Finally a free day: 2013 in Review

Wow the start of 2014 has been rough. I have been drunk, sick, working, sick, working, visiting family, sick, and out of town. All in the first 6 days of 2014.  But that is not important now, lets do a Year in Review for 2013.

At the start of 2013 I set up 10 goals (some with multiple parts and added a 11th which was my Total Painted Model count for the year) for myself to try to complete.  They were ambitious and while I did not complete all of them, they did push me much harder hobby wise this year than I have been in a while, and also allowed me to complete several armies  

Lets look at those 10 (11) goals one at a time and see how I did: (Green is complete, Yellow is incomplete but satisfactory, Red is a fail, and Blue is sold/incomplete-able)

2013 Goals Update!

I thought I would do a 2013 goal review now that we are halfway through the year.  You can see my goal status to the right of this article.  I keep that as up to date as I can.

To Sum up:

1. Dust Warfare -  I exceeded my goal for painting SSU and need 3 game to reach my playing goal.  No progress on Axis (though could change with new announced Wave 8 stuff today).  Sold my Allied Army in hopes of Vrill Aliens that were rumored for Gencon, not going to happen as it turns out.

2. 40K - Little to no progress here, I have paired down my collection to the point where I have a bunch of unpainted Chaos Marine stuff, my Howling Griffons, my 30K Project Death FW Army, and some misc stuff here and there.  To bad I didn't set this as just a GW army project as I am closing in on finishing up 1500pt of WFBs currently.

3. Warmachine/Hordes -  I am doing really well here.  I have just surpassed my painting goal for non-Warcasters/Warlocks this past weekend, I need two more Warcasters/Warlocks to reach my goal, and I have already played over double the number of games I originally targeted for the year.  Though not originally part of the goal structure, I have also painted 61pts and 1 warlock worth of Hordes models on Commission too.

4. Flames of War -  This one isn't going to be successful because as of the beginning of June I decide to sell off the rest of my FoW models since I had not played the game in over 2 years.

5. War & Conquest - I have made a good start on this project, but unfortunately WFB has knocked this project off my painting table for the foreseeable future.  W&C is getting played a bit at my LGS right now, but with out a painted army I haven't been up for playing.  At some point I want to put some time into building a 100 years war W&C army as my Saxon do not really fit time period wise with the other armies owned at the shop which are all from time periods before or after my Saxons.

6. Relic Knights - Unfortunately the release of the Relic Knights from kickstarter was delayed due to Manufacturing delays.  Hopefully we will see models this Fall.

7. Start Up To 4 New Games/Projects - I am currently at 3 new games/projects for this year, unfortunate they have all pretty much stalled out.  The first is a 15mm Fantasy game called Pride of Lions.  This was big at my LGS for a good while Winter/Spring.  I have a rule for myself, when a new game you are not 100% sold on starts up at the shop, wait 6 months and if it is still going strong, then get into it.  I was burned a few times back in 2010 and 2011 so have found this to be a good rule for me.  PoL reached the 6 month mark in March and I purchased an army but before I could get it built and painted PoL stopped being played in the shop.  Sigh.

The Second Project is 2 small 28mm Civil War armies, Union and Confederates (obviously), using perry plastic miniatures.  I did a lot of research and work on this project this spring, but it is currently on hiatus waiting on a gap in my painting queue to get painted up.

The 3rd project is 'In Her Majesties Name', a cool Victorian Steampunk game recently released by Osprey Publishing.  I'd say it is a bit early to say this game has stalled out as I see it more as a now and then kind of game, at least at my LGS.  I have one organization worth of models for it so far (the models are a mix of Spartan Legion & Incursion minis) and plan to get another one in the near future.  There is an organized Demo at a convention I am going to in the middle of July so hopefully this will generate some more desire to play.

8. Participate in 5 Tournaments or Paint Contests - Last year I fell short of my goal in this category, however this year I have already succeeded, playing in my 5th tournament at the beginning of June.  I am already schedule to participate in another Tournament this month, along with my first painting contest.  I think the big change from last year to this year is that I am no longer the Privateer Pressganger for my LGS, so I am able to play more this year as last year I would have been running the tournaments.

9. Reduce the Size of my Collection - I have already had great success this year, with over 1000 models/bases sold, traded, or given away this year.  I have also made over $1,200 in gift certificates at swap-meets this year to put back into my hobby endeavors.  The 3 big purchases I have made with that money this year are a Retribution army for Warmachine, a Circle army for Hordes, and my organization for 'In Her Majesties Name'.  I also have spent some of that money on WFB stuff.

10. Post 52 Blog posts over the course of the year -  I am falling behind on this one, with just 13 on the year so far (including this one).  I think I still have a shot of reaching my goal as I now am part of a blog/podcast group called the Beer Thralls.

11. Total Models painted this year - I set really high painting goals for myself this year and I quickly decided after posting my original list of 10 goals that I wanted to shoot for 1000 models painted this year.  Well I am doing pretty well so far with 492 models completed since January 1st.

More as I have it.

Relic Knights: Black Diamond

What is Black Diamond? A technologically advanced Mercenary Organization that will sell it's services to the highest bidder.  The only way to make sure your enemies don't hire Black Diamond is to hire them yourself and hope your enemies don't offer them more money.  The forces of Black Diamond are currently lead by One Shot, the female pilot of a large relic walker armed with a huge Sniper Rifle.  Watch out for her and the hordes of Black Diamond Corpsmen sure to be supporting her, their Concentrated Fire ability can take down event the toughest of targets.  They are supported by a M8-Blitz Auto Tank which is immune to psychic attacks and can pump out damage from it's cannon in a steady stream.

Relic Knights: The Noh Empire

Who are the Noh Empire?  Fearsome demonic extra dimensional raiders and conquerors seeking to pillage and enslave the entire universe.  The Noh use brute force, terror, and fearsome advances to quickly engage with the enemy and break their lines.  Kasaro To, the Demon upon the giant Mechanical Chinese Lion pictured above is the Relic Knight charged by his fearsome hydra god to lead the conquest into the known universe and conquer all in his path. Accompanied by Azi, his personal cypher that links him to the currents of Esper Magic that flow throughout the universe, Kasaro To leads the hordes of his Demonic followers to battle.

Mmmhmmm... Relic Cra... Knights

Hey guys, Jay here again and today I would like to talk about Relic Knights, a somewhat new anime themed Scifi Skirmish game beginning released fully next year from the makers of Super Dungeon Explore, Soda Pop Miniatures and Cool Mini or Not..

The reason I say it is a somewhat new game is that several of the models have been around for several years in resin and metal and their has been a basic set of rules kicking round since Gencon of 2011.  However this past Sunday saw the end of a month long Kick Starter initiative to bring the game to a wider audience with all new plastic minis and expanded and enhanced game play.  The Kick Starter raise just over 900K and allowed those who pledge to get in on the ground floor of a great new game at a fairly low price point.