2014 Reflections

Another year comes crashing to an end at a paid pace and its time since again to look back upon the year and see what I've achieved hobby wise (if you are interested, find the previous four years detailed here).

Warbands struggle to control the Hilltop in one of our SAGA games

2014 proved to be a year of two very different halves.  From January to June I really made the most of being back from the Middle East and being in the same town as long time Man Caver Comrade James.  We got more gaming in both together and with other friends than I have achieved in a long time.  Bolt Action, Chain of Command and SAGA featured predominantly, which was a lot of fun.

Getting thematic as a WW2 Brit commander in Bolt Action!

Right Stuff and I enjoyed CanCon also, where he again participated in the National Blood Bowl Championships (coming a very respectable 23rd out of 46) and I was joined by old mates Ken and Peter from Melbourne who road tripped up the the event.  Many participation games and beers for us over the four days.

Right Stuff at the Nationals - clearly something just went awry during kickoff!

Peter and I (left) playing in a Tomahawks & Muskets game

We also participated in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and I started and finished an entire  28mm WW2 British Para force in under two months - an unheard of achievement - and then used it in several very enjoyable games.  The painting challenge was a lot of fun, especially our side bet comp with Alan (aka Dux Hormunclulorum) - well done on your win mate!  Cant wait to do it again another time.

My "Red devils" - I added a few more elements after this pic but you get the idea.

Separately, Right Stuff and I both had coached teams in the Rookie division of the Blood Bowl League (Where my Chaos Dwarf team, the Darkland Decimators, went undefeated - though with more than a few ties in their record).

The Darkland Decimators, my Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl team

Then in July the Man Cave was packed up, put into storage and I moved the family some 16,400 kms to the New England region of the USA (that is around 10,000 miles for the non metric locals).  I brought a few gaming books with me but there will be no painting or modelling for me for awhile.  Thats OK because my studies and travels here keep me sufficiently busy.

The Man Cave in early July; it had seen more productive times!

I also had to sell this baby - you could almost get a 40k Army for that money!

So my limited gaming time for the last six months was spent online gaming, buying stuff online, and looking at/reading the stuff I have bought online.  Amazon is awesome but not my wallet's friend...  I have a few plans to make the more of 2015 but thats for another post.

Blogwise The Man Cave clocked over 300,000 unique visits this year which is rather amazing, didn't quite crack 500 followers (maybe next year), and averaged over 2 posts per week between me, Comrade James and the odd one by Right Stuff as well. Not too shabby if I don't say so myself!

On a completely different hobby note, Reilly and I enjoyed Scouting (and sailing) in three different countries this year, having started 2014 at the New Zealand Scout Jamboree (see here).  We are now active members of our local Boy Scouts of America troop where I am a leader and he is on track to get his Eagle Scout at the end of our time here.

May 2015 bring you all health, happiness and hobby time!