Thursday, December 13, 2012

This is the end(ish) . . .

Hi,

Family stuff reared it's tousled and rather cute head last night, which meant no trip to the club for me, but not to worry.  It's coming up to the end of the year, and time for some reflective navel gazing.

Christmas tends to be something of a busy time for me.  With the Cub in town, and much familial rushing about, productivity tends to drop off alarmingly, along with opportunity (and content!) for blog posts.  I thought I'd take a little time now to go over what I've done in the last year, and make a few tentative plans for 2013.

2012 began with the decision to morph my developing Impetus Successors from the Beta Pyrrhic list on the website, to the Antigonid list in EI4, a decision I've yet to regret.  In addition to finishing (now more than) 300 points of Antigonids, it's also prompted a fair bit of recreational reading on the diodochi, and the period as a whole.  This has even spawned somewhat crazed ideas about a big-boy what-if campaign, where either a) Alexander didn't die, or b) one of the successors managed to win the whole thing (or form some sort of confederacy) and pushed west as Alexander had planned.  Successors vs. Gauls, Carthaginians and ERR?  Yes please!


2012 was also dominated by the Seven Years War, and especially, by Maurice.  Although the original impetus (ha!) of the project was the chance to try out my long-owned, but never-used Might and Reason rules, once Maurice hit town, it pretty much took over.  I'm a bit of an 18th c. fiend, the SYW fascinates me, and the chance to not only paint up a fair number of my beloved French, but to use them in a campaign as well was legen . . . wait for it . . . dary.  We're currently waiting for the last game of the current round to be played, but once someone figures how to pry Otherdave away from the World of Tanks, things should progress.


The other main trend this year seems to have been a radical diversification in both the games I'm playing and the projects on which I'm working, especially in the second half of the year.  I've gone from being a more or less one-game guy (does serial monogamy apply to wargaming?), to someone willing (and moderately able) to try a little bit of lots of different games (turns out, promiscuity is fun!).  Song of Blades and Heroes, Check your six!, and Bolt Action all made an appearance on the table and /or in the painting queue, along with a resurgence of Warmahordes and even a bit of 40k.  Napoleonics are on deck, in two scales and two periods, and in addition to expanding my Antigonids, I've got Spartans on deck for Impetus, and the planned project for the club's February Basic Impetus day.  This has actually caused me a bit of ongoing existential crisis, at least in terms of "geek me".  Having so many different projects that are both desirable and accessible is new to me, and actually requires a shift in how I approach the hobby.  Nice problem to have ;)




Top of the queue for the new year are Soviets for Bolt Action, French and Natives for Muskets and Tomahawks, and Ayyubids for (Basic) Impetus.  The latter caused a bit of skull sweat, but once I clued into the idea of building for Impetus, but playing them as the Basic list, things came together.  Plus, honestly, the Legio Heroica figs were too nice to pass up.  Realistically, those projects will keep me busy through the spring.  Once they're done, who knows?  There's plenty of lead in the pile, and time enough for painting.

With the blogosphere abuzz with end of year plans for new projects, I've sat down to take a hard look at the lead pile.  Guys at the THMG are trying to pick out a main project to focus on for 2013.  While I'm loath to do that (there's too much stuff out there I'm eager to do), I am going to limit myself.  I won't entirely rule out the prospect of acquisitions, but I won't pick up any new models for a project until all the existing models for that project are painted.  This includes Btown, etc.  I can sell, but I can't buy unless I have nothing else to paint for the project in question.

Everything's shiny.  Not to fret.

The astute among you will note there's at least a couple of loopholes there.  I'm not going to limit myself on rules (as there are at least a few coming out I know I'll want to pick up (I'm looking at you EI5 and Fantasy Impetus), I do have the option to get new stuff (just not while I still have stuff to paint), and this rule doesn't preclude starting a new project if something really catches my eye.  In my defense, however, this still represents a step forward from my current trend of "oooh, shiny", and it seems I'm not the only one who has trouble killing the Magpie.

I'm just about finished the first full squad of my BA15 Soviets, so will have a post for the weekend on them.  After that, things may thin out a little bit, as I'll be knee deep in Christmas baking and rugrats.  The Cub arrives in 10 days, and while I'm pretty sure Puddin' still has no idea what Christmas is, she's aware that something is going on.  I think this year is going to be fun ;)

FMB



4 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed reading this post. It sounds like you had a wonderful year of gaming with more great plans for the coming year. I look forward to hearing all about it as it unfolds. Best wishes!

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  2. It really is hard, having all those great ideas for projects and no time to realise them. Also, what about those finished projects and wargames which need some love too? You seem to have done all right though. All I've managed this autumn is to prep some 1/72 germans and yanks for painting and work on a titanic model kit my nephew gave me.

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  3. Has your head stopped spinning yet? That's a lot of projects on the go at one time, AND you've got a small child to interrupt your free time!

    For managing to cope with all of life's vagaries and still manage these projects, not to mention get in regular game time, I salute you!

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  4. These are the best of times for gamers and you're living proof. This is where I come to get a dose of what I can't play locally. Keep it up!

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