Game Plan 2025 - Q1

Well, happy new year, everyone!

In my brain, 2025 still seems like it should be in the FAR FUTURE where we all have spinner cars or jet packs and there are off-world colonies...  

Having reviewed last year's shenanigans in the previous post... what do I have planned for THIS year - or at least the first three months of this year!?

Well... 

GAMES

I guess I will just continue on with what I've been doing... ?

Warhammer Underworlds

This was my MOST PLAYED game last year, by loads. In the first six months I played 75 games? There was a bit of a dip in the third quarter, but we started playing again in the last few months after the release of the new edition! 

Is it going to be my most played game again this year...? I don't know... Maybe not... Probably not... There have been some hiccups with not being able to get cards to play with some warbands and so some of the initial enthusiasm fizzled before we could really get playing and interests have wandered. Also, I've kind of just been busy with Warhammer Quest and Soulbound... But I do hope it gets going again and we continue to play this fairly regulary! 

 

Warhammer Quest

We FINALLY got to playing Warhammer Quest again last year, Starting with Shadows Over Hammerhal through the summer and fall and then started Warhammer Quest: Cursed City just as the snow was starting to fly! 

Really enjoying it so far. Looking forward to playing lots more in the new year! 

My hope is to continue playing this weekly with Amanda and Finnegan (and any others that happen to join us!) until we get through it - finishing up the first campaign and then moving on the Night Wars! 

Will we get to Night Wars in the first quarter...? Unlikely... But I have it... we'll get to it.. It COULD take THIRTY or more games to get through the first campaign in Cursed City... so we will likely be playing the base game well into Q3 and maybe only finishing Night Wars by the end of the year!

(Maybe there will be a NEW Warhammer Quest out by then!!)

Role-Playing Games 

I FINALLY got a campaign of Soulbound going this winter?! TWO, actually!? I hope to continue through the next year!!!

Warhammer Age of Sigmar

(like... the miniature battle game... all of the above are games are set in the Mortal Realms of the Age of Sigmar, but this bit is about the actual battle game called Warhammer Age of Sigmar) 

(Image ©2024 Games Workshop)

In the summer I'd been pretty stoked about Warhammer Age of Sigmar! I painted three whole Spearhead armies (and acquired FIVE OTHERS by the end of the year!?). I even played in the Spearhead league. I'd been excited about playing in the Warhammer Store's Path to Glory Campaign... but through the fall interest waned as I got my Warhammer Quest campaign going again and the new Warhammer Underworlds was released.... 

I do hope in the new year I can get going on this again. I've been thinking for months about organizing a turn-based, Path to Glory map campaign. Will that happen in the First Quarter? I don't know... 

(Image ©2024 Games Workshop)

There is a Path to Glory book coming out in just under three weeks. 

I'd been thinking about possibly running a map campaign using elements of Mighty Empires (1990)... and the current Path to Glory... setting it on an island off the East coast of The Parch on an Island that was once ruled by a Khorne (or Slaves to Darkness?) Warlord, but recently there was some sort of challenge and infighting and left the Chaos forces weakened and other factions have used this opportunity to encroach on the Chaos forces lands... I imagined running it as a GM (because these things generally work better with a GM!) but I could play smaller forces still holding lands that that they players try to take over...? 

This "Ravaged Coast" it turns out, is the east coast of The Parch!? 

So, obvioulsy I'd be incorporating that... 

Or maybe we just do it without a map.

More on these plans SOON! 

Other Board Games

We did not play as many Board Games last year... 

It'd be nice to play a bit more, from time to time... Maybe organize Game Nights on Fridays or Afternoons on Saturdays...? 

Solo Miniatures Games...?

When I have the time, I'd love to continue some of the Solo gaming campaigns I've started... 

Five Parsecs from Home 

Five Men in Normandy 

And maybe start one for Devilry Afoot! 

Will I actually get to ANY of these In Q1...? I don't know... It's still something I regularly think about, though! 

Warhammer 40,000!?

(Image ©2024 Games Workshop)

There is a new Aeldari Codex on the way 

(Image ©2024 Games Workshop)

and an Astra Militarum one! 

(Both probably in the first quarter...?) 

(Image ©2024 Games Workshop)

and an Emperor's Children Codex hinted at for sometime this year!!! 

Could all this mean a return to playing 40K...? 

Maybe...? 

(I should pick up something with the Crusade campaign rules...) 

Will any of that happen in the First Quarter? I don't know... I have my doubts... but it's on my radar again, as is Wrath & Glory! 

What ISN'T on my radar is Kill Team... I'd rather play smaller 40K battles... or use some other sci-fi skimish rules. Or just play Wrath & Glory. There, I said it... I don't love Kill Team! I mean, if someone else I knew and regularly played games with suddenly LOVED the game and was willing to organize games, I might be convinced to show up with a team I have... but I just can't keep up with it and don't have the headspace for another set of rules. If I were to play a skimish game from GW set in the 40K universe, it would probably be Necromunda! 

MINIATURES

The plan is mostly just to keep painting miniatures I already HAVE for the games mentioned above... and try to not buy too many MORE!? I definitely feel like I went a bit overboard last year as I got back into Warhammer Age of Sigmar... but I feel like things have calmed, somewhat. I got what I got and now I just need to keep painting! I may or may not pick up any new Warhammer Underworlds warbands as they come out...? (Still haven't picked up the Jaws of Itzl or Grandfather's Gardeners - released this past month!) Otherwise, I think I'm good for MOST things...? 

If a whole new Age of Sigmar Warhammer Quest game dropped... I... I might be tempted to pick it up for when we're done Cursed City! If it was another 40K one... I don't know... we still have a BUNCH of Blackstone Fortress that we never finished playing through. 

