Monday, November 18, 2013

Lists of Lists

Here I am, just back from a few days visiting family, room in shambles and a horde (for me - I don't buy a lot these days) of shiny, new, unpainted, 1/72nd Boers and 30mm Indians and Rangers on my table and the autumn wind howling outside my window. Seems like a good time for a quick review of where I'm at and where I'm headed, or at least a quick review of the various collections that are still active and what I plan to do with them over the next year.

The harsh rule is that each  collection must appear in a game at least once in 3 years or face a board to argue for its continued existence. Preferably each collection should appear at least once a year although the expanded list might make that harder. I see that only two collections have not make the field this year.... yet!

Chronologically using a mildly modified version of Morschauser's classification of periods and including a link to the last outing for that collection:

SHOCK  (ie Ancient/Medieval)

1. The Five Kingdoms: 5 small 25mm OS armies for a fictional campaign  set in Central Asia after the fall of the Greek Bactrian Kingdom. (Chronicled on the Gathering of Host blog). Includes by default a small number of 1/72nd plastic until such time as their fate is determined.  (Nov 2013)

- Currently 3 of the armies are partially ready, enough for small games. The goal is to get at least a 4th table-ready and bring the others closer to finished.

2. The Adventures of Prince Michael. 40mm post Roman Britain skirmish game inspired by Prince Valiant. (Sep 2013)

- Add a few individuals including civilians and some mythical elements.

3. The Game of Scones. A not strictly historical 25mm 15thC-ish Medieval Scottish setting with small forces claiming allegiance to one or more of the King of the Scots, the King of England or the Lord of the Isles (with maybe a few Frenchmen hanging aboot). Once again this dates back to the mid-1970's and in the 90's was my largest army. I have a fledgling ECW Scottish force that may be quietly and inaccurately folded into this to avoid an unnecessary ECW collection. (Nov 2012)

- Sort out the mess of available new and  used figures and get 3 armies table ready including long bows.

4. Rough Wooing. 40mm 16thC Anglo-Scottish and French forces with Turks waiting in the wings. (Sept 2013)

-Add a few more gensdarmes and mounted arquebusiers.

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MUSKET. (or Horse & Musket)

5. The Paths of Glory. Quebec 1759 in 30mm. My first serious wargaming collection. Started in 1973 for Charge! abandoned soon after in favour of 25mm WRG ancients, but never forgotten. Now resurrected for the Square Brigadier with 12 man battalions.  (Mar 2013)

- Paint up the new Indians and Rangers and get a few more figures including a Wolfe, a Montcalm, some light infantry and more militia.

6. Not Quite the Seven Years War. My contribution to a group effort, 40mm semi-flat fictional 18th Century using Charge!  (Sep 2013)


  • Needs to be sorted out and put on a solid footing with full regiments for foreign wars.


7. The Acadian War of Independence.  40mm AWI for the Northern Campaigns from Quebec and Nova Scotia to Saratoga & Oriskany.  ( Sep 2013)


  • Add some Hessian and British line infantry. 


8. War of 1812. 40mm, after much dithering this will be aimed primarily at fighting the battles of the war or appropriate similar sized teasers as opposed to skirmish actions. (May 2013)


  • Reorganize into 12 man battalions and add officers etc as required and identify deficiencies.


9. Atlantica. 40mm fictional mid 19thC. A bit of a confused jumble at the moment, split between small unit 'skirmishes'  (ie companies as units rather than individuals using MacDuff and "battles" using the Square Brigadier and ranging from the 1840's to 1900. (Oct 2013)


  • Add more Native forces and more Faraway infantry to replace 1812 stand ins.


10. The American Civil War. 1/72nd ACW. Divional/ small corps sized engagements. (Oct 2013)


  • Organize and rebase cavalry.


11. Nkhukuland,  54mm classic toy soldier colonial skirmishes. (May 2012)


  • If it is to be kept restoration of old figures needs to be begun.


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MODERN. (20thC)

12. The Approaching Storm. 1/72nd Early 20thC. A mix of Boer War, Russian Civil War and early WWI forces organized for small unit actions on a gridded table at home or at Ron's. As themselves at Ron's and maybe at home but possibly a future Atlantican campaign. (Nov 2013) (The Boers are still being gathered so have never seen action while the last RCW skirmish doesn't seem to have made it to print.)


  • Paint up Boers, order British and work on a plan for the rest.


