Hey guys, welcome to my last post of 2012. It has been a long year for me and while my RL has not been that great in the last 12 months, I have accomplished a lot of stuff hobby wise. At the beginning of the year I set myself 7 goals (some of them 2 parters) that I wanted to achieve this year. While by the end of this post you will see I didn't meet very many of my goals, I do feel that I achieved a lot this year.
GOAL 1
Warhammer 40,000 - Paint 2000pt of models and play 10 games of 40k.
RESULTS: So I got painted 950pts of 40k this year. 40k really wasn't one of my primary games, even with the new 6th Edition being released. While I only played 6 of the 10 games I wanted to play I did sell off 3 armies worth of figs and assemble 2 allied groups for my Imperial armies (1 of Exodite Eldar and 1 of Imperial Guard).
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| Nurgle Chaos Lord I painted in 2012 |
Warmachine/Hordes - Paint 100pts of Warmachine Hordes and play 20 Games.
RESULTS: Warmachine was one of my primary games this year. Besides working on my Khador army I also stared a new Menoth army. I ended up painting 106pts of non-warcaster models and 29 bonus points worth of Warcasters. Please see below for group pics of both my Khador and Menoth models painted this year.
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| The Khador models I painted in 2012 |
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| Most of the Menoth models I painted in 2012 |
Flames of War - Paint 2000pts of Flames of War and play 20 games.
RESULTS: Wow, for one of my most played games in 2011, Flames of War really took a dive for me in 2012. I didn't paint any Flames of War stuff in 2012 at all. In fact while I kept all of my expansive collection of German stuff for all 3 time periods... I liquidated my gigantic Russians army, my Finnish army, and the fledgling US army I had kicking around to. While I did not get anything painted, I did play 8 of the 20 games I wanted to play this year, 3 of which were in the only tournament I played in this year.
I think a big reason for me not playing FoW this year was, that a new rules edition was released in March and the Russians (at the beginning of the year my primary army) also had some significant rules changes that I really don't like. Add these too factors together and I really had a hard time enjoying FoW at the beginning of the year, which caused me to stop playing the game and which cause me to be willing to part with the huge amount of FoW stuff I did this year.
GOAL 4
Play in 4 Tournaments in 2012
RESULTS: Yeah, well this was a major fail. I only managed to play in 1 tournament during 2012 and surprisingly, it was for my least active game from my goals, Flames of War. Next year I need to do better.
GOAL 5.
Participate in 2 Painting Competitions in 2012
RESULTS: This year I only managed to participate in 1 painting competition, and to be honest it wasn't one I could really win... as I was the organizer. It was a 50pt Warmachine Army painting contest that ended back in April, that I ran side by side with an escalation league. See the Khador models pictured in Goal 2 to check out the army I ended up painting for the Contest.
GOAL 6
Start and Complete 4 Special Projects in 2012.
RESULTS: This category was something special. One of my bad habits is to jump into all sorts of new games, sometimes without even trying them out first. Really what this category was meant to do was limit me to only starting 4 new games over the course of the year. I achieved its goal in that regards, but I did not finish any of the "Special" projects I started this year.
PROJECT 1: Dust Warfare - Dust Warfare ended up being the biggest new game I got into in 2012. I so far have collected models for all 3 Faction currently available in the game and while none of the 3 armies are complete, I painted playable forces for all 3. Expect to see Dust with it's own goals in 2013.
PROJECT 2: Saga - I took a look at Saga this year but never did much with it besides build an army and play a few intro games. While I am unsure if I will continue with the game in 2013, I am glad I gave this game a try, as it acted as a gateway to project 3.
PROJECT 3: Saxons Historical 28mm Army - I have always wanted to own a historical 28mm army to use in games like WAB (Warhammer Ancient Battles). Thanks to the discovery of Wargames Factory historical kits and the brief time I was excited about Saga, I figure out how to make my dream of owning a 28mm historical army a reality. Unfortunately Games Workshop closed the door of WAB this year (just after I finished assembling the army actually, all 220 models) which had me a bit distraught. However in stepped War & Conquest, a system based on WAB and written by its lead developer. Expect to see some historical goals in 2013 including getting this army all painted up.
PROJECT 4: Forge World 30K Army - While not a lot happened with this army in 2012, I did managed to get all the pieces I have been collecting over the last 2 years assemble and together into a cohesive army. With the release of Forge World's Horus Heresy Book at the end of this year expect to see the army begin to develop in 2013.
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| The Army as it stands currently, minus a few minis |
Sell, Trade, or Give Away as many models as possible in 2012
RESULTS: I had a rousing success with this in 2012. While I added a good amount of models to my collection over the course of 2012, I also sold close to 1000 models over the course of the year. In the process I parted with everything I had for several games including Mercs, Malifaux, all 3 Spartan Games... games (Fire Storm Armada, Dystopian Wars, and Uncharted Seas), and Alkemy. I also parted with 3 armies for 40k, 3 armies for Flames of War, a Lizardman army from WFB, a Skorne army from Hordes, and a Mercs army for Warmachine.
While the above goals cover most of what I did in 2012, it does not cover everything. In July I started working part time at Huzzah Hobbies, my local LGS. So far I have had a blast helping to grow and support the community at the store. One side effect of beginning to work at Huzzah, was after a bit of encouragement I started playing Magic the Gathering again in the middle of the 2013 Core Set. It is surprising to me how much fun I have had with Magic, both collecting and trading cards, and playing games. The Magic Drafting format is really fun and I have just started getting a handle on Standard (back in the day called Type 2) Play. The next set to be released is called Gatecrash. It is the second set of the Return to Ravnica Block and will be releasing Feb.1st. I expect to write a good bit about my experience with Magic in 2013 here on my blog.
I also have played quite a bit of Wings of War in 2012, taking part in 2 campaigns over the course of the year. I also gave the new X-Wing game a try (which is based on Wings of War). While fun, it didn't grab me in the same way Wing of War did. I also have started play the new Iron Kingdoms RPG with a group at Huzzah Hobbies. I am having a blast and look forward to running a campaign of my own in Winter/Spring of 2013.
In conclusion, even though I only managed to complete only 2 of the 7 goals I set out for myself, I feel that hobby wise 2012 was a great year. I got to play lots of fun games with a large and varied group of people. What more can you ask for?
Come visit me tomorrow for a look at my new hobby goals for 2013.