2014 in Review

The first two months of this past year were pretty much intensely focused on painting and preparing for the 10th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend. I painted enough Feudal Japanese for SEVEN Buntai - plus a whole bunch of assorted extras civilians, extra samurai and ashigaru and ronin that didn’t fit into one buntai or another and a bunch more for a few buntai that I never got to finish. I also built four 3x3 dedicated terrain boards the Marshy Forest, the Clearing, the River Ford, and the EPIC Mountain Pass!

The 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash itself was played over the weekend of 21-23 February. On Friday night and all day Saturday I had eight people playing in a Ronin Campaign/Tournament. It was pretty awesome. Definitely right up there with the Dark Age DBA campaign and the first Hordes of the Things Campaign Weekend. On the Sunday we played Ikusa and some other games -(including Smash-up – Which my friend Cory got for me for my birthday – and turned out to be one of our most played games of 2014.

After that I pretty much dropped Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai - not because it isn’t a good game (it is a GREAT game) – it somehow just got eclipsed by the more versatile A Song of Blades and Heroes which I played a LOT of for the rest of the year – mostly just playing it with the family. We ever played a couple of short campaigns;

One in the spring and one in the fall.

At this point I own just about all the Ganesha Games that use the A Song of Blades and Heroes game engine – though I haven’t played them all. So far I think my favourite iteration is Song of Shadows and Dust (street fighting in urban centres around the Ancient Mediterranean) and I am currently helping with playtesting Galleys and Galleons (a game of naval combat in the age of sail – by the same author as Song of Shadows and Dust). We also tried Mutants and Death Ray Guns and Song of Drums and Shakos and got to playtest Power Legion. Hopefully we’ll get to trying out the rest in the coming year.

We played a LOT of Boardgames this year. There are a few games we’ve played over the last couple years... and last year we picked up a few munchkin games and played those. But this year the boardgames really took off. It really started in the spring – I can’t remember why, but I picked up a copy of Small World and brought it home to play. We played it a few more times. At the end of the school year – after the kids year end portfolio review – we stopped by the Dragon’s Den and picked up a couple expansions for Small World and King of Tokyo (which a friend had given us for Xmas last year). Things really took off in August when I started playing Smash Up with the kids. In September I made a pact with them that we were going to play at least ONE GAME EVERY DAY throughout the month. We did  it. WE played 69 games through the month – averaging over TWO a day!? WE also started hosting a weekly boardgame afternoon for some other homeschoolers on Tuesday afternoons.

Also in the spring I started in on a survey of world history – starting with ancient times – and I started looking for games thematically related to what we were studying. I already had Ur and The Hanging Gardens for Mesopotamia, and I picked up Ra for ancient Egypt. We’ve also played Olympus for the Greeks. I have many, MANY more lined up for this next year.

As I mentioned in the Game Plan 2015 I would like to play 100 new games (games that I own that I have not played – or haven’t played in the last 7 years since I started recording game plays on BGG. We kicked things off a week and a half ago – the day the kids finished up their activity books for the year. I told them we would, over the next two weeks before The Boy’s birthday, play one new game every day. 90% of our Xmas gifts this year were Boardgames so we had a lot of NEW, new stuff to choose from over the last week. So far we’ve played Roborally, Age of Mythology: The Boardgame, Lover Letter, Ingenious, Pandemic, 7 Wonders, Arkham Horror, Chaos Marauders, Fearsome Floors, Small World Underground, Shadows Over Camelot, Smash Up with our new Science Fiction Double Feature and the Geeks from the  Big Geeky Box, and finally, on New Year’s Eve, Star Treek: Catan - scratching 14 off the list of unplayed games! We’ll continue through to Monday (The Boy’s Birthday – which will be a DAY OF GAMING!) There will be a post on this after the birthday celebrations – I’ve been taking pictures of all the games.

We didn’t do so much Role-playing this year. Throughout the first half of the year we tried getting a couple of campaigns going – mostly with my friend Christian and his daughters – but they weren’t available often enough it was hard to maintain continuity or enthusiasm (especially for me the GM) when 2-3 weeks (or even a month) would go by between sessions – which were generally limited to Friday or Saturday evenings when everyone was pretty tired… Perhaps next year…

Painting? As mentioned, I painted a LOT of Feudal Japanese for the first two months of the year. After that…? bits of this and that… I added considerably to the Ancients and fantasy collections – for Song of Blades and Heroes and Song of Shadows and Dust. I finished up a bunch of Ancient and Mythical Greeks – hoping to use them in a Greek Myth role-playing game using A Tale of Blades and Heroes - which never really got off the ground…

I seem to have failed in the Paint-More-Than-I-Purchase Department. 845 28mm foot painted to 1181 purchased (or otherwise acquired) – it wasn’t really as bad as it looks over 400 of those “purchased (or otherwise acquired)” were a pile of cheap plastic Hät 28mm Napoleonics that I’d convinced Amanda to get for me for my birthday (an online store was blowing them out of $5 or maybe $7 for a box – I can’t remember, it was an insane deal – there’s 32-48 figures in each of those boxes!?) Other than that I bought a lot of Feudal Japanese – most of them got painted. I bought a lot of ancients – most of those got painted. At the end of the year I bought a pile of Great War British (that I’ll be using as Canadians)… I haven’t even touched them yet – but they’ll get painted some time early in the New Year.

