Look back at 2019 and hobby goals for 2020

I've been meaning to post a wrap up to 2019 for a bit. Looking over what worked with it and what didn't. I think I'll try for more compass goals this year. Something that's interesting to guide me in a direction of hobby improvement but doesn't need to be a goal.

Let's take a look at what I thought I might get up to in 2019

- Try Malifaux - I have the minis, might as well give it a go.

- Paint up Blackstone Fortress - excited to get this game on the table and introduce some of my friends that don't play much tabletop games. The minis are really nice too.

- Play Test of Honour - A samurai skirmish game? Count me in! I have been looking at Mutant Chronicles - Mishma for awhile now, but figured it would be just another game to add to my ever growing pile. When my girlfriend and I were in Calgary, we went to Sentry Box and they had almost any game you could think of! We both picked up a box to play against each other. Might grab the starter box later this year too.

- Play more buy less - Last year I was a bit aimless with my purchasing, figuring I would eventually make this unit into a kill team or use that in D&D. It felt like I didn't appreciate what I already had (pile of shame pictures to follow later this month.) before moving to the next big purchase. With that said, I have the battleforce box of Slaves of Darkness and some Vostroyan Firstborn coming in. I have always wanted a small group of Firstborn, and with kill team, that's all I need! There is always one (or two) more things on the way, such is the hobby.

- Post more often on blog - If I have more games set up, I should have more interesting items to post on the blog. Win/ win right? Last year I didn't really have a goal with the blog, just a place to throw up some pictures, but I want to make it into a journal, with updates to projects and to help keep the motivation high.

So, definitely not 5/5. Think I forgot about my blog for most of the year. However I did get more games in and participated in two tourneys!

I'd say I did two out of the five.

I completed all of the models on Blackstone fortress and have played about 5 games if it. It's great not having to play the same characters in the campaign. Not feeling the Ratlings tonight? Throw them in their stasis bag with all their upgrades until you do. Don't want to burn heretics with Pious Vorne? Then you must be an agent of Chaos that needs to be burnt!

Kill team made up of most of my games last year, I even got my brother, Shawn, into the game. First time for him to play Warhammer as far as I know. He has been taking his time with figuring out a paint scheme and assembling them, but we have had a few games.

The other half of games I played was full 40k with my high school buddy, Pilon, he doesn't have a first name I don't think.... We also tried apocalypse but we were playing the movement and shooting wrong.

The Vostroyan Firstborn, I have since painted in the #minivember and I have the Slaves to Darkness on the paint table right now.

Test of Honour has been discounted on Warlord Game's site, and the new starter set doesn't seem worth it with just rules and ONE figure. The first starter set came with a mix of Ashigaru Spearmen and bow men, to have 20 for each person. Might need to track down the first edition, it's a good deal for how you get in the box. I hope to get the Bandits and Brigands onto the paint table at some point during the year. Rachel seemed to be interested in doing the same with her's as well.

What's the plan for 2020?!

First off! My hobby room has become a bit of organized chaos. I'll be looking into getting better storage for all the models and terrain I have. Clean up bits and label storage for each faction. Definitely got a lot of work with this one.

I have two armies I'd like to paint up, Slaves to Darkness, I'd like to get the battleforce box finished by the end of the year. However, priority one would be to get 1000 points painted to start playing with them. Sisters of Battle would be the second army, maybe adding in Skitarii Kastelan Robots for apocalypse games.

With all the daemons I bought, I'd like to strip them and get them on the table. Maybe making a Kill Team of the metal khorne models now that there are rules for them. I'd also like to kitbash the Daemon Princes from that lot, make the old crouching metal one into a Slaanesh Prince. Really my main goal is to make sure the daemons get played and what isn't needed gets moved.

As always, I want to get more games in during the year. This year I'll be tracking how much I have been playing and of what. I joined the Escalation League at Comic Readers, which is a really good way to get games in. So far only 2 for the league, it has just moved point count to 1250, I had a practice game with my friend, Andrew, today. Gave me a good idea of how my list would work.

