A 2019 Retrospective - James' 2019 in review and goals for 2020

Well that went fast! 2019 is almost at a close and with it my first year of "real" hobbying - where I actually managed to build, paint and play with my models and not just continue to amass a collection of grey, meaningless plastic to sit on my shelves and make me feel guilty.

It feels customary that at the end of the year you spend some time looking back at what you've managed to achieve and what your plans are for the next year, so with that in mind here at the blog we've all been writing posts on what we've accomplished in 2019 and what great things we've got planned for 2020! And as per usual I'm the last one to get my post up and just in time as well. Some things will never change

A 2019 Retrospective - Tim's thoughts on 2019 and looking forward to 2020

2019

My blogging fizzled out a little in 2019, thanks in part to my iphone giving up the ghost and depriving me of a camera at exactly the time when I should have been writing up the last stages of my Primaris space marine army. However, I've nonetheless had a fun hobby journey this year, slowly building my AoS forces, converting chaos critters, and above all building my space marine army for 40k. Here is the mother of all catch up posts to show how!

Adeptus Astartes

My Dawnbringers chapter of the adeptus astartes are now a healthy size army in the region of 2500 points, with a whole demi company of primaris marines plus supporting caste of commanders and specialists!

Questing for the Hidden Vault - Blackstone Fortress Part 1

As it's rapidly closing in on the end of year I wanted to try and sneak one last hobby post in before the end of the year. One of the more recent additions to Games Workshops' line of boxed games is Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, a dungeon explorer style RPG where you take on the role of 4 daring adventurers venturing into the fortress in search of ancient technology, hidden knowledge and potentially control over the awesome power at the heart of the Blackstone.

It's a wonderful game that's extremely easy to pick up and play and the designers have managed to weave a good deal of the background narrative of the location into the game and the mechanics involved. There's a variety of scenario's to play through involving firefights through tight winding corridors into vast open chambers, as well as challenges that involve the explorers trying to defuse booby trapped treasure chests or dodging through laser field traps. I've been sitting on the game since release and have only recently managed to start playing it properly. Myself, Medge and another friend have begun a full playthrough of the Quest for the Hidden Vault and that gave me all the motivation I needed to get round to painting the set. It's something I've been working on for the past month and I figured it'd be a good series to write about. So what have I managed to get painted?..

A 2019 Retrospective - Medge's 2019 progress, and plans for 2020

2019 is drawing to a close, and so it seems fitting to go through a period of hobby reflection, re-evaluation, and planning for the future.

2019 was an exceptional hobby year for me.

Just a couple of metrics; 

30 blog posts (including this one)
2400 total blog hits for #Medge-tagged items; not bad for a bit of a personal pet project! 

5 Army Projects (Death, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperial Knights)

4 Game systems (Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40k, Necromunda and Warhammer: Underworlds)

128 models cleared from the back-log

and a heck of a load more added!!

So let's take a look at those in some detail.

A 2019 Retrospective - Neil's thoughts on 2019 and looking forward to 2020

Merry Christmas!

2019 has been a good year with a glut of new releases for many games that I both play and keep an eye on and its looking like 2020 will be the same.  2019 also saw this blog come into being back in January, which has provided me with somewhere to keep track of what I've been doing and to let anyone who is interested see what I've been working on. 

March for Macragge: Part 5

Hi all, this will be my final post for the Ultramarines in 2019 (but don't worry I already have plans for 2020 for them).  In November/December I painted up 2 squads of Eliminators with Las Fusils and Captain in Phobos Armour to complete my planned list for an event.  One of the big features on all of these models is the camo cloaks, which nothing I've painted so far has had, so as my basing was a winter urban style I went with a urban camo style.

Bash the Back-log #6; Medge's October - December

This year I've pledged to #BashtheBacklog - taking steps to correct that most grievous (but widespread) of hobby sins; the backlog of unpainted plastic!

In my last update I covered the end of August through to mid October, and a number of Grey Knights and a few extra Blood Angels moved from back-log to completed projects.

2019 is nearly over, and this will likely be the last #BashtheBacklog post of the year... so what have I been working on in the final few weeks of the year?

Tournament Operations: Winter Assault 2019 AAR, Cambridge; 30th November

Hi all, so a couple of weeks ago I had the Winter Assault 2019 in Cambridge, this was a kind of ITC-lite style one day tournament with 14 players on the day with three rounds where you were matched against similarly scoring players in rounds 2 and 3. The list I took was my Ultramarines with the exact list being found in the previous Tournament Operations post.

Returning to Vigilus: Reinforcements for House Esmaral

Vigilus has come and gone in the Warhammer narrative, paving the way for the Psychic Awakening. Our Tale of Four Warlords for Vigilus finished many moons ago, and for several month my Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperial Knight forces have sat dormant, safe inside their Forge Complexes (also know as my hobby cabinets!) patiently awaiting their next excursion.

Whilst their next outing is still a few weeks off, some well needed reinforcements have arrived to bolster House Esmaral! Enter Lord Johan Virran and his squires; the big guns march to war!