Welcome to 2026! The New Year was brought in with a new tradition (a momentary pause from hanging out on Discord with my friends) and now I’m back to work, both at the day job and on the hobby table. So let’s talk about the plans for that hobby table.
Also, by happy coincidence, this post is coming out on my birthday!
Looking Back
How did 2025 go? Well, the good news was that I managed to be pretty consistent with getting the blog’s main post, “The News Stand”, out each week. I hit 100 editions of the post and, aside from a small number of weeks where I had to delay/skip the post (including one where I had just been in a traffic collision less than an hour before I was supposed to start writing), I managed to get the article out with a level of detail I was happy with and covering a significant chunk of the space, charting it’s changes and keeping the folks updated. It’s responsible for a considerable amount of the views on the site, so I guess it’s doing well? It does also partially work to get some of my opinions out there – most of the time when I make comments about the Spectre Patreon not updating in The News Stand, we see an update the following day (which I’m sure is entirely coincidental the 5th time it happens).
However, I was also able to get out 30 other posts, a mixture of PAINT-REPs, Patreon updates, Old World updates and the ongoing adventures with trips to the Underhive. Honestly, I was surprised I managed to get that many out – one of the things I’m not always happy with is seeing how often the front page is just a taxi rack of The News Stand, so I was surprised to see I actually got posts out. This was doubly surprising because I have really felt that this year’s hobby output was not enough, with barely any models painted (the PAINT-REPs showed that wasn’t quite the case). However, I did manage several Patreon posts while covering the games I played (more below) did manage to get a sizable chunk of coverage. I did also attempt some generic bi-monthly hobby updates, which, once again, failed to continue – I feel like I just need to be more specific with my writing.
Finally, and I was honestly shocked, I managed to actually get a reasonable number of games on the board. I almost doubled the number of games I played over the previous year (34 vs 17). Part of this was down to playing several multi-game events (such as the Old World days and Necromunda) and also several smaller games (such as Halo Waypoint, where the sessions were usually a tutorial game followed by an active game). As I’ve said in the past, playing games is the reason I hobby, so getting stuff on the board is always positive. The only negative is that, honestly, there are 0 Ultramoderns on that list. As much as I’ve opened up my interests to other games (and become a much more rounded and happier gamer because of it), Ultramoderns are still the lifeblood and focus of the blog. I really missed not playing it this year, although I think part of that was not feeling ready to play due to wanting to redo my terrain and figures. Luckily, this is something I can fix.
As an aside, I wrote up a big post after Salute earlier in the year that covered some of my plans (after the hobby adrenaline rush that is Salute). It split my blog output into three parts – Personal Posts, Development Projects and Ultramodern News. The good news is that all three saw advancements this year – I managed to keep up to date with my hobby going ons, I advanced both the ChargeReal and Project Elements stuff in the background and finished off the year launching SPOT-REP to cover the industry. The only downside was not doing AS MUCH as I intended but sometimes the hobby stuff doesn’t come as easily.
Looking Forward
The first big news to look at in 2026 is how I do The News Stand. It’s a feature that I enjoy doing, and if I were to be a man whose life depends on following what the numbers say, it’s the reason this blog exists. However, last year it had some issues. Overall, releasing on a Tuesday was causing problems as the Tuesday to Tuesday cycle meant any weekend deals (such as around Black Friday) would be over before the next post came out. There is also the fact that Tuesday is a busy day for me, with little wiggle room around it – Monday is my hobby night with the Regular Opponents, Wednesday is often when I hang out with my sister and attempting to do the news on the weekend before is even worse. For this reason, I am shifting The News Stand to be released on Friday Evening GMT – this means I can usually catch any last minute sales before the weekend, and if for some reason I am busy, then it just comes out on the weekend. This should hopefully mean I can work through the post during the week, making me far less stressed about it at the last minute. It also opens up the time after Friday each week for releasing alternative versions of The News Stand for other platforms, but we’ll see about that as I try to make it work.
Next up, although I managed to get plenty of games last year, I missed out on doing much with Ultramodern Wargaming across all aspects (hobbying, playing and writing). This is changing this year as I’m aiming to do at least one big piece of Ultramodern content each month, in addition to whatever other project I’m working on at that time. This is just to keep things ticking over, as well as making sure I can keep up with Combat Octopus’s wonderful monthly releases.
Speaking of other projects, there are a few already on the go. January is going to be getting a platoon of British paratroopers ready for our big WW2 game in February, using the Empress Arnhem range. April is going to see the start of our next Necromunda campaign, and it’s going to be a change with us playing using the Ash Wastes. I’m still taking my Spyrer with Enforcer retinue, but I have a vehicle to print off and a Taurus Venator to paint up. Then there is the Project Elements plan, as I assemble a set of figures and terrain for my work-in-progress ruleset, which should also set me up for more Ultramodern games. I’m especially looking forward to this as many of them are being kitbashed from Combat Octopus’s releases, leading to a lot of fun when it comes to making the various types of figure I need.
In terms of Patreon content, the main focus is going to be getting the SPOTREPs category updated. Ideally, it should be quarterly big picture updates alongside rolling updates on the companies. I’m also aiming to have some more articles on Project Elements out to patrons soon, but I’m also very aware that I’m in the Catch-22 state – I need patrons to make locked content worthwhile, but I also need content to turn people into patrons. This is something I am working but nothing specific yet.
There is, however, one big storm cloud on its way that I need to mention that is going to put a wrench into all my plans. This year is going to be a major one for my professional career – we are reaching the final stages on a major project that has been years in the making. I usually try to keep my hobby career and my real career separate, but unfortunately, this year the professional career is going to win out. This means that there are going to be disruptions as we go through the year as I’ll either be working in the slots I’d usually hobby or be recovering from working. The last time we released a project was 2018/2019 and although I managed to continue writing through it, it was also the year that you can see the weekly projects and the sheer momentum die off as I was exhausted. This time I’m hoping it will be less brutal but I’m preparing for the worse. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up my posting all the way through.
That aside though, I am ready for the new year. There is a lot to do and a lot to work on, but I feel that last year was me starting to get back into my groove and this tear is a chance to nail the key parts of what I want to do. Now it’s just a case of getting to it!
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