What to do!?

Now that I've been in Cheltenham for nine months, I'm taking stock. I have found several games clubs, but they are either all sci-fi and fantasy, or miles away. And distance is a killer when you play with the size of 28mm armies that I like, as is the limited time available at club meetings hereabouts. Gaming is therefore limited to forays out to major events, or as a guest player with a couple of folks I know in Cirencester and Stroud. I haven't done the latter yet because I am still unsettled, renting while waiting for our new house to be finished.

So this is a good moment to think about where to go from here. I am still running the Dies Martis campaign remotely for the guys in Glasgow, but it is slowing down, which is inevitable given distance. My painting has slowed down too, not only because work is really heavy, but because I lack the stimulus of a regular gaming situation. I work best when I have some purpose for what I am painting at any one time. I am now thinking about what to do when I finish my current batch of Marian/Caesarean Romans in the next few months, roughly in time to move into the new place. I do have some 15mm stuff (1812 Russians and Sengoku Jidai Japanese), but I'd need to do a huge amount of work to add enough to those to get any sort of game. So I think I'll stick with the 28mm I really enjoy.

Here are the options:

1: Continue painting for Dies Martis, which means that I will need to choose which army to collect next. The Glasgow boys can usually cope, but they do seem to have problems putting certain games together. They struggle with the Parthians because although one of them has some, it's not enough for a full game - I used to supply the other half. I could remedy this situation by going for it properly. It would then be a case of collecting their opponents beyond that - Indian, perhaps, and Ptolemaic Egyptian. Other options would be the European tribals, probably starting with the Germans.

2: Accept that I am not going to get any regular gaming done, and instead try to reduce the lead mountain. I have two partial armies sitting there: Alexandrian Macedonian and Camillan Roman. If I do those, I will coincidentally have two of the main players for an Empire Campaign of my own. This would mean abandoning Dies Martis at my end, apart from acting as an electronic umpire.

3: Start my long-dormant Greyhawk Wars campaign for solo play, or perhaps occasionally at a club. This is completely mental, as we say where I come from. A long time ago I ran a campaign based on the original Greyhawk Wars boardgame because it allowed me to use my secret stash of fantasy figures as well as my historicals - the idea was that most of the human states were based on historical analogues, exactly like Tony Bath's Hyboria. In other words, a sort of Imagi-Nations setup. I'd like to pick up where the Greyhawk Wars left off, with a resurgent Undead Great Kingdom ruled by Ivid the Insane. I already know which figures to buy (skeletal Roman legions) and who would be their first target - Elves and friends, most of which I already have. If I were to do this I'd paint armies on a rolling basis depending on what is needed, which would include historicals.

So - any comments? Inspiration would be very welcome...