28 December 2016

2016 Reflections

Yes its time for another self indulgent look back at my Hobby year!  2016 was quite a shift in my hobby time after returning home to Australia after 18months without my gaming stuff in America and setting up in a lovely but small (i.e. no permanent hobby space) house in Sydney.  Some of the highlights were:

* Playing at our regular "Odin's Night" gaming club, which was BRILLIANT - reacquainting myself with old buddies Alan and John and meeting some great new opponents and friends - stirling chaps they are too.  Wargaming for me is all about a fun and thematic atmosphere with similarly minded people.  Just a few of the memorable highlights were:
Millsy hosted Dux and I to a great ECW game
...and rediscovered an old favourite game
A young Viking commander eagerly anticipates a SAGA battle
The Lad Pete and Ken and I caught up for a game in Melbourne
Comrade James and Q Man AKA "Jumper"

Reilly attacks the Dux with his lazer gaze attack in King of Tokyo, alas to minimal effect
John and Steve in a Galaxy far, far away...

* Acquired and most importantly played a great variety of games, but most of them only a few times.  Jugula and Dragon Rampant have probably been the most used that us far but my shelf also now holds Bolt Action 2Sharpe Practice2, Konflikt 47, Lion Rampant, Ronin, Baroque and Battlegroup Wacht Am Rhine just to name a few.

* Attended CanCon in Jan (with the fun Blogger meet up and dinner, finally meting a range of Blogosphere characters including the dapper Millsy) and MOAB in Oct.
The inaugural Aussie Blogger meet up at CanCon
* Wrote to the authors of SAGA on the back of appropriately beer soaked drink coasters, demanding a SAGA campaign supplement....


Which turned out to be great example of successful hobby lobbying and thus we claim all credit for this subsequent publication:


* Got a single miserable but satisfying entry in the Painting Challenge Season 6 and now very much enjoying participating in Season 7.  Its fun to be back with a plan and the opportunity to execute it.

* Spent lots of money with those lovely chaps at War and Peace Games!

Man Cave fans may have noticed that this year I have focused pretty much exclusively on sharing stuff I have painted and game I have played.  That has meant far less posts but the 2-3 a month have been more personal and meaningful to me, and I'm not really interested in the number of hits my blog gets.  It was nice to tick over 500 followers though.
Channeling my inner Viking in Norway last Christmas
So what did I paint? Actually not very much when compared to some, but I enjoyed it all given I hadn't picked up a brush in almost 2 years.

My Koryu Buntai for Ronin (during AHPC Season 6)

My "Blue School" Gladiator Ludus for Jugula (who somehow remain undefeated!)

Colonial Rangers for FIW:

A couple of bits of terrain



And who could forget my first 1680mm figure :-) 

My other completed objective for the year was my annual Reading Challenge at the Goodreads site.  Thats four years in a row now and while I overall read less this year for a whole range of reasons, I achieved my aim of averaging a book a fortnight which was satisfying.

So what am I looking forward to in 2017? (which BTW never seems to be what I end up being mostly excited about!)

- Finishing my projects with the Painting Challenge, including a new WW2 Army for use with Bolt Action and Chain of Command

- The upcoming release of Battlegroup Tobruk  - Alan and I have long been looking forward to some forays into North Africa for a number of years!

- The annual pilgrimage to CanCon in January and the Aussie Blogger's Get-Together!


- Fun with friends. Thats what its all about after all!

I hope you all had a great hobby year also and best wishes for another in 2017.

18 comments:

  1. A cracking year by any standard mate! It was great to finally meet in person and share a few cold ones. The next instalment isn't far away and I'm very much looking forward to it for all the same reasons you've outline above.

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    1. It sure was! Thanks for being part of a great hobby year mate
      Looking forward to more in 2017!

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  2. Yay! I love these posts and yours is the first I've read. It looked to be a good year; lots of gaming despite your adult day time duties. I look forward to seeing what you produce in the challenge this year. Here's to another good gaming year.

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  3. Looks like you had a fantastic year in gaming. Wish you the best for 2017.

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  4. Sounds like a great year Paul :)

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  5. Good stuff! Looking forwards to catching up next month.

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  6. It looks like a fun and fulfilling year of hobby was had! Here's to the next!

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  7. Sounds like it was a fantastic year; here's hoping 2017 can top it.

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    1. Thanks Ed - our Mega Campaign was definitely a highlight also!

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  8. A great year indeed, and a great pleasure to share it with you.

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  9. It has been a lot of fun sharing the gaming year with you mate. Thanks for all the brilliant games, loads of laughs and cleansing ales. Looking forward to many more good times!

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  10. Great looking year - hears to an even better 2017!

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  11. A very good year. May 2017 be even better!

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  12. Nice retrospective Paul. Love those Ronin models; Great sculpts and very well painted. I think I was planning to say how jealous I was you had a better go at Konflikt '47 than I did but since it ended up largely relegated to the shelf I don't feel so bad.

    What actually made me envious is the shots you have with your mates actually playing games. This year I think I'm going to make the time to actually PLAY some games rather than just painting a modelling. "The Plan" is to get together with a group of friends and play some Frostgrave starting late Jan/ Early Feb. Best wishes for a New Year :) .

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