2012 Projects

As the New Year draws ever closer, I've been thinking over what I'm planning to do gaming wise over the coming year. 2011 wasn't very productive, but I have gathered a few sets of rules and amassed a small figure collection. I have enough figures to commence some gaming and my first priority is to get them painted and based. The projects themselves will come as no real surprise to anyone who has been following this blog, my tastes haven't drastically changed.

Hispañola

My imagi-nation Hispañola will still be the core setting for post Second World War conflicts. The plan is to do this in 28mm, with games of around platoon and company size and using Force on Force rules. I've also got various sets by Too Fat Lardies, Two Hour Wargames and Ganesha Games that I want to try out. At some later point I'd like to expand it to 12mm and play larger games.

2012 also marks the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962). One of my abiding passions is the Kennedy and Johnson era and Hispañola was created as a sort of pseudo-Cuba (along with being a pseudo-Congo, pseudo-Indochina and pseudo-Angola), with the prospect of a US invasion to prevent a 'second Cuba' - something which the Dominican Republic experienced in a fashion in 1965. I might do a few posts on the Crisis, perhaps even some details of what a war resulting from it might have unfolded. I did a brief post on it a while ago, but I think still worthy of closer examination. Who knows? Maybe some figures will get painted and games played on this theme.

US Navy Seals during jump training 1962. They are armed with AR-15 rifles bought under the 'Open Purchase' system. Their acquisition caused quite a furore, at a time when quite a few units where still waiting on the issue of the M-14.

US Marines on exercise 1962. They are still armed with M1 Garand rifles and M1919 Browning machine guns. Despite the introduction of the M-14 in 1957, the USMC Fleet Marine Force only completed changeover at the end of 1962. In the US Army, only 101st Airborne Division was fully equipped by the end of 1961.

The Art of War

I'm looking at an adventure style format, expanding up to 'large' skirmishes at a 1:1 figure ratio. The setting will be the late Italian Renaissance, bordering on the early Italian Wars. I'm planning on incorporating Pike and Shot and Zombies in there somehow, along with straight historical games. The setting will be northern Italy and/or Hispañola during the age of exploration.

Aztec cities appear to have contained a number of buildings that were obviously designed to be Zombie-proof. 

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War is another long term interest of mine. I'm looking at concentrating on the 'March on Madrid' eventually graduating to the 'Siege of Madrid' at a later stage. At present small actions using 28mm figures is what I envision doing, although at a later stage I'd like to move into 12mm for larger scale actions.

I'll largely be using Warhammer 'Great War' and Too Fat Lardies 'Through The Mud and The Blood' for these games. I'm considering either 'Blitzkrieg Commander' or 'If The Lord Spares Us' for the 10mm games.

Channel 13

I acquired a copy of Crooked Dice Games 7TV rules recently and was pretty much blown away by the concept behind them. In essence the concept of the system is to present your game as the climax of a TV programme (or even a film if you like), i.e. the action part. It doesn't sound like a big deal at first glance, but the more you think about it, the more awesome a concept it gets. You can literally do anything as far as setting goes, though the game and accessories are geared towards the action adventure series of the 60s and 70s, like; 'Department S', 'Man from U.N.C.L.E.' and all the Gerry Anderson stuff etc. The addition of gadgets and gizmos appropriate to the 'set' caps the experience off. There's nothing to stop you from creating your own though and you could conceivably do 'Robin Hood' to 'Dr Who' if you wish.

To me the awesomeness is that the concept of the game restricts anything to how it's presented on the screen. Think of any war film... those mass combat shots merely serve to link 'acts' containing just a few people, the 'cast', together. The real action is just the 'cast' and some 'extras' on a set and in close-up, performing some small action vital to the whole film.

Think the assault on the secret base in 'You Only Live Twice'. After the initial spectacle of loads of ninjas rappelling into the base, you're left with vignettes of Bond and co taking out small groups of the opposition piecemeal, with the double mission of capturing Blofeld and stopping WW3 by taking out the rogue spaceship. These are your games in 7TV. Just a few figures and you've got a game.

I am not Sheldon... really...

For someone like me who likes to compartmentalise his games into distinct settings, but are too small to be supported by their own blogs, the idea is a godsend. Channel 13 will be one blog to cover all of the little groups of figures I have; Atomic Cafe 57, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Thrilling Tales, Zombies, what have you, with each having its own 'programme' (pages) and 'episodes' (posts) within one blog, all loosely tied together under the 'Channel 13' logo. Okay maybe I've just revealed the OCD side of me to the world, but it was a 'Eureka moment' for me.

While I could cover quite a few options under the 7TV umbrella, I'll be using various other rule sets to cover the games played; Ganesha Games Flying Lead, Rattrap's .45 Adventure and Two Hour Wargames' All Things Zombie etc as appropriate.

So those are my plans for 2012, hopefully I won't be sat here next December thinking "Where did the year go?" having made no progress. I'm going to be working away on these blogs and as they appear, they will be highlighted here and links added, should anyone fancy following any of them. All news or progress will be reported here in any case, so it's not essential to follow them all.