Game Plan 2015

Never too early to start planning for next year…

Most of this Involves some concrete plans for the first quarter and some general plans or ideas for the rest of the year.

BIG EVENTS

I recently posted that I will be hosting my 11^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend the weekend of 13-15 February 2015. It will be a Rome-themed weekend with a Song of Shadows and Dust campaign on Friday and Saturday and some board games on Sunday including Conquest of the Empire.

Beyond that…?

I had a thought of hosting a Summer Campaign Weekend… I won’t be thinking about this too much until Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend is over. I am of missed feelings about a summer gaming thing. Part of me feels like “who would want to spend a weekend indoors in the summer when they could be outside enjoying the weather!?”. On the other hand, it would be easier to travel in the summer – for friends in other cities…

REGULAR GAMING

Board and Card Games

We’re going to play a LOT of boardgames over the next year…

I was looking at my BGG Collection - which by the time the dust settles after the seasonal holiday gift-giving (and BOXING DAY!) I’ll have over 400 games and expansions. Looking a little further I realized I’ve only played a quarter of those – now, keep in mind, many of those are small expansions (a single pack of cards added to a Munchkin game is a separate entry – NINE of those are just Carcasonne expansions that came with the BIG BOX. Many others are games I played a lot “back in the day” but simply haven’t played in the last seven or eight years that I’ve been tracking game plays on The Geek. I have decided that starting now and before the end of the 2015 I’m going to make sure we play 100 new games and expansions – so at least half my collection will have plays recorded! That’s on average about two per week. To kick us off, starting tomorrow, We’re going to play one new game EVERY DAY until the new year – that’ll knock ten off the list and get us on our way.

All the boardgames i played over the last year with the kids was definitely one of the highlights of the year and finding games to tie into the history we were studying was a stroke of brilliance (If I do say so myself) – more on all that in the 2014 In Review post coming up in a week or tow - so I’m really looking forward to playing even more this coming year.

While there will be a lot of other games going on - there will be a number of games following teh periods of history we will be studying over the year - starting with 7 Wonders, Parthenon and  Alexander the Great this week to finish up the Greeks (and other ancients), followed by Rome (Italia, Conquest of the Empire, Ostia, Quo Vadis, Palatinus)  and moving through the Dark Ages (Dux Bellorum, Song of Arthur and Merlin, Tara, Constantinopolis, etc...) and Middle Ages (Carcassonne? Hammer of the Scots, King Arthur, Knights of Charlemagne, Warrior Knights, Lion Rampant, San Gimignano, Siena, Ventura, etc) to the Renaissance... 

In the fall I started hosting a Board Game Afternoon on Tuesday for some fellow homeschoolificators. It was fun. I plan to continue.

I’m attending Freezerburn 2015 this year – a small one-day-boardgaming-min-con hosted by my friend John, who also organizes Tooncon (not to be confused with John – who makes the Toy Soldiers)

Perhaps it’s about time I started attending Tooncon with The Boy…?

Skirmish Miniature Gaming

The next couple of months will be mostly focused on preparing for the Song of Shadows and Dust campaign at the 11^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend. I will be spending a LOT of time making buildings – but hopefully we’ll be playing lots of games just to get the rules in my head really good.

Other than that I imagine I’ll be playing a lot of other Ganesha Games I picked up most of their catalogue over the last year and a few of those remain unplayed. I have Of Gods and Mortals, A Fistful of Kung Fu – Hong Kong Movie Wargame Rules,  Flying Lead, Hearts and Minds, Fear and Faith, Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters, MORE Drums and Shakos, Song of Arthur and Merlin, Samurai Robot Battle Royale, Mighty Monsters, Flashing Steel, and Song of Drums and Tomahawks - all of which I have bought, but haven’t played yet. I’m going to play all of them in 2015 sometime… (that’ll be 12 games off my list right there!)

I’d also like to run a few A Song of Blades and Heroes campaigns using Song of Deeds and Glory.

I’ll also still be playtesting Galleys and Galleons! (not sure if that qualifies as “Skirmish wargaming”..?)

Big Battle Miniature Gaming

I don’t really have time to build any “Big Armies”… I could bust out some Great War stuff and play Contemptible Little Armies… I have any number of Hordes of the Things armies or Dark Ages DBA armies that I could get out… but I haven’t really had the urge to do so lately and I can’t see me doing that at any point in the immediate future. Nor will I likely be adding to any of the existing forces at any point in the near future – with the exception of the Great War miniatures for the Vimy Project. Perhaps I’ll get in a game of CLA before

The only Big Battle games I could see myself playing a bit of is Lion Rampant (which isn't very "Big Battles" as it still has a 1:1 figure ratio... it's just Bigger than all teh other skirmish games I've been playing of late...) and possibly Dux Bellorum - because I have it and I might be able to get away with using elements of my DBA Dark Ages armies to play it.

Role-Playing Games

I made a few attempts last year to get a few Role-playing campaigns going, but most fizzled before they really got started. This year I’m planning on running a Cthulhu Invictus campaign for the kids – which should tie neatly into our study of Ancient Rome over the next few months.

PAINTING, etc.

My main focus for the first part of the year will be to make terrain – buildings, buildings and MORE buildings for the upcoming Song of Shadows and Dust campaign at the 11^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend. I should also get a few civilians done and maybe another faction…

After that…? Painting stuff I already have, mostly. I have a bunch of medieval units for  Lion Rampant I’d like to paint up. I need to finish up The Third Division for the Vimy Project and over 2015 I will need to acquire figures for the 2^nd Division and some Germans (though I may just cast more of my own sculpts) and get cracking on some terrain!

I may pick up another Ancient Civilians Collection… and figures for the 2^nd Canadian Division  (I think the plan was to use 1^st Corps, Gripping Beast/Woodbine, and Irregular Miniatures… but otherwise I don’t imagine buying much else – I’m sure the odd thing will come up… but for the most part I HAVE all the miniatures for all of the games I’m planning on playing this year – I just need to find time to PAINT the ones that are as yet unpainted!  


Well.... That's as much of the plan I have sorted out so far. I'm sure I'll be updating the plan as they year goes by. Stay tuned for the aforementioned 2014 in Review (in a week and a bit) and more game reports and painting updates this week!!