Ending and Beginning Part II: 2018 GOOOAAAALLS

"It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream."

  -Benjamin Hays

Uuuuhhhh, what?     (Actually, Benjamin Hays is pretty cool guy, you should google him, he said all sorts of this stuff). 

alright, enough quoting people smarter than me in an effort to give the blog an air of sophistication, lets move on to...

Wargaming Goals for 2018!

Folwing up from the previous post about what was accomplished in 2017 (precious little), Lets commit to the internet a bunch of goals for 2018, so that in a years time I can look back and see either stunning success or utter failure. 

Blogging:

1) Continue to blog as long as it's enjoyable and rewarding; probably re-evaluate every few months or so.  The plan is to post 2-3 times a month.  There's some self imposed pressure to "have something to say or show" for each blog post.  There definitely seems to be a link between being more productive at the hobbydesk and writing about it.  

2) Continue to promote the blog some; mainly by linking it on forums like TMP and such, and leaving comments on other's bogs.  I don't feel the need to promote every post, especially if it's just me saying "hey look, I painted something at a mediocre skill level!"  But if I am gonna put effort into writing and posting it follows that I want to increase readership. 

Did you follow a link from TMP to get here?  Then the plan is ALREADY working!  

Gaming:

I'm going to set a gaming goal of having 24 "gaming experiences" throughout the year, which averages to 2 games a month.  Some months will have more, some less.  Doesn't really matter what the games are, though I'll probably host games with my collections which reflect genre's that I like.  The idea is to just play enough games to feel like I actually have a hobby of wargaming.  I'll also plan to go to 2 conventions in 2018, which is my usual.  1 will be Conquest Sac (in March), because it is local, and one other that I will travel to.  Usually I go to Kublacon, but this May I'll be busy at that time so now I'm thinking Pacificon. (in September).  

However, I do foresee a bunch of ACW and AoS gaming in 2018.  As those 2 genre's have been dominating the hobby desk.

There's also some people who I want to game with More often.  These being Dai (see his damned and stunted blog over in the blog roll) and Mr. G, my most local wargame buddy, and Mr. L.  I might try and be more involved in the 2 clubs I am in as well, in an effort to expand my gaming circles.  

Production:

Side discussion: Rule of two:  

When it comes to painting, I have a rule that helps me organize and be productive; called the "rule of two."  I know, it sounds pretty cool right?  (note to future self, find a better name for 'rule of two.') 

It simply means that I only ever have 2 projects going at once.  I can jump back and forth between those 2 projects all I want, but cannot switch to another project until one of those two projects is complete.  'Projects' can be of any size and genre.  This keeps me from going unfocused and having too much stuff going on at once and nothing getting done; I don't end up with a desk having some plastic viking figures half assembled, some LOTR figures primed, some ACW figures half painted, this other terrain project three quarters  done... you get the idea.  Instead of minimal progress on a lot of fronts it's definite progress on 2.  

Having said that; there's some specific projects I have in mind:

ACW: Currently each army is around 120 bases strong, and I'd like to increase that to 150 each so slightly bigger games can be played; this will also mean that I'll need some more markers for things like being disordered, low on ammo, generals on horseback, command stands,  etc..., 

It also helps me to complete stuff if I plan a scenario that uses juuuust over the amount of stuff I have ...There's also an Antietam scenario I want to run eventually.  

Age of Sail:  I want at least 4 more ships, making 8 total.  Then that genre can be called "complete."  (for now)

Terrain: first comes the miniatures, then comes the terrain.  Really I want just to make the ACW battlefields POP, and I like a  good looking game.  And for any other 15/18mm mass battles that I want to take on in the future. No, not Naps, Naps is for INSANE, but maybe AWI.  but that's in the far off future.  (In the far off future, there will be games set  in the distant past).  So I have some ideas for 15mm roads, MORE snake rail fences, some bases with multiple trees on them for easy "Woods," more fields, and some houses / buildings.  

Generic casualty markers/trackers: I have several games that I like that instead of removing figures you add a casualty tracker, that counts up as the unit takes damage.  Games such as Hail Caesar, Sword and Spear, Picket's Charge, and Sharpe Practice 2.  I don't have a good way of doing it and just leave a dice behind the unit, and I want something prettier.  At first I was planning / attempting to have specific genre markers (like dead / wounded vikings and saxons for dark age battles, dead / wounded soldiers for ACW, etc.) but this turned out to be too hard / too much work.  considering that a decent game has about 15 units per side, so that's 30 ish each.  I made about 6 dark age markers before calling that idea ridiculous; I need markers that can go across genres.  I do have a plan....

Any of these can be done in the order I want. Though with a convention looming in March I feel like the ACW terrain will get priority. 

Thanks for Reading!