The Totally Arbitrary Look at 2016.

So if you're anything like me, your 2016 consisted of a lot of "Oh shit, who's died NOW?!" Seriously. That happened way too often for my liking quite frankly this year. Plus lots of swearing about world events. That also happened far too often.

Buuuuuuut 2016 also consisted of hobby! And events! And flailing! And I'm using far too many exclamation points! (This is why I'm not allowed coffee.)

So I decided to look back at a few highlights of 2016. Let's jump right in with my 3 favourite events of the year, in no particular order of merit;

Malifaux Nationals - I think this one goes without saying really. The largest Malifaux event ever with over 100 players. This was organised by the Lord of Malifaux Mike Marshall (with amazing help from Jen, Lee, Matt and more I'm probably forgetting) and the whole thing ran like clockwork. It was a very buzzy event, the social side was loads of fun (getting Stuart Snares to fulfil his forfeit of wearing glittery clips in his beard was a highlight) and it's always good to see a new venue, in this case Battlefield Hobbies in Daventry. If only my in-game performance could have risen to the occasion. <sigh>

Grumpy Goblin Charity Event - Yet more proof, if it was needed, that the Malifaux community is made up of some very very amazing people. From Dave Hill running the whole event dressed as Radioactive Man (and taking a cream pie to the face) to Joe Wood dressing like a Rotten Belle whilst running a joke crew of Leviticus and 9 Belles (yet still finishing in the top 5, it's definitely broken!) this bonkers, fun and fairly large event raised over £1000 for Ronald McDonald House Charities. I also got to play the lovely Lee Battrick in the first round which was a lot of fun. Hope to see more events at the Grumpy Goblin in 2017.

HoHoFaux - another event organised by Mike Marshall with help from Dave Brown but with the added insanity that is a story event. HoHoFaux was a fun, lighthearted and very festive story event with a surprisingly large number of players. It was one of the few events I was able to convince my partner Rich to come along to and he ended up coming home with the star prize of a very Christmassy voodoo doll. The whole mood was very giggly, I ran Dreamer all day (after all, Christmas is a time for the kids and their toys), played 3 new opponents (including Matt Spooner and my fellow Gremlin pal Simon Matless) and had 3 great games using 3 amusing scenarios written by Mike & Dave. It was also great to see that our winner was the very lovely Jen, who was playing in her first solo event! Go Jen!

2016 Resolutions: A Colossal Failure

It's 2017! And you know what the means?! It's time to look back at all our personal failings from 2016. Looking back at my resolutions from the start of last year and seeing how I did seemed like an appropriate post to start the New Year. Last year I did really well on my New Years resolutions, succeeding in 10 compared to failing only two. This year... well you'll see.

Gaming Resolutions: 
1) Get the Rainbow Badge
This one was not even close. Not only did I not get the Rainbow Badge. I didn't even attend enough events to get it if I had run a different faction at each event. Having only ever run Neverborn in events prior to 2016 I did manage to run Neverborn, Gremlins, Outcasts and Ten Thunders in events. Sadly due to only attending 6 events and not having any painted masters for the other three factions this goal was a failure. I also doubt I will make it a goal for next year, as I still haven't really got any interest in playing Guild, and I don't have the time or money for starting Ressurs. I will definitely be getting Arcanists added into the rotation this year, but I didn't really like taking just Viks to an event, as they don't really suit me, so I am not sure I will end up using Outcasts in an event again this year.

2) 10+ games played with all my masters.
When I made this goal I had 4 masters at 10+ games. By the end of 2016 I was up to 8 masters (All 7 Neverborn and the Viks). I only missed out on this goal by one Master, Mr Cooper, who I only managed to get one game played with. I ended up playing 7 Games with a Master I picked up after these resolutions (Ophelia) and if I had got her to 10 I prob could've justified this as a win, but oh well. As you will see in my painting goals, I didn't end up getting around to Dark Carnival in 2016 (which I have only finished building recently) so Cooper caused me to fail this. Still happy to have doubled my masters at 10+ games though.. maybe I should make my goal to get 4 masters past the 10 game threshold each year...

3) Take all my masters in a tournament game
This one was also quite close. If you swap Ophelia in for Cooper (as mentioned above) since she ended up jumping the quay, I actually took 8/9 Masters to events. I even took Zoraida and Lynch in events in each of their factions. The only exception was Lucius who I didn't manage to get painted in time for an event. Spoiler alert, he will be getting into a tournament game very shortly.. So although I failed I went from having only used 3 masters in an event to 8.. which is pretty good.