Age Of Sigmar

As I seem to be working on Age of Sigmar stuff still. I will probably continue to work on some of these... I'd like to focus on finishing off the last few Nighthaunt and Sylvaneth miniatures (as there are about a dozen miniatures for each force), then shifting to work on Soulblight Gravelords and/or Slaves to Darkness - trying to get the Spearhead Armies for both finished, and then expanding on that to build a 1000 point Paths to Glory Armies and then just adding options... 

Another idea I had, though, was to try and assemble ALL THE MINIATURES and organize them into proper storage spaces (instead of heaped in cardboard boxes around the painting area... and THEN get going on Soulblights and Slaves to Darkness. 

Of course, since I have an in-person Soulbound RPG going that I DO like to use miniatures in... what I'm working on from week to week may very well be dictated by what I need for the next weeks game! 

Initially I'd planned to include a status of ALL THE FORCES in this post... but then that seemed a bit much. Perhaps I will do that in the new year... though the Gallery pages for each are pretty much up-to-date, so:

Age of Sigmar - Hedonites of Slaanesh

Age of Sigmar - SoulBlight Gravelords

Age of Sigmar: Stormcast Eternals

Age of Sigmar: Nighthaunt

Age of Sigmar - Daughters of Khaine

Age of Sigmar: Slaves to Darkness

Age of Sigmar: Blades of Khorne

Age of Sigmar: Sylvaneth

Age of Sigmar - Skaven - PLASTIC!

(at some point I plan to do one for all the METAL Skaven I have!) 

Though the above links are up-to-date as the time of the initial posting of this Plan... As they are continually updated, they won't provide a snap-shot of where things were at during the beginning of this planning cycle... Perhaps I will do a post for each in the new year - to give a snapshot of where things were at the beginning of 2025! 

Warhammer Underworlds

I feel like the end is in sight with these (as in finally finishing painting all of them... not, like, getting rid of them or anything!?)... a bit of a push and I feel like I could get all caught up with these... which would be pretty cool... It HAD been my play to try and get them ALL painted last year - and I did get a bunch painted (and even more mostly painted!?)... but then OTHER Age of Sigmar games distracted me away... 

I still have 18 Warbands that I need to paint! (but 34 warbands are PAINTED!) 

Still to DO:

1. Gorechosen of Dromm
2. Starblood Stalkers
3. Skaeth's Wild Hunt
4. Crimson Court
5. The Gnarlspirit Pack 
6. The Exiled Dead
7. Spiteclaw's Swarm
8. Skittershank’s Clawpack
9. Zarbag's Gitz 
10. Brotherhood of the Bolt
11. Myari's Purifiers
12. Shadeborn
13. Headsmen’s Curse 
14. Domitan’s Stormcoven 
15. Hexbane’s Hunters
16. Grashrak's Despoilers
17. Emberwatch 
18. Zikkit’s Tunnelpack

(I guess I still have extra copies of Steelheart's Champions and the Storm of Celestus... but I think of them more as units for my Age of Sigmar Stormcast Eternals forces - as I'm painting them in the blackened armour of the Anvils of Heldenhammer) 

Will I pick up any of the new ones...? I don't know... I kind of like the new Nurgle Daemon warband - Grandfathers Gardeners... but I kind of feel like I want to get a bunch of the ones I HAVE painted before I get any more! 

Warhammer Quest

I don't really have a lot left to paint for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City!? At least not for the first quest - contained in the core box. Just Torgillius the Chamberlain and two of the Mysterious Objects. 

The only thing I still have to to acquire and paint for Night Wars is Radukar the beast, and I still have to paint the Fell Bats and Vampire Lord. 

I guess there are a few things to paint for Silver Tower, should we decide to play that!  

Will there be a NEW Warhammer Quest this year!? I feel like we're a little overdue for one... but that probably won't be until at least Q3 or Q4... 

Warhammer 40,000

Even if I return to 40K, there's not a lot I'd need to BUY (other than possibly the new Codexes!)... This is very LOW priority stuff for Q1 and I likely won't get to working on ANY of it... but maybe sometime this year... 

Whenever the new Emperor's Children Codex is released (which will probably be later in the year...?), I will probably end up buying some of the new Noise Marines (at least ONE squad of those - despite already having 30!?) ... and.. well... we'll see what else they release along with it and if I'm feeling like it's time to play 40K again! 

I have no interest in any of the new Eldar or Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum stuff... I mean, it all LOOKS GREAT! But I already have SO MUCH STUFF for both armies, that I am totally happy with... I imagine I'll just need to do some minor reorganization of the two forces for the new edition codexes and get painting the stuff that isn't finished yet!! 

There is that the Ratling Sniper Kill Team for Kill Team... I will probably breakdown and buy that... Not to play Kill Team... just to potentially use in other games (40K or Wrath & Glory). I think I need to finish Provisionally Prepared before I buy any MORE Ratling Snipers! 

What I DO need to do is take stock and reorganize these forces for the new (but not SO new) edition and figure out what (if anything) I need to finish painting to make a playable force with some options... 

Perhaps I'll work on that in Q1 - take stock of Astra Militarum, Aeldari and Emperor's Children forces and post a status update for each and what the plan is for if/when I get back to playing! 

Other Games

The other games I mentioned.... Devilry Afoot, Five Parsecs from Home, and Five Men in Normandy... I can't imagine needing to buy anything. I likely won't need to paint much, even if I do get playing again, I have LOADS of useable stuff for all of these games. Including stuff I could paint for them as new opponents! 

Maybe I could build some terrain, though!? 

Occasionally I think about reorganizing existing - Greeks and others.... I may or may not get to that..  

 

Work-in-Progress Wednesdays

Not sure if I'm going to continue with that... I'd kind of started that earlier in 2024 as a way to FORCE myself to engage with the blog and share what I'm working on, even if I wasn't getting much DONE... and kind of force myself to work on SOMETHING each week, even if I wasn't getting things done... (also because I was taking pictures of what I'd been working on to post in groups on Facebook or Discord that have Work-in-Progress Wednesdays - to keep people engaged and encourage each other to keep going!) 

