Hi All,
Now that the year is almost done I figured it would be good to pause, and look back over the past year. What was accomplished, what goals i set that I met or did not meet. This was the first complete year with a kiddo and it’s interesting to see how that impacted my ability to scheudle and play games.
State of the Hobby:
For the most part, it seems 2023 was a decent year for Games Workshop, and GW adjacent games. We saw a deluge of AoS content, some major army refreshes, the release of multiple Primarchs (3 between 30K and 40K). AoS seems to be in a good spot, so I expect 4th ed to be more of a tweak next year.
For 40k we saw the release of 10th edition which I have yet to play. IT sounds like the balance issues are being slowly ironed out but I imagine one of the codexes released next year will upset the apple cart again.
30K is coming along well, the FAQ was a nice surprise, even if they didn’t fix every issue. I haven’t played Legions Imperialis yet but I hear good things. This next year will be huge, with the upcoming release of the Old World!
Really the main lingering issue is the GW doesn’t seem able to keep up with supply, or is cutting local distributors out of product. We still seem to be trapped in a cycle of “get it on Pre-Order or not at all”.
Personal Progress in 2023:
This was a big year for me as I definitely focused more on my freelance writing. I have added some new types of articles (the quizzes are fun to make even if I occasionally screw them up, in my defense WordPress does not play well with Google Forms and I can’t make changes once it is published).
As mentioned earlier, this was the first full year with a kiddo, and my fall was insane putting a heavy damper on my ability to play any games. The spring will be busy, but should allow more free time so expect more updates from the AoS narrative campaign. I also expect to get back to running Apoc games at our local club (the Fabricator’s Forge in Pittsburgh).
I was able to get a few new armies this year (thanks to the extra writing funds) and I have been impressed with how much fun the Hedonites of Slaanesh army has been to use. I still think AoS isn’t a very serious game, and thus it really feels more engaging as a narrative game than competitive. I have been exploring the Path to Glory system and it has a few holes, but overall is a fun counterpart to 40k’s crusade system.
I only really went to one event this year which was NOVA. I really enjoyed the classes but both the AoS doubles and Horus Heresy doubles were lackluster. If I go back next year I will likely look for the AOS narrative or 40k narrative events as they seem to suit me better. However, I anticipate some other life changes may prevent me from attending.
Thoughts on 2024:
I think that 2024 will be defined by the success or failure of the Old World and the 4th edition of AoS. For the Old World there are almost 10 years of expectations riding on it. The community is re-emerging but has also been fractured across a hundred fan or older editions. The only guarantee is that a number of them won’t like it and will loudly complain. However I feel that the rules look solid, and this may be the best edition yet! I am nervously excited and am eager to get my hands on some of those old sculpts!
I think a bigger question is how will GW support and stock all of these games. It seems they can barely keep the current 40k and AOS armies supplied. With the new releases coming, will they trim older units from more 40k armies? Produce less and make scalping more attractive? I think that is the biggest unknown facing GW fans in this coming year.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
