2019 Hobby Goals and Ideas

Welcome to 2019!  Today marks the first day of a new year and the beginning of my thirteenth year of this blog.  That kind of blows my mind.  I have been blogging for 13 years but my miniature gaming goes back more than 20 years and if you include role-playing I have been doing the gamer thing for approaching 40 years.  Anyway back on point.  This is my annual attempt to set the theme for the hobby year ahead.

As usual this is just a stream of consciousness sort of post and is in no way an actual guide to how my year will go.  In fact, I will likely not read this again until I am just about ready for the year-end summary.  So lets jump in!

Age of Sigmar

I have really been enjoying this game for the last 6 months and I really hope to keep this one going in 2019.  My Nighthaunt army is painted to about 1600 points and I only have a few models left to paint.  I will be buying a few more things for this army this year.  I would like to get this up to a point where I can do 2000 point games with some options.

I plan to paint the Stormcast half of the Soul Wars set this year. I also have a few Stormcast models to finish up.  I don't really have plans to buy anything for the army this year but if I start playing it that might change.  If I paint everything I have I should be right around 2000 points which is right where I want to be.

I have several models for Blade of Khorne collected and I would like to make progress of getting this painted this year.  If I can get the battle tome and the war scrolls for the army that would make playing it that much easier.  I think I have about 1000 points of models so there is some room for purchases for this.  I am planning for this to be my Chaos faction for AoS but I must admit I might be tempted to dump it for a Beast of Chaos army if the right opportunity came along.

I would like to add a destruction faction to my collection this year.  The new Night Goblins look really good but it is not really my style.  I really hope one or more of my friends goes with them as they look like they would be fun to play against.  I am really leaning in the direction of the Beastclaw Raiders for this project.  They are just amazing models and the army would be really different from my other AoS armies.

Warhammer 40,000

This game did not see much table time last year and I need to change that for 2019.  I did purchase the new Ork Codex last year and I ordered some base adapters to bring my Orks up to date.  This will likely be my first and main effort for the year.  My Space Marines and IG will likely stay on the shelf this year.  Any new purchases this year will likely be for my Orks but I must admit that the new Genestealer Cult models coming out are going to be tempting.

Kill Team

I bought the starter box set late last year but I have yet to play.  I would like to give this a try this year but I am a little worried that the support for the game will dry up.  GW has already said there will be new stuff for Kill Team this year so this might have some legs.  This will mainly depend of if my friends have any interest in trying it as well.  I do plan to get the Rogue Trader expansion this year.

Necromunda Underhive

This game had a great year in 2018 with my group and I would like to keep the momentum going.  I am little unsure what GW plans for this game going forward and there seems to be almost nothing in the way of rumors.  I hope they continue with the new model releases in 2019 but it might be more like how Blood Bowl is handled.  If we see 2 new factions this year I would be happy and maybe even a little surprised.  My gut is telling be we might only see a few more Forge World characters and beast models and that's about it.  No matter what happens I want to keep playing this game.  I want to build a second gang this year and if I get really motivated maybe a third.  I would like to finish painting my walls and doors for Zone Mortalis games and build a cool Sector Mechanicus table.  There is lots of potential with this game this year.

20th Century Games

There is a lot of stuff I want to do in 2019 for games set in 20thC conflicts.  First up will be the new Great War version from Battlefront/Osprey.  This will be the v4 update for the period and will include a new army, Belgians, as well as son new troop types like cavalry.  I have greatly enjoyed our WWI games and Osprey seems to be handling their contribution to the v4 transition very well.  I am optimistic about this.  At the least I will get the rules.

2019 will be a very interesting year for WWII games.  I think Bolt Action will be a big resurgence this year with me and my friends.  I would like to get some games going for the Pacific and for Market Garden.  For Market Garden I will need to update my German collection and I might even consider an SS force (I have NEVER had a desire for SS but the MG campaign book is very good and I would like to play through it). 

For 15mm gaming I think that Flames of War will be back on the table.  I still don't see it being anywhere near as popular as it once was but we all have large collections and we would like to use them.  I did acquire a lot of the Battlegroup books and I would like to find a way to incorporate this excellent game into line up.  I have been toying with the idea of using Battlefront's firestorm Market Garden campaign game but play the actual battles with any one of three sets of rules - Bolt Action, Flames of War or Battle group.  I actually have Market Garden books for all three systems.  This might be overly ambitious but we will see.

Fate of a Nation must get played this year!  It has been about 2 years since I last had my Israelis on the table and that is too long.  A major goal will be to update this army into a Centurion/Sh'ot centered force.  Once that is done I want to build a Jordanian M48 force. 

TANKS and TANKS The Modern Age would be cool to get on the table this year.  I didn't do much with this last year.  I feel like TMA is very likely to get me into Team Yankee this year.  The new World War III: Team Yankee coming out this year will be tempting.

Black Powder/Horse and Musket

I have no major plan for this kind of gaming for 2019.  My ACW collection for Black Powder is very large and not missing much.  I might get some cavalry painted this year.  It would be cool to revisit the idea we had last year of smaller point matched games set in Jackson's Valley campaign.  Last year I purchased "Brave Hearts Trembled Regimental Wargame Scenarios for the Battle of Antietam" by Brad Butkovich.  This is a really nice book that could inspire me to plan another large Black Powder game.  I have no plans yet but time will tell.  Joe and I will continue to slowly paint forces for Napoleonics.  I think if I get another couple battalions of French and another commander we will be able to play a small battle.  That would be amazing.

 I need to dig through my ACW leftovers and find about 20 skirmishing Unions soldiers and paint them up for Fistful of Lead - Horse and Musket.  Some ACW skirmish games would be a lot of fun and something different from an Old West shootout.

Board Games

Now that I have both sides of the Speed Freeks game painted I want to play it.  I might have to recruit the family for this.  A few games of this would be a win.  My Warhammer Quest Silver Tower set needs to get painted and played this year.  Our one attempt to play it few a little flat.  We can do better.  I would like to get the Blackstone Fortress game this year and give it a try.  Warhammer Underworlds will get played but I don't see myself spending any more money on it.  I have both starter sets and one expansion so I have 5 factions.  This will keep me busy for a while.   I need to get Tim to run more old school Quest games this year and also some Space Hulk games.

Other Thoughts

As it stands if I do all the things I have listed above I will have another year of huge game diversity.  I will need to draw the line on some stuff just to give myself a chance.  It looks like Kings of War is over for me.  It was fun but the main player driving the game moved on  so it died.  SAGA is also likely done for me.  I did not play it at all last year and I have not purchased the new version and I have no plans to.  Some of the guys are excited about the fantasy expansion but not me.  Frostgrave is over.  I will keep buying the books and maybe even paint the occasional figure but I no longer plan nor expect to play it.

Blogging will continue and I hope to keep up the level of production.  Tweeting will continue but I need to find the widget to add the tweet stream onto my blog.  I seen other with it but I don't see the option to add. 

This year I need to really work on the social aspect of the hobby.  Wargaming is not just about buying stuff and painting stuff it is also about playing games.  Actually playing games is the social aspect of the hobby and it requires you to interact with others.  In the last few years I have found my circle of game friends (just friends really) slowly dwindling.  I need to put solid effort this year into reconnecting with old friends and being more welcoming of potential new friends.  It really is the friendships that is the major draw for me of this hobby and for too long I have neglected this part.

Here's to a fun and exciting year of gaming!