2017 Gaming Year in Review

All in all, this year saw less painted stuff than 2016 - 994 things. The vast majority (943 of them) was 28mm figs, which is a change from last year's 15mm domination. The year can most be summarized with the return of Warhammer 40k. The "new" edition has a lot of local players returning to the game, so I figured I'll follow suit.

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.

Year in Review: 2015

2015 saw a decrease in new projects as I continue to "try" to focus my wargaming into just By Fire and Sword and Dropzone Commander, but as usual, there are plenty of distraction side projects.

Dropzone Commander continues to be a main focus, although I can't say I painted a lot of it in 2015 - mainly because I already owned most everything for every faction prior to this year!  I acquired and painted off 2015's new releases as they came out, but releases have been slow due to the work on Dropfleet. Most of the year's releases centered around Resistance, which is also the army I took to (and won) Las Vegas Open and GenCon with. (And lost spectacularly on my home field at NOVA Open!)

Towards the end of the year, I did work on a lot of terrain - including two tables of 4Ground stuff and three more Monorail kits.

By Fire and Sword has been my driving historical game of 2015. I massively increased my Ottomans to a truly unnecessary size, and also started a quite sizable Cossack army.

I have pretty much lost all interest in WW2 Flames of War. I have continued to play WW1 FoW with our local crew, but haven't started any new projects with it. I did buy a decent force for the FoW Vietnam Brown Water Navy expansion this summer, and ran a few large Vietnam games. Sadly, Battlefront's 2016 preview has nothing for Vietnam at all, and I have a feeling that line is now dead.

The end of the year saw the release of Team Yankee. I already had a decent microarmor Cold War Polish collection, but it didn't translate to the units used in Team Yankee at all. So I expanded them further to encompass the Team Yankee options, and also picked up an American army to fight them.

Games Workshop killed off my beloved Warhammer Fantasy quite spectacularly, but before that, they did run an "End Times" series, with some gorgeous new Skaven models that I of course picked up. Never used them for Warhammer Fantasy though....

But I did start up Kings of War in WFB's absence. I haven't played a ton of it with my Skaven, but I have made use of last year's Pike and Shot army, and started a new army - Wood Elves, which I "multibased" for KoW specifically.

Frostgrave came and went. That was a flash in the pan. But it didn't die before I had a chance to complete a Puppet army for it! All Malifaux figures, so I guess if I ever wanted to play Malifaux again, I could use them for that.

On the completely random projects front, I painted up some more Light Infantry for my Napoleon at War French army (still have yet to play it beyond demos) and a random DBA army, which I promptly sold.

2015 has seen a rise in my interest of board games, especially those from Plaid Hat Games. I painted up Mice and Mystics and Tail Feathers

Also did some reinforcements from 2014's board game flop, Myth. Hoping the new Myth 2.0 rules will reignite some interest in the game, and I hope Tail Feathers continues to grow in 2016.

I jumped head first into Star Wars Armada, and painted up those fighters, and then sold that off too....just not a convenient local group to play it with.

As far as events go, travel was about the same as 2014. I traveled to Las Vegas Open, Historicon, GenCon, NOVA Open, and Fall-In. I played in DZC tournaments at Las Vegas Open (1st), GenCon (1st), and NOVA Open (somewhere close to last). I ran a multiplayer DZC/Roleplaying game at Historicon, as well as a massive 12 player By Fire and Sword game based on the Siege of Vienna.

At our local shop, I ran one 12 player DZC league (that's technically still going on), ran four FoW tournaments, and hosted numerous participation games. We also had one 12 player BFAS tournament hosted by my mate Frank (I came in somewhere near the bottom of that one too - I seem to do worse in events the closer to home they are!)

A large chunk of the year was cut out due to purchasing a house, and the packing/unpacking of all this crap you see here. But now, I have a full fledged nerdgaming room, complete with a modular 4x8 table, shelves of terrain for all eras and styles, and glass cabinets displaying almost all of my figures.

Looking forward to 2016, I intend to continue my focus with DZC and BFAS, although I will probably travel less for it this year. I also anticipate a lot more board gaming - I'm currently enamored with Tail Feathers, Mice and Mystics, Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, and Heroes of Normandie, and hoping to re-add Myth to that rotation. I've also had good luck hosting some non-gamer game nights of board games with games such as Settlers of Catan, Dead of Winter, and the new hit, Codenames.

Happy gaming in the new year!

TL;DR - 1166 models painted this year, and 47 pieces of terrain.

Year in Review: 2014

This year in 2014 was fairly productive. A few new ventures, and a few expansions. Roughly on par with 2013.

Year in Review: 2013

I don't do a lot of "discussion" posts without newly painted figures to show off, but this is one of them. Buckle in, or ignore!

Painting

I painted up 20 entirely new armies in 2013. This includes

• Nine Flames of War Armies (EW Polish 10th Motor, EW French, FoW 'Nam US and PAVN, EW Soviets, AIW Arabs, LW US Tanks, MW Italians, LW Hungarians)
• Four Bolt Action armies (French, Polish, Partisans, Italians)
• Cygnar, including two Stormwalls
• Two BFAS armies (Swedish and Polish)
• One 40k army (Chaos Marines and Demons combined)
• One Fanticide army
• Two SAGA armies, one of which was given away at WWPD4Vets

I also did tons of additions to random projects, including a lot of FoW Soviets and British, touching up a lot of WFB Skavens, and significantly expanding my DZC UCM and Scouge.

As a side note, I had a 2013 New Year's resolution to paint up a Forgeworld Phantom Titan. That never made it past base coating, primarily because I decided to change the color scheme and never got around to it re-base coating.

Gaming

My main foci of  2013 were Flames of War, Bolt Action, Dropzone Commander, and By Fire and Sword. I played a bit of some Infinity, Chain of Command, Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, and Warmachine. My board gaming saw a steady decline in 2013, but I did pick up some real gems like Firefly and Boss Monster.

 

I played in eight Flames of War tournaments this year across five different states. I ran three FoW tournaments, one at Huzzah and obviously the two at NOVA Open. I also played in two Dropzone Commander tournaments, one of which I also ran, and played in two Bolt Action tournaments.

Traveling and Conventions

I traveled more in 2013 than I ever have for nerd-gaming. I attended all three HMGS conventions, which are all within a three hour drive. I drove up to Templecon in February and out to GenCon in August. I also ran the FoW events once again at NOVA Open. I had a ton of fun at each of these conventiosn, and will be retuning to all of them in 2014. I am most excited about Templecon.


I'm not sure if I'll add anything to the calendar this year. Possible considerations include Adepticon, Wolfkrieg, or something west-coasty, but only time will tell if it happens.

Looking Forward

So what do I expect in 2014? Probably a pretty drastic slow-down on new projects. At this time, the only new projects on the horizon include FoW Israelis and WW1 Russians, BA Americans, and Pike and Shot (which will double as a WFB Empire army).

I intend to increase my pushing of Dropzone Commander and By Fire and Sword - both truly amazing games. I would also like to attend more FoW tournaments this year.

Hope to see you at a gaming store, nerd convention, or internet forum soon!