Game Plan 2014 – Fall/Winter

It’s feeling like summer is drawing to an end already. Says are getting shorter… evenings cooler… and so my thoughts turn to what I’m going to be doing for the rest of the year. There has been a lot of other planning at my place lately – mostly classes and activities for the kids, and Amanda, and even me! Honestly I don’t know how were going to fit everything in.

Looking back at the last Game Plan 2014 Update I was mostly considering what I was going to be painting over the next 6-8 months. Not a lot has changed, I’m mostly planning on working on much the same stuff. I may not reach my objective of painting more than I’ve purchased… but I’ll be close… and I’ll do WAY better next year! (This year’s acquisitions were skewed a bit by the 400+ super cheap plastic Hät figures – at $7 per box the whole shebang was about $100 and worked out to 25¢ - or less - per figure… who could pass up THAT action!?)

Anyway, the plan…

Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign

From September to November I’m going to run a A Song of Blades and Heroes/Song of Deeds and Glory campaign on Saturday evenings – when I’m not playing in the GURPS Modern Horror Campaign (see below). Why Song of Blades and Heroes and not Song of Shadows and Dust right away? Well I HAVE enough figures I could supply warbands for SoBH for any number of players right now – and some other players could currently supply their own warbands (and I’ll be encouraging some of the others to work on their OWN!). This will also give us time to all build more factions and terrain to run a proper SSD campaign in the new year.

GURPS Modern Horror Campaign

What the WHAT!? My friend John is threatening to run a GURPS Modern Horror Role-Playing campaign starting in October – once a month for 10 months. I’m actually pretty excited about the idea of PLAYING in a role-playing game… even if it is GURPS…

Other Role-Playing Games

I’d like to run a role-playing game for the kids (and possibly some friends) in the fall, but I haven’t quite figured out when or what… I’m thinking I will probably use  A Tale of Blades and Heroes and run a campaign set in Greek Mythology or the Roman Empire in the first century AD (perhaps using some stuff from Cthulhu Invictus…?). maybe I’ll run both over the winter… I’m really torn – both seem really appealing to me right now.

Song of Shadows and Dust Campaign

As mentioned above I’m planning on running a Song of Shadows and Dust campaign in the new year. Over the next few months I'll be working on some new figures to build new factions or add options to factions I'm currently working on. I hope some others around here might build some of their own factions!! I also plan on building a whole lot more buildings so that I'll be able to run a few games concurrently. 

Board Games

I’ve been playing a lot more board games with the kids lately. They’re both getting old enough to play some more sophisticated games and we’ve been trying out ones I’ve been sitting on for a couple years – mostly ones thematically related to stuff we’ve been reading about in the history we’ve been studying. This week we’ve been kind of crazy about Smash Up (which is not-so-thematically related…), but some of the other thematically related games I have lined up to try out include Ra, Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean,  Quo Vadis?, Ostia, The Hanging Gardens ,  Palatinus, Ostrakon and Conquest of the Empire… and I wouldn’t mind getting in a few more games of Ur or Ark… or some other not-so-thematically-related favourites such as Small World, or any of the Munchkin we have.

DBA/HOTT

While I’m not really planning on doing a DBA or HOTT campaign for the 11^th Annual Tim’s Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend as I had been thinking of at the time of the last Game Plan 2014 Update , I would still like to at least finish up the New Kingdom Egyptians and Nubians, and at least TWO (of five) Greek Hoplite armies, and something to fight my Early Imperial Romans. I would definitely still like to run a Greek City State campaign at some point – as well as a Roman Civil War and a Campaigns of Alexander and/or Wars of the Successors campaign(s) – as I HAVE figures for all those… just got to get them painted… For now though… just enough to play a few more games “thematically related” to our studies.

Painting, Modelling, and Terrain-Building

In the immediate future I’ll likely be working on ancient and fantasy subjects for the remainder of the year – mostly individual figures and terrain for A Song of Blades and Heroes or Song of Shadows and Dust, but, as mentioned above, I would also like to get a few DBA/HOTT  armies finished up as well.

Probably in November/December our Reaper Miniatures Bones II: The Return Of Mr Bones! Kickstarter figures will be arriving…. Theoretically those are “for the kids”… so hopefully it shouldn’t affect my plans.

ToonCon?

Earlier in the year I had been thinking I’d run stuff a ToonCon again this year. I had fun running Force on Force, Ambush Z  and Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878… and I thought I might run some “Song of…” games this year… but then I just got feeling overwhelmed by all the other stuff going on this summer and fall and decided to give this year a miss… It seems I get to them every other year… so… maybe next year.

Great War?

The great War projects have fallen by the wayside somewhat this year… Maybe next year… I would still like to do the Canadian Corps attack of Vimy Ridge in 2017… (See Vimy Project Planning)

and finally, thinking ahead into 2015... 

11^th Annual Tim’s Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend

Well, considering the success This Year’s skirmish campaign I have decided to put off the DBA or HOTT Greek campaign for another time and instead run a Song of Shadows and Dust campaign – perhaps incorporating some of the more detailed campaign/faction building rules from Song of Deeds and Glory for the “main event” on Friday/Saturday. Then, following the Same Format on the Sunday we will play a thematically related boardgame: Conquest of the Empire… and any other (shorter) board/card games we happen to be able to cram into the remains of the day… but more on that in a couple months…