Tuesday, January 6, 2015

2015 - The Resolutions!

Oh dear it’s the time of year again; the time when we evaluate the failed resolutions of the previous year and come up with some more for ourselves to probably fail at.  It seems a grim outlook on the situation but it often is the correct one.  I don't think I've ever in my life managed to nail all of my resolutions and I assume I will continue that streak into 2016, but for now let's look back on the successes and failures from 2014.

First let us take a moment to go over my 2014 resolutions.

-Buy no more than 5 new Board Games-
I bought 4 games.  I also traded for 2 more but since trading involves getting rid of a game I won’t be counting that against me.  Only 4 is a success for me and even more so the fact that the games I did get seem to be a hit with everyone who has played them.

-Participate in the local X-Wing League or run Season 3 of The Waaagh Cast Cup Blood Bowl League-
Our local X-Wing league died pretty much as soon as the last one ended resulting in no 2nd season of the league.  It sucks, but I take consolation hat I didn’t invest further than Wave 3 at least.  I've debated selling my stuff but I think it’s still a worthwhile game to keep at the level I have for random one off games.  The Blood Bowl League also did not make it back into rotation this year.  I enjoyed running the League but my old PC, while it can run the game is getting awfully sluggish and out of date.  I’d like to say maybe I’ll get a new one and run the league but honestly I don’t have a whole lot of motivation to play Blood Bowl right now so running it is even less likely.

-Play four games of Warhammer using supplemental rules-
I'd like to say with certainty that this was completed.  I know for a fact I've played at least four games using Triumph & Treachery and I know also that I've squeezed in at least two or so using Storm of Magic (at least the Scrolls of Binding part).  Heck, Chuck and I played a game just a few weeks ago using the Legions of Chaos and Lore of Undeath rules which I'm going to go ahead and put under the supplemental category.

-Complete my Skaven Army-
Well I made a very specific list of models I wanted to complete for this last year and out of those models I failed to complete only 1.  However! I also added a model that wasn't on the list and required a lot more effort on my part in both the converting and painting.  I dropped the Ratling Gun and added a Verminlord.  Not to mention I painted up the Bell and Rat Ogre pieces and got my Plague Furnace worked up to the point where I can swap in and out as I want.  I count this as a successful completion of a goal.

-Paint at least 1,000 Points of Orcs & Goblins-
Not only did I not paint 1,000 points of O&G, but I sold the army and then acquired tow more over the course of 2014.  Completely shameful.

-Attend at least five local events-
I'm so disappointed that I failed to achieve this goal.  Between my local store and the Bloomington store that Chuck and I run tournaments at, there are on average at least ten total events a year to consider local.  I managed to make four of them.  I can blame part of this on the fact that my family and I moved homes which was essentially a two month process taking me out of two events but even then I should still have been able to make five.  2015 I shall redouble my efforts.

-Achieve a Top 10 finish at a Tournament-
I wasn't shocked at all that I didn't get this one done.  I only attended one GT in 2014 and that was Blood in The Sun IV.  At just shy of 100 players, I knew it was unlikely.  I think in the future I will stop trying to shoot for top places.  That’s probably when I'll see the most success of course but I think trying to build for that kind of placing causes too much anxiety in game.

-Construct five Warhammer tables worth of Terrain-
I was awfully close on completing this; especially in the last four months of the year.  I finished up two buildings I had sitting, bought, assembled and painted two more along with a host of extra's like fences, gravestones, objective markers and trees.  I did not however finish it all.  I have all the terrain I want except for forests and hills.  So, a failure in 2014 but definitely going back on the list for 2015 as I feel certain I can achieve.

-Run a 10 Player Tournament-
I also failed to do this, particularly as it rather required the success of the previous goal which didn't occur either.  Again this will be added to the 2015 list as I feel confident in my ability to complete this goal now.  I'm in the planning stages of running the tournament on the weekend of my birthday in June.  It will be an invite only type of thing but considering all I need are the aforementioned forests and hills it will almost certainly happen barring something completely unforeseen happening.

