2020 Foresight

Time for the annual uncloaking of the crystal ball to take a peek to see what 2020 may hold for the Palouse Wargaming Journal.

Battles to Fight
On the miniatures gaming front, 2019 represented a banner year at the gaming table.  By my count, over 30 games made it into the books in the year just past.  The most gaming in one year in my recent memory.  Can this become a trend and continue into 2020?  Stay tuned to see.
   
In the 2019 Project Planning post (see Project Plans 2019), I proposed conducting four monumental battles.  While 2019 did not see the full complement of four planned monumental battles hitting the gaming table in 2019 (Trebbia, Kunersdorf, San Martino, Abensberg/Eckmuhl), two of these battles saw action over several playings (San Martino and Kunersdorf).  The Kunersdorf battle just made it under the year-end wire and it continues into the early weeks of 2020.  

Preparing and gaming these monument battles took more effort (and available time) than anticipated with the research, battle mapping, figure painting (if needed), and coordination of my time for other hobby activities.  Add into these preparation activities,  the constraints of work and travel, I quickly ran out of hours in the day.  Therefore, attempting a feat of four large historical battles seems out of reach for 2020.  I like the concept of planning for a few big battles but will dial the number back for the New Year.  Two such battles will be penciled in for 2020.  Of course, Kunersdorf will likely remain on table for awhile longer as we challenge Frederick to do better than he managed historically.   

Which battle monuments are under consideration for 2020? 

• Abensberg/Eckmühl.  Still on the list but research for Eckmühl suggests this may not provide a competitive situation.  Even with that caveat, it may provide insight into these twin battles for which I am lacking from readings alone.  Having walked parts of the Eckmühl battlefield, presenting Eckmühl would provide a more personal touch.  
• Rivoli.  Keeping an early Italian Napoleonic battle from the 2019 list in the mix, I switch to Rivoli over Trebbia.  While it would be rewarding to see Suvorov's Russians take to the field, I will be content to challenge Napoleon with Austrians alone.  I could still change my mind.  
• Telamon - With a dozen Celtic units crossing the painting desk in 2019, time for Telamon, I think.  Besides, four more chariots from Newline Designs have arrived in-house!  Add those chariots to the painting goals for 2020.  

Other battles to consider?  With so many collections, it is difficult to sift through all of the choices and narrow it down to a number of games that I can actually find time to present.  The 10mm ACW collection has not been on the gaming table in more than a year.  Maybe more than one of the smaller battles can squeezed onto the table in 2020?  Perhaps a brief return to Norm's Two Flags-One Nation for smaller games on a grid?  Looking at the current Five Years Ago on PWJ widget, Chadd's Ford battle from Brandywine shows up.  Five years ago.  Seems more recent than that.  How many years since I last fought an AWI battle in 15mm?  Too many to count.  I should consider pulling the AWI troops out for a muster too.

With a number of blogs over the past year showing multiple battle reports and rules' reviews set during WWII including at least one interesting campaign, I am motivated to get some of my WWII collections out onto the gaming table.  Whether it is skirmish-level in 28mm using Chain of Command or battalion-level or larger in 15mm,  I plan to make an effort to getting WWII back into game rotation. 

I imagine Commands & Colors will be a frequent choice in the New Year as it was in the Old Year.  Coincidentally, a Commands & Colors battle set in 1850s Caribbean is on the gaming slate for this weekend.  The British and the EIC take on locals forces in a battle in 25mm.  That should be interesting.

I would enjoy getting the troops for Samurai Battles back onto the table whether using Commands & Colors or Impetvs.  Impetvs has not seen action for many years.  I will try to get Impetvs back into a regular rotation in 2020 along with To the Strongest!.  Good candidates for Impetvs and TtS! include Great Italians Wars, Assyrian Wars, and English Civil War.  Yeah, that's it.  2020 will see a return of Impetvs to the gaming table.  I hope I still like it!

Figures to Paint
While I had no new projects planned in 2019, I suggested that starting a Hittite Army for the Assyrian Wars was a possibility.  That did not happen.  In 2020, I commit to starting a Hittite Army in 25mm.  My initial goal is to complete one unit per month for a total of twelve by year-end.  If I stick to that plan, I may have enough Hittites to field a small, gameable army for Basic Impetvs or TtS! at least.  I also plan to add more units to the already large Assyrian Army.  Year-end 2019 saw work return to the Assyrian Wars project and those efforts continue into the New Year.  

