Maps, part VIII

It has been a long time since I've done one of these posts, but as it turns out, these days I have even less time for map-making than I do for miniatures-painting. However, here at last I have enough maps to make another collection worthwhile. As always, please don't mistake these for real history!

First up, a look at a world where a natural disaster devastates the early United States:

From A House Built Of Flotsam: Early American Government and the Great Wave by Brewster Rogers (2006):

"At approximately 7:00 on the morning of May 17, 1786, Captain Harrington of the British merchantman Nancy, bound for Calcutta, noted a pillar of clouds or dark smoke to the southwest, in the direction of La Palma Island, one of the westernmost of the Canaries. About half an hour later, the ship was caught by an enormous swell, described by Captain Harrington as 'larger than any man on board had ever seen, and arising from a calm sea.' Harrington and the crew of the Nancy had been among the few to observe the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, and among the first to encounter the resulting poseidonic wave [1]...

"In recent decades, geologists and oceanographers have identified the proximate cause of the Great Wave: a lateral collapse event occurring on the westernmost flank of the island, which sent almost 100 cubic miles of rock plunging into the Atlantic ocean. Like a tiny stone thrown into a still pond, the ripples spread outward--but in this case, the ripples were poseidonic waves up to fifty feet high...

"Much of Europe was shielded by the eastern Canaries, though areas of northern Spain, northwestern France, western England, and Ireland all experienced heavy damage. Areas of coastal West Africa were devastated as well. Still, it was across the Atlantic that the Great Wave would be felt most keenly...

"Based on reports from survivors, the first waves reached the south end of Nova Scotia at approximately 8:30 a.m. local time. Points south were contacted over the course of the next three hours, with parts of East Florida not being reached until almost noon. To observers at the time, contact must have seemed terribly capricious, with some areas shielded by some nigh-imperceptible quirk of the coastline, while others suffered even greater damage from waves funneled into bays and straits..."

"Boston was devastated... Much of Connecticut was shielded by Long Island, even as the Eastern Shore protected Baltimore and the Upper Chesapeake... New York City did not escape unscathed, but the damage could have been much worse. Philadelphia itself was spared, but Delaware Bay was choked with debris that took weeks to wash ashore. The Tidewater areas of Virginia, the most densely populated area of the state, was also the most badly damaged... All up and down the eastern seaboard, the same pattern of destruction was repeated. It was an event that could not help but leave a stamp upon a fledgling nation and its unwieldy government...

"Even before the Great Wave, there had been a growing dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation. In the aftermath of the disaster, as the helplessness of both the affected states and the Confederation government became clear, the 7th Confederation Congress, under the leadership of its President, John Hancock, began work on a new constitution--one which would vastly expand the powers of the central government..."

[1] TTL name for a tsunami--named for the Greek god of oceans and earthquakes.

Quick version: the Cumbre Vieja volcano goes off in 1786; a massive tsunami devastates the United States. The magnitude of death and destruction is enough to put a bit of a wrench into American demographics; while there is a general drive to settle further west, the country can't really support expansion on the scale of OTL--the U.S. may eventually cross the Mississippi, but probably won't reach the Pacific. The "Departments" are the result of an urge to consolidate and centralize--the states still technically exist, but the Departments end up being the main units of federalism. The capital is New York--parts of it, including Federal Hall, weren't too badly damaged, and nobody really felt like building a brand-new capital in some Potomac swamp when there was so much rebuilding to do...

 

Next, a quick look at a world where Constantinople Istanbul is known by another name entirely:

This map shows a few of the major tourist attractions in the Old City of Miklagard. Backstory is a little hazy, but at some point an unpopular Emperor gets deposed by the Varangian Guard, who end up running the Empire for a while through a series of puppets. While this state of affairs lasts only a few centuries, it does leave a lasting impression in the languages of northern and western Europe... and so, when rich Aenglisk-speaking tourists from the Westlands book their lyftship flights for a vacation on the Golden Horn, they arrive at Miklagard Lyfthofn. (Even if the terminal also has signs posted in Greek and Kypchak.)

A world where the Americas are discovered by a more northern route, showing some misconceptions of early cartographers:

From Maps Through The Ages, Cecille Frampton, 1973.