I spent quite a bit of time painting and reading with the kids – we would all sit down to paint miniatures – but each of us would take turns taking a break from painting to read a chapter of a novel – we got through a lot of books this year.

Well… that’s pretty much it…  I hope this past year has been as fun and exciting for you as it has been for me – and I hope this New Year finds you all healthy, happy, and gaming! 

Game Plan 2014 – Fall/Winter

It’s feeling like summer is drawing to an end already. Says are getting shorter… evenings cooler… and so my thoughts turn to what I’m going to be doing for the rest of the year. There has been a lot of other planning at my place lately – mostly classes and activities for the kids, and Amanda, and even me! Honestly I don’t know how were going to fit everything in.

Looking back at the last Game Plan 2014 Update I was mostly considering what I was going to be painting over the next 6-8 months. Not a lot has changed, I’m mostly planning on working on much the same stuff. I may not reach my objective of painting more than I’ve purchased… but I’ll be close… and I’ll do WAY better next year! (This year’s acquisitions were skewed a bit by the 400+ super cheap plastic Hät figures – at $7 per box the whole shebang was about $100 and worked out to 25¢ - or less - per figure… who could pass up THAT action!?)

Anyway, the plan…

Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign

From September to November I’m going to run a A Song of Blades and Heroes/Song of Deeds and Glory campaign on Saturday evenings – when I’m not playing in the GURPS Modern Horror Campaign (see below). Why Song of Blades and Heroes and not Song of Shadows and Dust right away? Well I HAVE enough figures I could supply warbands for SoBH for any number of players right now – and some other players could currently supply their own warbands (and I’ll be encouraging some of the others to work on their OWN!). This will also give us time to all build more factions and terrain to run a proper SSD campaign in the new year.

GURPS Modern Horror Campaign

What the WHAT!? My friend John is threatening to run a GURPS Modern Horror Role-Playing campaign starting in October – once a month for 10 months. I’m actually pretty excited about the idea of PLAYING in a role-playing game… even if it is GURPS…

Other Role-Playing Games

I’d like to run a role-playing game for the kids (and possibly some friends) in the fall, but I haven’t quite figured out when or what… I’m thinking I will probably use  A Tale of Blades and Heroes and run a campaign set in Greek Mythology or the Roman Empire in the first century AD (perhaps using some stuff from Cthulhu Invictus…?). maybe I’ll run both over the winter… I’m really torn – both seem really appealing to me right now.

Song of Shadows and Dust Campaign

As mentioned above I’m planning on running a Song of Shadows and Dust campaign in the new year. Over the next few months I'll be working on some new figures to build new factions or add options to factions I'm currently working on. I hope some others around here might build some of their own factions!! I also plan on building a whole lot more buildings so that I'll be able to run a few games concurrently. 

Board Games

I’ve been playing a lot more board games with the kids lately. They’re both getting old enough to play some more sophisticated games and we’ve been trying out ones I’ve been sitting on for a couple years – mostly ones thematically related to stuff we’ve been reading about in the history we’ve been studying. This week we’ve been kind of crazy about Smash Up (which is not-so-thematically related…), but some of the other thematically related games I have lined up to try out include Ra, Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean,  Quo Vadis?, Ostia, The Hanging Gardens ,  Palatinus, Ostrakon and Conquest of the Empire… and I wouldn’t mind getting in a few more games of Ur or Ark… or some other not-so-thematically-related favourites such as Small World, or any of the Munchkin we have.

DBA/HOTT

While I’m not really planning on doing a DBA or HOTT campaign for the 11^th Annual Tim’s Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend as I had been thinking of at the time of the last Game Plan 2014 Update , I would still like to at least finish up the New Kingdom Egyptians and Nubians, and at least TWO (of five) Greek Hoplite armies, and something to fight my Early Imperial Romans. I would definitely still like to run a Greek City State campaign at some point – as well as a Roman Civil War and a Campaigns of Alexander and/or Wars of the Successors campaign(s) – as I HAVE figures for all those… just got to get them painted… For now though… just enough to play a few more games “thematically related” to our studies.

Painting, Modelling, and Terrain-Building

In the immediate future I’ll likely be working on ancient and fantasy subjects for the remainder of the year – mostly individual figures and terrain for A Song of Blades and Heroes or Song of Shadows and Dust, but, as mentioned above, I would also like to get a few DBA/HOTT  armies finished up as well.

Probably in November/December our Reaper Miniatures Bones II: The Return Of Mr Bones! Kickstarter figures will be arriving…. Theoretically those are “for the kids”… so hopefully it shouldn’t affect my plans.

ToonCon?

Earlier in the year I had been thinking I’d run stuff a ToonCon again this year. I had fun running Force on Force, Ambush Z  and Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878… and I thought I might run some “Song of…” games this year… but then I just got feeling overwhelmed by all the other stuff going on this summer and fall and decided to give this year a miss… It seems I get to them every other year… so… maybe next year.

Great War?

