Well there is no point to be beating about the bush. My lovely daughter is entering the terrible two's and I am burned out. Keeping pace with her is leaving me with little energy. Add to it the Pandemic's disastrous effect on face to face gaming, and my hobby energy has ground to a halt. My wife and I are for health reasons much stricter with protection measures than most people around us, and as a result I have had no face to face gaming in the classical miniature sense since March 2020. That has put a damper on my hobby energy. Then there is the reality of the rambunctious little energetic daughter of mine. Then the need to help my wife with many things due to her precarious employment situation. And then a demanding work year, which adds to it the possibility of big career changes in the summer, which might require moving. I am burned out. I try to paint my ongoing projects, try to arrange online versions of gaming, tried to rekindle interest in RPGs (printing and reading the quick-start rules for ten systems, running some quick-start adventures for my wife and friends, reading the humungus Zweidhander) but frankly I have no energy.
When Zoe was between birth and six months, things were swell. I had time and energy. But oh boy kiss that bye bye when they become fully mobile weapons systems. And the sad thing is between the pandemic not going away, and work, I just do not see the chance for war-gaming again. Having moved in the past across continents, I know what a potential move might mean. And frankly I do not expect to have access to a big table ,or personalized war-gaming space for a time. And I have little energy. Indeed my reading and writing energy has gone done so much, that I can only muster the minimum for work requirements.
The crisis demands action, and as some of you know, I tend to make extreme actions. But this time I think it was the right. The decision was to shed projects and parts of the collection I do not expect to use in order to gain space, focus, and energy. The rest are all gifted to my good friends who helped make last six years such a great war-gaming time. For the time being I have decided to limit my collection to the following projects which I will continue working through slowly for the next two-three years.
A) 6mm French and Prussian Napoleonic-> painted, matched armies which I will mainly use with Lasalle which provides small table gaming options. I still need to finish re-basing the French. I am interested in expanding these with some Prussian Landwher Infantry, some French in greatcoats, and artillery limbers.
B) 10mm 1877-1897 Greeks and Ottomans-> painted, matched armies. I used them with Bloody Big Battles, a system I adore. But I will probably go back a bit to Neil Thoma's War-gaming the 19th Century due to table sizes. Main things to complete is rebasing the Greeks to MDF bases, and getting some limber figures.
C) 1/72 DBA Late Eastern Roman Army vs. Heruls Goths. Initially the plan was to make three DBA armies for each side and use them with Sam Mustafa's Aurelian. Well I bit more than I could chew with that one, and the majority, minus one DBA army each, are now with my friends. Of course the problem is that 1/72 DBA requires a 36x36 or better 48x48 table which I do not have right now. I curse myself for not keeping one of my matched 15mm DBA armies. This is one of the current painting and basing projects, slowly moving forward.
D) 28mm English Civil War Parliamentarian/Thirty Years War Protestant Army. This one of the only two 28mm projects I intend to continue working on. A good sized force for use with Liber Militum: Tercios. Currently working on completing command figures. In the future I would like to add some more infantry units, an artillery unit, and limber.
E) 28mm Greek Revolutionary Force. This is a small force to be use mainly with Lasalle. Painting one unit, and will probably order one more unit of Greek Maniot Insurgents, and one unit of Greek regulars and call it done.
D) and E) are the only 28mm projects, and there will be no others until I get 1) access to a big table and storage space 2) opponents. Perhaps if these are met again, post-Covid, post- Career changes , after Zoe grows up a bit, I will invest more in 28mm. Otherwise No.
I am also keeping six of my twelve 1/4000 Age of Sail Ships. The rest of my collection has either gone to friends, or is in the process of going to friends.
Concerning new projects the goal is to avoid them. I might do a Greek and Turkish Army for 1919-1922 if a range is created. Beyond that the rule for any new project will be
i) collect matched forces
ii) scale must be either small 15mm-6mm and/or must be playable on a small table
Writing wise I hope to still push forward with
1) Bloody Big Battles Scenarios for the Greek- Turkish War 1919-1922. Two of six intended scenarios done.
2) Work on a second scenario book for Liber-Militum: Tercios
3) Work and maybe complete "Muddling Through" , a operational and strategic history of the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922 focusing on the period from December 1920 to April 1921. This is a proper scholary book, but I intend to include some war-gaming scenarios.
Hopefully I will be able to at least complete the above projects over the next three years, and I have not again bit off more than I can chew.
No comments:
Post a Comment