It is what ‘IT’ is….

The Man Cave - poised at the ready for whatever happens next!

In this case the ‘IT’ is my newly honed and refined project list, version 196.4 (at the very least)! To be honest my usual wargaming project list is very much a work in progress or even a moveable feast if you prefer - I suspect that this will strike a chord with many gamers! I freely admit to being rather lethargic over the last couple of months with only the occasional dabble in anything meaningful. It has been a time of thinking and planning - not in a structured or organised way, rather just a ‘mash up’ of various ideas - but, as time spent of reconnaissance is seldom wasted, I now have a better idea of what I am up against and the likelihood of ‘stuff’ seeing the light of day. I have listed these in no particular order with my assessment of how near or far each item is to reality. There are figures involved and even, shock horror, painting!

1. Samurai. I am really torn on how best to tackle this as I rather like both skirmishes and the whole big battle option. I have 20mm plastic for the latter and 28mm plastic for the former and either way it will be a substantial undertaking, at least for me anyway. I may park this for the moment as I am still undecided as to which way to go but it will happen at some point and in one form or the other!

2. WW1 Naval. I have more or less settled on the models I need so I am currently at the ‘getting the order together’ stage. This will be relatively easy to get to the table once I have the models as the paint job is simple to execute and I have all the flags etc I need. I will need to organise the bases but that can wait until after I have the ships onsite. There is also the small matter of a suitable map of the theatre of operations.

3. Sci Fi/Techno Fantasy - Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel. Around 50 models to paint but usable for many things so there is plenty of mileage to be had. Obviously usable straight out of the box but I would rather get the models painted first. 

4. Battletech. An old favourite and again, relatively easy to get to the table. I have around a couple of dozen of ‘mechs to paint and would need to organise a few bits and pieces of scenery but this would be relatively straightforward to organise.

5. Memoir ‘44. I have a couple of copies of the base game, the Operation Overlord expansion and the Terrain Pack. That will suffice for me at present and in any event, the rules and scenarios for most of the series are readily downloadable. I am going to get a few games in and yes, I have some ‘long range’ ideas but nothing tangible at present.

6. The ACW. I have some ships to finish for the collection as well as a few refurbishments to undertake but nothing major. It would be the practical thing to tackle these first of all but practicality has never been my strong suit! Having said that I have some 18mm WoFun to commission for the land side and a rather fat book about the Atlanta campaign waiting to be read! I would need to get an order in to Wofun first to complete the collection though - nothing major, just a command pack and some dismounted cavalry for both sides.

7. DBA. A chance remark at the club a couple of weeks ago has got me reaching for my copy of DBA (3.0 - the big hard purple one….) and the Essex Miniatures catalogue with a view to getting an army painted - by the end of next month! I have a cunning plan about this and fully intend revisiting an army I owned previously to tackle again. It has the virtue of being simple to paint as well as having fought against numerous opponents over a longish timeframe. More details once I have painted it!

8. Blocks. I am mindful of the fact that I have often mooted a minor upgrade to the block armies. This is still very much on the the to do list but as yet I have not decided how best to tackle this. One consolation though is that once I have ‘pulled the trigger’ it will be dead easy to action - essentially I just need to design and order the appropriate pieces.

I realise that this looks dangerously like a whole pile of stuff that is designed never to get done but for me variety has always been important. The fact that much of this is relatively small beer is a bonus so I will less excuse for not achieving any of them!