As far as wargaming is concerned, 2009 has been a good year. My 'Britannia' project (Early Imperial Romans in Britain) is all but finished - I could do with five or so more Roman cavalry - but I'm waiting for Warlord Games to make some armed with spears - but that's about it for figures - other than a few 'specials', like civilians, engineers, etc. I still have a hankering to make some big earth banks to sit my village on top of, in order to make a proper hill fort - specifically, a gateway similar to, but much simpler than, those at Maiden Castle. I also need a couple more terrain boards to allow me to play bigger games - 6' x 4' is a bit cramped, even with only 2,000 WAB points per side on the table.
I've also got on very well with my 'Fire in the East' project. The one thing that's slightly disappointing is that I haven't played any games at all with the figures: I still have no desert terrain - I hope to rectify that very soon. I'm thinking of doing it very simply - a large piece of sandy-coloured felt or cloth, with little 'blobs' of the same flock I'm using on the figure bases, ought to look okay. I also want to make some terrain pieces - a couple of hills, some areas of rocky ground, maybe a few sand dunes, a few palm trees - perhaps an oasis to fight over. I haven't got many figures left to paint though: for the Sassanids a unit of archers and another unit of Savaran heavy cavalry; for the Romans a unit of legionaries and a unit of auxilia. In addition, I might re-do the unit of Roman archers (or paint another lot) - I'm not 100% happy with them - I think they'd look better if they had darker skin, and if their tunics were a different colour - say green and cream like my Early Imperial Eastern archers. Some camel riders wouldn't go amiss either. And maybe use the dozen spare armoured horses to make a third unit of Savaran.
I have also spent some time thinking about rules, and even doing some writing. That goes in fits and starts though - it's hard to just keep writing - I need inspiration. As it happens, I had an idea whilst swimming this morning. I've never been very happy with the idea of 'equal points' battles - the whole thing seems to end up being very formulaic, and not actually very interesting. It becomes largely a matter of squeezing as much fighting power out of, say, 2,000 points as you possibly can - often to the detriment of 'history'. I'd rather play 'light-hearted' games, in which winning isn't very important (and it never seems so important without 'equal points' armies), but a colourful spectacle and making it as much like 'history' as possible are important.
But how to decide on what forces to use in such battles? It struck me, this morning, that ancient generals turned up with their armies, and either fought or didn't - if one side was very obviously outnumbered and/or outclassed, they'd often decide not to fight, and would, instead, slope off while they hoped no-one was looking. Maybe there's an idea in there - it just needs a mechanism to reflect the idea that you could refuse to fight if you thought your army stood no chance. Of course, there's also the possibility that one side has much more scouting capability than the other, in which case an ambush might become possible. I need to think about this a bit!
Things that didn't go so well. I wasn't very happy with the start of my '3rd Crusade' project. The Saracens, from Musketeer Miniatures, were fine, but I wasn't altogether happy with the Crusaders from Gripping Beast - somehow they just didn't quite 'do it' for me. I really don't understand why the 'quality' 28 mm manufacturers aren't falling over each other to do the 3rd Crusade: it's got the lot! Who could fail to be entranced by the conflict between Richard Coeur de Lion and Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn - the great heroes of their respective faiths? In 15 mm, the conflict is very well served by Legio Heroica - I wish someone would do just as comprehensive, and attractive, a job in 28 mm!
So, looking ahead to 2010 now... The first priority is to finish off the previous two projects. I suspect 'Britannia' will drag on for a while, as Warlord slowly release things like more cavalry, engineers, etc. I'm hoping Fire in the East' will be pretty much dealt with (other than actually playing some games!) by the end of January. And then? Well, the ECW has been beckoning - and I've got some figures on order. But I'm also tempted to do some more 20 mm WW2. Biblicals (if I can get the desert terrain needed for 'Fire in the East' sorted out) also appeal - and Miniature Design Studio has the start of some good ranges. More Romans are a distinct possibility - perhaps late Romans (but I'm not sure I can face painting a 'warband' army to face them) or, more likely, republican Romans versus Pyrrhus and the Epirotes. And I'm still sort of hankering after doing some 28 mm Napoleonics!
And I'm also feeling like a complete 'change of pace'. I used to do a lot of 1/35 scale armour modelling. I noticed a nice plastic kit for a Churchill AVRE in a model shop the other day. The AVRE is one of my all-time favourite vehicles - so I am tempted! It'd make a nice change.