Thursday, January 1, 2009

Game Plan 2009

What to do for 2009!? Well any of you that have been paying attention this last month or so will know I’m already deep in the planning of a Fantasy campaign weekend and an extended PBEM campaign using Hordes of the Things.

Looking back at the original Game Plan for 2008. It seems the plan lasted until about March or April…. There are a few reasons why the project died. Partly it was because the dealine was so far off… Then I got interested in trying to get fit and started riding a lot which cut into my productivity. I think the big reason was that no one was really showing up to my regular weekly game nights or showing any interest in the project. Sure there was plenty of people online – followers of the blog – that were very interested (bless you all), but they aren’t the people I play games with…

What have I learned from this..?! Make plans with closer deadlines. The deadline for the big plan for the 2009 Wargames weekend was 14 months away…

Also make plans for things that other people might be interested in… people that might actually play games with me…

So, what I’m thinking about for this year.

Hordes of the Things Campaign(s) – 28mm Fantasy Armies

Well the Wargaming weekend is set for June so I have five months to finish up seven armies. Three are more or less complete – the Vikings, Saxons, and elves. Each could do with a couple more stands for options and I need to make strongholds for each. The other four armies need a bit of work, but if I did one army a month and used the remaining month to finish up any optional extras, Strongholds and other terrain.

I think for January and February I’d like to work on The Dwarves and Orcs.

Maybe for my Wargaming Birthday bash I’ll have a Big Battler HOTT game – Orcs and Vikings versus Elves and Dwarves and Saxons…?

That would leave March and April to work on the Undead and the Normans (if CVT ever sends them too me!?)

That leaves me a month to finish up any odds and extras and terrain and stuff…

While I’m working on the HOTT armies I’ll also work on some individually based fantasy heroes and villains and minions for some Savage Worlds skirmish gaming…

After I’m done the Weekend Campaign I’m going to organize a long-term play by email HOTT campaign. Well… the emailers won’t really be playing any HOTT… they’ll just be playing heads of state and moving their armies around on a campaign map and making strategic decisions for their country… I’ll be playing the HOTT games (hopefully with the help of a few locals…) to determine the outcome of any armies bumping into each other!

That’s pretty much going to keep me busy for the first half of the year… and I don’t want to make any guarantees about what I’m going to to for the second half… There’s a few other things I’d LIKE to work on and play… They might be the things I work on after I’ve finished my HOTT fantasy armies… or I may just try and slip them in here and there between HOTT armies just for a little change of pace....

Cold War Commander - 20mm Cold War armies

I would like to work at finishing up (and PLAYING WITH!) some of my 20mm Cold War Commander forces. Some need very little to complete (assembling and painting a few AFVs). Some need a bit more (assembling and painting a whole lot of AFVs!). For the most part There isn’t much I’d really NEED to buy to finish up any of them. (Sure, sure - there are a few things that would be NICE to pick up to make them really feel “complete”…)

Future War Commander – 20mm/Micro Sci-fi Armies

I’d like to play this a bit this year… and work on some forces for it… but right now I have very little that’s done. I don’t even really have two small forces that could play against each other unless I used some of the Cold War Commander forces… and really… if I’m doing that I might as well just be playing CWC…!?

DBA - 28mm Historical Ancient Armies

Well since I’m going to be working on armies for HOTT… I might as well crank out a few more historical DBA armies (as they can be used as Human armies in a HOTT Fantasy game…?) I have enough to do a couple of Successor armies as well as a couple Early Imperial Roman armies… Occasionally I get the idea that I should model myself a basic greek hoplite figure and make myself a couple of ancient greek armies… we shall see…

World War Two Skirmish – 28mm Savage Worlds

Maybe it’ll get CK and Gary out if I say I’m going to run some WW2 stuff… There is startlingly little to do to finish up the forces I have for WW2 in 28mm. I just got a couple of things in the mail to finish up a second platoon of Russians… well, two slightly understrenght platoons of Russians… without one of their DP LMGs… Actually If I picked up the Assault Group DP pack I’d have enough for an understrength COMPANY (with their full compliment of LMGs!)….!? How cool would that be!?

Modern Skirmish – 28mm Savage Worlds

In the latter half of 2008 I finished painting up all the 28mm Modern I had and picked up some more… I don’t have a LOT of it, and thus not a lot of scenario options… I might like to pick up a few new things and play some more…


Quebec 1759!?

Is there any chance I could, after doing all of the above stuff, pull this off for the fall? Not the originally planned weekend campaign, just the battle on the Plains of Abraham…? It IS the 250th Anniversary. Nice big round numbers like that don’t come along all that often…



Regular Gaming

I’ve been kind of back and forth the last couple days about whether I should really bother hosting a regular weekly game night as I have done in the past. I’m kind of really stoked about painting and modeling right now. I’ve got Savage Saturdays (my weekly Savage Worlds game night) and right now setting up a second wargame night each week… for guys that don’t necessarily even show up… seems like a lot of work for… well… not much in return…. I think I’d rather spend the time painting right now.

4 comments:

  1. I was wondering how you were going to play HOTT by mail when I saw the beginning of your post in my list of followed blogs. But now I've read the complete post, it makes sense.

    Best wishes for the new year and your gaming plans.

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  2. Doesn't matter to me, man. I really like coming out and playing whatever! I will admit to there being some systems that I like more than others, but it's all usually good. For me It's the whole Real Life (TM) thing that stops me from coming out, definitely not a wanting to play more or less of one thing or another.

    Chris

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  3. Tim,

    Thanks for the kind words on my blog. Looks like you already have a fine selection of 25mm HOTT armies. I'm working on a couple myself. I'm almost finished with a 25mm Elf army made from the old Ral Partha elves from the late 70's, sculpted by Tom Meier. I'm about halfway done with a matching orc army from the same period and sculpter. Should be a hoot if I can ever get it finished.

    David

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  4. Tim,
    Thanks for putting on all the games each week in 2008. I appreciate it as it is a lot of work to organize. I had fun for sure gaming with all of you. So many different genres WWII, Modern, Viet Nam, Seven Years war, Age of Sail. I’m looking forward to more gaming with you and the rest in 2009. - Gary

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