Happy new year to all of you of the Gregorian Calendar
persuasion. 2013 was a fairly busy and productive year. Looking back at My
Plan for 2013 I can say I did pretty good at sticking to it and
accomplishing what I set out to do…
GAMES PLAYED
Looking at my BGG
stats I played a few games… but I feel like I didn’t play as much as
I might have liked… We seem to
have played a lot more board games this past year. Drakon and Munchkin were the
big hits. We apparently played eighteen games of each (8x Super Munchkin, 5x
Munchkin Conan, 3x Munchkin Cthulhu, 1x Munchkin – the original fantasy one,
and 1x Star Munchkin – which we just got for Xmas).
We also played a few games of
Cave Troll (five actually) and three games each of T-Rex, Xig, and King of
Tokyo. We also just got King of Tokyo for Xmas from Other Tim and it looks like
it’s going to be a big hit. All three games of T-Rex and Xig were both played
within a week – we figured them out, played a few games, haven’t played them
since…. Ah well.. I think I got both of them for $5.
We also got in one game of
Apples to Apples and a game of Axis &Allies 1942. WE played the A&A
with four players and it was the first BIG board game that the boy has played…
took all afternoon… he got a little distracted by the little toys and would
play with them when it wasn’t his turn… but he’s nine… so…
We tried playing Wizardology
once… the kids really want to try and play it again… but I think it would
actually take FOREVER to play a game to completion – and it was far too…
random…?
We really didn’t do a whole lot
of role-playing all year… and not much more skirmish gaming. There were a
number of reasons for this. One of the largest reasons was the fact that our
house has been in a state of utter chaos since July with all the renovations
going on. According to those BGG stats it looks like I only got in about FIVE
GAMES of Savage Worlds… I must have entering a few games… I’m sure I played at
least one or two more… but still – it wasn’t vary much at all. Hopefully that
will be rectified this year with the new game I am running on Friday evenings
for the kids and Christian and his daughters. Maybe the Saturday night crew
will get back to some role-playing as well.
I did get in a few miniature skirmish games, but, again, not
as much as I might have liked – or have in the past… Twelve games of Ambush
Z, ten games of Force on Force, and four games of Bolt Action– most of which were in the first half of
the year. I have gotten in seven games of Ronin
– Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai in the last month or
so, and that seems to be what’s firing me up at the moment.
I played a few games of Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe with John
Bertolini – which was a lot of fun. I hope I’ll get in some more games of that
this year.
I also got in ONE GAME of Hordes
of the Things… I can’t even remember when that would have been!? There doesn’t
seem to be an AAR on the blog… I suppose I could look it up on BGG to find out,
but I’m not all that concerned. It was probably just a pick up game with the
kids one afternoon when we didn’t have anything else to do and I just didn’t
take any pics (or the camera battery was dead…?)
I did run big game for the
Wargaming Birthday Bash - Top
Malo House - and I did get in a game of Bolt
Action the day before… which almost made a weekend of games… almost…
I also ran a few games at ToonCon
2013. I ran Ambush
Z on Friday night, Force
on Force Saturday night, and helped John Bertolini run a game of Wargaming
Nineteenth Century Europe on Saturday Afternoon. It was a lot of fun,
if a bit tiring – I’ll definitely do it again this year.
PAINTING MINIATURES
Mainly I planned to finish painting
my modern 28mm stuff – which I’ve pretty much managed to do… (see the 28mm Modern
Military Gallery). The only thing I really have left to do in the
modern collection is a few vehicles (M1, Marders, Leopard 2s, Hinds and
Hummers) and some of the modern British SAS and Marines. I never did pick up
the AAVP-7s I’d planned to get for the Marines, or the fourth Warrior MCV… I
also have a batch of modern-ish civilians to finish up – though I finishedup up
most of the ones I’d had previous to 2013!
Though I don’t have any pictures
of the whole horde I’ve pretty much painted all of my modern Zombies as well –
over 120 of them! The only reason I haven’t taken a picture of the whole horde
is there is one or two that I haven’t painted and I really want to get them
done before I do take a picture of the whole collection…
I don’t think I got to painting
very much WW2 stuff. I might have done one or two things in January or February
when I was playing Bolt Action… and I did paint up the First
Special Service Force that I’d picked up. I’d like to pick up a few
more, but I’m waiting on Artizan
Designs to make a pack of Johnson
Machine Gunners. I’m in no hurry. I’ve been sick to death of WW2 for
a long time now and I can’t forsee any urge to play or paint anything for it
any time soon (still… if they DID do the Johnson MG gunners I’d pick up those
and some of the character packs to round out the force and paint them up…).
In the early summer (June
and July)
I started painting a few Great War things – and I think I’ll get back to that at
some point this year. We have some 100 year anniversaries coming up! I’d
planned on picking up some 28mm Great War Germans – to oppose my Early Great
War British- from Renegade
Miniatures right around now (as they often have a 4-4-5 sale at this
time of year) but they seem to have closed up shop for the time being… I will
have to look elsewhere… Maybe Great
War Miniatures…? I have a bunch of their Great War French… (which I
painted a bunch of in June and July)
John Bertolini has been making
masters and casting a few 40mm 1914 figures. I painted
a unit of his French and tried making a few of my own 40mm
1914 British but I haven’t done any work on them since.
Later in August
I got painting 40K stuff as I picked up a copy of Only
War and thought I might play it with the kids. That fizzled for the
moment, but I plan on returning to that this year… or perhaps Rogue
Trader - as I picked up a bunch of that stuff FFG’s
big annual Black Friday/Xmas sale.
In September
I contiunues with the 40K stuff, but also started painting a few Epic 40K
things – thinking I’d have a got at Future War Commander
again – or some other micro SF game…?
In October
I shifted focus and started on working towards finishing up the 28mm Vietnam
stuff. Which I did. I also started thinkng about the 10th
Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash did a little planning
- taking stock of what I’d accomplished and what I planned to do over the
winter – which all quickly fell by the wayside, because by November
I’d sat down and read Ronin
– Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai - which I’d picked up
months earlier when it came out – and got pretty jazzed about that and switched
focus to all things Feudal Japanese.
At the very end of the year I decided to get in on the Fourth
Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I’m not sure why… The original
idea of the challenge was to motivate each other to keep painting through the
cold dark winter months of the northern hemisphere… but I’m pretty good at
keeping going and don’t really need much outside motivation. I also don’t
really care about competitions… I mean, I will do well in the competition
simple because I do paint an awful lot of stuff… but that isn’t way I got in on
it. Community, I guess? A chance to share my stuff with a larger audience than
just my blog…? I don’t know. Anyway I’m in on it.
One thing I’d planned this year – and accomplished, more or less
– was to paint more than I purchased or otherwise acquired. While my painting
rate was pretty steady (actually it was a bit down this year – with all the
renovations), I cut the figure purchases by more than a third. My plan is to
buy even less this year. I’d like to have a plan and stick to it. More on that
in the next post.
That’s about it for looking
back. Up next I’ll post a bit about what I’m planning for 2014.
Tim: Impressive amount of games you've managed to get in - all the more with the vast quantity & quality of your painting projects. Always great to see your work - looking forward to more in 2014. And I agree with you that you don't seem to need any motivation for picking up a brush. Warm Regards, Dean
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