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 2, Sharpe 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.

Merry Christmas!

Very best wishes to you all for a wonderful Jule and a hobby filled 2017!

Aussie Bloggers meet-up: CanCon 2017

Thanks to Millsy for knocking up this banner graphic 

After the success of last year's inaugural CANCON Aussie Wargame Bloggers Meet-up we'll be going around again this year. Kiwis (and even "Northern Folk") are welcome too cause we should always play nice and be neighbourly.... :-)

• 1:00pm - Initial meet-up in the Board Games section in the Northern Hall at CANCON to say g'day, check out respective loot bags and plan for any shared afternoon shenanigans.
• 6:00pm(ish) - Pub dinner and extended tall story session.

After last year's demands for a SAGA campaign book resulted in it being delivered just a few months later surely we can achieve something even bigger in 2017. Thinking caps on people!

If you're an Aussie blogger feel free to pinch any and all of this post to spread the word.

Be there to be part of next year's Rogues' Gallery!