Looking Back, Looking Ahead…

Happy New Year to all of you using the Gregorian Calendar. To all of you Mayans, a belated happy new year to you too (I hope you all, like me, had a good chuckle). And a happy... whatever... early or late... to anyone else celebrating anything else soon-ish or recently!

This is that obligatory post about what I did this last year and what I plan to do this year…

Looking at my BGG Stats, once again the game I played most was Savage Worlds – 31 games – a bit more that once every other week – which is good and bad. Good because… well… hey, I played 31 games! Not-so-good because most of the year I theoretically had TWO weekly games scheduled (one on Friday afternoon with the kids and some other homeschoolers, and the Saturday evening “big kids” game)… and more than half were cancelled for one reason or another.

Many of those games were chronicled over at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse. At the beginning of the year we were still trying to get through the Dragonlance campaign (both groups were playing the campaign) but that ground to a halt fairly early in the new year. I think I took a bit of a break from both campaigns through spring and/or summer and then tried to get a new Cthulhu game going for the “big kids” on Saturday night… we started At Your Door in July, but by December had only played seven sessions, covering about a week or two of the campaign in game time.

In the fall I tried to get a game going with the kids and other homeschoolers – trying a Greek Myth Campaign and a Supers Campaign but only managed to get in a game or two of each.

Other games I played a lot of were DBA and HOTT. The DBA was in the first two months or so. I was play testing the current playtest versions of DBA 3.0 and then ran a Dark Ages Camapign in February for the 8^th Annual Wargames Birthday Bash weekend (well it was the 8^th Annual Bash… only three or four of them were extended into full weekend mini-cons).

The HOTT games were mostly leading up to (and including) the HOTT Summer 2012 Campaign in June… after that…?

Looking back at the Original Game Plan 2012 I’d planned to do the DBA and HOTT campaigns and then planned on running the Battle of Queenston Heights in October. That never happened. The idea fizzled in the early weeks of 2012 as I was painting up a storm for Curt’s 2^nd Annual Winter Painting Challenge when I really should have been sculpting the figures I’d planned to sculpt and paint for the battle. I suppose I could have just BOUGHT the figures I needed and painted them… Anyway, after the time the DBA campaign was over I posted an updated Game Plan 2012 – Second Quarter which had more or less abandoned the Queenston Heights plan….

 I’d also planned to play a bunch of Board Games in 2012. I played none of those. Infact the only board games I played all year were Avatar: The Board Game (a gift form my pal “Other Tim”) and The Hobbit ( a gift from Terry) – both of which I played with the kids about three times each – and Apples to Apples Kids (on that I actually bought myself), again, played with the kids… hopefully we’ll play that some more now that Keira is getting better at reading and won’t need OTHER people to play.

Hopefully I’ll get around to playing a few more Board Games this year…

After the DBA and HOTT campaigns I’d been privately planning new campaigns. At one point I’d floated the idea of running a Greek City State campaign for the 2013 game weekend… but that quickly fizzled as not one person I’d sent out the idea to even bothered to respond. Someday I will revisit this idea. Over the last year I’ve acquired enough minis for four or five historical DBA Greek Hoplite armies – plus I have another four armies that could be used; Skythian and Thracian, as well as some Amazons and Centaurs (if we were to play a “semi-historical” campaign – by “semi-historical” I mean we’d use DBA with historical opponents lists but the Amazons and Centaurs would be proxies – the Amazons would likely be fielded using the Thracian list and the Centaurs would be Skytians…). My hope was that I’d get at least two or three people to make their OWN damn armies and then we could have a really BIG campaign (Jackson’s already got one!). Maybe next year…

I’d also floated the idea of an ongoing campaign to a few people – a campaign where we’d meet once a week and play out a season or two of a campaign. But we couldn’t seem to find a day that would work for anyone, so that idea fizzled too… I may revisit it again this year… or next year… What worked reasonably well in the past was having the heads of state (the players deciding where armies would move) play by email, and games of any battles that occurred were played by whoever happened to show up that week. At this point I could simply recruit my kids to play the battles with me. So when I’m ready to look at HOTT or BDA again, that’s a possibility…

By the end of the HOTT Summer Campaign I’d more or less abandoned all previous plans and was casting about for something new… Besides the DBA/HOTT campaign planning already mentioned I started painting a lot of Great War and Modern stuff through the summer – along with a bunch and ancient/mythical Greek stuff, and a smattering of WW2 items. The modern stuff was initially for the planned Savage Worlds/Cthulhu campaign and the Great War stuff was part of a renewed interest in the Great War. I’d even Revisited the Vimy Project and even got soeme work done on the terrain. By the fall I hadn’t gotten in any games with my newly painted Great War  figures and gave up on the HOTT/DBA campaigns and so I abandoned painting that stuff and carried on with Modern subjects.

Around this time I stumblerd upon Ambush Alley Games and Force on Force.

I’ve been increasingly dissatisfied with using Savage Worlds for modern skirmish games – by “modern” I mean pretty much anything Great War and beyond. Don’t get me wrong I still LOVE Savage Worlds for role-playing and heroic, pre-modern-era skirmishing. But around the Great War – and a bit before it in some places, and certainly ever since  – warfare has changed dramatically – going from headlong charges against an enemy to sneaking about from cover to cover… firing from concealed positions…. And motivating troops to move or even fired from cover is the real challenge for the modern low-level leader in a skirmish situation. I just don’t think Savage Worlds effectively modeled that. I’d been thinking of various ways to add some “realism” to Savage Worlds, but then decided to have a look at a newer set of rules.

