Well it’s a new year … and I feel somewhat revived in my hobby outlook. After a year of getting my head back into focus, I have some clear gaming and hobby goals for me to focus on.

Last year my “resolutions” if you can call them that … well pretty much were static.  I didn’t get much movement on what to do about choices and what games to play.  I didn’t get much time to play and I had little ambition to actually play some games.  My hope around this time last year was to get a handle on my hobby life and make some choices about how to get back to a fun and relaxing hobby time.

The main thing I did over the past year was to think about how to move forward – beyond my gaming malaise.  I didn’t play much at all last year… aside from Arena Rex and a handful of Dark-Age.  I did paint and work on terrain and things… other than actual playing the games though.  I cut back some of the collecting.  This was also a goal… at least while I was trying to get a handle on my gaming.  I was also hoping to sell off some things gathering dust … which I did very little as well.  Mostly because I was unsure in what direction I was ready to go.

At several times last year I just felt that I was in a fog – or just paralyzed about the state of my hobby.  But over the fall and some of my winter break from work — I got to thinking pretty clearly about my gaming hobby future.  This is a unorganized list of what I came up with… a set of targets – or points to focus on.

1. Play needs to be a set goal, with direct action take to ensure I get to the gaming table.  I set a new years gaming resolution to play games — all kinds to get the juices flowing in my hobby.  And when I have played some games I can better focus on direction.  My goal is weekly gaming or board gaming.
2. Complete and stop collecting new things for games I am not playing or planning to play in the reasonable foreseeable future (next month or so).  This would include Kickstarters … I must have more than “that looks cool” as a reason to join in on one. If it is a board game I have to be able to use the mini’s for other things.  And with board games – I have to be able to play them with my family… so fun for the non geeks lol.
3. Finish my project of having a minimum of two factions painted for most games.  I started last year with getting Dark-Age to that point so I can show and tell the game to prospective players.  I need to jump in and do the same thing for Infinity and 40k.  I have collected the models – I need to get some things based painted at least.
4. Figure out my hobby “Roadblocks” … list them and find ways to get those roadblocks removed.  Currently my hobby painting area is piled high … so high I cannot paint or work on anything.  It will take me days to clean this up… before I can actually get back to work on my hobbies.  One mental roadblock to this is my plans to remodel my hobby room/area.  So I need to actually get moving on the remodel.  I have started collecting materials to move forward with that.  Hopefully before spring I will be somewhere with that.
5. Other projects outside of hobby — need to get resolved with the same effort as what I plan to do with my hobby projects.  The main item on this list is the Yurt… which I also plan to work on and get done before this summer.  Doing is will require me to schedule time to actually work on it.

OK – that’s roughly my ideas that I need to work further on.  If I can get past some of the old projects – clear my plate – then I can de-clutter my mind on things – and think about things in new ways.  That’s the hope at least.

When we first moved into the yurt we had to do a lot of purging of STUFF – and this is kinda the same thing.  Do you NEED it or do you WANT it… do you USE it?  Compartmentalize each – then weigh the pros and cons… then make decisions.  Sure hobby stuff is all wants … and no needs.  But you can still weight them on a use or want to use scale.

So, I came up with Do Play / Want to play for games… with an idea of the future – WILL I play (get the chance to play it).  If I want something … I need to actually use it.  If I can’t justify things in my hobby with that criteria then I really need to justify why I have it.  If I can’t justify having it – then I need to purge it.  I have made some piles of stuff I will be selling or gifting away already.  I plan to do more in the next month or so as I make space to move forward with my hobby room remodel.

With all this in my head – I am moving forward with things.  So far I am feeling pretty good about “the plan”.  I have already joined a 40k league to facilitate actual play of games.  The release of 8th edition of 40k – with all the glowing reviews really rejuvenated my feelings toward 40k.  And with one game under my belt I am really happy to be playing 40k again.

I thought about the league as soon as I saw it announced on the club website.  I hadn’t played 8th ed yet — but I have watched tons of you tube demos and “learn to play” videos.  And I have played nearly every version of 40k since 1990 lol.  I figured I could learn on the fly.  This fit right in with my hobby/gaming resolution – I had no reason to not join in.

I set up a “teaching game” with a friend at the club, and this week I had my first game of 8th ed.  And I am so far happy with how 8th plays.  It was really nice to be back at the table tossing dice and moving my minis around.

I had picked up the craftworld codex… and then I just picked the models I had painted and ready to fit a decent list together.  My best option seemed to be my old Wraith-wall list from a couple years ago.  It was a fairly simple list – and I think pretty easy to play (not lots of options with 30 wraith guard lol).

The Wraithseer’s D-Cannon is really nasty … love it.

The Wraithseer is pretty tough – but the Bonesinger still healed them up.

I got ballsy and charged a demon prince with Jain Zar… surprisingly she didn’t die in the first round of combat.  She even took 5 or so wounds on him!

We ran out of time to finish the game – we called it a draw.  But if it went to long I am sure I would have lost.  But it was a good learning game … we took our time and really discussed the new wrinkles in 8th edition.  I am really jazzed to play next week.

-d