Gaming

2023 has been a phenomenal year for gaming. There are three stand out highlights, but there were so many fantastic games with fantastic opponents this year.


#1

The first highlight has to be…

… visiting Nottingham with Ciarán. We had an amazing time, playing games, visiting the Warhammer World exhibit and visiting the Warlord Games factory. Here are a few images from that trip:


#2

The second major highlight was…

… the Geekend, north of Hamburg. Great friends, great games, great food, great drink and bit of history! What’s not to love!?! I had a great time travelling to Hamburg and northwards in October. We had a chance to play lots of Stargrave and I ran a WFRP one-shot. So much fun was had! I look forward to going back next year.

#3

The third highlight was….

… Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I’ve enjoyed this so much. I’ve run 19 sessions this year, one of which was in person at the Geekend. The others are all part of an ongoing campaign that started with the WFRP Starter Set and has grown from there. It has been a blast. I’ve enjoyed GMing and being a player (for two sessions Stiu ran). Doing some roleplaying was one of my goals for this year and it panned out beautifully. I plan to continue it and we already have our first session scheduled for 2024!

… and the rest!

On the gaming front there was so much good stuff this year… here’s a sampling!

New 40k and Ciarán’s increasing interest in wargaming has made for a lot of gaming this year. That said, there was reasonable diversity in the games played, I count 11 different wargames. Not as many game types as last year, but that’s probably not a bad thing. I could do with consolidating a bit!


Hobbying and Painting

2022 was a good year for painting, but 2023 was better! Here are some samples…

I completed my Dark Age Irish, completed a 500pt Ork Boarding Patrol force, got a good start on a Legions Imperialis Death Guard army, completed a 600pt Slaves to Darkness army (including the Splintered Fang), painted a Stargrave crew and a Burrows and Badgers warband. Ciarán completed a Warcry warband and a T’au Kill Team.

2023 Audit

I outlined my 2023 plans here. Here they are with a commentary on how I got on:

  • Play with the armies I’ve painted. I’m looking at you Adeptus Titanicus, Tyranids and Custodes, but there are others… There are armies and warbands I’ve painted, many during Covid lockdowns, but haven’t really played with.
    • Technically this was achieved, but I didn’t play many games with those armies.
  • Continue playing games with my family, broadening this to boardgames.
    • Ciarán has really gotten more into wargaming this year, but we didn’t manage to carve out time for the whole family to play games. Need to work more on that…
  • Do some roleplaying! I really enjoyed the D&D one shot Daniel ran in Hamburg, so I might try my hand at GMing, probably WFRP.
    • This was a huge success. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed running WFRP and plan to continue into The Enemy Within Campaign.
  • Play some more multi-system campaigns (40k setting, Old World or WWII)… this is a carryover from last year, but I do enjoy them.
    • This was barely done… Ciarán and I played a linked spacecraft / 40k game. Need to focus to do more of this.
  • Paint the Warcry and Warhammer+ models from my backlog.
    • Done!

Not bad… not bad at all!

2024 Plans

So? What are my plans for 2024.

  • I have a few armies I’d like to get painted: American Civil War armies for Federals and Confederates; Blood Angels for Legions Imperialis; and update my Bretonnians for The Old World reboot.
  • I’d like to play some Warhammer: The Old World!
  • Continue running WFRP… hopefully starting The Enemy Within campaign.
  • Continue playing wargames with Ciarán, making sure we get good milage out of our existing forces.
  • Play more baordgames with my family.

And for Ciarán:

  • Play more Kill Team
  • … more Blitz Bowl …
  • … and paint some more Necrons!

Until next time,

Owen