Now one of the things I really love about Savage Worlds is that it can be used for pretty much anything. I hate reading rules. Hate. Not “dislike”. Hate. I also have a terrible memory and can’t keep things straight in my head, so I like the idea of rules that can be used for many periods. I’ve more or less reduced the number of games I play to a small handful. For mass battles from the dawn of armies right up to the Napoleonic era I’m totally happy with DBA. After the Napoleonic era up until the Second World War I use Ever Victorious Armies/Contemptible Little armies (or rather my own mash-up which I usually call Ever Contemptible Victorious Little Black Powder Armies of Doom!). From the Second World War on I’ve used Blitzkrieg Commmander and Cold War Commander (though I haven’t actually PLAYED any large scale battles in those periods for years). For ALL skirmish gaming I used Savage Worlds – that’s only four sets of rules I’d ever have to remember!? Yay! I digress.

A few of the blogs I follow had been posting some pretty interesting reviews and battle reports of Ambush Alley and Force on Force and so I looked into that a bit more and liked what I read about in reviews and broke down and picked up a copy (I also picked up a copy of the newly released Bolt Action around the same time – mostly due to the rather exciting reviews and AARs over at the

Fawcett Avenue Conscripts blog, but I haven’t really had a look at it yet). Force on Force pretty much had everything I was looking for in a modern skirmish game. It shared some of the mechanics and the feel of Savage Worlds – but had a lot of clever new ideas that addressed the things I thought was missing in much better ways than I was considering. I’ve since picked up a bunch of the expansion books (Cold War Gone Hot, Bush Wars, Ambush Valley, Enduring Freedom, and Tomorrow’s War). I think FoF would do well for WW2 as well, but I haven’t really tried it yet….

I got in six games of Force on Force and one game of Tomorrow’s War in the closing months of 2012. I plan on playing a lot more of that this coming year. I’m pretty stoked about the announcement of a second edition of Ambush Z.

I painted a lot on 2012. Painted a lot more than I played. Sometimes I got to wondering If I’d EVER get to play with some of the figures I’d painted.

SO… 2013…

I guess the first thing I should really get working on is a plan for the 9^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash! At this point I really have no serious plan. I’m not even sure if It’ll be a weekend of gaming or just an evening game on my birthday. I guess it’ll depend on who’s available.

Options…

#1 Weekend Campaign.

This would be the weekend of 22-24 February and would very likely be a skirmish campaign of sorts likely using Force on Force.

I ran a very successful skirmish campaign in my pre-blog days using a campaign from an old Wargames Illustrated. I think the article had been called “All Quiet on the Chechen Front” and was originally written, obviously, for a modern campaign set in Chechnya. The system could be used for ANY modern (or even not-so-modern) setting. I had used if for a WW2 game. The basic idea is that the campaign is set on a “quiet” section of the line, which is more or less static while the main battle rages on elsewhere. Each side has a platoon holding their respective section of the line and is in the line for three days. The campaign has six turns (three day, three night). The players are given mission for each turn and have to manage their assets through the six campaign turns.

So I could use the “All Quiet” campaign or just some sort of linked scenario narrative campaign…

Of course if AAG got their second edition of Ambush Z out by then – with a campaign system for the Zombie Apocalypse… that might end up being what we’d play…

#2 Weekend Mini-Con

In previous years I’ve run a series of different games over a weekend. The nice thing about this is that participants don’t have to show up for the entire weekend if they’re busy with other things (which people often are…). I could potentially even get others to run one of the games (but I probably won’t – I do like running games…). I could even get in some Boardgaming…

#3 One Big Game

This might be one evening or afternoon over the weekend or could just be on the Monday (the 25^th – my actual birthday). Could be anything….

So I guess the question is:

Who would be available for an entire weekend of gaming (or part of a weekend…) and would you be interested in a skirmish campaign of some sort or a variety of games?

AFTER THAT?

I like the idea of organizing a few big events spread throughout the year – February (the birthday/game weekend), and maybe somthign in June and October. The idea is to have a bigger project to work towards to keep focused – but not so far away that I might lose focus (the next project only being, at most, 4 months away if I were on the Feb-June-Oct cycle). I’m not sure anything is going to happen THIS summer though… We’re planning some major renovations to our house, and while I’m not doing them all myself (we’re hiring people) the house will likely be in a state of total chaos in June. The preceding months will also likely be somewhat chaotic – which would make it difficult to plan and prepare for some event.

October, however… The house stuff SHOULD be done midsummer… Should… It will probably drag on through most of the summer… but by fall I should have time to focus on something… There is ToonCon 2013 at the end of September… I think I’ll just plan to run something there, but I’m not even going to commit to, or even think about,  WHAT exactly I’m going to run there until spring - as plans and interests could easily shift between now and then…

FOR NOW?

I’m planning on continuing with Modern stuff (including ZOMBIES!?). I’d like to finish up a few WW2 things as well…

Here’s some of the stuff I’d like to work on this year… (and maybe even GAME with!?)

Modern Americans

I have a full platoon of Modern USMC from Eureka Miniatures. I’ve Finished One Squad and a Platoon Command Team, but I have two squads yet to finish up. I also have two plastic, 1/48 scale M1 tanks and two “1/48” LAV-25 to build up for support (the LAVs look like they might be a bit bigger than 1/48!?). I’s also like to pick up a pair of Imprint Models AAVP-7A1 at some point to ferry them about….

