I'm going to briefly summarise some of my best/worst 2023 purchases and projects, for the amusement/as a warning to others. Let's play hit or miss.
Carnevale Starter Box: Hit
The rules had hitpoints (boo) and I didn't love the resin the minis were made of but its enjoyable fluff and background (all 150 pages!) prompted me to paint all my pirates and a bunch of random cultists. Also I played the heck out of the included Venice card terrain, and I plan to paint even more pike/muskets to use on said terrain, before the years end.
Ragnarok Rulebook: Miss
Vikings hunting god-fragments to give them powers sounded epic. Just a bit clunky and bland, with a single warband of generic vikings to play as. The most interesting thing was the monsters but they were a pain to source given how unenthusiastic I was about actually playing.
15mm WW2 Tanks: Hit
The tanks were fun to make and easy to paint. I made my own dieselpunk setting and rules where roaming tank pirates raid fortified villages, and mutants, scarred by gas, roam the post-WW1-apocalypse-landscape. Me and the wee lad had fun poring through tank reference books and visiting the Cairns Tank Museum. I doubled down on this (I now have ~50 tanks) when my plan to play Battletech fell through.
Middle Earth:SBG : Hit
My most played game, I taught a few people to play as it is a good intro game with familiar lore and simple enough mechanics. Also read Hobbit and LotR to my kids and watched both movies. My kid (who seldom watches TV or movies) now quotes Gollum to the bemusement of his friends. Discovered resin printing which can make a $80 GW model look lame - for only $10.
Gaslands: Hit
The rules are quite gluggy but still cinematic; I've played only a few games but my son and I had lots of fun kitbashing cars. My son is still collecting cars and visiting my old Ender 3 filament printer...
Zone Raiders: Hit
Motivated me to start painting my ~80 undercoated Infinity and will serve as a "gateway" ruleset to sci fi and campaign games. Far simpler than Infinity and its learning cliff curve, less 1980s than Necromunda....
The Dump Shop/Thrift/Charity Shops: Hit
I have acquired a shed TV, a DVD player, and 100s of DVDs (the latter often for cents each) which I use to curate old war movies for my son (check if suitable) and inspire my painting - i.e. I watch period-appropriate movies when painting i.e. Pirates of the Carribean, Master and Commander, Black Sails when painting pirates, for example. I can do ~8-12 minis per movie depending on how complex they are...
Also scored lots of plastic castles and a table full of castle terrain for only a few dollars. Watching Last of the Mohicans on my $30 thrift shop TV reignited my French Indian dino wars painting...
3D Filament Printing: Miss?
I'm not sure. I dislike the hassle of 3D printing and wouldn't recommend: but it did help me complete Cruel Seas and Gaslands projects I otherwise would not have. My friends all have much newer 3D filament printers and they swear by them... *looks around for wife* maybe I just need to upgrade... but as it is it is a pain in the bum and a time sink...
Cruel Seas (WW2 coastal forces): Miss
The PT boats are snazzy but the Warlord rules are far worse than I recall and the prohibitive costs make further collecting unfeasible. Kinda on hold until I sort better rules.
Burrows and Badgers: Miss
Expensive boutique models and hitpoints (boo) contributed to my non-playing this rather charming and otherwise decent set of campaign rules of warring woodland animals *cough* Redwall *cough*.
Battletech: Miss
Models are cool designs but kinda low grade plastic. The OG rules are hideously clunky and dated and the Alpha Strike rules need too many house rules to be playable. Was expecting to play this lots with my lad but we opted to play mech games on the PC instead...
Homebrew Modern Jet Rules: Miss
Still haven't solved the riddle of how to abstract air combat enough to play fast while retaining the energy management/maneuver/detection/pilot factor/plane performance interactions. It's not impossible but certainly pulls in a lot of different directions. I think I'm stuck on activation mechanics at the moment - I'm struggling to find something chaotic yet favours better pilots with more energy...
Blog Consistency: Hit
I've tried to post each month (traditionally I have gaps and bursts of energy aligning with holidays) and have had my 3rd most prolific year (now 13 years - originally this was just a repository of rules reviews as I got sick of answering everyones questions - I still own a vast rules library...)
Homebrew Sci Fi Horror Rules: Miss
Kinda made a decent modern skirmish shooter but the interactions and reactions kinda sidelined the horror aspect and I've revised and simplified a few times...
Terrain Built: Hit
My 'no pizza unless you use the box for terrain' has resulted in a few tables worth of terrain, which has in turn prompted more mini playing and painting. Terrain plays a strong but kinda unnoticed role in motivating you.
The Excel Spreadsheet: Hit
I colour-coded all my toys into "complete projects" or "incomplete" based on a) do I have minis painted b) do I have terrain c) do I have rules? ...and set about highlighting then remedying any gaps. Having clear ideas of what I need to finish projects did wonders for my work rate - (I have painted ~450+ MESBG minis and ~400 other minis in 2024) and my games played. Everything has been sorted into small tackle boxes with an orange sticker denoting incomplete/unpainted boxes. The average gamer has 100-500 incomplete minis but my mum always said I was above average ;-)
Great summary! Getting stuff organized and done is fine progress!
ReplyDelete- GG
It's been good for identifying WHY I am not playing games i.e. I've gone off sci fi skirmish as the rules are too tricky to play with a casual opponent = solution: get simpler rules. Or - not playing samurai as no terrain = solution: build a Japanese village... etc
Delete-eM