This was largely because for the last few years I have not been blogging so much, at least, not on THIS blog... I'm not sure it's really necessary to continue doing this... I seem to be back and painting and playing games... (though I have not been doing nearly so much drawing or painting of pictures...) 

What are YOUR plans for the new year!?

(Gaming or Otherwise!) 

Looking Back at 2024

Well... it's been a year... 

What WERE my plans..? 

What did I actually get up to...? 

Was there any overlap in the Venn Diagram of those two things!? 

THE PLANS

Looking back at all the plans... 

Game Plan 2024 - Q1

Game Plan 2024 - Q2

Game Plan 2024 - Q3

Game Plan 2024 - Q4

I think all of those plans could largely be summed up as follows:

Get stuff painted, practice for, and play in a Warhammer 40K Tournament in February

Try to STAY FOCUSED on ONE THING: Age of Sigmar (the setting!) 

Paint Warbands for and play LOTS of Warhammer Underworlds

Paint up the miniatures for and play Warhammer Quest games (Shadows over Hammerhal, Silver Tower, Cursed City) 

Get a Role-Playing Game going - ideally Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound! 

(and maybe get a Board Game Night - or afternoon on the weekend -  going again...?)

(Maybe explore Solo Gaming more, if the above doesn't work out!) 

and then later in the year: 

Get armies ready for Age of Sigmar, Fourth Edition - first Spearhead, then Path to Glory - and play THOSE!

 

How did I do...?

Well... 

Warhammer 40K Tournament

I DID get a bunch of new stuff painted for my Tallarn Desert Raiders to play in a Warhammer 40000 Team Tournament with my friend Orion and her Space Wolves! 

By "new stuff", I mean NEWLY PAINTED, not newly purchased. It was ALL stuff I'd had for a while (and ALL of it was stuff I'd got as part of used lots, ages ago, dirt cheap!), I just finally had a reason to get them DONE! 

YAY!!

I painted: 

• 2x Astra Militarum Basilisk Self-Propelled Artillery 
• 2x Astra Militarum Manticore 
• 1x Astra Militarum Scout Sentinel 
• 8x Hunter-Killer Missile Tokens

and I played in the tournament:

Warhammer 40K - Strange Bedfellows Team Tournament

And that was pretty much IT for Warhammer 40,000 this year (other than Lost Patrol)... and I WAS trying to stay focused on the Age of Sigmar... 

Age of Sigmar 

(The Setting)

I feel like I did pretty good at STAYING FOCUSED on the Age of Sigmar setting (after the 40K tournament) - with a few small distractions (assorted solo games)!

The first half of the year was pretty much DOMINATED by Warhammer Underworlds and preparing for Warhammer Quest - both set in the Age of Sigmar. 

The Third Quarter things switched up a bit... I did try to get a campaign of Warhammer Quest started and I built up and played with Spearhead armies for the new edition of Age of Sigmar (the miniature battle game). 

In the final quarter, we continued with the Age of Sigmar versions of Warhammer Quest - finishing off Shadows over Hammerhal and starting Cursed City. There was a new edition of Warhammer Underworlds. I did get a Soulbound role-playing games going. AND I picked up a BUNCH of new stuff for a Slaves to Darkness army... but didn't really do any larger battle games... ALL of that... Age of Sigmar... so yeah, stayed fairly focused without too many distractions BEYOND the Age of Sigmar... but i did do a lot of jumping around WITHIN that setting! 

Warhammer Underworlds

For the first half of the year, I played a LOT of Warhammer Underworlds... like a LOT!! I played SEVENTY-FIVE games of the first edition this year! Seventy-one were in the first six months... and then kind of... stopped. I played only four games in whole of the third Quarter.. Partly that was because of the new edition of Age of Sigmar, and I'd shifted focus to playing Spearhead! Partly I was a little burned out on the game...

I had made suggestions about a challenge involving trying to play ten warbands ten times... of playing ALL of the warbands at least ONCE... and... neither of those happened... But here are the warbands that I DID play with in that first half of the year (with First Edition)!?

1. Wurmspat x16
2. Skabbik's Plaguepack x15
3. Thricefold Discord x9
4. Grinkrak's Looncourt x6
5. Thundrik’s Profiteers x5
6. Zondara’s Gravebreakers x4
7. Blackpowder's Buccaneers x4
8. Magore's Fiends x4
9. Dread Pageant x3
10. Mollog's Mob x2
11. Cyreni's Razors x1
12. Hrothgorn's Mantrappers x1
13. Ephilim's Pandemonium x1
14. Sons of Velmorn x 1
15. Grombrindal x1
16. Garrett’s Reavers x1

So, of fifty warbands that I own - thirty-three of which were painted -  I played with sixteen different warbands (almost half of the warbands I have painted).

(There are ohter warbands that I own and have painted that WERE played with this year, just... not by ME! Elethain's Soulraif, Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven, a few of the Stormcast warbands were all played by Amanda - so it's not like none of the others are seeing any use at all!) 

Of those seventy-five games I played, forty-three were one-on-one games. I won 20 of those... but the overall point difference was -38... so I generally lost by MORE points than I won games by.  

The other thirty-two games were multi (3-4) player games. I only won six of those. 

At the end of September, as the first Spearhead League wrapped up, there was talk of getting Warhammer Underworlds going again and maybe starting a League of sorts... And then THE PREVIEW happened and a TOTALLY NEW EDITION of Warhammer Underworlds was announced!? 

In the Final Quarter of the year, a full Second Edition was released in the form of Warhammer Underworlds: Embergard. ALL the old cards would not be playable - it was a HARD reboot of the system - No more faction decks, only generic rivals decks, with all new fighter cards and a "warscroll" of special abilities for each warband. All of the old warbands would be playable... 