I'd like to get a group together to try out Warhammer 40k: Wrath and Glory, I have Dark Tides and Blessings Unheralded that I could try out. Looks like a fun system that is focused on creating a narrative instead of building up characters which is interesting for a RPG. The Age of Sigmar RPG also comes out this year (maybe Q1), could also look into that.

Improving my painting is also on my list, be it getting faster at painting, trying out new techniques or experimenting with new paints, washes or anything else.

Coming Soon!

I'll be posting my painted vs Purchased/ acquired list soon. I currently have a Chaos Chariot on the paint table so that should get finished soon.

Sylvaneth Vs. Hedonites of Slaanesh

After buying a large lot of Sylvaneth, Rachel has been asking to play skirmish more often. So on Sunday late afternoon we started, but didn't have time besides setting up.

Rachel's 252 renown Sylvaneth

The Sylvaneth had the Command Trait - Warsinger - +2 to charge while 12" from General. Deadly Harvest Spell - D3 Mortal Wounds for anyone 3" of caster and the Artefact - LifeWreath - on a 3+ roll in the hero phase, heal D3 wounds to each unit.

My 252 renown Hedonites

Decided to try out a slaanesh list after purchasing some older models. I don't have the battletome for them so I used what I found on the internet. I didn't notice at the beginning that Skirmish 2.0 actually has its own alligence abilities, command traits and artefacts. Makes sense as The Masque was a bit of a beast. 

Rachel's Kuronoth Hunt spots it's prey...D3 damage is no joke!

Monday morning we started to play. We setup up Hold the Centre from the skirmish battle plans. The middle was worth 2 Victory Points and the other two that were 10" away were 1 Victory point  Rachel won the first roll off. Moving carefully towards the objectives, I did warn her about how fast Slaanesh were. Her Kuronoth Hunter took out my Seeker that wasn't behind cover... Need to make the new player feel like she is winning to begin with right?

The Masque and a daemonette charge the Branchwych on their turn 1.

The Branchwych was able to get a Deadly Harvest off doing 3 wounds to her but The Masque has Inhuman Relexes, which is a Disgusting Resilience, but on a 4+ instead, which she blocked all three wounds. This is the second time my hero shrugged off this spell like it was nothing, the last time it was my Spoilpox Scrivener.

Silly Jon thought that The Masque was also a wizard, which is why I had a piece of fluff behind her as a reminder that I "cast" Mystic Shield. It didn't actually do anything but it was one of the mistakes I did in this game.

The fiend runs into combat, finding something more enticing to kill then citizens, racing passed the objective.

Once The Masque was in combat she was unstoppable. With the command Trait, Skintaker, it let her heal every time she killed something in combat. Combine that with her Staff of Mask ability, that let you choose to heal D3 wounds or add D3 attacks (already a base of 6) to her melee weapons in the Hero Phase. I also coupled that with an artefact, the Rapier of Ecstatic Conquest (probably don't want to touch that, not sure where that's been.) Which makes wounds of 6 deal an extra mortal wound.

Dryads weren't touched the whole game, they did kill off all the Daemonettes before they could attack.

Despite killing off most of her army, Rachel was able to hold more objective. Or at least went for more objectives, the Hedonites were a bit too excited by the thrill of combat to hold objectives. I did try to get one of the daemonettes on the center but was shot by a large tree boy. 

Rachel stomped my forces points wise, 12 to 1. What can I say? Slaanesh likes inflicting pain more then sitting on objectives, that's more of a nurgle thing. 

Coming Soon!

Before the match Rachel was looking at her models, wanting to paint more then play, so hopefully she will finish off some more figures for our next bout! 

I have ordered Gasland templates, hope to get a game or two in before my Birthday Party. Might paint/kitbash some models for my birthday once my Chaos Warriors are done.Was planning on renting a space but decided that going to Boards N Beans would be cheaper, kid friendly and had no cats for the many people that seemed to be allergic.