Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!

Well, with customary bloggers aplomb it seems de rigeur to offer an end of year summary, and offer some prognostication into the year ahead...

For me, the story of 2014 was a welcome return to Middle-Earth, and a solid return of the painting and modelling mojo. But it wasnt all paint and models, there was inspiration and gaming too, and a groundswell of growing interest in the game...

Last year started off with me rounding out my entries in Curts painting challenge... trying to finish off some Empire of the Dead building work, and then starting off a little LOTR gaming with my son, having been inspired, back then, by the second Hobbit movie... It was shortly after this that my son started to read the Lord of the Rings, which then in turn inspired a play through of the Fellowship scenario games for the LOTR SBG game... which in turn led to some somewhat bigger than first planned, terrain pieces, being built... The Watcher in Water board and the Durins Causeway board...

This in turn led onto more work on the LOTR figure backlog, as I churned out the figures we'd need to play through the scenarios, and looked ahead to the Two Towers scenarios...

As this was progressing, there was also some left over matters of a piractical nature that needed finishing, and I managed at long last to complete my pirate brig, The Temptress, and made a sea scape for her to sail on, and a Desert Ilse to explore...

Back to matters of a Middle Earth nature, and thanks again to the connectivity of the internet, with local  Facebook groups and local games clubs, and local stores, connecting, we saw the emergence of a group of players for LOTR, come out from the wood work, both new and old, and games start getting played again on a regular basis...

I met new folks like Andrew from Wello, and Ste who migrated from the UK... and touched base with the 'Wellington crew', thanks to hosts at the Warlords, and got games in with mates like Bryan and Brett too, and perhaps planted a little LOTR seedling with players down at the KWC, who knows, with a little care and TLC it may yet germinate... fingers crossed.

I'd also like to offer a little thanks for the on going inspiration from the folks who take part in the GBHL... it may be the other side of the world to me now, but their enthusiasm is infectious, so thanks guys...

In summary, I painted something like 250 figures, made a pile of terrain, blogged 120 posts, my most yet in a year, and played a great many games, at home, at mates houses and down the club. Probably not as many 'formal games' against adults, as the previous year, but more on the home front with my son, and thats got to be a good thing too :)

This also was the year of the radical shake up in hobby focus... as I decided to clear the decks of projects that were old, unloved, or never realistically going to get off the ground, or whatever... and this saw a load of unpainted stuff sold off from the lead mountain, and indeed painted stuff too was dispatched in the realisation that if it hasnt been played in more years than I can remember, it didnt seem likely to again... so out went 40k orks, WFB dwarfs, Dark Ages, Romans, SYW, ACW, Zulus and colonial Brits, and napoleonics, and some odds and sods too of FoW, cowboys, old RPG type models and more besides... and there is still more to go...

I am focusing on LOTR/Hobbit as my core game, and much of what was sold above, funded more purchases to fill gaps in my LOTR/Hobbit collection, and there is more new Hobbit stuff being churned out as we speak, including a certain large red Dragon... which I will need to source over time...

I am also hanging on to the Pirates stuff as I love the setting, the LotHS rules are still enjoyable, and experiments adapting EotD rules for the setting were very effective... and Empire of the Dead as again the setting and models appeal, even if the company's support for this game has been temperamental at best, (more models continue to slowly filter through), despite what appeared to be a successful Kickstarter... I would still like to see a formal rules update - the kickstarter folks received a Requiem Pdf... but I think it needed a few tweaks before being released... and this ongoing wait has been my frustration...

I have oddly hung onto the majority of my FoW stuff too... I dunno, I invested a lot in it, time and money, to see it all flogged off... I do sometimes miss the march of my Wehrmacht troops over the board, even if their Mechanised exploits seemed more akin to the 'Wacky Races' than anything else... I am pondering using them for the BattleGroup series of rules... or may try the odd game of FoW again, preferably in a 'non-competitive' setting, if such a thing is possible? Who knows...

So on the whole I would say 2014 was a very successful year on the hobby front... not that I set out with any specific goals in mind, just enjoyed riding the wave...

So what does 2015 hold in store?

Well we have witnessed the last chapter in the Middle-Earth movie saga, and I expect we'll see more wonderful models from GW, at their usual eye watering prices... so I hope for continued LOTR/Hobbit gaming obviously, and a solid continuation of the painting of the 'small matter' of the growing LOTR/Hobbit "Lead/Plastic&Resin" Mountain... ;-)

But I am also open to other games too, depending on what transpires... there are some possibilities out there perhaps... SAGA, Bolt Action, BattleGroup, ??? and maybe still FoW???

Time will no doubt tell...

