Year of the Ram

2015 is the Wargaming Ninja Turtles' year of the Ram.

The Obligatory Look Back on 2014

If 2014 wasn't without its turnmoil in my personal life (and even more in my circle of friends), it might have been one of my most productive year yet when it came to miniatures:

-Played some Netrunner and High Command because cards are a fine way to take a break off from miniatures.

-I built a Dust gaming board (here) with the help of my friend Francois.

-Worked on a custom campaign (here and here) for Dust to go with the board and terrain pieces.

-Painted more Gatormen (example here) and Trollbloods (and here) than I ever did.
-Painted more Dust than...well I guess I paint a lot of Dust, but I still did some cool projects like some stolen Kv-47

-Caught a game of WarmaHordes with my college buddies.

Its also the year when I lost my camera charger...
Resulting in awesomely filtered ugly pictures!

-Played for the first time at Chaosludik (Montreal's biggest wargaming convention) in the team tournament and managed to finish dead last with my team!

Fear the GV Brasstards!

-And lastly, I find I have found the perfect gaming balance with my holy trinity of gaming: Warmachine/Hordes, Dust and...Malifaux.

Whew! What a year!! Totally awesome when it comes to miniatures.

Malifaux? That game you wrote an excited article about in January 2014 and never talked about ever after?

Yup, that same game.

My Holy Trinity of Gaming

I knew Dust and Warmachine/Hordes were both two excellent games with their own style (Dust for my beer and bretzels mass battle easy ruleset, WM/H for my competitive thirst) but I had not had the chance to get back into Malifaux since the second edition came out and I had been burned out at the end of the first.

Then, in November, my co-worker Felix organized a small casual Malifaux tournament and, seizing the opportunity to both give my support (I know its hard to spend your personal free time to organize events and its even harder when nobody shows up) and to try that Tara crew I painted back in January I went to play in it.

It was a 4-people tournament where I finished in a perfect tie for first place against another co-worker and friend.

I had been pleasantly surprised with Malifaux but it took a second tournament in December for me to truly open my eyes and enjoy the game: Malifaux 2nd Edition truly had changed the game in a good way.

I won't go into the changes, instead I'll post a couple of crappy cellphone pictures of my recently painted Guild models.

Lucius, the Governor's Secretar

 

Captain Dashel, one of my favorite model: he's so full of character.

 

 

The Lawyers, surprisingly effective and fun to play with.

 

The Executioner. There to cut heads or hands...
 or whatever he needs to collect.

 

 

Governor's Proxy, a replacement totem for the Scribe
and good to heal up from the Devil's Deal

 

Witchling Handler, gives extra movement to all the minions,
boosts them and can create some.

 

The Hunter 1

 

Doppelganger, although a Neverborn model, can be played with
Lucius if he takes the 'Surprisingly Loyal' upgrade.

 

 

The Guardian, reminiscent of Fallout

 

Mechanical Attendant, can you guess what
second Guild Master I'm currently painting?

2015 Year of the Ram:

What am I looking forward to and expecting for 2015 gaming-wise:

1-Templecon: When Llew (aka Paul from Geeks of the North Podcast) told me his friend had cancelled and he had an extra spot to go, I was more than happy to jump in as, from university to simply forgetting, I've never had a chance to visit that convention and it is held in very high esteem by friends I trust.

2-Chaosludik: My other convention of the Year. I enjoyed so much my experience last year that I cannot wait to play in the Team Tournament again. I might also try some of the solo tournaments because they also look fun and will allow me to play competitively. I'm a casual at heart but sometimes its good to be competitive.

3-Dust Campaign: I spent a lot of time and efforts and it finally started last Wednesday. Co-Blogger Dan Solo wrote two nice articles about it (part 1 and part 2) and helped me get the table Francois and myself had built to the store. That night saw such crazy Dust action going on that I'm looking forward to Wednesday to see what will happen. 

Hopefully, before the end of 2015 I can release a nice professional PDF for the Elba Campaign for the Dust community to enjoy.

4-Malifaux Campaign and more tournaments: Organized by fellow co-worker Felix, these are a blast to play in and the Campaign Rules are interesting from what I've eared.

5-Kickstarters: Ohhhhh the infamous Kickstarters. Its either a hit or miss with these and I think it'll be two 'Hits' in 2015 as I will receive my Pupl City Kickstarter as well as my Kingdom Death Kickstarter. Other than that, don't count on me for backing anything on Kickstarter as, although I was pleasantly surprised with Dust and Rivet Wars, Relic Knights was demoralizing fiasco to the point where I actively will not buy/back anything from CMON anymore, messing up that Kickstarter made them lose my trust.

6-More painting: Even though I'm painting a lot of Malifaux right now, I know its only a matter of time before I cycle back into painting some Trollbloods or some Dust...Anyways, I'm looking forward to having more painted miniatures in my collection in 2015!

7-Building a gaming table with my girlfriend. She said she would probably enjoy it because that 's what she used to do for her studies as a technologue.

That's it for my gaming expectations for 2015, Year of the Ram!
What are your plans? Let us know in the comments! :)