2024 in Review

I've done 15 of these posts before, but this one feels different. This year we've lost 3 wargaming friends to the big tabletop in the sky (vale Rolfe, Mike & Stephen; you will be missed fellahs). Two mates recently survived heart attacks (one just this week) and two others have started cancer treatments. Made me reflective and appreciative; you'll see that I now post more pics of the people I am playing with, not just focusing on the tabletop.

AHPC 14 Wrap-Up with Reilly!

This year work has taken me far afield once again- from the High North of Norway and sailing in the Arctic Ocean, to looking across the Han River into North Korea, and deployments into the SW Pacific. My extended period in this Command role has now completed and it was an amazing experience.

Revisiting the awesome D-Day situation room at Ike's HQ, Southwick House (formerly HMS Dryad), Hampshire UK

On the gaming front, one of my key highlights was Alan and I getting our Roman Civil War project onto the table after years of planning, thanks to AHPC pushing me I might say. 

We used the quick playing, To The Strongest to get lots of troops on the table while still getting a solid outcome in less than 3 hours. While initially I thought I wouldn't like either the gridded system or the cards, both work very well indeed.

The day that Alan's Legion's Eagle was lost - literally!

I'm really chuffed to have finally gotten this army to the table after years of start-stop and disruption. No army is ever really 'complete' of course and some half painted units went into storage with disappointed looks on their little metal and plastic faces...

https://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2024/07/a-civil-war-4-years-in-making.html

Pompey got the odd Ally in his cause too! :-)

Consul Marty was loyal to Ceasar's cause though!

The (re)release of The Old World early in the year had us every excited and dragging out our old Warhammer Fantasy armies!

The 4 rank "Doombull Deathbus" with Shaman proved brutally effective

Reilly has not 1 but 3 of these Arachno-terrors in his army!

My Beastmen went from a 3rd tier army in WHFB 8th to quite competitive in The Old World

This year also saw Reilly (aka 'The Lad') move out of home - flying the coop some 2,000 kms north. We packed a number of hobby items into his car and had ourselves a great Boys' roadtrip. I love his frequent calls giving me the play by plays of his Blood Bowl games up there (some of them get posted here also)

His farewell game was an epic 10 player Battle Royale set in the Trojan wars, ending in he & I having a classic Hector vs Achilles duel! One for the ages :-) Check it out here: https://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2024/03/achilles-rampant-farewell-to-lad.html

Separately, there was some great gladiator action with Frank and his Blood on the Sand rules - look to 2025 for the Kickstarter!

During my travels this year in London, I got to catch up with long time friend David Crook of "A Wargaming Odyssey" (https://awargamingodyssey.blogspot.com/) for a pint or 3 and a great chat. 

Then I caught up with the effervescent Ashley from "Paint it Pink" (https://panther6actual.blogspot.com/) and the fabulous Susan. Together we went to the Roman Life exhibition at the British Museum which was really excellent  https://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2024/03/legion-life-in-roman-army.html

Photo with the only surviving scutum shield!

Conventions wise, together Slowpainter John and I attended CANCON (with Reilly also), BrisCon, ShireCon and MOAB - probably a record for me. 

CANCON Shenanigans!

A a rare sighting of Matt aka Blue Willow in the Canberra wilderness!

And a surprise visit from my Melbourne mate Rob - it had been over 20 years since we'd seen eachother!

Along the way I did my usual Annual Reading Challenge through Goodreads, for my 12th consecutive year. Helped considerably by Audible while painting and driving it must be admitted (unabridged versions only of course!)

And then we finished the year with the minor matter of moving to Hawaii for our next adventure.  Before I left, we enjoyed a big Space 1889 game with clubmate Gavin https://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2024/11/battle-for-trading-outpost-part-2.html

....and a fun, tropical themed game of Silver Bayonet with the gang: a wonderful sendoff! 

https://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2024/12/quest-for-golden-pineapple.html

The Quest for the Golden Pineapple! Blessed to have such good gaming mates

As a natural outcome of the big move, I've forgone participating in AHPC this year. I'm helping Curt out by being a Minion which will be fun, but I'm really missing the therapeutic brush time.

Mrs Man Cave and I are very excited about the opportunities to live in the US again and enjoy life on a tropical island too, but I've had to leave most of my hobby materials behind. Only a couple of boardgames, a few rules sets and some brushes came with me. I'm now looking around to see what the local wargaming scene might look like.

Roadtrippin' with Slowpainter John! Many bakeries were raided...

Hobby wise 2025 and the few years beyond, is rather tough to chart out or even guess at. I'm looking at a few low figure count skirmish games with RPG lite elements (including 5 Parsecs from Home, Devilry Afoot, Deth Wizards and Silver Bayonet) and SAGA: Age of Chivalry interests me, but it depends on what I can find being played locally (also just found an alt medieval history game called 1490Doom that looks fun and only uses 3 models per side!)  

Comrade James and I catching up in Perth mid-year for games!

It's likely that my hobby will be focused away from tabletop miniatures for awhile. I've brought a few boardgames with me and had had my eye on others for awhile. I definitely want to get to Historicon too. I'm also considering doing some design work for some new games and expansions, which I've enjoyed doing in the past - we'll see what comes of that.

May your 2025 bring good hobby and great times with your mates!