Friday 1 January 2016

My 2015 - hobby review

The second half of 2015 didn't go quite as hoped for me from a hobby perspective, but fortunately looking at the year overall is a somewhat rosier picture.

Gaming

The highlight of the year for me was BOYL, and within that (amongst lots of other good stuff) the Fallout / Rogue Trader game.


So I thought I should review that aspect first, and actually things were pretty good -

  • The aforementioned BOYL, and especially my caravanners' outing there, was about the perfect gaming experience
  • Back in May I had a great day chaos warband-ing with a fine bunch of Oldhammerers
  • As hoped I spent a bit more time at my local club and got drawn into SAGA amongst other things
  • And in October I got to visit Tékumel courtesy of Barry Blatt

There's always room for improvement, especially in the quantity of gaming, but on the quality front it was spot on. 8/10

Painting

Actually things aren't so bad here, if I take the long view -

  • Inspired by the guide over on Lead Plague I finally made myself a wet palette, and they really are as game-changing as I'd read repeatedly that they were.
  • As a result my blending has greatly improved - the wet palatte making the mechanical aspect almost trivial, and my technique is getting better with practice. Still no where near some of the beautiful work I see out on various blogs, but maybe 10 years from now...
  • On the volume front the year was a bit of a failure though. Depending on how I count my progress with the Vikings I've done about 24 models for the year, or 4/10 of my target

Purely on the quantity front I was going to give myself a much lower score, but allowing for the first two points that would seem a bit harsh. But the second half of the year was seriously unproductive, and my colour mixing often doesn't result in what I had in my mind's eye (although that too is improving). 5/10

Collecting

I'm thinking I should drop the collecting category - in a way I now think of it as "increasing my list of things still to paint"! But for the sake of the review -

  • The hobgoblin thing didn't get very far. I basically want to create a force of Fantasy Tribe hobgoblins, without paying through the nose on eBay. And unfortunately FT hobgoblins don't really look like anything else. My current conclusion is that it'll require a fair bit of converting (and hence time), and between the time factor and the draw of the Fallout game I shelved my plan to get these ready for BOYL, since which they've been firmly on the back burner. File as a project for some day...
  • I've also not yet had the One Ring come to the top of my acquisition list

Score: 1/10

Blogging

I was no where near my target here - a bit more variety early on, but decidely thin on the ground throughout. I have plans here for the coming year, but the limiting factor will always be time / priorities. I am finding it really useful though to look back and see the journey. 3/10

2 comments:

  1. Paul!!

    I'm glad our game of Fallout vs Rogue Trader was the highlight of your hobby year!!! It was for me too; like you say it was pretty much the perfect gaming experience. It's so rewarding that you guys all enjoyed it!!!

    As an aside in this month's Wargames Soldiers and Strategy (WSS) magazine (issue 82) I have written an article that loosely covers the run up to our game.

    Hopefully I'll catch you at next year's BOYL

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    Replies
    1. It was an easy one to pick out. Since then I've been thinking about what made it so good, and I've come up with:

      - Your enthusiasm and the accessories (such as the Nuka-Cola caps) combined with "the BOYL effect"
      - Multiplayer (for atmosphere) but still fast-moving
      - Not a zero-sum game, several players could "win"
      - Extra (and shared) dramatic tension from GM events, without which the point above might have made it a bit flat (if nearly everyone "won")

      Along with the emerging story you get just from the progress of the game it all added up perfectly. Unfortunately I don't think it can be bottled and reproduced at will, but those elements seem to me to be how we got where we did.

      I'm really hoping to be at BOYL this year - I must check when my wife has booked our summer holiday for! Hopefully see you then.

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