I have to admit I was a little relieved with the announcement. I hadn't been playing for a while and was wondering how I could justify buying the new box and warbands and rivals decks if I wasn't still regularly playing... and with the announcement of the new edition I thought maybe I'd just STOP... there would never be another thing released for the edition that I had, I could just play with that stuff and not bother with any of the new stuff... 

but as more information cam out about the new edition and some of the other local players got excited about it, I kind of got excited enough about it, hoping we'd all get back to playing. 

One downside was the boards have changed and there is now no way to play a four-player game (unless we just used the old boards...?) and what had really been a lot of fun was playing four-player games with Nick and Orion and Amanda almost every other sunday for the first half of the year... 

We did not all instantly start playing again, though. Part of that was because.. people were busy with other things and we'd fallen out of the habit of getting together regularly, but also... the release was slow, and I'd had trouble getting cards to actually play with!? Initially the core box was released in mid November and that was it... four decks to play with the double sided board and two new warbands... but Warscrolls and cards for all the other existing warbands weren't so available... Part of that is Games Workshop and part of it is on Staples... MOST of the warscrolls and fighter cards for the older warbands were released as PDFs. The warscrolls and cards for the 16 warbands that were being released, though, were only available to BUY in a card pack called Warbands of Embergard... for $70CAD!? But it wasn't realeased until a MONTH later?! 

On release day, I played a few games with Orion - with warscrolls and Fighter cards I'd printed out in black and white and it was pretty fun... I tried getting just a few cards and warscrolls printed at Staples the following week, just to see how they turned out.. and it was pretty labour-intensive, cutting out and gluing the fronts of the fighter cards to the backs, but I was pretty happy with the result, so a few days later I ordered the rest... and it took Staples THREE AND A HALF WEEKS to get around to printing them... in the meantime, the other cards were released... but my FLGS wasn't able to get them in and if you hadn't ordered them online within a few minutes of the cards going on sale... you didn't get them!? I guess GW MASSIVELY underestimated how many people would actually want to play the new edition with their old warbands!? 

So, I'd gotten sour on the whole thing and was thinking of just saying fuck-it and throwing in the towel and moving on with other things.. 

In the end, the cards ordered through Staples finally got printed and I got in a few more games... 

I ended up playing with the following Warbands in the Fourth Quarter

1. Wurmspat x3
2. Thricefold Discord x1
3. Thorns of the Briar Queen x1
4. Zondara’s Gravebreakers x1
5. Skabbik's Plague Pack x1
6. Chosen Axes x1
7. Ironsoul's Condemnors

Total: 9 

I decided to separate them out by editions as they all play very different between editions. Some of them just has GARBAGE faction decks and, without faction decks in Second Edition, the playing fields were a bit more level... Oh, I still LOST games with them... 

As of the end of this year, I own FIFTY-TWO warbands and 34 of them are painted. I played with 19 of them at least ONCE this year. The most played (Between the two editions) were Wurmspat (18 plays), Skabbik's Plaguepack (16 plays), Thricefold Discord (10 plays), Grinkrak's Looncourt (6 plays), Thundrik’s Profiteers (5 plays), Zondara’s Gravebreakers (5 plays)

You can see pictures of them all in a Gallery I set up here:

Age of Sigmar - Warhammer Underworlds Warbands

Warhammer Quest

In the first half of the year I got a LOT of Warhammer Quest miniatures painted, hoping that through the summer I'd actually get a group PLAYING!

I got so many done, I started a Gallery Page for them:

Age of Sigmar - Warhammer Quest Miniatures

Initially the plan was to play them in order; The Silver Tower, then Shadows Over Hammerhal, then Cursed City. As summer approached, I realized it would probably be easier to finish up the stuff for Shadows Over Hammerhal!

So I finished up painting the stuff for Shadows over Hammerhal and we start playing THAT... 

Then the plan was that while playing Shadows Over Hammerhal, I could finish up miniatures for Silver Tower... Then play through Silver Tower and, while doing so, finish up the miniatures for Cursed City! 

I thought, for sure, we'd blast through Shadows Over Hammerhal in 6-8 weeks and be done by mid-late July, then blast through Silver Tower by the end of the Summer, and then start working our way through The Cursed City (and the expansion - Night Wars) through the Fall and Winter as that one seemed like it would take longer to play through... 

And I'd hoped that by the end of it, if I hadn't started one already, i might just segue into a Soulbound Role-Playing campaign (there is a book for Ulfenkarn, the setting for Cursed City!) 

That all didn't all go exactly according to play, largely for two reasons:

1) Players that were not as deeply invested and/or committed as me...? so we got started a few weeks later than I'd hoped and then SO MANY sessions were cancelled...

B) the new edition of Age of Sigmar (the miniature battle game) which thoroughly distracted me for a good chunk of the second half of the year!

We DID get started on Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal. I was running the game and Amanda, and Finnegan, and John (manager of the local Warhammer Store), and Maygan (Johns partner) were playing. We got in a couple sessions over the summer but then John and Maygan kind of bailed...  

It took me until the end of October to finally get moving on this again and just try to finish off Shadows over Hammerhal with just Amanda and Finnegan! 

In the last week of November, Amanda, Finnegan, and I started in on Warhammer Quest: Cursed City! We've been having a LOT of fun playing through it! It is going to take MUCH longer to play through than Shadows over Hammerhal did (and Silver Tower likely would)! 

So far we have played through seven journeys, bringing all the Heroes to Level One. TOMORROW we will be playing the first Decapitation Journey - trying to take down a Vargscyr!  

So... while things didn't get started as quickly as I'd hoped and we didn't get as far as I'd initially hoped... I'd say the plans for getting all the miniatures painted for the three games and then playing them, was largely a success. Especially considering interest has not dimmed and it seems like we'll continue playing this weekly into the new year! 

