Plans for 2024 and Looking Back at 2023

 Hi!

Its been a wee bit quiet here over the last month as its both the silly season at work so I've been mentally busy and we've got guests coming to stay over Christmas so the man cave/library has had to be turned back into an actual bedroom.

This year has been a bit of a mixed bag hobby wise as I've played some brilliant fun games from a variety of games but nowhere near enough of them as the total comes to 24 compared to last years 53!

Looking at my games record, I've played Colostle and Planet 28 most and they're definitely my games of the year as they're both really quirky and simple games that are buckets of fun to play, easy to convert and bolt on extra elements and basically concentrate on having an enjoyable gaming experience.

In Colostle, my character EM-RY5, a golem adventurer has been on an epic quest to save his hometown of Granite Orchard from repeated rogue Rook attacks and I've thoroughly enjoyed the solo RPG and would highly recommend folks take a peek at it as its brilliant.

I've got several expansions for it now which are adding great little elements and plan on grabbing the second expansion and the two new job packs that I've not picked up yet over the last few months and plan on diving back into the Colostle in the new year as I try to complete the campaign.

Wargaming wise, Planet 28 and to a lesser extent, Brutal Quest continue to provide pretty much everything I want in a skirmish wargame and my small warbands continue to multiply and quite a few games have been played with the Death in the Throne Room campaign starting to come together, I'm looking forward to playing it out next year.

Looking forward, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on Rogue Trader in 2024 so I can put together a bit of retro fun using the original rules but I'm still waiting on my copy arriving (like quite a few folks by the sounds of things!) so its going to be put on the backburner for a while until it does but in the meantime I do want to continue painting stuff to add to my assorted warbands.

I'm also really keen to get started with some more fantasy next year as I really want to play some grim low magic fantasy games! Over the last year or so, I've picked up a few rulebooks including Rangers of Shadowdeep and Five Leagues from the Borderlands so we shall see what I can put together.

It will be a bit of a slow process though as my painting time is decidedly limited, as can be seen by the palty number of figures I've actually managed to paint this year which sits at a mere 53 which is less than half of last years total but I do want to see if I can get a bit of inspiration for 2024 and see if I can improve on it.

I've got lots of papercraft miniatures that I can use which is an ok stopgap but I find myself really wanting to use physical miniatures, either stuff that I've bought or sculpted myself but with the hobby severely limited in both time and money, I may end up going for this approach to scratch the itch until I can slowly put together a more permanent plan.

I've also had a hankering for something different in 2024. As is always the case with me, I've got a rubbish attention span and have seen several games I'd love to lean into be it Void 2.0, Wild West Exodus, Draculas America, Battletech, Silver Bayonet, retro Doctor Who Miniatures Game or Heavy Gear Blitz to name but a few but I really need to temper the enthusiasm for the ooh shiny new things syndrome as I don't really need to start yet another mad project which will probably end up grinding to a halt not long after it starts.

When you combine it with the old projects I've got such as Vor, Flintloque, Star Mogul, Land Ironclads, 2nd Edition 40k and Somewhere on the Border, I'm already spoiled for choice!

I'll need to do some head scratching and serious pondering but I do hope that 2024 will see me getting back into the swing of things and maybe I need to set myself a monthly challenge to start a mini project that is easily achievable, plan it out in advance and complete it before moving on. It would give me the motivation to do some much needed hobby goodness and if I can complete a project and move on it may be both fun and give me lots to blog about, especially if I only need to complete say a dozen figures and a few pieces of scenery followed by a game being played...

I look forward to 2024 for new gaming and painting challenges and hope everyone has had a cracking year hobby wise and thankyou to everyone who has taken the time to read my meandering blog in its 15th year!

In the meantime, All the best! 

Richard