Well, it’s that time of year again for us hobbyists and gamers. The time when we look back at the year that was, mulling over what we’ve accomplished and what goals we’ve failed at, while similarly looking towards the next year, deciding what pledges to make and what games to prioritize.
Today I will be looking back at my 2012. I think I will start chronologically, as that makes the most sense for now.
January
I started 2012 off quite well. As I was finishing up my 9-month paternity leave, I began blogging DAILY, and I was reading regularly and managed to finish the Star Wars: New Jedi Order series. I got into painting in a big way, which was a new thing for me: I started working on my Firestorm Armada Terran fleet; I got back to my Heavy Gear Blitz Southern starter box; I continued work on C&C Ancients in 3D (Wargames Factory Romans); painted some robots for my Battlestations in 3D project; and worked on the Ortegas, a Malifaux crew that had been sitting around doing nothing for a few years.
In terms of failures, pretty much everything came to a screeching halt. The only things that managed to survive my MO of not completing things were blogging daily, the Heavy Gear Blitz models, and the Ortegas. This last bunch I managed to paint in 5 days. 5 models in 5 days? That is unheard of in my painting history. Heck, 1 model in 5 days would previously have been a stretch. But I did it. And to date I still think I am most proud of the family. So they get my MVP (Most Valuable Paintjob) Award for January:
Another productive aspect of the month was getting Loy into Malifaux, both increasing my plays of this awesome game and re-popular-ising it among the group. I actually played it 4 times that month, which was awesome.
February
Sure, I may have dropped the ball on a few projects already, but my overall hobby output was on the rise, now hitting levels never before seen. No more would I be fielding bare metal or primed-only models on the tabletop!
In gaming terms, I played more board games than minis this month. But I did get to play Warhammer again, re-piquing my interest after months of my armies sitting stagnant and bored. I was back to using Empire, which I even to this day have a love-meh relationship with.
In terms of painting, this month was crazy different from January. I didn’t work on any of the same projects as the months before. Instead, I worked on a single Space Marine as a side project; picked up and painted 3 Cygnar Stormsmiths; picked up some GameCraft Old West Buildings; and with Loy and Andrew in tow, got into Freebooter’s Fate with the Imperial Armada starter.
Well, at least this month I finished more than I didn’t. The Space Marine, Stormsmiths and Imperial Armada crew all got completed. I built the Old West buildings, but only started to paint them before leaving them alone.
The MVP Award for this month goes to the Imperials. While (*spoiler!*) we dropped the game quite quickly, despite it’s interesting fight mechanics, I was very happy with how the group turned out:
March
“All good things must come to an end,” or so they say. And thus, by early March both my blogging and gaming slowed down. So sad.
What did not slow down was the new stuff I was picking up! Not only did I get more Old West buildings (damn online sales!), but I also got myself into Dark Age, with two factions! New things I didn’t need and a whole new game system. Yup, sounds like a regular month for me 
At least I didn’t also get into Urban War, which I was planning on (…and still am…)
Painting was a mismatch once again. I continued to work on my Empire models, mostly horses and my General and BSB Captain. I also started on the Dragyri warband for Dark Age, as they were supposed to be my main faction. And the last thing was beginning work on Abuela Ortega, the last Family model at the time to go with the other Ortegas.
I offer out no MVP Award this month, as it was a pretty sad one all around. I also put up a little update of my Game Plan for 2012. Speaking of sad! Oi!
April
April was another low-gaming month for me, but I did manage to get 3 games of Warhammer Fantasy in, which was an awesome feat.
Painting, though, was relatively good this month. Not a high number of completed projects, but I did manage to finish painting Abuela, the Empire General and the entirety of the Dragyri warband! Sweet deal! I even started painting some Alkemy figures that I had gotten off Andrew (as another what-would-become-yet-another-failed-Tale-of-Gamers-challenge), but I only managed a couple at that point.
Hrm. I’m torn between Abuela and the Dragyri as my MVPs this month. Hey, since last month didn’t get any, why not both!?
May
May. May was a good month. Not only did my son turn 1, but I managed 4 games of Malifaux and 3 games of Warhammer Fantasy! Plus…*drum roll*…our first game of Dark Age! Woohoo!
May was also a big month in terms of ‘new.’ First, I traded my High Elf army (everything I had except for the Dragon kit, which I intend to build and paint one day) to Andrew for his Tomb Kings and Dreadfleet. I would get a bit of hobbying done in future months thanks to this trade. I also picked up a complete crew of Showgirls for Malifaux off of Scott, who we had gotten into Malifaux by now and who was fast becoming both a regular opponent and a big fan of the game. And lastly, I opened up my Outcast warband for Dark Age.
So I had a lot of new stuff on the table. The only thing I actually finished painting was the Empire BSB Captain, to go with the General. A lot of WIP this month, so I guess the MVP Award goes to the Empire characters:
June
It’s hard to tell how things were moving at this point, as my blogging started going way…way…downhill.
By now I was only going out once a week, on Tuesday, to Meeplemart, so gaming time was precious. I managed to alternate Warhammer and Malifaux this month, getting two games of each in.
Most of my hobby time was taken up by the Showgirls and the Tomb Kings, I believe. Mostly Tomb Kings, though.