I have a handful of other modern Americans – mostly “rangers” that I’ll paint in three-color Desert camouflage… They’re not a huge priority…

Modern British

I more or less have the Infantry finished for a platoon, but I have two more Warrior MCVs to finish (one needs painting, the other needs to be assembled and painted) – and I could pick up one more if I wanted a full strength platoon of four – and I have two (or three) plastic, 1/48 scale Challengers to paint up (I have two made by one company and a third made by another and they donn’t quite match up… so  I likely wouldn’t ever use them together…).

I can’t really think of anything I’d like to add to this force… maybe a WMIK or Jackal…?

This doesn’t include the modern SAS that I have… though I have finished the SAS in Desert DPM, I also have an equal number of SAS to be painted in Temperate DPM. (Yes, I know this is insane… but I picked them up at bargain prices… and I am a sucker for a “good deal”).

And then there’s the handful of Royal Marines…

Modern Germans

I have enough Eureka Germans for a modern Panzer Grenadier Platoon. I also have a few 1/48 Marders (I have two and a third in the mail…). I’d like to pick up a Leopard 2 (or two) for additional conventional support.

Modern/Cold War Russians/Soviets

I have a smattering of late Cold War Soviet and more Modern Russian stuff.

The VDV (Air Assault Troops) I have are definitely more “Cold War” I only have about a section of them – made up of Mongrel Miniatures - painted in KLMK camo. I also have a pair of Revell 1/48 Hind D Helicopters to assemble and paint. The number of infantry I have would just fit into the two machines and could be used for surgical strike missions. I would like to fill out a platoon of these at some point. Unfortunately the make-up of the packs isn’t conducive to filling out anything close to the TO&E… to get the requisite AKs and Machine-guns, I’d end up with a company’s (or even battalion’s) worth of designated marksmen armed with Dragunov sniper rifles?! I’s also like ot pick up a few BMD form Sloppy Jalopy. They’d be fun for spearheading the assault on North America in Red Dawn (the original!) inspired scenarios…

I also have a few Motor Rifle troops – they’d be late Cold War Soviet/Early Modern Russian. They’re mostly from The Assault Group, but I have a few Mongrel ones (which are more Cold War-ish). I’d like to fill out a Platoon of Cold War types at some point (more Mongrel figures). As I mentioned I have three BTR-60s and a pair of T-72s. If I wanted to fill out a more modern force I could pick up some BMP-3 or T-80/90 from Imprint Models… but that’s not really a priority…

Cold War British

I recently picked up close to a platoon of Cold War British. I finished up the First Section last week. I need to pick up a few more machineguns to fill out the platoon (probably easiest to buy a British Support Weapon Pack from Gripping Beast as to get more mongel ones would mean getting whole bunch of surplus guys with FNs… just because of the make up of their packs…). I’d really like to pick up some FV-432s from Sloppy Jalopy to ferry these about on the battlefield… of course they could also see action in the Falklands (where they wouldn’t really need the APCs – but could do with a Scorpion!). Some Saxons might be fun too for some internal security missions… Very Cold War British Civil War and all that…

Speaking of the Falklands, though, I could also do with a few more Cold War British Special Ops types (SAS or RM Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre)..

Cold War Argentines

Speaking further of the Falklands… I don’t’ have any in 28mm. I’d like to pick up a platoon worth from Gripping Beast for some Falklands skirmishing.

Modern/Cold War Africans

I recently picked up and painted some Eureka Rhodiesians (I have another stick to finish) and ZANLA, but I have no real interest in gaming the war in Rhodesia… I thought I’d take the AK-47 Republic approach and to my modern African gaming in the fictional African nation of Timbogo (which I have been using since I played AK-47 Republic. So those ZANLA troops will be regulars from the Peoples Revolutionary Army of Timbogo (P.R.A.T.). I’ve also done some Federal Army of the Republic of Timbogo regulars (F.A.R.T.). I have a few militia to finish up that could be used for either side…. Of course any of the other moderns I have could easily intervene on one side or the other… I have some Die-cast BTR-60s and plastic T-72 models to finish up that could be used to support one side or the other. Any other Cold War vehicles I pick up could be used here as well… especially Soviet equipment.

Modern/Cold War Afghans

Like the Africans I’d rather do my modern Central Asian wargaming in a fictional nation of Burkhaderkastan (Inspired by the Derkaderkastan of Team America: World Police). I have a handful of Afghan/Burkhaderk irregulars finished and about 30 more to paint. I also recently picked up about 30 used Syrian Commandos that I thought I might use as Burkhaderk regulars. I could also use the old Soviet Equipment here as well… 

Modern/Cold War Central/South American

While I was pondering modern imagi-nations I thought: “Why not a generic South/Central American country for some low-level skirmishing against guerillas or Drug Cartels?” So I picked up some figures meant to be Americans in vietnam wearing soft hats to paint up in Woodland camo and pass off as US-backed South/Central American government troops (I painted a sample a few weeks back). I have about a platoon of these to paint – from a variety of manufacturers… but I’m not sure what to use as guerillas… Vietcong in soft hats I suppose… To start with, however, I have plenty of armed civilian types that I could use at thugs for various Drug Lords…

What were the counties Tintin went to…? San Theodoros and Nuevo-Rico?

Zombies

After that last batch I finished up I think I was done about half of the 120 odd Zombies I currently have. I have a dozen or so on the go that I hope to finish up by this weekend.