Soulbound

I've really wanted to get a role-playing game going for some time... with the focus on all things Age of Sigmar, Soulbound seemed like an obvious choice... and I really like the system. 

The tricky bit, as an older adult, who doesn't have an established RPG gaming group (any more)... that wants to play a "niche" game (i.e. something that ISN'T Dungeons & Dragons)... that isn't the easiest thing in the world to DO!? 

I'd tried earlier in the year... but life happened and plans got cancelled. 

I thought maybe after we'd played through the Warhammer Quest games I'd be able to segue into a role-playing game, but when we finally got going on those, I realized it could be 2026 before we finish playing through ALL of Cursed City (and maybe Silver Tower), so i said fuck it, let's do both concurently and managed to get not one, but TWO games going - one online with friends out of town, and one in-person!? There were a few stumbles getting both started, but I've managed to get in two sessions of both campaigns so far this year and it's looking like they could both be weekly things continuing into the new year!! 

(I'd still really like to play the new Twilight: 2000 and Bladerunner and Hellboy role-playing games... but those will have to wait while I ride this wave of interest!!)

Board Games

This has been an off year for board games - well, board games that were not Warhammer Underworlds! 

We did, briefly, in the Spring, get a semi-regular Board Game Night going on... but that fizzled and we didn't get it going again... There was a one-off game day in October... and then the rest were over the Holidaze! 

According to BoardGameGeek, in 2024 we played... 

• Warhammer Underworlds (First Edition) x75
• Lost Patrol x10
• Warhammer Underworlds: Embergard (Second Edition) x9
• Warhammer Age Of Sigmar (Fourth Edition) x8
• Warhammer Quest: Cursed City x8
• Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal x8
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound x8
• Warhammer 40,000 (Tenth Edition) x7
• Splendor x5
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Crypt Hunters x4
• NMBR 9 x3
• Tinderblox x2
• Wingspan x2
• Abyss x1
• Betrayal at House on the Hill x1
• Calico x1
• Carcassonne x2
• Castles of Mad King Ludwig x1
• Century: Golem Edition x1
• Dixit x1
• Five Men in Normandy .30 Cal edition x1
• Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala x1
• Giro D'Italia Card Game x1
• The Hanging Gardens x1
• Lacuna x1
• Linkage: A DNA Card Game x1
• Mysterium x1
• Pirate Fluxx x1
• RoboRally x1
• SET x1
• Stone Age x1
• Tokaido x1
• Wingspan Asia x1
• Wyrmspan x1

171 Total Games Played!!

34 Different games were played. 

84 of those were Warhammer Underworlds (between the two editions ) accounting for over half of the games played in 2024

16 were more traditional tabletop miniature games 8x Age of Sigmar, 7x 40K,  1x Solo Game (as opposed to hybrind board/miniature games - like Warhammer Underworlds and Warhammer Quest and others) 

8 were Role-Playing Game sessions (4 were making Characters and sorting out backgrounds, 4 were actually PLAYING ADVENTURES!) 

63 were actual BOARD GAMES (other than Warhammer Underworlds!) 

Though, of those 63 Board Games, 30 of them were board games with fully painted Warhammer miniatures (Lost Patrol, Crypt Hunters, Warhammer Quest: Cursed City and Warhammer QuestL Shadows over Hammerhal)... Similar to Warhammer Underworlds  

Solo Games

At the end of 2023 I'd gotten interested in the idea of Solo Gaming. 

Earlier in the year I'd run a sort of online campaign set in the Back of Beyond and the battles were mostly played out solo, by myself, using One Hour Wargames... and I'd really had a fun time doing that. 

Later in the year I finally got around to trying out Five Parsecs from Home - which I'd picked up the PDF of nearly a year earlier! That, too, was a lot of fun! I ended up only playing one SOLO game with miniatures, but I ended up using the system to run a few RPG-lite games for friends online... but that fizzled around the beginning of this year. 

So in the new year, I decided to keep that open as an option... either playing more Five Parsecs from Home or exploring other games (Five Leagues from the Borderlands) - I'd even initially planned that I could play the Warhammer Quest games solo, if I didn't find other people that were willing to play.

In the end, I didn't so much PLAYING of solo games... But throughout the year I did a lot of thinking about and planning for and even some miniature painting in preparation for various solo miniature games. I got VERY EXCITED about Devilry Afoot - a new solo/co-op game of monster hunting in the 16th/17th centuries by Nic Wright! 

In the end, I only played one game of Five Men in Normandy - a solo WW2 game by the same author as Five Parsecs from Home. 

I wouldn't say this was a failure, as it was always a plan kept in my back pocket, in case I could not find other people to play games with... and I DID end up playing a lot of games with people!!

Age of Sigmar 

(The Game) 

New Edition and Spearhead Armies

In July the new edition of Age of Sigmar was released. I picked up the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Skaventide release box - which contained TWO complete Spearhead armies... 

Previous to that, expecting that I'd be playing it with the group i'd been playing Warhammer Underworlds with, I'd purchased and painted a Hedonites of Slaanesh Spearhead Army. 

Hedonites of Slaanesh Spearhead Army

Despite HAVING a Hedonites of Slaanesh army for Age of Sigmar, that I put together when the previous edition had been released, almost all of them were Daemons, and NONE of the Spearhead army were Daemons, and so I had none of the units required to put a Spearhead army together?! 

Then I'd bought a Soulblight Gravelords Spearhead army... because I was placing an order for other things and the place I was ordering from had the Soulblight Gravelords Spearhead army on sale (which convenitenly put me into free shipping zone!)... and I figured I pretty much have a Soulblight Gravelords army from all the stuff in Warhammer Quest Cursed City... and Vampires are cool... and I needed the Vampire in the box for one of the personalities in Night Wars... and could always do with more Skeletons... 

