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2018... we hardly knew you. Over the course of the year, we loved, we lost, we painted, and played.....

This is the time of year where we all look back and assess what we accomplished for our hobby goals.

My retrospective is here:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2018/12/2018-down-what-happened.html

I typically break the year down into:
Purchases
Painting and Modelling
Gaming
Misc.

I had fairly light goals for the year and I did a good job completing many of them.

However, I am probably most excited about this from 2018....


Not the picture or the armies, but the ruleset itself.....

Men of Bronze- https://www.amazon.com/Men-Bronze-Ancient-Hoplite-Wargames/dp/1472832612

How about you? What did you complete in 2018?

Purchases - really only some codex books and some small lots of oop figures through Dakka or Warseer.
Painting and Modelling - painted 76 models in 2018 so a productive year.
Gaming - got in a fair number of 40K games in and continue to enjoy the 8th edition.
Misc. - Hope that everyone has a good 2019

Cheers,

CB

Purchases: Almost all of my purchases came from eBay, notably grabbing a SC! Eldar box for half price!

P&M: I managed to paint 22 infantry models and 5 tanks since getting back into the hobby in September. Dabbled in some scale modelling again which was very refreshing. Not a bad quarter! Here's probably the favourite model of mine that I've done this year, it also happens to be the first character I've painted in years:



Gaming: Got into 8th edition and have been enjoying it so far. Needs a little more depth but no real complaints.

Misc: This year I got back into the hobby after almost three years and I'm very happy to have done so. I graduated from uni with a distinction in my MSc and Phil the Carnifex got featured in the GW website gallery for all to see as well:



EDIT: Suppose I'll embellish a little bit with a few photos...

I would love to see some photos in this thread!

Purchasing: went on a spree last year, too many things to list really - not just for 40K, but X-Wing, Bolt Action and a half-dozen other game systems.

For me, however, the most important purchases have been rebuilding my old GI Joe collection. If I’m going to “play with toy soldiers”, these are really the ones I want most (stopping after the release of the USS Flagg).

Painting & Modeling: With the spree mentioned above, I really got buried under a pile of unassembled and unpainted miniatures - several hundred models worth, easily. I’m happy to say I’m down to around with a relatively small amount - Stormcast, Admech and a Forgefather army. Even those have been assembled and prime and just wait finishing them off (My hope is that around May my paint table will be cleared).

Gaming: Unfortunately, this is the area where I’ve really fallen down. Despite investing in X-Wing 2.0, Legion and a fair bit of Armada, I’ve only managed a couple games of each. I’ve also discovered my eldest son doesn’t like 40K proper, and prefers Kill Team/Shadow War/Necromunda - of which we’ve only played about four games. I have, however, played a fair number of board games, a return to D&D and MtG (the latter a game I haven’t willingly touched in about 20 years).

Misc: After a long hiatus, my wife and I have actually sat down to play a Link game (Breath of the Wild) after a 20-25 year dry spell. While I actually play, she observes and advises. I’m happy to say we’ve only had to hit the hint book twice so far and I have been thoroughly enjoying getting back into a genre I thought I’d never get the chance to do again (with kids around).

A pretty eclectic year for me. I started the year playing a good amount of Infinity. Shadespire was also pretty hot, but burned out rather quickly due to people mostly playing either Steelheart or Orks. I added in some Skeletons and Dwarves but by then GW was dangling new shinies and people weren't playing as much.



I also started the year by finally diving into 8th edition proper by adding a Corvus and Knight to my DW. This continued through the summer after the DW codex where I added some Dreadnoughts, IG, and Primaris to make it hold up in competition.



The summer also brought a demand from my friends to try AoS. I picked up some Sylvaneth, but the game really didn't click with me at all and they're mostly assembled but waiting for a gap in my schedule to get some new heroes and hobby time.

Spring also added Legion to the mix. This game was super popular at first, but everyone gravitated towards the Empire and it kind of fizzled during the summer 40k/AoS hype. It's popped up a bit more with newer releases, but now there's really only Imperial players and that's definitely limiting things.



The first half of the year was also largely about Trollbloods with Northkin seeing quite a bit of the table along with finally painting up my Sea King. Crazy amount of hobby there but he's a blast. The latter half of the year shifted to Khador and Man O War FINALLY getting to be a real thing. They'll probably remain a focus as my Skittle flavored Doom Reavers are itching to see the table again.



The last half of the year has also been pretty skirmish heavy, oddly starting with someone getting me to finally assemble my Relic Knights and playing a good amount of that. While its not likely to amount to anything, the return of skirmish games has lead to a bunch of games like Guild Ball, Malifaux, Batman and Infinity seeing serious time on the table.

There are a number of these threads kicking about, forgot which ones I posted in.

c/p from the other

I’ve been going into a lot of detail over in my blog.

What I painted
Review and look forward

In short, I painted:


And my New Year’s Resolutions are:

1 Finish painting the odds and ends from my friend's SOB army that I worked on. Just a handfull of arcoflagelents, spare immolater weapons, some IG HQs.
2 Paint more then I buy.
3 Paint At least 12 spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
4 Try to get more games in. Optimally 24, with at least some being AoS.
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Get my Deathwatch army to a larger level, 2 more full squads minimum, aiming to field an allied battalion (2HQ, 3Troops) and 1,000 points.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. In addition, paint something odd from the back of the bench a/o try out a new technique.
8 Buy, build, and/or paint at least one piece of terrain.

My 2018 Year in Review is already up on my P&M blog.

Within your schema:

* purchases were again a net return, selling more than I bought, even though I spent a fair bit on Kingdom Death : Monster. I'm (mostly) out of the habit of buying things, having been trying to actively reduce my backlog for the past few years.

* painting and modeling was a success, having built all of the things I am able to store and transport for Kingdom Death, along with cleanup work and some side stuff. No painting, though I should get back into that when the weather outdoors is more amenable.

* gaming has been a success, playing a fair bit of Kingdom Death, which I greatly appreciate and enjoy. Also playing a fair bit of PUBG on mobile, which is a really good "last man standing" game that has been exceedingly illuminating in terms of how I now understand combat simulation.

All told, I'm happy enough with how 2018 turned out.