Shoutout to spearhead as a fun, manageable way to get me to finally learn the basics of AoS. Infinity Essentials looks fantastic as an onramp. Trench Crusade ironically got me to pick up some 40k boxes, and think about formats to bring gaunt's ghosts style missions vs chaos to the table.
Happy New Year Ash! I enjoyed your top 3s, I picked up Void Admiral last week and am excited to get started with that this year. I moved house in 2024 which put a dent in my actual hobby time but I'm right back in the swing of things, so looking forward to painting and playing a bunch of stuff in 2025!
Thanks for a fun, but also thought-provoking, end to the year. Listening to your thoughts on the slide into dystopia we are living in has definitely been a highlight of my weeks in what was another tough year at this end as for so many others. I hope you feel better soon and can stay sane in 2025! In terms of top threes: games actually played: Chain of Command continues as my favourite, especially when played in pint size campaigns; Gangs of Rome was a helluva lot of fun, and Test of Honour was good to brush off. Games I am looking forward to: Void admiral (especially if I can make it work for my collection of Babylon 5 ships!), Midgard and Port Royal are all high on my to play list (as well as BT Aces when it drops).
Sorry to miss the last one of the year. Glad you and your family are recovered. TY for all the content and coverage of games I would miss out on like. Void Admiral etc. Looking forward to GMG 2025.
My top 3 comic runs of 2024 - Not all of which came out in 2024, but I read them this year. - tie #3 Ultimate Spider-Man by Johnathan Hickman What if someone stopped that radioactive spider and Peter Parker never became Spider-Man? This is the premise for this comic and it is quite something. - tie #3 Captain America by J. Michael Straczynski Hopeful, thoughtful. There is an excellent parallel of Steve living in NY in the 1940's and modern Cap. It's very well done. #2 Wonder Woman by Tom King Another thoughtful and *relevant* comic. King is in top form with it. #1 The Ultimates by Deniz Camp I loved this comic because it was excellent. But also a surprise. I was not sure what it would be. And it turned out to be another thoughtful comic with great ideas.
Trench Crusade has more or less single-handedly revived any desire I had to hobby whatsoever over the past year. With 10e dropping I had zero want to do anything 40k related and I almost cashed out entirely with miniatures until I got into TC. Now I've played upwards of 30 games, give or take, one full campaign and a bunch of one-offs. Tuomas, Mike, James, etc, all say they want to keep going but they've also made it very clear that they'll only do so as long as the artist and Tuomas have any desire to keep going. I fall in with your line of thinking though, it needs to go to a certain point and just end. Once it becomes a brand, it's dead. With today's day and age we daily see people in the Discord utterly unable to separate history from fiction which leads to plenty of arguments that'll only get worse in time as more factions get added and it rises on popularity. Let it be this fun and horrifically grim setting/game built from the ground up for people who are yearning for a setting like it. I feel like you rarely see settings and creators of these settings willing to stick to their guns and for Trench Crusade to remain relevant in time, which I genuinely believe it can, it *has* to given how art-driven the entire system, setting, game, everything is. I absolutely love the game for what it is, but there will eventually come a time when a decision is made on where to take it past a certain point and once the team/game reaches that I'll be extremely curious to see where they take it. Backing off the gas pedal now will kill off any hype for it, but taking it in directions that the fan base doesn't want will also kill it. All this said, Tuomas and Mike seem like extremely cordial people. They're both active on the Discord and willing to answer just about any question tossed at them. Their connectivity to their fans is largely one of the reasons I got hooked into TC. Being able to direct message (at least for the time being) the actual creator of the game system to get his take on things is reminiscent of how people would write letters to Gary Gygax for his views on Dungeons and Dragons back in the day. It's a lot more inviting than the anonymous, uncaring billion dollar company we all know and love. I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone curious to check it out. It 's been revitalizing for my playgroup top to bottom. Edit; Also, based off your videos I convinced my girlfriend to try Rangers of Shadowdeep with me. It's been a blast! Loving it so far.
I’m thinking that The Last War was pretty cool- now I am not going to pick up the box by GW but might get the one from Corvus beli. Your reasoning makes sense.
