Janus, Roman god of boundaries, looking forwards and back, and if this image from the Roman fort of Totorum is anything to go by, mini painting.
Well, it's obligatory year's end blog retrospective and look ahead target setting time.
2022 has been a very busy year for me. I don't much go into personal stuff on this blog, I don't think that's why you readers come here. Suffice it to say, Real Life has intruded massively both in positive and negative ways. Hobby time has become a refuge and a respite for me, as has music. I've been less planned in my hobby projects as a result.
Lets briefly look through the year's hobby and gaming highlights.
Gaming
I managed to get a good number of games in in 2022. January saw my first game of Fantastic Battles, and our 10mm Lord of the Rings Fantastic Battles project has been fun. Bodvoc and myself (and occasional other players from his SAD group) have played several games, refining our lists to reflect what we imagine Middle Earth armies to be. I now have at least 500 points of Mordor and Gondor and I still have more to paint, including the beginnings of a new army, so I hope to get back to that in 2023.
Frostgrave made a surprise return with both Grim and Andy keen to play. We haven't quite started a campaign, but we've got wizards and warbands with a bit of experience now, and it would be nice to get back to this next year.
I got some games of Kings of War in as well, both to introduce my new son-in-law to the game and as part of Bodvoc's and my slow grow/Ambush campaign.
Bodvoc and myself also tried the new fantasy version of Fistful of Lead. Great fun, and something to go back to again.
I've managed to keep my online D&D game progressing, though scheduling proves an issue on many weeks.
The Monday night gaming session has been mostly board games, including finishing off The Eiras Contract for Star Saga, and with a memorable birthday game of Deadzone for T'Other One's birthday. We've quite a few different board games in our stable now, one deserving a shout out is Ravensburger's Alien. We finally managed it the other week. We've also tried Talisman, Cosmic Encounter and The Mind.
Hobby
I returned to the Five Box system at the end of 2021 and I've pretty much stuck with it all year. It certainly helps me organise my hobby time and stops me having too many unfinished projects. That said, I do have a couple of boxes that need finishing.
I began the year painting armies and 3D printed terrain for our 10mm Middle Earth project. the 3D printed stuff was new to me, and I'm impressed with the results. I'll certainly look for more pieces when I get back to that project.
I veered into Oldhammer territory in March with some original Space Marines, and later in the year I painted up some Space Orcs as opposition. I even began a ruined building for them to fight over, but that's still to be finished. Actually, this was going to be another International Terrainscape Challenge, but for various reasons none of us managed to finish.
I also planned and began a 500 point Kingdoms of Men army for Kings of War. I experimented with Army Painter's new Speedpaints, and I think they give pretty good results. My reason for the army was to sell it once complete. All money raised is going to a charity to provide aid in Ukraine, hence the colour scheme. I've got just one more regiment to paint.
I also found that Speedpaints work well on Reaper Bones minis, so I got a few of those done to slightly reduce Mount Bonesium (still a long way to go though).
I've also had a couple of stretches of painting 'Oldhammer' minis, principally dwarves. I left 2021 having just painted up some old Citadel dwarves, and my last completed mini of 2022 is also an old Citadel dwarf.
Retrospective
2022 made me look hard at my hobby, and I realised that my huge backlog of 'stuff' is actually harming my enjoyment. I've also been in the position of clearing out my parent's house, seventy years of collecting, and I realised that if I'm not careful, I'll be passing on a similar nightmare to my family once I join the ranks of the Living Impaired.
I'm continuing my clear-out, hence looking at old board games, and repairing boxes etc. But I've also painted random old minis which has proved very enjoyable. In some ways this has been like my previous Palette Cleansers, but even more fun.
My blog has chugged on and given me a way of sharing my hobby. I reached 30 000 views this year, and also topped 1000 comments. The later is especially pleasing as it is a way of interacting with fellow hobbyists. I always try and respond to comments, so if you leave one, please check back.
I've also tried presenting things a bit differently; I list the current contents of the five boxes (when I remember - I can do this on the PC, but I can't work out how to do this on the mobile version) and I've presented battle reports in different ways. Pleas comment if you like the changes, or if you don't, or even if you have some suggestions.
To 2023 And Beyond!
Looking forwards I'm setting myself vague goals rather than hard and fast deadlines. Here's a brief list of stuff I'd like to get done.
# Finish things off - I want to clear all the boxes, especially the Bultha's Farm build, and I may even add a couple more bits to make a sort of terrain set. I'm thinking some alien vegetation, and perhaps some more smaller ruins.
# Complete the Ukrainian inspired Kingdoms of Men army and get it sold. I may replace it in time, though I think it will be quicker to sort out some of my old Empire army. This is my force for the Slow Grow campaign with Bodvoc.
# Sort out a 28mm Terrain set. I've moaned repeatedly about my poor terrain set up, well I'm going to get enough terrain sorted out and boxed up for Kings of War games. The old Citadel buildings from the journal (seen in the battle report here) will be the core of this, and I have enough trees, I just need to do something about basing them. I'll also base those hedges properly and I think I need to add some blocking terrain - perhaps some large rock outcrops?
# Continue painting random minis, but also sort out ones to sell to reduce the lead mountain.
# Dungeon23, or rather Island23 for Teramarr. This is an internet creative writing thingy where Games Moderators design a room of a dungeon each day to produce a mega dungeon by the end of the year. I'm going to do an island a day, so lets see how that goes.
I'm sure many more projects will rear their heads over the course of the year. Let's see what 2023 brings, and I wish you the joy of it!
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