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

That End Of Year Post - 2024 Edition

   How do I start this review without going back to something I think I say every time, what a weird year. I knew the gaming side of this year would be a bit of a struggle with another baby under one but just as I was about to get back into my stride with evening gaming as he started to go to bed more easily and was starting to sleep through, my regular gaming venue at Wayland Games shut their games hall*. This has resulted in the lowest amount of games played since my records began. It also resulted in the size game being played being much smaller as well as we played games to fit the time we had rather than setting aside big chunk of time - which was an interesting thing to see.

   It was also my 3rd lowest count of models painted in a year since I started collecting data in 2014, as my hobby time just did not survive contact with child number 2 and day job workloads. It was also my 3rd lowest year in terms of models bought, which is a good thing for my struggling backlog. Weirdly, it was also my second lowest amount of books read as well.

*officially they plan to open their new site for gaming in April but rumours are suggesting that is incredibly ambitious, so for the moment I am a gamer without gaming space 

I plan on keeping my aim ridiculously simple for this year as I keep doing big complicated plans that inevitably fail, so this year I aim to;

1. Play 12 games - this was almost 12 wargames but ultimately I just need to keep doing some gaming - Success, but not by the sorts of numbers I've done in recent years

2. Get the unread folder on my kindle below 400 books - I built up a massive backlog on purpose but it would be good to get it to a manageable level. - This one started badly, in the first two weeks of the year I read 4 books and bought 7, and then got dramatically worse in April when 120 Battletech novels went onto Humble Bundle, so I actually ended the year with a bigger backlog than I started with

3. Buy less than I paint - that old classic that I usually fail - I actually succeeded on this one due to a technicality, however, due to presents and free sprues on magazines etc my backlog is actually higher despite me painting more figures than I actually bought

   As I've tried to do in recent years, here is a single photo from every game I've played. I quite enjoy this bit of my yearly review, and with most of my games being in the first half of this year, its been even more interesting for me.

Naval game at the start of the year using ships supplied by Neil.

This game was a test of 1. Whether I could get out in the evenings again at this point. 2. Whether I should.

Answers: 1. Yes. 2. Not really.

And yes, that's me in a world of pain in the photo.

In a last minute trip to Waylands, Steve and me played a few rounds of a game I backed on Kickstarter years ago - Nickelodeon Splatt Attack. The one in the photo was the Teenage Ninja Turtles vs the Rugrats. This turned out to be a really fun game and one that I think will be even better with 4 players.

A cheeky Saturday afternoon game in February where I took my Ultramarine Dreadnought list out for a try, earning their first win since 2019. I enjoyed this game but I'm still not a fan of Heresy 2rnd edition.

A couple of games of Dark Age Lion Rampant - Vikings vs Shieldmaidens

A couple of games in a row of Genestealer Cult vs Space Marines in combat patrol

My Deathwatch combat patrol got its first outing against Steve's Sisters

The Swarm!

A game of Bolt Action against my brother. It was meant to be in the desert but neither of us have finished that project yet.

Below are the 3 games from the 40k Combat Patrol tournament I went to at Wayland Games where I came second with my Genestealer Cult.

A 1500 point game against my brother the weekend after the tournament

A 1500 point game against Steve's Sisters of Battle

A 1000 point game after I forgot to pack a knight for Steve to borrow. Monster list.

A 3 player combat patrol game at Warhammer World with my brothers using my Eldar

Game using the new codexes (GSC and Sisters of Battle) plus a knight

Minor skirmish out side the village of Much-Wavering during the War of Three Kingdoms.

D&D at a friends house - second game in the campaign with guys who had never played a roleplay game or wargame before. Yes the Haribo are the monsters and, yes, we ate them as we killed them.

After a gap of a couple of months I then played an intro game for a mate who has been desperate to get into 40k but had no idea where to start. This ended up being my last game at the Hockley Waylands.

A game set in the Anarchy at my mate Neil's house - it was good to get this on the table.

A combat patrol game set at the start of the new campaign. More games were planned on the day but were stopped due to toddler interest.

Doubles combat patrol versus my brothers on an impromptu day off. I played an army on each side, which was complicated.

A game of TANKS round my mates house as a test for his show game next year. A really simple set of rules that we last tried in 2017 and I remember hating them, but I did enjoy them this time.

   With 2024 now done and gone, lets look at 2025. What are my plans/aims and how do I want to tackle them?

   Ultimately, I need to be realistic. Unless I can sort out my gaming space and organise some games, I'm looking at a slow year for gaming until Wayland Games Venue 2 comes online (in the summer?) and then I need to see if my old regular opponents are still interested. So my games target will be low.

   Then my backlog, this just cannot keep rising. I need to nip it in the bud and start clearing models, either selling or painting, then really slow down what I am buying to an absolute minimum. If I can clear some space, then maybe I can play games in my hobby shed?

   Scenery - this is one of the big aims I want to look at this year. I need to tidy up my boxes of scenery and add where needed. Instead of panicking before a game and grabbing stuff to make a board, lets have boxes ready to go. If I'm not going to be playing many games, lets make each as good as it can be. Thinking of giving myself 2 months per project to tidy, buy, craft and paint as needed, but knowing some projects might be quicker.

    Army backlog - I've got a lot of armies that I've painted over the years that just haven't seen the table yet, which sounds much worse now I've written it down than it did in my head. Mostly this is because since Covid and kids I've had more painting time and less gaming time, with the same few armies being used more regularly or some armies just not being completed far enough to be usable. 

