Friday, December 30, 2016

2016 Year in Review

2016 saw me paint up 1,794 things.... 516 28mm-scale figures, 1095 15mm-scale figures, 197 10mm-scale figures, and 39 terrain pieces.

Dropzone Commander still remains a top game, although it's now competing with Malifaux (more on that later!). 2016 didn't yield a ton of stuff I didn't already own, but I did make an awesome 4x8 table for it at my house using the Games and Gears tiles.


By Fire and Sword was on the low end this year, although I did paint up one new army: Tatars. I played in one BFAS tournament at Historicon (with my Cossacks) and placed middle of the pack.


Feburary saw me pick up Guild Ball, with Butchers and Fisherman. I enjoyed the game at first, but it was a bit too Warmachine-esque for my liking. I'll still play it occasionally at home, but don't generally seek out games for it.


I played exactly one game of Infinity in 2016, but of course that means I had to paint up a new army for it.

March saw some interest in Blucher, which popped up and died almost as quickly as it came. I now have the same 15mm Napoleonic French army painted up twice, one based for Blucher and one based for Napoleon at war.


Spring saw me jump into Gates of Antares with a local mate, Gordon. It initially had a ton of interest, but it quickly waned off. I painted up a large Concord force, as well as a small Ghar army for a friend, and later another Ghar army using 40k Gretchin for myself.


Speaking of Warlord games that never took off, I also build a Konflict '47 army out of the Kromlech German WW2 themed Orks.


Summer saw the return of Malifaux, which I hadn't played in 5-ish years. Malifaux was definitely my big painting push of 2016, with a staggering 640 points worth of models done up across five different factions. I expect Malifaux to continue strong through 2017 - we have a good local crowd of gamers that seem to enjoy the game, and I already have tons of new crews on order for painting in early 2017.


Fall introduced me to the WW2 Battlegroup ruleset, which I think is the best WW2 ruleset out there by far. I initially started off with individually based 15s for it, but later when to FoW- style basing for cross-compatibility.


Kings of War remains on my radar, although I don't get as many games of it as I'd like. I ran a big Game of Thrones theme Kings of War game at Historicon this year. It was a 4 player free for all featuring the Starks, Lannisters, Targayrens, and Baratheons.


In addition, I painted up an all-skink army for "normal" Kings of War.


Finally, in the winter, Dropfleet Commander arrived, and I quickly got all four fleets painted up for that.


I started an Age of Sigmar Ironjawz army, although it's not quite enough to play a decent sized game yet.


Towards the very end of the year, I flirted with Dystopian Wars. I remember playing this when it first came out and thinking the game was horrible. I want to try it again in 2017 to see if it's as bad as I remember, but the figures are cool!


On the board game front, I didn't paint too many board games this year. I did acquire Blood Bowl, Puppet Wars, and the new Warhammer Quest.



As far as tournaments and conventions, I attended GenCon, Historicon, and NOVA Open. I played in the Dropzone Commander tournaments at GenCon and NOVA Open, taking the top place in both. (Although I only took first at NOVA due to a weird scoring anomaly!). I placed middle of the pack in a By Fire and Sword tournament at Historicon, and won a Flames of War WW1 event at Huzzah Hobbies. Hopefully in 2017 I can step up the tournament attendance a bit - I hope to add Malifaux to the mix!

For 2017 events wise, I plan to continue to head to GenCon and NOVA Open. I will probably attend Historicon as well for it's last year locally, but it won't be something I'll travel to when it moves to New England. I might get either Las Vegas Open or Adepticon into the mix this year as well.

Game wise, I plan to continue with Dropzone Commander/Dropfleet Commander, Malifaux, and Battlegroup. I wouldn't be opposed to getting some more Kings of War and By Fire and Sword in the mix either. I doubt 2017 will see as much painted - 2016's totals were inflated by the massive Historicon event I committed to, and I don't plan on doing something so large this year!

Hope everyone has a Happy New Years!
-Scott

1 comment:

  1. Dropfleet Commander has grabbed my attention and I might pick up the stater set in 2017. Looks like you had a great year with painting.

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