Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017

2016 has gone, and it has been a pretty turbulant year personally and in broader terms.  Enough has been written about al the various things that have happened in the real world, so I won't comment on that.

In retrospect this was a pretty good year for gaming, with a bumper year for painting getting done, largely thanks to a back injury keeping me off the bike, 3 campaigns getting played  (one of which is still ongoing), and a few new games played.  My daughter and I finally finished the last the expansion sets for Dungeon Saga, and will be moving on to creating out own heroes and dungeons in the new year.

Painting was where the real success was this year, with a large amount getting done.  I normally paint just over 100 models a year, but this year I managed:

Conan

A blood angels army for Epic
50 or so Aliens for AVP, plus some Predators and 5 Colonial Marines
40 Uruk Hai to round out my War of the Ring Isengard army.
About 30 or son assorted fantasy figures, including adventurers, goblins and monsters.
10 Dark Elf cavalry for Warhammer (plus I rebased the entire army)
A Mordheim Undead warband
A few bits and bob for Frostgrave
A handful of display pieces, including some Stormcast Eternals and a few busts.
The Forward Base buildings from Antenicitis Workshop

Blood Angels Assault Force

Mordheim Undead

Forward Base

My Brothers 2015 Xmas Present, sadly no prize at Carronade this year though!

I entered a few painting competitions this year at shows that I was visiting and managed to pick up a 1st prize at each of them, which was also quite encouraging.  I have really enjoyed painting this year and have made great efforts to take the quality up a notch from good tabletop quality to something more suited to a static display.

In terms of games played it has been a mixed bag, as along with my usual trips to Middle Earth that I try and fit in across the year there was a wider than usual array of games being played, including:

Dux Britaniarum
Chain of Command
Aliens V Predator
Mordheim
Frostgrave
Age of Sigmar
Urban War
Field of Glory
Malifaux
Song of Blades and Heroes
Otherworld Miniatures Game
Daisho
Blood Eagle
Sword and Spear

By far the games I have played the most this year have been Mordheim and Chain of Command, but that is probably more due to them being regular campaigns.

Re-based Dark Elves

This year has been good for campaigns at the club, with a Frostgrave Campaign, 2 Chain of Command Campaigns, a Mordheim Campaign and a Dux Britaniarum campaign as well.

I played in three of these, with the Chain of Command going rather well with a German Victory, while the Dux Britaniarum campaign sort of fizzled out due to the difficulty some of the players had advancing in the campaign. The Mordheim campaign is still ongoing, with a couple of games still to go.  In the end it was a bit of a stretch as at one point I was playing in three campaigns at once and they were pretty much taking up all my game time, so I have limited myself to one or two campaigns at any one time in the future.

Dux Britaniarum

Epic!

This year was tinged with sadness with the loss of my father in October, and gaming has been a big help in getting away from things for a couple of hours.

On the home front my Daughter Lucy and I have continued to plough our way through Dungeon Saga, and we finished the last of the expansions just after Christmas and are now looking at creating our own heroes and adventures. We also managed to start playing Conan as well, which is a great game let down badly by a terrible rulebook.  I haven't really done any other gaming at home as most of the people I game with live in the Falkirk/Linlithgow area and it is probably a bit far away for a decent nights gaming.

Dungeon Delving with Lucy

Kickstarter has also kept on delivering, with most managing to deliver at least something. In 2016 the following were delivered:

Forward Base by Anteniciti's Workshop

Conan the boardgame

The Halfman Army

Art of Trundvig

Kings of War Rulebook by Mantic

Northern Mercenaries.

So all in all a good year, but there are a few things I missed and would liked to have done:

Attend Salute. I have been once many years ago, and have always wanted to go back but make a proper weekend of it, rather than going down and up I one day.

Attend Vapnatrak in York. The club runs a free bus, but it always coincide with my sons birthday, so I don't really expect to ever be able to attend that one.

So what of 2017?

I don't really have any particular plans and will just continue going with the flow of whatever is popular at the club, while continuing to occasionally make a trip to Middle Earth or run some Aliens vs Predator. Despite what people say I am still quietly confident that I will eventually receive all of my pledge.

I will continue plodding away at my painting projects, with the only really new thing being the 15mm Ayyubid Egyptian I bought for Field of Glory. This was a fair old investment and will take up a fair amount of my time. In between I will keep adding to existing projects such as my Dark Elves, Aliens vs Predator and Middle Earth collection, while trying to fit in some display quality paint jobs in between.

My first game of the year will be 9th Age, the fan made version of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I have some reservation about this, and time will tell if they are correct or not. I am also looking forward to the completion of out Mordheim campaign as it is always a highlight of my gaming year, and then perhaps and campaign of Frostgrave may be possible. There is also a late Roman supplement for Saga due, and while the cost is eye watering it will be another use for my Dark Ages collection, which has been gathering dust since the end of the Dux B campaign and everyone moved on to play other systems.

The other thins I am looking into are the neoprene gaming mats. They seem to have taken off lately and I think they would be a good addition to the terrain collection.

Rogue Stars was also delivered just before Christmas, and while the book was slightly disappointing I am giving it a bash at the end of January so we will see then.

Epic has had something of a renaissance as well in the last year, with number growing from just myself and one other to a good half dozen players and there is quite often one or two games gatting played on a Monday night.

All in all a packed year ahead....

Last model of 2016.  Not quite finished.