"Although settlement proved infeasible for the Norsemen, sporadic contact continued up through the end of the fifteenth century, when a number of explorers in more southerly countries began suggesting that the riches of the East might be more easily reached by sailing west, and that the rumored "Vine-land" might provide a convenient stopover point. As a result, many of the early navigators chose a more northerly route, and only gradually did the extent of the Hesperian continent become apparent. In fact, for a long time, North Hesperia was thought to be a part of Asia, as shown in this map from 1501, which optimistically places the "Great Cham of Tartary" somewhere in northern Mechicoe. See also the existence of a Southwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Placidic Oceans--this may have been wishful thinking on the part of the cartographer, or it may have been based on second or third-hand accounts of trade routes across the Isthmus of Tecwanipec. Note that the Mayapan Peninsula, though misidentified as an island, is labeled as a source of spices, which may indicate that occasional trade was taking place between Europeans and native Hesperians at the time of the map's printing, or may be another misconception on the part of the creator, confusing Mayapan with the Spice Islands of the East. Information on the interior of the continent is similarly vague; for instance, the Great Lakes are shown as a single inland sea--source of the Mississippi and the Cabotto as well as the St. Brendan..."

 

And finally, a world where the Mongol Empire reached some places it never conquered in our world:

In our history, the Mongols under Genghis Khan reached the Indus River in 1221, in pursuit of the last Shah of Khwarezm, Jalal ad-Din. After his defeat, he sought asylum with the Muslim rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. In our history, they turned him away, and after knocking around northwest India for a bit he returned to Persia, where he was eventually murdered.

But what if Iltumish, the Sultan of Delhi, had not turned him away? What if the Mongols had continued to pursue their old enemy to the walls of Delhi itself, and the city had been sacked by the implacable hordes of Genghis Khan?

In this world, Iltumish chooses to take in the exiled Jalal ad-Din, and offers great insult to the Mongol ambassadors who demand that he surrender his guest. Dorbei and Bala, the Mongol commanders in India, send word of this to Genghis, who dispatches the famous general Subutai to reinforce them. Subutai handles the Indian campaign with the brilliance which in our world he demonstrated in the invasion of Europe, and Delhi is sacked by the Mongols in 1224. Jalal ad-Din is captured and sent to Karakorum in chains, but dies along the way.

Genghis Khan dies roughly on schedule, and as in our world, his son Ogedei succeeds him. Subutai's assignment to India means that his expedition against the Rus which culminated in the battle of the Kalka River never took place. Without that initial expedition, the Mongols do not launch an invasion of Europe during Ogedei's reign, instead mopping up the remnants of the Delhi Sultanate despite the determined resistance of Iltumish's daughter Razia Sultana. Differences in Mongol internal politics become apparent around the death of Ogedei--Genghis' grandson Batu has spent his time at court rather than leading armies across Russia, and manages to outmaneuver his rival Guyuk to take the throne.

As in our world, the Mongol empire eventually falls apart under its own weight, but in this world, one of the successor states, under a line of Khans descended from Subutai's grandson Aju, reigns from Ordapur, a new royal district of Delhi built after the sack of 1224. The Delhi Khanate reaches its apex under Sartaq the Great--though a later Khan does reach the Coromandel coast, his conquests are achieved only at the cost of much of the north to a resurgent Rajput dynasty, and his gains in the south are recovered by the Pandya kingdom of Madura during the reign of his successor...

 

HotT: Arabs vs. Byzantines

Well, the Byzantines have finally seen their first action. My brother and I were at home this weekend to help with Dad's ongoing move, but between bouts of schlepping boxes around, we found time for a couple of games of Hordes of the Things, featuring my new Byzantines with a couple of filler units vs. his Arabian Nights Arab/Almoravid army. Actually, both sides are in an incomplete state, as William is still lacking a good portion of his cavalry. Between that and the wizards, the two sides were pretty far from historical. The armies were as follows:

MIZARENE EMPIRE:
3 Knights (including the general)
2 Riders
3 Spears
1 Shooter
1 Flyer (a pair of angels from among my miscellaneous things)
1 Magician (Blandalf the Blue, another fill-in)

SULTANATE OF ALQABAR:
Magician General (The Grand Vizier)
1 Flyer (riding a magic carpet)
1 Rider (on camels)
5 Spears
3 Shooters

Game 1: I put my cavalry in the lead, with my Knight General front and center. He sent out his shooters. The knights thundered forward, the archers let fly, and my general pulled a Harold Godwinson. Oops. On to game 2...

Game 1. His archers are lurking in the shrubbery off to the left.