I also ordered some plastic zombies from Wargames Factory. I know, I know… you long time followers are thinking “Did Tim fall and hit his head? He HATES plastic minis…!?” I actually ordered them for my kids. The kids are totally stoked about trying to paint miniatures so I thought I’d probably be good to start with something that’s cheap and won’t matter too much if they end up a bit messy…. Plastic zombies fit that bill perfectly… stay tuned for pictures of their efforts!

Modern Civvies

I have only a handful of civilians left to paint. Most of them are extra modern SAS figures that I have that I thought I’d paint up an a mix of civilian clothes… Also I have a truck and some Police/SWAT types... 

Vietnam

A few months back I picked up enough figures to figures to finish off a full platoon of Anzacs. More recently, I picked up a few more Americans. Once I have the American’s painted I’d have enough for two (slightly understrength) platoons for some larger actions.

World War Two

I’d also like to finish up (or at least work on) a few of my 28mm WW2 forces either to try out Bolt Action or just use for Force on Force WW2 Skirmishing…

WW2 Soviets

I’m so close to finishing these… actually the problem is I keep finishing these… then I add a few more things… I have a complete (perhaps a tad under strength) COMPANY of soviet infantrymen PLUS nearly a full platoon of Naval Infantry Plaus a couple squads of NKVD… support weapons (MGS, AT guns, Mortars, Artillery)… tanks (BT-7, KV-1, KV-2, T-26, and FIVE T-34 – though three of those need to be finished). I have only a hand full of NKVD and Staff officers to be painted and the aforementioned three T-34s.

WW2 British/Canadian Paras

Another force I’m very, very close to completing. I already have a complete platoon, but somehow I’ve acquired enough figures for a full second platoon and some company command/battalion support. I have a dozen or so that need to be apinted to completely finish all the Paras I have… I could easily finish them off in a week…They just haven’t been a priority as I haven’t been palying any WW2 games.

WW2 Germans

I have a lot of Germans I should chip away at… a second platoon of Heer Infantrymen… a smattering of DAK to finish up… Late war SS to oppose my Canadians in Normandy (and Paras in Arnhem)… and some later war Tanks (Tigers, Panthers, PzkwIV). The one thing I’d like to pick up for these… (well I guess it isn’t ONE thing…) is a platoon of Sdkfz 251, an Infantry gun, and some later Stug III.

Other WW2

As I mentioned the Canadians are DONE! But I still have Americans (regular Army Infantry and Paras for Europe, and Marines for the south Pacific), French, Italians, Japanese, and a few commonwealth troops for the Far East. None of it is really pressing. I have enough of the other stuff finished that I have lots of options for WW2 gaming, should I just back into that…

Great War?

I also wouldn’t mind getting back to working on the Great War stuff.

Great War Canadians

I picked up a couple brigades worth of figures over the last year or so (I’m doing a brigade – 4 battalions – of figures from each manufacturer). I’ve painted a few. I could paint up some of the others – especially those in the 3^rd Divison, which would be the next section of Vimy terrain I’d build. I would also like to get back to fixing up the Vimy Terrain (I fixed up one square last summer – three more to do for the fourth division’s area… the smallest area…).

Great War ANZACs

I have one mounted unit and one dismounted unit complete. I have a second mounted and two more dismounted to complete…

Great War Turks

One unit complete, two or three to do… I'd like to pick up some Cavalry some day... 

Great War French

I have a regiment of infantry to paint, and a unit of cavalry…

I also have a bunch of Artizan Designs French Foreign Legionnaires – that could be used for the Great War..

Great War Belgians!?

I had ordered a bunch from Maelstrom, but most of it never shipped… so all I have is one unit of Carabiniers, some commanders with no units, and six (count ‘em, SIX) assorted MG teams!?

Great War British

I have a few more early war infantry to finish up, Scots mostly, and a unit of cavalry, Indians mostly.

Great War Germans

I’d also ordered a regiment’s worth of early war Germans from Maelstrom, which never showed up… I have a handful of Foundry Jagers and Hussars to do though. I would like to pick up a regiment of early war infantry at some point. I also need to cast antoher division or two of my own later war Germans to man the defences at Vimy!

Boers

Not "great War" per se... But I have a pile of Boers… and I wouldn’t mind getting around to painting some of these this year – they could be passed off as armed civilians from just about anywhere from the end of the 19^th century to the middle of the 20^th…

20mm Stuff….?

I have a pile of modern 20mm stuff which I originally used for Cold War Commander. When I started playing Force on Force I decided it would probably be more sensible to rebase these individually and use them for that and replace them (for CWC) with microarmour. I’ve started doing this. The trouble is, with a few exceptions, I have the SAME STUFF in 28mm…!? maybe not quite as much, but still… I’ve been back and forth on whether to finish rebasing (and painting the stuff that isn’t finished for) these forces or to just abandon them – sell them off? – and continue to expand the 28mm forces. I like 28mm stuff. I can don’t 20mm and recognize there’s a lot more equipment available for in that scale… but I’d rather be painting 28mm stuff. The painting and modeling side of the hobby is, after all, where I get a greater part of my satisfaction from. So I might as well paint what I LIKE painting, right? I may work on a few of these forces this year - as it would enable me to play some larger actions - but I am not going to ADD to them!

SO HOW MUCH IS ALL THAT?!

If the outlined stuff above were to be my focal project for the year… or the first part of the year…

To Paint (not necessarily in the order I would paint them…):

Modern & WW2

FOOT

Modern

30x Modern USMC

45x Modern US Rangers, etc.

30x Modern SAS

20x Modern RM

30x Modern Germans

15x Astd. Russians/Soviets

20x Cold War British

30x Modern Africans

40x Central/South Americans

65x Zombies

20-30x Modern Civilians

8 x SWAT

20x MegaMinis SWAT

30x Vietnam Americans

20x Vietnam Anzacs

= ~425 Modern foot.

