Resolutions 2023: December Roundup and End of Year

It’s one thing to set resolutions, and quite another to hold oneself to them.  I intend to review my progress monthly toward each of the resolutions.  Welcome, then, to our roundup for December 2023, and indeed 2023 as a whole.  Let’s start with a reminder of the resolutions and where we were at the end of November: 

Painting

1. Finish 3 army-sized Warhammer projects (~2,000 points). (Nov Status: 2/3 complete)
2. Finish 2 starting forces each for 2 smaller, non-GW games. (Nov Status: 2/2 complete)
3. Paint a Warhammer Underworlds Warband. (Nov Status: 1/1 complete)
4. Paint a Blood Bowl Team. (Nov Status: 1/1 complete)
5. Paint 6 miniatures unrelated to current projects. (Nov Status: 17/6)
6. Paint 365 miniatures this year. (Nov Status: 499/365)

Gaming

1. Play 40 different games. (Nov Status: 46/40)
2. Play a new (to me) skirmish game. (Nov Status: 1/1 complete!)
3. Play 3 non-D&D Roleplaying games (Nov Status: 5/3 complete)

Writing

1. Complete 12 book/game/media reviews. (Nov Status: 17/12 complete)
2. Release 3 titles on DriveThruRPG. (Nov Status: 4/3)

Onward, to December! 

Painting

Last month saw a lot of progress on the painting front and the ticking off of a couple of resolutions. This month, I only really had to finish two miniatures.

Following last month’s Frostlord on Stonehorn, I needed to finish up two sets of Stonehorn Beastriders in order to finish up a usable 2,000 points of Ogors and, in doing so, finish my final resolution; to complete three armies. I completed one set of Beastriders with a chain trap and another with the far more useful blood vulture:

They were quite fun to paint! They certainly didn’t take a long as I had expected them to take. I would like to do some more in the near future so that I can properly field a fun Beastclaw Raiders army.

With the resolutions done, I wasn’t sure what to do next, but I wanted to do something. I had Grinkrak’s Looncourt sitting, and thought it would be useful both for a possible upcoming Underworlds event at club and for use in my Gloomspite Gitz army for Age of Sigmar.

I slightly regret not going a tad showier and shinier than my usual gobbos, perhaps by using more gold, but they turned out quite well. They were a bit fiddly in places, but overall fine to paint. I could see these having a home in AoS armies where I field bigger hordes of Stabbas or Squigs. Their ability to hand out ‘fights on death’ is fantastic.

My final models for the month were done around the halfway point. They were a little pairing of a Swampcalla Shaman and his Pot-Grot pal:

I initially painted the slime and bottles using Plaguebearer Flesh, but they just seemed a bit dull. I swapped it out for a more vibrant green, and this really popped. I think when I do my next Swampcalla, I’ll differentiate him by using different coloured bottles/slime. Pink, perhaps? 

Total: 11

You know, 11 models in a typical month would be disappointing, but I’m happy with it here. It’s more than enough to finish off my resolutions and includes some chunky miniatures, too. A good end to the year, all in all.

In considering the year as a whole, here are my favourite miniatures that I’ve painted over the past 12 months, in the order I painted them: 

I’m particularly happy with how the Harengon Ranger, the Curseling, the Ogroid Thaumaturge, the Crypt Ghouls, and Marlena Webster turned out. I also delighted my inner child by painting the classic Skarsnik and Gobbla miniatures. These were always iconic characters and I loved painting them. 

Gaming

Here’s a reminder of the games I had played at least once already this year: 

1. Ticket to Ride
2. Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
3. One Night Ultimate Werewolf
4. Dungeons & Dragons
5. Star Wars: Rebellion
6. Galaxy Trucker
7. Century: Golem Edition
8. Root
9. Age of War
10. Malifaux
11. Call of Cthulhu
12. Warhammer 40,000
13. Blitzkrieg
14. Cyberpunk Red
15. Avatar Legends RPG
16. Twilight Struggle
17. Quadropolis
18. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
19. New York Zoo
20. King of Tokyo
21. Quirkle
22. Clank! Catacombs
23. King of New York
24. Tiny Towns
25. Dice Miner
26. Monopoly
27. Codenames
28. Santorini
29. Lords of Waterdeep
30. Sushi Go!
31. DC Comics Deckbuilding Game
32. Euphoria
33. Zombie Dice
34. Endangered Orphans: House of Rath
35. Isle of Skye
36. Hive
37. Betrayal at House on the Hill
38. Frostgrave
39. Architects of the West Kingdom
40. Warhammer Underworlds
41. Warcry
42. Magnificent Flying Machines
43. Age of Sigmar: Soulbound
44. Traveller
45. Escape the Dark Sector
46. Here to Slay

This month, I added four more games to this list:

• Takenoko
• Ticket to Ride: New York
• The Hunger
• Dune

This brings me to a nice, round 50. 

I normally don’t count the different versions of Ticket to Ride as distinct games. They’re all variations on the theme, aren’t they? Different maps, basically. I’m counting this one, as this was my first play of one of the smaller, cut-down versions of Ticket to Ride. The core of the game is, of course, similar to the full game, but the overall experience is quite different. 

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It wasn’t especially good. Oh, it was fine, but just not good. 

The Hunger was another interesting game that just snuck in at the end of the year. It feels really similar to Clank in both good ways and bad. You play as a vampire and have to strike a balance between eating people (and adding their less useful cards to your deck) and maintaining a tight deck that allows for swift movement I feel that I balanced this poorly, but managed to secure a bonus turn at the end and squeak back to the castle at the last moment, securing a win. 

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I’m not sure that risky behaviours should be reinforced like this…

I did get to play a load of other games, including lots of Root, Terraforming Mars, Architects of the Western Kingdom, and Century. A lot of the Top 10, really!

Writing

There’s been a lot of year-end posts this month. Most notably, we’ve had this year’s top 50, some thoughts on armies to paint next year, and our game of the month. There are the highlights:

• Some thoughts on what armies to pant next year
  • Part 1: stock AoS armies
  • Part 2: 40K armies
  • Part 3: converted AoS armies
• December’s Game of the Month
• This year’s Top 50 Games list:
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
  • Part 4
  • Part 5
• A cool form template for Paranoia

I also finished up another DriveThruRPG offering. Carrion Oracle is my second Mork Borg class, and I think this one is far better presented than my previous one. 

December 2023 Summary

Painting

1. Finish 3 army-sized Warhammer projects (~2,000 points). (Dec Status: 3/3 complete)
2. Finish 2 starting forces each for 2 smaller, non-GW games. (Dec Status: 2/2 complete)
3. Paint a Warhammer Underworlds Warband. (Dec Status: 2/1 complete)
4. Paint a Blood Bowl Team. (Dec Status: 1/1 complete)
5. Paint 6 miniatures unrelated to current projects. (Dec Status: 17/6)
6. Paint 365 miniatures this year. (Dec Status: 510/365)

Gaming

1. Play 40 different games. (Dec Status: 50/40)
2. Play a new (to me) skirmish game. (Dec Status: 1/1 complete!)
3. Play 3 non-D&D Roleplaying games (Dec Status: 5/3 complete)

Writing

1. Complete 12 book/game/media reviews. (Dec Status: 18/12 complete)
2. Release 3 titles on DriveThruRPG. (Dec Status: 5/3)

And that’s the end of 2023!

See you tomorrow to set out some resolutions for 2024.