The great War projects have fallen by the wayside somewhat this year… Maybe next year… I would still like to do the Canadian Corps attack of Vimy Ridge in 2017… (See Vimy Project Planning)

and finally, thinking ahead into 2015... 

11^th Annual Tim’s Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend

Well, considering the success This Year’s skirmish campaign I have decided to put off the DBA or HOTT Greek campaign for another time and instead run a Song of Shadows and Dust campaign – perhaps incorporating some of the more detailed campaign/faction building rules from Song of Deeds and Glory for the “main event” on Friday/Saturday. Then, following the Same Format on the Sunday we will play a thematically related boardgame: Conquest of the Empire… and any other (shorter) board/card games we happen to be able to cram into the remains of the day… but more on that in a couple months… 

Ancient Grape Harvesters and Game Plan Update

Well… here was are half way through the year…

To date I have painted 454 28mm foot figures – along with a few mounted, a gun and some terrain bits and a bunch of larger terrain tiles! Unfortunately I have acquired 962 28mm foot figures! The bulk of that (over half) was my birthday present from Amanda which was mostly 28mm plastic Hät Napoleonics – enough to build the infantry requirements for French, Prussian, and Bavarian armies for Neil Thomas’ Napoleonic Wargaming and have a sizeable bit left over for skirmishing with Song of Drums and Shakos.

I do plan to paint more than I aquire from now on so I have 508 28mm foot figures to paint in the next 6 months. That’s about 2.75 figures per day or about 18-20 per week for the next 27 weeks. A very doable amount  - for me! It does help, however, when I have a clear plan.

So I’ve been thinking and planning the last week or so and trying to figure out what I could get done in the next 6 months.

I had been planning on finishing up the 3^rd Canadian Division for the Vimy project. I think I’ll finish up the 7^th Infantry Brigade (which I already have figures for) and some Corps Troops – but I may hold off on doing the 9^th Infantry brigade until next year (as I would have to BUY some figures to complete those and then I have MORE to paint to paint more than I’ve acquired!?)

And what else am I planning to paint for the rest of the year? Well as I am studying the ancient world with the kids this year I thought I’d try and focus my gaming there as well. I have about 60 more Romans to finish up (Gladiators, Civilians and a few Legionnaires and Auxiliary troops) which I think I’ll start with over the next three weeks…

Then I think I’d like to work on my Nubians and Ancient Egyptians Betrween the two DBA armies and some individually based figures for skirmishing I have about 140 figures plus 4 chariots – which would take me another 7 weeks (putting us at the first week of September – right around when we start reading about Greeks – if all goes according to plan).

At some point I’d like to sneak in a few battalions of Great War Canadians and maybe finish off the final battalion of Early War French – though I don’t have any Early War Germans to oppose them.

Over the fall and winter I’d like to work toward finishing up all the historical and mythical Greeks I have. I have about 50 individually based figures for skirmishing/role-playing and about 450 figures to finish up for 6 DBA/HOTT Ancient/Mythical Greek armies (Spartan, Theban, Amazon, and three generic Greek Hoplite armies). I won’t get them all finished by the end of the year, but I should get the Amazons and two of the others finished by the end of the year. The remaining three I hope to finish up in January/February so I can have a semi-historical Ancient/Mythical Greek DBA or HOTT campaign for the 11^th annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend! (anyone interested in getting in on that action!?)

If it were a perfect world I could hope the momentum would carry on through the next year and I could finish up the FIVE Alexandrian Successor armies I have figures for and then the three or four Early Imperial Roman armies I have figures for… and the Ancient Germans… but that might be asking a bit much of my attention span…. I DO need to get working on the Vimy stuff if I hope to pull off the Corps attack on the 100^th anniversary in April of 2017!

At some time this year I would like to finish up a couple of terrain tiles I still have materials for. I sould also like to build the terrain for the 3^rd Canadian Division’s area of operations at Vimy (and finish repairing the 4^th Division’s terrain) and maybe build a Roman villa or two and some ancient city buildings that could be passed off as Greek or Roman. Perhaps I could get away with just making some new tile roofs for my Generic Middle East Mud Brick Village…?

I had been thinking I'd run some games at ToonCon this year but that now seems unlikely. With my shifting interests and a lot of other projects on the go this summer and fall (building book shelves, etc). I just don't think I'm going to have the time to commit to organizing a good convention game.

As I get going on DBA/HOTT armies again in the fall I might try and organize another campaign - as it always seems extremely difficult to get any number of local guys to come out on a regular weekly basis it might be a hybrid internet campaign like i ran in the past. The Campaign players would actually not be locals and send in their troop movements and diplomatic negotiations via email - and the battles would be played out locally by whoever shows up wanting to play some HOTT/DBA that week.

We shall see...

In the meantime, here is what I finished up last night…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Some Grape Pickers and grape vines from Wargames Foundry.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Romans.

