2015 a year in review.

Once again it is that time of the year where we secretly pat yourself on the back under the pretence of looking back over the previous year.

This one is going to be easy.

The first six months of the year can be summed up in a single word MORDHEIM!!!!!!!!

Painting Mordheim,

creating mordheim terrain, 

developing my Mordheim warbands,

The Forsaken Mk2

thinking Mordheim tactics,

Blocking the superior warband within the narrow doorway stops Neil using his superior numbers!

creative writing centred round my Mordheim games,

"The forlorn faces at the inn table spoke volumes about how successful the first foray into Mordheim had been.

The foul beer and worm ridden bread did not help lift their spirits but it was all they could afford after the disaster of their first raid and the Chirurgeon bills that followed.

One poxy shard of Wyrd stone.... ONE!

The eyes of the men glowered at Crashhart. "Red” was already busy hauling their heavy armour and beautifully forged weapons into the merchants cart outside.

"Come on lads" Crashhart boomed "the armour made us too conspicuous any way! Think of all the new gear we can get with the funds".

Crashhart raised his rough, wooden, goblet. "A toast....... New beginnings".

The men murmured their response and downed their beers, wincing in disgust at the putrid taste of the liquor.

"Right boys, I'm popping outside to finish up with the merchant, finish your 'feast' and I'll see you outside".

Red was already sitting in the back of the cart as Crashhart exited the inn and jumped up to sit next to the merchant.

This would be a new beginning alright! By now the poison would be taking its toll on the others, the piss flavoured beer disguising its taste perfectly!

The sold off wargear and the bounties for his dead outlaw band would be just enough to fund his new warband.

Too many mistakes had been made the first time out and mistakes will get you killed in Mordheim!
The letter from his old "friends" from Lustria had cemented his decision. It was time to start again....... New beginnings indeed!"

constantly having my figures die! 

Thats nine casualties from a starting warband of twelve. I rolled FOUR double ones!!!!!!!!!!

You mention it, I did it with a Mordheim twist.

My Reikland Warband started out looking like this . . . . 

turned out to be rubbish and by the end I ended up with all this lot . . . . .

Mostly because they just kept dying!

Front to back left to right; Shattered leg, dead, alive, dead, alive, alive, alive, dead, alive, dead, alive, dead, dead, dead, alive, dead, dead!

My second Warband of Dwarf Treasure hunters had much more success.

I love this game and despite the fact it was probably devised in a pub under the influence of drugs it is an exceptional game which just lends itself to cinematic moments and a real sense of jeopardy for your figures. Despite the rules being full of holes (which seems to be a GW trait), it was a fabulous six months.

And of course the battles looked EPIC!

At the close of 2014 I had been introduced to SAGA by Al. This continued into the new year and resulted in me painting up 4 point armies of both Vikings and Normans.

and of course the forgotten William the bastard!

I decided to start up the Normans after one particular game resulted in Al (my Thursday night gaming companion) disappearing from the face of the planet!

With my Warmahordes melt down last year I had decided to steer well clear of the game for the forseeable future.

 This resolution lasted until March. 

I had found myself picking up the (very complicated) rule book more and more to look at the fluff and rules.

I guess everyone has their poison!

This did result in me finally finishing up my 20 point Highborn covenant army after only a year of faffing about.

Two big things happened in April. 

One was visiting my first Salute and my word what a baptism of fire!

With having over six hundred unpainted miniatures on my lead mountain at the start of the year the resolution was not to buy any miniatures for 2015 EXCEPT for very specific miniatures. 

I did go £26 over budget thanks to the fellas at 4ground terrain!

The other big thing was Lego Mordheim!

This was actually the idea of my 5 year old as he wanted to play a game of Mordheim but I had left all my terrain at Neils. His solution was to drag his box of Lego up stairs and start making his own!

We played our first game, posted the stuff on the blog and the internet went NUTS. They remain among my most read posts and the feedback has been nothing but positive. The added bonus is they developed into cracking little games which I will treasure for a long time.

As mentioned above with an accurate stock take of over six hundred miniatures in the lead mountain and the closing down of my LFGS the resolution was not to buy any new miniatures EXCEPT for very specific purchases to develop certain games.

By June I had finally hit the one hundred miniatures painted or sold on mark!

 

At this rate I only had to wait another three years before I could buy another miniature!

July saw me pass the 20,000 hits mark.

July also saw the release of (R)Age of Sigmar. Like everyone else I was a bit perturbed and then continued to ignore Warhammer in ALL it's forms. Shame as 8th edition is a cracking set of rules but people continue to ignore it for faster flowing games.

I did get my hands on a Stormcast freebie and it continues to be one of my most popular posts so maybe WHF will continue to have some legs?

August saw me fulfill one of my yearly targets and visit BOYL 15, unfortunately I did not get to finish my Warhammer Ahoy project finished BUT I did get to enter 'Keels on Wheels' into Death race 40,000. . . .
And what a game!

