Hi everyone, today I wanted to give you an update on some of the things that I have been thinking about over the past few months and update you on St Andrews Wargaming.
Blog
Regular readers will have noticed a distinct lack in output on the blog in the last year. This was partly due to motivation and partly due to having less free time to game or do hobby work on my armies.
A lot of this was to due with the current COVID-19 crisis. My work has continued to open throughout the lockdown, so haven't had as much spare time as others to work on my project. Plus, it has been a particularly nice summer so far, so I've had little motivation to stay indoors and write or paint while the sun has been shining. The lack of anything to do at weekends during lockdown has not actually had much impact on my hobby motivation. I got a bit done at the start, painting up a couple of units and some ITC terrain, but other than that, I've not really been doing much over the past few months.
The lack of hobby content and gaming has meant that motivation for writing the blog fell a bit by the wayside. I'm happy to report that this should be changing soon.
I'm also hopeful that the quicker games and smaller armies of 9th edition will help out the with battle reports. To be honest, towards the end of 8th edition, writing up the battle reports was getting to be a bit of a slog. There was simply too much happening to note and write about, that it was taking me ages to simply get through them. The current batch of tournament battle reports from the Bournemouth Bash were played almost a year ago, and I am only now getting round to finishing them up.
9th Edition 40k
As you will no doubt know, the 9th edition of Warhammer 40k has hit shelves during this time. This has been a bit of a weird one for me. I'm normally very exited about a new edition dropping and want to test out the new rules as quickly as possible. However, under the current circumstances, I am unable to get any games played, so will need to wait to try them out when things start to get back to normal.
The new edition has invigorated me a bit, and I actually got some writing and painting done this last week, the results of which will be on the blog soon.
I was also fortunate enough to be able to order two Indomitus boxed sets from GW on the pre-order day. However, those that follow me on social media will know that there have been some issues with this. I managed to order two of the boxes, but as of time of writing, they have yet to be delivered. It looks as though my copies have been lost in the postal service and I am unlikely to receive them.
I don't know what is going to happen, as the box set is no longer available to order. I was looking forward to adding several units to my White Scars and Deathwatch. As I was waiting on the box, I don't even have a copy of the new rules yet!
This is more than a little disappointing, as I have been seeing tons of photos on social media of people getting the kit painted up and want to join in, but cannot at the moment. Fortunately, I may have a source for the models at this point, so just need to get a refund from GW to buy the models from somewhere else.
Didcot Wargames Club
My new venture this year was to set up a games club in my local area. Previously, I had been travelling through to Reading for games. It's a great club, but a good 45 minute drive for me, which was getting a bit much.
I found a hall and got the first night of the club up and running. We had 12 people gaming on the first night, which was a great turn out for me.
Then, the lockdown hit. We had a single session, then had to put the club on hold after that. That was a bit of a blow, as I think I was building up a good momentum and getting people interested in attending. The good news is that we will be re-opening in September, so I am looking forward to getting in some games of 9th edition.
Overall
I'm hoping that things pick up for the second half of the year. When (if) I eventually get the Indomitus box, I am hoping to quickly get a few units painted up for my White Scars to try them out in my games. The Primaris section of the White Scars is coming along quite nicely. I'll be interested to see what the 9th edition codex has in store for them.
Ah phew, I thought this was another of my staple Blogs going DoDo in favour of insta-photo-no-meaningful-content-media, but glad to see some love for blogging continues. I love the Batreps but after doing some of my own without maps, I dread to think how much notes you have to capture. I used the audio-note function on the phone to capture each turn to save writing stuff down.
ReplyDeleteI know, so many of my regular reads have fallen in recent years. Hopefully I'll be able to keep going for a good while, as long as people are still reading it.
DeleteI actually tried using a dicatphone to take notes during games, but I actually found it took much longer than simply writing them down. I'm eager to get back into gaming to share my experiences of 9th edition.
Good to hear you're still around and hobbying. Don't feel pressured to churn out content, it will come in its own time, and we'll be here to read it.
ReplyDeleteCrushingly disappointing about the Indomitus box - but if nothing else, there's the new starter sets to get some/all of the models from.
Thanks! I just wanted to put together a post explaining why content has been so slim on the blog recently. I managed to get a good bit of painting done this week, so should have some hobby updates to share soon.
DeleteThe lack of delivery has been really annoying. I ended up ordering the rulebook from ebay, just so that I could check out the new rules. To make things worse, GW customer service have been really slow at replying to emails at the moment, so I'm still in limbo with regards to what is happening with my order.
Glad to read that you're still around. I'm not so big on the content these days either, mostly due to real life getting in the way of everything fun, so you're certainly not alone there. Sucks about the double Indomitus cock up, but I hope you can source the bits elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI think I may be able to get a set from an independent retailer, so just need to wait for my money back from GW.
DeleteI didn't order a starter myself, as I am holding out for more Dark Angels specific kits, but having it go missing would have gutted me! We haven't had as many supply issue problems in Australia, due to less demand; I could walk into my FLGS tomorrow and pick one up off the shelf. The price is... pretty high, though. In terms of value: great, but $290 AUD is still $290 AUD.
ReplyDeleteI thought the models would make a nice addition to my White Scars and Deathwatch. I was hoping to get some painted up the last couple of weekends, but no joy there!
DeleteGreat to see you're still here. Sucks about the boxes though, that's a real shame. I see that you sometimes writeb for frontline gaming, could you put the articles on here as well (I follow this blog more than frontline so there is some personal benefit for me asking this) so that you didn't feel as though you weren't producing content? Not that you should feel any obligation of course. Good luck with the new club relaunch.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words!
DeleteI do have a list of my Frontline Gaming articles in one of the tabs listed above, with links to them, though it does need to be updated. I can't copy the articles directly, as it messes up their searches and views if they article is duplicated elsewhere.
Glad to hear you plan to stick with the blog. I don't always comment, but I do read it all and look forward to seeing what's new when it comes out. No pressure, though. As bloggers we all face our highs and lows with content. When it isn't fun, don't do it.
ReplyDelete