Year End Wrap Up - What I did and didn't finish

This is the time of year when everybody and their brother is doing a year end recap. While I could do like every other blogger and talk about the rise of Kickstarter and its impact on gaming, or the move to plastic by many smaller companies, new editons of old favorites and what not; I'm not going to go there. I addressed most of these at some point during the year and if you're really interested in my thoughts on them, please check the calendar on the left of your screen or use the nifty search box.

Instead I'd like to talk about myself (well not really I'm not that self absorbed). This year I've managed to keep up with a fairly sizable amount of hobby projects and I'm pretty impressed with my progress. Given that I have a one year old running around and have to limit my hobby time to when he's sleeping or hanging out with mom I think I did a pretty good job moving these projects forward. Halfway through the year I did this post to recap my personal projects stuck in limbo. 

Lets see how I did, here are the projects that I planned on finishing:

Downtown Malifaux – Took a back seat to other projects. I have all the components ready to go I just need to glue it all together. I'm hoping to have more progress to share first quarter 2013. Also I still don't have all my models completed yet. I've done a good job getting the Guild models I demo with finished up and have made some progress on my Resurectionists. 

Heldorado – Unfortunately this game hasn't caught on which means little motivation for me to finish this board. Most of my models are painted and there's only a few I need to pick up to be able to play the lists I want. Maybe interest will pick up again when they launch the Kickstarter for the second book. I signed up for their "demo guy program" but honestly there is so little interest in the game locally that I can't get anyone to stock it. Which is a shame because it's really fun. Next on my list of stuff to do for this is to make custom stat cards with ALL the rules for a model on them. Looking up every key word is a pain in the ass, so I figure I could do oversized cards for each model make them easier to read and generally improve upon the aspect of the game I like least.

MERCS – I completed Sefadu, Kevar and USCR. My Waza and CCC are nearly complete. I didn't make any progress on the terrain I have planned but this is something I really want to get done. I'm hoping to pick up a few odds and ends that can populate a 2'x3' board with themed terrain. My goal for finishing the dockyards hasn't come to fruition, however friends keep buying up my shipping containers. I want to relook at my mold to see if I can improve upon the joins to simplify the construction of them.

Rogue Trader/Inquisimunda - No progress. This is on the back burner (maybe off the stove for a while). While the RPG is really fun I always felt like I was fighting my players trying to move the story along. I also feel like they had far to many resources to begin the game which meant there was little challenge in any of the beginner scenarios. When I get time maybe I write my own module and move this thing forward again. With the new found interest in space marines I might attempt to run a Deathwatch game next year. Issuing orders might be a way to keep my players on track.

Incursion – Germans are assembled, Allies are yet to be acquired. Only got in three games of this over the course of the year. Hoping to bring it out again in 2013. I'm a little concerned as their forums don't seem to be that active, thinking I need to get those models soon as they might be on the way out. I don't have anything other then a nagging gut feeling to go by, but my gut has served me well in the past.

Relic Knights – While I made good progress on the library at some point I hit the wall and lost my enthusiasm for the project. I imagine it has to do with a combination of the terrible tone of the Sodapop forums and the lack of updates on the Kickstarter project. It was a pleasant surprise to see new beta rules earlier this month, but the lack of updates on the meat and potatos of the game is concerning. I'm hopping when May comes around the models are released without a hitch. Reading through their forums it sounds like Tentacle Bento was held up for quite a while and Caverns of Roxor was delayed as well (seems like a customs issue). Either way I look forward to the game as the playtest rules are tons of fun. Like my dad always says, "Patience is a virtue."

Super Dungeon Explore – Love this game. Almost done painting the base set and hoping to get Roxor soon. My 3D boards need some more detailing to make me happy but I'd count this project as almost complete. I'm looking forward to picking up the expansions next year and adding to my growing cute model collection. 

Warhammer 40K Space Marines – I made some big steps toward finishing off my company with a full chapter as the final goal. This is still in progress and I think I'm going to focus on this project for the next few months to get it done. So between commissions this site is going feature a lot of purple power armor at least until I complete the paint on what I already have built.

Warhammer 40K Daemons – Well this is a thing that I like but have little desire to play at the moment. While I'd love to say I'm going to finish this next year it's very unlikely. I do like some of the updated rules but the whole packed with a White Dwarf thing pisses me off. As I don't buy the magazine each month and finding out about an update months later means I can't get a copy for a reasonable price which equates to not having the rules easily accessible. I really wish GW would post these updates to their site so everyone can have easy access to the rules. 

Commissions – 2012 was a huge year for me commission wise. I painted several Warhammer 40K armies, a boatload of Malifaux crews, a few MERCS megacons, and a ton of terrain and game aids. With the  shear amount I had to do I don't feel so bad about not finishing my personal projects. I'm hoping the growing word of mouth advertising at local stores will continue to grow this little side business for me.

Gameroom Cleanout - I'm happy to report that with the exception of several boxes and binders of Magic cards I've successfully found a new home for a ton of hobby stuff that was just taking up space on my shelves. Of course I'm still finding random things I don't want or need anymore so be sure to keep checking that ebay link. Next year I'm going to do a spring cleaning sale with the few items that are still taking up space.