So, another year ends. As we wave bye to 2010, I wanted to get your thoughts on your hobby throughout it. What are your proudest achievements? Where did you fail? Just how has your year in Fantasy been?So, another year ends. As we wave bye to 2010, I wanted to get your thoughts on your hobby throughout it. What are your proudest achievements? Where did you fail? Just how has your year in Fantasy been?
2010 without a doubt was dominated by 8th Edition. There is no way to discuss a Fantasy Year in Review without starting with the new edition of the game which has, in my opinion anyway since I'm not privy to GW sales figures, exploded the game in terms of popularity. Thanks to 8th Edition a solid two month block existed where no one even brought their 40k stuff to open play at the LGS. That's saying a lot. I have to give a lot kudos to GW for producing a rule set that gives all armies at least a chance to win without having to write new army books. If you told me a year ago that Orcs and Goblins would be nearly a Tier One army I'd probably have laughed at you. I'd probably have laughed even more if you had told me that Vampire Counts would be one of the lower tier armies. But it came to be.
So on a personal note...
My proudest hobby achievement of the year was starting this blog. I've had the idea to start a blog for a couple of years, but I never did it because I didn't think anyone would read it. I also suspected that I had nothing original to add to the internet dialogue. Boy was I right about that! Despite my unoriginal and banal contribution to our genre, I'm still pretty happy I went for it.
My biggest failure was my inability to downsize. I made a conscious effort to downsize by selling a few armies. My Daemons sold immediately, my Eldar failed to sell, and my Warriors of Chaos failed to sell. Add to that I expanded my 40k Marines by about double and I didn't downsize at all. Oh I forgot, my Dark Elves, so I actually increased the space in my house taken up by models. Additionally, in previous years I would buy a kit, build it, and paint it before buying anything else. This was the first year where I had unopened kits sitting in my house for months. Hell, I won a bunch of Razorbacks at 'Ard Boyz and they are still sitting in my closet shrinkwrapped. I blame this on my Dark Elves too, since I put everything aside while I powered through an entire army of painting and modeling. My 2011 resolution is to catch up on my projects and not have a backlog of unopened kits. I'd also like to downsize my armies. Anyone want to buy a fully painted Eldar or Warriors of Chaos army?
Looking forward to 2011 in Fantasy, I can't wait to see the new O&G book. I am anxious to see what the GW design team is going to do with the 8E books and the different directions they take. My hobby goal, is as I said, to catch up on my backlog of projects and be able to actually downsize my collection to the minis I actually want to own. From a competitive standpoint, I want to make it to the Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Finals, and I'd like to attend and hopefully do well at a GT. Maybe the NOVA, or Bolter Beach since it's in my state. I also plan on winning the state cycling road race championship for my category this year, so I will definitely have issues with free time.
Thanks for sharing your retrospective reverie.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you have many of the same challenges and issues that face the rest of us. Finding time is probably the easiest way to sum it up.
As for housing armies. It's a perennial problem. I'm not sure there's an answer. At least beyond the auspices of eBay answers seem to be a little sparse on the ground...
I might be interested in the WoC ---***IF***--- I get Dudes for Christmas, just for the bitz. I'll let you know.
ReplyDeletePS. I love your blog in an almost stalkerish way. So you are doing something right.
Eldar must really be at a low point from popularity. My fully painted 3k points mech Eldar army failed to sell on eBay at criminally low price point.
ReplyDeletePeople sent me buy out offers of like $150. Are you serious? $700 of minis painted to what I would consider to be a good table top standard for $150? Hell, the Farseer/Jetlock conversion I did is worth at least $150 by themselves, let alone the 8 grav tanks in the army which are what, $35 each at retail? No thanks.
Hopefully they get a new codex soon so I can be rid of them.
I know 2 guys getting rid of Eldar at the moment. One guy is way under priced at $300 for an entire painted & assembled army and his work is commission level. The other guy will take whatever anyone throws at him- but most folks are buying OLD Sm stuff for DeathWatch games or Blood Angels/Space Wolves.
ReplyDeleteLol, I bought a huge battlefoam pack for my Dark Elves, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, and Warmachine armies. It's my 2nd one- the 1st one holds my Guard and Salamanders. It for sure helps to have lots of armies in one little square.
ReplyDeleteMy proudest accomplishments this year were probably on the tournament scene. Happy with my results, for sure. :)
Hopefully this next year I can go to a few more big events, and actually win a big one instead of losing the 'championship' game, lol. Also, I want to finish all the armies I have started- lots and lots of painting.
And hopefully my own blog will keep doing better- it's picked up a bit of momentum lately because I've started posting for Jawaballs, hopefully that momentum will continue.
I like your blog too btw, though maybe not quite to the stalking levels :)
It took me 6 months to liquidate my WoC army (about 4000 points) and 2 years for my WE army. I only finished clearing off both armies recently.
ReplyDeleteI still have an Empire and DoC army, both built for 8th Ed. DoC I intend to keep because I love the models... but I'll hang on to Empire for a bit more (maybe wait for the next armybook) before deciding to get rid of that (the elements of my Empire army are easy to get rid of) and use the proceeds to expand or start a Space Marine army...
I eventually will wean off WHFB totally because after going through 3 editions, I now am convinced that WHFB will always be 2nd fiddle compared to 40k.
I agree that even with 8th Edition Fantasy will always be second fiddle, but I still prefer it. I simply like the aesthetic of the game better. I like that the power level between models is more pronounced than 40k. And I like that the armies are more varied than 40k.
ReplyDeleteToo much of 40k is Marines vs. Marines. My last 6 40k tournament opponents... Blood Angels, Blood Angels, Orks, Vanilla Marines, Orks, Chaos Space Marines. You just don't have that type of stuff happening in Fantasy.
That is because once you start down the road of the 3+ armor save, its like a crack addiction.
ReplyDeleteEven if you lower the toughness, weapon skill or ballistics skill of marines to 3, people will still pick marines as the army of choice because of the 3+.
It took me just 6 months to get sick of my Black Templar army 4 years ago. I never picked up another MEQ army since... MEQ vs MEQ games just bore me to death.
WHFB doesn't have that luxury... the best armor saves for infantry is generally 3+ or 4+... unless its elite infantry and they generally eat up a lot of points. If there is a WHFB equivalent of marines in WHFB, its a guarantee that most armies will be those (chaos warriors fulfill that role actually, but always falls flat on its face because of how the system behaves and how shitty the army book is).
Personally, I got bitten by the Marine bug again after 4 years of marine sabbatical because i'm a treadhead and having own an IG army... marines are the next best army to mech up on.
That and I can rest assured that the army will be supported by GW THOROUGHLY (no "we are not making this model *coughtyranidsdarkeldarcough*" bullshit.