Goodbye 2015… Hello 2016

Well if 2014 was a quiet hobby year, 2015 was positively comatose. I think I managed less than half a dozen games of anything all year and less than a dozen hours painting! …in a whole year!!

I kicked off the year by buying a load of random models in the hope of kickstarting something. I got my mojo back a few weeks later painting up the dynamic duo, ready for a game of Batman. Eventually – in mid April – we got to play our game… Batman vs the Joker. As fun as it was the rules just didn't do it for me and left me a little flat. But never fear Salute was just around the corner!

Salute this year was the best in a long time. We saw quite a few start up games on show and it was great to see people trying to get their own ideas out there. Very inspiring. So much so that I got back into my Normans vs Outlaws project and tried to get things moving. I decided to give myself a year to get it as far as I could before making a decision about investing serious money into it and having a proper go at launching a game. Roll on Salute 2016!

August saw another flexing of the Batman's muscles as he took on Mr Awdry's Penguin (on a wonderfully appropriate gaming board). And this was swiftly followed up by a sunny afternoon's worth of Zombicide with Mr Awdry and Mr Bull.

It was at the end of August that I let slip that my secret project is called Hood, and spent a little time explaining what I have in mind and showing off some of the commissioned artwork. This has been a slow burner in the background and, if I'm honest, has kept me going when no other form of hobby activity was possible. Whether it's any good or not will be decided later but hopefully we'll see some playtesting of the re-re-rewritten rules in the next few months.

I was still floundering in hobby oblivion at the end of October when Bull suggested I find a cool model to paint, to get me back in. I went back to Guild Ball, a game we had invested in at Salute, and bought a few more models. It was enough to give me a jump start and November became all about GB. I even started painting a model or two! November ended up having the most blog posts since 2012!!

December has followed November's trend of 'how many blog posts in a month' and has been quite an eclectic month which saw a passing interest in Frostgrave emerge.

And so the year has come to a close – lots of enthusiasm but not a lot of time to spend partaking in our wonderful hobby.

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As for 2016, I'm not sure I can have too many hobby resolutions. My family will no doubt come first as it has for the last 12 months and that will restrict available time.

Having said that, I'd like to play more games. Bull moved closer during the summer so there are no more journeys over to Tunbridge Wells to game. My friend Chris recently expressed an interest to get involved with the gaming to some degree and I have discovered two more potential gamers within our NCT group. Running out of excuses not to play!

I'm hoping Guild Ball gets a decent run at the beginning of the year. Both Bull and I have invested some cash in this game and it remains very appealing. We finally got our first few games of Guild Ball in today – more on that later.

With GW announcing the re-emergence of the Specialist Games division we're eagerly waiting to see the Blood Bowl and Necromunda releases. No doubt these games will find a way onto the gaming calendar again this year too. Be interested to see how playing Blood Bowl compares after a few games of Guild Ball ?!

Then there's Zombicide and Black Plague. With Mr Awdry, Bull and myself all pledging for the latter (and receiving boxed games in time for Christmas) it can be guaranteed that you will see a zombie-related blog post or two here soon.

I'd also love to get back into the painting with some regularity. I've enjoyed my time with the Guild Ball Butchers so it would be great to carry that on (but not painting all those plastic Zombicide zombies).

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and all the best for the New Year!