My Hobby and Gaming Goals for 2014

So savage. I started these Orks around 2001. In the last decade I think I've added 5 models to the army.

A new year is here and I'm pretty sure just about every year since I started blogging 6-7 years ago I have posted my goals. Posting this year's goals wasn't on the top of my "to do" list either but inspired by Larry Vela's goals on Bell of Lost Souls, I felt compelled to post them after all. 2013 was a good hobby year for me with running a successful Adepticon event, getting out to several AWC tournaments, getting some games in at home, working on Wreck-Age with Hyacinth Games for a spell, and then starting laying the foundations for my own game. AND I also did some role-playing and board game nights dabbling in Zombicide, Gloom, Small World, Wreck-Age, Pathfinder, and Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play. I didn't love everything I tried (Pathfinder just left me yearning for 1st Edition AD&D) but I played lots of games and hung out with a lot of different people. It was a good year for my gaming end of my passions.

So what does 2014 hold for me for gaming and hobby activity? At this point I'm still working at Next Dimension Games, running an event at Adepticon, working towards starting my own game company, and of course, painting the stupid amount of models I already own. So what am I striving for this year? Here are my top 6 Goals in increasing order of importance.

This Ork is one of the last ones I finished painting. I believe he was completed in 2008 or 2009.

6) Orks!

I want to push my fledgling force of 40K Orks to 1500 points and bring them to at least one AWC tournament. One of the things I noticed at the AWC Tournaments this year is that people stopped looking at my Angels of Absolution army because I don't make drastic additions (because I paint so slowly) and I will only bring a 95% painted army with me. The Angels have become tired and familiar even if I love them. The rumors have indicated for a couple months now that a new Ork book is coming this year and its left me excited. I want to be ready. This year its time to get wild. I own tons of Ork models and have a case full of models started. It'll be a hard goal, but its a goal I want to achieve to push myself.

Poor armless librarian. A little TLC and you can Prescience your way to glory. I'm still proud of that head swap. The head is from a Rogue Trader era lead model.

5) Angels of Absolution Nephilim, Command Squad, Librarian, and Techmarine

The above four items will push my Angels of Absolution collection over 2000 points and will add competitive options to my army. The Command Squad and Techmarine have come to the last 2 AWC Tournaments and are not finished. This absolutely needs to be corrected.

You're one of a kind. The rest of my Tomb Kings were painted 12-20 years ago (depending). This one was painted in the last decade after I honed my painting skills. I love them. They also took forever.

4) Play Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Working at Next Dimension Games has shown me there are people actively playing WFB in the city that I can tap into since my own gaming buddies only dabble in the game if they own any models for it at all. I don't want to commit to painting any of my Tomb Kings or Empire models, but if I can get in 3-5 games of WFB this year I would be stoked. The current standard 2400 points people play is way out of my league. Let's play 1000-1500. I'd like to be done in 2 hours including set up and chit chat and not field 100 unpainted models. That's not my style.

Victorious in the face of rampaging zombies! This was the first time we survived the zombie apocalypse so it was a photo worthy moment. In the background you can see Ian Mackaynine looking on wondering, "wtf?"

3) Play Fifty-Two Games

I don't need to get in a game every week, One AWC tournament can knock out almost a month of gaming as far as I'm concerned. I just want to play more games. Lisa (my partner) and I love having game nights and had a regular game night going last year that petered out when the summer ended. Ultimately, I want gaming to be a regular part of my life, whether its board games, the occasional card game, or heavy duty miniature war gaming.

The ill fated full color 40K Warzone booklet I did last year that was too hard to read. :( I'd love to take a Photoshop class this year to prevent having a week of work being wasted like last year.

2) Gaming Events

I'm running the 40K Warzone Tournament again this year at Adepticon. Now that I work at Next Dimension Games a couple of nights a week I'd like to run some Zombicide nights and possibly some other events. One of the things I need to do though is sell off some of my less needed gaming tables so that I can make some that are more durable and easier to store and transport. The new Warzone I'm planning for this year fits in with that plan, but I need space and that involves liquidating some of what I have.

1) Broken Contract - Release My Own Game to the World

This is the big one. There are no guarantees in this world, but I want to eventually live doing something that I love instead of floundering around. Tearing my ACL gave me time to reflect and I sat down with a dry erase board and jotted down all of the ideas I've had in my life and the things that I've participated in that brought me joy and reward - some of them could potentially be parlayed into a long term career and some of them can't (I can't really make money being a DIY punk vocalist, and I can't do it forever no matter how much I love doing it). After some encouragement I started working on Broken Contract with all of that free time I had in those initial weeks after my knee surgery. I want to take a stab at turning it into something. It'll be a lot of hard work, but my experiences with Hyacinth Games reminded me that game design has always been something that I knew I would love doing, dating back to being in grade school and writing my own AD&D modules.If its bust, so be it. But at least I'll be able to say I tried. Any encouragement, support, input, and hype will be greatly encouraged and appreciated in the coming months. :)

So those are my goals. I do have smaller goals, like getting my friends playing or blogging again, and getting some other projects done. I want to continue to improve my photo skills, and I mentioned wanting to take a Photoshop class. But these are the biggies. The important ones. We'll see how it all goes.

-Nick