2018 Year in Review & Ideas for 2019

It's hard to believe that 2018 is coming to an end...it seems like just yesterday that I was figuring out what I'd do gaming-wise in 2018.  As usual I hit on some of what I wanted to do, and completely whiffed on other things I thought I'd do.  I also think I did a decent "reset" during the year (in my mind at least), and have a pretty good feeling of where I am gaming-wise now and where I hope to head in 2019.

I played a lot of games in 2018 and hope to continue gaming on a regular basis in 2019.  I probably still have too many games that I am interested in, so one of the things I am going to try to focus on is getting a single army/force painted up for each of the games before moving on to expanding...that way I can play the games I want when I want to.  One of the greatest things about this hobby, along with the friendships I've made over the years, is that it is what we make of it...I think after all of these years I may have finally come to accept that as I feel much less stress about trying to do everything at once like I used too.

So, here's where I stand when it comes to gaming:

FANTASY
Age of Sigmar - I am fully committed to this game.  I have a functional 2000 point Fyreslayers force with several models still left to paint up or retouch.  These additional models will give me flexibility in configuring the force.  This is a solid army with good troop-character-rune-warscroll synergy which provides for lots of different rerolls and lots of dice as pretty much everything can shoot and engage in melee.  I have enjoyed AOS and would like to eventually build a force for Death, Destruction and Chaos as well, but that's long-term.

Shadespire - I was recently introduced to this skirmish game, and liked the mechanics and figures.  I got lucky and scored a full set of the game (everything up to Nightvault except promos basically) for a great price.  The little warbands will be nice to work on and paint up one at a time.  I hope that I get several games of this in during 2019, and if I like it I will look into expanding further.

SAGA - Fantasy SAGA is due out in 2019 and this is something I will definitely check out.  I like that system and like the possibility of using whatever figures I want for this skirmish game.

SCI-FI
40k - I didn't play as much 40k as I thought I would in 2018.  That's fine though as I really like the current edition of the rules.  I am committed to my Grey Knight army and will be doing some rebasing to get the older figures onto the correct size bases.  I also hope that eventually they come out with an Inquisitor force as a viable stand-alone army.  I'm also going to be dumping the rest of my Imperial Guard and am looking into doing a Custodes force eventually as a second army.  I just seem to like the loyalist, hard-core marines for some reason.

Necromunda - This is a game that really grabbed me in 2018.  I have 3 full gangs (Chaos Cultists, Genestealer Cultists, and Orlocks) all ready to go.  I got in several games and enjoyed all of them.  The different scenarios, tactics cards, and gang strengths & weaknesses make this a great skirmish game.  I hope to play more games in the year ahead.Other than some terrain pieces and markers, I don't have anything to paint for this game; I will be looking at expanding some with some of the hired guns in the future.

Adeptus Titanicus - After mulling it over for several months I finally pulled the trigger in December on Adeptus Titanicus.  The models are great, and the different videos I have watched lead me to believe that this is a solid, enjoyable game.  This is likely going to be a long-term project for me as none of my regular opponents have committed to the game, so I will be building 2 forces so I can run games for people so they don't have to worry about anything other than showing up, moving some titans and rolling dice.  I look forward to being able to do that again as it has been years since I've done so.

MODERN PERIOD
Great War/Flames of War/Fate of a Nation - After playing a game of V4 Flames of War (mid-war N. Africa) and a game commemorating 100 years of the end of WWI using The Great War, I think I'm back in on Battlefront's system.  I also purchased Fate of a Nation and am waiting on my Egyptian army to be painted up, so that will give me both sides for that series of wars.  Having both sides for 3 modern eras using a similar rule set (and Great War is being updated in early 2019) makes it a no-brainer for me to try to keep this in the rotation.  The good news is that with Battlefront now regularly releasing unit card sets with their books, that's all I really need to keep using my collection.  I hope to get some games of this on the table in 2019.  As for expansion, the only thing I may consider getting besides the additional card sets when the late war period rolls out, is Oil Wars or maybe Team Yankee once V2 of that rolls out...this is especially tempting since the Poles have been released.

Bolt Action - Well, I certainly didn't play or invest much time in this game in 2018. That is something I hope to remedy in 2019...in fact I have a game lined up for tomorrow.  It appears that a couple of my regular opponents are interested in getting more games in too, so that will certainly help.  I have my Italian Paras done and have British for Normandy/Italy and Japanese SNLF out to get painted.  Eventually I'd like to get a German force and a Soviet force, but that is another long term project.

ANCIENTS & MEDIEVALS
SAGA - I played some games in 2018 and plan to play some more in 2019.  I think V2 of the rules are fine, and I just got the Book of Battles, so I will be checking that out at some point.  I do want to rebase some/most of my armies as they are all on mixed base sizes with different basing schemes for the most part.  Making them consistent will help how they look overall...that said, I hate basing so this isn't necessarily on the top of my to do list.  As for expansion, I have an unpainted Arthurian force I'd like to get to, and would also like to do a Polish medieval force from Age of Crusades as well.  I'm also looking forward to their fantasy release in 2019.

Big Battle 10mm - Other than acquiring some more figures, I did nothing with this project in 2018.  This may change in 2019...maybe I can get a couple of small armies based up during the year so I can start figuring out what rules I want to use for this project.

HORSE & MUSKET
Napoleonics 10mm - I didn't do anything for this pipe-dream of a project either this year.  I doubt I will do anything in 2019 either, but you never can tell as there always seems to be something I work on during the year that I don't plan on doing and vise-versa.

So that's about it for now...I may change things up as 2019 proceeds, but as of now I am content with where I am, the games I am playing, and the projects on my to do list...