2020 Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian

2020. New year. New decade (depending on how you count these things). 2019 was a good year but I want 2020 to be even better. My crazy inner megalomaniac demands I monologue about my world conquering (i.e. overly ambitious) list of what I’d like to get done this year. Get ready for the ride …

Megalomaniac surveying all those unfinished wargaming projects
Megalomaniac surveying all those unfinished wargaming projects

This is the brain dump of my projects with the higher priority items are at the top of the list. To be honest I don’t really mind if I don’t get to the bottom of the list. Actually even getting 30% down the list would be awesome. With that in mind I’ve split the list into parts: likely in 2020, background activity, and unlikely.

And remember, these are projects which are more or less “in progress”. No off the wall fantasy here (well unless noted)


Play wargames – Not really a project

The goal is Wargaming. Any but mostly Crossfire, Tilly’s Very Bad Day, Big Base DBA/HOTT, and Operational.

I’ve separated this out because it is not really a project.


Likely projects in 2020

Project Period Rules Aspiration in 2020
Jungle Portuguese Colonial War,
Burma,
First Indochina War
Fogo Cruzado and/or Crossfire
  • Rice paddies
  • Bamboo groves
  • More palm trees
Tilly’s Very Bad Day – version 2 Thirty Years War Tilly’s Very Bad Day
Tilly’s Very Bad Day – field fortifications Thirty Years War Tilly’s Very Bad Day
Tilly’s Very Bad Day – Scenarios Thirty Years War Tilly’s Very Bad Day
  • Write scenarios for the main battles of the Thirty Years War
  • Write scenarios for the big Spanish moments of the Thirty Years War i.e. 1622 Fleurus, 1634 Nordlingen, 1642 Honnecourt and 1643 Rocroi
  • Write scenarios for one battle of the English Civil War
  • Write Big Game and Small Game scenarios
Thirty Years War Saxons Thirty Years War Tilly’s Very Bad Day
  • Buy and paint the Saxons as representative Protestant Germans
Deep Battle WW2 Deep Battle
Rules for Italian Wars Italian Wars Variant on DBA or Tilly’s Very Bad Day
Soviet Tank Riders WW2 Crossfire
Battle of Kadesh Biblical Big Base DBA
  • Write a DBA scenario for Battle of Kadesh
  • Get the figures on table and refight the Battle of Kadesh using Big Base DBA
Kiwis in Italy Italian Campaign (1944-45) / WW2 Crossfire
  • Buy, build, paint Kiwis for Crossfire
  • Buy, build, paint Kiwis Armour in mud-grey with blue-black disruptive camouflage for 1943/44
  • Buy, build, paint Kiwis Armour in dark green for 1944/45
African Huts Portuguese Colonial War Fogo Cruzado / Crossfire
  • Scratch build and paint some proper African huts
Portuguese Colonial War Scenarios Portuguese Colonial War Fogo Cruzado / Crossfire
  • Work on some new scenarios
  • Write a campaign system for a “Tour in Africa”
Big Base Conquistadores New World New World DBA
Big Base Aztecs New World New World DBA
Cool Ruins WW2 Crossfire
1967 Arab-Israeli War Arab-Israeli Wars Crossfire
  • Paint my Israeli forces
  • Buy, build, paint some middle eastern houses for use with Crossfire i.e. can take the roofs of
  • Write a Crossfire scenario

Background activity

I have to catch up on my photography. No urgency but I’d like to do some of these this year.

