welsh archers in Lion Rampant...? 

Dark Age Irish. 

Seriously all those Psiloi and Auxilia bases take up a LOT of space... if rebased, this collection could probably be consolidated into ONE drawer along with the Medieval Irish Lion Rampant retinue... 

West Franks... basically, after the campaign, I decided in future campaigns I'd need to have the West Franks (and possibly East Franks) to give the Normans something to think about, otherwise they just trample everyone before them... 

I guess what I also REALLY need to do before making any decisions about this collection is go through, army by army, and take stock of what I have for each and figure out if there is enough miniatures to put together a Lion Rampant retinue for each - of 24-30 Army Points...

Medieval Retinues 

These ones were never meant to be De Bellis Antiquitatis armies... MOST of the have been acquired since the release of Lion Rampant and were collected for that purpose. 

The thing I am pondering, in this case, is: DO I REALLY NEED ALL OF THESE!?

The Retinue of Baron Phillipe du Lapin 

I said MOST were acquired since the release of Lion Rampant.. The core of this force are remnants from my old Brettonian army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles from the 90s!? Things have been added to it since then.. but a bunch of these miniatures are miniatures sculpted by the Perrys which were simultaneously released through Citadel Miniatures as Brettonians and from Wargames Foundry as the Baron's War line?! I bought some from both companies! Some are even older Citadel models from their historical lines... and others were from other companies from the 70s/80s that were originally used as D&D miniatures, but being in medieval-looking armour/garb, got press-ganged into service in this retinue! Others are newer models from... Crusager Miniatures, I think...? Maybe some Black Tree Design...? 

It's a keeper, though it really needs to be rebased - and spread out amongst multiple drawers! the current army doesn't really even fit in this drawer. 

The colours are from that original Brettonian force from the 90s and were probably done because they were the colours of the Canadian flag... 

Lapin because it's french for Rabbit, which I thought was funny. Probably Monty Python inspired... 

I considered changing it over the years because Lapin was also the name of the gunman at the mass shooting, killing 14 women (and wounding 13 others!) at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique in 1989... because FUCK THAT GUY and I did NOT want anyone EVER making any sort of association between the two... and... ultimately I kept it because I figured no one ever would (had I not just mentioned it here....) 

The "Opposing Force". 

Done in the colours of the high school I attended from grades nine to eleven... because FUCK THEM... The narrative was that these were belligerents that kept trying to horn in on Baron Phillipe's territory while Baron Phillipe just wanted to be left alone to manage his small holdings and grow crops... Fucking bullies... ha! 

These are all (well... mostly...) newer figures acquired specifically to make an opposing Lion Rampant Retinue.

the OTHER Retinue... 

This also was acquired specifically to make an additional retinue for Lion Rampant (or Dragon Rampant!). By the time I acquired this army, I had an idea festering of running a campaign, again... possibly using the old Mighty Empires system from Games Workshop (1990) where 1 Army Point = 50 points - so a banner that was 1500 points in Warhammer Fantasty Battle would be 30 Army points worth of stuff in Dragon Rampant. 

THIS is one that I'm kind of sort of thinking of getting rid of... I HAVE two opposing retinues for Lion Rampant... when am I EVER going to run a Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant campaign... There are SO MANY other things to paint... and... how much time do I have to do that before my kids are disposing of all these miniatures and myself into a special care home... or a crematorium... 

Yeah... SOME of this thinking has been spurred on by an impending sense of DOOM and a realization that I am closet to the end than I am to the beginning and the brutal method in which my own fathers worldly possessions were disposed of over the last year as he moved from assisted living with my mom... to the hospital... to a special care home... to the crematorium... 

Anyway... enough about that... 

The only reason I haven't immediately gotten rid of them is I like the colour scheme I'd started using on these (Black and Blue) over the green and yellow of the other Opposing Force... 

If I got rid of them... or at least MOST of them I could use this drawer for overflow from the other two retinues which are currently so stuffed into their drawers that there are bases overlapping and such... 

A Small force of Medieval Irish... I think this was started because I got some in a collection I bought of assorted Dark Age stuff and these turned out to be not-so-Dark-Age-ish... so they sat in a box until I was making Medieval retinues for Lion Rampant and realized I still had these... and then some additional miniatures were bought from Crusader miniatures to have a complete force...? 

They're close enough to being done that I'd like to keep them... rebase them and finish them up at some point... 

As mentioned earlier... if the Dark Age Irish were rebased to individual bases... they could probably be consolidated into this drawer, freeing up space for... other things... 

Medieval Muslims... 

Because at some point I thought some campaigning in the Holy Land might be fun...? I had a lot of generic desert/middle eastern terrain... 

I've only finished the two units... but they're very colourful and I like them... so I'd like to keep these and rebase and finish them up some day... 

I also have some "fantastical" middle eastern miniatures... that could be used with the above in a more generic/fictional setting.

