2020 Wargaming Projects and Priorities

Happy Saint Stephen's Day everyone!  As 2019 comes to a close and we prepare to ring in 2020 (I'll be going to bed early) I wanted to post my thoughts about my wargaming projects and priorities for the new year.  The last few years of setting priorities has been helpful towards enabling more hobbying and gaming but not as effective as it could be.  Lack of time, distractions, and the "shiny new objects" in this hobby are always pulling me one direction or another.

This time I sat down and actually wrote out what projects I have right now, whether they are in conception (with miniatures on-hand) or actually in progress on my desk.  Here is a list of projects that are spanning 2019-2020:

(highlighted projects are Top priorites.  All others are tier 2 or 3 priorities that will be nice to get to but not pressing.  First up in the New Year will be the 1/285 Cold War project and the continuation of the 10mm SYW and Napoleonic Project.)

• 10mm Napoleonics Project
• 10mm Seven Years War Project
• 10mm World War I Project (yes you read that correctly - The Great War in glorious 10mm scale!)
• 15mm Ancients 
• 15mm Vietnam
• 15mm World War II 
• 15mm American Civil War
• 15mm American Revolutionary War
• 15mm Seven Years War (I still have unpainted SYW troops)
• 6mm 1/285 World War II for Flames of War
• 6mm 1/285 Cold War for Team Yankee
• 6mm 1/285 EPIC 40k FOW Style (yes you read that correctly, too)

It's important to note that all of these projects should get some brush time and some table time this year.  The questions are waht are my priorities, sorted by goal?  I am looking at priorities in terms of objectives and that should drive my work accordingly.  At least that's the plan!

2020 Top Priorities

10mm Napoleonics Project.  Recently acquiring a vast ( and I mean vast!) hoard of 10mm unpainted Napoelonics, I must make a sizeable push this year to paint them and game with them.  I will be basing them on single unit stands as I enjoy playing games with single unit stands more, regardless of the scale of battle.

Rules / Games to play include Commands and Colors Napoleonics, Neil Thomas Napoleonics,  Black Powder, Eagles at Quatre Bras, and Eagles Cheaper than Brain Cells.

I need at least 20 Austrian and 20 French infantry units painted and based, with about 15 Cavalry units for both sides painted and based, along with 5 to 6 gun units painted and based.  This should allow me to play a game of Commands and Colors Napoleonics on a table with no substitutions.

10mm Seven Years War Project.  Ditto the above my collection of 10mm SYW is expanding and must be dealt with!  Initially I had an idea to base up all of the units one would need for the Neil Thomas ONE HOUR WARGAMES force generator, but then realized Mr Borg will eventually be publishing Commands and Colors Seven Years War and felt that I needed a good size force to play epic Seven Years War battles on the tabletop.  If Borg doesn't publish them sooner or later, I'll substitute / hack the Tricorne rules from the AWI and make my own.

Rules include Commands and Colors, Neil Thomas Napoleonic Rules modified for SYW (it's all in the Napoleonic Wargaming book on how to do this) Black Powder.

There's just no way around it.  I will need to paint every single SYW mini I own in 10mm. 

15mm Ancients.  I own a sizeable horde of 15mm Romans, northern Barbarians, and Carthaginians.  That's great!  Problem?  They're unpainted.  What to do?  Paint them, of course.

Rules include Commands and Colors Ancients, Hail Caesar, Neil Thomas Ancient & Medieval Wargaming, Neil Thomas One Hour Wargames

Objectives are to paint and base at a minimum enough forces from a Neil Thomas Army list in Ancient & Medieval Wargaming.  I feel like this should provide ample fighting forces for any rules set I wish to play for now.  Clearly I will need many more for Commands and Colors Ancients, but I really want to get some Early Imperial Romans and Barbarians on my table!  This is the year to do it!