1. Play 20 games - keep it low.

2. Complete 6 scenery projects - then for bonus points, play a game with each.

3. Finish the year with less models in my backlog than I started with.

4. Play games with 10 armies that I've not used.

Thanks for reading and a happy new year

That End Of Year Post - 2023 Edition

   I know with how long a year is, it's rare to get to the end of one with your aims intact, but I have no idea what happened in 2023. I had a real solid aim for how this year would go, desert warfare for the first few months and then Normandy themed games afterwards, add in trying to artificially make some Dark Ages armies my most played this year - all with a smattering of Lord of the Rings as that's what one of my brothers is in to. Then out of nowhere - WARHAMMER 40K!*

*in caps to emphasise the point

   The big thing this year was having a second son. It turns out that one kid slows your gaming down but isn't unsurmountable, 2 is a much harder issue, so I've been gaming at slightly odd times with really understanding mates/brothers. I've missed not getting down to my gaming club SEEMs on a Wednesday night, but its one of those things. I suspect this will change over 2024, however, I'm definitely toning down my plans for the year coming.

   It was also a bit sad that once 40k hit this year, historical gaming basically vanished but this is as much to do with who I was gaming with as anything else - will get across the table from Neil again in 2024.

My aims for 2022;

1. Focus my gaming. Going to try and focus on desert warfare for the first few months of the year then Normandy in the last few. But happy for a few other games in be mixed in. Going to be hard to score this one. - The first planned desert war games didn't go ahead and we played games in Normandy instead - after which all planned aims went out the window as 40k happened.
2. Play more 15mm - 6x 15mm games in 12 months can't be unreasonable? - I didn't play any!
3. 2:1 painting/buying ratio - a return for this aim. - I succeeded in painting more than I bought, but wasn't even close to a 2:1 ratio.
4. 12x photogenic games - I quite enjoyed this aim in 2022 - probably a fail, but I really enjoyed the games I played
5. No new projects bought at all. This one feels like the sort of aim I will accidentally break in the first 2 weeks of the year but we'll see how it goes. Also I have bought a few projects for 2023, so I'm probably already cheating in the spirit of this aim - I actually only bought three new projects this year and I think you'll agree I kept them small. Tyranids, Genestealer cult and Legion Imperialis.
6. Play more scenarios - Go into a game with a set scenario and limit the amount of games that are just line up and kill them all's - I think we played 2?

Photos from games this year;

First game of the year, Norman civil war in January.

A day of gaming on the last weekend in January with two games sent in Normandy - 1st my WW2 Americans push to take the village of Sur-le-Where. While below the French try and stop an English army marauding around the countryside late in the 100 years war.

A day of gaming in the last week of Feb using my new gaming table at home. A couple of games of crusade era Lion Rampant.

Followed by 5 games of Thunderbirds - so many because 3 of the games were lost in a few turns.

Some Dark Age shieldwalls in mid March. These two Saxon units were absolute heroes, holding the centre at bay for I really don't know how many turns.

An evening of board games with my mate saw a couple of games of Patchwork and a couple of tries of Dodos Riding Dinos - which I can see being a really good group game.

The first game of LotR this year, with my Rohan vs my brother's Minas Tirith.

The only game of the Horus Heresy this year, 

the knight in the photo did less than the photo suggests . . .

Some more games while away with the family of One Night Vampire (not pictured) and more Dodos Riding Dinos - which was even more fun with extra players.

On the anniversary of Culloden we played a game using the forces from the battle but in a Franco-Prussian war scenario that Neil wanted to test for his participation game at Broadside. Photos of his British red coats rather than my Jacobites as just look at that column!

The opening games of the Fratribusia campaign and test games of Kill Team

The recapture of Osgiliath - a game that has been on our hit list for over a year

A quick couple of games in our 40k campaign with a game of Kill Team while we waited for the new edition and then a small test game of full warhammer 40k on release day. (Bad photo quality as it had started to get dark at this point in the game).

The big ACW game from the middle of the year.

The end of July saw the Imperium of Man launch Operation Thunderstorm across multiple theatres;

Then towards the end of August, Imperial casualties really started to mount up, but they were taking and keeping the upper hand. 

Two games below where one of my brothers was testing out a list idea.

Our first big game of the campaign - all 4 players around the same table.

The start of our experiments into Combat Patrol.

A surprise entry for Bolt Action again trying out the Hedgerow Hell scenario that has been on my list to play all year.

The big monster base - far less climatic than I had expected

Then the last game of 40k this year

D&D was a surprise late entry to my games this year in early December as it wasn't planned or looked for. I got invited to play with a group of non-gaming guys who wanted to give it a try.

I plan on keeping my aim ridiculously simple for this year as I keep doing big complicated plans that inevitably fail, so this year I aim to;

1. Play 12 games - this was almost 12 wargames but ultimately I just need to keep doing some gaming.

2. Get the unread folder on my kindle below 400 books - I built up a massive backlog on purpose but it would be good to get it to a manageable level.

3. Buy less than I paint - that old classic that I usually fail

I've promised one of my dad club mates a game of 30k and I need to get some historicals on the table at the club, plus both my brothers got new armies for Christmas, so 2024 should be interesting.

Only as I write this that it's dawned on me how little historicals I've painted or gamed this year. A must do better for next year.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a good 2024