Although 2019 saw the completing of more than 1,600 painted figures, don't expect the same effort in 2020.  That pace is not sustainable.  I set my painting goal to 900 for 2020.  If 25mm turns out to be the focus, fewer than 900 figures will see the brush.  If 15mm sees more activity then I may finish a few more than 900.  Besides pushing Hittites into the painting queue for the first time, expect more of the same as 2019 as various projects see additions to their numbers. More 1799, 1859, and SYW troops in 18mm are planned to move into the painting queue, for sure.  Perhaps I will begin an 1866/1870 Prussian Army in 18mm? 

Expect more units for many of the 28mm projects to include adding a few units to the Great Game project.  After playing a few Commands & Colors games using 19th Century British in India armies, I picked up some Foundry figures including Russian Crimean War artillery and Afghans.  About time to bolster their numbers and get my Russians and Natives into a game.  Enough figures remain in inventory to field one last, 40-figure Landsknecht pike block and a couple of units of Gendarmes.  Those go onto the 2020 list too.  

By completing 1,600+ figures in 2019, one might expect The Lead Pile to see a noticeable dip in size.  Well, I cannot see a significant decrease.  Let's see if I can reduce both The Lead Pile through painting and reduced purchases.  Reducing purchases?  Is that possible when I have great difficulty passing up a sale?  

Rules to Design, Develop, Test
After playing Summer of '59 and Wars of Coalition from QRS' exclusively for a couple of years now, 2020 may finally be the year to begin codifying the rules into a coherent body of text. I know, I said that in 2018 and 2019 but I really am serious this time!  If 10mm ACW sees action on the table in 2020, I ought to re-examine Republic and see how it has held up over the years. A few amendments may be needed to bring it in line with my current thinking. 

Boardgames to Explore
While I had hoped for regular boardgaming sessions in 2019 and we did get in several good sessions, the frequency was not as often as expected.  A large number of current and out of print board wargames came into the house throughout 2019.  I would enjoy getting at least a few of these onto the gaming table in 2020.  Oh, and I really should cut back on wargame purchases in 2020.  I went a bit overboard in 2019.  Every time Nancy sees the game closet, she mentions that, "you really have a lot of games."  When will you play them?  I say, "when I retire."  There are also several games covering Operation Mercury that would be fun to explore in 2020.

A couple of the games added to the collection could be played as possible campaign games to generate tabletop battles.  I am thinking specifically of Assyrian Wars, Sekigahara, and Imperium Romanum to name just a few.  I have often considered using Clash of Arms' Campaigns of R.E. Lee as a battle generator in a campaign game.  So many great choices if I drift off into a campaign.  Maybe even using Victory Games' 1809 or TAHGC's Struggle of Nations as a campaigning tool?  

Blogging
Expect to see blog updates averaging one every three to four days.  This is a comfortable pace and I have yet to run out of material to publish.  Expect wargaming topics to be broken up by my occasional ramblings on cycling around the Palouse and travels around the world.  A big backlog of travel stories still awaits to be committed to paper including a two week exploration of Egypt and the Nile Valley.  Still more travels around Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland remain as well as exploration of ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize.

2019 saw me offer some data crunching services for the Great Wargaming Survey.  While several of those analyses have been published, a stack of other interesting analyses await.  Expect to see a few of these in 2020 too.  

Having completed the Napoleonic cavalry refit in 2019, time to consider photographing the collection.  Maybe I should get this collection onto the gaming table a some point during the year?  A few units still remain awaiting a slap of paint.  Perhaps, 2020 sees the completion of the 28mm Peninsular War project with figures on hand?  Several battalions worth of Spanish infantry await in The Lead Pile.  Having received a nice-sized Brigade Games' voucher for Christmas, it could be put to good use calling up more troops to the colors.  Other projects could use a turn at the photo booth too.

Enough rambling.  That is likely plenty to keep me busy in 2020.  Planning is an iterative process; expect change!