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...?