Looking at 2015

Back from the beach and a very relaxing holiday. The weather was perfect and the sea was warm. Whilst away I had plenty of time to reflect on my wargaming plans for this year. One thing that I kept coming back to was my general gaming philosophy - games must be fun with rules that are easy to use and don't take all day to play to a conclusion. For this reason I am coming back to DBA style games. I don't have DBA 3.0 yet, and it is apparently unavailable until later this month, so I'll order it in February.
The other rules that I'll be using will be based on Neil Thomas' wargaming rules. I've made no secret of how much I enjoy these rules and my last post was about an alternative morale system that I've found works well. I've put together adaptations of the rules specifically for the Crimea and Great Northern War and will be playtesting these this year.

So what have I got lined up?
If I can stay on track, this year I want to do two larger 15mm projects - the Great Northern War and 1914 Western Front. Interspersed with that will be two 15mm DBA projects - the Punic Wars and Sengoku Samurai (using Humberside extensions). My final plan this year is to finish of my 28mm Gallic Wars Romans and Gauls. The idea here is to use Lion Rampant by Dan Mersey, and I've already started playing with the points to build 12 figure Legionary units with pila. As the theme behind their use will be the occupation of Gaul and the Gallic resistance, I think this skirmish set will work very well indeed.

Coming this year: Letting the Blue Boys loose against those pesky Russians

In terms of games to be played, I'm really pleased to have finished my Crimean War project this week, and have the table set up for a solo game tonight. I'm also keen to get more Star Wars played this year, what with the excitement of Episode VII and the really good Star Wars Rebels cartoon series to keep me inspired.

Ready to go: Letting the Red Boys loose against those pesky Russians

And not forgetting commissions - Geoff has sent me some more figures to paint, and a dozen are currently sitting on my painting tray, undercoated and ready for the paintbrush. Some of them involve a well known canine and his four friends.

Sitting in the cabinet, but unlikely to get worked on this year are 28mm Bolt Action WW2 and 15mm Peninsular War (again using an adaptation of Neil's rules). I've also got a Zulu War 15mm Hordes of the Empire project sitting there which shouldn't be too much work.
In terms of purchases I want to get 15mm figures for Dux Bellorum - prpreferably with shields attached and available as single figures. And after that? I have a real desire to play some of the less popular periods that I enjoy, even if just to paint up the figures. These include (with likely source):
The Russo-Polish War 1919-21 (Peter Pig)
The Taiping Rebellion (Irregular)
Aztecs and Conquistadores (Black Hat)
The War of the Triple Alliance (QRF/Freikorps)
The War of the Pacific (Chile, Peru and Bolivia) (Outpost)
The Chaco War (Irregular)
The Sikh Wars (Black Hat)
Each of these would be a DBA style game so that I don't have to invest in excessive amounts of lead.
I also want to get 1914 Russians from Lancashire Games at some point, but this would be on the same scale as the German and French 1914 armies.Last on the list is the German-Danish War of 1864 from Rank and File/Old Glory)

So grandiose plans (let's see if I can stick to them) and a long want list. But I am happy in my madness.

Nate