Maybe some game reports of Power Legion play-tests and possibly a game of Of Gods and Mortals - I’m pretty sure I have enough Greeks I could pull off a small game of this… 

Game Plan 2014 Part Two

Well… the Ronin Campaign and Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge are over and done with, so it’s about time to revisit the Game Plan for 2014. While I’ve set out a fair bit of stuff to do this year for the Vimy Project, I also have some other things in mind I’d like to do…

Ongoing Song of Blades and Heroes Campagin

I’d like to get an ongoing A Song of Blades and Heroes campaign going on – using the expanded campaign rules from Song of Deeds and Glory. I seem to be having trouble getting anyone out on Saturday evenings lately… perhaps I’ll just get one going with Amanda and the kids…

A Fistful of Kung Fu

I would like to get some factions together and play a few games of A Fistful of Kung Fu – Hong Kong Movie Wargame Rules… to get a decent campaign going on I’d have to build a lot of new urban terrain – to look like Hong Kong or “Chinatown”… and I’m a little more taken with the fantasy subjects at the moment.

Summer Song of Blades and Heroes Campagin?

I was thinking it might be fun to have another game weekend in June – to bridge the gap between the February game weekend and Toon Con. A Song of Blades and Heroes campaign weekend seems like a fun idea…

Anyone else interested?

And After That…?

Starting in August we have all sorts of early Great War battle centenaries… Mons...? the Marne…? First Ypres…? I’d started modeling some 40mm British at some point last summer for this purpose (because my friend John has made EVERYTHING BUT the British for 1914 in 40mm….), but now I’m wondering if that’s a bit daft… y’know… since I already have a bunch of my own French… and Belgians… and British… and Russians… all in 28mm and suitable for the 1914 battles. Actually all I need is the blasted Germans (I’d actually ordered a regiment worth of them from Mselstrom Games when they were blowing stuff out just before they imploded… but alas I never got them…). Maybe it’s time to break down and buy a few 1914 Germans from Great War Miniatures and be done with it…

And what about Toon Con? Maybe a 1914 Great War Battle? The centenary of First Ypres would be right around that time…?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Back to our regularly scheduled programming of newly painted figures and game reports!

I have some bizarre oddities on the workbench, not sure which is going to be done next (I’ve been a bit distracted with all this “planificating”) and it’s about time I got in a few more games of A Song of Blades and Heroes with the kids… maybe even get that campaign started! 

10th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash Update

I have settled on the 21-23 February weekend for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend. We will be playing Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai! (well… and some other stuff…).

This image is © Osprey Publishing and I’ve used it here entirely without their permission (but since I’ve been effectively giving them all sorts of free promotion- by getting all you reader jazzed about playing – and buying – the game, I’m hoping they won’t mind!)

While about 14 people have expressed interest in playing, but I’m expecting about 10 players will actually show up.

Friday Evening

7pm-ish until we’re done

Get to Know Your Buntai (and the others)

We will sort out who is playing which Buntai and then play a few fun, pick up games to learn the rules – for those that haven’t played yet – and gauge the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various Buntai.

For previous campaigns, we’ve usually had one big mega-battle. Ronin doesn’t really lend itself to that sort of play, so I’m hoping over the next seven weeks to get in a lot of games with as many of the local players so I’ll have a cadre of players who will know the basic ins and outs of the game.

Saturday 

9am until whenever we get sick of it… (I’m hoping to get in at least five games)

Ronin Campaign/Tournament.

I will have TEN different Buntai ready for everyone to play with (though players are free to bring their own as well!). Everyone will start with a 400 point master roster with ~150 points being used per game – with casualties being kept track of – some, that don’t DIE, will be able to recover over the course of the campaign. Some guys will be able to advance in ability through an experience system. This is why I’m calling it a “Campaign”

Both the master list and what is fielded in each scenario should conform to the composition requirements for the Buntai. By the last scenario it may be more of a “play with whatever you have left” situation… I’m still trying to work out how to deal with any luckless player who, after three games going very poorly, finds himself without ANY models left in his buntai…. I’m currently thinking them ninjas and let them play assassination scenarios…? We shall see.

We will determine who is playing whom, through a Swiss-draw system - hence “tournament”. I figured this would be easier than some sort of map campaign – but maybe we could try that next time!

The overall winner will be determined by number of victories, ties will be broken by total accumulated victory points, if there is STILL a tie it will go to who ever has the most points remaining in their buntai

Sunday

This image is © Wizards of the Coast and I’ve used it here entirely without their permission (Again, I’m hoping they won’t mind the free promotion!)

For those who haven’t had enough… we will be playing Ikusa - a big multi-player strategy board game set in Feudal Japan for 3 to 5 players.

In The Meantime…

So what do I need to do between now and then? Well I sat down last night to do a bit of stocktaking to see where I am at and planning to make sure I have everything ready. I started by making up some actual Buntai with all the figures I have to get a sense of what I will actually NEED to have painted for the weekend…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Here are nine of the Buntai. They are (front row, left to right; Ikko-Ikki, Peasants, Bandits, "Lion Clan" Bushi Buntai, Sohei; back row, left to right; "Crane Clan" Bushi Buntai, "Dragon Clan" Bushi Buntai, "Crab Clan" Bushi Buntai, and "Phoenix Clan" Bushi Buntai,…) There is one more on it’s way as well A second Sohei Buntai) as a few more figures for one or two of the other Buntai.

Almost all of them I will have all 400 points worth of miniatures painted – which is about double what I really NEED – because only 150 points worth will ever be on the table. The exceptions are the Peasants - as the will have between thirty and forty in the master roster, but only a dozen will likely ever be on the table… Also I think the second Sohei Buntai will be one figure short of 400.

