This year for 2019 I wanted to be more methodical about the time I spent gaming, the games I play and the miniatures I paint. In 2018 I moved from Oahu to San Antonio, with the move came access to a larger community of gamers that were willing and able to play almost every game out there. I went from only being able to play Infinity and Warmachine to everything from Saga to Modern Bolt Action. In the 9 months since the move I have accumulated a ridiculous amount of unpainted miniatures and in 2019 I look to a) paint those minis b) tighten my shot group.

Aside from the access to games, my daughter is now 2 years old and between her and my full-time job I need to be more deliberate as I find my hobby time slowing fading away. I do not presume to have the knowledge or the capability of telling fellow gamers how to run their hobby life. This Blog will catalog the progress and obstacles that I run into achieving my goals, while of course having some fun with it along the way. Without further rambling I present my 2019 Hobby Goals

Games I want to prioritize playing

The Ninth Age: I recently came upon this game when I moved to San Antonio. I was a big Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB) player in my youth and this game really hits the nostalgia button for me. We will be running an escalation league this year and I have come across an unpainted Tomb Kings Army that will help me meet multiple hobby goals!

Sharp Practice: Towards the end of 2018 the gaming group got on a Napoleonic kick. We play divisional game made by our friends in Dallas called Le Baton. While this is a great fast playing game, I love the character of Sharp Practice and I love the rulesets put out by Two Fat Lardies (TFL).

Chain of Command and Bolt Action: Both games scratch different itches for me and I can use the same minis for both systems. What’s not to love? Also, see the paragraph above about my thoughts on TFL games.

A Song of Ice and Fire: I was SUPER skeptical about this game. Passed up on playing it at Millennium Con in Austin. I ended up watching some Guerilla Miniature Gaming (GMG) battle reports one day when my daughter was home sick and haven’t looked back. Fast game, feels like fantasy, has a cool card aspect, tight rules that remind me of my competitive Warmachine days. Plus, I love painting red and lions are cool…

Projects I must finish

Overall Painting: Paint 365 miniatures in 2019. This is a 100% vain goal, mostly chosen because it sounds cool to say I painted a miniature a day.

Undying Dynasties/Tomb Kings: Hopefully this will be an easy project as it’s directly nested with an escalation league. Additionally, this project gives me a fully painted force to play the upcoming Saga Fantasy game as well as Warlords of Erehwon.

Finish France: I have all the miniatures for an Early/Mid-Desert/Late War French Army. I need to get this painted and on the table for Chain of Command and Bolt Action. I can really pin my love for WW2 France. It’s something about the aspect of a people who thought they had everything in 1939… lost everything in 1940 and fought for 4 years to get it back.

1st Brigade 26th Division VII Corps (Vistula Legion): This is my Battle of Leipzig Napoleonic project. This division is a Polish Division in the French Army that includes the remnants of the Dutchy of Warsaw and the Vistula Legion. These miniatures can also be used for Sharpe Practice and the Vistula Legion was predominate in Spain leaving many options open. I am also determined to link Skirmish games to bigger games of Le Baton or Black Powder (once I get the rule set down).

Paint all the Lannisters: After some initial flip flopping in this game I have dedicated myself to the Lannister cause, at least until the Targaryen are released (Dragons). This initial force must be fully finished before I acquire more miniatures.

Getting up to speed

Spoiler alert I am writing this in February so I will do a rapid catch up on each of my projects.

Vistula Legion: I finished my Vistula Legion Lancers for a game of Le Baton early in January and have not made much progress since. This year marks about 18 years of being involved in wargaming, and I just now finally painted the horses separate from the riders. It was actually a lot easier than I anticipated and I was able to knock this project out in about a week.

I am very happy with the progress on this force and in future entries I will go into using different scenarios developed for different rule sets and linking Sharp Practice (Skirmish Games) with Le Baton and Black Powder (Divisional Games).

Paint all the Lannisters:

This project is another self-control valve as I try to knock out 6 Lannisters at a time before I move on to my Boltons, Mountain’s Men and eventually Pyromancers.

Tomb Kings/Undying Dynasties:

This project is nested with our T9A escalation league which starts February 15th and increases by 500 points every two weeks. I was able to get my initial 1500 points painted before the kick off of the league, so I am feeling pretty good about managing this project without being in a constant paining panic mode.

WW2 French:

I will use a commission painter for the first time for this project (a friend in the gaming group) to help me finish. The amount of projects I want to get done compared to the time that I have just doesn’t add up. More to come on this topic.

Going Forward

Future blog updates will focus into one of these areas that I have highlighted and I will go into more detail about painting techniques/unit history/gaming tactics. I am currently sitting at 91 miniatures painted this year, which is fantastic but very unsustainable. There is a Bolt Action tournament and possibly an opportunity to demo Sharp Practice at the San Antonio Games Expo in my future! Hopefully that means more progress on my French Forces!

Thanks for reading and feel free to reach out to me at dwarner1911@gmail.com or any social media platform.

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