And Hello to 2013!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Welcome to the first post of 2013, here on 24 Hour Gamer Geek!  Yesterday I shared with you the results of the hobby goals I set for myself in 2012, and while I only really completed 2 of my goals last year, I think I can do better in 2013.  

One of the nice things about blogging is that you can go back and look at old posts from years past and see what you were thinking and working on back then, which can sometime give you inspiration to pick up old projects or start new ones.  After writing my 2012 goals completion post yesterday, I decided it might be fun to look back at my old goals completion post from last year and see how things compared to now.  Funny how quick things can change. One big change I forgot to mention in my previous post was the end of my old blog, Blood & Blades and the start of 24 Hour Gamer Geek.  

Funny how things like that can slip your mind.  Back at the end of July I decided to end my previous blog Blood & Blades because I no longer felt the title represented what I was about Hobby wise.  Blood & Blades was started as a place for me to document my work and motivate me to get stuff done.  However it quick changed into a place for me to post battle reports, tourney reports, and track my progress while building my Howling Griffons army.  Then, when I tired of that it documented my progress with multiple other projects and games.  That lead to me start to Podcast with Bill from The Dead Tau Project on Gamers Lounge.  Once GL had gotten going my blogging began to suffer and it has never really reach the level of posting I had in the first to years of Blood & Blades, even after leaving GL.

A number of real life problems have blocked my way the last 2 years or so and have caused me periods of sometimes months at a time where I have been detached and unfocused on anything, let alone Blogging.  However since starting 24 Hour Gamer Geek in August, slowly I have started to crawl back into the Blog-i-sphere and share with you more of my thoughts.  2013 is going to breath new life into my Blogging profile as I continue to expend more times writing Blogs, now that I have begun writing for the WWPD Network and The Paint Dragon as well.  Should be an exciting year!

Here are my goals for 2013 and some commentary on what I am thinking about each one now, at the start of the year:

1. Play no more then 3 armies for Dust Warfare, Paint 300pt of models for each of the 3 armies, and play 10 games with each army over the course of the year.

It is rumored that either the Vrill (Aliens) or possibly another army may be released for Dust in 2013.  If I decide to pick up one of these armies I will need to sell one of my current armies (Allies probably).

2. Finish painting an army for Warhammer 40,000 of at least 2000pts (with or without allies and fotifications) and play at least 5 games of 40k in 2013.

I have several armies in progress that I need to finish.  While I plan to continue paring down my 40K armies, I do want to get some painted up, for when Chris from Truddenia is able to meet up to play some games.  I figure shooting to play at least 5 games with Chris over the year is do able.

3. Paint 100pts of Warmachine/Hordes Non-Warcaster/Warlock models in 2013 and play 20 games.  I also want to paint at least 6 Warcasters or Warlocks.

I blew this goal out of the water in 2012, I want to keep the momentum going in 2013 and paint as much of the remaining unpainted or partially painted stuff I have kicking around for my Khador army as possible.  The way I tracked Warcaster/ Warlock last year was kind of messy, which is why I added the separate number of Warcasters/ Warlocks this year.

4. Paint 2000pts of Early War Germans for Flames of War in 2013 and play at least 4 games with the army.

I didn't paint anything for FoW last year while I have a huge amount of stuff for the game (even after selling every for 3 armies last year).  I have a Blitzkrieg Early War Panzer company that I really like, assembled and primed, kicking around that I have never played with.  I'd like to get some progress done on it this year and get some games in with it too.

5. Paint 2500pts of Saxons for War & Conquest and play 5 games in 2013.

I have the army all assembled and a lot of it primed.  I just need to be brave and start painting it, it really shouldn't take that much time as I only want to paint it to a good table top standard.  I plan to dip the army which should allow me to paint it quickly.

6. Paint at least 2 Relic Knight Demo armies and play 20 game in 2013.

I haven't mentioned much about Relic Knights in the 2012 goals completion post and this post so far.  That is because the game really isn't even out yet.  I took part in the kickstarter last year and have models for The Doctrine and Black Diamond head my way in the Spring of 2013.  The game seems fun and I am excited to get my hands on all the models, we will see if the game takes off for me or if it is another miss later this year.

7. Paint up and play at least 1 game with up to 4 special projects over the course of the year.  Special projects could be a crew, team, etc for a skirmish game; minis for a new game that comes along; Minis for a Board Game; or minis I just want to paint up.

I have a  mind to paint up some Civil Wars minis for a Gettysburg game I want to run this year as an example of a special project. Also, I am splitting the models from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter with a friend so you may see me paint some of those up this year too for use in IK or another RPG game.

8. Participate in at least 5 Tournaments or Painting Contests over the course of the year.  

These must be events where I set to challenging myself to play or paint the best that I can.  This one will be tough as I only did one of each last year, but I want to push myself to achieve in 2013.

9. Reduce the size of my collection, by selling, trading, or giving away as many models as possible.

I had great success with this last year, but lost count of how much stuff I got rid of (around a 1000 models or more).  I want to continue the trend in 2013.

10. Post at least 52 new Blog posts with hobby related content in them in 2013.

This was the 8th goal I set myself last year, averaging at least 1 post per week.  I fell short with only 34 posts last year, which was up 13 posts from 2011.  Here's to making and breaking this goal this year.

I have some really great stuff planned for you guys this year.  I plan to do quarterly updates on my progress, both to keep you informed on how I am doing and to motivate myself to get back on track. I will of course keep a running tally in the column to the right as I did last year as well.  I also plan to have battle reports return this year as well as adding some new content like book and movie reviews.  Over the course of December I got a new computer and some editing gear so I can provide great new video content on Youtube and here on my blog.  

I am currently looking into maybe starting to flim some lets play videos and plan to start a 24 Hour Gamer Geek Youtube Channel as well.  I even might try my hand at doing some limited run 24 Hour Gamer Geek podcasts in 2013.  My current though is to record a few 3 to 5 part casts focusing on aspects of the hobby or specific games, with each episode lasting between 30 minute to 1 hour.  While Podcasting is still a ways off, I have lots of new features headed your way soon.

See you guys next time.