As I finish up the buntai I’ll try and post pictures of them. The only complete one at the moment is the Lion Clan Bushi Buntai. I have painted all the figures I have for the Sohei and Ikko-Ikki - though there are a few figures in the mail that I’m hoping to add to them before the campaign. The  Peasants are also done, except for a few more Peasants en route from Black Hat Miniatures. The Bandits are also very close to being done. The remaining Bushi buntai are what need the most work. I probably won’t even need them. If I get ten players and couple of them are Paul and/or Cory and/or Curt (who are the awesome kind of dudes that paint their own damned toys!) I’ll only need seven or eight of them. But I do want to have ten ready incase I end up with a dozen people on the day!

In all I think I figured I have about 75 figures that I still have to paint. I could probably get those done by the end of January or first week of February (given my regular rate of painting) – and that would give me a couple of weeks to make some new terrain and game boards and such – and, if need be, paint up a few more guys – if January’s play-testing has turned up and major problems with any of the Buntai.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Lion Clan" Bushi Buntai! 

After that I'll hopefully have a Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878 report for you as I ams supposed to be heading over to John Bertolini's tomorrow for a game! 

Game Plan 2014

So…. 2014…

BIG EVENTS

I do like to plan and host a couple big gaming events each year.

The first event I am planning for this year is the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend - some changes and decisions have been made since that original planning post, but there’s some nice background there…

The weekend will be 21-23 February and will have a Feudal Japanese/Warring States period theme to it. The big event will be a Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai campaign/tournament Friday night and all day Saturday. I’m expecting about ten participants for that. More on that in a bit. Sunday, for those who haven’t have enough, we will be playing a game of Ikusa.

I’m also planning on running games at ToonCon 2014 – though I have NO IDEA what I’ll be running at this point. Maybe some 1914 Great War battles…?

I also wouldn’t mind hosting some sort of weekend event in the summer. I’ve done that previously and it was pretty fun. I had thought about it briefly last summer but decided not to as I wasn’t sure when the renovations might get underway or be finished?! – originally the contractors had talked abut starting in April (and were supposed to be by June), instead they started in late July and things STILL aren’t finished!!

REGULAR GAMING

Board and Card Games

I’d really like to do a lot more board gaming – especially short quick games (less than an hour) Like Drakon or Munchkin. I have a whole shelving unit full of board games I picked up cheap from a distributor that was going out of business a few years back thinking “these would be great to play with the kids some day…” Well that someday is now, and I better get on it!

I also have a few games I picked up that weren’t so cheap that aren’t quick to play – Age of Conan, Warrior Knights, Axis & Allies 1942, Axis & Allies 1940 Europe, Axis & Allies 1940 Pacific, Axis & Allies 1914, Ikusa. I need to set aside some Saturday afternoons or evenings and get some of those PLAYED!

From the aforementioned going-out-of-business distributor I also picked up a PILE of starter decks of Gold and Diamond edition Legend of the Five Rings. I sat down and tried to read through the rules with the kids and tried a game a couple weeks ago. We didn’t get started until later in the evening – so we never had a chance to finish the game – but I’d like to have a go at that again. I know the boy will totally get sucked into that kind of gaming. Maybe I shouldn’t encourage this…

Skirmish Miniature Gaming

I’m pretty fired up about Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai at the moment and most of my gaming over the next two month will be focused on this. I hope I’m not absolutely sick of it by the end of February! Amanda and the kids got their own plastic Wargames Factory Samurai and Ashigaru for Xmas so I hope they’ll get their own buntai together and it will be something we can all play now and again.

I wouldn’t mind playing some more Ambush Alley games; Force on Force, Tomorrow’s War, and Ambush Z - but it’s a little hard to see beyond February at the moment. Perhaps I’ll do a new Game Plan after the Wargaming Weekend.

I’ve got in on  North Star Miniatures Pre-order deal for A Fistful of Kung Fu. The miniatures look fun and I’m hoping it will rock like Ronin does… but I’ve found the Osprey Wargames rules to be a little hit and miss – so I’m not holding my breath. Maybe if it does that could be the focus of my summer gaming weekend.

Big Battle Miniature Gaming

I’d REALLY like to play some more Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878. I don’t really have any forces for the game so that will all kind of depend on John. I did pick up Neil Thomas’  Napoleonic Wargaming - which I do have some figures for – though I’d need to paint up a lot of new ones…

I’d also like to do some Great War wargaming. It’s the 100^th anniversary of the opening of hostilities for the Great War. Some epic battles that could be recreated (at some level) – Mons, First Ypres, the Marne… I have a few 1914 British and French… and some Russians I could pass off as early war… I need more Germans though. And I’m not entirely sure what rules to use – probably our old mash-up/modified version of Contemptible Little Armies (Ever Contemptible Victorious Little Black Powder Armies of Doom?). Perhaps this is what I’ll do for ToonCon 2014.

