December 31, 2022

2022 Year in Review

Well it is New Year's Eve, December 31st 2022, and you know what that means.  It is my annual "2022 Year in Review"

As I do each year, 2022 started with a "What's in store for 2022!" so we will use that post as a basis for our year in review.


Middle-earth SBG

Painting Goal:  This one is hard to say, as stated above, if we play in the Doubles, I'll have to finish an army in time.

Gaming Goal:  Also as above, a few games of practice will be needed, in either case, I think maybe I can get in 1-2 games in for the year.

Well MeSBG had a small chance this year, and I failed to live up to that little bit.  The urge to play would come and go, and I even painted a few models to prepare for AdeptiCon 2023 just in case.  With a goal of 1-2 games, 0 games were played.

Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 will be the bulk of 2022 for me.  Between adding on more Units to my new Necron army, and new Codex's coming out for armies I already have to attending tournaments, all my time will be mainly spent here.

Painting Goal: In all honestly, I think for the first time I do not have a painting goal.  I would have said my Necron army, but this past Fall I managed to paint over 2000 Points of Necrons, so 2022 will be adding to that army.  I also have a Chaos Space Marines, and a Tyranid army on the back burner that are waiting for a new Codex, so we shall see who gets a Codex first and that army probably will hit the painting table next.

Gaming Goal: Last year I had a goal of 24 games and I hit it with 29 games played and I think 24 games will be another realist goal to hit.  I do think that with events somewhat opening back up, this number should be easily attained.

I cannot believe what a FLOP! I had with Warhammer 40,000 this past year.  W40K was going to be my bread and butter game for 2022 and half way through the first month of January things really turned around.  I did attend the Las Vegas Open 2022 and played the first day of the 'Warhammer 40,00 Friendly' with the second day shopping and enjoying myself at the bar.

A few more of my Necron models did get completed, but with a gaming goal of 24 games, I only managed to play 5 games in 2022 (and 2 of them were in Vegas).

X-Wing

X-Wing is a great game that can be played in 75 minutes, so it always seems to make the list for the New Year.

Painting Goal: Not Applicable (pre-painted miniatures)

Gaming Goal: I had a goal of 6 games for 2021 and I fell way short with only 1 game played.  An updated version (v2.5) will be coming out early 2022 so I know we will play a few games to try out the updated rules.  So for 2022, I think I will set my goal to 5 games.

As with the three games above, X-Wing was another FLOP! for me.  We did not try the new v2.5 rule set, nor reached my goal of 5 games played, kind of hard to do when 0 games were played.  I have a feeling in 2023 this game will finally be officially shelved/boxed for me.

Events

COVID has really messed up 2020 and most of 2021 for attending events, 2022 has more events scheduled but there seems to always be a new variant coming out, so events are always risky at the moment.

We do have quite a few events planned out so far for 2022:

  • January 28th - 30th: Las Vegas Open
  • March 23rd - 27th: AdeptiCon
  • May 13th-15th: Motor City Mayhem
  • August 7th - 14th: Cruisehammer
  • September 30th - October 2nd: Michigan GT 
If we can make those 5 events, it will be a good year.

Some of the events above we did attend (LVO, AdeptiCon) and some we did not (MCM, Cruisehammer, MiGT) but we added a few other events for the year.  One of the biggest add-on's for the year was the Atlantic City Open (ACO) and I had a really good time there.  We had a few more planned for the Fall, but personal reasons kept us from attending.

New Games for 2022?

NONE....  I have too many games already sitting on the shelf.  Warhammer Age of Sigmar did not make the above list and we do have plenty of models for the game now, so if its played, as originally stated way above, it will be a plus.

Okay, here are where things took a change and I believe for the better.  Back on January 24th of 2022 in my "Weekly Chronicle #4" I talk about the game Marvel Crisis Protocol (MCP) and how it has started to interest me after attending Universal Studios Florida.  That happened to be the week before Las Vegas Open 2022.  While at LVO, there were some vendors selling MCP at a really good price so a lot of models were purchased, followed by vendors at AdeptiCon and so on and next thing you know we have almost every model in the range including two copies of the Core Set.

