This time looking into the 2008-2009 event horizon and delving into what needs doing on the miniatures front.
Coming up in 2008 will be the 200th anniversary of the French invasion of Portugal the Spanish revolt and the whole of the British experience in the Iberian Peninsula. My son Alex is just thrilled, I will finally get going on painting red-coats!
Being something of Sharpe fans there will undoubtedly be a number of 'Green Jackets' as well...
August 2008 will see the Vimeiro game, and for it I have plans to cast and paint 7 different 16-figure 'red-coat' units and the 60th Rifles and the 95th as a pair of 16-figure units (so that I may field them in their full battalion strength(s) if so desired). Also looking to do an 8-mini 20th Light Dragoons (still seeking a good tarleton-clad sample) and a three battery collection of royal artillery (but still trying to find out the calibres of the guns in the 1808 campaign and whether it was Horse artillery or full Foot artillery uniformed gunners (I have both)). I've got an early Wellesley, and a later version of the whole staff so the upper escehlon command should be easy, it is the 'staff' officers and Lt. Cols that I am still seeking some good samples of. I have some very good Scruby Portuguese that will do for all those forces needed in the scale I am working, so at least they are ready.
I have the Osprey Campaign Series #90, Vimeiro 1808 to use as a guide for the campaign and battle planning, along with my other Napoleonic titles in my library.
Further calendar examination shows the whole of the Danube Campaign of 1809 looming on the horizon. Meaning lots of Austrians! For now I have not done any calculations, and since the moulds for the Brits will be busy first I know that I need not rush, however I did prepare 10 batteries of guns, 6 Horse and 4 foot along with 30 or so gunners for painting as Austrians...look for them to come out this winter!
While considering all this I was reading over at Grimsby Mariner, he has done a comprehensive review of his current collections. Impressive!
Mine own are more humble and mostly centered around Napoleonics, I shall survey them later...the topic reminded me of something I was told about while I considered getting into the hobby.
I was looking at the seemingly endless options and scheming and planning many different things when I was brought up short by this simple statement:
First pick an era or conflict, such as Roman Republic around 100ad.
Then pick a rules set that you can enjoy playing over and over, for me this was De Bellis Antiquitatis.
Then get the miniatures you will need to do BOTH SIDES of a starting battle for that game system.
Why BOTH SIDES?
Well, often you get the statement that you should team-up with someone and each get an army and work from there. While this is a fair compromise and you will get some games in, what happens when one of you moves? Changes interest? Gets married? etc.
If you have BOTH SIDES of at least one game then you will always be able to at least play one game. Imagine buying a chess set, only to find out you only have the white pieces?
In my case DBA can be used with 25mm or 15mm (or any size really) figures, so I opted to go for the 15mm ones and got enough figs to do the entire ROMAN periods, from the Rise of Rome in 450 bce to the fall in 500 ce. I have also found DBA to be a great way to 'introduce' new players to the whole concept of miniature games, with the limited number of pieces in a game (12 per side) it is actually smaller than a chess game in manipulatives; of course game play is much more animated than chess.
Finally pursue this genre of game until you feel totally exhausted with it, when the idea of going back to another game of X leave you feeling tired and worn out even though you have not even touched a fig or a die then you know you have reached the end.
I only mention this as Grimsby was musing about where next...I would ask him,
"Do you feel as though you have exhausted your current collection?"
I ask posters here,
"What have you tired of and given up from your games collection?"
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5 comments:
When I started it was with WRG's 7th Edition Ancients . . . which I got fairly good at . . . but which I found to be a less than relaxing rule set.
I enjoyed DBA when it first came out; but since all of our armies were several hundred figures strong, we quickly went to DBM . . . which was fine until Mr. Barker kept deciding that it needed more and more tinkering.
So, except for trying some Warhammer Ancient Battles games and playtesting another set of Ancients rules, I've hardly touched an Ancients figure in the last 15 years or so.
-- Jeff
Not exhausted as such - more "Am I still enthused?"
Do I want to continue with current projects (will I finish current projects?)?
...I'm with Jeff - I used to play quite a lot of ancients, WRG 6th originally, then DBA, but I played so much DBA that I became a bit "DBA'd out", and then they kept changing the armies, and I had to keep bying options, so I gave up int he end - I still have the armies though, and can't see me giving them up... :o))
For me it is a scale issue. I started with 15mm Napoleonics and had visions of huge battles with thousands of troops. I'm older and wiser now.
I am currently more interested in 25mm as a scale. Fewer units with more character and story, less headache. I am also getting far more interested in context, campaigning as opposed to one off battles, not that those can't be fun too.
DBA is loads of fun but I've never owned the rules or painted an army for it. I might have to do that someday.
Cheers.
Perhaps I am not so old and wise...I still have visions of at least attempting the 1809 Campaign or a couple of battles from it.
Possibly in Italy (love the green uniforms) and or Poland/Galicia, those Lancers are just excellent to paint and play!
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