Project Period Rules Aspiration in 2020
Photograph Strathclyde Welsh (Northern Cymry) including gods and dragons Dark Ages / Reconquista / Medieval Arthurian HOTT / Big Base HOTT Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies. Update it for Big Bases
Photograph Muslim wizards, paladins, sneakers etc Reconquista Big Base HOTT Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph Hittites Biblical Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph Polybian Roman Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies. Update it for Big Base DBA
Photograph Later Carthaginian Army Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies. Update it for Big Base DBA
Photograph Seleucid Army Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies. Update it for Big Base DBA
Photograph Later Macedonian Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies. Update it for Big Base DBA
Photograph Gallic Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies.
Photograph Numidian Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies.
Photograph Sicilian Greek Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies.
Photograph Germanic Horde Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies.
Photograph Late Imperial Roman Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies.
Photograph Alan Ancients Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies.
Photograph Later Visigothic Reconquista / Medieval Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph Feudal Spanish and Portuguese Reconquista / Medieval Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph Medieval Spanish and Portuguese Reconquista / Medieval Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph Andalusian Reconquista / Medieval Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph Murabitun Reconquista / Medieval Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph Almohades Reconquista / Medieval Big Base DBA Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph Dutch 30 Years War / 80 Years War Tilly’s Very Bad Day Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph French Army Peninsular War Volley and Bayonet Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph British Army Peninsular War Volley and Bayonet Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph Spanish Army Peninsular War Volley and Bayonet Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph my Soviet Motorised Rifle Battalion WW2 Crossfire Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph buildings / Ruins WW2 Crossfire Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies. ncluding features on AYLAFRED, Commission Figurines, Iron Clad miniatures, Magnetic Displays, Mark IV Minis, Sarissa Precision, and Wargames Tournaments. Railway Embankment
Insurgents Portuguese Colonial War Fogo Cruzado Crossfire Address missing and/or substandard gallery in Steven’s Armies
Photograph 1967 United Arab Republic (Egyptian) 1967 Arab-Israeli War Crossfire

