2024: The Year of Leviathan

Hi!

Well here we are in 2024, the 16th year I've been blogging which is totally mental! 

Over the last decade and a half I've picked up and put down many different projects but one has kept being worked towards before failing miserably and stalling again and that project is Leviathan.

Its a game that is almost like the holy grail of my hobby as I've worked at it on and off for the entire time I've been blogging, even with my Leviathan blog being my first real delve into sharing my thoughts over the interwebs. This largely forgotten and niche game with its lumpen resin sculpts and incomplete rules keeps drawing me back in and I think I want to actually do something about it.

Now Leviathan is stated to be a mass battle game but one needs a 8'x4' board to play it and large armies of infantry, cavalry, warengines and mighty monsters to play it. None of which I currently have. This got me to thinking that could I approach a Leviathan project in a different way? 

Instead of using the rules and all the massive miniatures could I use another, simpler and quicker ruleset for the mechanics and use the frankly brilliant setting to play out games in a quicker and less complex manner?

The answer is that yes I think I can! I've got a massive stack of rulebooks for fantasy and science fiction gaming and I'm almost positive that I'll be able to make use of at least one of them for a good basis for my obsessive quest.

The next thing I'll need to think about is what scale of figures do I want to use? I've played games set in Aeroth , the post apocalyptic world of Leviathan in everything from 28mm to 2mm so I'm spoiled for choice but I think I'm kind of settled on using one of three different levels of conflict:

Mass Battle 2mm 

Using my 2mm stuff and Land Ironclad rules its a cinch to play out massive battles featuring wartowers, engines of destruction and all manner of other exciting stuff that I expect in a massive wargame and should be fairly easy to put together both cheaply and relatively quickly.

Large Warband 15mm/28mm

I'm still swithering about what scale to go for in the warband level games as 15mm is cheaper but there is something awesome about seeing a 28mm scale warband on the table and by using Dragon Rampant or No Quarter I think I could put together an army in about six months so I'd have two over the course of the year and if I rotate through forces, I'd have two small armies to play by summer time.

Small Skirmish 28mm

For small warbands of 5-10 figures a side, I plan on using Brutal Quest as it is such a great rulebook and I think that if I use 28mm figures for the Large Warband option, I'll be able to use figures for both projects. It would be a fairly straight forward process to put together two warbands and game out all manner of interesting scenarios as I go.

We shall see how things develop going forward as I am more than aware that each time I've tried it, my Leviathan project has rapidly gone pear shaped and been derailed by other projects but surely this year will see me make a go if it!

I think the first thing I need to do is to look at what I've got squirrelled away and then set out a budget, timeframe and whatnot to see what I can come up with and post up here with the final(ish) decision before moving onto the project itself.

No doubt I'll be tempted by other projects as the year progresses but I think that if I can set myself with an achievable challenge and work towards actually getting the Leviathan obsession onto the gaming table, I'll be doing well.

In the meantime, All the best!