Happy New Year 2019!
One of my favorite posts of the year where I lay out my plans for 2019 and try to stick to them without swaying too far.
Last year I kept it a bit realistic and I was happy with my outcome. With the additions of a few games in 2018, 2019 may be a bit more of a full plate for me.
As with last year, my plan for painting will continue to break down my queue in calendar quarters, I think this worked very well for me and made my queue a bit more manageable.
As of now, these are the games that are of interest for 2019, in alphabetical order.
Arena Rex
Painting Goal: I still have quite a few models in my backlog for Arena Rex (11). I honestly feel it may be a doable goal to have these all completed, as long as I do not add anymore to the backlog. I think as long as I stick to the two Ludus' that I have, this goal should be completed (especially if one the games way down below takes a back burner). Once these get completed (maybe by GenCon in August) then I may add a third Ludus.
Gaming Goal: Currently Arena Rex for me is just a game I am playing for fun, the play is quick and enjoyable. At least in the first quarter of the year I do not see myself partaking in any events, but the goal will be to at least play the game every other week. I am going to shoot for at least 20 games played in 2019.
Batman Miniatures Game
Painting Goal: Maybe the occasional one off miniature to paint, I am not setting any expectations on getting a Team completed. I do have some models already completed painted that I can play with.
Gaming Goal: As I mentioned yesterday, my feeling right now for BMG is just to be a punching bag for my son so he can warm up for AdeptiCon, who knows, maybe after all those games I may actually enjoy it some more. I can see us playing a handful of games before the end of March and then I will need to reevaluate.
Bolt Action
Painting Goal: As of now, no expectations to paint anything for Bolt Action...again that may change come June.
Gaming Goal: The current plan is to play at least two games of Bolt Action this year. A warm up/practice game, and then a game to be played on June 6th, 2019 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day. After playing this game, the interest to play more
may happen.
Guild Ball:
Painting Goal: I need to make this one a bit realistic compared to what I actually want. I would love to say to finish up my entire backlog plus any new models that are released. Right now my backlog is at 39 models (not including the Union Guild) nor the Cook's Minor Guild releasing in February. Main priority will be to finish the one off models to complete my Guilds, then I will tackle some of the Minor Guilds. With Guild Ball being planned to be my main game for 2019, my painting priorities will be with Guild Ball.
Gaming Goal: I shocked myself at the end of 2018 having played 32 games of Guild Ball (with the majority of them coming the last two months of the year). If I want to be somewhat decent at playing the game, I cannot take long breaks in the game. My goal is to attend a monthly tournament (if there is one in a close vicinity) and to try and play a friendly game at least once a week. The total goal for the year will be 50 games of Guild Ball (which is very doable with the tournaments).
Middle-earth SBG
I actually almost forgot about this game, that is how much I have been thinking about it recently.
Painting Goal: No big goals for me. An accomplishment would be to finish the models I have for my The Dead of Dunharrow army. I believe I still have another 20 models on foot and 8 riders on horse.
Gaming Goal: I have a feeling that this one may be a lot like Bolt Action where it may only see 1-2 games for the year. Considering we have only played once since the release of the new rules set back in September.
Warmachine/Hordes
Painting Goal: I own a lot of models for Warmachine/Hordes (between what I own and what my son has). I feel that for WM/H I will still will be painting them through out the year. I know there will be times when I want to paint something different than Guild Ball or Arena Rex, so that is when I will throw down a WM/H model to paint. I have a lot of models that I received in the last half of 2018 for a Cryx army, and thought of a fairly quick paint scheme, so I may decide to work on them a bit.
Gaming Goal: This is a tough one...between my son and I, we have a lot of completed models between my two main factions Khador/Minions and his Cygnar/Circle. I opted not to sign up for any WM/H events at AdeptiCon 2019, but that does not mean I will totally be giving up on this game. I just do not feel it will be played as much as it was in 2018. I think it will become the occasional throw down game just to have some fun. Goal for the year, probably a bit low, but lets shoot for 12 games (average one a month, especially with no tournaments planned at the moment).
X-Wing
Painting Goal: Not Applicable (pre-painted miniatures)
Gaming Goal: I really like what was done with the release of X-Wing 2.0 bringing all the Factions back to a balanced playing field. So for at least for the first half of the year I see that this game being played the second most behind Guild Ball and to prepare for AdeptiCon. After a few months my mood may change. Having this game and Arena Rex to counter some of the games played of Guild Ball will be a nice change. I did not get in as many games of X-Wing since the release of 2.0 (8 games), so I will be once again realistic and will place a goal of 20 games played for 2019.
With all the above games, that puts me at around 110 games played for the year for my goal which would break my record from 2018. Not included in these games are any card games that my son and iI enjoy playing like Star Wars Destiny.
Playing all these games will obviously cut down in my painting time. I think it will be hard to surpass the Painting Points from 2018 and 2017.
Events
So what kind of events and I am looking at for 2019. In my previous years, this section mainly was for the larger conventions that I had hoped to attend. But for 2019, there are a lot of 1,2 day out of town Guild Ball events that I will be looking at also. There is still not much info out there for the later part of 2019, but here is what I am looking at:
February: Bourbon Trail Open IV (Guild Ball)
March: AdeptiCon (Guild Ball, X-Wing)
April: Spring Fling ? (Guild Ball)
May: MuseOn Con ? (Guild Ball)
June: East Canadian Nationals ? (Guild Ball)
August: GenCon 1 Day (Vendor Hall)
October: SteamCon USA (Guild Ball)
December: Second Wind (Guild Ball)
Wow, that is quite a bit for Guild Ball, I honestly hope that I do not get burned out, but the more games I play, the better I can get. The events for Spring/Early Summer are more of a wish list, out of the three listed during this time, reality may be attending only one.
One major event that my son and I attended in 2018 was the NOVA Open, but with the dates for 2019, it is too close to another family vacation in September, so NOVA Open for 2019 does not seem doable.
Also in November is Warmachine Weekend. 2019 marks new ownership for the Warmachine Weekend, maybe the new owners will be better prepared and start providing information for the event earlier, if that is the case and my son and I have the itch for WM/H, that event may then make the list for 2019.
As of now I am not looking into any new games for 2019, but I tend to say that every year. There are a lot of cool miniature games out there, and it is just a matter of finding time for them all. Spread myself to thin and then I tend to forgot how to play the other games, but when you walk the vendor halls of AdeptiCon or GenCon, it's like "I want that".
Let's see if we can stay the course for 2019.
We are only one week away from the start of the NOVA Open in Arlington, VA. My son, my friend TJ and I will actually be leaving late Wednesday (29th) evening and driving through out to night to Arlington. The plan is to arrive sometime late morning and freshen up, relax before the Warmachine/Hordes Team Tournament starts at noon.
Wow, it was actually a pretty decent week for me last week in regards to my hobby. I was able to get in a few games, built some terrain, and painted some models.