Games - I already have your #2 and #3. I've looked at #1 several times, but the cost - mostly on account of shipping to Australia - has always put me off. Some day....
I'm suprised Halo: Flashpoint didn't make the top 3 for boxed games. During your review for the game you said it passed the Christmas day test with flying colors.
It’s a great box! The two things that kept it off the list were the fact that’s it’s a license, meaning it doesn’t have that far to go, and that the component quality just isn’t as high as in these other three!
I see LoW as cynical chasing add revenue. Like a sports talk radio host making controversial statements just to mine reactions. So while it was organically born on your channel, they are openly mining that. There is an element of pulling back the curtain and sharing the pov of the retail store owner. But the amount or Trench Crusade banter was forced for a purpose. There is enough anti-GW sentiment out there, that their discussions are pretty much click bait central.
Thank you so much for the recognition!
Timestamps!
0:29 - Weekly Recap
4:24 - Overview of format
*Top 3 Games of 2024*
4:55 - Trench Crusade
8:51 - Void Admiral
12:11 - Don't Look Back
16:42 - Checking in with Chat
*Top 3 Box(ed Games) of 2024*
29:35 - Kill Team: Starter Set
33:56 - Infinity Essentials
37:37 - HeroQuest First Light
40:53 - Back to Chat
*Top 3 Bands (technically albums) of 2024*
48:27 - Closers (Closers)
49:36 - Rite Here Rite Now (Ghost)
51:00 - Everybody Eats (Stress Eater/Kool Keith & CZARFACE)
52:13 - Talking about vinyl
*Top 3 Movies of 2024*
53:50 - Long Legs
54:53 - The Substance
55:48 - Cuckoo
57:23 - Reasoning behind the list(s)
1:01:07 - Week Ahead
1:02:34 - Optimism for 2025
Happy New Year, Ash, and every fan of the wonderful GMG.
Shoutout to spearhead as a fun, manageable way to get me to finally learn the basics of AoS. Infinity Essentials looks fantastic as an onramp. Trench Crusade ironically got me to pick up some 40k boxes, and think about formats to bring gaunt's ghosts style missions vs chaos to the table.
Happy New Year Ash! I enjoyed your top 3s, I picked up Void Admiral last week and am excited to get started with that this year. I moved house in 2024 which put a dent in my actual hobby time but I'm right back in the swing of things, so looking forward to painting and playing a bunch of stuff in 2025!
Awesome to see you highlight DLB and BSS! The game and company are awesome, and have been my favorite non-GW game for a long while now.
Thanks for all the amazing recommendations Ash, here’s to another year
Thanks Ash for bringing some joy to this otherwise thoroughly shitty year. I hope you and yours are on the mend. Here's to a better one next year.
28:19. Yes! i love it when you still do a a good 40k BR. they always seem to do well and and always look really good.
Honorable mention for Fallout Factions. Your excellent review encouraged me to pull the trigger on it.
Thanks for a fun, but also thought-provoking, end to the year. Listening to your thoughts on the slide into dystopia we are living in has definitely been a highlight of my weeks in what was another tough year at this end as for so many others. I hope you feel better soon and can stay sane in 2025!
In terms of top threes: games actually played: Chain of Command continues as my favourite, especially when played in pint size campaigns; Gangs of Rome was a helluva lot of fun, and Test of Honour was good to brush off.
Games I am looking forward to: Void admiral (especially if I can make it work for my collection of Babylon 5 ships!), Midgard and Port Royal are all high on my to play list (as well as BT Aces when it drops).
Sorry to miss the last one of the year. Glad you and your family are recovered. TY for all the content and coverage of games I would miss out on like. Void Admiral etc. Looking forward to GMG 2025.
Adding top 3 things
Fallout TV show
Space Marine 2 video game
Spearhead
My wife got me DLB for my birthday in November. I'm pumped. Currently primed up the cast from Scream!
All the best, Ash. I hope you and your family have a happy and healthy new year.
Away with the fam so couldn't catch this live. Excellent lists.. Great year Ash.. Here's to 2025
I just bought these 3 starter sets as xmas present to myself. So.
3 Bolt Action Introductory Set
2. Zone Wars
1. Halo Flashpoint Recon Edition
My top 3 comic runs of 2024 - Not all of which came out in 2024, but I read them this year.