WW2

24x Soviets

20x Paras

The rest I don’t really care about at the moment. As I said I have enough Canadians, Soviets, and Germans done at the moment tha I could play a lot of games…. So we’ll say about 50 that I’d like to get done this year for sure… the rest…? When I get to it…

VEHICLES

2x M1 Tank

2x LAV-25

2x Warrior MCV

3x Challenger

3x BTR-60

3x T-72

3x Marder

4x Hummers

1x Modern Pick up Truck

1x M113

1x M48

= ~25x Modern Vehicles

3x T-34

2x Tiger

2x Panther

2-3x PzkwIV

= ~10x WW2 tanks.

I’m sure there’s stuff I’ve forgotten, so let’s round the Modern and WW2 stuff off to ~500 foot and 35 vehicles?!. Given my rate of painting over the last year, that would take me about half a year to paint all the modern stuff I have and finish off the WW2 Soviets and Paras… (assuming I didn’t buy any more!?)

Great War, Etc.

FOOT

30x ANZACS

50x EW French

30x Belgians

60x Turks

30x EM British (Scots, actually)

20x Germans

180+ Canadians

80x Boers

40x French Foreign Legion

MOUNTED

10x ANZACs

10x French

8x EW British (Indians, actually)

10x Germans

10 x Canadians

20x Boers

Almost another 500+ foot and 70 mounted from the Great War, etc… That could be the second half of the year – if I ever dared plan that far ahead…

STUFF TO GET(!?)

I really shouldn’t be buying ANY stuff this year… It would take me the whole year – painting at the same insane rate of production as last year just to finish up the Modern and Great War stuff I already have to do. That’s not even considering all the Colonial/VSF, Crimean, Napoleonic/War or 1812, Seven Years War, English Civil War, Medieval, Samurai, Dark Age, Ancients (oh… the ancients… don’t get me started on all of those…), and fantasy figures I have to paint… But going a while year without picking up anything at all is absurd. It’s always better to have a plan than no plan because with no plan I tend to just buy stuff willy-nilly and end up with some really bizarre, useless stuff (like, how the hell did I end up with a unit of Crimean War Scots Greys and a handful of  Russian infantrymen!? I didn’t have ANY other Crimena War Stuff!? – it was a “good deal” on ebay – that’s how!?)

INFANTRY

Cold War British GPMG with Steel Helmet

Cold War British SAS/RMAMW (I could probably also pick up some GB firing FN with wool cap to pass off as either)

Argentines

(of course I could go for that Mofo Variable Content Deal… 12 packs of assorted British and Argentines…. Hmmmmm).

Cold War Soviet VDV

Cold War Soviet Motor Rifles

VEHICLES

2x AAVP-7A1

1x Warrior MCV

2x Leopard 2

1x Marder

I also wouldn’t mind trying to track down some 1/48 – 1/50 scale cars and truck to litter my modern battlefield… Maybe a couple more New Ray helicopters (and Apache…?) or a 1/72 or 1/48 scale UAV model… I’ve seen predators in both scales on ebay… but they ain’t cheap…

I’m not even going to think about adding to the Great War stuff just yet… but at some point I’d like to pick up some early war Germans (Either Great War Miniatures or Renegade) and Belgians (again Great War Miniatures… or maybe Brigade Models?)… and maybe a few more British (again, Great War Miniatures or Renegade, probably the latter…).

Damn… Renegade’s having one of their 5-4-4 sales again… Must… not… buy… more…. Miniatures… 

Wow... this sort of turned into a way too long rambling ramble... did anyone actually read all the way through it? If so, you're more demented that even me!? Weirdo. Stop reading this and go do something productive with your life!? (but come back and look at the pretty pictures of whatever I happen to paint over the next day or two in the next post!)

Revisiting Vimy Again

Anyone who’s been paying attention will have noticed my interests have shifted once again to the Great War. And that’s got me thinking about the  Vimy Project.   I’ve realized as I have only five years until the 100^th Anniversary it’s time to pick up the pace!

As I’d noted in a Revisiting Vimy post about a year and a half ago, The terrain needs some work; The trenches needed to be widened as I’d re-based all the figures and they simple wouldn’t fit into the trenches and also I’d never really finished them up the way I’d like.

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

I’ve started working towards that and I have to say I’m pretty happy with how it’s coming along.

This is the north east tile of the Fourth Division’s area of attack (so these are the German reserve trenches and communication trenches).

I’d thought of a couple different ways of doing the revetting, but had some balsa wood lying around and decided to experiment with that and it seems to work quite well.

This all still needs to be repainted… and I’d like to maybe add some patches of grass to this reverse slope of the ridge.

I’d also like to add a sandbag parapet – at least to the fire trenches, perhaps not the communication trenches as a way of distinguishing the two. I’m not sure how I’m going to do this – I need to do if fairly cheaply as I have a LOT of trenches to do. Casting (or buying cast) resin sandbags is out of the question. I bought some Das (a self hardening clay product) to experiment with. If anyone out there has any ideas I’d LOVE to hear them!

Stay tuned for more!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Um… well I haven’t started those French Foreign Legionnaires… and the impetus to do them may have faded by the time I get back to painting (I’m having some fun working on this terrain at the present) 

Game Plan 2012 – Second Quarter

Well with the Dark Age DBA Campaign and the Analogue Hobbies Spring Thaw Painting Challenge all over with it’s time to take a look ahead and see what I’m planning for the rest of the year…

According to the original 2012 Game Plan I was planning to run a Hordes of the Things campaign in June and the Battle of Queenston Heights in October. I’d also planned to play a number of Board Games, of which I have managed to play NONE!?

