2016 ended up being a year of almosts. A few projects were almost completely ignored, WWII East Front, France 1940, and 20mm Vietnam. Others received more attention in the form of planning, miniatures acquisitions/painting, and rules writing that almost brought them to the table; Star Fleet Battles, Cold War, Post Apocalypse, and Near Future. And one almost went according to plan; Modern Africa.
Particularly in the second half of the year, I made some headway, playing seven games in a six week span, getting a set of modern air combat rules onto the table, and getting a full scale war launched in my modern African campaign.
A near future project that I've envisioned for decades, gained momentum in the form of planning, rules and figure acquisitions. Its close proximity and interwoven nature with my Post Apocalypse world means that both often get a boost from work on either. My PA game is so close to happening that I can feel the oppressive heat of the wasteland sun stealing my breath.
In 2017 I am going to try to focus a little more narrowly than in the past year. I had targeted eight projects over the past year, but only made any real progress on five of them. I figure that those are the five nearest and dearest to my gaming heart for now, and will focus on them in the new year:
15mm Modern Africa Imagi-nations
I plan to fight more of the battles between Mugabia and Uwanda. In just the opening battles of the broader conflict, each side has realized an significant oversight that may heavily impact the progress and direction of the conflict. And, with the manifestations of the oversights, the likelihood of outside intervention grows, on land and in the air.
28mm Post Apocalypse
I have rules, story-lines, characters, and figures for 22 factions in my post-apoc world. I only have to get some terrain and other bits finished (and make a place to store it), before the adventure can begin. My game will be launched in the coming year. I hope to share it on my blog, as a series a stories told from the vantage point of various characters in the game.
28mm Near Future
This is a less ambitious project than my PA world, but involves a number of factions for light-hearted adventures in a near future setting. Set in and around a southwestern Hollywood town, adventures will range from squabbles between locals and out-of-towners to espionage to zombies to alien invasions. The plan is to finish building the game in 2017 for presentation as a convention game early in 2018.
6mm and 15mm Cold War
I am a child of the Cold War, and have been fascinated with the hypotheticals since the early 1970s. The goal this year will be to field armies of 4-5 nations circa 1982 on completed battlefields by the end of the year.
Star Fleet Battles
A fan of the boxed rules and three expansions from the early 1980s (pre-Captain's Additions), over the last year, I have been working to get this onto the table in miniature in a way that I have envisioned since about 1982. An old friend and I are chasing this, and will be experimenting with adaptations to the rules to better accommodate the SFB rules with miniatures later in the year.
So these are the main goals, probably as unrealistic and unattainable as always, but it never hurts to dream. Other projects may creep in as the mood strikes me, as Victorian Piracy and adventure, the jungles of Vietnam, and battles of 1940 and the Eastern Front are never far from my heart.
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