2015 Round-Up and Plans for 2016...

Another one gone...

Yet again, 2015 started out okay but anything hobby related gradually faded away by the end of the year. Good intentions gave way to real life and work issues.

The plan was to concentrate on Pulp, DWMG, 7TV, Greek Myth and IHMN.

I did get to add to my growing Doctor Who and 7TV / 7th Voyage collection (with the help of Robafett and Matt Slade) and got a few good games in too.

So, what did I actually get done this time around?

1) Doctor Who - a handful of painted minis added to the 200+ I already have done. Played and epic game "The Terror at Devils Bay" with hordes of Sea Devils attacking a UNIT base as the Doctor desperately struggles to help and the Master sneaks around in the background...

2) 7TV - another batch of about 50 painted for 7TV. I now have over 100 for the 'inch high spy-fi' genre. Add in the 200 Doctor Who figures (not in the pic below) things are pretty sweet on this front!

3) 7th Voyage - no figures added (didn't even finish those bloomin skellies!) but managed to get two good games in of this.

First was "Shrine of the Beastmen" where we joined brave Sinbad and his crew as they move through the 'Skull Gate', the grotesque entrance to the Shrine of the Beastmen. Their task is to explore the ruins, not seen by man for hundreds of years (at least none that returned...) and seek out the fabled 'Plaque of Destiny' within.

The second was "The Lair of the Scorpion", a huge 4 player game where two groups of adventurers explore a huge temple inhabited by an embittered sorcerer and the minions of the Scorpion God.

4) Songs of Blades and Heroes - continuing the good run of games at the beginning of the year we also managed to play a couple of games of SOBH at the club.

First was "Village of the Dead"...

The second was "The Arkand Road".

5) Terrain - a few more bits completed including the massive 'Grand Hotel' which was a lot of fun to build and will hopefully be useful for Pulp / 7TV / DWMG / WW2 games. 

I picked up a load of 'Plasticville' stuff and a stack of Sarissa Citiblock bits with the vain hope of getting a proper town set up.

I also got a handful of 28mm sci-fi figures painted and some 'not' Ghostbusters painted by Matt.

I still haven't based the last batch of Vikings I painted last year...

Once again, no zombie gaming. We still never got to play Strange Aeons either...and now the second edition is on its way...still, the pulp stuff I have done should be useful.

Apart from a few 'pulp' type figures painted, this plan didn't progress very far but despite this I am still determined to play Pulp Alley.

Other than that, not a lot else done!

So, plans for next year?

1) Pulp -after picking up the Pulp Alley rules last year (they still look great!) I am hoping to invest a little more time in this one.

2) Greek Myth / 7th Voyage - at the risk of repeating myself...ideally want to actually play more of this now I have the figures painted! A few more bits of suitable terrain done and still some interest from our usual group. Having said that, with alternatives on the horizon, who knows...see below.

3) More Doctor Who and 7TV - continuing to add to the collection. Lots more purchased awaiting a paint job. Not to mention 7TV2 is on its way!

4) Finish my Dark Age / Vikings - yep, same again. Need to base up the last lot painted and one day get around to painting the rest of the civilians and animals I have.

5) Finish my Stargate stuff - maybe even run a game? Not a lot to do with this but still need to find suitable rules.

The hoped for try out of Fistful of Kung Fu never materialised, although I did get a couple more minis painted for it! No Gladiator games either. WW2 is likely to take a back seat for a while as I want to concentrate on other things. I have plenty of options for WW2 already, not to mention the loads of figures my gaming pals also have.

New potential projects? It will probably be all about 7TV2 and Pulp Alley. Maybe...

Fantasy seems to have garnered some recent interest with our group and the club, such as the just released Dragon Rampant (purchased), Frostgrave (also purchased) and Open Combat (still awaiting the Kickstarter). SOBH still looks to be a quick and easy goto game though. I have stacks of fantasy figures, the majority unpainted but it will take me a lot to really be inspired to start painting anything...

However, 'Horror' gaming is really getting my interest at the moment.

Zombies (once again)...I have finally decided to commit to this in some way. Andrew and others have a fair few Z's so I will look at providing some survivor / civilian types plus the aforementioned 'town'. I have also invested in the Battle Systems 'Urban Terrain' Kickstarter which looks good. Rules will have to be All Things Zombie: FFO as I love the campaign aspect of this.

Didn't play or even paint a single figure but the very interesting Witchfinder General rules from Dashing Dice Games are still at the back of my mind. I may have some generic ghouls and other beasties painted soonish so who knows?

On the 'lighter' side of horror I have also gradually been collecting and painting some TV/film standards including the Scooby Gang, Ghostbusters and some of the other 'scooby gang' - Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 7TV2 already has rules for the Scooby Gang and Ghostbusters!

Perhaps we will finally play Strange Aeons too??

As far as other genres go, I have developed an interest in some small scale sci-fi gaming - Tomorrows War, Five Parsecs and Judge Dredd spring to mind. I have a pile of suitable minis for these, including some old 15mm and have a handful of 28mm painted up, including a 'Snake Plissken', a 5th Element Leeloo and Dallas and a few others. Robafett has a ton of generic sci-fi 15mm and 28mm Dredd stuff already done - we just need terrain, as always...

I also picked up Black-Ops by Guy Bowers but no plans for this yet.

Lastly I also picked up the Daisho and Ronin rules. I have about 50 or so mixed samurai, ninja, monks and other assorted oriental types but doubt this project will take off next year.

The standard mantra returns -  the main aim will be to try to actually PLAY more games.


Best wishes to you all.

M