I have always liked games that are quick to play, and MCP is that game (plus the added benefit of Marvel Super Heroes).  Between setup, playing, and clean up, you can be done in 2 hours.  Each game is 90 minutes (and we play on a clock) and there have even been days where we would get a back to back game in.

So as you can see in the original games above, of the three games, only 5 games were played in total, that is because I had played 62 games of Marvel Crisis Protocol this past year and I do not see it letting up anytime soon.

Another game we picked up in 2022 was Star Wars Legion, we have been going back and forth about this game for awhile and finally picked up some models.  We were going to be playing in a Narrative game at LVO 2023 (but that is not going to be happening now) but I did manage to paint up a 800 point force.  We also played 5 games this year and then it kind of sizzled again due to MCP.  Not sure what will happen in 2023 for this game with talks of a new Star Wars game coming from AMG similar to MCP.

Come back tomorrow for "What's in Store for 2023!"

December 18, 2022

MCP: Carnage (Cletus Kasady)

More than likely, this will be the last model to be completed for 2022, and it was the most intimidating model as of lately.

I have been slowly working on completing our "Spider Foes" Affiliation in anticipation of 'Rhino' arriving next month and I was down to the final two models, and one of them 'Carnage' is now completed.

Carnage (Cletus Kasady)

Carnage (Cletus Kasady)

Painting Points: 5

December 9, 2022

MCP: M.O.D.O.K. (George Tarleton)

We originally only purchased M.O.D.O.K. for the Crisis Card that comes in his character pack, so he has been on the shelf for awhile.

Well this has been the week that I was slowly working on some back log, and painting him came to mind.  Usually a model sits on the shelf (unless it is a rush need) until I think of a way on how I want to paint the model (quickly but tabletop quality) and with M.O.D.O.K. it came to me the other day, so yesterday he hit the painting table.

M.O.D.O.K. (George Tarleton)

M.O.D.O.K. (George Tarleton)

Painting Points: 5

December 8, 2022

MCP: Omega Red (Arkady Gregorivich Rossovich)

Currently there is not a model that I "need" to get completed, so I am just slowly working on our backlog of Marvel Crisis Protocol models.

This is another model that has been sitting around for awhile that we actually have not used yet, but you never know, one day I may want to play Criminal Syndicate or Cabal and throw this model into my roster.

Here is 'Omega Red':

Omega Red (Arkady Gregorivich Rossovich)

Omega Red (Arkady Gregorivich Rossovich)

Painting Points: 5

December 6, 2022

MCP: Kraven (Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff)

This is now back to back posts on Spider Foes with 'Lizard' being done yesterday and now 'Kraven' today.

The other day, Atomic Mass Games (AMG) revealed a new model coming out in January 2023, and it is 'Rhino' and it is more than likely he will be part of the Spider Foes.  I really like the look of this model and I am excited for it, hence the reason to try and get more of our Spider Foes completed.

Here is a look at the new 'Rhino' model from AMG.


Back to this original post and 'Kraven'.

Kraven (Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff)

Kraven (Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff)

Painting Points: 2

December 5, 2022

MCP: Lizard (Curtis Connors)

While my son was away on Saturday playing in a MeSBG tournament, I decided to sit down and get some painting down.  I still have a pretty large back log of MCP models, so it was a perfect day to catch up.

I really do not like painting white, but I am getting better at it, so 'Lizard' has been sitting for awhile because of this, but I decided to go ahead and tackle his lab coat.  Using the "Grey Seer" primer from Games Workshops has helped a lot, it is such a light colored primer, that thin coats of White go on really nicely over it, only downside is the price of that primer.

Here is Lizard (Curtis Connors):

Lizard (Curtis Connors)

Lizard (Curtis Connors)

Painting Points: 5