A Wargamer’s Bucket List

Not that I’m contemplating the end..but having some hobby contemplation time on my hands and knowing how long it takes me to get around to things, I was inspired to draft this “bucket list” of gaming projects and activities I’d like to accomplish at some point when and while I’m able.   The order doesn’t connote priority; and the list is subject to amendment.

1.  Set up my own dedicated wargaming room.   Something large enough to have a permanent gaming table (4/5x10ish), nice storage for display and storage of books and figures, and a work table for projects and painting.   A TV, computer station, and beverage frig to round out the functionality.
2. Find or create a set of fast play rules and armies that would let me recreate a Gettysburg scale battle on the tabletop with two or more players at a one element = 1 brigade scale, and that doesn’t force you to use artillery in battalion sized formations (sorry Volley and Bayonet).
3. Complete the set-up for my own wild west town (Calamity) for shoot-outs in 15mm scale.
4. Plan and procure my own Frostgrave setup (with Art of Wargaming buildings in winter-themed paint).
5. Create a flexible Dungeon-Crawl setup, using scratch-built cork “2-D” dungeon tiles and accessories a la DM Scotty and paint up a mass of 15mm dungeon crawl adventurers and monsters.
6. Play in at least one elaborately detailed and terrained convention game in each of the following genres:  Pulp, Darkest Africa, Colonial, and Very British Civil War.  In particular, I’d love to command a special unit with a funny name like the Burford on Swansonby Janitors Federation Fencibles…in a rousing VBCW game.  And to recreate the defense of Roarke’s Drift.
7. Field a medieval Scottish retinue for Lion Rampant and play enough games to decide if I like the system as much as I think I do.
8. Find or create a preferred set of rules for 1:1 (skirmish) action in a WWII setting after experimenting with Bolt Action, Chain of Command, and Combat Patrol.
9. Help my colleagues in Washington Grand Company develop the Triumph rules for ancient/medieval miniature wargaming, and participate in that local gaming community.  That includes adding figures and rebasing as necessary to morph at least 2-3 matched pairs of DBA armies into all options Triumph armies.
10. Run or play in an old-school AD&D (1st edition) or homebrew role playing campaign.
11. Publish an on-line gazetteer for my Noraerth AD&D setting.
12. Break out my scratch-built Napoleonic naval fleets and give them a go using the classic Wooden Ships and Iron Men rules adapted to the tabletop.
13. Finish a homebrew “update” of the 1970s Rally Round the Flag rules for ACW and get my 15mm armies back into commission.  I may give Regimental Fire and Fury and Pickett’s Charge a look as an alternative.
14. Do some 1:1 scale skirmish gaming in the French and Indian War period.
15. Purchase some outstanding wargaming-related books and donate them to various public and school libraries.

As I said at the start…this list is a work in progress.  My progress is also likely to generate a fair amount of any future content on this site.