A 2020 Retrospective; Medge's Year in review, and plans for 2021

It's over...

It's finally over...

The sun has finally set on 2020 and whilst it's definitely been one I'd like to forget for a LOT of reasons, it's certainly been a productive one for hobby.

Like many of you readers, hobby has been a lifeline for me over the course of the year. My co-bloggers have been invaluable gaming and painting companions over the year, both in person (between lockdowns) and electronically, and painting/ modelling has offered a much needed escape while the world outside turned upside down.

In this retrospective I'll go through the year, the various projects I've worked on, to celebrate some pretty big project ends. I'll then cap things off with some initial hobby ambitions for 2021

Let's start by rolling back the clock...

For the Greater Good, Part Five - the Second Sphere Expansion

Tau'va fellow hobbyists, and welcome back to "For the Greater Good" - a hobby blog  following my journey as I collect and learn the Tau Empire for Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition. 

Part Five will be the final installment of 2020; a close out post for the final pieces I've painted for the Tau this year.

Needless to say... it's been a bad year for the Greater Good. The metagame for 9th Edition really doesn't favour the Tau play style, and the consensus on the internet is that the Tau are in one of the worst positions (competitively) they have been for a while. 

Couple that to the ongoing COVID situation, which has really slashed gaming time (particularly in the UK), and it would be easy to finish the year on a downer.

I, however, am determined to NOT LET THE VIRUS GET ME DOWN THIS CHRISTMAS!! and will be looking to celebrate at least some elements of my progress on Tau in this post!

Read on to see how I've got on!

How to Paint with Medge; The Bajing Sept - Part 1

Let's be perfectly clear... I'm not a great painter! I'm very much average, and a long way off competition worthy (for that you need fellow blogger James, despite his modesty on the subject!)

So when you read the Blog title as "How to Paint" remember it doesn't saw "how to paint well!!!"

The purpose of this series is for my to document the colours and techniques I've used to paint an army so I can come back to it later. It's also here to offer a little inspiration to the wider community out there - if you like my colour scheme but know you can do better then please feel free to borrow, adapt and tweak these recipes as you like!

Just make sure you share your work with me afterwards!

With that said... let's get into it!

For the Greater Good; Part Four - A Xenos Project by Medge

T'au Va fellow hobbyists! And Welcome Back to "For the Greater Good" - a hobby blog following my journey as I collect and learn the Tau Empire for Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition.

Part three of the series took a long time to come out; personal issues, lockdown-induced hobby burnout and a losing streak really stealing my enthusiasm for the Tau. 

On the back of some pretty terrible performances I decided to step away from the Crusade format for a bit and take a week to reflect on the Tau; what I enjoyed, what I didn't, and what I wanted to do with the army.

Without having to worry about filling a Crusade roster or painting things up for games my mojo for painting returned, and I started working the my backlog and planning next steps...

For the Greater Good; Part 3. A Xenos Crusade Update by Medge

T'au Va fellow hobbyists! And Welcome Back to "For the Greater Good" - a hobby blog following my journey as I collect and learn the Tau Empire in the new Crusade format for Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition.

It's been a looong time since I last posted anything - part 2 of this series was way back at the beginning of August!

It's been a busy and chaotic few months, with both real life and hobby related issues draining me of a lot of my motivation. I've stumbled through snatching time here and there to paint, trying to keep any hobby going. Fortunately things have turned a bit of a corner - I hit a big milestone with the Tau and am starting to get a little more of my mojo back.

There's been a bit too much going on to wrap it all up into a single blog post, so I'll tackle August-September below and follow up with September-October next time!

For the Greater Good; Part 2. A Xenos Crusade Update by Medge

T'au'va Reader! 

Welcome back to "For the Greater Good", a Xenos on crusade project update. With 9th Edition now upon us I'm more excited than ever for Warhammer 40k and, despite all the new reinforcements my Blood Angels received, I've still been chipping away with the Tau Empire.

This month our Goal was to bring our Crusade forces up to 25 PL (based on the 8th Edition Power Levels). This meant a quiet month for me, with 20 PL already complete after my Commander and Battlesuits from month one. With the extra time I had available I started thinking about my Crusade narrative, and began fleshing out out the backstory for my Commander, O'Ashi, and his Strike Force.

For the Greater Good! A Xenos Crusade Update by Medge

Tau'va readers! 

Welcome to the first installment of a new series following my journey along the path of the Greater Good.

With 9th Edition Warhammer 40k scant weeks away (the 25 July can't come fast enough!) myself and my fellow Warlords have begun a new Tale of Five Gamer's. 

The objective; build a Xenos army to play through the new Crusade game mode for 9th Edition (if you haven't read the intro to our new group project I suggest you follow this link for the full post)

Our first Goal was to complete a single squad or unit by the end of June, so let's check in with my progress...

Xenos on Crusade: Introductions and Kick Off

What a great time for hobby, eh? 

Games Workshop's announcement of 9th Edition 40k has come as a very welcome burst of excitement in these difficult times, and reignited the passion and interest in 40k for all our Warlords. 

There's so much great stuff coming out on Warhammer Community right now for the new Edition it really is shaping up to be the best edition of Warhammer 40k to date!

One of the new ways of playing that has really piqued our interest is the Crusade system. For those not following the community page, Crusade is a new narrative way of playing that will see your force evolve over consecutive battles. Not only does your force increase in strength from game to game (via points/power rewards that allow you to bring more to the table), your individual units are able to earn honours (bonus rules/stats) and battle scars (negative rules/stats) for the acts they commit on the tabletop. 

This RPG-style evolution of a force doesn't only sound like a great way of playing normally... but the perfect set-up for another Tale of Five Gamers!