End of 2016 and Beginning of 2017

This year was a great year for playing games and painting miniatures. As I won't be traveling for work this upcoming year, it should also be a productive and fun year to come.

RPGs
Played thirty-four sessions of role-playing games. Most of the (26 sessions) was for a friend's 5e D&D game set in a late Roman-like time period set on Vancouver Island. I'm still playing a wizard, who harbors dark thoughts yet is courteous, who is part of a group to depose the evil emperor by finding the remnants of a sword rumored to be able to kill him. What was found by her and the party was something else...imprisoned gods from a forgotten empire! The basic rules are still free to download from the Wizards of the Coast website too. I plan to continue this campaign for the foreseeable future.

The next most was the Fantasy Flight Star Wars: Edge of Empire setting (6 sessions). I play a Negotiator who was sold into slavery to protect her corporate boss' position. The character has raw talent but is a quick learner, and has already taken the Marshall as an extra career. Now I'm planning his comeuppance while doing jobs for other persons and groups.

I also played one session of  Savage Worlds - Rifts and Trail of Cthulhu (GUMSHOE Ruleset).

Boardgame
I played a whopping 139 board and card games this year, thanks to having my spouse conducting activities with friends the odd afternoon and weekend.

Games I played the most were Biblios, Codenames, Cribbage, Dominion, Grizzled, No Thanks!, Pandemic, and Pandemic: Legacy, Splendor.

Games I did not play much but were very impressed by and/or wish to play more (not exluding the above games) were: 1775: Rebellion, Codenames, Labyrinth: The War on Terror 2001-? (GMT), Mykerinos, Mysterium, Patchwork, Star Wars: Rebellion, Twilight Struggle, Wilderness War.

I also wish to play the games I own but have not played yet, which are a good handful.

Computer Games
I played very few computer games this year and anticipate that trend will continue. The only ones I played were Angry Birds: Star Wars and Dominion.

Miniatures
This year I played 58 miniature games.

Guildball was the most played game by myself, with half of the games played being demonstration games. For full games I used my Masons and Fishermen teams. I hope to find time to play more games next year. Even better, the rules, cards and standees are still free to download. Also painted eight of these models this year and two balls. Will continue to paint the season 2 Masons and Fishermen as well as season one and two Union models and perhaps Alchemists.

Malifaux was the second most game I played. Wrath and Tara were played the most with Angel Eyes and Victoria of Ashes being next. I expect and wish to play more in 2017. I have painted 68 of these models and redid one. I will be continuing to paint more models of the Outcast faction.

Besides these games, I played one or two games each of the following: Battletech: Alpha Strike, Dystopian Wars, Firestorm Armada, and Warmachine (Mercenaries). I painted a second starter box of the original battleforce for Prussia Land and Naval. I am looking forward to playing more Dystopian Wars and Firestorm Armada as well as Firestorm: Planetstrike.

One final game that I played once in December was Kings of War. I was very impressed by the rules and flavor of the armies rules. It has that kind of elegant simplicity that has convinced me to keep several of my Warhammer Fantasy armies (I was going to sell a bunch in 2017). The rules are free to download and the army lists are available at several websites. Mantic also makes their own models but not every selection in the army list is available from them but they encourage scratchbuilding. They have also recently made a historical armylist book that may enable myself to make armies for Peloponnesian War conflicts a reality.  As my Ratling (Skaven) models are mostly painted, I intent to play with them this year and work on my Armies of Men (Empire and Brettonian) to assemble and prime. Speedpainting will be used as I still wish to focus on my other game models.

Terrain
I finished several terrain pieces and intend to paint many more in 2017.