Projects for 2015

With 2014 firmly in the books it's now time to lay down the plans for this year. As usual I like to set myself some official goals to help with the motivation. However, last year this trick did not really work as hoped as I mentioned in my review of 2014, so for 2015 it's time to focus and get back on track – no more procrastinating!

For this year, I have set myself some rather strict, but hopefully manageable goals:

Italian Wars French

After last year's failure, no more excuses, I will finish my planned starter force for this army during this year. Simple as that.

Håtunaleken

For our Lion Rampant club project, I will add the next couple of units to my host to bring the total points up the regular 24. The current plan is to do some more mounted knights and a unit of foot yeomen with mixed weapons (allmoge). I also plan to do a mounted and an unmounted version of the leader of my host – i.e. the king Birger Magnusson.

Great Northern War

Ever since leafing through my parents' copy of the classic "Karoliner" at age 10, the image of these iconic Swedish soldiers has been firmly planted in my mind. When the new club project for the GNW was announced, I naturally signed up to paint a unit. Our plan is to put on a display game at the Lincon gaming convention in May, so there's a strict deadline to paint to which always works wonders for my motivation.

Operation Winter Storm

I have long been wanting to do some serious WW2 gaming, preferably on the eastern front as it's such a fascinating theatre of war. The ferocious fighting – on all levels of operation, from the large scale to the small scale – and the horrible conditions both sides found themselves in, give the whole thing an almost mythical air. After purchasing this excellent scenario pack for Chain of Command, I knew I had found the perfect project to get started on some eastern front gaming.

The plan is to do everything required for the first 14 (of 22 in total) scenarios during 2015: paint up all the models for both the Germans and the Soviets and make all the terrain. I'm looking at doing this project in 15 mm, which has a number of benefits such as low cost, quick painting time, lots of suitable models from different manufacturers available, and the fact that I already have most of the German infantry needed (although unpainted). There's also some of the club's terrain that can be used which will save me some work.

I have a somewhat sketchy plan to eventually "upgrade" to playing at company level, using the I Ain't Been Shot Mum rules, by expanding the forces some time in the future. This is a rather long-term plan though, so it won't happen this year.

Well, these projects should keep me sufficiently occupied during 2015. Now, all I have to do is stick to the plan and not get seduced by all the fun distractions that inevitably pop up along the way – always the greatest challenge of them all!