Thursday, January 3, 2019

Random: 2019 New Beginnings... on Old Ideas


Welcome 2019!  

It will be a glorious year for wargaming and hobbys.  Well, at least that is what I hope!  Typically, this time of year I lay out my guidelines for the coming year and my goals for what I am going to accomplish.  This allows me to stay on track and avoid becoming a hobby butterfly flitting from project to project. 

If you look at my 2017 and 2018 goals lists, you will see that I tend to break them down into four categories:

1.       Purchases
2.       Painting and Modelling
3.       Rules Writing
4.       Miscellaneous Hobby Stuff

This process has served me very well and allowed me to accomplish many great things each year.  Despite this success, I think I am going to change the formula up a bit.  Instead of focusing on those four categories, I think I want to focus my year on game periods or genres.

I was looking at the By Brush and By Sword blog and I was taken by the idea of the 6X6 challenge.  Basically he chose 6 game systems to try and play 6 games for in the year.  I did not think I could do that, but I did like the idea of focusing my year on game systems or periods instead of the 4 categories I had listed above.  This is going to be tough to pin down! 

Period 1- Ancient Greeks
With the imminent, release of Men of Bronze coming out from Osprey it makes sense to me to focus on this period for 2018.  This is what I want to accomplish for this period:

1.       Create a Social Media strategy to help promote Men of Bronze including a new blog, Facebook Page, Youtube Videos, etc. 

2.       Complete painting for 2 of 3 new armies including: Corinthians, Spartans, or Macedonians 

3.       Purchase and paint a box of Victrix Greek Cavalry

4.       Use painted Greek miniatures to create two rival Greek forces for Of Gods and Mortals

5.       Create an Argonauts warband for Broken Legions

6.       Document and post 6 battle reports for Men of Bronze for the year, including 1 or 2 video batreps. 

7.       Create a Quick Reference Sheet for Men of Bronze



Period 2- Diadochi of Alexander
Assuming Men of Bronze sells well, Osprey was interested in potentially publishing Heirs to Empire as well.  This is an army scale game set in the warring Diadochi period after Alexander the Greats death.  It uses a variant of the Men of Bronze rules with a unique flavor for the period and army size. 

1.       Complete publishing process for Heirs to Empire

2.       Purchase, paint, and base two 6mm successor armies from Bacchus Miniatures

3.       Complete painting my Victrix miniatures for Macedonians and Successors including a unit of Successor Phalangites, Hypaspists, and Heavy Cavalry.

4.       Purchase and paint a Victrix War Elephant

5.       Take good photos of these models for Osprey



Period 3- Roarin’ 20s!
I have had a gangster game called Turf War that I am eager to try out and update for sales on the Wargame Vault.  To do that, I need some photos of miniatures to replace artwork in the current PDF.  I am also interested in some other gangster era games, especially Call of Cthulhu/Strange Aeons type games.  I think these types of small scale games can be popular with my group and family.     

1.       Purchase and paint enough 28mm gangsters for 2 gangs (about 20-25 models)

2.       Pick-up some 1920’s style farm for games in a rural setting or safe house.  This can be resin, paper, or MDF but the less work I need to do on it the better.  Any recommendations?

3.       Buy and paint Cthulhu-esque Lurkers from the Reaper Bones line

4.       Update the Turf War book with model photos and remove other artwork




 Period 4- Blood Bowl!
Okay, it is not a historical period but it is a genre!  My family has been very interested in playing Blood Bowl as a family game.  We have a small family league, and I have been slowly working getting teams and painting them.  Therefore, I am confident that my family will keep wanting to play this game in 2019.  Therefore, I should added it to my list of goals….



1.       Finish painting all of my current teams (Dwarves, Skaven, Chaos, Elf, Dark Elf, Ork, and Human) and hirelings (Ogre). 

2.       Pick-up the Dwarf and Skaven alternate board

3.       Pick-up and assemble two more teams to bring me to 12 total teams

Period 5- Napoleonic
In the end of 2018, I was able to finally get my start on my long time fascination with Nappies.  Sure, I am a noob that knows almost nothing about the time period BUT I picked up Blucher, the 100 Days Supplement, and La Salle.  Therefore, I have a start into the period. 

1.       Play a game of Blucher, most likely the intro scenario Across the Danube

2.       Pick-up the new Osprey Wargame Series book Rebels and Patriots

3.       Complete a draft verion of Mageloque



Period 6- Frostgrave
I have had all the Frostgrave books and supplements for some time.  However, my local group has been slow to adopt it.  They are more sci-fi than fantasy types, but I am interested in giving it a try.  With the new models that allow for all-female warbands I think I have the hook for my family to give it a go and start a campaign in our household.  This is the biggest wildcard on the list.    

1.       Purchase and paint enough plastic kits and fantasy models to make 3-6 wizard warbands

2.       Purchase the Maze of Malcador and Ulterior Motives, then post a review of them

3.       Build, buy, or create enough terrain for a frozen city board for a 3x3 table




Period- Random
This is all the other stuff that I would like to accomplish, but are of much lower priority than the periods I have listed above. 

1.       Finish OnlyThe Strong Survive dinosaur fighting game and get it in the WIP section of the Blog


2.       Keep trying to get 1 new blog post up every 2 weeks at least

3.       Buy two armies from Vanguard miniatures to use with Rampant Galaxies

4.       Buy all the Dracula’s America Books, Last Days, and all the Osprey Wargaming Series of books that come out

5.       Purchase the Gangs of Rome Starter set

6.       Start building a Victrix miniatures Roman Republic and Samnite army

7.       Play some Aquanautica Imperialis

8.       Source two fleets for Castles in the Sky



9.       Sell 1 new war game pitch

Conclusion
Looking at the guidelines for this year, it is clear that my eyes are WAY too big for my wallet.  The only way this will work is if I win the lottery, sell a lot of PDFs on Wargames Vault, sell a lot of copies of Men of Bronze, or some combination of events.  Last year, I set my sights pretty low.  This year I am setting them far too high.  Looking at the list, this could be more of a 5 year wish list rather than a single year plan!  It will be fun to see what happens.  

Wish me luck!  

2 comments:

  1. We plan Rebels and Patriots Napoleonic as well. Currently playing Chosen Man and En Garde Napoleonics :-D.

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    Replies
    1. En Garde Napoleonics.... that is about the scale I could muster this year. I am interested in hearing more.

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