Following up on yesterday’s article on what we’ve experienced from Games Workshop this past year, it’s time to look back onto my own year as a hobbyist. While it’s been marked by large periods of inactivity (as should be apparent by the content update on this blog), due to a variety of real life factors, I’ve managed to actually get a decent amout of hobby time in, all things considered. Let’s jump right in.
Celebrity deaths and world development issues aside, 2016 shaped up to be an incredibly eventful year for Games Workshop hobbyists. In this three-part series over the next couple of days, I will look back a bit on the year that was, and into the year that’s coming. There’ll be a bit about my thoughts regarding my own progress, the development of Games Workshop as a company, and what I expect from the new year. In this first installment, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on releases and progress this year, from the point of view of a customer, fan and interested study of Games Workshop.
“Hey there, big boy. Wanna play?”
Last year, my friend E and I met up for a very inaugural match of Age of Sigmar where we more or less did, well, everything wrong. Last night, we met up for a rematch after having had several more games on other hands under our belt, as well as countless hours of debating and discussing the rules, comp variant and theories.
When the plague came to Talabheim, and the daemons of Nurgle’s garden rose in the streets, the people of the cratered city rose to its defence, well aware that this would be their death. The combined forces of the Maggoth Lords and the Tallyman were overwhelming the walls with pestilence and death, and as their patron deity Taal laid ill from the Lord of Decay’s foul contagion, the Eye of the Forest seemed doomed – certain death had come.
The Festering Orchard project is coming along surprisingly well – the past week or so have seen me finish no less than five models of various types, primarily as colour testers, but actually turning out so nice that they will simply just find their way into my final force.
It’s been a while. Specifically, two whole months of not a single post, and truth be told, not much hobby stuff either. I blame the fact that I have a wonderful baby boy, that work is something that happens in adult lives to provide them with disposable income, and the existence of certain Blizzard Entertainment franchises.
I don’t usually do unboxings, for a couple of reasons; first of all, because I very rarely receive new products in time to post it before there’s already ten Youtube reviews of it, but also because the Games Workshop website have become increasingly good at showcasing models to their full extent. This week, however, I’m making an exception for the new Baleful Realmgates kit. Partly because I wanted to post something positive after the other day’s fiasco, but also because this kit stands out with how it differs from previous terrain pieces.
CONTAINS SPOILERS.
With the release of Age of Sigmar, the Black Library have started a new series called The Realmgate Wars, to tie in with the new game and the campaign presented in the starter box and the first book released. After a spectacular trip around the world, I finally got my hands on the first book of the series, The Gates of Azyr, and tore through the pages. But is it any good?
A common narrative in popular culture and media is that there always have to be a female lead, a feminine presence for viewers to identify with. It was very much the case with the Lord of the Rings franchise making its way to the silver screen (Arwen and Tauriel respectively), and it’s becoming more and more common for female lead or main characters to appear in media such as games, comic books and TV productions over the past few years.
The Gates of Azyr. Limited edition. “That’s cool,” I was thinking, “I’m gonna get me one of those.”
That was July 4th.
LD10 