2018: A Year of Extremes

It seems that 2018 has come and gone.  I think we all know what that requires - one of those self-reflective, and self-absorbed blog posts about the year that was.  I think the picture at the right kind of sums up 2018 for me - sometimes you're the T-Rex and sometimes you the miniature getting chomped.  (Thanks to Joe P from the scrum in miniature blog for the picture)

2018 was a year of extremes - hobby wise it was a great year and I ended it even more enthused about this silly shared habit of ours.  On the personal side, it was a very difficult year as both me and my son faced  serious health challenges.  I'll not dwell on the details other to say the following:

- One of my greatest mistakes in life is taking my health for granted.  "I'll exercise tomorrow" and "I should eat that extra portion of bacon" (insert any other high fat food alternative here) are two big lies I often told myself.   Hopefully you're all smarter than me and realize this fact.  I learned it the hard way by waking up in an ICU last April after an outbreak of severe Pancreatitis.  Several surgeries and 45 pounds later* I'm doing fine but wish I didn't have to learn these things by touching the hot stove all the time.  

* Technically it's now just 40 pounds less as I seem to have put on a little weight over the holidays - we'll see to that over the next few weeks.

- I pray none of you ever have to deal with a child going through a major health crisis.  Even with the resources we're blessed with I can't describe the feeling of powerlessness one has in these situations.  The one silver lining was Sean moved back home as he was treated and seems to have made a full recovery.  He's a tough cookie and is just as stubborn as his old man (but maybe not as stubborn as his mother).  Thankfully, he's now preparing to return to Carnegie Mellon to finish up (he's got 3 classes left) and then graduates.  I'm trying to steer him towards jobs in London so let me know if any of you have any leads for entry level roles for people with a degree in data analytics and robotics.

- It wouldn't be fair to discuss any of the health challenges from 2018 without disclosing my secret weapon for overcoming these things - my wife, Mary Beth.  She's a rock in hard times.  I know I often make fun of her in this blog but I would not have made it through 2018 without her help.  I'm still amazed she (a) chose to marry a moron like me and (b) still chooses to remain so.  Let's just say no luckier man walks the face of the earth than me.  I'm still deathly afraid of her (as you should be too) but deeply glad to have her by my side.

I've made some big lifestyle changes as a result of the "trials of 2018".  Professionally, I've moved to a part time status with the VC firm I work and have shifted my focus to healthcare and healthcare related tech.  Financial services just isn't as interesting as it once was and I'm convinced there is no industry that needs reinvention more that US healthcare.  Personally, I exercise just about every day (although the Christmas five pounds will make that every day!) and have radically changed my diet.  Suffice it to say I haven't felt this good in years.    

OK, enough of the maudlin, self-reflective stuff, this is a miniature wargaming hobby blog and not a movie script from the Hallmark Channel.  Lets get onto the hobby stuff!

2018 Painting totals

The last year passed saw a shift from 28mm to 15mm scale painting, which will be accelerated in 2019.  Lets look at 2018's painting tally relative to the last few years:

	2015	2016	2017	2018
28 MM
Infantry	222	488	494	191
Cav/Guns	10	14	6	1
Vehicles	17	9	31	8
Ships	0	3	0	2
15 MM
Infantry	132	101	297	491
Cav/Guns	0	16	6	193
Vehicles	11	23	53	14
Ships	0	0	0	5
1/1200 ships	2	2	0	0
1/600 Inronclads	10	0	0	0
6 MM
Infantry	0	0	0	0
Cav/Guns	0	0	0	0
Vehicles	0	0	10	0
Ships	0	0	0	0

The big news is the shift from 28's to 15's during 2018 and you'll see that accelerate into 2019.  Why?  Three reasons.  First, My 28mm armies are nearing completion and I just don't need that many additional items.  Now stop clutching your pearls, I didn't say "complete" as we all know that miniature armies can never be completed.  The second reason is storage - I'm running out of space!  and Third, I wanted a new challenge for convention gaming and thought I just don't see that many "big convention games" that use 15mm miniatures yet one can achieve a real panoramic scale with 15's - a "moving diorama" to quote Rich Hasenauer (author of the Fire and Fury ruleset).

Despite 2018 being a challenge health wise for the family, hobby wise it was a fantastic year.  Here's my top 6 achievements for 2018:

1) Joined a War-game Club: Like many of you, I've really enjoyed the gaming related videos from the youtube channel Little Wars TV.  I discovered the group that makes these videos is a wargame club - Army Group York, which is located a little over an hours drive from where I live.  I really couldn't have found a nicer group of fellow gamers and in an act of incredible kindness they lowered their standards and allowed me to join the club.  Please don't hold that act against them.  I pretty much guilted them into to doing so by standing outside the club house crying.  People often discount how effective crying can be when negotiating.

2) Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge: This still remains my favorite hobby event of the year and for Challenge VIII, I posted my best personal score ever and placed third overall..  Curt does an amazing job wrangling the cats for this event.  Challenge IX is in full swing now and I think my pace is pretty strong.

3) Successfully ran my Historicon game: Given some of the health challenges and the fact the US healthcare industry conspires to prevent people from painting miniatures while in hospital (an outrage if you ask me), I didn't have enough time to develop a new game concept so essentially re-ran the 2017 games "DAK & Dragons" / "SOCOM & Socery".  I did add some jungle terrain and Dinosaurs (what game isn't made better with dinosaurs?).  The games went very well and the players seemed to enjoy themselves.    I also won another PELA award which is very gratifying.  I was also not feeling the greatest during the event and think that limited some of my usual "showmanship".  To be honest, I felt a little guilty about re-running 2017's game in 2018 and have vowed to pull out all the stops for 2019 but that's a topic for some future posts.

4) Gamed a lot - Joining Army Group York last August means I've gamed the most in the last 5 months than I ever have before.  I've lost the most also but who cares about that.

5) Jumped into 15mm Napoleonics in a big way. Coming out of Historicon last July, I was seized with a crazy idea of putting on a giant Napoleonic game in 15mm scale.  This idea was crazy on several fronts:

- I already have a rather large 28mm Napoleonic collection

- As of July 19th, 2018 I had zero in the way of 15mm painted Napoleonic figures

- I really wasn't familiar with any of the rulesets for the period, well familiar enough to put on a convention game.

Logic and economic common sense would dictate I avoid this new project like the plague.  So, of course, I jumped in with both feet.  Now I do need to admit that I've cheated a bit as  most of the troops collected to date were purchased pre-painted.  The majority were obtained from GAJO Miniatures and I highly recommend their services.  I'm well on my way to being able to field over 3,000 Napoleonic miniatures along with 15mm scale ships.  It will either be an epic game or an epic disaster.  Either outcome should prove interesting.  Stay tuned over the next few months to see how it plays out!  By the way, the picture to the right show some of my French infantry.

6) 3D Printing - I finally got my 3D printer to work (OK, that was with some help from my son) and have been using it for some terrain related projects.  I suspect you'll see a lot more in 2019.

To sum up 2018 was a great year hobby wise but a very trying one on the personal side.  As we enter 2019, I consider myself truly blessed as the health issues have subsided, my son is doing very well and returning to school and my wife still tolerates me.

All-in-all I'm damn lucky.