That End Of Year Post - 2021 Edition

   Going to have to start this end of year review with another blast from the What A Year foghorn. What a weird year. In a year where I've bought more figures than any other year - and a few of them combined - I've got figures out onto the table less than any other year on record. Online gaming - D&D - and a smattering of quick boardgames (looking at you, One Night Ultimate Werewolf) have made my gaming numbers look artificially high - and were mostly played at the start of the year. My 30k gaming group stayed quiet even after the restrictions ended (only played 5 games of 30k in 3 meet ups), my weekend gaming group was hit by various medical issues and with the strain of a toddler, I rarely went to my after work gaming groups.

   So what have I been doing this year? Honestly, at this point, I'm still not sure where the year went. 2021 could easily be broken down into 2 or 3 completely separate units to analyse. The first part had a surprisingly high amount of painting but only online gaming. The second painting died a death as painting couldn't be left out and tiredness was kicking us hard, but gaming did start to head up. Then third can be categorised by a complete lack of games, but a resurgence in painting, although its 5 or 10 minutes here or there instead of a solid few hours in the evening.

   I have painted a lot of figures (1564) but as they are mostly in bulk batches of 24 in smaller scales, its a lot less impressive than it sounds, and the vast amount of those were at the start of the year when painting was a bit easier to fit in. I've read a lot of books (132), down from last year, but I've broken the habit of a lifetime by nearly exclusively reading books I've never read before instead of a revolving group of favourites and have found some amazing books in the process.

Targets from the start of the year

1. Play 25 games - I want to keep this low as I would like to spend a bit more time at home early this year. I'd rather set an easy target that I smash than spend the last half of the year chasing numbers when I should be at home. - Dubious Success - 72 played but only actually 14 wargames

2. Paint more than I buy - again, for obvious reasons money will be a lot tighter this year, so I'm not really aiming to buy any more than the odd top up for a unit or army if I find I am really missing something. I purposely built up my backlog to make life next year easier. - Fail and I bulked up that backlog

3. Play a big game - I want my gaming in 2021 to be about quality rather than quantity (he said saying he wants to play a big game). I'd like to go out once in a while and play a really good game and chat with real mates than be rushing out at every opportunity and losing a once in a lifetime chance to watch someone grow up. - Fail in the big game, but success on the reasoning?

4. After saying all that, I would also quite like to see if I can get a non-30k army to the top of my most played this year, but not going to purposely break the spirit of Targets 1 and 3 to achieve it. - Technically a success as D&D was my most played game, although some of those sessions were only an hour of gaming due to time constraints

5. Add much more gubbins to my projects - I want every project to have at least something in the way of wagons, civilians, camp followers and scenery. I'm getting much better at this but I'm still lacking in a lot of places. - Nothing to really report here, so Fail?

Gaming photos from the year:

Something I did on my review last year was include a few books/series I really enjoyed. This year there have been less really stand out book series, but:

1. Damoren - Urban fantasy with holy weapons and so much more than I can explain fully

2. The Expanse - I've heard mixed reviews on the tv series but from being midway through the second book, this might be in my top 2 or 3 sci-fi series (probably knocking Honor Harrington off second place)

3. Iron Druid Chronicles - I've started reading a lot of urban fantasy and they can be very samey but, while not quite as good as Damoren above, it still stood out as worth reading

 

4. The Tide Child - honestly don't know how to explain this, but dark fantasy in a world where the bones of an extinct dragon fish are the only way to build boats and wage war

   So thinking towards next year, what are my aims?

1. Definitely need to start focussing on projects a bit more. I have so many half finished things and while painting numbers in 2021 were high, the actual number of usable armies that came out of this year are shockingly low. Minimum of 1 finished project a month.

2. For the love of whatever deity is up there I need to buy less figures. Have a strict 2:1 painting to buying ratio and cannot buy more figures than are painted at that point.

3. No new projects unless for playing someone who is already invested in a game - don't want to be starting loads of new stuff in 2022.

4. If 2022 is going to be a repeat of 2021 in terms of wargaming I want to focus on prettier games. Only agree to a game when I have finished all the figures, have scenery and the time to get the game in. Aim for 12 photogenic games.

5. Play more smaller scale games - I still think that smaller scales might be the right way for my hobby to go, but I only managed to get 2 games in with a smaller scaled army, so I've not proved anything to myself or anyone else. Aim for 12 games in 15mm or smaller.