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!

Bloodbowl - the new Season begins

We picked up our big box of fun today, including the Deathzone expansion.  Nice hefty weight to it!
The components are great - there are plenty of reviews around on the inter web, sufficient to say that its very cool, even to Blood Bowl veterans.

The happy Lad with his new shiny...

The same lad 5 1/2 years ago beating me for the first time :-)

Hmmm...that new game smell!

The pitch and dugouts are double sided - traditional grassy on one side and  Orky on the other

We had no time to loose, not even to make up the new players.  Out came some old favourites - Reilly's Da Smashing Pumpkinz (which he made up out of Warhammer Orc figures) and my trusty Skaven for a quick test drive.  We were rather rusty to start with but it all came back rather quickly.

I'd forgotten what a good job he had done on these guys and their basing matches the new pitch perfectly

The new pitch has some lovely detail

And yes, Reilly smashed my rats flat!

3 KOs and 3 Casualties in a single half.  Oh yes, I remember how playing Skaven goes again now...

And as a result of the return of "Right Stuff" Reilly, he is now signed up to AHPC VII to get some paint onto those nice new models.  And thus, we have the first ever Dad vs Lad side challenge!

By Crom, its a new Club Venue and a Painting Challenge!

Last night the lads of the Odin's Night Gaming Club christened a new Wed night venue in the function room above a pub.  Not only is it spacious, it has access to a full bar and bistro below - a winning combination in anyone's book!

The new Hall of Heroes - now with Adult Beverages!

To christen this new Hall of Heroes, Dave brought along his newly delivered Conan boardgames. Yes, the one from that long, long delayed Kickstarter.  And a fittingly mighty box it was too.

Its a co-op game with one player taking the role of evil overlord and running the minions trying the thwart the characters' mission.  I got first pic of the characters so I naturally chose the closest broad shouldered Cimmerian with a notoriously short temper and brooding eyes.  He was a bit of a beast in action with his broad bladed battle-axe, and it gave me lots of chance to do movie quotes in a very bad Arnie accent.  Compulsory really.

"What is Best in Life?"

Overall, I was quite impressed with the game mechanics and the resource management aspects are quite elegant.  Looking forward to playing some more.

Dave described this as "my pic where Conan slays the snake...picks up the princess... and in true story book fashion... carries her to safety at the very last minute before the pict horde arrives.... of course can't remember the bit in the stories when all his friends are left on the village to be slaughtered..."

Our exclusive bar - now known as The Hobbit's Armpit

The Dux engrossed in his book over a post game pint

Finally, its time for the AHPC gain - go here to sign up:
The Seventh Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

And if in doubt, take no heed at all of Dux's declaration last night (click to play)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxd3rhwHuBthSE5Yc3JMaHRub2M/view

Back to some Blood Bowl!

The lad and I were walking through town today and thought that we should drop into the GW store to see when the new Blood Bowl will be out.  Turns out that the release is next week and all the merchandise is now in store, along with a preview set of the game.

We played a quick drive with the lovely new figures.  As the Human team coach I won the toss, elected to receive, drove hard down the left side of the pitch and fired a long pass to attacker in the end zone.  Touchdown!!!

Some of the new plastic figs - really nice

Old rivals face off once again...

The new plastic tokens are very gucci

TD baby - oh yeah, we're back!

We had a bit of fun and remembered how much we love this game.  Reilly even said he would like to try painting the human team, which is a great development, and we are looking forward to picking up our pre-ordered copy at the release next week.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Blood-Bowl-2016-ENG
http://www.thenaf.net/2016/11/bb2016-preview/