2011 Fort Belmont White Paper on Defence

Every year or two, I try to review my wargame figure collections and plans. What do I want to add, what games do I want to play this year and do I need to make terrain or troops to do that? Is there anything that can/should go? The result is usually a White Paper on Defence.  Not a detailed action plan, just a casual over view.
.

A. Gathering of Hosts. Semi-historical 25mm Ancient Persians and enemies, the subject of its own blog which has been lagging for some months now. Many of the figures have between 25 and 40 years of service so I'm not worried about an occasional quiet period. The major plan for this year is to stage a version of the Battle of Thymbra against the Lydians but what I really want to do is paint up some elephants and clibinari even though they just don't fit with the Western Front.

From my brief (5 year?) foray into 54mm ancients. Converions of Hat figures, sold a few years ago.

B.  Prince Valiant. 40mm Fall of Rome skirmishes inspired by the comic strip, several Elastolin ranges.and various novels ... and some history.  I have a couple of armoured cavalry converted and primed but not painted, and some 1/2 painted Romans. I want to finish them and add some more armoured cavalry plus some more mounted Picts but mostly I want to get them out at least twice this year.

Celebrating a past victory. The 1st version of my Prince Valiant collection, 54mm conversions using WHAB. Here my Hillmen surround and cut down Jerry's Black Duke who, using the Crusader General's stats, had terrorized my armies for years. These guys are still lurking in the cupboard.

C. Rough Wooing. 40mm 16th C. Again, I want to get these out more. I need to cast a few figures to bring my English and Scots up to strength but I have some cuirassiers that I want to turn into reiters and/or lancers for my Imperial army and even more I want to get back to sculpting a Turkish army.

D. ECW. 25mm. I have met my initial pledged contingent for a local campaign but may need to recruit a few more figures as the campaign progresses.

E. NQSYW.(Not Quite the Seven Years War)  40mm semi-flat Charge! The main goal is to design and cast some fortress guns and build saps, parallels and battery positions for a siege game at Historicon using the Charge! based rules from Duffy's work. I want to increase Rosmark's army though with a company of Grenadiers and a battalion of foot. The aim is to have enough forces for French vs Rosish actions. That said, this project is a shelf hog!

44mm F&IW figures painted to go with Rob Dean's troops for games at Cold Wars. Happily these and their comrades are taking up his cupboard space, not mine! 

F. The Acadian War of Independence 40mm  AWI. This will be my sole chunky 40mm collection. Mostly  AWI but are a few F&IW or 1812ish looking units hanging around. There is a mix of 4 figures per base line infantry units and single figure skirmish units.

54mm Brunswick Dragoons for Bennington at Cold Wars 2001.
Conversions of Prince August Prussians. Since sold off.

G. Redcoats and Savages.  40mm glossy toy soldiers. I have taken the mental plunge and decided to allow my self to restart the war of 1812 sharing figures with the 1837 Rebellion and Arroostock War. My goal for this year will be to raise troops for Chateauguay (including sedentary Quebec militia, aka patriotes) and Stony Creek.

Some of the sample 40mm figures painted for the 1st Schleswig War. A project which was halted. The remains haunt my shelf, trying to worm their way into other projects. Conversions of S&S and Zinnbrigade figures

H. Peccavi  40mm glossy toy soldiers in India. Rather oddly this will include not only Napier's Scinde campaign (the origin of the apocryphal pun chosen as a title), Gwalior and Afghanistan and the Sikh Wars but VSF and the never happened Oregon War.  Some troops from the Redcoats and Savages troops will do double duty. I won't be ready for an Indian game this year but hope to get at least a start on the Indian armies. I do expect to play some more Oregon games.

My 1st venture to India. Sepoys converted from 54mm Airfix figures under the temporary command of a Soldierpac recast of a Britain's Fort Henry Guard officer. They were going to serve as sepoys vs Gwalior and the like or as mutineers alongside some to be sculpted and homecast figures but I was not yet up to the task and bailed. The Sepoys and Fort Henry Guard followed Charley home to New York and appear to have done sterling service so no regrets there. 

 I. ACW. 20mm plastic.  2 small forces ready but since I changed basing 1/2 way through, I need to spend an hour to rebase about 50 guys. Need to paint up 2 more guns and pull another 50 or so Yankees out of the pile to meet commitments. Hopefully the Jerry and I will get in the first game of a semi-campaign will kick off when the snow lets up. Black Powder is the plan (but I have HofT in reserve)

J. RCW/WWI.20mm plastic.  2 very small forces ready with more on the way and 3 potential opponents with forces. Hopefully will get some games going this year. The intend is to use BKC but I am thinking of also using them for a version of Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame.

For a while I dabbled in 54mm WWII games. Only a handful of figures and equipment are left, mostly because they need touch  up before being offered for sale.

K. ROSCIA 20mm fictional 1960's. Cold War Commander. Last year I built 2 Centurians, this year I need to paint them!  Should add more infantry and some trucks  and ambush Jerry's Centralians or at least get my  Naryatrian's out for some exercise. "Should."

Not bad, that's down to 11 active projects. I still need to figure out what to do with my 8 remaining 54mm collections which don't get out much and my 25mm Arthurian & Medieval Scots armies, 30mm WAS,  the 20mm plastic DBA samplers, and the last of my 15mm armies, my ACW Rebs.

The last battle of a 54mm Ancients campaign, Tom, Ron, Jerry & my forces clash before Tom is posted to the other coast in 2001.