December 21, 2016

2016 Year in Review

Once again it is that time of the year where us blogger's get to recap what we did or did not accomplish for the year. I actually kind of enjoy writing these posts along with the first post of the new year for my goals.

2016 started with a "What's in store for 2016" so we will use that post as basis for our year in review.

Bolt Action
2016
Painting Goal: None at the moment.
Gaming Goal: Play at least 1 game.

I accomplished my painting goal for Bolt Action. Nothing was added to any of our armies. But things are changing for that. Two weeks ago I got the bug to get back into Bolt Action. So armies were shipped from Arizona and a new Great Britain army was ordered from Warlord Games, so look for more Bolt Action news in 2017.

My gaming goal was not accomplished, I had thought maybe I woud get in 1 game, but that did not happen.

Dugeons & Dragons (Roleplaying)
2016
Roleplaying games take a lot of commitment on a weekly basis. I honestly do not see myself getting involved with another group unless it is planned to be a short session.

I had no plans to continue playing D&D in 2016, and those plans were met.

Warhammer 40K
2016
No plans at all for completing any more armies, the prices from GW are too ridiculous for me.

Painting Goal: None at the moment.
Gaming Goal: I can see myself possibly getting in a few games.

There was no painting done on my Warhammer 40K armies nor any games played.

Warmachine/Hordes
2016

Now this is the one that I see will take up most of my time in 2016. If the year continues as it ended in 2015, it should be a good year. The big question is hopefully my son will not get burnt out on Warmachine/Hordes. As long as he stays interested, I see myself staying interested. As I mentioned the other day, I love the sculpts from Privateer Press. So even if the gaming is down for the year, the plan will still to be to collect and paint.

Painting Goal: Tough to say. I use a Painting Points system each year to track my painting progress. Not sure if I will put a number for a goal, but maybe a collection of armies. I am in the middle of painting my Gatorman Army, after the Gatorman are completed to at least 50 points, I will probably move onto my Trollbloods or continue on my Khador. My Khador Army for Warmachine is "my" army. That is the army that will be played most and I would like to try and collect all the models for Khador. So that will be my goal, to at least own every Khador model. Getting them painted will be a different story. Any 'new' armies for Warmachine/Hordes, unsure at the moment.
Gaming Goal: I would love to say 52 games (average 1/week, which may be doable) but let's be realistic. Let's shoot for half that. 26 Warmachine/Hordes games played for 2016.

2016 was actually not a bad year for Warmachine/Hordes (at least the first 7 months). I did get quite a bit painted more for Khador army. I completed my Gatormen army, and I also was working on my Trollbloods army. Gaming on the other hand I fell 2 games short of my goal, I played 24 games of WM/H's. If I did not move to Michigan at the end of September, I know I would have gotten in a few more games with my son.

X-Wing
2016
I really want to get back involved with this game, realistically if I concentrate as much time as I have planned for WM/H, it may be unlikely, especially since we are ow behind on quite a few of the Wave releases. Plus the game has always been a 'meta' game with the latest releases.

Painting Goal: Not applicable.
Gaming Goal: I am going to shoot for at least 5 games played of X-Wing.

Nothing was accomplished for X-Wing in 2016, and I do not see myself buying any X-Wing models for myself in 2017. My son and I shared our models, so I will not have him ship me anything either. So it looks like X-Wing will be a done game for me...."looks" is the key term, but you never know.

Events/Conventions
2016
This is a new topic for 2016. I always enjoy attending conventions, more for the comraderie with other players than 'winning' a tournament. When I lived in Chicago, it was always AdeptiCon each year. Living in Arizona, attending AdeptiCon gets a little costly. We already have 2 events planned for 2016. Las Vegas Open in February, PP Lock & Load in June, and I am going to look for one possibly in the Fall (maybe Warmachine Weekend).

Well my son and I did attend the LVO back in February and drove out to Seattle in June for PP Lock & Load. I really enjoyed myself at these conventions and that is where I got most of my games in the year. I did not attend anything in the Fall with my move taking up all my time.

Stay tuned for my 2017 goals posts and what events/conventions are planned for the new year.

To anyone reading this, have a Happy Holiday!

December 20, 2016

Daily Chronicle: Shaking Off The Dust (Again)

Yea I know, I am always shaking of the dust. I go in spurts when it comes to wargaming. I enjoy so many hobbies, but can usually only concentrate on one at a time. Now that I back up North in the frozen tundra, the winter months keeps me from cycling outdoors, so it's time to get back to an indoor hobby.

A good part of my hiatus has been my move from Arizona to Michigan. After I came back from Lock & Load in June, the wife and I really started to look for house back in Michigan (with the original plan being we rent to my wife's sister for 2 years before we move up). Well plans change and the end of September had me loading up the moving truck. Unfortunately the truck was so full, that all my wargaming models/supplies had to stay behind at my mom's house with my oldest son.

The past 2 months here in Michigan kept me busy painting... that is painting bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathrooms. Now that I am 95% done with that, it's a little boring up here by myself (wife and youngest son do not come up till May 2017) so I need to keep myself busy.

2016 was suppose to be the year of Warmachine/Hordes for me, and it truly was through June. For some reason last week the itch to play Bolt Action started coming back to me. I think part of the reason is that where I am located in Michigan, there is not much miniature wargaming, everything is about 50 mile drive. In Chicago (100 miles) I still have plenty of friends that play Bolt Action (and none of them play WM/H), so when I go to Chicago to visit, I can always get in a game of BA. I also found some Facebook groups that support Bolt Action around here (Michiana Bolt Action and Bolt Action Michigan).

Now is actually a pretty good time also for me to get back into BA, back in September, Warlord Games released Version 2 of the rulebook so most players are still getting a feel of the new rules. So I ordered my V2 book last week and I am now starting to go through it and see what has changed since V1.

But where are my models..... Back in Arizona....so I had my son this past weekend go through the garage and start packing up my models/armies and prepare them for shipping (he will be keeping his US Army with him, but is shipping my Soviets and Germans). Unfortunately during my move, I did not keep any of my paints I used for BA (just my WM/H paints), so I will have to put together an order for those. But at least I'll have my existing armies to try and get a few games in. I'll be luck to get in a game once a month, but thats not too bad and it'll give me time to paint new armies.

Thats all for now, we'll go into a little bit more detail when I write up my post for my plans for 2017.