Game 2: This time, in an attempt to learn from my mistake, I formed the knights and spears up in a single block, hoping that the spears would keep the knights shielded from any pesky shooters until I got in charge range of his spears. My light cavalry were deployed off to the right in hopes of eventually getting around and causing mischief with his main line.

The new (improved?) formation

 Unfortunately, he deployed his three groups of archers on my left, where they managed to destroy first my leftmost spears, then the knights behind them, before the lines closed. Down two units, things weren't looking great for the Mizarenes. I sent in my flyers and magician to distract his archers, then charged his line. And this is where at least a little of my original plan was successful, as my knights in the center charged through and destroyed a unit of spears, creating a gap in his ranks.

Breakthrough!

From there, I was able to take advantage of the confusion (and some poor command rolls on his part) to start rolling up his line, with my wizard and flyer taking care of the archers on the left.

Arab lines looking a little ragged.

Meanwhile, over on the right, his riders and my riders remained stuck in an inconclusive scuffle:

This went on all game.

He managed to get some sort of line patched together in the center, but despite a couple of setbacks for me (and a brief threat to my general from his flyer) I managed to destroy the requisite six units required to drive his army from the field.

Spanish mercenary spears trying to hold off the attack.

I guess it's time to paint some more!

Keeping Byz-zy

Yes, I have been painting more Byzantines. What about the Bronze Age, you ask? Don't I have a convention game coming up in just a couple of weeks? Indeed--but for once I think I have all the troops  I'll need for that, so I won't have to be painting up until the last minute this time. (Though there are a couple of things I might add if I should happen to get to them before March 8.)

Anyhow, here's the latest from the Golden Horn:

More heavy cavalry. These ones have beards--I'm debating whether I should go back in and paint beards on the earlier ones too, but is anyone really going to notice? Probably not. These are the last of the heavies, at least for now--at some point I plan on doing a cavalry/knight general, but that will use some of the other figures from the Strelets set.

Also more light cavalry. There will be at least one more stand of these guys at some point. Also, though you can't really see it from this angle, since the relevant bits are on the back side, I trimmed off more of the baggy pants from these guys. The guy on the right got his sleeve trimmed a little too.

And finally, more spearmen, using a couple of the other poses from the Orion Byzantine Infantry (10th-13th centuries) set. Here's a closer look at them from the front:

Arranging the poses in two ranks ended up being a little awkward due to the poses involved, but the armored guys bracing their spears against the ground made more sense to me as a front rank, with the guys in the second rank sort of lunging over them. Still, it's a good thing they're all wearing helmets, because it looks to me like someone's going to get conked in the head sooner or later...

And there's the army as it stands now: nine units down, three to go! (Plus maybe a few extra bits here and there--I like my Hordes armies to have some flexibility...)

Playtesting chariot rules

I've had some vague ideas for a set of rules rattling around in my head for sometime, but with Cold Wars only about a month away and me signed up to run a game with said "home rules," I decided that I had better actually try putting a few of my notions into practice.

Fortunately Dad was happy to oblige, and since I happened to have both a supply train and an appropriate fortress gate handy, we decided to use the "Convoy" scenario as the testbed for the rules. Based on the forces we had available, I set the Hittites to escorting the supplies to the fort, while various Egyptian units attempted to catch/intercept them. (Since the arrival times and placements for the intercepting player's units are random, there's a lot of variation in how this scenario plays out--sometimes the convoy has to fight its way through; sometimes it just has to outrun the enemy...)

Chariots in the lead, the convoy and escorts head down the road.

The basic mechanic of the game is that each unit has a short list of different actions (moves & attacks) that it can perform. Some of them are free, but some of them deplete its pool of "action points," which also serves as the unit's health or hit points. I was reasonably pleased with how this mechanic played out, though there's a good bit of tweaking to be done when it comes to numbers--move distances, action costs, and the size of the unit's action reserves.

As it happened, most of the Egyptians ended up deployed behind the convoy, and with a somewhat narrow table, there wasn't a great deal of room to maneuver around, so I was able to throw my infantry units out one by one as "speed bumps" while I brought my chariots back from the head of the column to the rear. Fortunately the scenario also includes a cavalry (or in this case, chariotry) relief force to sally out of the fortress once the convoy gets close enough--my infantry's action reserves were small enough that they were breaking pretty quickly, particularly under the superior missile fire of the Egyptians.

Some Egyptian archers turn up on the board edge.

