Plans within plans. Within plans.

Hi,

Anyone who's a regular reader is probably aware by this point, that I'm somewhat catholic in my gaming interests.  At last count, I have something like a dozen active painting projects on the go, for almost as many game systems.  As things are, I don't have time to paint all the things I want to do.

That said, I periodically get to thinking about doing a really big project, multiple sides, complete armies, etc.  There's a couple of good examples of this currently.  Paul, over at Napoleonics in Miniature continues to amaze me with his combination of quality painting and scope, while the Raphia project the guys at Big Red Batcave / Watch that Flank! are doing just blows me away.  I doubt that I have the focus for something like this (a little too much of the Magpie in me, I suspect), but it doesn't stop me from occasionally indulging in speculation and planning.

As I think I've said before, my main historical interests fall into two periods, from the death of Alexander through the death of the Roman republic, and the "long" 18th century.  This doesn't stop me from reading or pursuing projects outside that timeframe mind (classical greece, napoleonic period, etc.), but I do tend to gravitate back to my main two; they fascinate me.  It's not surprising then, that when I get to planning, it's for something based in those two eras.



I really enjoyed my test game of Muskets and Tomahawks the other day.  I'm also having something of a romance with the Blue Moon 15mm range.  Taken together, I can see this being a "grand-ish" project that might scratch my 15mm itch.  There's room there to do quite a bit of painting and terrain, for both sides, and it would easily extend into the Pontiac rising.  The one thing that makes me wonder is that the game, by it's nature, is skirmish, and I quite like "battle games".  One solution would be to twin the skirmish project with something bigger, with units based for Maurice or even Black Powder.  Edmonton Bob had put together some scenarios for the former, including the Plains of Abraham, and I could see myself getting behind that project.  If that constituted too much repetition, I've also had my eye on the Blue Moon GNW line for several years, and it offers the opportunity to do horse and guns as well.



For the successors, I'd originally been thinking about a Carthaginian / Republican Roman / Later Macedonian / Seleucid kind of thing.  However, as I think I've mentioned before, I've long had an interest in the Indo-Greek kingdoms.  Lately, that's been compounded by some reading about central Asia. While it's very much out of era, I was struck by the degree to which the same places cropped up over and over again, whether in the Successor period, the 19th century, or today's headlines.

Damn good read, by the way.

 Add in the rather spiffy Parthian brief Jim Webster's done, and a reference over at History in 1/72 to a "what if" Han Chinese vs. Bactrian Greek fight in the Ferghana valley, and it's got me thinking.  There's room for a coherent campaign / set of armies involving the struggle for central Asia, and the establishment of what would become the Silk Road.  Bactrian Greek,  Indo-greek, (post-)Mauryan / Sunga, Saka, Han, and Yueh-Chi / Kushans are all viable.  Figures will be harder to source, at least from a single source, but just the idea of a graeco-Bactrian army squaring off against the Han is damn cool ;)

Wrong Han.  Still cool.

I think what I might do is make this my "reward" project.  So far this year I've been very good at not buying new stuff for projects in which I've not finished painting what I have.  If I can clear the "not yet painted" pile, or at least, say half, I can reward myself with dipping a toe into one of these projects.  In the meantime, I can putter around with planning and research.

FMB