Planning 2017

With the New Year just begun and the prospect of another years opportunities ahead I'm looking at what I would like to do and perhaps achieve in the coming months. I'm thinking that last year, much in common with previous years, my plan is more in the way of a wishlist as going by previous years the plan (or any pretence of it actually being a plan) usually falls by the wayside fairly quickly.

So, with a skance look back over the past year and my fairly loose plan from the beginning of the year with thoughts of progressing my various projects which interest me the most or still had that peak of interest enough that I could get some progress made, all in all I can say that my plan worked. Or at least worked in terms of where I spent my attention and didn't wander off to new pastures. Where it fell down was a gross miscalculation in the amount of time I would have available for doing hobby-ish pastimes.

As a result progress was minimal overall and only meaningful in a couple of areas, with some bits receiving no attention at all, really because the year just flew by and wow, its next year already. So with this experience to the fore (and no indication that this year will go by any slower) I'm looking at a more directed approach and look at a smaller spread of topics to try and progress and see if this produces a greater return.

Future Wars - With a major part of my miniatures purchases last year being for this one, and a considerable amount of ongoing thought into this, my Future Wars project is must and at the head of the list. Already paying returns of the previous investment of time and enjoyin the 'story' I'm looking to take this project in new directions and developing things in quite a bit more depth. I think this will take up a good half of my likely painting and modelling output for the coming year.

Black Army - I want to move this project up a gear and get a playable army on the table for the end of the year. Always an army of interest, the Black Army of King Matthias of Hungary is an atypical Medieval army and so gives an added bonus from getting some attention in that many of the force can be utilised for a multitude of other forces so gives a double pay back in utility.

Empire - Being easily the largest single proportion of my figure collection and probably the smallest proportion of completed and painted, this army/collection forms the single biggest part of my personal lead mountain. For that reason alone, it makes sense to try and make a dent in the amount of unpainted lead. The fact that there appears to be a good likely hood of this army seeing some action this year is an added incentive.

These three areas, one each covering my overall interests of Fantasy, Historical and Sci-Fi, I think is enough things here to keep me suitably occupied over the coming months. Any other bits and bods I manage to give some attention to over the coming year will hopefully service these topics to a greater or lesser extent.

Not forming part of the plan, as they will just happen (or not) as they come will be the ongoing projects that are my Abbey modelling thang and my solo fantasy campaign both of which continue at their own pace in the background.

I do have a couple of other on-going things which will be a part of the coming year and the gaming there-in. The third club Mordheim campaign is roughly half way through its run at the moment and has been thoroughly enjoyable so far and will likely be run to its conclusion later in the year. I will need to get some minor bits modeled and painted for this, so some attention here will be required here. The other item here is the on-going exploration of terrain/gaming boards and the next step is this exploration is already underway and will hopefully pay out by the middle of the year if not earlier.

So with this much condensed area of operations from my usual rambling and organising, and the other bits parked for now (hopefully) I am hopeful that this reduced scope will bear much fruit over the coming year.