13. Check Point Frankie. 54mm Low intensity mid 20thC toy soldiers in action.  (Aug 2013)


  • No action planned.


14. Roscia. 1/72nd mid 20thC border clashes between fictional countries. (Dec 2011)


  • Paint remaining 2 Centurions.
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Misc.

15. Stragglers. There are various small bits and pieces, usually a contribution to a group project, that don't have a home and either need to be added, incorporated or disposed of. The most important of these are the fledgling 25mm armies of ECW Scots and 17th/18thC Turks.  There are others but we're ignoring them all for now.

15 comments:

  1. An ambitious programme! I thought I had problems in that regard...

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    1. Not so much as ambitious as organic, only 5 of these began this century and strictly speaking #13 goes back to the 1950's!

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  2. interesting to read of your plans Ross and I look forward to seeing what happens next. Could some Austro Hungarians be raised to fight the turks? Late 17th Century Seige of Vienna chaps for example- something different to compliment your current collections?

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    1. I started raising them to fight my friend Ron's 18thC Austrians but I'm a big fan of the Fire & Sword trilogy and used to have some Minifig Winged Hussars. It occurred to me today that I could hire out the Lowland Scots pike & shot to a 16thC Polish army. The other option is Napoleon in Egypt.

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  3. I am much comforted by sight of this lengthy list :-)

    My general impression, quite possibly ill-founded, is that the historical collections seem to be in better order than the fictional ones e.g. Atlantica; maybe a lot of choice and scope, despite the attractions, is not always a good thing in terms of completion?

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    1. Interesting thought Steve.

      Some of these were in better shape a few years ago and were strictly historical at that point until I tried to downsize them out of existence and then combined them and invented a new setting. Not sure whether to be comforted or worried that all of the 25mm collections are firmly based in the 1970's!

      I am tempted to relate levels of completion to focus and size despite the example of the Quebec collection which will be less than 300 figures, was begun over 40 years ago and still isn't done. To be fair though it was only just revived this year having been largely subsumed into a 25mm continental French army.

      Too wide a scope definitely makes things difficult, the Atlantic umbrella has been thrown over what are really 5 or 6 different collections, 1/2 of them historical, which borrow figures back and forth. Pursuing one of them at a time would almost certainly have meant completion of sorts for some of them and no experience of the others.

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  4. Replies
    1. There has been lots of rubbing involved, Painting would probably have resulted in more figures on the table!

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  5. Well there's a catalogue of wargaming achievement if ever there was one.

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    1. Or an example of where a wandering attention span will get you!

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    2. My list is similarly extensive, and I view it as a symptom of Butterfly Syndrome as well...

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    3. Oh surely not butterflies, caterpillers perhaps. Some of mine are do-overs of 15mm projects but all have roots going back 20 to 40 years.

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  6. Hi Ross,
    You left out the figure scale on your Game of Scones 15thC entry. 40s?
    Speaking of which, just our of curiosity (since I am a 20thC kind of guy), what is the difference between your 15C and 16C armies that "justifies" maintaining separate armies for each?
    You know Ross, as one of your addicted readers, the only problem with your plethora of projects is that it reduces the number of battle reports produced. Yeah, I'm selfish that way. ;oP```
    Regards and admiration,
    John

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    1. Ah, sorry about that 25mm, another collection started in the 1970's and having seen much service since. If they weren't near and dear to my heart they would be long gone and indeed had been sidelined between 1997 and 2012. The 16thC project was a modification of something Rob Dean was doing with Landsknechts in homecast 40mm.

      My 25mm Scots and English are actually a mix of 14th & early 16thC types which I am bending into a 15thC compromise, fashions varied for the nobles but the common folk were similar enough and old, cheap styles hung on long enough for that to work. Up until a week ago I was going to field them as late 13th/early 14thC (Bruce & Wallace et all) and get rid of the handful of very early 15thC types

      The 40mm armies include some chaps that are very similar to the 15thC ones but only a few, the bulk of the armies are continental in 16thC styles of armour, brightly clothed Landsknechts in their unique style but more importantly, firearms and field artillery play a big role unlike the primitive prototypes a 100 years early.

      Even with the gunpowder difference, the armies are too close for me to justify having both on any but emotional grounds - 1 long term with many memories, the other over 50% my own sculpting and part of the event that won Rob & I the Best in Show plaque one year at Cold Wars a few year ago.

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    2. ps about the variety, I thought it increased the number of battle reports! Not like I've spent much time painting, its almost all old stuff! :)

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