15mm American War for Independence Forces.  Every year these are a "priority" but they never make it onto the table and I am averaging a single regiment painted per year.  That's dismal and so the AWI needs renewed emphasis for me.  In ye olde wargaming days of yore, I loved the AWI more than any other period and I believe that fascination is still there.  I need to push to finish ALL of the minis I currently own (there arent many units left to do), complete corresponding terrain, and play a game!  Bryan L's game at Fall In 2019 was a real inspiration and a nice marriage of hex game rules and miniatures.  I'd love to host a game of this using my based 15mm AWI armies as I think it would be loads of fun.  I also plan to put on some good AWI games this year using CC Tricorne as it gives a fun, clean game.

Rules include Black Powder, Commands and Colors Tricorne as my favorites.

Objectives are to paint every single AWI mini I own in 15mm.

6mm World War II Forces.  Yes, you heard that correctly.  I'm breaking out the microarmor from storage and rebasing them for exciting, epic Flames of War games (which I've always felt is best played as a micro armor game).  Plan is to be able to field 100 point armies for Germans, Soviets, and Americans in mid to late war.  That also means desert and tunisian forces so that's a big project in the wings.  I'll start "small" and knock out eastern front forces in 2020 so that means I'll be looking at a Soviet tank battalion, heavy tank company, infantry battalion, supporting artillery, aircraft, and anti aircraft forces.

Rules include Flames of War, Iron Cross, and Neil Thomas World War II

Objectives are for 30 T-34s, 30 infantry stands, artillery and anti tank batteries, AAA units, and planes for Soviets, and a Panzer III/IV company mixed, infantry company, stug battery, artillery, aircraft and AAA all painted and based.

6mm Cold War / Team Yankee Forces.  A top priority as the Fulda Gap campaign is about to kick off and I need forces with which to fight!  I have a ton of US armor and infantry, same for the Soviets just need to actually finish them off.  Infantry stands and support weapons, Cobra gunships, A-10 warthogs, and SP artillery.  All the toys that you expect to see on a Cold War battlefield in south-central Germany.

Rules include Team Yankee and Seven Days to the River Rhine (which I plan on playing more of this year)

Objectives: That includes a full T-72 battalion, full Motor Rifle (BMP-1) battalion, accompanying troops (at least 30 stands of infantry with support weapons, hind gunships, SU25 ground attack aircraft, SP artillery based and finished, an M1 company, M60A3 company, US mech company (M113),  with up to 20 infantry stands completed.

Blog Posts
This is a first for me but I've been brainstorming some interesting and fun topics to post this coming year on the blog.  Chief among those are:

• Converting Neil Thomas Napoleonics into Seven Years War rules (it's all in the book).
• Rules Hacks from the Junior General Rules site.
• Playing Black Powder games with single-based unit stands.
• Playing Neil Thomas Napoleonic games with single-based unit stands.
• Hex-based rules with miniatures.
• Eagles at Quatre Bras/Shako Scenario conversion
• Black Powder/Shako Scenario conversion

Planned Games in 2020

Here is a list of my megalomania in action as I daydream about games I'd like to play this year in 2020:

• Neil Thomas Napoleonics Big Battle
• Neil Thomas Napoleonics-Seven Years War Big Battle
• Black Powder AWI Big Battle / ACW Big Battle
• CC Tricorne - Monmouth or Saratoga
• Neil Thomas WW2 Stalingrad action using the WW2 rules from Wargaming: An Introduction
• Battlegroup: Kursk Ponyri Station Infantry Assault - the last Red offensive from the campaign!
• Iron Cross Urban Fighting - Stalingrad
• Seven Days to the River Rhine WWIII actions in VII Corps AO
• Commands & Colors Ancients gaming - Punic Wars?  
• Neil Thomas Ancients & Medieval Gaming Rome Vrs Barbarians
• Neil Thomas ACW Game Little Round Top
• Norms Two Flags-One Nation games - Cedar Mountain, Cemetery Hill, Little Round Top, etc
• 6mm Flames of War games
• 6mm Team Yankee games
• Tigers at Minsk - Stalingrad Games
• Eagles at Quatre Bras more CCN scenarios
• Commands and Colors Napoleonics