Year in Review 2013

This year I had two major goals – qualify for the 40k GT national finals and try and get the blog noticed. It's been a good year!

Indy 40k GT Heat 2 Results

GAMING
It's been a landmark year for gaming for me. I managed to break into the top 10 at the summer Brighton event (10/40), hit my main target of qualifying for the GT finals (8/43) and managed 3/3 wins at the club's friendly Christmas tournament (2/12, missing first place on old VPs). Given that real life can be a little complicated, turning up to any of these events is a major victory in itself! I've also had some great club and casual games throughout the year, so thank you to everyone I've played for some good times.

Brighton Singles Results July 2013

I've had fun running my Space Wolves primary, developing my Imperial Guard and now Inquisition allies. I still enjoy MSU razorspam for mobile scoring, backed up by the vendetta, Forge World anti-air (lascannon sabre platforms and hyperios missile launchers) and the potent IG heavy quad launchers (aka thudd guns). I'm now looking at how to react to the dramatic changes Escalation and Stronghold Assault have brought but will probably cover this a bit more in my next post!

HOBBY
This year's hobbying has all been about my new Imperial Guard, with a slight diversion into some scratch built hyperios launchers for my wolves. I love hobbying when I'm doing but it's not something I do to relax and free time during the day is a rarity. However, those thudd guns aren't going to paint themselves and I've been able to get the following done to at least a reasonable level (cleaned, assembled, painted to three colours minimum, shaded, based, some conversion work):

3 thudd guns and 9 crew (with headswaps/minor conversions)

2 scratch built lascannon sabre platforms

8 scratch built hyperios missile launchers

1 vendetta (converted lascannons)

1 chimera

30 Imperial Guard infantry models (all with some headswaps or minor conversions)

Company command squad with converted commander and master of ordinance

Minor updates to 30 grey hunters to paint weapons, pelts, etc.

Plus I assembled and undercoated 10 Grey Knight Strike Squad models, including 4 sets of magnetised arms for weapon swaps. Actually that seems like quite a lot when I list it out!

I like the look of the guard models, having gone for a mix of Maxmini headswaps on cadian bodies, steel legion, converted cultists (no chaos icons) and robed commanders. I'm aiming for a renegade look for a bunch of fringe loyalists, used by the inquisition as and when the need arises. Getting there I hope!

I enjoyed converting the inquisitor Lokk model the most, using a deathwing flail instead of a sword. I'm even going to use this as my avatar and new site branding is on it's way for the new year. The most difficult bits were the hyperios launchers (took an age and a lot of effort!) and converting the plasma guns for the command squad (from right handed space wolf guns to left handed cultist models).

I've been pleased to get some good soft scores at tournaments this year, getting maximum points at the qualifier (25/25) and club event (10/10), and everything but true WYSIWYG at Brighton (34/40). The requirements for each of these weren't horrendous, with the exception of true WYSIWYG – all weapons and grenades for wolves and guard is a lot of work! While I'm not a huge fan of including soft scores in competitive gaming, when the points are deliberately very easy to get (just as well as I don't consider myself to be a great painter!) and published well in advance there really aren't any excuses for not putting in the time if you want the points. I also like having something to aim for and enjoy playing against fully painted armies, so I can't really complain too much!

BLOG
It's been a busy year for the blog, having registered with a big bunch of networks (thanks guys) and kicking out just over a post a week. Not bad considering that this is a solo effort with a dodgy internet connection! In 12 months the blog has gone from 0 followers and 1000 hits to 27 followers and 15000 hits, so a big thank you to everyone who's joined the site, stopped by to leave comments and taken the time to read a few of my ramblings.

I 'd say that I've enjoyed writing the CONCEPTS: articles the most and these are really the main source of original content for the site. Taking a detailed, and I hope even-handed, look at some of the fundamental aspects of the hobby is something that really interests me. This year I've covered topics including list writing, burnout and spam, some of which even made it into House of Paincakes weekly top ten (cheers Von)!

Also a big thank you to the Death or Glory boys for inviting me to join their blog. Having played a couple of games against the DoG team members in the Brighton summer tournament I was delighted when Mike came over, slapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was interested in contributing. To be fair they do ask a lot of players and I don't think he'd read this blog at the time, but I jumped at the chance anyway!

SUMMARY
2013 has been a great year for gaming and I'm loving immersing myself in the hobby. For all the nerdrage and drama on the internet there is also some really positive and interesting stuff going on. Hopefully this blog has contributed a little to the latter and I continue to get a lot out of playing and posting.

Thanks again to everybody I've played against and who's read the blog and I hope you've enjoyed this last year as much as I have!