Then I traded my 40K Imperial Knights away for an Age of Sigmar Blades of Khorne army... 

and painted up a Blades of Khorne Spearhead Army... 

Then I bought TWO MORE Army Boxes from the Bargain Bin at the Dragon's Den... largely for the terrain and the requisite miniatures to make a Daughters of Khaine Spearhead Army (Sixth!)... 

AND THEN... during the local Warhammer Store's First Anniversary event... I bought ANOTHER (Seventh) Spearhead army and within a week (or so) had a painted Sylvaneth Spearhead Army... 

Sylvaneth Spearhead Army

So that was seven (SEVEN!) Spearhead armies Acquired in three months!? 

WTF was I thinking!? (They all seemed like a good idea at the time... and I HAD been thinking I'd buy the release box and then sell off BOTH the Stormcast AND Skaven halves and just keep the rules and stuff...) Three of them got painted over those three months... 

AND THEN they released the Slaves to Darkness Battletome and a whole new Darkoath Spearhead army for the Slaves to Darkness in November.. So.. OBVIOUSLY...

Now I have EIGHT Spearhead armies... 

(Oh, and... I'm close to a ninth, if I pick up a box of Tzeentch Flamers!?) 

Maybe I SHOULD sell off those Skaven...?

Spearhead League

I DID play in the Warhammer Store's Speahead League from July until September). I only got in six games... but ended up coming in second overall (out of six players...?)... without winning a SINGLE game...? Points were given for playing a game, winning a game and playing with a painted army... and then bonus points were awarded for each different opponent you faced and each different fully-painted army you used during the league. I played six games with fully painted armies. I used three different fully-painted armies over the course of the league and played four different opponents!?

 

Path to Glory Campaign

In November, John at the Warhammer Store organized a Path to Glory campaign... 

I did a LOT OF THINKING about what army to play in the camapaing. Finally I settled on Hedonites of Slaanesh, largely because I didn't need to paint a thing for it (other than the endless spells...)... but then actually looked at the rules for all of them and what I had that I COULD build... and then decided I needed to do a completely DIFFERENT Hedonites of Slaanesh army that seemed like WAY MORE FUN! But that would require painting 15 more mounted seeker cavalry... and I started in on them... and then I had a practice game and broke another slickblade seeker - just getting it out of the cabinet!? So when it was announced that, for this league being run by the store, games had to be played IN the store... and I'm just not feeling like transporting the Hedonites there every week for games and then having to repair these dainty little models that break... 

So I starting thinking again, and, despite the fact that I could totally run Blades of Khorne if I painted ONE UNIT of Blood Warriors... or Sylvaneth if I painted up 15 Tree-revenants (which are super quick and easy to paint...), I settled on Slaves to Darkness... which I have next to NOTHING painted for... but seemed like more fun and the minis seem a bit more beefy and able to be transported without TOO much damage!?

In the end, I didn't get any of those done in time and just decided to not play in this league/campaign... but would have armies ready for the next one... and started thinking about running my OWN campaign!? More on that soon-ish... 

Before the League started I DID get in a game of Age of Sigmar WITH the Hedonites of Slaanesh army... 

MINIATURES

This is, in theory, a MINIATURE Wargaming blog, afterall... a place where I shared what I was up to in the hobby and a LARGE part of that hobby has been the acquisition, assembling, painting and basing of models and terrain! 

As always, for the last few years, the PLAN has been to BUY LESS STUFF and PAINT MORE... 

PAINTING

While, I DID manage to PAINT a LOT MORE this year than I have for the last few... 

In 2023 I painted 66x 28mm Foot, 4x 28mm Mounted

In 2022 I painted 57x 28mm Foot, 2x 28mm Mounted, 13 Tokens and Terrain Bits, 3x 28mm Vehicle/Bigger Beasties, and a PILE of Micro/Epic Scale miniatures

In 2021 I painted 216x 28mm Foot

THIS YEAR, I painted... 

• 286x 28mm Foot
• 22x 28mm Mounted/Beasties 
• 7x Vehicles/Monsters,
• 34 Small Terrain Bits/Tokens

So... More than DOUBLE what I painted in 2022 and 2023 combined! More than I painted in 2021, as well... 

For a complete list of items acquired and painted (with links to the posts) check out: 

2024 Painted versus Purchased

ACQUISITIONS    

The increase in painting came about because of an increase in interest in playing miniature games again... unfortunately, that interest also meant BUYING MOAR MINIATURES!?

This year I bought (or otherwise acquired through gifts of TRADES!):

• 28mm Foot: 559
• 28mm Mounted/Beasties:59
• 28mm Vehicles/Monsters: 2
• Small Terrain Bits: 2
• Larger Terrain Bits: 2

71 of the 28mm foot and 5 of the Mounted/Beasties were acquired through TRADE... (I traded of three 40K Knights for and ENTIRE BLADES OF KHORNE army!?)

DISPOSALS

I did, however, get RID of a few things, either through trade or sale or just giving them away... 

• 28mm Foot (painted): 12
• 28mm Foot (Unpainted): 108
• 28mm Vehicles (unpainted): 1
• 28mm Titanic Vehicles (painted): 2
• 28mm Titanic Vehicles (unpainted): 1

So, when considering the trades and other disposals... the NET gain of things unpainted 28mm Foot miniatures was 451... STILL more than the 286 I painted... 

So...  miniatures got painted... games were played...? yay...?

Stay tuned for GAME PLAN 2025/Q1 which will be posted shortly after this!!

Oooof! That was a bit of a slog... for any that made it all the way, thanks for being here! hope you weren't bored to tears by it all... 

What were  YOUR Gaming/Hobby Highlights of 2024!? 

