2016: Hobby Resolutions

Happy New Year!
Hope you all had a great night!
But not like this. Hopefully.

So here we are, at the beginning of another year. As is customary at this time, I've prepared a set of hobby goals that I hope to meet during the next year. Like all New Years Resolutions, I'm probably going to be quite optimistic at my staying power, and the wheels will fall off around March. But here we go!

Modelling Resolutions

• Skaven Army.
• Frostgrave Warband.
• Gorkamorka Mob.
• Bret Army.
• Veer-Myn Army.

Paint Resolutions:

• Nurgle Warband.
• Khorne Goretide.
• Verminlord.
• Zombicide: Black Plague Box.
• Kingdom Death: Monster Box.

Misc Hobby:

• Reduce Unpainted models (by any means necessary).
• Finish a project before starting a new one.
• More, regular, hobby time.
• Update this blog more regularly.
• Keep a tally of painted models vs. brought models.

Not the hardest resolutions, but I'll check back every few months or so to keep myself on track.

Here's to 2016!

2015: A Year (end) In The Hobby.

The shiny golden face of 2015

So, this year started with everyone cautiously excited about the new edition of Warhammer Fantasy. Then proceeded into rumours of round bases started popping up, which were only stoked by pictures from Warhammer World, with Lizardmen on (gasp) ovals. People thought that it truly was the End Times. Then it hit. The Age of Sigmar.

GW had committed heresy! They made the rules free, and quick to learn! They introduced a new chapter of Space Marines! They also committed the gravest of sins, they advanced the storyline! The sky was truly falling!

(Insert mood lightning here)

Ok, jokes aside. The release of AoS was a big deal this year in the hobby. If only for the quantity of "power gamers" who Rage Quit the game, but - controversial opinion - did the hobby really lose anything with these players quitting? Mantic's Kings of War better be on top form in 2016, because if a significant portion of your player base is people who rage quit another system, they're not going to give you any leniency.

I must admit, I was sceptical at first - as you can probably see from any of my posts about AoS leading up to the release. But I've been converted, I think that the modelling freedom that round bases offer offsets the "loss" of our precious block formation. I've even started two warbands for the game:

Khorne Goretide:

All the other guys a standard out of the box models, except this guy.
 He's a "rescued" Kharn model, who's been re-purposed as a Blood Warrior icon bearer.

 And a New Realms of Chaos inspired Nurgle Warband:

Again, an Icon Bearer. I must have a thing for icons.

Of course, the Age of Sigmar wasn't the only headline this year. The other big news of 2016 was the fulfilment of Kingdom Death: Monster. 

And you thought this day would never come...

I received my copy, and let me tell you, it's a nice kit. I'll look at it a bit more in-depth once I've cleared my current hobby waiting list. 

But that wasn't the only Kickstarter project of 2015. The last year has been a good one for Kickstarter Projects, possibly better than the "golden age" of a couple of years ago. There were so many cool projects, it was actually quit difficult to choose which ones to back. In the end I threw my lot in with:

• Phroggs
• Deadzone: Infestation
• Colony 87
• Space Raiders
• Zombicide: Black Plague
• Wasteland Survivors
• The Others: 7 Sins
• Macrocosm
• Warpath
• Darklands: Savage Hordes
• Die Hard Miniatures

Just from that list I have more than my fill of New and Old School miniatures, as well as boardgames and just whole armies/warbands/gangs that I can sub into various systems/settings. Between the Deadzone and the Warpath Kickstarters I've got a decently sized Veer-Myn force coming my way. Hopefully I can work my way through my leadpile and I can actually paint and show off some of the new stuff that's already arrived (more on that later).

Looking forward, the upcoming Kickstarters is even more exciting. We have the thinly-veiled secret that is the next Mantic Kickstarter (Pssst... it's probably Fallout Warfare), and the upcoming Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter (from Diego Serrate, the mind behind the Space Raiders), all the way to whatever CoolMiniOrNot have planned (if I was a betting man, I'd have my money on a plastic box release of Dark Age or the much-anticipated Confrontation Phoenix - but then I bet on those two every year).

Ok, I'm running out of space here so I'll cover my New Years Hobby Resolutions in another post. But until then, have a happy New Year!

My year in hobby - a roundup

Turns out, the world didn't end...

So as 2012 drew to a close (noticeably un-apocalypsey) I decided to sit down and take a look back over the last 12 months of hobby (the awkward past-tense is because I missed the end of the year. Sorry about that) and make some 2013 hobby-resolutions.

That many

Well, looking back over the last year it's fair to say that my entire hobby life has been dominated by a single word - Kickstarter - I've personally backed 17 projects (it would of been 18, but I missed the Zombicide one)

Overall I'm pleased with my kickstartering, and I'm happy that I helped (although in a small way) to push though some cool products (2013 is the year of the board game, take my word on that). One downside is that kickstarter has contributed, in a major way, to the Hobby ADD that I, and most hobbyists, suffer from (more on that in the resolutions).

As well as all that GW have released Dark Vengeance and whatever incredibly long title they've given the Hobbit boxed set. Both of these are pretty cool (I'm certainly going to pick up the Hobbit box as soon as a have the cash spare) but Dark Vengeance have helped me in two ways. Firstly it gave my the right kickstart (arh, it's everywhere!) a Lost and the Damned army for 40k, and secondly the bits helped me establish my small eBay shop as a genuine place that people goto to buy stuff, we have repeat customers and everything now! (More on that at the end).

Anyway, enough looking back, lets look forward with the hobby resolutions!

1: Choose a damn army, and finish it! - I've got a pile of unpainted models that's just going to get bigger and the total number of painted armies I have is still zero. In 2013 I want to redress the balance slightly and end the year with at least 1 painted army.

And, in direct contradiction to the above...

2: Get into some of the smaller games systems - the initial buy in for 40k and Fantasy is too high now, so I'm going to investigate some of the smaller systems (I.e. Kings of Warpath, HoMachine, Malifaux, Dystopian Legions) and see how I like them.

3: Make a games table and play some games - I've finally got a hobby room now (so I can stop doing my hobby at work), all I need is a games table (related to resolution 2, I can only spare 4'x4' so the skirmish style games would fit just fine).

4: board games! - I've already pronounced 2013 to be the year of the board game (just up there, see?) so it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is and actually buy some.

I think that's all the resolutions for now (hobby ones anyway, I've got a re-occurring rowing machine related one from outside of the hobby) but what else for the future?

Well, I mentioned above that I have a small eBay store called Pandemonium Games. I run it mostly in my spare time (my main jobs are running an online store that sells recycled and environmentally friendly gifts and operating a Waterjet Cutter - how do you end up with jobs so diverse? Finish university with a BA) but recently it's started to punch above its weight and is beginning to prove itself as more than a distraction and is starting to turn into a viable business.

Whilst currently we're no Wayland, or Troll Tader, or Bitz Box we are starting to carve out our own little niche. All of this is great news, because owning a games store would be pretty awesome. To further help this, once we've got the website up and running, I'm going to make Officina Chaotica the official blog of my store.

What this means to anyone reading this (and judging from my google stats, I'm talking directly to a single Russian spambot) is that very occasionally (once every couple of months probably) I'll post something along the lines of "Hey! This is a thing we have, if you want it, you can buy it here!".

The upside to all this is that since this will technically be a company blog I'll be able to work on it during work hours, so I'll be able to post more! And, if I'm cheeky enough, I could try and argue that me doing hobby is actually me working on content for the blog. That might not fly though.

Happy, belated, New Years and have a great 2013!

Matt.

 

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