My Big 'To Do' List...

I've been quite busy in different wargaming areas recently, but not managed to post too much about it all.  So, it seems sensible to get a bit of organisation on the go, and list things I'm planning on doing.  In no particular order, these are:

Longstreet Campaign
There's no doubt that the FDWC wargames club has had a big success with the Longstreet campaign - fourteen-odd participants, and we're now more than two-thirds of the way through it: quite a success!  I am, however, a bit less successful myself in terms of winning battles!  (Two wins out of seven games, to the time of writing!)  My Union force has been posting game-results, and there are only 3 more to go, so I will 

Wars of the Roses Campaign
I made a vast post about the decisive battle of Baunton as my last contribution, but I need to move things on - for one thing, there are quite a lot of ramifications from the battle, who lived and died, etc.  So I need to resolve all of that and put my notes in order.  

Another big thing to ponder is  how I'm going to move the campaign on.  So far I've been using the Columbia Games board-game 'Richard III' to control the campaign, and this has worked alarmingly well.  However we are now entering into the period of the wars 1461-1469, when the ruling dynasty is basically putting down rebellions in the north.  This means local lords fighting out family feuds, plots and intrigues, plus a few sieges to winkle out the old regime die-hards.  All new territory for my campaign, and trying to do it with 'Richard III' doesn't seem to appropriate.  So, I'm pondering a kind of 'mini' campaign within the larger campaign, to reflect this.  Still at the brain-storming stage, however.

ACW Old-School/Narrative Game
Speaking of brain-storming, I've been forced recently (due to some DIY) to hold off playing games on the table and thinking about what I want to do.  From reading online blogs, I went back to some classic ones such as the popular 'Campaigns of General William Augustus Pettygree'.  (http://generalpettygree.blogspot.co.uk/ - Sorry, but my tech-skills don't seem to be up to providing a quick-link, however I strongly recommend that you go see it!)  What caught my imagination most was the way in which the posts work so hard to produce a complete miniature world - it's not just miniatures on a table for units in a battle, but rather a narrative to produce games with various fictional characters, plus a huge quantity of figures & scenery to completely 'fill out' a mini-world of camps, towns, etc.  Most of all, the title-characters' army is a full-formed force with an HQ staff, engineers, signallers, supply-troops, etc.  

It would be a strange wargamer indeed that didn't find such stuff an inspiration for daydreaming!  I was pondering where I could do that as a gaming idea, when I happened across the blog 'old school acw' (http://www.oldschoolacw.blogspot.co.uk/).  The blog sadly appears to have gone dead (last post: May 2013) but it suddenly made me think: "What about all my old 1/72 plastic ACW figures?"  They were collected & painted and have largely been sitting gathering dust, since my initial plan to base them and use them for a DBA-style game fell apart.  I have still been clinging to the old basing system however, so I had a sudden epiphany that I should completely rebase them - individually, if need be - to revitalise them, and create full armies.  I also suddenly realised from online searching that I could also obtain vast amounts of other things for use in 1/72 scale: wagons, camp supplies, etc.  Suddenly the idea of a fully-detailed ACW world in 1/72 seems plausible!  I shall post more on how my notions evolve, to see if I really can do a game with them, possibly in the style of Charles Grant's 'The War Game' or something similar. 

War & Empire Kickstarter
Here's a bit of a random, out-of-nowhere new thing!  Back in December last year, there was a 'Kickstarter' project called 'War & Empire' which I decided to back, for 15mm ancients.  They are currently modelling up the figures and sometime over the next few months I should be able to order two big armies to rival each other in the ancient world.  Good job they are taking their time over preparing it, as I am still pondering what to do with it!  

So, that's it then.  Nothing trivial on the go, obviously...