I wish you all a very fun filled, successful and prosperous New Year, and if 2014 was a turd for you, lets hope 2015 is the Golden Egg!

Cheers!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, to one and all!

Traditionally, a time for reflection on the year past, and looking forward to what the new year may bring...

However, I don't actually feel like doing a review as such, but prefer to think about plans for this year...

After the end of year frustration and disillusionment I felt with Flames of War back in December, and then enjoying the The Hobbit movie, I feel my focus has shifted significantly for the year ahead...

I have not had a game in about a month now, and my Jekyll & Hyde styled alter ego; "Mr Grumpy", has not been seen here abouts for the same time period, and frankly I haven't missed it, or him...

'Mr Grumpy' -  thankfully not seen for one month!

What I have been doing is plodding along with ongoing terrain projects for Empire of the Dead; the base board and Corner Tavern. I would have got further on with the base board etching, but manged to drop my Dremel, snapping the end off the 0.8mm etching tool (105), and of course my local suppliers are out of stock, and with the festive season still in full swing, their suppliers are still out of action. I managed to find one online and ordered that but am still awaiting delivery...

The Corner Tavern has had its windows put in and bottom layer net curtains added...

And along with terrain I have had Curts painting challenge to keep me pottering on with the paintbrush... but must admit I am just going steady and not rushing anything, and am just working on items mostly for the themed fortnightly entries, which has been a little refreshing, digging out old figures that probably would never have got painted otherwise... and yet I get to score some decent points - feels a bit like cheating but hey, they're the rules!

Some MDF 'off-cuts', from the 5mm MDF sheet used to make the Victorian base board and under games-table storage units, have been pressed to good DIY use too, making a utensil organiser for the main kitchen drawer, and thus earned me some brownie points from SWMBO, so that has been a fun little project over the couple of New Years Stat Hol days... the paintbrush has also been lashed round the house too here and there, sprucing things up in time for fathers visit later this month... jeez, its like a visit from the Queen... I always recall that Billy Connolly sketch where he joked the Queen thinks the world smells like fresh paint... as there's always a bloke with a paintbrush, and tin of paint, frantically lashing away 20' in front of her ;-)

So things have been busy in general in Bowman Towers, but with little outward hobby output...

I did mention The Hobbit above, and have found time to enjoy starting the campaign scenarios from the The Fall of the Necromancer(FOTN) LOTR SBG supplement, with my son. This has put my recently(ish) made bottle brush trees I made to good use along with the lichen clumps I recently bought, and we have had fun with orcs, spiders, bats and wargs doing battle with wood elves defending Mirkwood.

Fall of the Necromancer - nicely in theme with current Hobbit movie

Enjoying this simple gaming with my son has been wonderful, and has motivated me to continue this skirmish game with him for the coming year, and beyond. We'll throw in some EotD too for variety...

My son also starts 'Big School', this year so more home organising has been in order, sorting him a desk for his room, putting up shelves and tidying and sorting; more conducive to studies. Big School is also going to mean school fees, which will dent my available hobby budget significantly, and this has made me realise, the simple answer to hobby nirvana this year, will be to dive into the lead mountain, and paint up the hundreds of LOTR miniatures I have stock-piled over the years... and thus be able to play more of the various scenarios from the LOTR SBG Source and Journey books with him...

So that's the plan:

Clear the painting table of current items scheduled for Curt's Painting Challenge; Some FoW stuff for completeness sake, all the Requiem EotD figures, and the dwarves of the The Hobbit starter set.

And then crack on with the LOTR/Hobbit lead/plastic pile... first up from the lead pile may be some Castellans I need for the FOTN campaign games... wonderfully creepy looking figures...

If I feel so inclined I may break out some of the figures that are backlogged also, for Black Powder duty; Perry ACW and Naps, and some Wargames Factory SYW stuff... I have so  much stuff awaiting paint its not funny, so 2014 will be a year of buying little and painting lots, I hope!

I will continue my terrain projects including more Victorian buildings for my city-scape, and I am also feeling inclined to make some LOTR terrain, both Hobbiton hobbit holes and Dol Guldur fortress/ruins... I quite like the look of a lot of the digitised terrain that appears in the Battle for MiddleEarth series of computer games, so may use some of that for inspiration too... I might even finally get my Mumak painted!

I will indulge these in no fixed order as whim takes me... less pressure that way...

I hope also, that in my fortnights summer hols here at end of Jan, I'll be able to get down to Wellington and grab some of that dry-ice to try out the foggy board effect...

Hope you all have a good 2014 and enjoy whatever gaming, painting and terrain modelling you like doing best!