2018 hobby retrospective

Greetings all.

As is customary for this time of year, I thought I'd write up a little review of how this year has gone. It shouldn't take me long, because this year has been quite a rubbish one, both in terms of life challenges, and hobby output... I've painted a frankly pitiful 40 models this year, although I have managed to play a few games and whatnot, so it hasn't been a total wash. I'll do a big dump of photos and then maybe add a few resolutions at the end.

Some star players, templates, and tokens for my Blood Bowl team.

Never Mind the Orruks take part in a local BB league. They were stomping heads pretty well, but unfortunately I had to drop out of the league due to family commitments. 

A few Frostgrave goodies and baddies.

A load more Nurgle Daemons for AoS/40k.

The first of my Nurgle mortal (Rotbringer) followers for AoS.

More sideline staff for my BB team. This one is obviously for the Sports Wizard inducement (and for when a player gets turned into a frog...).

A fun little Rogue Trader esque game that Alex and I played during a gaming day hosted by Mark from Heresy of Us to promote his excellent Mag Bellum terrain system.

And that's that. It's been a bit of a struggle to find the motivation to paint this year, as we've had quite a lot going on as a family. I'm pleased that I've managed to pick up the brushes occasionally, and even roll some dice too. Looking at my last lot of resolutions (admittedly from the start of 2017...) it's not been a complete failure:

1. Actually paint my Orc Blood Bowl team! Now that the new game is out and I know what has changed (or mostly not, as the case may be), I can actually crack on and get these done.

This one I completely smashed, I'm very pleased to say! There are a few more bits that I might add in the future, depending on how the game develops, but for now I'm calling these guys done. They've even managed to see the tabletop a few times, but not as many as I'd hoped.

2. Revamp my daemons for 40k. I was going to tackle my KDK army, but given that there is a new edition rumoured for sometime this year, I don't really want to start something from scratch. I've already got hundreds of daemons painted, and there are a few bits I want to work on just to make them into an army that I can start playing with again.

This one was a partial success I suppose. I've been working on my AoS daemons, and a lot of them translate over to 40k pretty well.

3. Work on my familiars side project. It shouldn't take me long to get them all done, but I'll only be working on them as and when I feel like it.

This just didn't happen at all. However I am planning to pick it up in 2019.

4. Paint a big bunch of Nurgle daemons for Age of Sigmar! I've finally been drawn in, and decided to give AoS a try. I never really played Fantasy, so I don't have any of the hang-ups about it that long time Fantasy players might have. It looks like a fun game, and seems to be growing well, so I'm gonna give it a try!

This one I'm calling a success too. I've still got a load more to do, but that's ok. In terms of the game itself, I kinda go back and forth on it, but now that 2nd edition is out I'm hoping to get a few more games in.

Right, resolutions for 2019:

1. Familiars project! If I make a plan and stick to it, I could get this done very quickly. 
2. More Nurgle. I'd like to have a playable force for both AoS and 40k painted by about July.
3. Necromunda. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do for this, but I definitely want to do something. Probably a Chaos Cult, but I would like a house gang too.
4. Dragon Rampant. I'm not sure about this yet. I've just picked up the rules, and it looks like good fun. I can throw something together with what I already have painted, but if I really like it then I might paint a few bits specifically for it.
5. Other Osprey stuff. Ok so this is a bit of a wishy washy resolution, but basically I want to paint stuff for and play a few other skirmish games like Ghost Archipelago and Rangers of the Shadow Deep (ok, that one isn't actually Osprey).
6. Play more games! I haven't played enough games this year, so the intention is to play many more next year. Definitely with a bit of a focus on Blood Bowl and Necromunda, because those are the two that got me hooked on all this nonsense in the first place.

That's it for now. I've got a few bits that I'm working on currently, including something very special to me, so hopefully you'll hear from me again before too long...

Blood Bowl, Week Two

Greetings all.

Another pretty quick post for me, as I *still* haven't painted anything... However, I did manage to get in another Blood Bowl game this week, in the league at my local club.

I was planning to take a few more pictures of this game, but my opponent hadn't yet painted his team, so I decided not to. He was a great opponent though, and this was a tense and very close game, right until the end. Two games played and two wins under my belt, so off to a good start.

This week's game was against Goblins, a team that I've never actually played against, and it was quite an interesting one! Even though they're supposedly a bottom tier team, they're definitely not to be underestimated. Secret weapons and Trolls can go a long way!

My Orcs won the roll off and elected to receive, caging up nice and early, and planning to cause some carnage while slowly moving down the pitch. A classic Orc strategy. Although it did actually go to plan, the sneaky little gobbos certainly made me work for it... between bombs, fanatics, and trolls, my boys ended up getting bogged down for a long time, and we were lucky to break free and make a run for the end zone. I just made it in time for the half time whistle.

In the second half, I didn't have quite so many secret weapons (or indeed Goblins) to contend with, but it still ended up getting pretty interesting. My Orcs had managed to steal the ball from the Goblins, and had caged up in one of the wide zones with a good amount of time to spare. Unfortunately, a well-thrown bomb, followed by an equally well-thrown Goblin, meant I was almost looking at a 1-1 draw. Luckily it was at this point that Nuffle turned his back on my opponent, and I managed to steal the ball back and make a break for the end zone (thanks to a very un-Orcy passing play).

Another 2-0 victory for my boyz, a level up for a Black Orc (taking Block), and some more winnings (to go towards a second thrower or troll). It's all going suspiciously well at the moment, but let's hope my good fortune continues...

Blood Bowl at the club

Greetings all.

Ok so not really much of a post, but I'm trying to get back into the habit and whatnot. I actually haven't painted anything new in a little while, mostly because my limited free time has been filled with obsessively trying to complete the new Tomb Raider game, and also actually playing the odd game or two of toy soldiers!

To make the latter a bit more likely, I've joined up to a little Blood Bowl league at my local club. Blood Bowl was one of the games that got me into gaming in a big way in my formative years (Necromunda was probably the other, with a smidge of Warhammer Quest on the side), and it still holds a special place in my heart. The new edition is great, and it's good to be playing it again.

Here's an action shot from my game last week, against some nicely painted (new) Skaven. The boys didn't let me down, and we walked away with a 2-0 victory, and no injuries.

In case you missed seeing my team the first time round, here they are again:

I'm down for another game tonight, so I'll snap a few more pics if I can. Till next time!