Traditional review of 2017!

Hi all

So this is the last post of 2017 and as ever it is traditional in this blogosphere that we review the last 12 months here in da Grotto.  Strap in this may go on for a bit!

January

I started the year with a competition, by naming your fave Gobbo post of 2016 you could win a Lucky Orc dice bag.  I announced the winner in Feb and it was a most worthy recipient - the highly esteemed "Sir" Michael Awdry.  Once again I must recommend the Lucky Orc, Beccy does amazing work and produces a number of products for the gamer on the go.

Also in January I concluded an AAR for a Bushido tournament I had competed in, it was very well received and the series prompted me to continue the narrative AARs that dominated my ATZ games and led to the development of my current campaign.  Speaking of Bushido, January saw the introduction of faction after faction of the fantastic GCT Studios finest, as the lure of the Jwar Isles was in full swing. 

I also completed my third board for the game - "The Daimyo's Palace"

One of the last posts of January featured a very special xmas gift from a fantastic guy - Dave Stone.  The gift inspired a few of us lucky recipients to have a "Tweek off". Now before all of the complaints about lewd behaviour come flooding in, let me explain - Tweek is a character from 2000AD's Judge Dredd and Dave had sculpted the furry alien and sent them to a select few. We in turn all painted them and showed them on our blogs!  Here is my entry again...

February

February was a mixed bag for me, I had pre-written loads of blog posts ( I really was very prolific in the early parts of the year, most likely proportionate to the amount of Uni work that was due at the time...) but my blogging mojo took a massive blow when I quite unexpectedly lost my mum.  The very kind readers of this blog were understanding and I took some time to gather myself.  In the meantime Clint from "Anything But a 1" very kindly gave me a book, a very special book - "The Warriors" by Sol Yurick, this was the book that inspired my favourite film of all time and bought a smile to my face at a time when smiles were scarce and I thank him again for it. 

Anyway here are some of the minis that were painted during the month.

March

March was dominated by my second Bushido tournament - Daimyo of the South, where I took my Silvermoon Trade Syndicate warband.  Sadly I could only manage 9th (out of 12) but still thoroughly enjoyed myself and look forward to next years event.

April

By April I was into the last few months of my degree, this meant a slow down in production, sort of....

Erm I still managed to get a start on building some sewer tiles that could be used for 7TV2e or D&D and even started playing more of my ATZ English campaign.  The making of the tiles and the pieces that make up the contents of the dungeon were uploaded onto YouTube so didn't feature too much on here, for those of you who subscribed to the channel, don't worry more stuff will be forthcoming i've just been having issues with the recording equipment.

May

May saw a wider variety of miniatures being painted from the Kung Fu panda to Countess Annabella Von Kriekveld.  Included in these were some beautiful pieces from Dave Stone's Wargames Terrain Workshop and the completion of my dungeon tiles.

June

If anything June was sparser than May for posts, in fact the decline in the amount of posts I have put out this year has taken a general downward spiral until I'm down to just one a week, from 3! This is due mostly to the new career and the extreme amount of time that is required to keep up with my studies and to practice as a paramedic.  Also my mojo is at a bit of a low due to my mum, however I do what I can to keep up.  YouTube videos were still being made regarding my D&D/sewer projects.















July

July was another great month for Bushido with Clan Ito hitting the games table as well as my ATZ campaign scratching my Zompoc itch....

I also announced the start of my Urban Project which I will be showing in Feb 2018.















August

August came around and the posts were dropping off but I still managed to put out some Bushido, ATZ and terrain goodies....

I was also blown away by the kindness of my fellow bloggers











September and on....

Now this may seem like a cop out just lumping the remaining 4 months together, but I really have dropped off the volume of posts compared to the more prolific level of posting at the beginning of the year.  The reasons for this I've already explained, sadly the pressure of RL has drastically reduced my output....anyhoo, the Urban Project continued at pace, dominating the hobby time and edging out game play which is a real shame but I must admit I did love the focused terrain building!

well that is all I've managed do over the year....lol! I have really enjoyed blogging this year despite the downturn in the productivity. I'm hoping that 2018 will see a rise in the mojo and a great deal of gaming.

happy New Year all
dGG aka Andy