A planning dilemma and a Challenge

Ok, lets start with the Challenge. This weekend Curt from Analogue Hobbies officially announced the fourth instalment of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. As already indicated, I am in. Now the great thing about this years instalment is that we will be allowed SciFi and Fantasy minis as well. I guess I will have no need for the later, but the former will allow me to paint some of my Warzone minis and spread the Tau for Warhammer out a little more. I feel this might be needed. After painting the Pathfinders last week (pictures before the weekend) I realised that the topic of Warhammer does not interest me enough to paint them all in one go.

The other great thing is that there will be some milestones along the way. Essentially if you complete a certain theme by a deadline you will be able to score some extra points. They all seem very sensible, but the first one is giving me some headaches. It is non-combatants and shall be completed by December 22nd. Given that the Challenge starts on December 15th and that I will be off to my better halfs relatives by December 20th this will be tough. Well I could do a single mini, but I am thinking a battery area base for my Napoleonics, which will be a huge undertaking. All in all I am really looking forward to this one. This should allow me to hit the ground (= start the new year) running.

But now on to the dilemma. For me Crisis in Antwerp is the convention of the year where I always try to do a participation game. As I have indicated time and time again, I always try to do something that matches a historical anniversary. Like this years Möckern / Leipzig game for this years show. Now what surprised me, is that I seemed to be the only one doing so at this years show and it got me wondering, if I am overdoing it?
The other thing is, 2015 will mean the bicentennial of The Hundred Days, but right now I am more in a mood to paint Napoleonic Russians than more Prussians, British, Dutch-Belgians, Nassauers, Hannoveranians and so on. So I am really contemplating if a less grand anniversary, like the 70th anniversary of the Battle for Berlin would be a more sensible goal.

Mercer´s Battery
(Series 3, Waterloo Collection)
© http://www.waterloo-collection.com/

This is even more so due to the time restrictions. I mean painting Napoleonic armies takes a lot of time (at least for me). I saw that with this years game. Even though I reserved more than two years for the preparations, time still ran away in the end. If it had not, I think I could have spend more time on the terrain and could thus have created a visually more pleasing game. So I am wondering, if it would not be better, to build up some sensible sized Napoleonic forces over the next decade, before tackling something like The Hundred Days? And if it would not be better to concentrate on an era for which I already have enough troops, like the Second World War?

Tiger 100 at Potsdamer Bahnhof

So what is your take on these things? Do you care if a game falls on a big, a minor or no anniversary at all?
Do you think I should ignore The Hundred Days and rather go for Berlin?

Any comments are welcome!