Wednesday 1 January 2020

2020 Vision

I've discussed the highs and lows of 2019 here, so now let's look at my plans and projects for 2020.

I intend to continue using the five box system.  Although I've not referred to it much recently, it's still working well for me.  So what will be in those boxes, both immediately and over the year?
I've a few projects to finish off; Star Saga for one, with the marines and rangers nearly done there's just the plague victims, the aberration, and the doors and furniture to do.
I'd also like to get just a few more ogres done.  I want to expand my shooting section, and may add some more red goblins.  The campaign that Merlin and I have planned ends with a 2000 point battle, and I'd like to have some different options for that.
I'm also looking at the Ratmen I have and wondering about using them for Ratkin.  I have a Dragon Rampant force of these already, and prior to that they were used briefly in Warband and were originally a Skaven force.  I think there are enough for a 1000 point army, though the majority of the sculpts are no longer available so it would be one project that would have a definite end.

Less happily, I have decided for various reasons that I can't play historical games anymore.  So my Greeks will be sold off.  I'll probably rebase them to fit with one of the more common rules systems, like DBA, but if I can get them on eBay, that's more money to plough back into the hobby.

I recently got Uncharted Empires, the new version of supplementary army lists for Kings of War third edition.  There are some changes to my League army that I'll have to make.  I'll probably call the halfling spears that I spent ages converting just ordinary braves, until the halflings get their own list anyway.  However, I also got a free sprue of 28mm plastic halflings form Atlantic Games, and they are very nice.  Given that a League of Rhordia army now only has three halfling units, I might look again at my old Empire army and see about turning that into a League force.  One box of the new halflings is £25 for 40 minis, with enough to build a regiment of archers and a regiment of braves (with some conversion of weapons, admittedly).  I have loads of old Empire stuff, so this could be quite a cheap project if I don't want any halfing knights to begin with at least.  I'll either make the collection dual purpose League and Kingdoms of Men, or maybe eventually produce another KoM force using mostly historical minis.
I have even been thinking about a 28mm Varangur force.  I had been thinking of doing this in 15mm, based on my Scythians, but the new list is more pitched towards the Northern Alliance style infantry (fair enough, they are the Master List for the Varangur), so I have had thoughts of using the Frostgrave Barbarians for most of the infantry and maybe converting some old Chaos Warriors for the heavy infantry.  Just wild thoughts at the moment, but who knows.

Talking about 28mm, I must finish my Trident Realm.  I'm closer to being happy with it, but I'm not quite there yet.  I think a post explaining the processes and problems might be in order as its been quite a struggle at times.

Apart from roughing out the Ogres vs Goblins campaign, Merlin has been getting interested in Games Workshop's Strategy Battle Games in Middle Earth.  We've both played this at various times, such as the Battle Companies games here, and enjoyed it too.  I understand one of his local gamers has got the new starter set, so we have both found copies of the latest rulebook and are thinking of getting some games in.  I'll probably be dragging my Mordor stuff out, and looking at finishing a force for that.

I'm sure that I'll need a constant stream of stuff painting and building for the D&D campaign.  It's funny, it doesn't matter how many monsters I paint, I always seem to want more.  This is what the metaphysical Cross Box is for; those bits needed for next (or last) session.

Aside from miniatures, I'd like to get some more terrain built and painted.  I enjoyed putting together the League of Rhordia 15mm terrain box last year, and it has proven very useful.  I should look at doing a similar set for 28mm.  Ideally I'd do a Middle Earth box (itself a very wide brief) and a KoW/similar fantasy set, maybe an uplands area with cliffs, dwarf buildings and boulder fields.  This is something I already have quite a bit of, though I've never organised them into sets before.  I'll drag out what I can find soon and do some sorting.

Perhaps I should finish by looking at what is in the five boxes as this will be my initial hobby focus for 2020.
Cross; stuff needed for RPG, currently more cultists, then orcs (probably)
Star; Star Saga
Wave; Lord of the Rings Mordor
Square; Trident Realm
Circle; 15mm ogres

You may notice that I've emptied some of the boxes from last year, I think I had too much stuff in them, and it was time for a change.

So that's my plans.  I'm sure something is bound to come up and disrupt them, let's see how well I do.


2 comments:

  1. You are much more disciplined about what you place in your boxes than I am, I allow myself far too wide a range in each box.

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    1. I've found it works much better for me if I can see an end point in each box. It allows me to reach an end point on a project, even it its just finishing one unit or warband, rather than still having loads to go at once a unit is done. I can always fill an empty box up with more from the same army, but I don't have to.

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