Hmm, now there's a whole bunch of them...

The relief force.

Those Nubian skirmishers won't know what hit 'em...

The convoy is safe.

In the end, I was able to delay long enough that the convoy made it safely to the fortress walls. The game played fairly quickly (we went through about twenty turns in about an hour and a half) and I was mostly satisfied with how the basic rules worked. There were some elements that we didn't get to test (no really wacky melee situations, for example) and of course, the convention game will have a much broader array of unit types floating around. Missile weapons may need to be toned down a notch, and I'm thinking leaders may have an expanded role--at the moment, they just let you rally a unit back above half strength, but it would be nice to give them some sort of combat capability as well. On to Unnamed Rules 2.0!

Hypothetical Hordes: Elfquest

A few months back, I wrote up a post exploring how one might put together some Hordes of the Things armies for Avatar: the Last Airbender. This time, I'll be looking at a different setting--the World of Two Moons, home of the Elfquest comic series.

(For background on Elfquest, here are the Wikipedia page and the TVTropes entry. Or you could read the comics themselves, which are freely (and legally!) available online. For purposes of today's discussion, I'll just be looking at the original series, though some of the later series would provide additional army possibilities. The story centers around the adventures of Cutter, chief of the Wolfriders, a tribe of elves who are forced to leave their forest home, and who encounter quite a number of other elves and other people along the way. Note that the elves of Elfquest differ significantly from the Tolkein-derived elves who inhabit a number of fantasy worlds: they tend to be somewhat slight of stature compared to humans, have pointy ears and four digits per hand, inhabit a wide range of biomes, not just forests. Some individuals exhibit a variety of psychic powers which border on magic, most notably telepathy, healing, occasional shapeshifting, and the ability to mold certain materials such as wood and stone. They are also aliens--their ancestors crashed on the World of Two Moons some millennia ago, where they were set upon by the natives of this world: humans.)

Anyway, on to the armies. Spoilers are entirely possible from here on out; you have been warned!

THE WOLFRIDERS
The protagonists of the story, the Wolfriders have one main problem from a Hordes of the Things standpoint--there aren't very many of them. As in, maybe a couple of dozen, max. So the ranks are going to have to stretch a little thin here. Fortunately, they have all these wolves handy, and despite the name, they're not just for riding, so we have some dismounted options as well. Possible troop types include:

• Heroes. Pretty much a must. Cutter should definitely be deployed as a Hero General, and it might be possible to throw in his buddy Skywise as a second Hero. (Basing them together would be a reasonable option too, if it weren't for the numbers problem.)
• A Cleric--namely Cutter's lifemate Leetah, who's a healer, and provides some magical defense at times. This will be handy from a balance standpoint as well, since Heroes can be kind of vulnerable to Magicians. She's actually from a different tribe, the Sun Folk, but we'll get to that in a minute.
• Shooters--Strongbow and maybe one or two other tribe members who demonstrate some missile capability. Probably no more than one stand of these. Everyone else is:
• Warband/Riders. Depending on whether they're riding their wolves or not. Probably two or three stands worth of these.
• Beasts--additional wolves without riders. Use these to fill out the remainder of the army.
• Lurkers--Having a cleric does cause one slight problem, in that the 3-point cost means you'll need another odd-numbered point cost to make up 24. In this case, I think the best option is some Preservers--tiny butterfly-winged humanoids (elvenoids?) who hang out in wooded areas and enjoy spitting preservative webbing on anything that sits still for too long. (While they can fly, I don't think they really have the endurance or the mass to be real Flyers, and besides, lurking suits their behavior much better anyway...)

Stronghold: The Holt--a grove of trees which have been shaped into dwelling places and protected by magically-enhanced thorns and such.

THE SUN FOLK

The first new group of elves encountered by the Wolfriders, the Sun Folk are dark-skinned, desert-dwelling farmers who have faced no outside threats in generations. While not really army material (many of them may not know which end of a sword to pick up) they are included here for completeness' sake. A few more adventurous examples may be found in other armies.

