2012 Reflections

As 2012 comes to a close, I reflect on the Man Cave year which had very high highs and some corresponding lows at times.

Comrade James entertains a rare 'Lady gamer' at our Dark Ages demo game at CANCON 

It started off relocating north about 800 kms, and having my 'Wargamer Dad' article published in WI291 (here). This has now leant itself to me having a regular column in the Campaigner e-magazine which is quite the honour and I'm looking forward to that continuing on into 2013.  We then ran a Dark Ages participation game at CANCON in late Jan (here) which was a great experience and a lot more work that I had anticipated.  I certainly appreciate the effort required a lot more now!

Blood Bowl continued to be the big game for us both this year. Right Stuff competed in his first ever tournament with the Blood Bowl National Championships in Jan, peaking in the top 10 (of 56 coaches) at Round 5 and finishing up with a 3:1:1 record (here)   He followed this up at the Eucalyptus Bowl (Australia's largest tournament) and then the Canberra Cup in July where he came 7th out of 16 coaches with his Slann team.  This year he also played in the local ACTBBL - first in the Rookie Division and then in the Minors league with his Norse team Oddinn's Champions.  Mixed success but lots of fun and lots of great opponents in the league- thanks guys (here)

Right Stuff beating some Dwarves at the Blood Bowl nationals

For myself I painted up a Khemri team in a Chinese theme, the Terracotta Terrors, which came second in the FFields' "Team Too Cool" competition (here and here).  I followed this up by taking said Khemri team to the Eucalyptus Bowl, where I  won my first ever tourney prize as Best Sunday Coach (here) - pretty awesome and nobody more surprised than me!  Otherwise my blood bowling has been restricted to Right Stuff beating the pants off me more often than not in the Man Cave Stadium.  I also painted up a few other bits and bobs this year , including some cultists (here) and other pulp/horror figs which was a bit different and a lot of fun.  

Unexpectedly award winning - the Terracotta Terrors

This year I made a new wargamer friend, Alan aka Dux Hormunculorum, who introduced me to SAGA, a fine brewery in Sydney and got me back into Dark Ages gaming.  Accordingly a number of treats showed up under the tree including all the SAGA rulebooks plus Norman and Irish warbands.  Looking forward to our next beers and games Alan!

Beers with a new buddy

Life events included an amazing year at work in a position I have aspired to for over 20 years, I resuscitated a stranger on the side of the road, said a sad farewell to my beloved beagle Banjo, and Right Stuff gave us quite a scare recently in hospital (all is well now thank goodness).  Pleasingly we all survived the predicted  Apocalypse, and I was also honoured to become a Godfather to my nephew - so Gamer Lad Ver2.0 is on the cards a little down the track!

Next year will see a relative hobby Dark Ages for me as I go farther afield for an extended period.  Coincidentally, Comrade James is moving back to our home town, enabling him to take up a gaming mentor role, and thus Right Stuff can continue playing in the local BB league.  Thanks so much buddy, it means so much to both of us.  So 2013 will be grim in terms of hobby stuff and blog posts, and I wont be able to visit and comment on everyone's blogs as I like to do, but I'll be looking forward to all the catching up later on.  

Thanks to everyone for their support in 2012 (during which we passed the amazing 'blog milestones' of 400 followers and 200,00 hits) .  The Man Cave wishes you all a safe, happy and healthy 2013!

See other Man Cave "Years in Review" here