Kicking the tires on the Apple Cart

I've just finished flocking the washer bases on 120 40mm infantry & artillery and have glued the next 50 figures on their washers. (My hobby purchases for this 1/2 year now equate to 1 bottle of glue and 6.2 pounds of 5/8 flat washers). The Blue Dragoons and DCBG have had the exciting experience of riding their horses in pairs over the table saw then wheeling away to left and right as singles.

I've got 16 NQSYW figures sitting on the painting desk, 16 1/72nd Yankees, and two 40mm War of 1812 officers queued up beside them and a 54mm Zulu Induna checking out how much neater, handier and more stable 3/4" washers are than 1" x 2" cardboard bases. Suddenly, I finally got that dreaded feeling of doing too much at once. At least I feel like just about everyone is now sorted, lined up and marching slowly along towards their respective objectives.  Time for a break and a check to make sure the apple cart is steady and not about to be upset though one never really knows what lies around that bend in the road.

Last June I laid out a list of 6 things that I wanted to do in what was left of the year. I'm over 1/2 way through that time period so checking progress on that seemed like a good place to start..

1.  A "full" day battle.  Not yet but various armies are slowly getting organized. At this point, if I insert the 5ft x 2.5 ft piece of that "Not exactly plywood" stuff that my table is made of, and mix my 1812 & 1837 figures, a 40mm Atlantica game seems closest to ready though a small push on ACW would be an alternative. Mid-December is my target. I think the next step is to pick/design a scenario and see which collection would fit best and what needs to done in preparation.

 

2. Card Table/Game in a Box intro game.  Hmm sort of. I have a 1/72nd Russian Civil War wargame in a box, I'm just not sure about the subject as an intro. However, having sorted various rules, basing and organization issues, I am also in a position to drop a Dark Age, 1812 or ACW scenario on the table at a moment's notice not to mention various other historical options where I might need to stop and think for a few minutes on rules or borrow some troops and of course, various not quite historical options. So I'm counting this as done.

3. PBEM. Nope. Had to get things sorted and armies ready. Hopefully by December I can begin. I was thinking of something more than a mini-campaign but I think to get back in it I will go with something based on Scenario 52: "The Raid" from Scenarios for Wargames. 2 players a side I think to get me in practice. I'll have to confirm with 3 people who have already expressed an interest but anyone else who might be interested please drop me a line or leave a comment.

4. Finished/consistent looking Ancient or Medieval solo mini-campaign. Well, I now know what I want and can stage a game but its not as ready as I wanted and the mini-campaign is not yet really begun let alone finished. Two weeks though would suffice to get the Sassanid and Bactrian armies and the rules into shape and play a 3 small game mini-campaign so this should still happen, probably mid-late November. 

5. 40mm Toy Soldier Colonial game. I didn't define Colonial but I have done a 54mm Nku Khu game and a Faraway vs Brethren of the Coast + Atlantican allies game so I'm ticking  this box.

6. 1812 game standing by. There is lots to do, some replacing of small unstable bases by washers, more troops to add, etc but I'm content that I can drop one of several 1812 games on the table in short order.

So, I am calling it 3 done, 3 still in progress and most of 3 months to go. 

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What's not on the list? Well, the main thing is the late 19thC thing and the 54mm Toy Soldiers. I was thinking about trying Big Wars again but now that MacDuff is working I don't want to take the risk of visiting another rule set. A game with 12 man units of troops with breach-loaders might be in order though to see if existing rules & figures are a good base for scratching this itch.

The big question  then is what shall I play this weekend? I'm on Senior/Canine care duty so can't run into Halifax to play Napoleonics or undertake a major game but something I can play at for an hour here and an hour there  will be good. But Hearts of Tin or MacDuff? Time for a quick survey to help me decide.