2014 Goals

Well its that time of the year again. Time to review the previous 12 months and assess that against similar posts in previous years to see how I am progressing in my goals and to take stock of where I want to be in the years to come.

Below is a copy of last years' post in grey with new comments added in black. Grab cuppa and take a read through my mind and its constant fight with this hobby ;-)

2014 did not see much movement in most of these projects. I tend to spend spare time during the week on my Forex education and testing leaving the weekends to wargaming. Often the weekends are just relaxing recovery time and usually little work on wargaming is achieved. I need to rectify this. 2014 will be a good year me thinks. Me feels it!

1. NAPOLEONICS 6mm - My #1 Project

2010 was to see experimentation in figure scales to see what number of figs I would settle on for my units. Empire V uses a figure scale of 1:60 resulting in a battalion of 720 men represented on the table by 12 figures. This is perfect for the foot print of that unit on the tabletop battlefield when checking the historical footprints but I like to see massed troops on the table and 6mm is perfect for massed figure units. I played around with 24, 36 and 48 man units and even 72 man units.
No settling in 2010 was made except to continue building armies at 1:60 ratio using 12 man units.
Purchases were to slow down in 2010 and apart from a large Adler order at the beginning of the year and a couple of wins on ebay, nothing else was purchased.

FOR 2011
more painting to get more of these troops on to the tabletop
more demo games run

For 2013
Get back into placing 6mm orders with Adler and UK based painter every 1 or 2 months to fill out my armies for Waterloo and then 1812, beginning with Waterloo allies such as Dutch, Belgian, Nassau and Brunswickers.

2014
Last year saw a little progress in this project. I did in fact get a number of orders through to the painter and back to me and based up. Not as many as I wanted being every 1 or 2 months but at least 3 separate orders throughout the year. This result was mostly my fault in that I took ages to sort out the OOB for my Dutch Belgians and then the painter took a bit longer than expected to complete his side of the order. The other orders throughout the year were for English and Hanoverian infantry and I look forward to basing all of these up in their divisions.

The year also saw a change in my basing for this project, dropping the thin card and magnet to a thicker mounting board and magnet. If you check previous posts on this, it was the result of some testing of moving troops around the wargaming table. The thinner card resulted in a little too much movement of the figures on their bases and the chance they may break off or separate. The thicker base also felt more solid while moving bases around a tabletop. See one of the posts here

2014 will see my aim to complete more divisions of French, English and Prussian infantry and maybe a division of each in cavalry as well in order to get some game testing done before the end of the year. Currently I have a full division of French infantry almost complete. Another around 50% complete. English Guard division complete. Another English infantry division around 50% complete and a Prussian infantry brigade (division) around 50% complete although it does need rebasing. These divisions include attached artillery, limber teams and hopefully will soon include supply wagons and skirmish stands. So they should all be 100% done and ready for tabletop gameplay by the end of 2014.

For painting orders this year I will focus on cavalry although in reality I have quite a lot of unpainted cav so this may not be the best approach for the wallet. We'll see. I may end up throwing the unpainted lots onto ebay.

As to the theatre, well Waterloo and 100 Days is still the #1 focus but Russia 1812 and 1809 Austria is still on the cards for the longer term.

2. MODERNS 6mm and 20mm

2010 was to see some of my 20mm collection painted and on the table for demo games. The year was also to see the beginning of a set of rules to use Ambush Alley and Force on Force for solo gaming. Sadly none of this came to fruition in 2010.

FOR 2011
terrain produced for demo games
painting of small units for demo games

For 2013
I have recently settled on using 6mm for moderns and Force on Force for larger engagements and then 20mm for smaller team based engagements. An order to GHQ and H&R rounded out my 6mm armies well so this year will be a lot of painting and terrain making for this period in both scales.

