Year in Review for 2025

It is that time of year again, and once again, with so much else going on these days, I almost missed the annual check-in. For 2025, we kept the goals rather modest:

1. Play 36 Games, and Write 36 Reports. Crushed it! We needed to hit 142 games by the end of the year, and even with some slow spots, we hit that number in August with room to spare, ending up with 157 3rd Edition games, plus a handful of 4th Edition ones we're not counting just yet. 
2. Attend two tournaments. Achieved! We knocked one event off in January with the Northwoods GT, and then one in November with the smaller Northwoods Melee. That was about all we can manage this year though.
3. Run a mega battle. Failed! I was hoping to line something up with the Brian formerly known as Milwaukee Brian over the summer, as he and I seemed quite simpatico on the spirit of such of game, with my intent being just celebrating models and collections and tossing things on the table regardless of effectiveness. Now he is Santa Fe Brian, and this is probably dead in the water, as I don't think there is much interest in a big battle, and what there is seems geared more towards power-gaming than a celebration of hobbying efforts.

Overall, we did pretty good, especially in the reporting department. While getting in multiple games at shop meetups wasn't always possible, we had enough meetups going on that we were able to surpass this goal yet again this year, playing and learning a lot throughout the year, especially with the Herd.

The other go goals are what they are. I attended what I could, but Kings of War Wisconsin did not do a doubles tournament in 2025, Dragonfall didn't have an event, Adepticon wasn't for me, and I didn't have the funds or time to travel at all.

Hobbying-wise, I again skimped on an explicit goal as I was happy with my collections. Looking back on the post history though, I still hobbied up a surprising number of things! The biggest recipients of stuff in 2025 were the Abyssals, with my catching up on their refresh from late 2024, but every army got a few things this year, and I got games in with all of them, though the Herd continued to rack up a lot of table-time again this year.

On a more personal detour, I had added cat pictures to many of the previous updates. However, our very elderly cat Athena passed in the spring. It was not unexpected, but still more sudden than we'd have liked. My wife had her for ~20 years, with me around for the last 8 or so. Athena was supremely confident, always comfy and pampered, and had the loudest purrs I've ever heard. It was nice to be the cause of those purrs from time to time, and she is still missed. 

Later in the summer, our house was too quiet, and we foolishly adopted two new cats from separate fosters/shelters, both about 1 year old. The tuxedo is Junji and the all-black one is Juan. I did not grow up with pets, and in my limited experience with them, I had come to understand that female cats are named after goddesses and male cats are named after food items. It's weird having cats with people names, but we all seem to be taking it in stride and adjusting fine. 

Going into 2026, the elephant in the room for the blog is 4th Edition. The game largely plays the same, but army construction has drastically changed, and a lot of units and armies have been culled or otherwise consolidated. The blog has addressed the changes in a haphazard and scatter-brained approach, and that's the plan going forward! We have a lot to test and learn and we'll address things as they pop up, as there is just too much to cover in a succinct and organized manner.

We're going to be a little wishy-washy for goals, and with 4E launching in December, have this month as our jumping off point for our 2026 goals. 

1. Run 6 Demo Events. I became a Pathfinder for Kings of War back in August, though that was immediately pushed into limbo given the impending new edition. I am obligated to run demo days periodically throughout the year, and I believe Mantic was upping those responsibilities up from once a quarter to every two months, though the coordinator for the program seems reasonable. The short of this is goal is that I will strive to meet these new Pathfinding obligations.
2. Play 39 games of 4th Edition and write 39 reports. We actually broke an average of 4 games a month for 2025, but with the new Pathfinder duties and deciding not to report on any of those demo games to better the new player experience... we'll keep this at a reasonable 39 games from December 2025 through December 2026.
3. Attend two Tournaments. The small tournaments over the last few years have been fun, though the hyper-competitiveness nearing the top tables has dampened my enthusiasm, and we'll keep to more local events still. Two seems doable this year.

There we have it! The metrics say we had a successful 2025! We'll keep the goals modest again and see what 2026 and 4th Edition have in store for us! Cheers.