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...!?