2024 Planning

General Dwight Eisenhower once said "plans are worthless, but planning is essential."  The old man knew a thing or 2 about managing a strategic operation, so it's fitting as I sit down to ponder 2024 that I channel my inner strategist to try and shed some light on the question of "where are we going here?

Portrait of Dwight Eisenhower, from the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery

Rather than a retrospective on 2023's gaming adventures, this post looks forward.  The past year my hobby has felt much like a meteor hurtling through the galaxy.  Those precious opportunities when I've been able to sit down and game felt more like random collisions with other meteors, rather than being on a charted course.  I want to fix that.  While my hobby here is rich in resources, miniatures, gusto, and inspiration, I have not been working towards anything, and amongst all of the acquisition and rules reading and blog skimming, there was no real direction in any of my endeavors.  

So what do you do when you have ample resources, but nothing seems to be coming together?  You do some planning and write a plan, of course :)

Now, I could use this post to daydream about what I want to play, and paint, and build, but the truth is, those plans would likely fall apart.  The plan is the thing that doesn't survive first contact with the enemy (Murphy was a wargamer, afterall), but as Ike said once, the planning bit is essential.

Staff officers debate the true extent and scope of the miniatures collection at SOUND OFFICERS CALL

All of that to say what has been really lacking from my gaming life has been direction and planning.  Call it what you will - strategy?  Purpose?  An end state?  Whatever you call it, there has not been much time for it in my life of late! 

With 2 children in the house, sports, academics, and other extra curricular activities, not to mention a new job started this past summer, there is clearly alot going on around the gaming bunker.  My precious leisure time is not cheap, and as usual, gaming is the first thing cut (rightfully so lest I give up an opportunity to go for a run with my daughter or play catch with my son).  So how do I fix that?  How do I maximize the value of my time and quality of my time spent gaming, and also work towards something?  

Planning for the big Eylau Convention Game 

I think it starts with admitting that I'll likely never get to half of this stuff, so for 2024, I'm planning to right-size my hobby.  I've come up with a plan to do more planning that will hopefully lead to more gaming and more satisfaction in my gaming, rather than chasing after something that is not attainable for me at the moment.  All of this starts with the strategic objective.  

The campaign's objectives if you will:

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

1. Play More Games
2. Reduce Clutter & Right-Size Miniatures & Rules Collection
3. Standardize Terrain & Miniatures Storage

Don't you love how all the boss has to do is say this stuff and a staff carries it out?  Most of my time in the US Army was spent as a staff officer, so I'm well aware of the "pie in the sky, big thoughts" that have to be carried out by Captains, Majors, and Lieutenant Colonels.  The boss gives his end state, and the staff come up with coordinating instructions and tasks for units and elements.  Those are then translated into orders.

So with that in mind - here are the tasks that need to happen in 2024, sorted by their objective, sub-objectives, and tasks needed to complete the objective.  It's just like a military operation but times are tough so we fired all of the staff officers here at SOUND OFFICERS CALL and I'm acting as the commander AND the staff 😁:

Objective 1. Play More Games

Sub Objectives:

1a. Need simpler, more accessible Rules*

1b. Need smaller games on the table with a clear ending, clear winner, and low rules overhead to be completed all in one sitting

1c. Fast setup & takedown

1d. Larger games on a hex mat 

*Accessible in this case meaning there is low learning overhead to play the system.  It can be easily played on a Friday night when brain matter is at a premium for all players.

Tasks to achieve Objective 1:

1.T.1 Playtest Simpler Rules/ Games

    1.T.1a. Darren's "Vapid" Fire on hexes

    1.T.1b. LNLP's Tank on Tank WWII with MicroArmor on a hex mat

    1.T.1c. Play modified GDW Team Yankee/Panzerblitz with MicroArmor on a hex mat

    1.T.1d. Play my modified SPI hex/minis rules for large battles, also Simplicity in Hexes

    1.T.1e. Try John Acar's D6 Ancients - maybe on a hexmat?

    1.T.1f. Try OHW Ancients on a grid or...you gussed it - a hexmat

    1.T.1g. Commercial Rules to Try include Valour & Fortitude for Friday evening tabletop minis games and legacy Rapid Fire, Commands & Colors series, To The Strongest, Tillys V. Bad Day, OHW variants, Simplicity in Practice

    1.T.1h Maximize use of OHW scenarios for smaller games that support an evening play

    

1.T2 Come up with a Friday night gaming schedule to play (Dave and I play every other Friday night now)

Objective 2. Reduce Clutter & Right Size Collections

Sub Objectives:

2a. Reduce rules, minis, and terrain collections by up to half

2b. Ensure rules support Objective 1 above

2c. All rules fit on 1 shelf (currently sit on 4 shelves)

2d. Store painted minis not in use or sell collections where multiple scales exist (why do I need 15mm SYW and 10mm SYW armies when they are exactly the same? Same units and everything)

2e. Understand how big my various collections are - some are so bloated I could not even tell you but so many of my minis go unplayed simply because my table is too small (6x4) or I just frankly bought and painted them for huge games that I'll never play

2f. Understand what is in use and what has not been used in a long while (or never)

Tasks to Achieve Objective 2:

2.T.1 Inventory Rules

    2.T.1a Inventory all rules

    2.T.1b Discard or sell all rules not in use - reducing rules collection by 50%

    2.T.1c See if I have a digital equivalent 

    2.T.1d Answer following questions - have they been played?  Do they support the plan? (see obj 1)

2.T.2 Inventory Minis

    2.T.2a Inventory any minis that are NOT currently in the attic

    2.T.2b Discard or mark for selling at convention

    2.T.2c Move surplus to attic

2.T.3 Inventory Terrain Collection

    2.T.3a Answer questions for terrain pieces as above in support of Objective 3

Objective 3. Standardize Terrain & Storage Solutions

Sub Objectives

3a. Reduce Terrain Collections through removal of unassembled terrain and unused pieces

3b. Reduction of space for smaller collection 

3c. Achieve smaller footprint of entire miniatures storage system in order to reduce space and clutter

3d. Use pieces of terrain for multiple eras, theaters of war

3e. Use terrain inventory results to maximize removal of pieces

Tasks to Achieve Objective 3:

3.T.1 Reduce each theater/era to 4 terrain pieces each (buildings)

3.T.2 Remove unused and unassembled pieces unless they are universal pieces

3.T.3 Reduce 15mm terrain in general - sell unopened terrain pieces

3.T.4 Buy smaller storage containers for all 10mm armies (they are currently stored in plastic craft boxes that could easily fit 28mm units and take up too much space on shelf)

3.T.5 All painted minis not in attic are stored on the same shelf in the same location

3.T.6 Maximize universal terrain

3.T.7 Reduce terrain storage to only 2 containers (currently 6)

Planning that Ike would be proud of.

So there you have it.  I'm going to do some serious inventorying and soul-searching in 2024 in order to maximize playing of fun, historical, and challenging games instead of spinning my wheels coming up with plans for huge games that will likely never happen given limited bandwidth.  I may not always blog about them, but a change of direction is certainly needed when I'm making accidental repeat purchases and the lead and plastic piles continue to grow without anything being painted.  If my energy was going towards gaming, I could understand those purchases a bit more.  2024 will *hopefully* be an attempt to rectify that and put simpler games and simpler but more useful terrain on the table!