Job Done... Mission Accomplished.... Now To Start Planning For The Next Life.

 Two minutes ago, I was 13 years old, bright-eyed, counting the very minutes until the hell which was school in the early 80s, was over and done with.

And I was throwing myself into it with a dedication and vigour which, without hyperbole (and anyone who knows me will be nodding sagely) would literally shape the next 45 years of my life. 

I have in that time, done literally everything in the hobby and business and met and gamed with some of the greatest gamers of the first two generations. But, like most of us, in 2020, I realised that I was  just amassing lead and rules that - let's be frank - was just money wasted, either because it was going to never get painted, or because I was simply falling for the advertising of the companies for whom the hobby is a cash cow, to milked and turned into big book, big box cheese, or periods which, it quickly became apparent were one trick ponies.

The lockdown years, saw me working rather than being furloughed and so I was time poor, but, due to the lack of shows, I was cash-rich. I was also looking around me and realising just how much crap and unpainted lead there was in 4 decades. There were carrier bags literally half-full of vintage Citadel lead I wanted on the table and historical stuff I was not going to use in this lifetime, nor was I interested in, to be brutally honest.

I had realised a few years previously, that simply owning more stuff than anyone else did not make you a superior gamer. If that was the case, owning a games shop makes you the bestest, greatest gamer ever, and I'd done that 25 years before. I owned a miniatures business, but I'd never used my own stash - who'd have thought it? All those moulds of beautiful models and I was still buying stuff I loved as a kid.

It was during this time that I started to think differently. Friends were dying at ridiculous rates. Some were taken too early by illness, and others more tragically by suicide. It was making me rather focussed on the rapidly advancing eternal sleep - no, let's not wax lyrical here, the end of everything, a final choking fear and then oblivion, with a terrible final nightmare phase as the brain shuts down. GAME OVER!

So, I decided that I would focus on a few things which had been constants in my gaming life, and do them well. 'Doing them well' was not just about buying the most fashionable trinkets and rules, it was about me and what made my gaming experience it's very best.

First up, was a dedicated gaming room, with a decent sized table, to allow 2-6 players to have some serious fun. Then, I decided, it was time I broke the habits of a lifetime and  seriously invested in terrain. I confess, I went a bit overboard, but again, I have just finished refining that to the point , that to be honest, is still more than I really need, but I like to dress the table not only for the period, but also for the season.

In 2022, things were going OK, but then I declared it YEAR ZERO. I'd been busily building various historical armies - several against my Prime Directive and therefore, contrary to the whole idea - and I'd ignored the thousands of old fantasy models.

So, I trashed all of the painted stuff, and went back to the drawing board.  It was going to be 25mm old school (let's just say 'traditional, non-depressing') fantasy, 25mm pike & shot (it's 'shot', not 'shotte', this is the 21st fucking century, you animals!) and 15mm sci-fi.

So far, I have 6000 painted 25mm models, and expect that to be 9500 by the end of 2026. It's all paid forin advance and with a great painter who delivers the goods to a standard which I think is very 'high end 80s' rather than the the yard brush and overpriced ink wash method.

Now, all I need to do is wait for figures to arrive with me, and then base it and pop the flags on.

My fantasy is literally every race and sub-race in traditional fantasy up to around 1983/84, with the Orcs and Goblins being stupidly large when viewed as a whole, but which are a collection of 'army-sized' tribes from several manufacturers.

My ECW is in it's third and final incarnation in 4 years and is the klargest ECW collection I've had in 28mm. The regiments are around 50 figures for the infantry, and the horse are in units of 12-18. I have around 50 regiments of foot and the same of horse and dragoons, so, I have pretty much all I need, apart from the army of Montrose, which I will probably get around to, once the rest is done, but to be honest, it's not a 'target' I have set myself.

The sci-fi is something I am (shock, horror, disbelief) painting myself and is very much, me wanting to reconnect with my teenage self and where I got a lot of pleasure - see my previous posts in the Memory Lane series - and so, I want to try and rediscover myself. 

Everything I do, is for me, and because I want it. It's also there for friends to enjoy though, and the games room has several spare keys which friends can take and, then use if they want a game themselves, when I am not there or just because they are in the area and fancy a game with a mate or family member.

People had remarked that I was not 'serious', but now it seems that I'm vindicated. 

It's an odd feeling to think that I have now closed down a large part of my hobby, but now I can play the games that a teenage me wanted to play, so I need to focus on not dying  and encouraging friends whom I love and respect to also remain alive for a few more decades.

At first I felt quite uncomfortable at the thought of my hobby ending, by design, but Roger, whom I think of as a brother from another mother, pointed out, that indeed, the hobby was now the playing. That put me straight and lifted the cloud of depression, but I think it was healthy to decide to draw a finish line in the sand of mortality. 

In the meantime, I can start planning for my next incarnation, and where that will take me...