Aspirations for 2021

     With everything changing on the fly these days, I will make these more loose goals? hopes? DREAMS!? then anything set in stone. I will be most likely focusing on a lot of painting throughout the year, getting ready for the days to come where Prairie Game Expo or Toon Con are a live event where we can gather safely and enjoy the company of like minded individuals.

    SO... what can I do to work towards this goal? This year is going to be about preparing, preparing the models, preparing the terrain, and preparing the knowledge.

Preparing the Models

    The great temptress has whispered in my ears her sweet nothings, the barbed tongue tickled on the way out. I have started painting some Slaanesh Seekers to kick off SLAANUARY! Just like the god(dess) of excess I will strive to paint all my debaucherous hedonites of She Who Thirsts. This is the list so far.....

Leader - The Masque

            - Bladebringer (got it used, might be a seeker Chariot, I'll need to check this)

            - Exalted Greater Daemon of Slaanesh

Battleline - 10 Daemonettes

Other - 3 Fiends

          - 10 Seekers (maybe more if I can't build Bladebringer)

But...... I did order a Shadow and Pain box off of Meeple Mart.... which includes a Lord of Pain, 10 more daemonettes, Hellflayer (or one of the other chariots of deadly blades), 10 Hellstriders. This whole Slaanuary is getting a wee bit out of hand already and as much as I would like to throw caution (and common sense) to the wind, embracing my obsessive tendencies, I might start with the basics for the moment. Which will look something like this. 

Jon's less crazy plan

Leader - The Masque

             - Bladebringer

Battleline - 2 groups of 10 daemonettes

Other - Fiends

           - 10 Seekers (maybe 5 seekers, 5 hellstriders)

    This will give me enough to field close to a 1k army of Slaanesh or add in allies into Age of Sigmar, or a Warcry Warband or or or a Warhammer 40k army! This is the best part of being a worshipper of Chaos! mwhahaha Oh! I guess I should also throw in the Direchasm's Dread Pageant, which might actually get bumped up in the painting queue as Rachel might be interested in playing Underworlds sooner then later.Also side note, I don't think I am fast enough to paint all this in Slaanuary, so it might bleed over to Slaanbruary or Marnesh? 

    At least that's the "plan", who knows maybe I will get fixated on smaller games like Warcry or Necromunda?

Preparing the Terrain

    A good blog needs battlefields that will dazzle and impress their readers, several thousands of dollars worth of plastic gothic architecture that will make my wallet weep for the length of the pandemic. Well, not quite, I do have a Corpsewrack Mausoleum that needs finishing and some Sector Imperialis ruins that are mostly finished. From work, I get several bottles of various sizes, great for DIY projects for 40k terrain. These projects might get fitted in between painting up miniatures (probably of the slaanesh variety.) I hope to be able to fill up a table of terrain, 40k and AOS, maybe find a gaming mat in the future.

Preparing the Knowledge

Being able to teach others to play games is an essential part of the hobby, especially with a partner that doesn't like to take short cuts. We will look it up later doesn't usually fly with Rachel. This year I will be reading up on board game and tabletop games to cement my knowledge in the hobby. This will probably include learning games like Rangers of Shadowdeep, a cooperative fantasy skirmish game that is miniature agnostic for when lockdown gets tight. Probably use Rachel's mice, once they are based, for a warband. Ronin/ Dragon Rampart, mostly Ronin as Rachel has some beautiful Test of Honor lady Samurai that we picked up a few years ago in Calgary. I haven't played either, it's much easier to BUY more rules then to actually learn ones you already have. I would also like to keep up with Necromunda, as I didn't know about the Book of Perils adding in Venators, basically the ability to add a bounty hunter gang.

I would also like to get more organized on this blog, updating painting/purchasing, keeping track of games that type of stuff. I started to use Board Game Geek for keeping track of the two games Rachel and I played. We have a hard time moving games along, one being Dominion. Rachel wanted to play it on January 1st and we enjoyed it, but my thought was that we have several other deck building games that add so much then vanilla Dominion. Star Realms and Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle add in cooperative game play with the former extending it's gameplay with solo play as well. Both of which we play more then Dominion. We also played Power Grid for the first time, definitely a game made in the 2000s, more monopoly inspired money management type games.

    But I digress, with lockdown, board game play might just be Rachel and I. However, when things open up, Rachel really wants to start a Scythe: Rise of Fenris Campaign, this would be up to 5 players, the same players for each session. For Christmas, Rachel was gifted  Root: The Underworld Expansion from my brother, Shawn. This adds an additional 2 players to the base game's 4 players. Look forward to seeing that on the table, covid willing. Memoir 44 might also make an appearance in the future, as you can see, I am not really putting a fixed value on what I play this year. We will see what April brings.....

    Speaking of April, things will be getting a bit more busy for the two of us in April. As that's when Rachel is due to have our baby girl. Yes, I have kept the biggest and best kept secret for last. We are excited and anxious about our new offspring, child? The Child? Grogu? If she ends up with green scaly skin that might become her name.

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Yes, time to prepare, lots of reading for this dad to be. On the work bench side of things, I should be wrapping up 1K of Slaves to Darkness... just need to find my gloss varnish on this desk somewhere....