Enfilade 2026 is just a a few weeks away. Games are scheduled. Duties are assigned, mine included. The convention never ceases to stress me out. I had a number of text messages, voice mails and phone calls left unanswered while I was on vacation–on a cruise ship (the quality of sea-borne internet has indeed improved.) I think part of it is because I feel responsible. Nobody wants to be the director who screws something up. I also know this is my last Enfilade as director. And yes, I mean that absolutely, positively. I’m confident that my successors will try hard, learn how to do it, and will be just as attentive. I wish them the best.

I’ve given myself fewer things to do. I am running three games, but beyond that I’m going to do my best to relax and take it all in. If I can sneak into Gerrit Swaneveld’s Sack of Troy game or Steve Rees’ Maxmillian race game, I may partake. But I may just put myself on call and relax, we’ll see. In any case I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and the awesome games they’ll host.

As I wrote in my last post, my life doesn’t begin and end with Enfilade–though it often shapes what I do. I’m hoping I can take the approach the next year differently. Rather than create a whole new project requiring a lot of new buying, building and painting, I’m hoping I can happily paint away and a project will take shape.

At the present time, with my Enfilade work happily complete and in the can, I’m following a pattern I hope to keep up throughout the summer. I’m painting units for my two AWI projects–the skirmishy Take Action rules and Regimental Fire and Fury–and I’m working on my LOTR plastics. I’ve been able to complete all my Hessian figures-which is equal to five 12 figure units for Take Action. I’ve finished two of the GW plastic Isengard orc units.

I also want to be sure to do at least one ship per month. In March I complete six of the Fletcher class destroyers Mark Waddington printed for me. This month I finished the other nine. So that’s done and off my work table of doom. I think May I’ll take on a couple of the David Sullivan leftover Thoroughbred river boats.

Looking ahead, my mind is being shaped by a recent conversation with my friend Chris Leach in White Rock. Chris was a guest on the Tanks and Tomahawks podcast. We were discussing skirmish games and massed battle games, and I pointed out that while he does almost exclusively massed battle games, I do almost entirely single figure skirmishy games. In reflection, I thought that was weird. In 2010 I wrote the an article for the much loved but now-departed Citadel called “What’s Up With Single Figure Gaming?” I followed that up with a blog entry from my much missed Blogger site on the same topic. At the time I didn’t question but did express wonder at the explosion of single figure games. I guess that 16 years ago I wasn’t doing as much, but certainly some. That was high water for the Martians, exploring Lewis and Clark and trying to figure out what to do about the Hundred Years War. But today, I can truly say I do very little in the way of massed battle gaming.

But I have all these piles of figures, especially unpainted ones, that need something besides a skirmish scale set of rules. So let me say here and now that I have a plan, sort of, kinda. These will be my massed battle projects. Now, stop rolling your eyes and shaking your head. I see you out there!!!!!

1. AWI–Fire and Fury. This is a no brainer. In fact I’ve already started. I have no idea how many unpainted AWI figures I have, but it’s some where between a buttload and a shitpile. I have unpainted Old Glory figures, Front Rank figures and Perry figures. I’ve even ordered more. (What a dope!) Some of these will be representative units for Take Action. But others will be devoted to doing those Nathaniel Greene battles I keep blathering about. I’ve got the figures. I’ve got rules. This is an easy choice that has already been made.
2. The Hundred Years War– a project in search of rules. I have a lot of painted Hundred Years War figures mounted for Lion Rampant or even the pre-gunpowder version of Take Action. I may even have too many. There is no reason not to do massed battle armies for this period. I don’t know if I have quite enough figures to pull this off? I really am not sure about rules. Not only do I have a fair number of metal figures for the period, I also have four boxes of Perry Plastic figures. I know there are rules out there-Control to Catastrophe covers the period, but I don’t know if I want to do a gridded mat for 28mm figures. That sounds spendy and the matt would likely have to be much larger than any table I could use. 2012 or so I started working with Daveshoe on an adaptation of Fire and Fury to the Hundred Years War. For Dave it was kind of an eye-roller, but we walked through a playtest at Game Matrix back in the good old days. I love the command rolls and think there could be something there. I’ve begun having conversations with Co-Pilot. I’ll keep you posted.
3. The Peloponnesian War–this is a looking ahead last project idea. This is something I’d do in 15mm. That’s saying something. I haven’t painted 15’s in a very long time. I’m thinking I’d start with some Xyston DBA armies, get some use out of them, and they’ll be a basis for an Athenian and Spartan Control to Catastrophe armies. I don’t mind the gridded mat for this scale. It will not have to be large and would be more affordable. I don’t expect I’d spend a penny on this until September.

It will be interesting to see how long I can say “This is it!!!!” But for right now this is making sense to me. There will be updates and pictures