What do you do when....

....You have certain parts of a project in place but not all? Or even no parts in place at all and just the wisp of an idea to roll with? Just how do sit down and prioritise what you want to do and how you want to do it?

This is the conundrum I currently find myself in and so I decided to apply a little rationale to my thought processes and see what comes out in the wash. I have looked at the various ideas I want to tackle and have broken them down into the following categories:

• Rules
• Figures/models
• Research material readily available

I will be scoring each category out of 3 where 1 represents nothing available at all, 2 has some parts but not as many as needed and 3 is fully up to speed.

Ancient Greeks and Persians

The first project to look at is the ancient Greek and Persian campaign idea I have been messing around with. For the rules I shall be using Command and Colours Ancients for the land actions and the old WRG Fleet Action set - possibly Dave Manley's Fire and Fury variant. For both aspects of the campaign I also have DBA and a naval version of the same so I am well covered for rules. This category then comes in at a 3.

I also have sufficient models for the naval side but obviously these will need painting although that should not be a major hassle. The land side will be conducted solely using Command and Colours blocks although I have not ruled out acquiring some DBA armies for the period in due course - this is not essential though. I would score this category also as a 3.

As far as research material is concerned for the war I am pretty well covered as far as the naval side goes but less so for the land battles. There are three Osprey campaign books for the land campaign (I have included Marathon in this for completeness) that  would like to get a hold of as well as the history of the war by Burne. This is a work in progress and so I can only score this as a 2.

Total out of a possible 9 = 8.

A 19th Century set up

Apologies for the vagueness of this but all will be revealed in due course. I have the rules readily in place for this project - in fact I have a very good selection of sets to use for both land and naval actions - so this will score an emphatic 3.

Figures and models is a little more problematic although the land side can be easily handled using the block armies until figures are available. The naval side will need to be tackled from scratch although I do have a viable alternative that could be pressed into service in the short term. This will mean that a score of 2 would be about right.

The library for this project is pretty much complete on the naval side and so any additional material would be nice to have but really not essential. The land side though is lacking some weight behind it and so I will need to get at least a couple of standard titles in. Like the figures/models category above, a score of 2 would be about right.

Total out of a possible 9 = 7.

An early 20th Century set up

Again, apologies for the vagueness of this but this is simply because I have not made up my mind about which combination of Turkey and A.N.Other will fit the bill. Luckily I have the rules readily in place for this project - in fact I have a very good selection of sets to use for both land and naval actions - so this will score an emphatic 3.

Figures and models is a little more problematic although the land side can be easily handled using the block armies until figures are available. The naval side is currently under way and I have the plans in place for the final ships I want to add (I am thinking in terms of Fezia and Rusland here). I am going to score this as a 2 simply due to the fact that although it is very well advanced on the naval side I am really keen to tackle some models for the land side. At the moment though this is proving to be a thorny problem simply due to my own indecision.

My library for this period is pretty complete and so I cannot envisage adding anything except if something really out of ordinary came to hand. I can happily score this as a 3 as a result.

Total out of a possible 9 = 8.

WW1 1/2400th North Sea Naval set up

The rules are no problem for this - in fact the only problem is what ones to use. Happily a 3 for this methinks!

I have a little over three quarters of what I want for the this set up although as yet very little is painted. Once I have the kit in house this will be a priority simply because I know I can tackle the entire thing very quickly. I can only give this a 2 due to the need to add some extra ships.

How long is a piece of string? I have a modest but fairly complete library on naval warfare during WW1 but I am conscious of needing a couple of titles just to finish certain aspects off. As a result then, this will score a 2.

Total out of a possible 9 = 7.

WW2 set up

Again, the rules are absolutely no problem for this - in fact the only problem is what ones to use. Happily another 3 for this methinks!

I have a lot of material for the Middle Eastern/Caucasus - both figures and models but I still need a lot more. This is not because the forces I am raising are huge, it is simply because of the variety I will need. I need vehicles and aircraft to round this off, not to mention a lot more artillery. With this in mind a 2 is the only score I can give.

My library for the early war period has a reasonable number of titles in it and so I reckon I could probably wing it with what I currently have. Having said that, depending on how the project looks at the business end I may need to add a few titles for completeness. Again, this will have to be a 2.

Total out of a possible 9 = 7.

I sat down to do this just to see how my various projects would look in terms of the stage they were currently at and so whilst it was a useful exercise I am not sure how valuable it has been. I have also not included a number of the more whimsical ideas with which I am currently flirting! It would appear that the higher scoring projects (Ancient Greeks and Persians and the Early 20th century) are the ones that should be focused on in order to finish them. This is true up to a point but the 19th Century project is very close to the two 'winners' in that if I acquired the ship models needed it would actually be at the same state of readiness as the Ancient Greeks and Persians, i.e. using blocks for the land games and with a pile of models that needed painting.

One thing that did surprise me though, was the fact that rules for any of these projects are plentiful, tried and tested and readily available. At least that is one thing I won't have to worry about!