Role-Playing Games

Wow… 2013 was a poor year for Role-playing around our house which is odd because the kids LOVE role-playing games… I’ve got at least two potential game groups going on…

On Friday nights I’ve been trying to organize a Savage Worlds game with our family and Christian and his girls. So far we’ve made characters (twice) and played a couple sessions. We’ve started a campaign set in Rokugan – the setting of the Legends of the Five Rings CCG and RPGs. Hopefully that will last a while – at least until February or so…

On Saturday nights I’d started a Tour of Darkness campaign but that’s kind of fizzled for the moment as I’ve recruited the Saturday night gamers to help me learn Ronin and playtest scenarios for the upcoming Wargame Weekend. I’d like to get back to that campaign… but there’s other things I’d like to do as well…

I’ve picked up a bunch of 40K RPG stuff over the last year (Only War and Rogue Trader) and I’m kind of fired up to have a go at them. For most of the last decade any role-playing games or miniatures skirmish games I’ve played I’ve simply converted to Savage Worlds - I liked it and it’s universal enough that it could beused for most things… but this last year has been the year of trying out new games… and I thought I’d continue the trend by actually using FFGs 40k RPG system. I’m not sure who I’ll play this with… Could be the Friday night kids game… could be the Saturday night game… Regardless, it probably won’t be until after February.

PAINTING

For the next seven weeks I’m pretty much going to be exclusively painting Samurai and such for the Ronin campaign – and hopefully find some time in there to make some new terrain! 

After that…? Well, I should probably take stock of things in March and come up with a plan then for the rest of the year… or at least the next quarter. But if I HAD to plan out my painting for the year (which is ridiculous) I’d like to think in March I’d paint the Fistful of Kung Fu miniatures and maybe finish up those last few Moderns. Maybe paint up a few more 40K items to run a Rogue Trader and/or Only War campaign. After that I’d like to think I’ll get work on some more Great War stuff.

I don’t really need to BUY much stuff. I have more than enough Japanese (now that I’ve just put in another small order to Perry and Black Hat – for a few more peasants and some Ashigaru to convert into Sohei…). I have loads of moderns and feel no great need to pick up any more at the moment – including many I could use for A Fistful of Kung Fu if it turns out to be an okay game and I need more than the four basic squads.

If I am to do any 1914 battles I will need some 1914 Germans. I’d kind of been planning on picking up some Renegade Miniatures, but they seemed to have closed up shop for the time being. Great War Miniatures, perhaps? Or just modify the masters of the later War Germans I made myself and cast my own!?

Regardless of what I do I plan to paint at least TWICE as many miniatures as I purchase (or otherwise acquire)! Maybe I should make some more serious efforts to get rid of a few… 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Tomorrow I should be able to post the last of the miniatures I painted in 2013 (they are currently up on Analogue Hobbies - for those of you who just can't wait! - I don't blame you...). 

Maybe a bit more about the current plan for the 10th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend...? 

Fall/Winter 2013 Planning

I’ve been flailing around for a few months with out a plan or direction so I thought it might be a good ides to sit down and make some sort of plan to give myself some forcus for the rest of the year and into the new year.

Looking back on my Plans for 2013…

For the Birthday Bash I ended up playing a game of Bolt Action on the Satruday and the Top Malo House Scenario for Force on Force. I’m already starting to plan for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash next year.

After that I didn’t really organize any other weekend games or campaigns… I did play a bit of Force on Force and Ambush Z… and played a few games of Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878 over at John Bertolini’s. I also organized and ran a few games at ToonCon 2013.

I did finish painting up a LOT of Modern 28mm stuff (and a fair bit of Great War stuff too)! Here's that list I made…

Modern & WW2

FOOT

Modern

30x Modern USMC – DONE!

45x Modern US Rangers, etc. – Still to do…

30x Modern SAS – Still to do…

20x Modern RM – Still to do…

30x Modern Germans – DONE!

15x Astd. Russians/Soviets _DONE! and DONE!

20x Cold War British – DONE!

30x Modern Africans – DONE! and DONE!

40x Central/South Americans – Still to do

65x Zombies –DONE! (well…mostly…) unfortunately I don’t have a post with pictures of the whole Horde… (I should do that…)

20-30x Modern Civilians – I think I’ve finished most of these… but then acquired more! Again, no pics of the lot and they were done in bits.

8 x SWAT – DONE!? (I think…?)

20x MegaMinis SWAT – Still to do…

30x Vietnam Americans – DONE!

20x Vietnam Anzacs – DONE!

WW2

24x Soviets – I may have done a few but mostly “still to do…”

20x Paras - – Still to do…

I have a lot of others to do as well. but these were the only ones I’d PLANNED to do. I also finshed a bunch of First Special Service Force.

Vehicles

2x M1 Tank – Still to do…

2x LAV-25 – Still to do…

2x Warrior MCV – one DONE!, one still to do…

3x Challenger - two DONE!, one still to do…

3x BTR-60 – DONE!

3x T-72 – Still to do… (but I didn’t paint a T-55!)

3x Marder – Still to do…

4x Hummers – Still to do…

1x Modern Pick up Truck – Still to do…

1x M113 – DONE!

1x M48 - DONE!

I didn’t do any of the planned WW2 vehicles…

Great War, Etc.