• Magicians, Heroes, and Clerics. Savah, the Mother of Memory, certainly has a great deal of power, though it's difficult to imagine her using it for offensive purposes. Like her student Leetah, she might be better classed as a Cleric. Her other student, Rayek, has the temperament to be a Magician, but perhaps not the level of power required--at least when we first encounter him. He might be better off as a Hero.
• Behemoth--the Sun Folk have a few tamed zwoots--big, bad-tempered semi-cameloid things, which sometimes carry a couple of riders. As possible Behemoths go, they're kind of on the small side, though.
• Hordes. As the most ineffectual foot unit, this is probably the best match for the majority of the Sun Folk.
• Wolfrider allies--any of the above listed. After some initial misunderstandings, the Wolfriders end up on pretty good terms with the Sun Folk, and would most likely come to their defense if the need arose.

Stronghold: Village of rounded pastel-colored adobe buildings. Sun Folk architecture seems to have taken the teapot as its model...

THE GLIDERS OF BLUE MOUNTAIN

These enigmatic and vaguely sinister elves live within a mountain--only a few ever venture into the outside world, borne on the backs of giant birds. A number of them can levitate or even fly using their innate powers as well, hence their name. They claim to be the true heirs to the original High Ones (the ancestral elves) and are about as close as Elfquest gets to the Vestigial Empire trope.

• Magician: Probably the Magician as far as Elfquest goes, we have one of the most famous villains of the series: Winnowill, who demonstrates a number of unpleasant uses for elf-magic, including some ranged psychic attacks. Though Lord Voll is nominally the leader in Blue Mountain, it's pretty much inevitable that Winnowill is going to be the general of any Glider army.
• Flyers--Elves mounted on giant birds. Ideally there would be exactly eight of them, as the Chosen Eight are Winnowill's primary minions and the ones with the greatest access to the outside world. (Clearly the success of this army will depend on its ability to roll well for PIPs, what with all the aerials and the magician...)
• Hordes--Human servants drawn from the Hoan G'Tay Sho tribe, who worship the Gliders.

Stronghold: Magically-operated door set into a mountainside.

THE GO-BACKS

The last group encountered by the Wolfriders, the Go-Backs inhabit the far north, where they are locked in an age-long war with Trolls over the Palace of the High Ones (the ship which brought them to this world.) Noted for their low levels of magic capability and higher birthrate. (For elves, anyway.) Troops include:

• Hero General--Kahvi, the chieftess of the Go-Backs.
• Knights/Riders. Mounted on elk or reindeer.
• Warbands. Go-Backs on foot.
• Blades & Wolfrider allies--during the final phase of the Troll War, precipitated by the arrival of the Wolfriders, the two tribes acquire plate armor and improved weaponry, which would justify them being classed as the generally superior Blades.

Stronghold: A sort of lodge, partly underground, partly constructed of wood. 

Besides the elves, there are two other groups to consider:

HUMANS

The setting of the original Elfquest series shows the human inhabitants of the World of Two Moons at a basically Neolithic level of technology. None of the tribes shown seem to have much by way of domestic animals, nor do they exhibit any of the elven magic or psychic abilities. Therefore, human armies would be pretty simple:

• Heroes--particular champions.
• Warbands--the bulk of the human forces.
• Shooters--one or two stands of humans with bows, slings, or javelins.

Stronghold: village of simple huts.

TROLLS

Squat, green-skinned, skilled at metal-working and preferring to live underground, the Trolls of Elfquest are more like orcs and dwarves of other settings than the usual fantasy troll. Along with the Preservers, their ancestors were brought to this world by the High Ones. Troll armies might include:

• Spears--well-trained guards of King Guttlecraw. Could potentially be Warbands or Blades as well, but Spears would offer some variety, and polearms of sorts do seem to be among the common Troll weapons.
• Shooters--Trolls with crossbows.
• Artillery--At one point a crew of trolls is shown operating something like a ballista.
• Sneaker--enslaved rockshaper and Troll handlers.
• Hordes--low-grade cannon-fodder Trolls.

Stronghold: Extensive network of caverns.

With that, I will end another look at "Hordes of the Things armies I will never build." If there are other fantasy settings you might be interested in seeing me cover at some point, let me know in the comments!

Back in Byz-ness

Way back in June I painted up a sample stand of Strelets medieval Russian cavalry as the first of a "Byzantine" army. Since then, Orion has released a couple of sets of Byzantine infantry, and I have bought some of said infantry. And now at last that first stand of Byzantines has some company:

The first new unit I completed was a second stand of the heavy cavalry. As mentioned, these guys are Strelets--specifically the standard-bearers from this set with the flag swapped for a lance made of brass wire, and a couple of archers mixed in. The kite shields on the lancers are another addition, from the Zvezda Russian foot. It's a good thing these guys are up on horses and not standing next to anyone else, because they're definitely typically Strelets, proportions-wise. (Especially compared to the infantry, their heads are massive--it's like a watermelon next to a grapefruit.)

