Plans for 2024

 It's that time again when plans are laid out for the new year. 

A meeting of the leaders to make the plan.

I've already took the first step by ordering some 10mm Thirty Years War figures from Pendraken . This will be a single stand per unit and played on a grid. Rules to be determined. 

Another aspect of the plan is picking some new rules to play and armies to get on the table.

A few years back I participated in the 6x6 challenge with Kaptain Kobald of The Stronghold Rebuilt blog. Matt suggested we try something similar this year and pick a few rules we would like to try. It will more than likely be 6x3-4 but still give us some structure to our game nights.

The Rules list

Ronin, LotR SBG, Force on Force, Donnybrook, Crossfire and One Hour Skirmish Wargames. Of course A Gentleman's War  and Beef and Beer will be played along with some variants.

A lament I often see wargamers post is that they have armies that haven't seen the table in years or never at all. The main theme of the plan is to get my armies on the table. Some of these will be coordinated with the rules being played others will be used while playing old favorites.

The Armies list,

Warring States Chinese 28mm John Jenkins figures(I'll need to paint a few more figures but that's the point.)

Great Northern War 28mm Warfare Miniatures (A Gentleman's War)

King Williams War 28mm Warfare Miniatures, (Donnybrook would be a good choice here as I have a scenario and all the figures:-))

SYW 15mm Mike's Models (Here's a good candidate for Beef and Beer not sure how much if any modification would be needed but I have a bunch and they'll fit on the gridded board I have. Hopefully Matt will put up with my early painting attempts.)

Pacific Theater WW2 15mm Command decision and Eureka. (Crossfire )

With all this I will try to paint some other figures. The Mark's Little Soldiers collection will continue to grow as will the GNW with a few more cavalry units and some additional infantry figures. WW2 should see some Russians added in winter gear to fight the Finns. These will be for use in the training games that Dick Bryant developed for Crossfire. For the past several years I have planned to get FPW Prussians to fight the French already owned but have never done, this may be the year.

The Workbench at the beginning of the year. 

On the lamentable side of the hobby my longtime wargaming partner has moved away. Howard and I have been gaming together for about seventeen years, Twenty to twenty five times a year. I was a willing Guinea Pig for his playtesting and he always stepped up to the plate when I showed up with figures but no scenario or rules.  We knew we were truly wargamers (and married to extremely understanding women.) when it occurred to us that we had gamed on February 14th two years in a row.  Howard's only moved an hour away so I'm sure we'll get together  and play again, besides I'm sure he'll need play testers for his next project.

The 2022 Plan

I wrote this in February 2022 but never published it. 

A little late for the traditional post of plans but there’s been so many posts by others that I just now found time. Though thought had been given earlier several things occurred in January to firm up the plans. First off I spent some time cleaning my game room. This confirmed that I don’t need any new projects and although I have plenty of unpaired lead to use in projects that already exist some new lead is needed to finish existing projects.

Next I finally played One Hour Skirmish Wargames. They were lots of fun. The card activation system gives me some decisions to make and lends enough uncertainty for the other side to make an exciting game. I’ve played them on a 32”x42” board that lets the troops get into action quickly.

Lastly Mark Cordone came up with a version of the Portable Wargame called the 3x3. It was designed to be played in fifteen minutes. Played on a 3x3 grid with about six units. There’s been quite a bit of discussion on the Portable Wargame Facebook page and a few blogs. I haven’t had the chance to play yet but it seems to me that it will be a fun way to get figures out on the table without taking up a lot of space or time.

The conundrum of these two rule sets is that they allow me to rationalize buying new figures. The scenarios in OHSW use about ten to fifteen figures for each side and 3x3PW uses six units per side so all tolled about thirty to forty figures. Previously I had tried to confine my new projects to an army size that conformed to my Toy Soldier project, three to four infantry and two to three cavalry and artillery. Even this structure gave projects with one hundred and sixty figures or more doing both sides. While it sounds easy to stop at the set number of troops fifty years of Wargaming has proved that that never seems to happen.

All this rambling brings us to the setting of the plan. It’s really very simple. Paint the figures I have and if a new period is started it shall be only a skirmish sized one. Another criteria will be that new arrivals will be given priority in the painting que and brought to the table quickly. I know I will continue to buy new things but there’s something to be said for having a period that’s complete enough to be played with at some level and not just a have some painted figures with out any structure.

We’ll see how this all works out next December. 

How did it work out? I bought a bunch of the Marks Little Soldiers but still kept up with painting, I the beginning of 2023 I bought a partially painted collection of about 170 figures and spent the year on them and the MLS.