Foot

30x ANZACS – still to do…

50x EW French – a few Infantry, More Infantry, and Machine-guns DONE! But one more infantry unit still to do…

30x Belgians I gone a few Carabiniers DONE! – But still have a few to do…

60x Turks – still to do…

30x EW British (Scots, actually) – still to do…

20x Germans DONE! (mostly)

180+ Canadians – Still to do… ( I think I painted a few, here and there…)

80x Boers – Still to do…

40x French Foreign Legion -  DONE!

Mounted

10x ANZACs – Still to do…

10x French – Still to do…

8x EW British (Indians, actually) - DONE!

10x Germans DONE!

10 x Canadians – Still to do…

20x Boers – Still to do…

That is a fair bit I got done so far... and looking at the Painted vs. Acquired I'm doing not so bad - I'll have painted more than I bought by the end of the year... I won't have painted TWICE as much as I bought (which I'd secretly hoped), but maybe next year...

So what to do for the rest of this year…?

The Kids

I got playing a lot of Board Games and card games with the kids (mostly munchkin variants – Supers, Cthulhu, Conan) and I’d like to keep doing that.

I started out the year playing a lot of Ambush Z with them, that’s fallen by the wayside, but I’d like to get going on that again – especially now that Keira’s painted all her own zombies! I’ve also played a few Force on Force games with them and should do more of that too.

They’ve really been wanting to play another Savage Worlds campaign, and I’ve been promising I would for a long time, but just haven’t gotten to that. A week or so ago we made characters for a new Fantasy campaign, but that’s as far as we’ve gotten. I’m hoping when the renovation dust settles (literally), and things are less chaotic we will get on with that. It’d also be fun to include some other friends (CHRISTIAN! I’m looking at YOU!) (and Aaron... and Bruce...) (All gaming pals I know with kids around my kids age that like playing games) 

Vietnam

For the longest time I’ve run role-playing games on Saturday nights. For a good few years now it’s been Savage Worlds (Savage Saturday Nights) and thos campaigns (as well as the ones with the kids have been chronicles at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse. At the end of last year the campaign fizzled and we started playing Ambush Z. Over the summer even that died off – with ramping up for the renovations and people just generally being busy doing other stuff…

Somehow, probably because I got motivated to finish up my 28mm Vietnam stuff, I got it in my head that I’d be fun to run a Savage Worlds   Tour of Darkness campaign… except using Force on Force/Ambush Valley to play out the skirmishes (you can see the AAR from the first mission here: In Country.

Hobby-wise this won’t be much work as I have pretty much all the miniatures I need to play painted… I would like to build some new terrain – fox-holes, sand-bag bunkers and other perimeter defences for an air base and/or fire support base, gun emplacements, log bunkers, new Vietnamese buildings, better rice paddies, more jungle, streams, tunnel entrances/Hot Spot markers, etc… I’m sure there’s a few figures I might pick up and paint at some point… maybe a few more vehicles (additional M113s, M113ACAVs, a few Huey Slicks…). But nothing that’s going to hold me back from playing.

28mm Modern

I do still have a few modern things I’d like to finish up… the Generic US-backed Central or South Americans, some Modern Americans and British (RM and SAS) and a bunch of vehicles – 2xM1 tanks, 3xT-72 tanks, 2x Leopard 2 Tanks, 3x Marder IFV, 1x Warrior IFV, and a bunch of assorted cars and trucks… I also have a handful of modern zombies and civilians to finish up and a bunch of Geezers (I got the “one of everything” special deal… lots to still do!)

I also have a handful of Zombies left to do… I should get those done… It might be nice to make a few more buildings too.

20mm Modern!?

I have a bunch of 20mm stuff I’m not sure what to do with… Most of it was based on multi-figure bases and I used it for Cold War Commander. I have since taken all the 1970s/80s Cold war stuff off those based and based them individually for playing Force on Force… (I figured If ever I was going to play CWC again I’d just build new forces with 6mm micro armour). Of course I have a lot of those same things in 28mm, but I have a lot MORE in 20mm… It seems sill having them in both scales… maybe I could sell off the 20mm stuff to fund picking up more 28mm stuff – tanks and IFVs in particular - mind you a LOT of the 20mm tanks and IFVs I have aren’t even assembled or painted, so I wouldn’t get much at all for them… and some you just can’t get in 28mm… Anyway, whether I selll them off or just USE them, I'd like to finish up a few of those forces.

 I have even more Vietnam stuff in 20mm still on the multi-figure bases. Maybe I’ll keep them that way and use them for larger engagements using CWC – there aren’t so many tanks and vehicles to clog up the table (that was the real downside of using 20mm stuff for CWC)…

40mm Great War

I started sculpting a few 40mm Great War British a while back, but haven’t had time or space (both in reality and in my head) to do much work on them since the renovations began… I’d like to finish them up over the winter and be able to play some 1914 battle with John (I painted a Unit of his 40mm French a while back…). He’s got pretty much everyone BUT the British sculpted and ready to cast and paint… We’re planning to use our own variant of Neil Thomas’ Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878.


28mm Great War

I did get a lot of that stuff done in the summer... and 2014 approaches... maybe that'll be a spring/summer project next year...? 

40K!?

