2016 Year in Review and plans for 2017

2016 is over and good riddance. On the hobby front, however, it was a good year all around.

First off, let's look at what I wanted to accomplish for 2016.

1. Play more games. 62 is a fair number but I would like to have more, of all genres.

2. My purchasing will likely be mostly Armada, X-Wing and the great plastics put out by Gripping Beast, Fireforge and the Perry Brothers. I want to see what you can really do with all of these and have armies they can fit into.

3. I would like to teach Rhys to play Kings of War this year and continue to play Lord of the Rings and Gruntz with him.

4. Play a campaign using Armada, X-Wing and Chain of Command.

5. Buy a couple of new rule sets. I'd like to pick up Battlegroup. I don't like Flames of War and I've heard good things about the Battlegroup series. I'd also like to get Dragon Rampant, since Lion Rampant is such good fun. I'm sure there will be a couple of others that come out over the year.

6. Get more terrain painted and built. Terrain makes the table and I need a lot more of some things to bring it all together.

Edit: 7. Paint 1500 points worth of models. This equates to 300 28mm models.

Number 1 was a success.  I played a total of 107 times in 2016. D&D got the most plays, by far, at 40, and it wasn't even on the horizon as a main game last year. I played board games 32 times, card games 15 times and miniature games 20 times. I would prefer more miniature games but I'm still quite pleased with that level of gaming.

Number 2 was mostly right. I did buy Armada and X-Wing. I've got Gripping Beast on order but did not pick up any more Fireforge or any of the Perry plastics. I'm not worried about this one though. I have plenty of models.

Number 3 did not happen but he's very interested in either Warhammer or Kings of War. I'm inclined towards KoW for him since the rules appear to be simpler. If we do play Warhammer it will be the 6/7th edition rules.

Number 4 was a fail. We talked about it. I taught the other guys to play Armada and X-Wing. We even got together to work on some terrain. We did not get the game started though.

Number 5 is a success. Battlegroup was re-released and I got a copy of that (it arrived today in fact). I also got Dragon Rampant for Christmas and Rhys and I are going to play a game today.

Number 6 was a minor success. I did get terrain assembled and painted. I added more to the collection that still needs to be finished but it's looking up.

Number 7 was a success. I painted exactly 300 models and they were worth 1610 points. That's a new record for me and I'm a little bit amazed that I succeeded, to be honest.

Now to goals for 2017. I'm going to keep them modest this year as I've learned that hobby time is hard to come by.

1.  I'm happy with the amount of gaming I'm getting in, so more of the same is in order.

2. I'm working on filling out some of my GW armies. I want to find all of the Dwarf units that I don't have, mostly elite infantry, and get some of the hero models as well. I also want to fill out some holes in my LotR armies as those models are getting hard to come by. For 15mm I'd like to get some of the amazing White Dragon models and get them painted.

3. I may pick up a new scale. I'm intrigued with playing some battle tech type combat in 6mm. I need to find rules that give me what I want though. Not too much record keeping but keeping the feeling of mechs/heat etc that make Battletech unique. I'll look at Epic for rules but this will only happen if I can find something that gives me what I'm looking for.

4. The campaign is still a goal for this year. I need the other guys to get their 40K armies out and we need to to get some games of Chain of Command in so that we know the rules. After that playing should be pretty easy (famous last words).

5. Painting. I'm going for the same goal as last year. 300 models and 1500 points.

That's it. Not a lot but enough to keep me busy.

I hope everyone has a great 2017.