Planning 2016

Once again it's time to put finger to keyboard and plot out my intended plans for the coming year. This year is going to be different. No, really, it is! I can say that with certainty because normally my plans for the coming year have been based on what I've been gaming and thinking about in the year just passed and following on from what I have achieved during the year.

This year however is different if only because I don't think I managed to do or finish anything I had planned for 2015. So I am in a bit of a conundrum as to where to start for the plan for the coming year. Or perhaps a better place to put it would be as a blank canvas.

Putting the things aside that I had planned for last year, I had a think about why I hadn't got any of them progressed as much as I had hoped (and I know a plan never survives contact with the enemy). This was to see if the project's themselves hadn't fired my imagination or was it down to other factors. The major projects which I had hoped to progress to a greater or lesser degree all do interest me with my Almoravid's, Italian Wars French, Hungarian Black Army and Scots Armies all still vying for attention along with my Future Wars project which is the only one that saw any progress of any amount.

I also had a look through the lead (and plastic) mountain of troops languishing in their boxes and had a think about if any of these piles deserved some TLC more than any others. I also had a look through my (admittedly growing) collection of terrain pieces etc to see what was needed and what was successful, and of course what had been an unmitigated disaster.

In the end I think it has boiled down to two questions; What games do I plan to play in the coming year and in the near future? and, What do I think I'll enjoy (and therefore be motivated to do) making and painting? Obviously the two things are directly connected.

The long and the short of it (it has taken a fair few days to go through everything, it is a large lead mountain after all) is a pretty simple, but hopefully successful, plan for the coming months. The Plan boiling down to two basic parts; 

1. Finishing what I've started.
2. Finishing what I started a while ago.

With the trawl through my mini's and terrain and browsing through the shiny stuff on the internet I've decided there isn't anything really any new stuff currently, or on the horizon, out there at the moment (Cough! excepting some Kickstarter stuff that will appear some time reasonably soon, but that counts as plan part 1 in my books) so it's projects on the go that will receive my attention in the coming year. So;

1. Finishing what I've started - A bit of a repeat of last year's plan but with more of an emphasis on terrain and model making since that's the direction my mind has been wandering of late.

Future Wars - I've enjoyed my going's on with the Future Wars project to date (and the biggest project progress of last year) and I am looking forward to enjoy the fruits of these labour's. Really, the only work required here to allow the games to begin, is to continue to expand the amount of terrain available for the planned conflicts. There will be a couple of additional vehicles for the Kra'ull too, but that's pretty minor. So, small terrain pieces to be churned out for this and a few bigger pieces planned (or planning) and with this work already begun, it's off to a positive start to this part.

Italian Wars French - This one should be easy (famous last word's) and complete the unit's started last year which should bring the tally to a small, but playable, force.

With a couple of unit's of infantry, one of cavalry and a couple of command stand's and a couple of small artillery pieces to finish off I'm hoping this will give the impetus to get more of the project moving further down the line.

Almohad Berber's - Another 'easy one' which didn't happen last year, even with nine units prepped and ready to go, I just need to get the f@?#"*g things painted. No gaming planned with these as such, I just what to get them done really, cause they'll look nice and all that.

Five units of infantry and four cavalry units awaiting the brush, I am anticipating this one will take a bit of a push but once commence will hopefully get on a bit of a roll.

Scot's Army in France - Just plan to move this project past the planning stage and since this one constituted about my only figure purchases of last year I would like to see where this one goes. I have also been thinking about getting the most benefit from this and expanding the remit of the local e covered and enabling some home grown conflicts to be played not just the HYW but also some of the later 15th Cent fights closer to home. It will probably involve some stretching for this, but I think it will be a go'er as this one has definitely got me interested again.

These are the main thing's which will move through out the year and provide the back bone of what I'm planning for 2016.

2. Finishing what I started a while ago. 

The second part of my yearly plan is really a mish-mash of a thing, made up of various bits and bobs which have been satellites of my hobby world for several years and is a product of my meandering through all my toy boxes and going ooh and ah over past treasures.

Rather than list all the small bits and pieces of this rather amorphous part of the plan, suffice to say it includes all the Fantasy and other worldly skirmish gaming bits and bobs which don't individually have a project name but will include gaming pieces for Frostgrave, Mordheim, Oldhammer and sundry other gaming types.

Also under this heading is my on-going, nay marathon-esque, modelling that is my Abbey project which I will progress terrain wise in the coming months. I've had a few idea's to add to this project to enable expanding the model pieces gaming usefulness into other sphere's, which is nice.

The last piece of this messy part of the plan is to continue with my Solo Fantasy campaign, which of late has turned into something more of a story writing rather than a gaming project , but all still enjoyable for that, but a couple of table top games are moot at the moment so will more than likely get posted in the fullness of time. This will all hopefully utilise the bits made available from earlier in the plan.

In conclusion to this more than usual ramble, my plan for the year is a bit more mutable than normal (which I know is saying something) and is of a more fluffy nature too. By fluffy, I mean story telling, as I am feeling my gaming in the coming year is likely to heading much more in that direction. Hopefully the parts will all form an entertaining whole for a productive and enjoyable year to come....

..and much carnage.