4) Play in at least 1 tournament in two non malifaux games (likely at Daffcon)
This was the only goal this year I truly smashed it out of the park. I played in events for Of Gods and Mortals, Frostgrave, Saga and Guildball at Daffcon (so four events in non-malifaux games). Furthermore, I attended 4 other Guildball tournaments, and even won my first Guildball tournament (and also my first best painted award) at Tanelorn. Sadly it wasn't entered into rankings, otherwise I would've ended the year in the UK top 50 for Guildball, which would've been cool. But it's nice to finally succeed at one of these..

Badluck & Blood in 2016

Well the last of the mince pies have been eaten (before I could even get my paws on them) and the decorations are away. A warm December has turning into a nasty January and I've done my 2015 Year in Review post already. 

Now on to 2016. New Year means New Faction, especially as the Abnormalifaux crew are running a slow grow. Very excited. One of the rules was that it had to be a completely new master, and fully painted. As I've done a year with TT I thought I could use Misaki. I haven't tried her yet. She is just sitting on the shelf painted and ready. Still, that felt a bit like I would be playing new comers with lots of models I knew well, just with a different master. That didn't seem fair. I thought about Lynch perhaps as Neverborn. I already have Mr Graves, Mr Tannen and 3 Terror Tots painted for him when I want to run him as Neverborn. This was tempting but there was a big problem. I hate the Hungering Darkness so I threw the model away and started converting a new one. There was no way it was going to be ready in time. 

2016 Gaming Resolutions

Another year another set of goals. Unlike my real-life resolutions (which were a definitive failure last year) I actually did quite well on my 2015 hobby resolutions. Hopefully the same will be true this year (though not the failing at real life part...).

Last year was heavily malifaux focused and the first year ever that I attended more than 2-3 gaming tournaments in a year. Having attended 13 events in 2015 and qualified for Masters, it was by far the most competitive year I've had in gaming. This year I am going to take a bit of a step back competitively after Masters. Attending fewer events and spending more of my gaming time on other systems (especially Guildball, but also Saga, OGAM, Bloodbowl etc). Malifaux will continue to be my main game but rather than taking up 95% of my time it will prob be closer to 60-70%. Last year I also focused heavily on a few specific masters. This year I plan on being less focused on any one master and spending more time just experimenting with different things. That being said, if I am as taken by a new master as I once was with Dreamer then I will not force myself to play other masters. But it's hard to predict when/if that will happen. Anyway, let's get to those resolutions: Which I've split into gaming and hobby resolutions.

Gaming Resolutions: 
1) Get the Rainbow Badge
Last year my major goals were all about improving competitively and doing well. I also blew away my own expectations and did far better than I ever expected I would. That being said, I don't see myself as having the skill or drive to push any higher. At this point I'm ranked 7th in the UK and the only goals I can think of are aiming to win Masters (not gonna happen) or aiming for UK number 1 (not gonna happen). I just don't think those are goals that appeal to me as I don't think I am good enough player or a committed/competitive enough player to aim for those.

So taking a page from Ben Crowe (King of the South) I've decided to go for the rainbow badge. The rainbow badge is given to players who use all 7 factions at ranked events within a 12-month period. For someone who has only played 1 faction at events, and honestly only 1 master outside of neverborn in total (Viks) this will be quite a change. Heck I've only got one painted crew outside of neverborn at the moment.

That being said I do have my choices for my first three factions down. One will be neverborn (obviously) where I hope to use some of the masters I have painted but haven't taken in an event yet (Zoraida, Collodi, Lynch). Next will be the Viktorias as I have almost everything I need for them finished (just gotta finish a couple Freikorps models and the effigy). Third will be weird as I will taking Gremlin Zoraida. Currently I have never played her and have no Gremlin stuff painted (except McTavish) but between my swampfiends, some unpainted gremlins I will get painted (Burt, Gracie, War Wabbit, Francois) and some borrowed models (thanks Ross!) I should be able to get a decent crew together.

After those 3 I'm not really sure what direction to go on. I will eventually have ten thunder and arcanist crews ready to go as I own Dark Carnival already and am planning on picking up Shenlong at some point this year (and already have Lynch). So those two factions will get covered later in the year. The last two factions are going to be trickier as I have no ressurs masters (nor much of likelihood of picking up one any time soon) and no guild other than Lucius (who is just awful in guild). Anyway, I've got a while before I need to worry about that, and I know I will be able to borrow some models here and there if I need them. But this is kind of my main competitive focus this year as I think it will expand my experience and skills and maybe even make me want to play a faction other than neverborn as my main faction (but probably not ;) )