Hey everyone! I thought it was finally time to use the website I pay for to do something vaguely useful, so here I am, with my first ever hobby blog post! Blogs are certainly an outdated form of content, but let's face it, can you imagine me on TikTok? Hopefully I will get one of these up every couple of weeks.
As well as being a device to feed the ever hungry social media Algorithm, I’m hoping this can be a useful to actually help me stick with some of my New Year's resolutions. Allow me to elaborate.
It is no secret that I have way too many miniatures. Li
ke, way, way to many. Despite having a huge clear out before moving house last year, I still have a shed, and office and fairly large cupboard overflowing with painted armies (yay!) and half started projects (boo!). Which is totally fine. People engage with the hobby in different ways, and for several years my way of engaging with it was to just purchase.
However anyone who has ever engaged in tabletop wargaming for any length of time will tell you that just buying stuff isn’t a sustainable way of doing things. You run out of space, time and willpower to stay on top of all the projects, and they all end up in storage, gathering dust.
The amount of projects I still have to complete has honestly become a bit overwhelming, maybe even anxiety inducing. I sit trying to write an army list or to decide what to build and paint, I am very aware of ALL THE OTHER STUFF that I should be working on. So of course, I just end up not really doing anything.
So, the plan for this year is to do something about this. To finish projects that inspire me and make me feel excited to get my hobby on, and to sell on the projects I’m just never, ever going to get around to.
As some of you probably know, last year I moved to the Highlands of Scotland from Bristol. It was a bit of a culture shock when it game to gaming. Moving away from one of the most vibrant wargaming communities in the country to a small village almost an hour from the nearest hobby store has not been easy.
Luckily the “local” club in Inverness has been very welcoming, and really pushed me outside of my comfort zone when it comes to looking at new rulesets. The Rampant line of rules, as well as Kings of War and various historical systems are all now found on
my shelf. Alongside this, a couple of guys a bit more local to me have invited me into their gaming circle, and we meet up about once a month to play something.
But I need more incentive to crack on. I have always been more inspired to finish armies for events and gaming than for the joy of painting. Which has led me to solo wargaming. Not something I even really know existed until a few months ago!
The very rough plan is to do one solo “campaign” per quarter. I want to do one 40k (Third War for Armageddon or maybe the Defence of Baal), a Horus Heresy campaign (probably set around the events of the Ruinstorm), a Fantasy campaign (in the Border Princes) and a Peninsular War Napoleonic campaign heavily inspired by Sharpe. This will give me some structure to finish projects. In theory…
So this is where you guys come in. Do you have any ideas or suggestions on how to make sure I stick to my goals? And most importantly, which campaign would you guys like to see me have a go at first?