As you can notice, I spent some time last night going back to a simplified template for Blogger. I still have some work I need to continue on it today/tomorrow. One reaon going back to simplified was the Blogger app for iPad. Now when I use the app to write a post, my fonts will match the template. With my advanced template I was running, the Blogger app would publish my posts in a large font and not match my site.
Today is the day we try and make a plan for our hobbying/gaming for the upcoming year. I hope you read yesterday's post on what was and was not accomplished for 2014 and we will be expanding on that.
First off I'd like to say again that 2014 was a good year for me in regards to hobbying/gaming. I picked up the paint brush again after a long hiatus and finished quite a few armies for Bolt Action and had my second highest 'Painting Points' total ever. On a personal note, the end of 2014 was not too good to me. The Monday before Thanksgiving my Father past away after being on this earth for 79 years. It was all of a sudden and we were not expecting it. Your life changes after something like that and we had to make arrangements to send him back to Chicago and for my family to all go back there. Now a lot of my time is going to be helping my Mother out to make sure she can continue with the finances and what not.
Bolt Action
On that note we are going to be starting with Bolt Action. With 'Gathering in the Desert' not happening this year, I was going to be organizing a 1 day tournament for Bolt Action, 'Operation Desert Assault' on April 18th, 2015 (www.operationdesertassault.com), but with the circumstances mentioned above, I had to cancel/postpone the event. I am unsure exactly what our family situation will be at that time and I may have to devote some finances to my Mother. I am hoping to maybe just postpone the event to maybe late August or early September.
Gaming: Bolt Action will more than likely be a top 2 game for me this year. With 3 fully painted armies, ease of rules, I definitely see this game hitting the table a lot this year, either in the smaller 600 point games, larger 1000 point games or even Tank Wars.
Modeling: This will be a tough one, I do not want to get my hopes up to high for the year. I still have planty of models for the game that need to be painted for the three armies I have. I think to be safe to say, I will concentrate on those models before I venture off on any new armies (but we never know).
X-Wing
Gaming: In 2014 I was really amazed on how much I really like this game. 100 points in 75 minutes with quick setup and pack up. I have a feeling this will be my number 1 played game for the year. I am even going to try to attend some of the local tournaments / store championships with a 'lets have fun' attitude and get some more games in. I along with my son recently joined the 'Phoenix Squadron' gaming club on Facebook to be more in touch with X-Wing events here in Phoenix. I am hoping to get more games in with the members this year. With the new Star Wars movie coming out in December, I can see a late push in the year getting more games in.
Collecting: Well there is not much modeling in this game (I am not one to paint the already pre-painted models). So we make this paragraph about Collecting. My goal for the year will be to have all the ships in the collection as they are released. We are pretty close to it at this point except for the 'huge ships'. We'll be sure to add those also to our collection even though they may not see much playing time. Obviously some of the ships we collect, we will have mulitples. I am also going to get caught up on the 'Battlefoam' that we need for our ships. I still need foam for Wave IV and Wave V and maybe a dedicated abag (currently we share the same bag for Bolt Action), this one I am unsure about and it will soley depend on the finances.
Dungeons & Dragons
Gaming: Back in August my family got into D&D 5E and I am really enjoying it. We meet every Sunday (when we can) at Desert Sky Games from 12pm-2pm (we actually also played today to make up some time from the Holidays). We currently playing the first adventure "Horde of the Dragon Queen" and I hope we finish that one shortly and continue on to the second adventure "The Rise of Tiamat". We will see what other adventures it brings us afterwards. I think for 2015 we will stick to just one RPG game, with everything else I have, there is not time to expand into any of the others. I even went out and purchased a new iPad Air just for this game (so I can have a larger viewing character sheet over my iPad Mini).
Collecting: Even though they do have models you can use for D&D, we currently do not need them for our adventures and I do no expect to be purchasing any. Even though Wizkids did just release D&D Attack Wing which is very similiar to X-Wing.... OK, let's not go there.....
