Happy New Year and December 2024 review

Another year is coming to an end, so enjoy 2024's New Year's Eve and have a Happy New Year!

Just like we did in the past, let me combine the review of December and looking back upon the whole year in a single article.

Quite a lot more of output compared to last year. We went up from 129 posts to 154 - that's a 20% growth! A bit half of those were reviews, bringing us close to the 450 (!) barrier on this page. And about 15 event related posts, just like last year. This seems to be a number that is reasonable and due to the distribution of the events across the year probably what we're able to cover. And while I managed to finish a lot of ideas and concepts in terms of articles, the drafts went back into three digits and is near the 150 number. So don't worry, we don't run out of ideas, even if the supply of plastic, resin and metal should run dry, that was able to arrange itself with Brexit and IOSS, now has to face a new barrier with GPSR.

In addition to my personal review of the year, you can listen to our Games 'n Dice podcast 25th episode, where Dino and me became regulars over the year.

We had some interesting changes over the year, some were positive, some unfortunately not. While I praised the interesting aspect of the Painting Phase podcast and the chemistry the trio had, they couldn't keep that up once Peachy left. And while Peachy himself has his own project with Peachy Tips, that surely holds up value, it is not the same format and at least to me doesn't provide the same entertainment. It was a bit like the banter on Top Gear, just with wargaming, combined with interesting insights on the industry and I am missing that bit. Especially as nobody else without those connections and proximity to the Lead Belt could produce something similar.
Another content that didn't turned out to be that satisfying was Warhammer+ this year, and actually to a degree that I cancelled my subscription. The price itself is not that bad, especially if you count in the free miniature and discount, but most of the content, especially the lore and painting tutorials is something that I can easily substitute for free on Youtube and the animations are so short and rare, I was expecting more on that end. But what leaves me puzzled the most, is the inactivity on the Vault. With the release of Old World, there is so much content in there, that they could pick up and re-release from the pre-2004 era of Warhammer to support the Old World releases. It's a shame.

Anyhow, there were positive things as well, among the releases that really spoke to me, was the rather unexpected release of the Chaos Dwarfs for Blood Bowl, incredibly well done and such a fitting update to the range. Really bringing the old miniatures into the 2024 design and without any silly escapades like the Gnomes.

Another kit, where I have to release the review as it is still a draft, is the impressive Medusa / Basilisk kit for Solar Auxilia. And with that saying, I am so looking forward to the Valdor in plastic, as that is a kit, that I have been eyeing for such a long time, but never pulled the trigger as a resin kit.

And while we're talking about Horus Heresy, I had quite the time with the Dark Mechanicum and not only did I add a second box of Stalker Constructs, to enlarge my units for a proper addition for Adeptus Titanicus and I got an incredibly good offer on a box of the Mechanicum for Legions Imperialis, 69 EUR instead of 125 EUR RRP - I couldn't let that offer pass.

We're a Lego household and I enjoy building bricks with my kids. Unfortunately this year the releases weren't that interesting or partially completely irrationally priced. The only Technic release this year that really talked to me was the Lego 42175 Volvo Truck, that came with the new paper bags. Nice build, but not really on eye level with the 42078 Mack Truck or 42098 Car Transporter. The lack of B-models and the increased pricing caused my "problem" of having something suitable for christmas (As I usually enjoy building some bricks between the holidays and had that problem already last year, we're I compromised on the 75357 Ghost II, and while I was looking forward to the rumours of the G-Modell, I was more than disappointed by the orange beast. As I am not that into formula one the upcoming releases of 2025 didn't hold anything of interest for me either. Yet, I managed with a bit of keeping track on sales, to get myself the duo of C3PO and R2D2 (73539 is the right scale for this combination with the 75398 C3PO, not the 75308) for about 40% off retail, which will be my christmas present and projects for the evenings between the holidays.

I pointed this out in the article on the Tomb Kings for Warmaster, I am so happy with my 3d printer and the things that I can create for my hobby and projects. From the scatter terrain, to the base additions and miniatures for almost all scales that I have in my collection (but its mostly smaller than 15mm).

On print schedule for 2025 is more stuff for Blood Bowl (like staff and items for the stadium), along with two smaller armies for warmaster as allied contingents (thinking of Dogs of War and/or High Elves) and scatter for our Deth Wizards table.

And as we're talking terrain, I managed to put the IKEA boxes to use and sorted some of the terrain I own properly, like the full box of gnarl wood terrain. Yet, if I had the chance to get myhands on some more Citadel Wood sets, I would certainly do so. Hope for a re-release for Old World just like they did with the hills.

We will be publishing the event schedule for 2025 soon, as we did not made it to that many events initially planned for 2024. Yet, we had quite a few interesting events, but due to conflicting dates, the events started rather late for me in May 2025. But I skipped some events, for example SPIEL in Essen, because the prolonged national holiday weekend didn't really help to change my decision to not go there for some time. I'll likely be able to make it to Szenario in 2025, giving me a head start right in the second week of January, and will try to squeeze in BembelMiniaturesCup in March, and then it is almost time for CONflict Rhineland in May. For autumn of next year, I'll surely re-visit Rhein-Main-Multiversum, that I didn't get to in 2024, and while I really want to make Crisis happen, it depends strongly on how I manage to organize the weekend / embed it into a family trip. Never the less, these are the events I visited this year.

CONflict Rheinland in May

FeenCon in July

Crisis in Antwerp in September

Battlefield Berlin in October

Battle for Uulda IV in October

Tabletop Paint Meetup in November

I even got some christmas presents, Radaddel / Tabletop Depot sent me a christmas stollen and Games Workshop sent the content creators this years x-mas Red Gobbo, who I covered in a brief introduction as well. Thank you very much, highly appreciated.

And as some of you might know, I enjoy cooking for my family and giving new recipes a try. This year I went for more of desserts and sweet dishes, like cinnamon rolls. As usual, this is not completely tabletop unrelated, as there's usually food when I have guests over for gaming or painting, and not only due to lack of options, I prepare something instead of ordering in. Anyhow, as I don't post these on my chaosbunker channels, you can follow me on dennismit2n for those.

In december some of the tv shows that I followed for years came to an end, like What we do in the Shadows and Star Trek - Lower Decks. Both of which I would have enjoyed further episodes, and I managed to finally watch the remaining seasons of Das Boot via Netflix. But other new series or spin-offs have started, I have some hopes for Dexter Original Sin, The Agency, SAS Rogue Heroes 2nd season and What If with its 3rd season. Yet, to prepare for Alternative History and some Weird War ideas in World War 2, I have to do a deep dive on the Weird War Tales and Warlord Comics.

Enjoy your New Year's Eve and we read again in the kick-off!