I think I only fully finished one model, so the MVP Award goes to Cassandra of the Showgirls:
July
Another month of sparse blogging means I’m not sure exactly how things were going at this point. I know I was busy in real life, though, so what time I could get to paint was once again very dear.
Gaming was relatively plentiful this month, however. I got in a handful of games of Dark Age (managing to rope in Andrew, Rob and xombe into the game), a few Malifaux, one of Warhammer, and even a couple of Hell Dorado (see below).
So, Hell Dorado. Like we needed a new game system! But we did get into it. Briefly. Very briefly. It’s not a bad game, we just didn’t/don’t have time for it. I’d love to come back to it, though, as I do think it has potential. Thankfully Hell Dorado got little of my hobby time, so I got to spend it instead on the Showgirls and the Outcasts. I managed to get the Showgirl starter crew finished, and most of the Outcast warband finished. Yay!
While I’m not as happy with the Showgirls as I was with the Ortegas, this month’s MVP Award goes to another completed Malifaux crew:
August
Beginning in July I had started splitting my Tuesday nights between minis with the gang at Meeplemart and a Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition campaign at a friend’s place. So gaming continued, but minis-gaming was halved.
I did manage to keep the painting going, though, as I finished up the rest of the Outcast warband and began work on the other models I picked up. The warband gets my MVP Award this month, as I don’t have much else finished to show for it.
I did manage to write a late-mid-year recap of my Game Plan for 2012. I pretty much just split up a bunch of games I had planned/tried/considered working on this year into two posts. I don’t even think I managed to finish writing up the update! Yeesh!
September
Gaming shot up again to its highest point all year, with 21 games played! A great number for the year, although quite paltry compared to back in the day when I was hitting 60, 70, even 80+ games a month. But, things change when you grow up, get married and have a kid (with another on the way, at this point).
September was great hobbywise as well. I managed to buckle down and complete the rest of both the Showgirls and the Outcasts. Although I like the quality of the Outcasts more, I have to say that I am happy that I finished both forces, so they’ll both get my MVP Award this month:
It was also this month that I started working on Dreadfleet and I started blogging a bit more regularly again.
October
Another great month for gaming, this one. Although, just like the last few months, miniature gaming was pretty low. Out of the 17 games I played in October, only 2 were actual minis, being Dark Age and Malifaux.
Hobbywise I spent the better part of October putting together and painting the two big ships for Dreadfleet. Without a doubt, even if I had painted other stuff this month, they would get the MVP Award for their sheer size and complexity:
And for the fact that I am totally, totally happy with how they turned out. It’s too bad I stopped at the two. I’ll have to give the other ships some love in the new year, for sure.
Movember
Ah, November. The Month of the ‘Stache. The month my wife despises. It was a great month for gaming, for hobbying and for growing my moustache!
I managed to paint up 11 models this month. Not a high amount, but most of them wear moustaches, so it’s win-win all around. I’m going to give all 11 models, Bloody Bradigan and 10 Black Scorpion Cowboys, the MVP Award this month. I am really impressed with how they all turned out. Pretty much this entire year is full of models that I painted that I am proud of. Go me! Go moustaches!
I also managed to hit 10,000 all-time views at the end of the month. What a milestone for this blog! Thank you to everyone for dropping by, even if it’s by accident and you just head back to where you meant to go right away. I’m used to and okay with talking to myself, so knowing others out there might care to hear what I think and see what I paint is pretty awesome.
December
December sees a drop in gaming and hobbying: sad.
December sees the birth of my second-born son: happy.
So, of course I am going to ‘blame’ Harper Chase for cramping my gaming and hobbying style this month, but he is a welcome addition to the family and I’ll make up for lost time later
This month I did manage to play a few games, all at my house (as come December I decided it was time to stay home on Tuesdays, just in case the baby came early) and was either a deck-building game (Legendary and DC) or a minis game (Warhammer, Malifaux and Warmachine).
Oh yeah, so we got back into Warmachine. Hence why my only painted model this month (as I don’t think I will be able to finish any more in the next few days…but you never know!) is a Khador Juggernaut.
I did manage to build the entirety of my Ogre Kingdoms Battalion yesterday, which is great. But that’s just a build. That doesn’t count. Much.
So the MVP Award of course goes to the Juggernaut, who, although he’s not exactly how I wanted him to look when I first started thinking about how I wanted him to look…looks just fine.
The Ogres will get some MVP Awards in the new year, for sure.
On the blog I have not yet, but will by the end of the year have managed to hit a total of 200 posts. 150 of them were written in 2012. Nice.
* * * * *
Well, that brings us to the end of the year. It was by far my best year for painting. My tally, which I think is accurate, comes to 83 fully-painted models! Again, that’s unheard of. There are very few models that I had fully painted before this year. There are a number of other models that I started this year, sadly. Some got quite close to being finished, some not so much. But, wow, 83. It was a great year for blogging as well, even with the very, very low-output months. While I played fewer games this year than any of the last few years, I played a lot of great stuff with great people, so I really can’t complain.
Tomorrow I will try and get my Game Plan 2013 post ready. It’s going to require a lot of thought and even more restraint. I don’t want to place all sorts of un-manageable goals ahead of me once again. But I will definitely talk about the things that I would like to accomplish, especially in light of looking back at 2012.
That’s 2012.
Thanks for reading.
