My tradition of ending a month with a “hobby log” is replaced with a “Year end review” this time.

All things considered, 2022 has been a very good year for cowabunga. We had some ups and downs, but despite losing the whole following due to a botched change of address, we are back on track.

Age of Sigmar was a new game here, and a Nigthhaunt army was painted up from scratch in a Skeletor theme. I brought it to a tournament and actually managed to win a few games.

40k 2nd edition was also a big part of my painting efforts. It doesn’t quite translate into gaming unlike Warhammer Fantasy and Age of Sigmar. This is a simple consquence of the local scene.

Warhammer Fantasy continued to be my most time consuming hobby. It was here I spent the most of my time gaming, as well as painting (but not actually finishing…).

I ran two WFB events (one in April and one in November) and this was a joy too.

My goals for were not met all of them, but some actually were! (2021 review). Among others I finished a Tyranid army for 40k 2nd ed and played a game a week on average. My Bolt Action figures never got out of the wrapping since I can’t find anyone to game with… and without that, I don’t want to spend the time on it.

The list of games I had in my binoculars did not match what I ended up playing. But in the end it all comes down to me adapting to my surroundings.

The cowabunga page

This page was active through most of the year, and I made a total of 44 posts. I dialed back my efforts on Facebook as I find the “nay-sayers” and negative comments on stuff kill my enthusiasm. The energy barrier for that sort of thing seems to be lower on Facebook. I am a bit all over, so irrespective of what I post some one will be “hey that is not the normal brew!”.

Other than that, I am growing exceedingly tired of the wordpress platform and the lack of flexibility it offers. For instance I can’t make a search function. I am considering my options on that, but so far attempts to export the site have not worked. I hope maybe in 2023 to get in contact with someone who knows how to do web pages and arrange something. I noticed also that Google downgrades wordpress pages in searches, which again means that outside of the traffic from Facebook this site is nearly dead. That begs the question: What do I want it to be? It is primarily meant for myself as an archive… but I have more or less stopped taking pictures of stuff and posting about that, so I guess that is something to think about?

Time distribution

Our resident reporter, Dr. The Viking, took part in 56 games this year. The ambition was 1 game per week (on average) and this ambition has been met in full. A breakdown of the distribution can be seen in Figure 1 below.

Financials

There was not a set goal for expenditures this year. A grand total of €/$2000 was spent, over the course of the year. The three largest expense categories were Age of Sigmar, Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Supplies (covering paint, rule books and so on) as can be seen in Figure 3. The financial director has urged that in 2023 there will be a budget of around €/$1000. The company is not strained by the expenses, but it simply does not make sense to invest in more stock at the moment since warehouse capacity is already limited.

An alleviating factor in the scheme, is that the games that saw the heaviest investments also saw the most gaming. Except for Horus Heresy.

Painting vs buying

A grand total of 247 figures were painted while 413 were bought. In this equation a vehicle is equated to 1 and so is an infantry figure. In 2023 a tallying system for vehicles/larger models might be worth implementing. Also not counted in these numbers are figures that were rebased from one system to another, even if it is a considerable amount of work.

The year closes out at -166 in P/B and all games are in the negative. A recent purchase of a couple of knightly units puts Warhammer Fantasy Battle at -113 making it account for the majority of the difference.

Outlook

Things are looking good, and it is likely that 2023 will give more of the same.

I want to get back to posting images of my painted and finished stuff. Throughout 2022 I hardly managed to set up any figures for photography. I need to get a proper lighting box for that, because currently what kills it for me is the utter shit photos I get.

I want to get back to making quality battle reports, the way I want to read them myself. I started out pretty good with some almost White Dwarf style reports, but then started slacking. Again the photos are a big part of this.

I also want to finish at least 3 armies this year. But then I would like to dial it down and paint random figures for no project in particular, but rather just for existing stuff.

I also want to host a Warhammer Fantasy army painting challenge. I know there are quite a few out there already. Mine will centre on Warhammer Renaissance though, as this is what I play my self. I am probably going to make it 4th/5th/WarRen and am hoping to gather at least 10 other people to join.

So without further ado, here are my resolutions for 2023:

Thanks for following my hobby efforts here on cowabunga journal! Remember – the internet is nice, but nothing beats meeting up out there. That is something this hobby has over a lot of others today.

All the best!

Dr. The Viking