-Lose Weight-
Yes, I should have not even put this on the list.  The always useful cop out of, I just want to lose a few pounds.  At the time of writing I'm actually up over where I was last year, but the most important take away is that I held steady throughout the year always fluxing two or three pounds in either the minus or positive direction.  Perhaps losing weight past where I'm at just isn't for me.  I will not take the cop out goal for 2015; I am going pure gaming for my resolutions and I’ll try to maintain or lose weight but again won’t use it as a goal.

Ouch, I only managed to make 3 out of my 10 goals for 2014.  Even worse is that I always have a goal that I don’t list which is to play 52 games of Warhammer over the course of a year.  I fell short by 12 this year and while I often miss this goal I never feel too bad about it because I'm always relatively close.  Last year I fell short by I think 8 or so and the year before that I actually hit I do believe.  A big break this year was that I did not attend Adepticon and so lost out on probably 6-9 games there which would've boosted my numbers quite a bit.  This year however I will again be attending Adepticon and currently have 12 games on the docket.  I will also be attending Geekway to The West which is the boardgame convention in St. Louis that I skipped Adepticon for last year.  I'm pretty excited as both of those events fall in early/mid spring and so the first chunk of 2015 looks like it will be full of gaming greatness.  That said let’s go ahead and get onto my goals for 2015!

#1: Complete 5 Tables of Terrain
    Currently I need to build 7 forests and 7 hills.  I feel confident that I can and will finish this.

#2: Run 10 Player Tournament
    Again, given that I complete goal #1, I feel confident that I shall finish goal #2.

#3: Decide on my 4th Army
    Like I said, I sold the O&G and acquired two more (Lizards & Tomb Kings) but I'd long ago set myself at only having 4 armies, so one shall stay and one must go.

#4: Stick to my recordings
    I got rather lax on this in 2014.  I will redouble my commitment and achieve one episode per month.  Also, before someone points out that its past my usual release date the January Episode is going to be late.

#5: Play my Board Games
    All told I own over 120 board games.  My goal is to play them.  All.  I will make a list, acquire no new games and play everything I already own.  Now I have to find at least one person to assist me other than my wife.  A lofty goal to say the least.

#6: Try a new GT
    This is the most unlikely I think to occur as my current savings budget for tournaments really is only allowing Adepticon.  Still I will try to make it to a never before attended by me GT.  I’m thinking maybe Screw City GT in the fall.

#7: Build, paint and play Dreadfleet (at least once)
    It’s been sitting for far too long in my basement.  I looked at it towards the end of 2014, but never got around to working on it.  It seems like it will be a very fun one off style game to play with the guys on game nights so hopefully I can get this in.

#8: Play a Mega Game
    I haven't had a Mega Game in so long and I think we're it will probably be easy to talk at least one friend into blowing an entire day on it.  I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of 4,000 points per person.  It excites me just thinking about it.

#9: Blog Post at least once a month
    Much like keeping up with the other things that I try to schedule on a monthly, weekly, quarterly basis this will go here too.  Sometimes I'm really good at posting on the Blog but usually I'm not.  I shall endeavor to be better, and hopefully make them worthwhile.

#10: Stick to the Waaagh Cast Quarterly
    By now you've likely seen the first issue which I released at the beginning of January.  Hopefully its taken off and we're getting good response by this point but I will do my best to stick with it.  I mean, come on; with issue 1 out the door I only have to put together 3 more.  Of course it depends on assistance from the public and my friends.  Hopefully it isn’t hard to find good help.

Okay, there are 10 goals for 2015.  I'm going to print a couple of copies of this and hang them around my game/hobby rooms.  Hopefully that will keep my mind on them enough to get them done.  A banner achievement would be to complete them all but realistically I’m hoping to just get 6 or 7.  Wish me luck and I wish you all luck in your 2015 goals, hobby and otherwise.

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