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Well, would you look at the calendar! Half-way through 2023 all ready! What do we have to show for it? We'll see in this thread.

I typically think about it in the following categories:

- Purchases
- Painting
- Gaming
- Writing
- Other stuff

On the purchase front, I finally decided on my "Big Project" for 2023. Half-way through so I am all ready behind the 8-ball! This year, it is a "Battle of Kadesh" scenario so I can put on a demo game locally. Since I just got the two armies ordered from Baccus 6mm, there is not much else to say on that front.

Painting has also been pretty light since I got my Pile of Shame all caught up in 2022. There have only been a few trickles of activity on this front. A few odds and ends I have found along the way. Once my Egyptians and Hittites arrive the game here will change a lot.



Gaming has been much more productive. The most common game I have played has been Kill Team. However, I have had a good mix of games with my Skumgrod and my gaming group. GW games, ancient games, and even some naval games.



Writing has been a challenge for me. I have a few games in Post-Production and released a couple in PDF form. However, this has been a bit of a challenge point for me this year. Any writing I have done has felt like trying to push water uphill this year.



Other stuff is other stuff. It is slowly happening. However, I have made some progress on a charity game in the area, but just preliminary work. My RPG group has also been pretty active this year too.

Overall, I am on-track to hit my goals for the year. This year my goals were pretty minimal though, so there is that. If you want more detail, it is here:
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/07/random-mid-year-through-2023.html

However, I am much more interested in what you have been up to! What has your progress been and are you on track to reach your goals in 2023? Pictures are greatly appreciated in this thread!

Quoting myself from my blog:

 Nevelon wrote:

Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 13 members for the primaris battle company (stretch goal: finish it)
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. (stretch goal: clear the decks of all old nids) (22/24)
3 Paint more than I buy. (41/74)
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years (1/3)
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. In addition paint at least one model not for an active army.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Finish magnetizing the bases and boxes for my Tryanids, at least to fill the boxes I have (stretch goal: add more boxes and cover all the bugs)

I have painted exactly zero company marines. Heck, only one of them is even blue! This is a hard fail and one I need to get working on. Going to paint the new dread this month, so he will help. I’ve been kinda glossing over the company dreads. I know I need them, but was going to try to fake it with just assigning old ones from the dread pool. While knowing in my heart I was going to have to get 2-3 redemptors.

While I’m doing well on the 24 mini goal, the Leviathan box just dropped 47 more nids into the pool. I’d like to hit that number at year’s end, and if possible do it by clearing the decks of old stuff. So this goal should be a win, but it has basically 2 different stretch goals.

Assuming I don’t buy a whole lot more stuff this should be OK. But another awesome box set and this could be sunk. We’ll see what the release schedule looks like.

I still have the jetseer and stormhawk looking at me. Need to paint them. Halfway through the year and 1/3 through the goal could be worse.

This is like my free square. Still blogging, still painting.

I’ve actually painted units for 5 armies, but only 2 of them with more than one unit. The chaos/GSC cultists help with these numbers, but are unlikely to get more support. They do let me tick the “not for an active army” box. Do I count my 30k stuff as a seperate faction? I probably should. Either way, doing good here.

100 challenges under my belt. Still going strong.

Nids are basically all done. The only serious mini left is the RT tyrant, who will play the role of a warrior prime in a squad. The flyrant doesn’t have magnets, but doesn’t fit in the boxes so is kinda a moot point. I should figure out something for the gargoyles as well. New paint and the primed box will need their bases done, as will everything I build new. The painted shelf will probably get that done when I move them from the YTD to general population. Might try to do the new/primed stuff in batches as well. As it involves GS, it’s best to do them in blocks on 25-30, so not something I am going to do on a squad levels as I build them.

--

So in general I’m doing OK. The big fail is the company marines. Which should be helped with the batch I managed to prime yesterday. Dread, pyros, and the champ (plus some scatter lasers). All of them are company assets. And I want to get the burners done for CP games.

Are we really on the halfway mark? I feel like I've barely done anything. Mostly been printing Horus Heresy.

Gaming (assorted systems): My #1 goal is always to play as much as possible - I'm always very successful at this & 2023 has proven no different. So primary hobby goal accomplished.

Buying?: Nominally "spend less than last year". So far, so good.

Projects
Success!:
*Get a 2k+pt Skaven force onto the table - completed @ 3k pts (fully painted though is an ongoing WiP & was not part of the stated goal)
*Build & basecoat at least 52 kits/blisters from my backlog inventory. I hit #57 on June 30th.

Partial Success:
*build two forces for Bolt Action - US Army & Italians
The US force is built & base coated, and I began building the Italians July 2nd.

No progress (yet):
*Build a French force for Warlord Games epic scale Blackpowder game.
*Build my 40k Votaan stuff
*Build & paint two Blood Bowl teams.
*Build & paint the Cursed City game.
*Finish building & painting my HH Iron Warriors force.

I came back to the gaming side of painting miniatures around a year ago, after relocating to a new town and new gaming club.

The only goal I set for myself was to paint some, and I have, not very many finished miniatures so far, around 30 or so for Stargrave.

I over purchased a bit but donated a bunch to the club so we can put together crews for new players.

With the launch of the new Epic game, I'm going have way more to paint.

This year has definitely not gone to plan, particularly after ending last year feeling like I was on a pretty set place with my pile of shame effectively clear and an opportunity to focus on rebuilding communities and events.

Unfortunately, the year kicked off with a bunch of curveballs. The silly one is just Judgement and the Mk4 Khador box set I'd preordered arriving the same week refilling my paint queue. Also had to pick up a few things to close out some incomplete legacy armies for Warmachine in general that's had me buying things faster than I can get them painted when I've really been trying to get away from that.

I'd hoped to be caught up before Shatterpoint released, but the Warmachine stuff in particularly has kept piling up though I've gotten both Judgement and Shatterpoint complete. Haven't had time to maintain as many side games as I'd like with some Infinity and Bushido backlog to deal with as well.

The bigger blow came with the closure of our main gaming store in town and an easy place to meet up for games. There's a few other options, but its caused a lot of splintering and siloing of gaming groups that are competing for a place to play. MCP/Shatterpoint and 40k have largely emerged as the reliable playerbases with other games leaning more on basement meetups.

It's definitely caused some shifts in my priorities. As much as Warmachine has a pile of shame built up, PP has just not made product available in a way that I can build support at the moment, so I'm letting it sit in favor of making interesting terrain setups and tables for the games that are thriving. Has me more invested in 40k than I've been in a long time, which has also done little to help the pile of shame unfortunately.

So yeah, at the moment, my attention is focused on building MCP/Shatterpoint communities when available and supporting the 40k crowd when I get a chance. I've been probably getting in more games than before simply because I offer to host a lot of the niche stuff at my house for people who aren't in on the big two, but its resulted in a pile of shame I'd like to chip away at, but hard to motivate around with the challenge of making games happen.

In good news, I've had some good success with table design and I'm looking forward to getting back to that. Done some work I'm quite proud of there. Also gotten some new games in great shape and super happy to have Shatterpoint and Judgement seeing regular play. Just kind of sad Infinity, Malifaux, Bushido and Warmachine are kind of lost at the moment.

Doing ok so far....bought a Disco Lord in Feb to use his insane combos in 9th and by the time I had him finished 10th edition was released and hes terrible now.

Still have a Zombie Dragon I want to get done this year but no where near painting it yet.

Want to get some games of 10th in but struggling for time.

I've painted 24 more Marines for my collection so far this year, which is a pretty good pace for that army, honestly.