2014 year in review

What was going to be my last post of 2014 has turned into my first post for 2015 as i ended up spending the night with my family watching movies. A nice was to see out the year.

before i do the usual year in review i thought i would show off 2 things i have been working on. The first is the latest unit for my SAGA force.

This gives me 9 points of troops that i now have painted for my SAGA force.  The second thing i have been working on is my Republican Romans for Kings of war and Hail Caesar.

The little big men studios transfers and Vitrix square bases work really well and i think the army is going to turn out really good when its all done.

Now to the year in review.  Well what can i say its been a good year overall.

From a work perspective - I got a promotion after only 4 months in a new job and have been doing well in the new role since getting it. Its a good job and for the most part i enjoy it.  My new work mates are great and i got a great surprise on my birthday!

Pimped up birthday desk.

From a personal perspective - it was a year of lots of change and that can sometimes be hard but for the most part it wasn't a bad year. The kids are getting older and dealing with them has been challenging (any parent here will appreciate this). Health wise 9 months of perfect health followed by 3 winter months of being sick... a lot (a first for me and a sign im getting older i guess!).
 I replaced my trusty old Suzuki Swift with a new car that i have wanted for a long time my Nissian 350Z. (sports car before 40 - achievement unlocked!).

The Z.

   
From a gaming perspective - What can i say we started playing three or four new games this year Bolt Action and SAGA, Xwing and Kinds of War. All have been a lot of fun to play and to paint. Overall SAGA and Bolt Action were the stand out winners and got alot of gaming time. I added some scenery for bolt action to my collection and so have a reasonable amount of french township buildings for us to fight our 28mm WW2 battles over. I finished my army for bolt action and im happy with how it turned out.  My SAGA army is also complete and ready for many games in the new year.

The first (of many) saga forces.

New terrain.

Bolt action British - now i feel i need a German force)

 This year i also finished a Bushido force (still a game we have yet to play - maybe 2015 will be the one!) as well as a couple of forces for Legends of the old west.

Temple of Ro-Kan.

Lawmen.

Outlaws.

 I also finished my warrior monks for Ronin and Legends of the rising sun (which is going to be my project of 2015) I have a lot of terrain and figures to paint up for this one so i can get the Lads to play.

 Late 2013 and early 2014 i had been working on lots of my lord of the rings figures. I finished up a massive group of Uruk Berserkers in Jan/feb and had a few awesome games with them.

 For some reason i seem to have no pictures of my kinds of war skeleton army readily available but i painted almost 2000 points of skeletons in Red/white livery.
 We had several very large games over the year. A massive LOTR game with almost every LOTR figure i own (and that's alot!). We had several big 4 player Bolt action games. There was much talk of a large xwing game that never happened but we are planning on it for early 2015.
 I know a lot more stuff was painted and many many games have been had but these are the things that stick out for me at the moment.  

Resolutions for 2015 - I hate doing this part as it invariably never goes to plan. I have few goals for this year. I want to do some work on the house and redo our back year and add a Pagola so we can sit outside in summer and still game. I want to work on my Asian themed terrain and do up some nice gaming boards as well as paint up 2 more forces and get the lads playing legends of the rising sun and Ronin (as i love the period) - this may happen through Japanese SAGA. Other than that i will continue to work on my Republican Romans for the big April game of Hail Caesar that is planned (who knows if i can get enough done in 4 months!!!). That's about it. No interest in adding in more games to the mix (ive said this before, but i really don't need new games. I just want to focus on playing what we have already.) But im sure new forces for existing games will be part of the year to come.     I have been using Facebook more and more for posting pictures of my work as it is some much easier than blogging. I need to see if there is a way to blog easier so there is more stuff for you guys to look at.

Anyways that's enough from me. Its summer and i have a day off and the beach is calling me.

Hope everyone has a happy new year.

   

ADDITIONAL SAGA UNITS PAINTING PROGRESS

So following on from my last post I've managed to assemble 24 sergeants  with crossbows and get the first 8 painted.  More progress to follow.

FIRST SAGA FORCE FINISHED

So for the last 3? Weeks I've been beavering away on my first Saga force The militant orders of Christ or Milites Christi as they are called.   I've always been fascinated by the rise and fall of the knights Templar.   The militant orders list is perfect for representing these holy warriors.

(Shields!!!)

All the shields have be painted by hand and I've stuck to a sale pallet of colours to keep the army cohesive.  I did a fair bit of reading regarding colours of the brothers and the men at arms the fought with them.  It appears the men at arms (Sergeants) were dressed in black whilst the brothers were in white with the red Cross displayed on their chests.   I decided that the force would look better with off white padded amour for the sergeants but included black shields and some black clothing items to help tie everything together and add a nod to their historical counterparts.

(First Unit of Warriors)

(Second Unit of Warriors)

(Third Unit of Warriors)

As for playing them on the table I have had quite a few games so far of varying success.  They are a powerful melee force if they can build up 3 points of piety (the mechanism that's used to increase their effectiveness on the table.)   The army has some weaknesses though.  The brothers are vulnerable to bows and especially crossbows and they dislike being in terrain.  The sergeants are there to slog it out in terrain and you have the option of taking crossbows (I'm working on three units of them at the moment) to help with the ranged guys.

(The first three Units of Warriors all finished)

What I'm really loving about Saga is that is so easy to collect and paint up a force for it that I'm totally hooked.  There are many saga boards that have been created by fans that have been placed up on the Saga forums for people to try and some that have captured my imagination or the Japanese Samurai period.  So I've ordered so I've orders some Wargames factory Samurai to have a go at using these board's  - they will also work well for legends of the rising sun or Ronin so I figure my money won't be wasted.

- Here are some progress pics of the cavalry that i snapped off during the painting process.

(Three Units of Brothers all together in one big 12 man unit)

Anyways that enough out of me for now.  Let me know what you think of the Templar's.  I'll add photos of the crossbow sergeants when they are done (hopefully about a week).

- Here are a front and back pic of my lord.

I'll leave you with a final picture of the completed 6 point force.

(6 Points of Templar Goodness!!)