- tie #3 Ultimate Spider-Man by Johnathan Hickman
What if someone stopped that radioactive spider and Peter Parker never became Spider-Man? This is the premise for this comic and it is quite something.
- tie #3 Captain America by J. Michael Straczynski
Hopeful, thoughtful. There is an excellent parallel of Steve living in NY in the 1940's and modern Cap. It's very well done.
#2 Wonder Woman by Tom King
Another thoughtful and *relevant* comic. King is in top form with it.
#1 The Ultimates by Deniz Camp
I loved this comic because it was excellent. But also a surprise. I was not sure what it would be. And it turned out to be another thoughtful comic with great ideas.
Trench Crusade has more or less single-handedly revived any desire I had to hobby whatsoever over the past year. With 10e dropping I had zero want to do anything 40k related and I almost cashed out entirely with miniatures until I got into TC. Now I've played upwards of 30 games, give or take, one full campaign and a bunch of one-offs.
Tuomas, Mike, James, etc, all say they want to keep going but they've also made it very clear that they'll only do so as long as the artist and Tuomas have any desire to keep going. I fall in with your line of thinking though, it needs to go to a certain point and just end. Once it becomes a brand, it's dead. With today's day and age we daily see people in the Discord utterly unable to separate history from fiction which leads to plenty of arguments that'll only get worse in time as more factions get added and it rises on popularity. Let it be this fun and horrifically grim setting/game built from the ground up for people who are yearning for a setting like it. I feel like you rarely see settings and creators of these settings willing to stick to their guns and for Trench Crusade to remain relevant in time, which I genuinely believe it can, it *has* to given how art-driven the entire system, setting, game, everything is.
I absolutely love the game for what it is, but there will eventually come a time when a decision is made on where to take it past a certain point and once the team/game reaches that I'll be extremely curious to see where they take it. Backing off the gas pedal now will kill off any hype for it, but taking it in directions that the fan base doesn't want will also kill it.
All this said, Tuomas and Mike seem like extremely cordial people. They're both active on the Discord and willing to answer just about any question tossed at them. Their connectivity to their fans is largely one of the reasons I got hooked into TC. Being able to direct message (at least for the time being) the actual creator of the game system to get his take on things is reminiscent of how people would write letters to Gary Gygax for his views on Dungeons and Dragons back in the day. It's a lot more inviting than the anonymous, uncaring billion dollar company we all know and love.
I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone curious to check it out. It 's been revitalizing for my playgroup top to bottom.
Edit; Also, based off your videos I convinced my girlfriend to try Rangers of Shadowdeep with me. It's been a blast! Loving it so far.
I’m thinking that The Last War was pretty cool- now I am not going to pick up the box by GW but might get the one from Corvus beli. Your reasoning makes sense.
Here's to a chilled 2025 for us all.
Games - I already have your #2 and #3. I've looked at #1 several times, but the cost - mostly on account of shipping to Australia - has always put me off. Some day....
Didn't have much time for gaming this year so my top three (in no particular order) are:
Snowshoeing
Sausage
Friends & family
N5! N5! N5!
If anyone wants an album that's a little different may I suggest A Tergo Lupi's "Hide". If you need a hook go straight to Wind Kompt.
When will we see the top 3 of the top 3’s that you have done. Need a bracket maybe in July lol
19:12 how does Void Admiral compare to Battlefleet gothic?
I'm suprised Halo: Flashpoint didn't make the top 3 for boxed games. During your review for the game you said it passed the Christmas day test with flying colors.
It’s a great box! The two things that kept it off the list were the fact that’s it’s a license, meaning it doesn’t have that far to go, and that the component quality just isn’t as high as in these other three!
Don’t look back is an amazing game 🔪
I see LoW as cynical chasing add revenue. Like a sports talk radio host making controversial statements just to mine reactions.
So while it was organically born on your channel, they are openly mining that.
There is an element of pulling back the curtain and sharing the pov of the retail store owner. But the amount or Trench Crusade banter was forced for a purpose.
There is enough anti-GW sentiment out there, that their discussions are pretty much click bait central.