Some of these I've used as a Frostgrave warband! 

Unfortunately, this was the theoretical crusading opposing force I picked up for them (I was in Calgary and they were on sale at the Sentry Box... and... I have to admit, I know very little about the Crusades... and still don't... but I'm pretty sure THESE Teutonic knights may not have been the types crusading in the Holy Land...!?) 

So... when looking for things to get rid of... these are being considered. 

I might keep some of the foot figures - they're really just generic armed civilians and could be used in other forces or games as generic medieval fantasy minis...) 

I DID have campaigning ideas for some of these - though mostly in a fantasy realm of my own design - using a modified version of the Mighty Empires (1990) game... If I'm using the fantasy armies... do I need three (or MORE) mediaeval-ish human factions!? 

English Civil War

Carrying on with these because... similar to others, the collection was amassed with the idea of CAMPAIGNING in mind... and originally using a DBA-X set of rules. I did get multiple armies completed and I DID play a few games with the rules and it WAS a lot of fun.... but then I was finding i was collecting DOUBLE forces - stuff for the DBA-x armies and completely separate forces for The Pikeman's Lament.... 

(YES.... I KNOW..... You CAN play The Pikeman's Lament - and Dragon Rampant, and ANY of the Dan Mercy games -  with figures on multi-figure bases... so, again, I COULD have just left them on the multi-figure bases and been able to use them for BOTH games... but ultimately, again, I figured everything on individual bases would be more versatile and I probably woudln't miss playing DBA-x all that much!) 

Again, a large part of this collection was acquired through the purchase of a large collection someone else was getting rid of... I can't remember if it was a purchase or a trade. Other things have been added... but others I've had since the 90s - when I'd put in an order to the Wargames Foundry to put together a few forces for a small ECW skirmish game (Once Upon a Time in the West Country?) I can't remember if I EVER actually PLAYED it... also I was thinking the miniatures could double as character in Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play...? 

I'm not sure how much decision-making needs to be done here.. this is just an example of a collection that was put together, initially, with the idea of building enough forces to host a DBA-x campaign... that has been abandoned and decided I could do something similar with the Pikeman's Lament... as such they have been or are to be rebased and organized into units of 12 foot and 6 mounted. 

The Blue Regiment

As with other collections, I planned to put very generic, colour-coded armies/regiments together. I know... there wasn't a LOT of uniformity in the English Civil War armies... The plan was to show that by having only jackets be of the forces colour for some units with trousers and hats being of a variety of colours... I've even mixed in different shades of the colour within units to make them look a little more of a haphazard-ragtag-motley crüe... Because there are varying qualities of troops in the Pikeman's Lament, I could show Elite or Veteran troops as having complete uniforms of matching colour... and the lower quality (Green?) troops having less cohesive colouring...? 

The Blue Regiment, here, has mostly been rebased onto wooden discs... and I think I have enough units complete to field a force in a game... 

Most of the rest of these, that HAVE been rebased from the multi-figure bases, have been based on metal washers... and will, at some point, have to be re-re-based... 

The Red Regiment... 

The Orange Regiment... 

I feel like there are definitely some missing from this and some of the others... maybe the units of Dragoons...? I feel like I took them out and had thought of putting them in a separate drawer - because ALL of the drawers were running out of space... but I have no idea where i've put them?! 

The Green Regiment... 

Extra stuff I'm not sure what to do with... 

And I'm SURE there is still MORE in a box somewhere else - like plastic infantry from Warlord games? Probably enough for an entire regiment. I will likely never get to those... or most of these... probably should organize them to get rid of them all... 

Scotts Government/Conenenteers... 

the one that's STILL on multi-figure bases for DBA-x!? 

The Scots Government troops that have been rebased... but onto metal washers.

This also includes a bunch of the stuff that I never put on multi-figure bases that I'd started acquiring to put together armies for skimish games and later the Pikeman's Lament... 

The original Scots Highlander retinue... some were originally on multi-figure bases for DBA-x... others were originally on various different bases. I think they have all been re-re-based onto wooden discs...? 

Again, this is a collection that is a big mish-mash of things collected over multiple decades beginning in the early 90s. 

This was one of the first larger forces I cobbled together for the English Civil War... Partly because HIGHLANDERS... but also because most of it could also be used all the way up to the Jacobite Uprisings nearly a hundred years later... 

Part of the reason I have so many is because at one point I was trying to put multiple smaller bands together for a lower level skirmish game - that would eventually be played as a campaign (I think initially inspired by Mordheim, of all things) and involved raids of other players territories to steal sheep (and other stuff) from other players... (but mostly sheep! I have a large flock of sheep - a mix of sheepies from Wargames Foundry and Gripping Beast!) 

The Irish Brigade... a later acquisition, specifically for The Pikeman's Lament... because... you can never have enough Highlanders...? 

(Though, technically all Irish... they were FIGHTING WITH the Highlanders...) 