Currently I am still planning to run a Hordes of the Things campaign in June some time, but it will likely be a smaller affair with a few select individuals – that I may actually PLAY with! All previous campaigns I’ve only ran the show and acted as referee. I figure if I invite a very small group of people I can trust not to argue about rules and stuff I wouldn’t have to feel the need to maintain that position of “un

As for the Battle of Queenston Heights… Well… We’ll see where we’re at in June after the HOTT campaign and see where we want to go.

Board Games…? Pffft! I have no idea when I’m ever going to get around to those… I just can’t seem to find the time! Weekends and evenings just seem to be too busy with other regularly scheduled activities.

Other Recent Ideas, Plans, and Distractions…

Vimy!?

I had thought I might try and dig out the Vimy Stuff and get the terrain fixed up to run a game on the 9 April 2012 – it’s Easter Monday – as it was on 9 April 1917 when the Canadians attacked Vimy Ridge… But that’s less than three weeks away and there’s a LOT of work to be done to fix up the terrain… so unless there was a great outcry of interest for this… Anyone…? Anyone…?

Ongoing DBA/HOTT campaign

John, I think, had suggested a regular ongoing HOTT or DBA campaign – which I would be all over – but again, finding the right people, and having them all be able to play at the same time on a regular weekly… or biweekly… or monthly(!?) basis…

Savage Worlds Campaigns

Adult Dragonlance - this is what I had been running through the fall and winter on (Savage) Saturday Nights and had been going pretty good for a while… but we haven’t played in over a month… partly due to preparation for the Dark Age DBA campaign… partly due to other s being away or busy with other things. I’ve been losing steam on this…

Kids Dragonlance - A campaign I’ve been running for my kids and a couple other homeschooled kids. There have been some interruptions to this campaign as well… we did get back at it a couple weeks ago, but missed last week as I was dreadfully ill… I bought all those darn Dragonlance books – I’m darn well going to run the campaign to the bitter end for at least ONE of the groups!

If I had any sense at all I’d just get back on the horse and get the Saturday night one going again – running the two campaigns simultaneously would ease my game prep workload as for I only have to prepare once and get two games out of it…

Kids Greek Myth!! My kids are super stoked about Greek Myth right now… and Foundry has conveniently released a line of Greek Mythology figures… of which I’ve ordered a few (well… MOST…). I’ve also been working on some Greek Hoplite armies for DBA as well as some individual figures for Savage Worlds Skirmishin’… so I’ve been thinking about starting a SECOND campaign for them to play in… just not sure when… and with whom… Perhaps it will be just for the kids, or perhaps we will recruit some new players…

Adult Mythos/WW2 Ghostbusters meet Gangbusters…!!! Christian brought my attention to Achtung Cthulhu! - which, I’m not about to run out and buy… and if I did (or someone else bought it FOR me…) I’d really only use it as fluff reference for a Savage Worlds campaign… but it did get me thinking about relaunching a reloaded version of our Cthulhu Campaign or the Weird War Two Campaign… I’ve been thinking about the Cthulhu campaign quite a bit for a while now – instead of even attempting any sort of classic horror campaign (as there has been nothing horrific about the campaign so far - since nobody seems to be able to take any of the Saturday night games remotely seriously!?) I thought I’d relaunch it as a Two-Fisted, Guns-blazing Gangbusters-meets-Ghostbusters, Over-the-Top Pulp Comedy Adventure campaign…

I’d actually picked up the Call of Cthulhu’s Beyond the Mountains of Madness campaign book and even picked up some mountaineer and polar explorer figures and some Gebirgsjagers ages ago and was planning pretty much the same thing (as Acthung Cthulhu) - making one of the rival explorer groups NAZIS!? Shortly after that the campaign would catch up with and cross over with the Weird War Two campaign... which would become a whole lot weirder...

Of course that doesn't take place until The late 1930s... and we left off the campaign in 1922.... I'd plotted out a timeline of all the Cthulhu Adventures I own through the 20s and 30s.... and there were many...

So many games to play… so little time…

PAINTING

Well what to get painting then…? a few of the things weighing heavily on my mind at the moment…
Greek Myth – when they arrive…
DBA Hoplite armies! Acouple of them to run a campaign!
DBA Egyptians (just bought some during the recent Foundry sale…)
DBA Nubians? (don’t actually have any… but they’d be a good historical opponent for the Egyptians and relatively small and quick and easy to paint up…)
Space Ships – I don’t know… I just feel like painting some…
20mm WW2 Germans (Heer and SS), Canadians, Paras?
28mm WW2! Because a lot of it is so close to completion… and the whole Weird War Two thing…
28mm Great War!? Since I finished the Russian Infantry Brigade and recently played an Ever Contemptible Victorious Little Black Powder Armies (of DOOM!) game… and had a lot of fun!
Finish up some stuff to sell off…

Hmmmm… the 1812 stuff didn’t even get on that list… maybe I should can the idea of Queenston Heights for this year and plan for a Greek Hoplite/City State campaign for the fall!

SELLING STUFF

I’ve been thinking (for a looooong time) it’s time to start getting rid of some stuff… Some of it I’ll never use.. some of it I might… but I’d rather have something else and I have limited space…
HOTT Elves and Orcs
15mm WW2 8th Army, DAK, Early War Germans
Isengard HOTT army?
Rohan HOTT army?

