2017 and all that...

January 1st, so it must be time for the traditional look back at the old year and make sketchy plans that will never be achieved for 2018!

The Blog
Looking through my posts on the blog over the last 12 months I made 44 posts (plus one in draft)... 4 more than last year.  These seem to come in fits and starts with some months only having a couple of posts while in others I managed to get 4 or 5 posts up.  I guess this reflects work and family stuff intruding.  Views of the site have risen to 135k after crossing the 100k threshold in January...these may be Russian bots of course but oh well...!!  The posts which attract the most views tend to be ones about shows (eg Salute or SELWG) which didn't surprise me, but anything with "Boardgames" as a tag tends to pick up a lot more views too which I thought was interesting. There are also now 99 kind people who follow the blog...many thanks to all of you.

Games played
Boardgames dominated the year...not least because my son and I (and occasionally my wife) played a whole load of games over the summer.  I also acquired several new games including Twilight Struggle, Battle of Britain, Wilderness Empires and Hold the Line.  My son got a copy of Labyrinth at xmas which is a (kind of) sequel to Twilight Struggle and takes on the War on Terror.  We've had a couple of goes at it over xmas but we didn't have the time to play it though fully...fascinating game although it did make my head hurt at points.  I'll put up a more detailed post about the game at some point.

The Labyrinth board

oops...the terror cells seem to have just acquired Pakistani WMDs!

I've also played several boardgames over at Eric the Shed's, especially as the winter closed in.  The highlight, I think, has been the new Fallout boardgame from Fantasy Flight games which was great fun and really reflected the computer game.  This isn't the  tabletop skirmish version by Modiphius which I'd been very excited about when it was first rumoured but then very disappointed by when I saw the game being demo'd at SELWG and even more so when I saw the price!  The FFG game is a co-op exploration style game and as you advance in the game the storyline unfolds in a very entertaining way.  Very tempted to get my own copy of this.

Most of my 'proper' figure games this year have been at the Shed with a smaller number at Guildford and/or my friend Andrew's.  Black Powder, Pike and Shotte, Bolt Action and Chain of Command have dominated with some other games (eg Sharp Practice or Lion Rampant) making an occasional appearance but I've been fortunate to be able to get a game in most weeks with some good friends.  I have to admit I'm very lucky to have fallen in with a decent circle of gamers.

Painting has been even slower than usual this year and, after my flurry of work completing my Aztecs and Conquistadors back in the summer, has pretty much ground to a halt.  I'm committed to getting my North West Frontier figures moved on a bit with a deadline in March which always help focus the mind but I also have a few other bits and pieces to complete...some extra bits for Ronin and Sharp Practice and some newly acquired Cowboys.  More effort and dedication is definitely required for 2018...step away from the computer games and TV and get on with painting!!!