Vampifan's Views 59 - Monthly Musings 37

Vampirella by Dan Brereton

It's the last day of 2014 and time for my annual look back at the past year as well as looking forward to 2015. I did very well for gaming related Christmas presents this year thanks to my mum giving me a big cheque to spend as I wish. I bought the new Judge Dredd Miniatures Game supplement "Blood on the Street" along with two boxes of 28mm scale figures - Heroes of Mega City One and Mega City One Judges. For Super Dungeon Explore I managed to buy two very rare figures from e-Bay - Nyan Nyan the Freyjan Hero and Vandella the Succubus. They are so cute! I also bought two books - The Art of Vampirella: the Dynamite Years (just full of gorgeous illustrations) and a new Durham Red graphic novel called Bitch. Durham Red is my second favourite comic book vampire after Vampirella.
In addition, I received a lovely surprise from Steve, a good friend of mine. He got me the Arkham Horror: Call of Cthulhu  board-game by Fantasy Flight Games. It can be played by 1-8 players and that 1 is very important to me, seeing as I'm usually a solo gamer. Steve described the game as "the best solo game he has ever played." Seeing as he introduced me to Super Dungeon Explore and we both love solo games I respect his opinion and I look forward to playing the game in the new year. On the plus side, this is a game that can easily be played without miniature figures (thank God!), although I do possess a lot of Cthulhu monster figures and 1920's human figures. On the downside, if I do enjoy this game as much as I suspect I will (I've already read the rulebook and it looks awesome!) then I'll probably end up buying numerous supplements for it. There are a lot available.
Looking back on 2014, on the whole I have to say it was a good year for me. Far and away the best thing that happened to me was having my cataracts removed, which fully restored my eyesight. This made a huge difference to my life. Other highlights of the year were meeting up with fellow bloggers Joe and Mathyoo in the summer and playing a few games of ATZ with Joe at his home. Great fun! I also became very close friends with author and games designer, Steve Gilbert (as mentioned above), and I think we'll be friends for life. I introduced Steve to Zombicide and in return, he introduced me to Super Dungeon Explore. We are so full of enthusiasm for both games and chat about them almost everyday. It is always nice to meet someone who is as passionate about the gaming with miniatures hobby as I am.
Earlier this year I ran a competition to celebrate 500 posts of my blog. That proved to be very successful and already I have plans for more competitions. And, yes, there will be prize give-aways.
Kickstarter proved to be very popular (and hurtful to my bank account!) in 2014 and will continue to do so in 2015. For me, the big Kickstarter events of 2014 were backing Zombicide season 3 and receiving a pile of goodies for Zombicide season 2. I backed the Mars Attacks Kickstarter project in 2013 and I finally received a huge parcel for this game late in 2014. In December 2014 I backed the Rum and Bones Kickstarter project and I'm very excited about this game. The fact that it features undead pirates was a big clincher for me. Plus, it just looks like a whole load of fun, and to be honest, that is what gaming should be about.
So, what are my plans for 2015? It is traditional at this time to make New Year's resolutions. Normally, I just can't be arsed! This year, however, I will make one. And that is to play more games. I don't just mean my ATZ-FFO campaign, although I do want to continue that. I want to play more of the things that interest me and not just zombie gaming. Mind you, zombies will feature heavily in Zombicide (naturally) and will turn up in the likes of Rum and Bones and Super Dungeon Explore. I have developed a keen interest in boardgames played with miniatures, so hopefully, I'll get to play at least some games of Zombicide, Rum and Bones and Super Dungeon Explore next year. I'm also looking forward to playing Arkham Horror as I've always liked Call of Cthulhu. If I could fit in a bit of Judge Dredd and a bit of Wild West skirmish gaming that would be great but quite frankly, I doubt if I'll have time to fit either in.
Blogging, figure painting and card modelling will continue as normal although my figure painting will diversify to cover various genres besides zombies. I'll continue posting reviews of my werewolf figures for the next two weeks and then I'll start posting reviews of Super Dungeon Explore. All of the figures from the basic boxed set have been painted and photographed. I am now painting the figures from the two big expansion sets - Caverns of Roxor and Van Drakk Manor.
In closing, I'd like to wish everyone a very happy New Year. Peace, good will, good health and prosperity to you all.