Originals are on the right; new guys on the left.

Another angle.

Next up are some infantry. These guys are from the recently released Orion Byzantine Infantry (10-13th Century) set. (So recently released, in fact, that Plastic Soldier Review still hasn't reviewed them!) As with many Orion sets, these guys had a lot of flash on them. Some parts of the sprue get it worse than others--the archers, which will be showing up later in this post, were on the good end of things, but these spearmen took a fair bit of carving. Still, I think the results were satisfactory. The one odd thing about these guys is their foot gear--they appear to have some sort of lacing that goes up to the knees, which is molded on the figure but very difficult to paint as-is--the detail is just too fine. I ended up painting a sort of simplified pattern over it, but I can't decide whether the end result is more "argyle socks" or "fishnet stockings"...

Front view.

Back view, with another angle on those leggings.

After that, it's back to horsemen--light cavalry this time, armed with javelins or perhaps a sort of light lance. These are intended to be something like trapezitoi, but may be less than perfectly historical, since they're converted out of HaT El Cid Spanish. I did a little carving on these guys--the Spanish have these baggy trousers (or possibly ankle-length tunics) which I cut away in an attempt for a tighter-fitting look. I think I could have cut even a bit more, and I may try that with the next stand when I get around to them. A sort of light padded or leather armor has been painted on over the original tunics as well. Also, by this point you may have noted that I'm trying for a consistent color scheme for this army, and similar shield designs as well...

Finally, the archers--again from the Orion set, and actually much the same as the spearmen, right down to the argyle socks. These guys are still waiting to receive the full basing treatment...

All in all, this puts me almost halfway to a Hordes of the Things or DBA army. I'm currently hoping to have some version of the army ready by February, but we'll see how that goes...

Gloating and plotting--2013

While I don't hold much truck with New Year's resolutions in general, I'm always happy to talk about future projects. (After all, it's way easier to talk about things I'd like to paint than to actually paint all of them.) So in that spirit, I have a list of painting goals for the new year. (Goals might be too strong a word here--"intentions" might be a better choice, though of course the road to a mountain of unpainted miniatures is paved with such...)

But first, the gloating! In this case, just a quick tally of what I got done in 2012:

• In 20mm:
• 15 cavalry (an eclectic lot)
• 165 infantry (mostly orcs & Bronze Age)
• 7 chariots (mostly two-horse Mitanni & Assyrian types)
• 6 other figures (baggage train, odd fantasy creatures, etc.)
• In 40mm:
• 20 cavalry (11 hussars & 9 cuirassiers)
• 1 infantryman (new standard-bearer)

This probably glosses over a few other random bits and pieces of things done here and there, such as touch-up on a couple of NQSYW flags and artillerymen. Onto the plotting! These are things currently on the radar, which I'd like to get done in 2013:

• In 20mm:
• Hordes of the Things/DBA Byzantine army. I painted up a sample stand of lancers back in June, and nothing since then. In the meantime Orion has released two sets of Byzantine infantry, which I suppose goes to show the benefits of procrastination patience when it comes to building obscure armies in plastic. And since I preemptively spent some of my Christmas money on some of these infantry (as well as some Hat El Cid figures intended for light cavalry) this one is on the front burner at the moment.
• Further expansion of the Bronze Age project. I'd like to add to my current small contingent of Habiru, and I have some more "Phoenician" archers, Robin Hood conversions, and chariots in the queue as well. And since I'm currently planning to run a Bronze Age game at Cold Wars in March, hopefully I'll be able to make time for some of that before then.
• "With Fire And Sword"/17th century Poland and friends. I painted up several stands at the beginning of last year before getting distracted, and it's something I'd like to get back to at some point.
• In 40mm:
• Second squadron of Wachovian cuirassiers, plus flag and commander. This will probably wait until after Cold Wars unless we get a warm spell sometime in the next couple of months.
• Begin the Wachovian 2nd Infantry regiment. I have a company of grenadiers earmarked for these guys which has been sitting around for quite a while at this point, but if we get some casting done this summer, some regulars might not be out of the question either.)

And if there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that at some point I'll end up painting something not on this list. In fact, just the other day, I was considering how I might put together an Amazon army for 20mm Hordes of the Things...