BOYL was amazing and the creative verve on display was inspiring. It was crazy to see ideas blokes had had in pubs 30 years ago finally become tabletop reality!

Check this lot out!

Inspired by the oldskool goodness I started to paint up my own version of 'Dr. Gostellos Intergalactic Circus'.

Every figure tons of fun to paint and I can only see me adding more and more to the entourage.

The August Bank hols also saw my Brother and I play the second of our annual games, the Bank Holiday (H)el Smashico!

Another absolute nail biter which ended in a one all draw. Next classico will be the Christmas Derby.

September saw me sort out things on the work front. My job up till this point had been an absolute doss but you only get so much money for old rope so I had to bite the bullet and get back into the front line of teaching.

This saw my painting output drop to single figures BUT it did mean I had a couple of quid to spare, so started paying out for some commissions. Lano worked wonders!

September also saw the beginning of the 'Essex Legion' opening me up to a whole slew of new opponents.

Orctober saw me crack the 200 miniatures mark for the year.

A classic miniature I had had in my lead mountain for over 30 years.

And there was Death Race 40K part two!

Death Race 40K, a balls out, pedal to the metal, DAKKA DAKKA, full auto, nitros burning, tire shredding, buttock puckering,  white knuckle, full throttle ride to death or glory!!!!!!

and then, my oh my . . . . . WARHAMMER WORLD!!!!!!!!!

 Where to start?

Well how about THIS!

Or this?

Or this?

Or this?

Or this

Well then it has to be THIS!!!!!!!

Five and a half THOUSAND miniatures laid out in one titanic battle. . . . . Mind blowing!

The day at Warhammer World saw the six of us running round like excited twelve year old kids again and we all left beaming from ear to ear, reinvigorated in our hobby.

A great day out we are all still talking about!

October also saw me inspired by stuff like this . . . . .

. . . . to try and push my painting style forward.

My first effort was this fella. . . . .

October also saw the beginning of 'The Inquisitor Wars' erupt between Mark and I on the Warhammer World, themed, table 'Battle of Vigos'!

November was the start of the dip as work REALLY kicked in and I only got one game in the whole month!

November also saw me return to batch painting as I turned to my mass of Space Marines to keep the painting momentum up.

They started looking like this. . . .

I think the kid used an actual tooth brush to paint this lot!

Then they looked like this . . . . .

Then this . . . .

and finished the year looking like this. . . .

There is one semi complete Marine sitting at the back! So close . . . . so close!

But they look half decent, even up close.

December saw my blog of sillyness break the 30,000 hits ceiling. God knows how!

December also saw my Brother and I play our annual game of Christmas Bloodbowl.

The game ended one all and if truth be told I was lucky to get away with that as I was completely outplayed.

Maybe playing in a Reindeer Onesie put me off?

So lets take a final look at the numbers for the year.

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 242

Miniatures bought 56

439 miniatures to go!

186 in the black this year.

As is the trend at this time of year I have to make some resolutions.

I would like to get at least a hundred miniatures painted or sold in 2016. I would like this to include,

my Warmachine, Steelheads army finished off (12 miniatures and one possible new miniature),

both my SAGA armies finished up to six points (11 Vikings and 8 mounted Normans),

I also want to get another 250 points of WHF Empire finished off (6 Knights and 3 Hand Gunners) and get ALOT more games of 8th in next year as I really miss the game. This may mean I need to finish off my Ogre army as well (16 miniatures) for potential opponents.

And of course there is this lot to finish off. . . .

All things considered this is not an unrealistic target at all.

With the news that GW are bringing back their 'Specialist games' section, I am not making a 'no new miniatures' resolution for next year because if they re-release 'Epic' all bets are off!

Drooling at the prospect.

I always wanted to play it as a kid but there is no way I am paying the silly ebay prices being asked these days to buy a load of stuff I am never going to be able to give a run out. However if it is re-released I can see me getting an army even if it is for the short lived revival. Hey I may be a sucker but at least I am an honest sucker.

I have bought myself the new 'Dragon Rampant' Rulebook for Christmas and I am also VERY interested in how it plays out! The promise to myself is not to go silly and buy myself loads of new warbands to play with!

In the post as we speak!

The trouble is I now keep looking at this . . . . .

MUST RESIST!!!!!!!

Salute is a maybe for next year but I am VERY excited to see what madness bubbles to the surface for BOYL 2016 and I can really see myself doing both days next year. Time will tell.

One thing I am excited about in the new year is running a 'Wargaming' enrichment club at my school. I have already picked these up for the warbands as the Empire Militia box set is now rarer then hens teeth . . .

These are for School so do not count towards my miniatures bought total!!!!! ;0)

I figure I will start off with Mordheim for the first half term but after that I am at a loss. Any suggestions for games I can get played in under an hour which can be grasped by 11 year old kids and does not require the use of masses of miniatures (or loads of new ones) is welcome !!!

Happy new year one and all!!! May the die always fall in your favour (unless your Lano and then may you roll nothing but ones!!!).