That End Of Year Post - 2025 Edition

   Another year that didn't go as planned - although, I appreciate no year really sticks to how you expected it to go. My wargaming actually slowed down this year, with very little actual gaming, Wayland Games still not being open and my regular gaming friends being as hit by real life as I was. Less projects started but also fewer projects finished as my buying and painting were both down on previous years. I think the ultimate thing I will take from this year was that the lack of gaming really made my buying and painting disjointed - normally a new project will be put on the table fairly soon after either buying (so I rush to get it done) or once I have painted enough, I purposely organise a game to make sure I then finish it. Missing out that last step has really made a difference and not in a positive way, with at least 3 or 4 armies being finished and just not seeing the table top, and a couple of game projects not getting completed as I just lost momentum.

   But then towards the end of the year, I took up running, doing a 50km challenge for Cancer Research UK in October with no pre training (I ran 90km that month in the end) and getting medals for a pair of 10km runs - with more booked.

1. Play 20 games - keep it low - 19 games. Not a success but it could have been a lot worse. We have just had a date for Waylands reopening, so hopefully 2026 will be better

2. Complete 6 scenery projects - then for bonus points, play a game with each - Not even close

3. Finish the year with less models in my backlog than I started with - 3rd lowest year in terms of models bought/sold, which is pretty good. Then, somehow, 4th highest year in terms of models painted - but I suspect that was because I painted a lot of small scale figures in bulk early in the year. The end result is the backlog has substantially gone down but is still too high.

4. Play games with 10 armies that I've not used - 4/10, so another failure. This was not helped by the lack of games and how most of my games ended up last minute panics instead of planned and organised where I would have used newer collections

First game of the year in late January, doubles Space Marine combat patrols.

First game for my August Lions 1/10.

Little game of 15mm Napoleonics at the end of January using Rebels and Patriots.

A game of Star Trek Attack Wing using my Cardassians. This is a ruleset that is still my most played (keeping different editions of a game as separate games otherwise Bolt Action just beats it to the top) but had last been played in 2021 and last seriously in 2018. 

Our yearly game of D&D towards the end of March. I believe the young white dragon attacking the town we were staying wasn't supposed to be the whole session but here we are.

The English are enveloped somewhere in northern France in a 100 years war game I played in very early April.

A couple of board games with my 4 year old the day after Salute. He always asks to play games but is a bit young for anything more than Snakes and Ladders (where if he doesn't win he gets sad). This wasn't the greatest success but I think he mostly enjoyed himself.

My middle brother gave me a game of Wingspan one night on my other brother's stag do in late May. This is a game I've heard a lot about but never managed to get in a game of.

My next wargames was in mid June when I tried out a new gaming club, the Hutton Hearthguards. I cobbled together a World Eater/Khorne Daemon army to take down and was utterly thrashed, but after nearly 2 months without a wargame at this point, it was just nice to get toys on the table again.

2/10

I got my mate back out for a game again and we played a game of combat patrol. I got absolutely slapped, but it was totally worth it.

I played a couple of games with my brothers in early July, one using our new knights (plus one of my older ones to make up numbers) and then a 3 way combat patrol below

3/10

My second game at the new club in July using my regular Chaos. I learnt a lot about from this game.

My next game wasn't until late September when the Necrons awoke and took on some space marines.

The first in a couple of October Games - ACW on a slightly too small table. 

We didn't actually play much of this game, spending the bulk of our time chatting, but it was still a fun evening.

Then the next week, I got a second game in with one of my brothers - two games in two weeks?

Another 2 month break until 3 games in December within a few days of each other.

My Beast Snagga Orks vs my brother's Orks

4/10

My Chaos Space Marines vs my other brother's Tau - this game was over in a turn and a half

My Chaos Space Marines vs my brother's Space Marines - this was a fun game

So what are my aims for 2026?

1. My first aim isn't wargaming - it's just to try and do a single organised run a month. These are mostly going to be 10kms but I do have a half marathon booked for the Spring and I have plans for a full marathon in mind for the Autumn. If I have something booked for every month, I can't let this new hobby slide, goes the theory.
2. Play 20 games - bringing this one back and keeping it a sensible number just so I don't overload myself with ambition. As I type this, table bookings have gone live for the new Wayland Games and I do have something booked, so fingers crossed.
3. Finish the year with less models in my backlog - another classic brought back as it really pushes what I would like to be achieving for my backlog.
4. Finish the year with less unplayed armies - modifying this yearly target to show the aim is to be playing older armies that haven't seen a table and not just be buying lots of new armies and using them instead
5. Play more historical games - I love putting historical armies on the table and I would just like to use more of my collections

Projects I'd like to focus on early this year;

• Tempestus Scions - this is a Combat Patrol sized force I started and finished this year, but I would like to grow it to a fuller army - 1k minimum and then make sure it sees the table
• Beast Snagga Orks - another Combat Patrol army that I kind of thought might be done, but one of my brothers bought me the centre piece unit for Christmas, so I want this to grow to 1k too. Ironically, I need to buy a second combat patrol to finish it . . .
• 15mm English Civil War - a project started years ago that I'm really close to being able to put on the table - it just seems daft not to finish it off when I am so close
• 15mm Feudal Japan - another project that I am just so close to finishing
• Dark Age Welsh - this one will take some more explaining and I'm just not going to here, but it's an achievable project to get on the table