2023: Having Changed My Methods

Back in September of '22, I presented a plan to help me focus on "only" ten gaming periods at a time, which I now refer to as the "10-plan".  Ten periods may not seem like much focus, but the bigger picture is that I actually have intent of gaming in at least 37 different periods.

In retrospect, this may seem like a silly or overly structured approach to the hobby, but it seems to be working.  I was more focused in my hobby adventure this past year, completing projects for my 1958 World War III  campaign, and starting with far less than I relized to complete my 1941 Barbarossa period project.  In fact, 25 of 49 completed projects from my to-do list were for 6mm Barbarossa.

Two period projects completed may not seem like a big deal, but given that in 42 years of gaming prior to the 10-plan, I "completed" only seven periods, I think the approach has been beneficial. 

Other work was limited to the remaining eight periods in the plan, with the exception of some 15mm African houses.  My imagi-African campaign, which is more or less "complete", was on hold, as I had need for some more 15mm African houses and buildings for the next game.

I eneded up trading out my 1970s Cold War project for Imagi-Africa on my list, and built the buildings, but in the process, realized that ongoing campaigns are going to need new bits from time to time to permit games to be played, so came to recognise that for the 10-plan to work, I would have to occasionally deviate to a "non-plan" project.  Afterall, the 10-plan is supposed to be a tool, not a barrier.

Another thing that I've wrestled with through the year, is accepting that the rising cost of miniatures and associated shipping fees, particularly from overseas is not-sustainable with respect to my miniatures want-list for my various projects.  So, I am going to drop a couple of periods from my big list, and scale down some other things, which will make the remainder more achieveable.

In any event, here is the status of the 10-plan periods at the end of 2023:

Two periods are more or less complete:

    6mm 1950s Cold War - Various units, buildings and other bits were completed, and the campaign is under way.

    6mm WWII East Front Barbarossa - The campaign is beginning, and the scope has been somewhat expanded through the year with extra units and equipment, and the inclusion of Romanian forces.

One period was almost completed:

    15mm Cold War 1958 - I still need to build a half dozen or so buildings to wrap this up, but infantry, aircraft, and vehicles are complete, and additional terrain was added as well.

One period was temporarily removed:

    15mm 1970s Cold War  -  This project was pulled from the list, temporarily replaced by 15mm Imagi-Africa, as I needed buidings for a campaign scenario.

I've had failing enthusiasm for this Cold War project during 2023, largely due to frustration with figures/miniatures availability associated with companies/lines being sold.  Efforts to round out armies with printed models have generally resulted in failure, between uncured prints from multiple sources now, and prints that require so much cleaning, that it would be faster to master and resin cast them.  

After deciding to reduce the scope of this a little, and focus on rounding out currect forces with small additions, rather than building out vast armies for every nation, I'm going to move on with it.

The following six periods saw varying degrees of progress and will carry over to 2024:

    1/3788 Star Trek/Star Fleet Battles - Klingon, Federation, and Romulan fleets, I purchased, and received as gifts, a number of new miniatures, and have recently started painting some of them.  It looks like the Federation fleet will be taking shape this year, and maybe the Klingons will see a little growth as well.

    15mm WWII East Front, Barbarossa -  Similar to the the 6mm Barbarossa project above, though not quite complete.  This is a period that will be slightly reduced in scope due to the figure cost issue, and I'm expecting to wrap this up in 2024.

    15mm France 1940 -  I finally gave some attention to miniatures and terrain in December.  There isn't a lot to be done yet, and this is another period that should be wrapped up in the coming year.

    15mm Soviet-Afghan War -  I did a lot of planning/design work on this in 2023, and am ready to go into a terrain building frenzy which will bring this to complete status sometime in 2024.

    20mm Vietnam -   Worked on some bits through 2023, and finally settled on a campaign setting late in the year.  I expected this to be a big project for 2024; however, this is another  period that is going to be hit by the shipping/figure cost issue (which kind of surprised me).  As a result, I need to do a little "recalculating" regarding how this will be developed in 2024.

    28mm Post Apocalypse -  Didn't really get much done here, but have some terrain projects that I'd love to complete for a number of scenarios.  I'll need my big table for a while to work on these construction projects, and hope to make some progress after Barbarossa sees some action.

Two new periods will join the 10-plan in 2024

       28mm The Wind and the Lion - This is something that I've wanted to game since before I knew that the hobby was a thing.  I plan to expand the scope beyond that of the the movie, based on the writings of Rosita Forbes and others.  I can repurpose some of my Span-Am War and Boxer period figs and many of the additional figs can be sourced in the US Saving a little shipping fees at least, thus this seems like a period that can survive my recent purge.

    6mm France 1940 - This project goes hand in hand with the 15mm project for the same period, and is actually very close to completion upon addition to this list.  

Playing Games

Every year, I expect that the frequency of my gaming will increase, and relatively speaking, it doesn't.  2023 was no exception to this, having played only nine games through the year.  Double that of 2022, but not really what I was hoping for.

With my Barbarossa campign launching, I expect that number to be somewhat higher in 2024, but really, who knows?  The reality is that particualrly over the last three years, I've really enjoyed working on projects, and gotten a lot done.  I'm enjoying my hobby, so not going out of my way to fix something that isn't really broke.

Painting

It was another strong year on the painting from, having purchased or received 968 figures and painted 1258, mostly 6mm on both counts.  Nearly a thousand of these were for my 6mm Barbarossa project.

I'm guessing that this will be my last 1000 miniature painting year, and expect both of those numbers to be lower in 2024.

Projects

With respect to my hobby to-do list, "project" is relatively unqualified term, and may range from completing a single model to making hundreds of pieces of terrain, I completed 49 "projects" from my to do list in 2023, which is down a little from last year.  It was stiil a pretty productive year, about 1.5 times my average rate prior to 2020.

In all, 2023 was a pretty productive and enjoyable hobby year, despite losing most of the last three months to the chaos of life.  Time to explore 2024.

Hope this wasn't too boring, and thanks for reading.

Happy New Year to all, and hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season.