Future plans and past ideas

I had hoped to have written my post holiday post with a few pictures of a rather interesting couple of forts in Portugal (just over the border from where we were staying) but sadly they are on our desk top computer which has thrown something akin to a hissy fit and is currently in drydock as a result. That particular post will have to wait for a few days then as rather foolishly I deleted the pictures from the camera as soon as I had uploaded them.


What I will do though is to detail the various ideas I came back with in respect of the second half of this year and beyond for my gaming purposes. There is nothing unexpected methinks although one idea may come as a little surprise.


Jutland: I have been thinking about this from the perspective of my 1/2400th collection and I have taken the decision to complete both fleets that fought at the battle in 1916 on a 1:1 basis. My long term goal with this will be to refight the battle during 2016 to mark the centenary. I have a few ideas around rules etc for both the strategic and the tactical side but nothing set in stone as yet. The models will be a mixture of Stonewall and Panzerschiffe for the most part and the biggest part of the undertaking will be the destroyers and the light cruisers. This will be a long term project with occasional posts as and when models are readied or as ideas pop into focus. In answer to the obvious question as to why I can only reply because it is there...;-)


WW1 20mm Middle East: The first task will be the rebasing of the first tier of figures - those that were professionally painted - and then I can consider how to tackle the remainder. I have in mind a campaign style set up for this lot based loosely on the legendary Madasahatta campaign run by Eric Knowles back in the late 1970s/early 1980s. As a knock on of this project I will need to consider the second line naval dimension so lots of old cruisers and pre dreadnought battleships will feature in due course.


I should point out that due to the arrival of the above collection my plans for a WW2 Middle Eastern campaign featuring the Turks have now been shelved, at least until the WW1 project has been tackled.


The Moors in Spain: This was the title of my holiday reading on my Kindle. The title was written by Stanley Lane Poole during the 19th century (he also wrote a good history of the Barbary Corsairs) and whilst is a little dated is a first class read. There is much gaming potential for some really good 9th to 11th century games set in the Spanish peninsula and featuring much in the way of battles, raids, skirmishes etc - even more so when you factor in the whole El Cid thing. I fancy tackling a couple of DBA armies for this for the sheer fun of it.


The funny thing with all of the above is that none of the ideas mentioned are new and all have featured at some point in my planning. Aside from the Moorish collection much work has been done already and I am in no hurry to rush something into completion - I want to enjoy the process and so bite-sized chunks are very much the order of the day!