NO I’m not about to start playing 40K… but I did read a few novels over the summer and got inspired by all their fluff and had it in my head to run an Only War campaign (except using Savage Worlds for character creation and role-playing aspects and using Tomorrow’s War for playing out the firefights… and maybe Future War Commander! with Epic minis for playing out the REALLY BIG battles!) (Wow… how many gaming heresies did I commit in that last statement!?). I painted a bunch of my imperial guard and picked up some more and a few Orks… But that moment may have passed…. For the moment… but it’ll be back…

Hordes of the Things

I’ve been feeling the urge to bust out the armies and start playing again. The kids and I used to play a lot of this – it was probably the first miniatures game I ever played with them. It might be handy to get some practice in as I might be running a campaign for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash! Playing might motivate me to finsh up a few new armies or at least finish up the remaining elements needed for a few armies…

WW2…?

There are a number of forces that would only take a week or two to totally finish up… and part of me wants to (because I sould use them for Force on Force, or could have another go at Bolt Action - with a few tweaks…). But, as I think I mentioned earlier, I’m sick to death of World War Two…

Other Stuff

I have a few items that I promised to paint for others that I am determined to get done before the end of this year! I have a few Aurora Monsters I’m painting for Rick – I may not actually get ALL of those done, but I am going to get The Mummy done, and hopefully one of the others (King Ghidorah and a Robot and some other creature from Lost in Space). I also have a package of Watchmen miniatures (from Grenadier Miniatures for the the old DC RPG) and a few cars and bikes and pedestrians for Dark Future that I’m painting for John Burt.

Blog

One thing I’ve really been wanting to do for a while is update my pages – all those galleries listed over there on the top left… Once the renos are done I’d like to get out in some natural light (if it’s not too cold!) and get some proper pictures of my existing collection – and maybe take stock of painted vs unpainted again while I’m at it…

Um… I think that’s about it for now… Is that too much? Probably... 

10th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash

As soon as ToonCon was over, during a few moments that dealing with the renovations weren’t completely overwhelming, I started thinking about what to do this fall/winter game-wise (and there’ll be another post about that shortly) and that, ultimately, got me thinking about next year’s Wargaming Birthday Bash. This year will be the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash – so I’ve been thinking it ought to be something big… but what?

Here’s what I’ve done over the previous years:

(I wish I could have dug out some pictures of the eariler ones - as I'm sure i have them somewhere... but that was a previous computer and they're all stored on CDRs and burried in boxes under many, many more boxes somewhere in one of the rooms with less renovating going on... maybe I'll do a "Looking Back" post in February and be able to dig them out then...) 

2005 – Operation Biting: the Bruneval Raid – I think we used Flames of War – with 20mm figures - we had just heard of Flames of War and hadn’t even been able to track down a copy of the rules and so played it with the Quick Reference Sheet I downloaded of Battlefront’s website!

2006 – France 1940 – Flames of War

2007 - Mask of Amenakken IV – Savage Worlds Pulp Adventure

2008 – MiniCon - John’s Horse and Musket game, North Africa – Blitzkrieg Commander, Savage Worlds Sailing Ship Battle, Rippers Werewolf Hunt, and Read Dawn: Northern Alberta – Cold War Commander

2009 - Hordes of the Things

2010 – Mini Con with Hordes of the Things  and THREE Savage Worlds games!

2011 - East Africa – Contemptible Little Armies and Warrior Knights

2012 – Dark Age DBA Campaign and Very British Civil War – Contemptible Little Armies

2013 – Force on Force – Top Malo House and East Front - Bolt Action

I’m kind of tempted to run a Hordes of the Things or De Bellis Antiquitatis campaign… though a skirmish campaign of sorts also seems appealing (to me at least…) or just another Mini Con with a half dozen assorted different games (miniatures and board games) played over a weekend…?

Here are some of the possibilities:

HOTT/DBA Campaign

The campaigns are always fun and draw out a lot of folks. I’m kind of leaning towards HOTT because the state of DBA seems a bit up in the air at the moment. Part of me wants to go nuts and finish up a pile of Greek Hoplite armies and run a Greek Myth inspired campaign... Or there’s always the good old Dark Ages…

Skirmish Campaign

This would be a series of linked scenarios using Force on Force or Ambush Z or Tomorrow’s War (or even Savage Worlds, but probably not). Players would control a couple of teams of… whatever… and a “hero” or team leader? And have limited reinforcements over the campaign. Could be head to head  or co-operative. I think I’ve floated this idea before but no one seems to really be willing to commit to show up like they do for the DBA/HOTT campaigns. 

Mini Cons

So many games so little time… Why not play a bunch I haven’t gotten to play in forever over the space of a weekend… I could dig out Contemptible Little Armies for some Great War Action and/or Ever Victorious Armies for some Colonial Action…. A HOTT mega-battle… Something Horse and Musketty - or get John to bring out his 40mm 1850s toy soldiers for Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe… a game of Force on Force and/or Ambush Z… a couple of those board games I’ve been dying to play for a while (Age or Conan, etc)?

One Big Board Game?

I have Axis and Allies 1940 (Europe and Pacific). It looks like it might take a whole weekend to play…

I guess I need to settle on a weekend as well…. 22-23 February or 1-2 March…?