Monthly Update Oct 2009

Welcome to an update on what is going on at the War Depot. I have decided to put up a quick journal entry on my overall Wargaming experiences and thoughts each month from a project management point of view, with a major update at the end/beginning of each year.

Why am I doing this?
Liek most people, I find I am more organised and time efficient in my work life than in my personal life. Not quite sure why that is, when one's worklife is usually a means to earn income to pay for one's personal life. With my own personal goals of this year to organise and time manage my whole week, this naturally means my wargaming time should be more organised and better utilised. Documenting it on this site also means it may inspire others to higher achievements and may also hold me accountable to reach those goals that I publicly declare. Should you have your own ideas on such things, feel free to share them by clicking on the Comments link at the bottom of this post.

All of my wargaming activity can be summarised into the following 6 projects.

6mm Napoleonics

Leaps and bounds over the past 6 months with this project. But still not enough momentum to be satisfied.

Not only have I managed to pick up some ebay sales and a large purchase from Adler direct earlier in the year, but I have been able to add a few great new books on the 100 Days Campaign to my library. Although I strictly have been collecting for 100 Days, during this year I became increasingly interested in the 1812 Russia campaign and in 1814 France. A few book purchases for these periods were made also. Some of the Adler purchased this year were to be used for this period with most of it being 1812 Russians.

I fiddled around a bit on what scale of man to figure I should use. Empire suggests 1:60 being 12 figure battalions but I wanted a bit more mass and so played around with 1:30, 1:20 and even 1:10 scales. 1:10 looks really good and I will probably use it for smaller engagements. I decided on 1:30 and have begun reorganising my trays of troops to match. I did this simply by using twice as many bases of 2, 3 and 4 figure stands as would normally be used. So in essence, everything is twice as wide but with the same depth.

I now have what I believe to be around 2 x corps of British; about 3 x corps of French; around 3 x corps of Prussians and a few divisions of Russians. Mostly unpainted.

20mm Moderns

This year saw me get more into Ambush Alley and Force on Force using 20mm or 1/72 figures and vehicles.

I am excited about this project. I picked up a few sales off ebay for troops and vehicles and now have all the rules and supplements available. This project will also require its own set of terrain which I have added to the Terrain project below.

To date I have a few dozen of each of the Wartime Aussies, plastic British, Liberation US (painted) as well as lots of Afghan fighters and civilians. With these I have prepainted US vehicles, an Aussie ARH Tiger, a Revell kit for a Chinook and a Revell kit for a NH90 which I will use for the Aussie MRH90. Lots of new stuff is coming out for this scale and period so 2010 may see a number of purchases made. Stay tuned.

Empire Tactical and Campaign AI

This is a big project and nothing new has been done this year.

The end goal here is to have a bunch of tables, or even a PC program, to use for solo battles and campaigns with Empire V.

Terrain

Most of the progress of this project over the past 6 months has been in my head.

After trialing various ideas over the years I have settled upon a collection of flat focked modules that are either 1' x 1' or 2' x 2'. Some of these may have rivers and creeks modelled in. On top of these squares I will place peices of scenery such as towns, sections of towns, farms, churches, fields, hedges, fences, roads, tracks, hills, rough ground, marshes etc. All of these scenics will be individual models based on thin card.

This system will be followed whether for 6mm or for 20mm. For my 2mm I will model the actual modules themselves.

To model, I will use card, timber, balsa and foam as filler and then smooth out with putty or clay.

For Europe, I will then undercoat in a thick layer of brown house paint. On top I will brush on medium green and while still wet, coat with a thick layer of light, dark, and the 2 mixed, fine flock. Finally I will spray on a couple of layers of matt varnish or hairspray.

For the Middle East, I will spread a thick layer of glue and then fine sand. I will then undercoat in a thick layer of desert yellow house paint. On top I will drybrush 2 shades of tan and a very light brush of white. Finally I will spray on a couple of layers of matt varnish or hairspray.

All the scenic items will be finished in the same as for the terrain they will be placed upon.

Painting

The last 6 months have been a major coup for me in painting figures.

Not only have I taken on other peoples' figures and made some extra cash to fund these projects, but I have also picked up a lot of new technique that helps to paint better and faster. While I admit I am not the best painter out there, I charge a good price and need to focus on getting lots of troops out fast.

6mm ACW

A sideline "wishlist" project that gathered pace this recently.

I have always been interested in ACW and in particular 6mm using Fire and Fury. These last months found a bunch of unwanted ACW Adler 6mm in amongst a large stash of Napoleonics I purchased 2nd hand. I now have about 3 corps of ACW and really should start getting them based and painted.

Last year I downloaded Regimental Fire and Fury and hope to run some test games soon.

Other

Well there a lot of things in here including a 6mm Sci Fi campaign complete with fleets and land forces, 20mm Sci Fi for spec ops missions with small units, Imperial Rome in 6mm, Medieval in 6mm (especially crusades), SYW, WSS and AWI.

In reality I don't think I will live long enough to get into these projects in any depth, so they remain there on the "Other" list.

So there it all is. Hopefully I can add an update to each of these each month with a full review at the end of December.

Feel free to comment/suggest or copy.