I think they're a mix of Warlord Games and Eureka Miniatures!? 

Not actually part of the English Civil War... but somewhere along the line I picked up a couple of bags of Old Glory Jacobites... of ebay...? or in a trade...? Or picked them up on deep discount from the Sentry Box...? I don't remember. I figured since I have ECW Highlanders that could pass as Jacobite Highlanders... and I had Seven Years War English... I could put together some forces for the Jacobite rebellions! 

I used to love painting plaid. I had a system. It was a bit of a time-consuming pain in the ass... but I loved the way it looked when done... I'm not sure if I have the patience to do ALL of these... and the rest of the other Highlanders and Irish Brigade... AND the rest of the Highland Dwarves... AND the rest of the Picts... (I was going to include a link to a similar post about the Dwarves I did a year or so ago - Dwarves Revisited - but then realized that post didn't even INCLUDE the Highland Dwarves!?) 

These were also slated for DBA-x multi-figure bases - and the handful that I did paint were originally ON DBA-x multi-figure bases... but have since been rebased to onto wooden discs and organized into units of 12 for Rebels and Patriots. 

I just realized I missed an entire drawer... the one that has a bunch of Generic Renaissance civilians and Swashbucklers that I intended to use for En Garde, AND four of five units of "Clubmen" for the Pikeman's Lament... There is zero uniformity to them as they are purely armed civilians, and thus could be used with any of the above forces. 

(I had an idea, that if playing a campaign, if the defending force was lacking due to previous losses, they might be able to summon a unit or two of Clubmen to serve on their side - mostly as speedbumps, as they are NOT very useful troops... also there is at least ONE scenario that calls for bonus clubmen to be defending a village from attack, as the attackers are formed up and approaching, defenders are rushing in to aid the town...? 

And then there are DRAWERS full of Seven Years War troops that are in much the same state as all these ohter collections.... 

AND Napoleonic Era troops!? How did I even ever start THIS one?! 

Seriously, though... this is a collection I could get rid of a bunch of stuff from... maybe keep enough to put together a couple of forces for the War of 1812 - with a bunch of options - for use with Rebels and Patriots... and maybe a few warbands for The Silver Bayonet... and just DUMP the rest... 

Uggggh... don't even get me started on the later gunpowder era stuff... Colonials and Great War - at least a large part of the Great War stuff is PAINTED... and MOST of it was made for a single battle - Vimy Ridge... which I MAY still build all the terrain for and put on... 

The acquisition of colonials was rather scatter-shot and without any formal plan (other than to play the scenarios from the Zulu War Skirmish Campaigns book) I have a mix of boers and stuff from the Boxer Rebellion... but not enough to put togehter full armies of a lot of that... 

At one point I had an idea of running a campaign set on Mars (using Space: 1889 setting and miniatures - as I have a LOT of those...) another idea I had was to run a Space: 1914 campaign - using the same setting as Space: 1889... but play out some campaigning on mars during the Great War 25 years later!? I imagined it would be like the campaigns in Africa  - guerilla fighting and a mix of Eurpean troops and martion colonial troops (I have a few from Rafm... but thought I could take the African colonial troop miniatures I'd modelled myself, modify them to look like Martians (minor changed to hands, feet, ears) and cast up a BUNCH to make units of colonial troops for all the European powers involved... 

Ugh... MORE megalomaniacal dreams of campaigns that I don't know who would EVER play in with me!? 

Wall o' Modern Stuff - World War 2 to present - and sci-fi and 40K... 

I don't really even want to think about these... I have SO MUCH stuff for World War Two... and I have next to NO desire to really even play with them again... there have been a couple of forces that I've separated out for disposal that I will NEVER finish up. Most of the others are MOSTLY painted and thus I feel the need to hang onto them... because as soon as I get rid of any of them... there will be someone who wants to play or I'll suddenly be super interested in World War Two again... I don't know... 

The two forces are ones that are ones I acquired because SALES were happening.. but I never really even started painting ANY of them... so they're a little easier to let go... I'll try to get rid of them locally before I go posting anything anywhere else...

AND THERE ARE OTHERS!? loads of other drawers full of stuff that I'm not even thinking (much) about (at this exact moment)...

 

So what realizations or decisions have I made after all of this blather... 

I don't know... I mean, I had a LOT of thoughts and realizations... and decided I should probably reorganize a lot of these and make a realistic appraisal of what I'm really going to ever get around to painting and what I might use it for... 

I LOVE campaigns... I'm just not sure how many more I'm going to be running, so... maybe I don't need to hang onto SIX or more armies for a given period or conflict!? 

When will I get to this? I don't know... Ideally sometime soon...? this fall...? Maybe over the winter...? 

I've had a lot more thoughts than that, but damn, this has gone on WAY too damned long and I just don't have the energy to type any more or articulate any of the other things I may have been pondering... I have better things to DO!! Like, y'know, paint miniatures!