Welcome to 2020

It's been awhile. I've spent the last two years finishing the basement. I've done a lot of the work myself and we paid as we went, so it took a long time. The drawback to this is that all of my miniatures have been in storage for the last two years. I've done a lot of gaming but it has all been board or RPGs. Not bad, but not the stuff for this blog.

The basement after framing and wiring are complete.

In the last few weeks I've started to pull my stuff out of storage and move it into the basement. We are not completely done, but it's usable. Rhys and I have played several games of the new version of Kings of War as well as a few games of A Song of Ice and Fire, which I got for Christmas.

Rhys about to play his first game of KoW. Elves vs Empire. Also this picture is taken in the same direction as the basement picture above.

I've also gotten some painting done. I'll highlight the miniatures in their own posts. The good news is that I've already finished two units, totaling 28 Hoplites, this year, so I'm off to a good start.

Rhys got two Abyssal Dwarf army sets from Mantic for his Birthday (12/17) and Christmas. He also got a couple of the other models for his army, so he has a solid start to his own army for the first time. I was able to get a Slave Orc regiment assembled and painted for him before his birthday, so he not only got the models but one unit ready to go. (More to come in another post)

The slave orcs painted in Rhys' highschool colors, as requested.

Owyn got the Spartan set for Mortal Gods, which I have assembled. I had enough assembled and undercoated Warlord Games Greeks for us to start playing, so I painted those up. They are shit models but they look good enough now. (Also more in another post).

Warlord Games (Immortal) Greek Hoplites. I don't like these models.

As far as this year goes, I would love to play a lot of games. We're off to a good start with a game each day so far this year. Rhys and I play a lot of Keyforge which is fast and easy to play in a short amount of time. I still host D&D every Thursday night, so that is going strong. Now that the basement is usable we can pull out a lot more miniatures, and leave them set up.

It's nice to pull my Empire back out and get them on the table.

My goals for this year revolve around a handful of games. I'd like to play Kings of War, A Song of Ice and Fire, Star Wars Legions, Lord of the Rings, Mortal Gods and Rangers of Shadow Deep. I have armies/models for all of these and will work on getting them painted up. Rhys and I can play these but some of my friends are also interested. Mortal Gods will really depend on Owyn's interest. Like most tween boys he's more interested in video games and YouTube than hanging with Dad.

As with every year up to now, I'd like to play a campaign. We have the pieces in place for all of the above so it will not take much effort to run one, we just need to play enough to make it worthwhile.

I started a new job a few months ago and it should leave me with more time to for hobbies. We'll see if that pans out but I'm hopeful. Rhys just turned 15 and is all about games so it gives me a great way to spend time with him while he still wants to. A lot of things that were blocking gaming have fallen out of the way in the last three months, so here's to getting back in the saddle in 2020.