2015 in Review/ Plans for 2016

2015 

About four years ago, my gaming activity took a real downturn, mostly due to work demands with a couple of medical issues mixed in.  During this time, I've better focused my primary interests, and began selling off figures for chronically stalled periods; 15mm ACW, 15mm Boxer Rebellion, ancients, etc.  Rather than feel a sense of loss as these figs vacated my shelves, I felt a sense of relief, reinforcing that I had made the right decision.

Particularly  as 2015 arrived, with this sense of relief, came inspiration to complete projects that have long lingered.  The first half of the year moved along at much the pace of the last few years, but around mid-year, a (relative) lull at work, and a conscious plan to put more free time into my hobby resulted in (well, for me) a renaissance of the hobby.  I managed to work on many old projects, and touch on them below (note original start dates of each project in parenthesis).

The greatest beneficiary has been my post apocalypse game (started in 1987).  In 2015, I nearly completed the rules, cleaned up plans for the factions, and completed "Doggies Men" (1988), my old GW Imperial Guard re-purposed as Territorial Guard for my struggling PA world.  I also completed the "Feds' (1989), a corporate army, endorsed by a part of the old government, and having survived in a largely underground military research and development facility.  Further work included progress on vehicles for both armies (temporarily stalled by the search for appropriate tires for some of the vehicles),  later in the year the PA blockhouse (conceived 2001?), and most recently, the old unfinished ork trucks (2008) getting back on the work bench.  The orks will play an important roll in my PA world, in the form of "The Greenies", a badly mutated military experiment to create super soldiers.

The "Feds", mostly GW space marines of various types.

The fictional African imagi-nations of Uwanda and Mugabia (2007) worsened their war a little with a brief flurry or air combat, and Uwanda launching a rapidly stalled offensive into Mugabia.  I also managed to add a few more vehicles and terrain pieces to the game.

Two Romulan Sparrowhawk light cruisers.

Star Fleet Battles (1982) hit my table again, and after decades of near hibernation, began the journey to manifesting on my table top  in miniature form (again).  SFB is my one venture into "tax law"-like tedious, multi-book rules systems. I love the game, and have reverted to the most enjoyable incarnation of it for me, the old boxed version with the three expansion packs.

Lyran DD, DW, CL, and another DD for SFB.

I made very little progress on my 15mm Cold War (started 1990) stuff, mostly in the form of a smattering of vehicles painted and few infantry.  But made greater progress prepping my somewhat forgotten 6mm Cold War Armies (dating from 1982).

Two of the wonderful Armies Army 15mm ASU-85s.

The year ended with the completion of my first squad of 15mm Germans for East front service in WWII.

15mm Germans, mostly Old Glory and a couple Peter Pig.

And, I also played a half dozen or so games in the last half of the year, which for me is an amazing frequency.

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2016

Plans for 2016 overwhelmingly involve continued progress with older projects.

Post Apocalypse Campaign, 28mm
I expect to launch my post-apoc campaign in the next few months, adding vehicles for the current factions, ruins for the wastes, a recovering town, and maybe the fortified abbey.

Star Fleet Battles
I've completed 12 new ships, and am in the process of stripping and repainting over 40 others.  In addition, I intend to add 2-4 new ships per month, as well as fighter and pseudo-fighters.

WWII East Front 6mm and/or 15mm
This will be a big project this year, but I'm not sure exactly how it will develop yet.  I have a lot of vehicles for 6mm, not much terrain and infantry.  I'm in the process of researching both Kursk and Smolensk, and am loosely expecting to do early stuff around Smolensk in 6mm, and Kursk in 15mm, which is opposite of my original expectation.  Who knows, I may flip back on this, or change battles completely.

Cold War 6mm and 15mm
In 6mm I plan to repaint a significant portion of my old Nato forces aside the from the US, and need to add a lot more infantry.  Progress in 15mm will be more modest.  The hope is to add the rest of the M113 family and field a  mech. company with support circa 1977-1982, and complete the M60A1.  If nothing else, it will expand models that I have for sale.

Modern African Imagi-Nations 15mm
The only real plan is to continue the campaign.  I expect that I will add more buildings, possibly the presidential palace, or an airport.  I may complete more vehicles including new masters, but it will depend on time and die rolls.  At any time, other forces could be added, including Cuban, Soviet, French, British, or US (which are all on standby).  It all just depends on the die rolls.

WWII France 1940
I have a ton of 6mm for 1940, but have rarely used it, gaming France mostly in 15mm in the past.  I'd like to do some battles of greater scope, but will depend on whether I can finally decide on which battlefield(s) to build.

Vietnam 20mm
I'm hoping that I can finally get around to adding more terrain pieces and get some games played later in the year.  This one is very "iffy" and may end up being the big project for 2017.

Near Future 28mm
A low intensity project that will involve finishing some small terrain items and painting current figures for contemporary/near future silliness generally inspired by "B" movies.  This will be things like rednecks and teenagers vs. aliens and whatnot.

I figure that I have 18 months worth of work to do in 2016, given no illness and only 40 hour work weeks.  I know that it probably won't all happen, but do expect to make sizeable progress on most of the above periods/projects.  I don't intend to really jump into anything completely new, though am giving consideration to Beyond the Gates of Antares.  If I do that, It will end up being a low intensity project that probably bump out work on Vietnam and/or WWII. We'll see what happens.