December Games

There will be three posts dropped this evening in rapid succession; this post (December Games), followed by Looking Back at 2024 (my annual look back at what I got up to this year), followed by Game Plan 2025 - Q1 (the first of four quarterly looks at what I might be planning to get up to over the next three months...). 

All three are scheduled posts that were mostly written well in advance, some started as early as October! If they seem incomplete... I probably died before finishing them... or have been hospitalized... or just gave up on blogging altogether and couldn't even be bothered to delete them! Sorry... 

Wednesday, 4 December 2024

We played another game of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City. This was our second adventure in Ulfenkarn, and this time we tried a Deliverance Journey. It was very different from the previous hunt mission... AND we remembered to roll on the event table at the end of every round, so this took a bit longer! We did not get to finish the journey... 

conveniently we have a BIG TABLE in a dedicated GAME ROOM... so we just left it all set up in there and hoped to finish it off the next evening! 

You can read all about Part One here:

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Two - Deliverance Journey (Part One!)

Thursday, 5 December 2024

Thursday we picked up where we left off, though with a few changes as I realized I'd made some serious errors in the way I was running the scenario! 

You can read the game report of the second part of the journey here:

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Two - Deliverance Journey (Part Two!)

Saturday, 7 December 2024

Saturday evening we FINALLY, after six weeks of dicking around, got started on a Soulbound adventure online! 

I am basically running the two of them through the Shadows Over Hammerhal dungeon... I introduced the situation. Introduced them to the main characters in Shadows over Hammerhal, but had them all chasing off after different cultists and renegade airship crew and left the two Soulbound to explore the catacombs beneath Cinderfall...

Tuesday, 10 December 2024

Tuesday was supposed to be RPG night, but Orion's scout troop had to move their weekly meeting to Tuesday because the gymnasium at the school they meet at was unavailable on Wednesday (presumably for Winter Holiday Celebration)... So Amanda, Finnegan, and I did another Journey to the Cursed City! 

We played through a Scavenge Journey with the same Heroes used the last two weeks (largely because I STILL hadn't finished painting the other four!) - thus completing all three of the different basic Journeys. This brought the heroes all up to Level 1. They COULD have gone on to do the first Decapitation Journey, but they decided next they'd try the other four heroes and run them through all three different basic Journey types and get THEM all to first level... and THEN pick out a team to go on the first Decapitation Journey! 

You can read the game report here: 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Three - Scavenge Journey

Wednesday, 11 December 2024

Orion being freed up on Wednesday, we moved RPG night and kicked of the IN PERSON Soulbound campaign!! We did get together briefly... but then Orion, Nick and Charlie all had to go home, because Charlie wasn't feeling well!!

Friday, 13 December 2024

Friday evening, Orion stopped by to play a few games of Warhammer Underworlds. 

You can read a brief Game Report here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Friday the 13th Edition 

Saturday, 14 December 2024

Amanda and I had planned on an afternoon of playing board games...

That kind of ended up being one game of Embergard... It DID take a LONG time to play through... It was Amanda's first crack at Embergard, and I'm still just figuring the new edition.. but I'm sure we COULD have gotten in a second game.. alas... 

you can read about the game here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Amanda Tries Embergard

Originally we'd planned to play our online Soulbound game in the evening... but Chris had to cancel... But suggested Sunday, at the same time... 

Maybe Saturdays just aren't working out... 

Sunday, 15 December 2024

Christian and I showed up on Discord at the designated time for rescheduled Soulbound Session... chatted for 40 Minutes.. 

No Chris... 

I don't know... 

Later in the evening, Amanda and I played another game of Warhammer Underworlds: Embergard! You can read the full report here: 

Warhammer Underworlds - Sunday Funday! 

Tuesday, 17 December 2024

I forgot to take a picture of the actual game... 

This week, we FINALLY got PLAYING Soulbound! After narrating a bit of background since they were all soubound, the Characters started off in Hammerhal Aqsha and secured passage on a Kharadron Airship bound for the city of Brightspear. 

They passed by Vandium and over the Klarrikaz Earthscar. Past the long abandoned Titanworks. They made brief stops at Tempest's Eye and Steel Spike before heading out over the Polychromatic Sea. 

Over the sea the flotilla tried to maneuver to avoid what looked like a large storm of pink clouds. As they maneuvered the storm approached at unnatural speed and had soon engulfed the entire flotilla. So dense were the clouds that it was hard to see from one end of the ship to the other, let alone see any of the other ships... then they started hearing muffled booms and cries and seeing dim flashes in the distance... 

It was a lot of fun. 

Wednesday, 18 December 2024

Amanda, Finnegan and I played another round of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - this time we tried out the OTHER CHARACTERS which I finally finished up just a few hours before we played!! Amanda played Qulathis the Exile and Cleona Zeitengale and Finnegan played Octren Glimscry and Dagnai Holdenstock

The Journey was a success and all survived and gained experience! 

You can read the Game Report here:

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Four - Another Hunt!

Saturday, 21 December 2024

Orion popped by for a few games of Warhammer Underworlds on Saturday. 

In our first game, Orion played Sepulchral Guard with the Countdown to Cataclysm deck. I played Skabbiks' Plague Pack with Pillage & Plunder and the Corruptors warscroll. Orion won 16-10. 

In our second game, Orion played Mollog's Mob with Reckless Fury. I played the Chosen Axes (for the very first time!) with Blazing Assault and the Protectors warscroll. 

This one worked out for me. I got lucky having a card that placed Fjul-Grimnir next to Mollog without having to charge, AND had given him an upgrade that let him use an extra attack die... so he was rolling four attack dice (to Mollog's single defence die) and dealing three Damage. Mollog has SEVEN health... but I figured I'd get at least two hits in and deal six damage before the Troll could turn Fjul-Grimnir into Dwarf-paste and then someone could finish Mollog off! As it turned out Mollog missed and Fjul-Grimnir survived to the end... After taking out Mollog, the Fyreslayers hunted down the rest of Mollog's minions...

