Yes, Another Year-End Post You Must Read!

With three days remaining, I'm going to call it. The year is done. This means it's time for yet another year end post. I actually enjoy reading these kinds of posts, so I'm doing one of my own. It's good to summarize what I did and how things played out.

At the start of the year I posted my focus and predictions for 2012. Let's see how I did.

My Focus for 2012

Focus: Don't buy more models before the last batch is painted.

Actual Result: Total bust. I went nuts this year, buying into every game in sight. I have even more unpainted miniatures than I did in 2011. With two Kickstarters shipping in early 2013, a top secret project also coming in 2013, as well as all my existing unpainted lead I'm bringing into the new year, I'd say I'm screwed. Hello, my name is Jerry and I have an addiction.

Things I Wanted to Get Done in 2012

Dust Tactics: Nope. Never played that game again. But Dust Warfare released and I played three games of it and bought a few new figures to go with what I already have. Which are unpainted. See above.

Terrain: So I did make an attempt at more terrain this year. I picked up a bunch of 15mm WW2 terrain.... just in time to stop playing Flames of War and start up on 28mm Bolt Action. I'm so embarrassed. My towering genius is showing again.  I guess I can give myself a point for effort.

Warmahordes: Can I just drop this? Why do I keep talking about Warmachine and Hordes like I'll ever play it again?  Is there a pill I can take to fix this? I made a token effort then lost focus. But those Privateer Press models are soooo sweet..... maybe next year!

15mm and Skirmish Gaming: At last something I carried through on!  Hooray for me! I built up three 15mm fantasy armies, two15mm WW2 armies, and bolstered my 15mm Sci Fi forces. I even did a micro armor force. So it was a good year for going small. As for gaming, almost everything I played all year was skirmish sized.

As for other predictions I made at the start of the year, I took a few pot shots at GW because it was easy to do. In fact, I don't think I was too far off the mark, at least for my teeny tiny world of gamers. Most of my local group has sworn off 40K, and we all consider The Hobbit Game (hey they stole my title! I'm getting my IP lawyers on their asses!) to be priced out of our reach and not the game we want to play.  In the wider world, things are of course much different.

But the only world that counts is mine.  Just wanted to clue you in on that.

Things I Said Good-Bye to in 2012

In the spirit of every year-end retrospective, I'm going to look back on all games that have "died" last year. It's like when USA Today recaps all the out of shape in shape guys from the 50s who croaked during the year, only with games.

This won't take long.

Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game: This game left me breathless, especially if I tried to speak the entire proper name. I played in the Fifth Gathering in the Desert tournament in February, which was supposedly to be the last one. During this time, GW released new army books and removed the Legions of Middle Earth book from the game. Crap move.

The new books demonstrated that whoever put them together did not know the game or its players.  We got to meet new armies like the "Walkers of Rohan" for players who wanted to muster the Equinophobia-him. I am now a proud owner of an expensive Far Hard army whose main troops are the "Ball-less Warriors of Harad." There are doubtless other fancy new armies, but I couldn't bear to read more. Even worse, I bought all the books.

I could go on, but with the insane prices of buying into a new force and a new army construction that requires those expensive models to use what I have I'm confident in saying LotR SBG is dead to me.

Flames of War: It got a new edition this year. I built a new tank company for it this year. I realized I just don't like this game this year. I don't know what it is about it. It's not the scale, not even multi figures per base. I can't put my finger on it, but I don't like the game. I'm done trying to figure out why. I'm just not going to put another dime into it. I'll keep it around and maybe play an occasional game. But good-bye FoW!

Summing Up

This was an unfocused year for me. I painted a ton of stuff, played a bunch of new games. But I didn't have the "big project focus" of other years. I think, like a lot of others, the figurative death of GW games left a hole in my gaming. LotR SBG had been my go-to game for years before, and with it's demise so early in the year I drifted around searching for my next "go-to" game.

If anything,  feel like 2012 was a transitional year in gaming for me. 

As for the blog itself, I'm pretty okay with it. I kept up a good posting pace, just falling short of my goal of one post per week. I did try a few new things, like book reviews, which were a dud. I got the coveted and extremely rare Liebster Award (thanks again, Tim and Mike!) That seems to have increased traffic if not followers.

I'm excited for 2013, as I am for every new year. I wish all my blog readers the very best in the new year and every year after. I appreciate every comment and am really happy when I make contact with other gamers in the big wide world.