2014
Not much transpired on this project in 2013. An order from GHQ and H&R did fill out my collections with some awesome figures and vehicles and I really look forward to getting these up and on the table. I will begin by building some ADF 6mm and 20mm forces along with taliban bad guys. In the bad of my mind I am really keen on Falluja and various Iraq and Afghan compaigns with various ISF and NATO forces so who knows where this project will get to in the long run. It could be one that goes on forever.

I was able to build a modern US fireteam with SAW and Javelin in 6mm with a bit of cutting and gluing. Not bad to do considering the price of the figures to get what I want but still not 100% sure it is worth the time and effort for 6mm as yet. See that post here.

This year I also purchased a new set of rules - Skirmish Sangin. My understanding is it is more like an intro RPG man on man set of rules moreso than Ambush Alley and Force on Force. My plan is to use FoF for 6mm and 20mm large contacts and then Skirmish Sangin for small unit SF type actions. Or I may just add some SS stuff into FoF and have 1 set in play.

3. ACW 6mm

2010 was to begin building painted armies of 6mm Adler ACW troops for playing Fire and Fury. This year saw the release of Regimental Fire and Fury. This was purchased and troops began the long process of having any flash removed, split from their casting strips and all muskets and bayonets straightened.

FOR 2011
continue the armies build for Regimental Fire and Fury and get some demo games done to learn the rules

For 2013
continue the army build. In particular I want to get 2 or 3 brigades in each side fully completed for a few demo games this year.

2014
Ok last year was a no go for this project. That is actually okay because I am still not sold on this project at all to tell the truth. In the long term it may be replaced with something from later on in this post. Let's check this again at this time next year.

4. NAPOLEONICS 2mm

Playing around with base sizing from the range of 2mm casts from Irregular saw a decision made in late 2009 and a purchase of a large collection of these. 2010 saw a full Brigade of Prussian Infantry painted and ready to go to battle in a tutorial on the blog. Great feedback was received. As far as I can tell, no one is using 2mm for battalion level gaming as most glue a few casts onto a base and field this as a brigade or division.

FOR 2011
more sample units to be painted and blogged for inspiration for others
a demo game of Empire using 2mm

2013
During this year I sorted out my basing for 6mm in order to satisfy my need for mass as well as affordability. So this project has now been dropped and I will need to sell off my collection.

2014
Interesting year for this project. I still love the footprint these figures have on a tabletop for formations and massed look but with my massive 6mm project it just seems a lot of duplicity in this project. Especially since I moved my 6mm from 1:60 ratios to 1:15 ratios.

I saw an advery this year on TMP for someone looking for 2mm Naps and I emailed him that I had a large collection I was willing to sell off. But when I got them all out for photographing I once again fell in love with them and the deal fell through.

I need to sell these off in 2014. There is no need for them.

5. CRUSADES 10mm

This item was hard. I love 6mm gaming but the heraldry and colour of this period would not be shown easily using the 6mm figures that I could find covering this period. A quick scan of 10mm manufacturers and I was easily satisfied.

FOR 2011
continuation of reading material on the period
place an order for some 10mm troops and paint them as sample units

2013
Over the past year I have collected a few hundred 10mm crusaders so this year I need to paint a few up and purchase some Muslims and get a few demo games of Tactica done.

2014
Nothing happened in this project this year. 2014 should see some units based, undercoated and painted up.

6. SCI FI FLEETS AND LAND BATTLES 6mm

2010 saw nothing done with this project and 2011 will probably be the same. This project entails the production of scratch built starships and the compilation and creation of 6mm land forces.

So there you have it. 6 projects had now been defined and begun that I intend to focus on in my lifetime. Life is just too short to do 100 projects half heartedly so these are it.

2013
Nothing done here last year but this year I hope to scratch build a few capital ships and work out how I will model smaller craft.

2014
Again another project with little movement this year. I did get some inspiration in some of the model spaceships now available and will probably purchase a number of them some time soon. 2014? Maybe?