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
Gaming: With the recent end of the year sale at our LGS Empire Games, my son and I decided to pick the core set for this game and the first 2 adventure packs. I know this game is a 'living card game' and can get quite expensive to keep up with it. All we have done so far was the get the card in their sleeves and start reading the rulebook. We are planning to start our adventures tomorrow January 2nd. We were debating between LotR and Star Wars, but with us already playing X-Wing and with the final release of the Hobbit movie recently, we elected to go with LotR. Stay tuned to this site to follow our adventures while we learn the game.
Collecting: OH BOY!!!! as long as we really enjoy this game, I can see us going back and catching up on all the expansion and adventure packs....
Now I am going to talk about some of our other games that we have previously played and may or may not make a comeback. I know my son is going to be reading this, so these are a very slim chance and don't get your hopes up to high.
Warhammer 40K
Gaming: I still have some armies left for this game (I did not sell them all). I know I do not have the current ruleset (I don't think I even had the previous edition rules). I would need to evaluate the cost of purchasing a rulebook to how much we would actually play before I make the leap and get a game in.
Modeling; I do not plan on any modeling at the moment. I think I have still have at least 2000 points of Chaos Space Marines that need assembling and painting let alone quite a few models for my son.
So there is a very slim chance in getting back into Warhammer 40k. On a scale of 1-10, I would rank it a 3.
Warhammer Fantasy Battles
Gaming: Even though I spent a little money and time getting some of my models out last year, I honestly do not see this game hitting the table in 2015. I think Kings of War would stand a better chance. Rank 1.
Modeling: I do not see this happening in 2015, my son may be disappointed at this decision since we were thinking about updateing his Wood Elves last year.
Warmachine
Gaming: I don't think I played a game of Warmachine since 2011 (maybe got a game in 2012, not sure). I believe my rulebooks are still current and we do have quite a few fully painted armies. I can maybe see getting in at least 1 or 2 games this year....anymore than that wil depend if the bug to replay bites. Rank 3.
Modeling: I have a Khador unit that needs to be finished. Probably will not happen unless I really feel like painting.
Flames of War
Gaming: There may be a chance for a game or two, but no plans at the moment. Rank 2.
Modeing: This may happen only because I would use the tanks in Bolt Action Tank Wars.
Legends of the Old West
Gaming: If not Legends of the Old West (since Warhammer Historicals no longer exists) maybe another Old West skirmish game that may be out there. Rank 2.
Modeling: I have plenty of model and terrain for Old West that still needs to be painted. Slim but a possibility.
Onto some possible new games in 2015.
Kings of War
Gaming: Since I do not own any specific Kings of War armies (unless I can utilize some of my WFB armies) this is another slim chance unless the Fantasy bug decides to bite me this year. Rank 2.
Modeling: Not in the foreseeable future, but the models are not too expensive.
Beyond the Gates of Antares
Gaming: This is a new Science Fiction game from Warlord Games that is based off of Bolt Action and written by Rick Priestly. I also love Sci-Fi as much as Fantasy. If I decide the pricing to get back into Warhammer 40K is too much, I may have to dive into this game. Currently the rules are in Beta and are availble for free to download. I'll have to spend some time in the very near future and give them a read thru to see how much I like the game. Knowing the rules for Bolt Action, I should be able to easily understand them. Rank 7.
Modeling: They have just recently released some models for the game. I have yet to see any up in person. If I like the rules, I may order some to take a look at them.
Ok, I think I am now starting to stretch myself thin again. Besidies gaming, my family and I have plenty of other hobbies. We as a whole family love to go to the gun range (so ammo takes money), plus my youngest son just recently got into model rocketry, so I am spending time with him going to club launches. Plus I used to race RC cars and Slot Cars and haven't touched those much last year either. Then there is the personal fitness. In the Summer I started my diet again and picked up road cycling. So I have been trying to ride as much as I can each week also. It has been very busy.
I have also been thinking about consolidating/adding some of my other hobbies into this site (the model rocketry) and including D&D and LotR; The Card Game and others. The name will still be The Old West Chronicle, but instead of 'Wargaming Out West' maybe 'Gaming Out West' or 'Hobby Life Out West'. Making the blog more of an everyday blog instead of just a wargaming blog. I am still undecided on this one.
I believe that is all for now.... time to start hitting the gaming tables for the year.
