Plans for 2021

With the new year looming it is time to plan the year ahead. As in previous years this will be broken down into Battles, Campaigns and Painting/modelling. 

There is one new project, the Battle of Trebia from the 2nd Punic Wars. An old favourite period of mine and given added impetus from the LittleWars TV episode.

BATTLES

There will almost certainly be more from the various projects (see "My Collections and Projects" tab above which will be regularly updated) and those listed below will be priorities.

ANCIENTS:

Early Imperial Roman 16th Legion v Ancient British Trinovantes tribe in East Anglia.

2nd Punic War - Battle of Trebia (Both sides need painting so 50:50 if achieved this year).

ECW:

Battle of Chewton Mendip.

Looking further out I hope to play some of the more well known battles, the first being Edgehill. It is unlikely to be in the coming year but is a possibility depending on how fast I can paint the additional figures required!

NAPOLEONIC:

Battle of Talavera - Peninsular War project. Over the past month I have made good progress painting the Spanish force required. I have several allied units to paint for the French but this battle is now a probability for this coming year.

Battle of Tourane - Campaign Dutch v French. This, in all probability, will be the first game of the year.

ACW:

Cavalry skirmish at Rorketon - from the new campaign.

Scenarios - I have yet to decide if any will be played with concentration being placed on the campaign.

Gettysburg is still up there but unlikely given all other projects planned.

COLONIAL:

Rorkes Drift - Almost half the Zulus painted with most of the British needed to be done including the buildings.

WW2:

Air action and battle south of Nibeiwa - Operation Compass campaign

Battles from the "Reconnaissance in Strength" mini-campaign (Soviets v Germans) - I intend to play this as a continual rolling battle to completion of the campaign.

Groesbeek Heights - Op Market Garden

Continued -

CAMPAIGNS

ANCIENTS:

Roman invasion of Britain. I hope to make good progress on this with several battles played. A hillfort will need to be constructed which may delay things a little if needed this coming year.

WARS OF THE ROSES:

Kingmaker campaign. Next map moves needed to be done. How much progress I make will very much depend on the availability of my opponent (my son). Additionally complicated by the lockdowns!

NAPOLEONIC:

Warplan 5/5 campaign to continue. Very close to 3 significant battles being fought in each of the 3 theatres which could prove the tipping point in the campaign.

ACW:

Another Warplan 5/5 campaign which is about to commence. I hope to play the first action reasonably soon in the new year.

WW2:

Op Compass campaign to continue with 2 actions to be played including one in the Italian camps.

Reconnaissance in Strength mini-campaign. As stated above I hope to play this through as one continual action. I have a small number of Russians to paint and should then be ready to be played.

PAINTING/MODELLING

I am going to be bold here and produce some targets for the year!

Overall I aim to get back up to 3,000 6mm figures painted. These will include:

800 x Napoleonic (Talavera)
100 x ECW  (Chewton Mendip)
800 x Zulu Wars (Rorkes Drift)
100 x ACW   (Warplan 5/5 campaign)
400 x WW2  (Groesbeek Heights)

and finally -
1700 Punic Wars (Trebia)

This obviously exceeds the overall target so something may have to give. I am reluctant to guess what at this stage as it all depends on how the mood takes me. Talavera may well be a priority though as it is over 2 years since the last game in the Peninsular War project and I am on something of a roll having painted over 400 Spanish in the past month.

My focus next year will be on figure painting and gaming with no major terrain projects planned. The most significant will be a hillfort for the Britannia campaign and possibly Rorkes Drift. More battlefield scenics should be added (carts, outbuildings, fields etc) including a herd of cows! An expansion of fences, snake rail in particular, and hedgerows will be made.

And finally my plans for the blog. Ideally I should provide a posting every 3 or 4 days to maintain interest which was the original aim. I found though that this rate of posting and providing regular AAR's was impinging just too much on my wargaming time leading to the slight wobble last year when I had a 'breather'. So for the coming year I intend to make regular contributions but not quite of such intensity and will focus on After Action Reports and occasional updates from the workbench.

That wraps up my plans for 2021. I wish you all a happy new year and hopefully a return to normal in the not too distant future.