Happy New (Hobby) Year!

2015 has come and gone, and so very much has happened in the span of the past 12 months.  We’ve seen the death of a much-loved game in Warhammer Fantasy, and the rise of many upstarts in the industry such as Infinity, Malifaux, Dark Age, Firestorm Armada, and many more.

I’ve also seen much in the way of change from a personal standpoint as a hobbyist.  Some for the good, some for the better, and some for the…well, let’s just say different.


The Fall of the Old Guard: Warhammer Fantasy Battles
So the elephant in the room that is 2015.  May you rest in peace dear friend.

Heck, I never played more than a couple intro games myself, but I actually own an entire Ogre Kingdoms army that hasn’t even been assembled yet after they revamped them a while back.  I will say though that a very good friend of mine over at Chronowraith’s Corner was played fantasy for more than his entire adult life, and was deeply upset, angry and finally disgusted by the fact that GW gave up on their long-standing original game.  It’s a sad state of the hobby when something like this happens as it not only kills a fantastic game, but it leaves people with hundreds and thousands of dollars of product without a game to support it.  It doesn’t just leave a void in the miniature game industry, it literally devalues entire collections that we as hobbyists own.  I have well over $700 dollars of Ogre Kingdoms models that I will now do absolutely nothing with.  It’s moves like these that can had have soured gamers to the point of abandoning an entire company they used to support and love.

And don’t tell me there’s always Age of Sigmar.  We’re not talking about that.

Moving on.

The Rise of The Next Generation
You could say that Infinity has indeed been around 10 years now, and Malifaux nearly as long…but I still see them as a part of this category.  Both games have seen huge surges in interest, sales and devotion by entire communities and convention support.  These two games in particular are growing like wildfire and don’t show any signs of stopping any time soon.

Firestorm Armada and Planetfall, Dropfleet, Dark Age, Wrath of Kings…all are also of this category.  Some of these are growing more than others, and mostly that reflects the parent company’s interest in growing that particular game and line of miniatures.  I’m looking forward to seeing what 2016 has in store for these games and others as well.

Personal Successes and Changes from 2015 as a Hobbyist
Taking a look back at my New Year post from January 2015 is a bit encouraging as well as humbling.  Lets see what I did and didn’t do…

MOAR Infinity:  Check.  Heck, last I checked I was ranked 42nd in the US according to CB’s ITS rankings.  Best I’ve ever done in any miniature game.  More satisfying though is my work with Kevin here in the Gateway area growing the Infinity Community as a whole.  We’ve run tournaments, leagues and we’ll be running one of the tournaments at AdeptiCon this year!

Healthier Gamer Updates:  Check…mostly. I missed November’s and December’s updates for the sheer fact that I’ve been so dang busy these past two months.  Look for a year in review for the Healthier Gamer series later this week or early next.

Social Media:  I’ve stutter-started this to some degree, being a bit more active on Twitter lately, but I’m not sure I’d call this a success just yet.  Yet.  I’m not giving up on it!  It’s more like I need to form the habit of using the tools that Social Media provides.

Conventions Galore!: Actually, I didn’t do too badly at this.  I went to AdeptiCon, GenCon and the Midwest Massacre.  All three are on the docket for this year as well.  If there can be more, there will be!

Gaming Industry Work:  I’ve been fairly successful at working with Secret Weapon and Iron Box Games, as well as podcasts this past year.  I’ve also sponsored quite a few events with my design work!  I look forward to doing much more of this work this year!

More Competitions:  Yeah…I pretty much failed this one as I didn’t enter a single painting comp all year.  Again, time was the limiting factor here.  Perhaps this year I could do better than a big old goose egg?

Basing and Terrain:  So those two series of posts that I had planned for last year are still planned!!  Let’s get them off the ground this year, eh?

Final Thoughts as We Move Into 2016
2015 was busy, and 2016 looks to be even more so.  I’m working on some time-management scheduling for personal and freelance work both so one doesn’t overshadow the other.  2015 was spent really focusing on growing the Infinity Community here in St. Louis, MO, and that won’t stop this year either.  If anything, Kevin and I want to continue to ramp up interest in the game and run even more events.

2016 looks pretty good so far, even if we are only 5 days into it…what about you?  How’s this year looking for you as a hobbyist and gamer?  Sound off folks!

- Tim