The State of the Nation 2015

It's been a funny old year. Some things have gone well and some not so much. I've made some changes to my life, and plan some more in the future. One thing that has suffered the most is writing, and as a result the frequency and content of my blog posts. They have always been intended more for my own recollection than for outside reading, however, I do still try when I write to make it entertaining. Unfortunately I find it difficult in game to note take. As a consequence my write ups are often fairly vague. I'm hoping to try and change this in the future, as apart from anything, it isn't going to help me if the information is sketchy!

I'm also thinking about revamping the blog including a custom domain name and maybe a relocation to a different host, but that I will need some help with.

But enough of that, on with the annual review which is a little later this yeard due to a number of factors. First up: a review of what I said last year, and how accurate it was!

Firstly, I pretty much put the lid on ever playing WFB and 40K again, and nothing has changed. Furthermore, I'm more resolved than ever not to play them again as they simply don't fulfil a role I'm not getting from elsewhere. As such, unless anything radical changes, and I don't mean Age of Sigmar, I won't really be discussing them again. 

Much as last year, and as predicted, I've not had any time for Dystopian Wars, however, I'm not yet ready to ditch it completely yet, though for now it is boxed up and stored and has been for months.

I've not played that many games of Warmachine and Hordes since this time last year, as largely my drive had diminished, as had my gaming time to spare for it. However, after a brief and mixed stint with Convergence, I went back to Trollbloods. These guys are the reason I played the system in the first place and so I feel a lot more comfortable with them. That's not to say that I won't dabble elsewhere, but these guys won't be forgotten. More on that later. 

As for Malifaux, I've been more active on the tournament circuit with this game than in casual games. With few local opponents, and those that there are also having other games taking up their time, it meant I had to compete to get games. I did enjoy it however, and although I'm yet to win a ranked game, I didn't entirely embarrass myself and finished each tournament having dodged the wooden spoon! I'd been playing Ressers, and shall continue with these as my main faction, but I'm hoping to have a bit of a play around with Arcanists in the near future.

The year ahead:

Okay, so I've picked up a lot of systems recently and a lot of factions for those I already had. In part this is to 'future proof' my gaming as I will already have the bulk of new things to try, but it's also born of a desire to try new things out. So let's go through the far longer than last year list. In no particular order:

As I said earlier, this won't likely be featured much as I've got a lot of other things to occupy me, but every now and then it catches my eye and I hate myself. 

I still don't expect this to be more than occasional game. Ben and Sam play it, as does one other person I know, but that aside, there is much more attention on

In the local area (see what I did there?). I swore I'd not play this last year, but all the kids are playing it, cool or otherwise, so if you can't beat 'em, find a bigger bully! This is very much and occasional game for me, yet that said I'm dabbling with both Empire and Rebels. I'm not intending to go for Scum & Villainy, but I'm sure next year I will be stating that 'Mistakes were made!'

Speaking of which, I've got a sizeable collection of Haqqislam now thanks in part to winning a competition. I've had one intro game, but that's all. I am hoping to rectify this soon, there's often talk of an escalation league happening, but there is talk of a lot of things. 

Such as that there is a league for this. I've been enjoying playing Alchemists as I said earlier, but for the league, I will have to decide if I want to try and do well or learn a new team. My money is on the latter, but thanks to all the things I'm telling you I've bought, I don't have a lot of money left to bet with. 

Partly because it turns out I collect Minions now. Both pacts! As I said, I've packed away Convergence, but I plan to  use the Minions now and then to vary things up a bit. I do want to play a bit more, and now that I've come to peace with not trying to use 'the' net lists, I'm happy enough to dart from Minions to Trolls when the whimsy strikes. I'm going to Breast Cancer Brawl in October, so that gives me time to play about with a few more relaxed lists without feeling too much pressure from a competition point of view. At the moment the Troll 'Casters I am favouring are Calandra and pGrim. Despite what I said about using net lists, I am working towards building an EE tier list with her, but I am also playing her out of tier. As for Grim, although I have played Hunters Grim a few times, I'd never really given his prime incarnation much thought. I do want to play each of the 'casters I've never used before a few times by the end of the year, which now leaves me with Borka2, Gunnbjorn and Madrak2. I have plans for all three, but with a Journeyman league starting in September, I have decided to try out the Thronfall Alliance pact beginning with Arkadius.

Okay, so this is a new one. I've been wanting to do a RPG for some time. Aside from a single Iron Kingdoms intro game a couple of years ago, and now a couple of Unleashed ones in the last month I've never really played them before, but I did enjoy those games and so I've decided I want to take part in a campaign. As such, I've been speaking with Dave, Nick, Shane, Ben and Luke and we've decided to give the Unleashed version a go. As things stand I am thinking of playing a Pygmy Troll Bushwhacker/Monster Hunter, but I change my mind almost on a daily basis! This one is one of those back burner things so when it'll happen is uncertain, but hopefully it will!

The last game on the list and the newest. I'd been fighting the urge on this one for some time, but with a few guys from Siege/Yorkshire Renegades starting to play I quickly succumbed. And succumbed hard. I was instantly drawn to the Joker crew and so that was my first purchase, although there were a few of the 'good guys' models and crews that drew my attention and I realised that I could share models between Bats, Arrow and therefore Law Forces very easily and so have picked up some of those too.

So that's it really, that's the year in review and the plan ahead. Oh, wait, I've done a bit of painting too, but not much, and I intend to do more!

Thanks for reading and please let me have your thoughts on this and how I can improve the blog in general.