I actually won a game! Yay! 

Tuesday, 24 December 2024

Kicking off what I hope will be Twelve Days of GAMING, we played another game of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City on Tuesday. Once again, Amanda played Qulathis the Exile and Cleona Zeitengalem and Finnegan played Dagnai Holdenstock and Octren Glimscry. I played all the hostiles and kind of kept the game moving forward. 

We played through a second Deliverance Journey with the second group of heroes. It went MUCH SMOOTHER than the first Deliverance Journey, now that I kind of figured out how Deliverance Journeys are actually supposed to be played!!

You can read the full game report here: 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Five - Another Deliverance Journey

Wednesday, 25 December 2024

On Xmas Day we played ANOTHER game of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City. Same Characters, but this time a Scavenge Mission... and it went... poorly! 

You can read the full game report here: 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Six - Another Scavenge Journey

Thursday, 26 December 2024

On Boxing day, after a quick trip to the Dragon's Den...

...we played ANOTHER game of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City. I'd hoped ALL the Heroes would be First Level and it would be time to do the first Decapitation Journey, to take down one of Radukar the Wolf's lieutenants.... Alas, the previous day's excursion ended in near disaster and another Deliverance Journey was taken on... 

You can read the full game report here: 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Seven - Deliverance Journey! 

Friday, 27 December 2024

Friday evening Amanda and I played another game of Warhammer Underworlds. She was trying out Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven in the new edition. I tried out Ironsoul's Condemnors, just to try something different... 

Saturday, 28 December 2024

After a few more weeks of cancelled games, Saturday I met up with Chris and Christian on Discord for another session of our online Soulbound campaign... They continued their exploration of the catacombs benearth Cinderfall in Hammerhal Aqsha. It went pretty well. 

Hopefully in the new year we'll play more regularly... if too many more games are cancelled, I might just drop this one... 

Sunday, 29 December 2024

Kurtis and Tanay came over and played Five Tribes and Splendor. I forgot to take a pictures of Five Tribes... which probably would have been more interesting. I have not played Five Tribes for a while, so we left out the expansion.

Monday, 30 December 2024

On Monday, Brent and Barb came over and brought a new game - Calico! It is a game of making quilts and enticing cats to hang out on it.. 

This was my quilt at the end of the game. 

There is a LOT going on in the game and so many different ways to gain points... It was fun, I'd play it again. 

I think I like it better than Patchwork. The board is filled at the end of the game and no negative points for places unfilled - which was my BIGGEST ANNOYANCE with Patchwork... you can win the game with a NEGATIVE score!? (Which somehow, just doesn't feel right!?) 

Tuesday, 31 December 2024

Finally, just this evening, Orion and Nick joined Amanda and Finnegan and we all  played one more game of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound!! They are currently playing through the Crash & Burn adventure on their way to Brightspear! 

And that was it... a pretty good end to a not-so-bad year! 

In total, we played: 

• Warhammer Quest: Cursed City x7
• Warhammer Underworlds: Embergard x7
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound x4
• Calico x1
• Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala x1
• Splendor x1

21 games total

Because there won't be a Quarterly summary, in the last Quarter we played:

• Lost Patrol x10
• Warhammer Underworlds: Embergard x9
• Warhammer Quest: Cursed City x8
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound x8
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Crypt Hunters x4
• Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal x4
• Tinderblox x2
• Calico x1
• Carcassonne x1
• Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala x1
• Giro D'Italia Card Game x1
• Linkage: A DNA Card Game x1
• NMBR 9 x1
• Pirate Fluxx x1
• Splendor x1
• Warhammer Age Of Sigmar (Fourth Edition): Core Rules x1

54 games total for 2024/Q4

For the review of what I played all year.. stay tuned! Looking Back at 2024 will be posted shortly!! 

What were YOUR gaming highlights for December!? 

Did "Santa" bring you anything fun and new!?

Age of Sigmar - Screamers of Tzeentch

 (Technically, these COULD be used in a 40K Daemons of Chaos army as well!) 

Screamers of Tzeentch - These are daemons that fly through the sky at great speed slashing their enemies as they pass with spines, fins, horns and teeth while emitting a harrowing wailing and screeching noises!

The downside of painting a small number of this and that for role-playing and skirmish games is I always start thinking; "wow, these are super fun! I'd love to build a WHOLE ARMY of them!?" Which is ridiculous and I absolutely cannot... but the feeling is always there... 

They'll soon be seeing action in my Soulbound Role-playing game. Still need to finish some Tzaangors as well! 

One Last Trip...

 

... To the Warhammer Store!

(for this year)

Almost two months ago, I'd ordered a Darkling Coven Sorceress online and had it delivered to the store... (because when we started talking about playing Soulbound, Finnegan had initially considered reviving the Daughters of Khaine Hag Priestess, and I thought this would be a fun mini to use...)... but then never got around to going out and picking it up. Every time I'd planned to roll out there, there ended up being a bit dump of fresh snow the night before, or the temperature plummeted into the -30s (°C)... or both... 

So I finally got out there and had a chat with John, the manager, and ended up leaving with a Lord of Plagues!? 

I... I have no real explanation... 

Just a cool miniature, I guess... can add him to Wurmspat to make a small warband of Nurgle followers...? It seemed like a good idea at the time!?

I have a LOT to paint before Tuesday - for our next in-person game of Soulbound. None of there, thankfully... but IDEALLY the three Tzaangor on Discs... AND the Screamers... AND the Arkanauts... AND maybe some of the other Tzaangor... 

Wish I could say I have tonight, tomorrow and most of Tuesday to finish them up... but I have a book club tonight, and friends coming over to play board games in the afternoon tomorrow... 

How much will I get done!?