So what's the plan?

 Plan? Did anyone talk about a plan? Well, I suppose there is a plan of sorts, although I am also reminded of the old saying "no plan survives contact with the enemy" with the enemy in my case being whether I can maintain focus for long enough.

So the plan as it stands goes something like this:

• Build and paint armies for the Punic Wars - I have had a collection of what are now called Donnington "Originals" in 15mm scale which I bought as a job lot from someone at work about 25 years ago (ulp).  I had been able to produce a pretty reasonable looking Polybian Roman army for DBA but the rest had then lain fallow for many years.  To take it forward now, I am building two armies suitable for Neil Thomas's "Ancient & Medieval Wargaming" (AMW) rules, including the various options, which should give me a solid basis for a variety of rules and games.  More of these figures in later posts.

• Choose some rules - one of the pleasures of the not-wargaming hobby (as well as wargaming itself of course) is being able to buy and study rules at length, although not-wargaming can result in "analysis paralysis", where you cannot quite work out whether the rules are historically accurate (whatever that might mean) or provide a good game.  After giving it some thought I am kicking off with DBA 3rd edition for the ancients and the venerable DBR 2nd edition for pike & shot.  While these have been overtaken by newer kids on the block (especially DBR), I always felt WRG rules are likely to be based on a solid historical basis and they both come with army lists which always provide a bit of analytical pleasure.   I can always spread my wings from there, including trying AMW.

• Decide on the battlespace - much as I would love to have a large wargaming room with dedicated table space, the reality is I need to fit in and around other people in the house.  As I said in my last post, while I have discovered a couple of my grown up children have left home in the last few years, they do come home from time to time and they seem to have found themselves partners who they quite like to bring with them. And my better half works from home with her crafting business and this takes up space in the house.  A couple of years ago I purchased some Tiny Wargames vinyl battle mats of which one was green and gridded and 3ft x 2ft.  This seems like a pretty good size for DBA and DBR (especially with its condensed scale) and is also pretty compact.  The grid also gives options to look at gridded wargames in the future.

• Work out the games - I will have to practice with the rules to understand how they work but after that I would like a reason for the games.  Step forward the timeless "Programmed Wargames Scenarios" by Charles Stewart Grant, which comes with the added bonus for me of providing a framework for solo wargaming.  I will need to work out how the army list options for the scenarios at the back of the book can be shaped to work with them.  Using the DBMM100 and DBMM200 options to produce army lists may well work as a translation from the WRG 6th edition points tallies described in the book.

So that is the basic framework for the plan and as far as the painting of the armies, I'm actually quite well advanced in painting and basing up more Polybian Romans (I suspect the Romans of that time never thought of themselves as Polybian).  Let's see what happens next!

Diary of a Not-wargamer

Welcome to the first post in ages on the Sheppard’s Crook blog.  Why have I suddenly sprung into action after so many years of carefully calculated inactivity?  The fundamental reason has been the uncomfortable feeling that my not-wargaming hobby is not quite as fulfilling as I had once thought and that now my attention has been turning to a whole new world of wargaming. 

So what is not-wargaming, I hear you cry? (I like to imagine that someone will be reading this post, even if it is some sort of digital archaeologist working their way back from the far future to try to understand what the world of today was like).  Well, put simply, it is doing everything to do with wargaming short of actually doing any gaming itself.  I have the rules (I can speak pidgin Barker-ese with a smattering of Neil Thomas), I have the figures (massed ranks of 15mm pike & shot and early Dark Ages figures, leavened by unhealthy quantities of Warhammer and Oldhammer), I even have a grass green cloth that I occasionally get out and put away again. 

But actually playing any games has been stymied by a lack of time driven by a fairly busy job and a family, not helped by a reluctance to commit too much effort to playing with toy soldiers when really I should be doing more grown-up things.  Plus a nagging concern that my painting and creative skills are just not up to it, whatever “it” actually is.  But my excuses are beginning to wear thin.  Changes to working patterns post-COVID have meant I am less in the office (but still working hard, honest Boss!).  I was also surprised that some of my kids left home a couple of years ago and that I hadn’t been providing taxi services for quite a while.  Maybe I could actually find the time (and the commitment) to get some figures out of their various boxes, onto the table and actually see if I like wargaming (ulp!). 

So the plan is simple: 

• Get some figures painted to a reasonable standard as far as I am concerned (I am not competing for a “Golden Demon” or to out-drybush Artis Opus, much as I admire them both).  I have plenty of figures in the lead pile (what’s all this about plastic figures?!) to be getting on with before I buy anything else (hah!). 
• Dig out the rules I have in some abundance and try and use them rather just read them endlessly.  DBA and DBR may have been overtaken by newer kids on the block, but I have them and plan to see how they actually work.   
• Work out what sorts of games I would actually like to play.  Charles Stewart Grant’s timeless classic Programmed Wargames Scenarios looks like it would be a good starting point, not least because it facilitates solo play, which is likely to be my modus operandi for the foreseeable future. 
• Use this blog as a means of recording what I have done in exploring the path from ending my not-wargaming habits towards achieving wargaming transcendence (or maybe just playing some games from time to time and not worrying about it too much). 

Above all the aim is to have a bit of fun, enjoy a bit of historical based gaming and try not to get too wrapped around the axle about having everything “perfect” before I actually do anything.  If you are reading this, you are very welcome to join the ride and see where this goes.  

See you next time!