Looking Back – the 2013 edition

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 10^th 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.