Dark Age DBA Campaign Weekend

As I may have mentioned I'm hosting a Dark Age DBA Campaign Weekend on Saturday, February 25th of this year (my birthday, actually)! It is currently full up and there's a bit of a wait list in case anyone bails....

It looks like we're going to have nine players. There will be two English, two Norse/Viking, Welsh, Scots, Irish, Normans and West Franks.

I've been slacking off on my painting of Dark Age stuff and so I took stock of what I need to finish up earlier this evening... In the next five weeks (35 days) before the campaign I have 35 stands I need to finish up (to have complete - all options - armies). That's a stand per day... Seems a bit daunting, but I'm pretty sure I can pull it off... some of them are Psiloi with only three figures per stand, a bunch are Mounted - again three figures per stand (plus horses). In total it adds up to 109 foot and 37 mounted.

I have some norman Spear I just finished up earlier this evening (not counted in the 25 stands)... What will I do this evening (after I finish basing the Spear)? Maybe I'll knock off a couple stands of Psiloi - so I'm "ahead of the game"!

Unfortunately a number of the stands require some assembly yet - including the manufacture of a great number of spears.... Hopefully I'll be able to convince Amanda to let me paint all day for a couple of the Saturdays... Maybe that will be my job for this saturday - manufacture spears, drill hands and glue... maybe even do some priming.

Anyway, stay tuned to see Dark Age warriors painted at a rather frenetic pace!

Battle of Queenston Heights

(a little more prattling about plans for next year…)

As I’ve alluded to in previous posts I’m planning on doing some sort of big game of the Battle of Queenston Heights for the bicentenary on October 13th next year. It’s a long way off, but I’ll have a lot of painting and terrain making to do so it’s good to start planning these things well in advance (the trick is not to plan them TOO far in advance so that you lose interest or forget what the hell you were trying to do in the first place…).

I’m still doing a bit of reading

I’m using the scenario from Bruce McFarlane’s excellent Red Rocket’s Glare as a starting point and currently planning to use DBA-Hx to play it. The scenario may be altered (though it seems pretty straightforward) and the rules may change based on playtesting (when I get to that); There’s Black Powder and Ever Victorious Armies… but it’s a start.

In the RRG scenario it gives Orders of Battle for two different levels of play. I’m currently working with the idea of one company (from the “small units scale”) being one stand in DBA-X. So the orders of battle would look something like this:

British

49th Foot - 1 company/stand
49th Foot Light Infantry (Rifles) - 1 company/stand
41st Foot - 3 companies/stands
Lincoln Militia - 5 companies/stands
York Volunteers Militia – 2 companies/stands
Mohawk Indians - 1 company/stand
Heavy Fild Guns - 1 battery/stand
Light Field Gun - 1 battery/stand

Americans

13th US Regulars - 3 companies/stands
6th US Regulars - 3 companies/stands
28th US Regulars - 3 companies/stands
16th New York Militia - 3 companies/stands
20th New York Militia - 3 companies/stands
17th New York Militia - 3 companies/stands
18th New York Militia - 3 companies/stands
Pennsylvania Militia - 3 companies/stands

For regulars I was planning on mounting 8/base and 6/base for militia so I will need:

British Regulars – 40
British/Canadian Militia – 42
US Regulars – 72
US Militia – 90

I’ve started modeling some figures to cast my own infantry. Since that first post I’ve made a mould of the doll, cast half a dozen and started working on some variants.

The Indians I already have (from the Seven Years War project that fizzled – but will one day be revived!!) and I recently painted some Napoleonic Royal Artillery that could stand in for the guns if I didn’t find something else.

Game Plan 2012 continued – Board Games

As I mentioned in the previous Game Plan 2012 post that, despite the plan to play one board wargame each month, I didn’t get much board wargaming in at all (Warrior Knights, Age of Conan and Chaos in the Old World being the happy exceptions).

I have a wall full of boardgames, 90% of which are (shamefully) still in the original shrinkwrap – I’ll point out that MOST of those games I picked up super cheap from a distributor that was blowing them out (that whole sucker-for-a-good-deal thing). A fair few of them are wargames that I’d never get Amanda or our other gaming (but not WARgaming) friends to play. So I’m thinking of organizing a game day once a month where I will tackle some of the bigger wargames. Hopefully I’ll find a set day (like, say, the third Sunday afternoon…?) and have that set aside as board Wargaming day!

(I’m also thinking of trying to organize an evening once a month to play some of the not-so-war-ish-games… but that’s with an entirely different crowd).

Here are the twelve Board War Games I think I’d like to try:

Age of Conan– 4 players, 90 minutes? (I’m sure we played for over two last time and didn’t’even finish the final age… it’ll be all afternoon!)
Warrior Knights - 6 players, 4 hours
Red Russia - 4 players, 4 hours
Soldier Raj - 5 players, 6 hours
Soldier Kings - 8 players?! 3-8 Hours
Soldier Emperor - 7 players, 4-8 hours
LOTR Risk 4 players, 3 hours
Axis & Allies 5 players, 3 hours (or maybe the 1940 Europe and Pacific version….)
Cults Across America 6 players, 3 hours
Paths of Glory - 2 players, 8 hours!?
Dragons of Glory 2 players, 3 hours (nice potential tie in with my Dragonlance Campaign)
War of 1812 2 players, 90 minutes

There’s a couple of “lighter” ones in there (Risk, Axis & Allies)… Other will definitely take a full afternoon… and others may take the whole afternoon AND part of the evening! I don’t actually OWN War of 1812… but I thought if I get through half of them by June, and I’m still on track with the Battle of Queenston Heights preparations, I thought I might treat myself…

Does this sound like a (pre-)New Years Resolution…? Could be.

