The traditional 'look back in anguish' post, or how well did I stick to my goals, and what new surprised me.
So, firstly, last year's goals.
Trident Realm of Neritica. This was going to be my big new army, but it hasn't happened. I have painted several minis for it, mostly in the guise of test minis to see what paint schemes I liked (and felt would last over many minis). I'll discuss this properly in its own post, but one of the main problems is I haven't been truly happy with anything I've done for them. Part of this is the basing, as I have had several goes, and different ideas, on how to base them, and nothing has looked right. I have a mental image of what I want, and it isn't matching what I do.
Vanguard proved to be harder to get people interested than I hoped. I've run intro games for a few people and they mostly like the game, however I've yet to progress beyond this stage, and that has fed back into the painting, or rather lack of it. Still, I have sufficient dwarves, undead, orcs and goblins for small games and I hope to take it further soon.
The dungeon tiles I hoped to make didn't materialise, though this was due more to not needing them. I did make some more Heroic Maps floor tiles in the same style as the ones I made a while ago for the Carnifex city. I even experimented with making larger tiles using foam board, but with unfortunate results (the foam board warped). I also made a set of sewer tiles, so I guess I sort of covered that goal in a roundabout way.
The additional goal of generally painting more for D&D has certainly been met (or, given the amount of unpainted minis, I might have a way to go yet).
The Kings of War demo armies project got a bit further forward, with the addition of a troop of wraiths for the Undead. However, we have a new edition of the game, so I need to work out what the demo armies will be now. I'm also not convinced these forces make the best demonstration. Certain features such as the need to use Surge for the Undead, make them more complicated than is necessary for a beginning player. I might rethink this project, perhaps based around Kingdoms of Men and Orcs (as worked well here). I'll certainly keep what I've done so far though.
A castle; nope. Well I did flag it as a long term project, and there has been no call for siege games amongst my gaming buddies.
Minis for Dungeon Saga and Star Saga; well I've started on the Star Saga, and got quite a bit of progress done (you can see it here). Dungeon Saga has received less attention, but then, we've been playing Star Saga, not Dungeon Saga. Here is a group shot of the painted minis;
One table top game a month; I definitely managed this. Some got written up as full battle reports (usually tagged AAR) and I experimented with a new way, lots of photographs and just a brief description. Quite a few games, especially the recent run of Star Saga, got no mention at all, but were great fun none-the-less.
2018 saw the end of the long running D&D 4th edition campaign, and I started a new campaign using 5th edition for the Thursday night group (one crossover from the Monday night group). These are gamers who played through the Lost Mine of Phandelver starter set in 2018.
The new campaign is set in Teramarr, a world of my own devising. So far it seems to have gone well, we broke for Christmas in the middle of an extended encounter, so it will be good to get back to this soon.
The new D&D campaign has fed quite a bit of painting. A full party of adventurers (apart from the halfling ranger as his player provided that) and quite a few monsters, most recently a selection of cultists.
Wargaming-wise I've added quite a bit to my League of Rhordia in 15mm. This led to a series of battles against Merlin's Herd army, great fun. Along with the expanded League, I crafted a set of appropriate terrain.
I also added one unit to my 28mm Kingdoms of Men, formerly Warhammer Empire. With the new Uncharted Empires I am considering how to use these, but more on that in 2020.
With the announcement of Kings of War third edition, and the realisation that I'd have to wait for both Kingdoms of Men and League of Rhordia, I decided I needed a new 15mm army that would be in the rulebook. Check this post to see how I decided on Ogres. The army currently consists of the following;
So, firstly, last year's goals.
Trident Realm of Neritica. This was going to be my big new army, but it hasn't happened. I have painted several minis for it, mostly in the guise of test minis to see what paint schemes I liked (and felt would last over many minis). I'll discuss this properly in its own post, but one of the main problems is I haven't been truly happy with anything I've done for them. Part of this is the basing, as I have had several goes, and different ideas, on how to base them, and nothing has looked right. I have a mental image of what I want, and it isn't matching what I do.
Vanguard proved to be harder to get people interested than I hoped. I've run intro games for a few people and they mostly like the game, however I've yet to progress beyond this stage, and that has fed back into the painting, or rather lack of it. Still, I have sufficient dwarves, undead, orcs and goblins for small games and I hope to take it further soon.
The dungeon tiles I hoped to make didn't materialise, though this was due more to not needing them. I did make some more Heroic Maps floor tiles in the same style as the ones I made a while ago for the Carnifex city. I even experimented with making larger tiles using foam board, but with unfortunate results (the foam board warped). I also made a set of sewer tiles, so I guess I sort of covered that goal in a roundabout way.
The additional goal of generally painting more for D&D has certainly been met (or, given the amount of unpainted minis, I might have a way to go yet).
The Kings of War demo armies project got a bit further forward, with the addition of a troop of wraiths for the Undead. However, we have a new edition of the game, so I need to work out what the demo armies will be now. I'm also not convinced these forces make the best demonstration. Certain features such as the need to use Surge for the Undead, make them more complicated than is necessary for a beginning player. I might rethink this project, perhaps based around Kingdoms of Men and Orcs (as worked well here). I'll certainly keep what I've done so far though.
A castle; nope. Well I did flag it as a long term project, and there has been no call for siege games amongst my gaming buddies.
Minis for Dungeon Saga and Star Saga; well I've started on the Star Saga, and got quite a bit of progress done (you can see it here). Dungeon Saga has received less attention, but then, we've been playing Star Saga, not Dungeon Saga. Here is a group shot of the painted minis;
One table top game a month; I definitely managed this. Some got written up as full battle reports (usually tagged AAR) and I experimented with a new way, lots of photographs and just a brief description. Quite a few games, especially the recent run of Star Saga, got no mention at all, but were great fun none-the-less.
2018 saw the end of the long running D&D 4th edition campaign, and I started a new campaign using 5th edition for the Thursday night group (one crossover from the Monday night group). These are gamers who played through the Lost Mine of Phandelver starter set in 2018.
The new campaign is set in Teramarr, a world of my own devising. So far it seems to have gone well, we broke for Christmas in the middle of an extended encounter, so it will be good to get back to this soon.
The new D&D campaign has fed quite a bit of painting. A full party of adventurers (apart from the halfling ranger as his player provided that) and quite a few monsters, most recently a selection of cultists.
Wargaming-wise I've added quite a bit to my League of Rhordia in 15mm. This led to a series of battles against Merlin's Herd army, great fun. Along with the expanded League, I crafted a set of appropriate terrain.
I also added one unit to my 28mm Kingdoms of Men, formerly Warhammer Empire. With the new Uncharted Empires I am considering how to use these, but more on that in 2020.
With the announcement of Kings of War third edition, and the realisation that I'd have to wait for both Kingdoms of Men and League of Rhordia, I decided I needed a new 15mm army that would be in the rulebook. Check this post to see how I decided on Ogres. The army currently consists of the following;
Of course, this means more battles with Merlin, this time against his goblins. We hope to start a more structured campaign next year.
That pretty much covers what I managed to achieve in 2019. I'll be back with a post covering my plans for 2020 soon.
Looks like a busy year and a lot of fun too.
ReplyDeleteIt was and it was. I'm looking forward to 2020.
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