Front Loading for Retirement*

An excellent book and crying out to be Portable Ironclads Wargamed! But how or even when?

Assuming I ‘go the distance’ then at the time of writing I have 973 days until I retire - not that I am counting! I will retire when I am able to and if my current employment sees fit to put me out to pasture sooner then so be it. It would not be the end of the world if that happened - the house is paid for and we are financially ok in a modest way. From a personal perspective it would mean that I could spend more quality time with Laurel - which seems an odd viewpoint when I am working fully remote at home - and the pace of our lives would be a good deal less frenetic. I will have to see how things go but the relative nearness to the big ‘R’ means that decisions need to be made in respect of many things - the inevitable down or right size into a more manageable property - and of course, my collection.

In many ways I have been moving towards this over recent months, years even, with a series of disposals and selected acquisitions, all of which are designed to be as compact as possible. There are several decisions that have already been reached - more by chance than design - but I seem to heading in the right direction. More or less….

1. No more large armies 15mm or upwards. Aside from lacking the inclination to build large armies the associated cost and space requirement is too high. Any ‘armies’ I look to build will be confined to 6mm or smaller (more of which later). I shall still use 28mm for skirmish sized actions - 0200 being a case in point - or possibly even a dabble into Rampant territory but of necessity this will need to be carefully planned and managed. I have a WoFun ACW collection in 18mm which will go against this ruling, mainly because the armies take up so little space. I may even dabble further with WoFun but who knows?

2. Aircraft and ships will remain a constant as either take up little space and terrain requirements are fairly modest. I especially enjoy making ships and so see no reason to stop!

3. Boardgames. I have a long history with boardgames and with the choice and selection available there is plenty to keep me going. I have consciously moved towards tactical boardgames or specifically designed solo types. I have a couple that qualify as strategic level and indeed, I may well explore this further but ina measured way. The tactical games I have chosen are mainly those that cover periods of history I am unlikely to ever translate into miniatures based games. As a confirmed grid based wargamer the transition from miniatures to counters/blocks or back again is a very easy one to make!

For Tactical combat on land these include various Command and Colours titles (Samurai Battles, Jacobite Rising and American Revolution), Lock and Load (Heroes of North Africa) and Flying Pig Games (‘65, Night of Man). I also have both editions of Combat Infantry by Columbia Games - NW Europe and the Eastern Front for WW2. Finally, I have the full set of the Undaunted series.

4. Small but perfectly formed. I have acquired a collection from the painting legend and all round good chap ‘Lee Gramsom of nine 3mm ancient DBA armies with camps terrain and a set of painted gaming boards as well. I shall be meeting up with him to take collection of these probably on 25/02 - the day of the Cavalier show at Tonbridge in Kent. These are quite exquisite and painted to Lee’s usual outrageously high standard! I used to play a lot of ancients back in the day and enjoy DBA so this collection, in its bespoke storage box will be an ideal way for me to dabble once again. 

5. Mention of skirmish/Rampant style set ups includes such things as the aforementioned 0200 (WW2 night raids) along with Sci Fi Stargrave/Five Parsecs from Home/ Another Glorious Day in the Corps style games. Rampant will be reserved for something special - I have not decided yet but I have a few things in mind.

I do not own vast armies of painted figures and so by keeping to skirmish sized actions in 28mm I can keep things within modest bounds - an important consideration for storage space when the inevitable down/right size comes and for being doable. The biggest single part of my collection is probably the library. Again, I have made strenuous efforts over the last couple of years to keep this within sensible bounds. It is slightly larger than I would like but I have in mind some disposals that should get it to where it should be. This will also have the advantage of enabling me to organise it rather more effectively. As with every part of my collection there is an element of ‘churn’ as things come into or drift out of fashion - the butterfly will o doubt still be fluttering!

If I was to score myself out of ten as to where I am at with this overall retirement vision I would probably give myself a 6, bordering on a 7. There is work to be done but I at least have a handle on what needs attending to and so the overall picture is slowly coming into focus. At least I still have potentially 973 days to get where I need to!

* I am indebted to Aly Morrison for introducing me to the concept of Front Loading for Retirement - many thanks old chap!