Or perhaps I'll just announce the next months game day a month in advance... Quite often I end up with stuff I can't get out of on Sundays... and they're never on a fixed date.... January 1st is looking like a good day to have a game. Now to decide on which one!

See all tim's other silly games HERE

Game Plan 2012

Starting a little early… But it is getting close to that time of year when I look back over what I did this past year (and I’ll do more reviewing as the end of the year draws ever nearer in December) and start to look ahead to next year and try to do some long range planning. I recognize it’s hard to do planning that far in advance because… well… I have a short attention span and interests change…

Here’s a brief view of what I’m thinking about for the next year….

Right now most of my active gaming is Fantasy role-playing and skirmishing. I’m running two separate Savage Worlds Fantasy campaigns using the old AD&D DragonLance modules (one for the Saturday Night Savages and one for my kids and their friends. I’d like to keep that going – though now that I’m getting into it I keep getting “itchy feet” – wanting to ditch the DragonLance and start up a new campaign in a fantastical setting of my own design… Anyway… want to keep the Dragon Lance campaign(s) going and stay moderately focused on fantasy stuff. With the “big kids” we seem to be getting through a module a month – so it’s going to take a year to play the whole campaign (with the not-so-big kids… its taking a bit longer…)

I’ve also been getting in a few games of Hordes of the Things and DBA.

As most of my Fantasy stuff is “Dark Ages-ish” (rather than “High Medieval”) this feeds into working on some Dark Ages stuff – in particular; finishing up the last of the Dark Ages DBA stuff. The only complete army I “need” to finish is the Pre-Feudal Scots. I have some options and extras for a few of the other armies… and I have enough figures kicking around for a complete second (and THIRD!?) Viking army that I could paint up… if I ever felt the urge…

Anyway, I thought I’d try hosting a couple DBA/HOTT campaigns in 2012. One in February (for my annual wargaming birthday bash) and one in June when Amanda and the kidz go to visit the Outlaws.

DARK AGES DBA CAMPAIGN WEEKEND

I am setting a tentative date of February 25th for the Dark Ages DBA Campaign Weekend. At minimum I will have six armies ready; Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Welsh, Irish, and Scots. If I had time I wouldn’t mind getting additional Anglo-Saxon (or Anglo-Danish), Viking or Norman (West Frank) armies ready… but we’ll have to wait and see…

Normally we’d start the evening before with a get-together and a big battle game to get things started… but the Saskatoon Branch of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School is having one of their events that night… so… We’ll have to wait and see… If anyone’s actually traveling from out of town for the game weekend I’ll probably ditch the Dr. Sketchy’s plan…


HORDES OF THE THINGS CAMPAIGN WEEKEND

June…

Around mid-June Amanda and the kidz will be heading east to visit her folks. I can’t remember the exact date, but around mid june I’m going to host another Hordes of the Things campaign (I ran another one in June Three Years Ago). This one could potentially be bigger. In addition to the six Dark Age armies (which could be used in HOTT – in fact for most of them I have made some fantastical options for HOTT). I’ll have Romans, Elves, Orcs (at least two armies worth), Dwarves, Samurai, Centaurs, and probably a couple others that could be fielded…. More on that in the new year.


And the rest of the year….

THE BATTLE OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS

With the Bicentenary coming up I’ve gotten to reading about the War of 1812 and an getting pretty excited about doing a Battle of Queenston Heights game in October (Maybe at ToonCon…?) More detail on this one to follow, but I’m already starting to model (and cast!) some of my own figures for this one! Huzzah!


I’ve even worked out a painting schedule to get what I need done for those first three events next year… (at a reasonable rate of about 15 foot/week – which is a little less that what I’ve been averaging over the last few years – since I started keeping track of such things).

Hopefully I'll get in some board gaming too. I'd planned to host a board game afternoon once a month but only managed to get in two - Warrior Knights and Age of Conan (and one evening I got in a game of Chaos in the Old World)... Maybe I just have to make it a set day (like the first Sunday of the month) and that way folks can set that time aside a show up!! Set up the schedule NOW!


2013 and Beyond!

I’ve been thinking about other events I could work on over the next couple years. If the DBA and/or HOTT campaigns go well they will likely become annual events. I’m thinking I’d like to have a big games day three times a year (February, June and October seem to work) two of those would be HOTT/DBA campaigns, the other would be Big Battles! Here’s a few ideas I had for games to run over the next couple years:

2013 – Chateguay and Chrysler’s Farm

2014
Summer (July) - Chippawa and Lundy’s Lane
Fall (October) - First Ypres

2015 – Vimy (add Third Division – Building on the Vimy Game I ran at Mayday a few years back which focused on the Fourth Canadian Division’s attack at the North end of the Ridge)

2016 – Vimy (add Second Division)

2017
Spring (April) - Vimy (add first Division making the Complete Corps – for the 100th anniversary of the battle!)
Fall - Paschendale

2018 – Hundred Days… Amiens, Canal du Nord, Hindenburg Ling, Mons….

After that…? Who knows… Hopefully in there I’ll find some time to do some other new DBA/HOTT armies, though for some of the campaigns I’d like to do (ECW, Rome, Diadochi, Peloponnesian War, etc) I’ll probably need to devote the better part of a year…

is this madness...!?