7. EMPIRE TACTICAL AND CAMPAIGN AI

2010 saw a fair amount of work done on an Empire players guide. This got the blessing of Scott Bowden and a number of hardcore Empire gamers. After a few months or work and around 60 pages of content and pictures I decided the work was becomming too big and would need a break from it and restart in 2011 with something a little more streamlined.

Nothing was done for the Tactical and Campaign AI for gaming with Empire.

FOR 2011
in working with item 1, some demo solo games should be accomplished with notes for solo play

2013
Working on getting to know the rules a lot more for gaming with my weekly gaming group. Also developing quick look up sheets and aids and also researching a few house rules. I should be able to get more solo play done and so should make some progress on the Tactical AI.

2014
With little achieved in the armies and terrain projects, nothing further was done on this project in 2013 either. 2014? Let's see how the other projects fare.

8. TERRAIN

2010 saw some major advancements in my terrain making. When I moved into my new apartment, I cleaned out a lot of the junk I had collected over the years. I took the opportunity to take another look at gaming mats, painted boards and other ideas but eventually settled upon cork tile terrain squares. I selected these as I found a good source of accurately cut and sized tiles that could be purchased cheap when the stores had incomplete boxes to offload. Tutorials were completed on the blog and some great comments came through as a result. They look good and I am keen to complete this project and get the troops in action.

FOR 2011
complete the set of tutorials for Euro terrain project
use the same techniques for modern middle east terrain

2013
This is a big one. I now need terrain for 6mm Euro, 6mm Middle East, 10mm Middle East and 20mm Middle East as well as terrain for space. I have stuffed around for years trying different ideas for terrain and none have made me happy so this year has a goal of finally settling on a terrain methodology and progress towards building euro and mid east terrain by the end of the year.

2014
Interesting year for terrain. I number of posts on this one resulting in my current project of painting cork tiles with 3 colours and then adding cut tiles for contours. See the posts for the Waterloo terrain here.

I have recently had a thought. I would continue with my cork tiles and contours project as generic terrain. I mean generic because the edges of these contour pieces are squared off to 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 measurements so they can be used for multiple battlefields with no particular field in mind. Scouring the net recently saw a resurgence of my idea to use realistic contours for Waterloo and later for Borodino and Austria. I concluded to use corrigated cardboard like that used in storage boxes. Its crude but its cheap and will give me a realistic battlefield quick and easily with a little paste and paint. I can then add in random sized fields, farms, wood etc used in both terrain projects - mounted on card. See further posts on this soon in 2014.

OTHER PROJECTS AND IDEAS THE CREPT IN IN 2013

I have a rule to only purchase books on subjects that compliment these few projects above. Over the years I have had interests in other areas such as Ancient Rome, AWI, African Bush Wars, WWI and a few others. Well this year I purchased a newly released journal from an Australian Lighthorseman who served in the Boer War and then in WW1 in the middle east. It has really captured my imagination and led me to purchase some 6mm and 10mm Boer Wars figures - eventually deciding to keep the 10mm. So this needs to be added to the project list.

I still am interesting in a few other projects mentioned in the previous paragraph but nothing was invested in 2013. That's not to say it will stay that way in 2014! Even though I hope it will.

THE PLAN

So how am I going to ensure I make progress on these in 2014 and not end up at this point next year with "Nothing done this year" again on most of them?

I will still focus the week on my Forex journey as mentioned. This is my retirement plan and the solution to me working for the man and my financial freedom! It will work. I just need to change myself to allow it to work.

So this means I still need to use my weekends for wargaming. I will also use Tuesday nights because it is regularly when I head over to the group south of Brisbane for 28mm Empire gaming. On those few nights where the event is cancelled, I need to use that as bonus wargame time. I may also use Friday nights as this night can sometimes be a bugger to use for Forex.

And of course I need to post updates here maybe each quarter as a little extra accountability. I may even find a wargaming friend to hold me accountable as well. This is just another tool in the kit to help achieve goals in any part of life.


So thats it. Feel free to comment or suggest. See you soon.