So, its October 2016 and I am very much aware I have not updated this blog for over ten months. And this is not because I have dropped out of the hobby, or fallen off the face of the planet; which is hopeful obvious if anyone is following the Facebook page.
However, life, being life, has thrown various non-gaming challenges in my general direction this year so as a result, writing has taken a back seat, which is unfortunate because this is good therapy for me.
In response to this outrageous turn of events, I’m planning to put together some blog articles to close out 2016, of which this is the first. So what has happened this year so far?
Smogcon 2016
All the way back in February I managed to drag a friend (and at least a couple of viruses) to Smogcon in England. This two day Warmachine convention was once again held at the Radisson Blu by Heathrow Airport and despite various illnesses, it was AWESOME!!!
This year I took my Cygnar, dropped any ideas of tournament play and stayed in the Iron Arena for all three days, playing many cool people (I ‘only’ played 16 games this year), picking up more toys, and watching a high-end Masters game live.
I could do an in-depth review, but I’m not going too. Suffice to say it was incredible fun and I’m already booked for Smogcon 2017. And next time four of us from our club will be flying over which will be a huge amount of fun!
Infinity, X-Wing and the other game
With the announcement of the third edition of Warmachine, that game wound down over the spring while everyone at club waited for June. To fill the void a few other games started to appear. Infinity is obvious, because several of us had got into Infinity last year, so we now have a good amount of city terrain painted.
While I have painted a few extra Infinity models, including two Tomcats, and I own the new, and very shiny, Human Sphere book, we haven’t played Infinity since May. This is a shame because I love the game, even if it can be tilting at times.
Guildball has also been very popular as has X-Wing. X-Wing in particular I like. Pre-painted models makes the entry level quite low and it is a game I can play with my kids, because it is not hugely complicated, and it is Star Wars. With excitement over the new Rogue One movie, this is going to be thing later this year.
On the Warhammer 40000 front, I have actually sold a couple of my armies, specifically my Eldar and Death Guard now have new homes. This was a weird thing for me. I don’t particularly need the cash, however my 40K stuff has been sitting unused in the loft for some years, so it was time to say goodbye.
Warmachine Again
June saw the release of Warmachine/Hordes ‘All New War’. For simplicity we will call this ‘3rd edition’. I will go into this is more detail in another blog post, but as of writing this we are finishing a Journeyman League.
This has been interesting. We allowed some alternative Battleboxes and that was a mixed experience. Sure, it allowed some of our veteran players to participate that would not have otherwise, however I am now acutely aware that the standard Battleboxes are very finely balanced against each other. This said, after five weeks I can say the League has been a success in that lots of games have been played and no one player has won every week.
Better still, the League has given me a kick to start and paint my third Warmachine army, but again, that’s a topic for another blog post…
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