Unlikely projects in 2020

Project Period Rules Aspiration in 2020
French Expeditionary Corps (FEC) – Goumier Italian Campaign (1944-45) / WW2 Crossfire
French Expeditionary Corps (FEC) – French/Moroccan/Spanish Italian Campaign (1944-45) / WW2 Crossfire
Late War German Italian Campaign (1944-45) / WW2 Crossfire
  • Buy, build, paint late war Germans for Crossfire
Peninsular Flags Peninsular War Volley & Bayonet
  • Give my infantry standard bearers flags
Albuera (1811) Peninsular War Volley & Bayonet
Portuguese Paratroopers Portuguese Colonial War Fogo Cruzado / Crossfire
  • Buy, build, paint Portuguese Paratroopers
Reinforce Portuguese Light Infantry (Caçadores) Portuguese Colonial War Fogo Cruzado / Crossfire
Rules for Liberators Liberators TBD
  • Select/write a set of rules to use for Liberators – think battalion level Napoleonics with a twist
Liberators skirmishers Liberators TBD
  • Recruit skirmishers for all my battalions
Sipe Sipe (1815) Liberators TBD
  • Write a scenario for Battle for Viluma / Sipe Sipe (1815) for chosen rule set
Storage labels All All
  • Get my Dymo LabelManager Wireless PnP working again
  • Put printed labels on all my storage boxes
Big Base Mayan New World New World DBA
Big Base Portuguese Explorers New World New World DBA
Big Base Sinhalese / Malay New World New World DBA
  • Get a Big Base Sinhalese / Malay army to face the Portuguese
Big Base Portuguese Explorers New World New World DBA
  • Get a Big Base African army to face the Portuguese
Ponyri Station WW2 Crossfire
  • Buy, build, paint a Ponyri railway station, preferably with the roof bombed in as it was in reality (for Kursk)
  • Buy, build, paint some features for Russian villages i.e. brick buildings for head mans houses and schools
  • Get the figures on table
3rd Battery of the 1454th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment WW2 Crossfire
Japanese Burma / Japan in WW2 / WW2 Crossfire
  • Buy, build, paint Japanese battalion
Welsh, 14th Army Burma / Japan in WW2 / WW2 Crossfire
Gurkhas, 14th Army Burma / Japan in WW2 / WW2 Crossfire
Rif Wars Rif Wars Crossfire / Fuego Cruzado and something grand tactical
  • Finish converting Ansar figures to Riffi
  • Paint the Riffi
  • Buy, build, paint some middle eastern houses for use with Crossfire i.e. can take the roofs of
  • Select a grand tactical set of rules for the bigger actions
  • Get the figures on table
100 Years War Medieval Big Base DBA
  • Expand my Medieval Spanish and Portuguese armies and get more English
  • Get the figures on table and refight one of the battles in the Peninsular during the 100 Years War – Aljubarrota or Najera
Catalan Company Medieval Big Base DBA
  • Buy, build, paint figures for the Catalan Company
  • Buy, build, paint figures for the opponents of Catalan Company in Greece and Turkey
  • Get the figures on table
Reconquista Medieval Big Base DBA
  • Recruit a new Granadine army (buy, paint, base) including those great Muslim Knights
River Making Stuff Various
  • Repaint/texture my 3D rivers compatible (Military Miniatures, Flames of War, for 4″ hexes)
  • Buy, build, paint linking sections because all of these are slightly different widths
  • Get the rivers on table
Simón Bolívar and the Northern War Liberators TBD
  • Buy, build, paint complete armies for the Northern War (Venezuela, Columbia) with Simón Bolívar as my next Liberator
Rise of Rome and Fall of Rome Ancients Big Base DBA and its replacement
  • Rebase on Big Bases. Although I have enough figures to play, I haven’t rebased all of my figures. In particular there are more to do in:
  • Expand my Carthaginian forces to cover the very early wars in Sicily against the Greeks i.e. get some chariots
  • Expand my Celtiberians from being mercenaries for my Ancient Spanish to being a fully fledge army
  • Buy, build, paint camps for the armies without e.g. Gallic, Numidian, Macedonian/Selucid
  • Select a new set of rules to replace DBA; one that, amongst other things, does not cripple the Ancient Spanish and is good for the Punic Wars and Hundred Years War
  • Decide if my replacement for DBA is actually DBA 3.0 (or perhaps DBA 2.2+)
  • Get individual command stands for these armies because any rules to replace Big Base DBA are likely to use them
  • Get the figures on table, in particular my Gallic and Numidian armies that have never seen the light of day
Operational Artic Fox WW2 Megablitz
  • I found a good Megablitz scenario for Operational Arctic Fox. Be good to play it.
Berlin (1945) WW2 Crossfire
  • Buy, build, paint late war Soviet tanks, e.g. IS-2, SU-100, T34-85, 203 mm howitzer M1931 (B-4),
  • Buy, build, paint late war German tanks, e.g. Hetzer
  • Buy, build, paint Spanish SS “Unit Ezquerra” / late war Germans for Crossfire
  • Buy, build, paint a distinctive building for Berlin (1945)
  • Get the figures on table
Carlist Wars Carlist Wars Whatever I use for Liberators
Spanish Civil War Spanish Civil War Crossfire / Fuego Cruzado and something grand tactical
  • Get the figures on table
  • Select a grand tactical set of rules for the bigger actions
  • Finish some of my scenarios e.g. the draft Battle of Madrid scenario that has been lying around for years
New Zealand Wars New Zealand Wars TBD
  • Choose a set of rules to use
  • Figure out how to use my existing figures for Big Bases – if at all
  • Buy, build, paint a Maori Pa
  • Get the figures on table
Albuera (1811) Houses Peninsular War Volley & Bayonet
  • Buy, build, paint some Peninsular War houses, preferably without roofs

7 thoughts on “2020 Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian”

  1. Hello and happy new year!

    I couldn’t face myself with such a daunting list…

    I’m glad your tackling scenarios for both TVBD and Deep Battle from the offset. I think that’s essential for gaining players.

    Richard

    Reply
  2. T S Eliot said “humankind can not bear very much reality,” but unreality can be overbearing too…

    Reply
  3. You just broke the old saying: “If you have unpainted lead, you cannot die”. You have changed it to “if you have enough unfinished projects……”
    Dick(that’s my name, not my personality) Bryant

    Reply
    • The two are, of course, related. Behind every great, but incomplete, wargaming project is an enormous pile of unpainted lead.

      Reply

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