Sunday, 26 January 2014

I seem to be running a little behind schedule...

Err, hello? Is anyone still there? Yes?

So, this is my New Year post, and I'd... wait, what? What do you mean, "a month late"? It's only the 26th, we're fine...

Yes, I've been somewhat held up in posting here and getting any painting done. Which is to say, I haven't done either since early December. I'm mainly blaming this:

Advanced weaponry goes hand in hand with poor lighting
You see, I don't get a lot of free time for hobby stuff, with both a toddler and a heavily pregnant wife hanging about the place, so the latest version of XCOM is the ideal video game for me - it's turn based, so I can play it for half an hour at a time without having to find sensible places to save. This does however mean that I'm squandering a fair bit of time on zapping alien invaders, rather than on sensible worthwhile things like painting toy soldiers!

So, with the traditional excuses dealt with, let's see how I did in 2013.

Straight away, we can see that I failed to keep up my promise to keep a track of how I doing against my targets! Whoops.

Still, here we go.

1) Get the Squig-fuelled Stabbers ready for the 3rd of February
Done! That's a good start!

2) Play a four player game of Flashbang at the club
Not sure I can blame myself too much for failing this one as the club closed. However, I did manage some work on Flashbang and a couple of games, and I'm planning to do more with that this year.

3) Paint a unit of my 28mm Napoleonics
Done, but admittedly in the least impressive way possible! I got my 8-man riflemen unit painted, and did a few infantrymen too.

4) Paint all my terrain!
Done, if you're prepared to substitute the word "all" for "some of"!

5) Paint enough Germans to give me two effective Flames of War forces  
Well, I had to fail at one of these eventually. I didn't really do anything with Germans, so that one still needs some work.

6) Sort out a force using the Nuts! book for Flames of War
Yep, did this! It's a nice book for the Americans, and I've been able to use Easy Company to good effect in a couple of our Lorraine campaign games.    

So, not too bad overall, if still far from a clean sweep. What should I plan for 2014 then?



Well, since I'm expecting the imminent arrival of my second child to further dampen my progress with paintbrushes, I'm making two resolutions this year.

1) Keep Painting and Blogging!
This one might actually be the hardest to keep up. As we've prepared for another new arrival, the spare room has ceased to be a man cave and is now my daughter's bedroom. Most of my models are stashed in the loft where they can't be accessed quickly, with only a few readily available for the ham-fisted caress of my paintbrush. Plus, with two little people to keep tabs on, I expect to have even less time and energy this year. So, I'm just going to try to keep up some momentum, however I'm able to do it. There are a few things I'd like to get painted, so I'll just have to do my best with those. Hopefully I can also find time to tell you fine people what I'm up to!

2) Play some of the games I've neglected
Possibly an easier one, but then, possibly not. Like all wargamers I've tended to gather up more rulesets and models than I can possibly do anything with in the spare time I actually have, so I've got a collection of games that rarely see the light, and a few that I've actually never played at all. So, my second resolution is to play at least two of the following:

  • The Hobbit - I used some GW vouchers (alright, yes, it's the evil empire, try not to get too angry) that I got for Christmas to pick up the Escape from Goblin Town box, so I want to start playing that.
  • Force on Force - this was a birthday present (just had a birthday! Yay me!) and I'm really keen to get to grips with it and use my Empress US Army and Chinese PLA (when the latter turn up via Kickstarter).

  • Empire of the Dead - I'm less sure about this one, although it does look interesting. I went in for £10 on the Kickstarter, and got the rules and a frankly disappointing model that went straight on eBay. The concept is nice and it doesn't need many models, so I'd like to have a go.

  • All Things Zombie - I was introduced to this by Kieron, but still haven't done anything with it, despite my painting achievements in Zomtober!

  • Warpath - I like this game but haven't played it for some time, and still have only really scratched its surface. It's a reason to not sell all my 40k stuff, but that's about it at the moment!

  • Kings of War - see above, but replace "40k" with "WFB".

  • Gorkamorka - Alright, a man can dream, can't he? I really like Gorkamorka, even if no one else cares about it... 

So, that's what I want to do in 2014! I'll be posting here (assuming I stick to resolution 1) about what happens, so watch this space...