Dino’s annual review 2022

It's that time again, a whole year has gone by and I have quite mixed feelings when I look back. From a hobby point of view, all in all, it actually went quite well. I have not reached my goal for the year, but I was and am close.

At the beginning of the year, I managed to paint the two remaining archers from the Corinthian part of my Mortal Gods army quite quickly. In fact, it went so smoothly that I would have loved to paint another troop right away, and I've assembled another group in the meantime.

Corinthian archers

Replenishment for the Corinthians: veteran archer

Another group of Toxotai

Upgrade to another group of hoplites

Besides, I had started a small survey to achieve one of my stated goals for the year, which is to run a visual channel in the form of YouTube or Twitch and thus interact more with the community. As a small incentive, I wanted to gradually paint an Old World Alliance team, with the player names being dedications to particularly active users.

Well, this experiment has not completely failed, but as a father of three, I unfortunately do not have the time to get more involved in the hobby and run a channel. However, I will take up this venture again in a different form, as I have started a speaker's career in parallel and have to practice anyway - so I can combine both.

I was finally able to complete the Corinthian portion of my Mortal Gods squad almost entirely by June. The hero completing the troop with its 300 points finally followed in July.

Around the same time, the makeover for the Blood Bowl Community Team was completed. However, I was not able to paint the first player until late September. This had various reasons. On the one hand, I lost my job again, which I had been so happy about in January. On the other hand, I immediately found a new job!

In fact, the job loss initially pulled me into a bit of a mental hole. No matter how mentally stable you are, self-doubt starts to creep in at some point, and since I tend to get emotionally worked up sometimes, it threw me off track a bit. My new job, on the other hand, marked a new beginning in many respects and I feel very comfortable with my new employer - the whole thing went so well, in fact, that after my performance review, barely three and a half months later, I was told that my probationary period would end early. Professionally, I have finally arrived.

This turn of events brought a few more benefits - I was able to paint less due to my increased travel activity, but I got the opportunity to strengthen the community contact. Whenever I'm in the Düren area, I try to fit in a few games of Blitz Bowl or Mortal Gods, for example.

Wizards Inn in Pirmasens

ACWF Aachener Tabletop Freunde

Bedburger TableTop Freunde e.V.

But other systems have not been neglected this year. During a visit to tabletopwelt.de user Erkwin in March, I was able to play a round of Rangers of Shadow Deep with him and Saranor. In the process, the narrative has developed such a strong momentum that the idea arose to play an Oathmark campaign on a weekend in the coming fall 2023, probably in October.

Since bunker boss Dennis already provided me with some leftovers from the reviews of the Oathmark Goblins and Wolf Riders some time ago, this seemed like a good opportunity to paint some minis from my personal leftover ramp again, and the first ten infantrymen practically assembled themselves.

A unit champion also found its way onto my painting table quite quickly and I noticed once again how pleasant it is to paint models in actual 28mm scale. In addition, the Sword and Sorcery feeling of Oathmark appeals to me very much. The only downer is probably the square bases. Somehow, I find round bases to be holistically nicer by now, and so I'm already flirting a bit with the rulebooks for Dragon Rampant, or SAGA Era of Magic. Robert, aka Wolpertinger, is to blame for this idea, as he converted an old River Troll for my Oathmark Goblins.

However, the job means that in the future I will have to sideline my hobby activities even further, but more about that in my outlook for the year.

I'm especially proud of reaching my 300 point milestone for Mortal Gods. Not only did I manage to paint the entire troop, I was even able to play a few games at the Rhein Main Multiversum 2022 and I'm already desperately trying to find an excuse to go back to the Wetterau and write a game report for Mortal Gods with the Tabletop Club Rhein-Main.

300 points Greek Adventurers and Corinthians

Fiercely contested battles in ancient Greece

Unfortunately, the buildings for Mortal Gods didn't make it this year. I need them to create more flair on the table. However, it turns out that these are much more effort to paint than minis, especially if you do not have an airbrush.

Since I don't own an airbrush myself, I'm either going to paint the buildings at someone's house who has an airbrush, or...I'm going to give myself a little gift. I don't know yet how I should set up a place for airbrushing, so I'm leaning towards the first solution for now, until I get a little more experience with it.

In order to still be able to put Greek-inspired terrain, I have started to build a few temple ruins. This works quite well so far and I think two or three more of them on the table will bring it into the ancient world quite well.

Originally, my goal for the year looked like this:

Ultimately, I put the Star Wars Gunslinger aside again, but that resulted in me having a little more time for a few additional models.

Annual result:

What also really pleased me was that I have again managed to meet my budget challenge of 20 euros per month, despite the one or two unnecessary expenses. But you also have to make this experience and it showed me that sometimes you don't need much to make a lot out of your hobby.

Especially the topic of "new miniatures" is one of those things that I've become critical of - how much is too much and don't we already have enough? How big is the pain of parting with projects that have been left behind and does one really go at them again? I'm probably already a bit of a "moderationist" in the German-speaking hobby scene, but the topic is more current than ever, in times of weekly releases and 3D printing.

Maybe I'll talk to Gregor and Benjamin about it on their podcast, where bunker boss Dennis and I have already been guests. Our friends from the tabletop club Games 'n Dice Düsseldorf have resumed their podcast operation for some time and I have noticed it this year as one of the podcasts worth listening to, which also deal with more controversial topics.

I've only really noticed podcasts as an entertainment medium this year, but I'd like to take this opportunity to make a stand for them. When you sit in your room and paint away, it's good entertainment.

On the whole, I have outlined 2022 quite completely. At this point I want to thank you for the support in this tumultuous year, both on a hobby and personal level. So what's next? You'll see this week in my annual outlook!

Many greetings from the Chaosbunker and a happy new year 2023

Dino