Resolutions 2024: July Roundup

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 July 2024. Let’s start with a reminder of the resolutions and where we got to in June:

Resolutions Recap

Painting

Paint at least 4 Warhammer armies of approx 2000 points (June status: 0/4)
Paint an Underworlds Warband (June status: Complete! 1/1)
Paint two Malifaux crews (June status: 0/2)
Paint 2 starting forces each for 2 different games (June status: 1/4)
Take part in at least 4 club painting contests (June status: Complete! 4/4)
Paint 366 miniatures (June status: 229/366)
Paint more than I purchase or print (June status: on track!)

Gaming

Play at least 40 different games this year (June status: 26/40)
Play 6 games that I already own but had not yet played. (June status: 1/6)
Play at least 3 non-D&D RPGs (June status: Complete! 3/3)

Writing

Publish a blog post per day (June status: on track!)
Publish 6 items on DriveThruRPG (June status: 0/6)
Write 18 reviews (including Game of the Month reviews) (June status: Complete! 27/18)

So, how did July go?

Painting

It’s been a good month! Any month wherein I complete more than a model a day is really good. I started the month with the a unit of 10 Flagellants for my Empire army:

I was delighted with how these turned out. I love that teal!

I then added a couple of characters – a wizard lord and a battle standard bearer – to the Empire army, bringing it over the 1,000 points mark:

The wizard feels quite minimal, but I love him. The BSB is cool as well, but I love how clean the wizard looks!

In addition to finishing 1,000 points of Empire, I also finished up my 1,000 points of Chaos Dwarfs. The last unit I needed was this rocket luancher:

l don’t think it looks great, but it looks consistent with the rest of the army. It also felt damn good to get them all finished.

I then turned my attention to Warhammer 40,000, painting up some miniatures for my Necrons. I painted a pair of Transcendent C’Tan shards:

The first one is probably my favourite, but I did enjoy painting the robot in the second one.

I stuck with the Necron theme and painted up a Technomancer as well:

I’m really happy with how he turned out. It’s such a great miniature, and he fits wel with my theme.

A couple of Flesh-Eater Courts characters – a Gorewarden and Crypt Ghast Courtier – were next up:

I am delighted with the courtier, but the Gorewarden just looks a bit flat.

bringing me up to a decent, usable, 2,000 point force, I painted a pair of 10 man Crypt Guard units:

Midway through, I was not happy with these, but finished up and based, I quite like them. They’re a happy bunch, aren’t they?

Oh, there was also this random Harlequin Troupe Master miniature that I painted as part of a miniature exchange:

He was alright to paint. I found the mini a bit bland, but he’s actually alright.

I was happier with this chap, who is going to be one of the Abhorrant Archregents for my Flesh-Eater Courts army:

I was worried about the base, as I felt for the longest time that it just looked bad. With the grass and whatnot on it, it actually turned out pretty well.

My final miniature for July was this Green Knight, intended to be used as a Varghulf Courtier for my Flesh-Eaters:

I’m pretty proud of this one, actually. He was a lot of fun to paint, and it’s my first time (along with the Harlequin, above) trying to blend anything.

In terms of totals, then… We’re looking at 44 completed miniatures, adding a nice chunk to our total. I printed a pair of miniatures; the second C’Tan shard and the Green Knight to act as the Varghulf.

Purchase-wise… Oh, dear…

It’s the Skaventide box, innit? 74 miniatures added to the pile. In the final days of the month, I also grabbed a pair of models from Dungeons & Lasers for use with my FEC.

Bought: 76 minis
Printed: 2 minis
Painted: 44 minis

This is better! Plenty of painted miniatures, and putting some distance between my prints/purchases and my finished models. That gap is going to be damaged when the new AoS starter set comes out…

This means that my totals for the year so far are:

Purchased: 113 minis
Printed: 115 minis
Painted: 273 minis

The Slow Grow is done! And it’s helped me to complete half of a resolution as I tick off two starter force for a game. The work I am doing towards the Spearhead Challenge has also helped me to tick off my “completed” 2,000 points of Flesh-Eater Courts. I’m thinking that the Flesh-Eaters might be my main army for the immediate future, though Papa Nurgle is also tempting…

Gaming

This month saw me actually playing Warhammer 40,000! Wow! Who’d have thunk it? Did I enjoy it?

Not really.

It was fine. I just felt like a lot of work for what it was. I want to play again and maybe things will get a bit more automatic, but… meh. I was thinking of going to a doubles event in August, but paying a practice game put me off for now. Partly this was because I wasn’t going to have time to get a firmer grasp on the game, but am there’s also the issue of just not enjoying it as much as AoS. Either way, I decided against the event.

Here’s the list of games that I had played already this year, before the start of July:

Century: Golem Edition
Architects of the West Kingdom
Sushi Go!
Warhammer Underworlds
Age of Sigmar: Soulbound
Traveller
Dungeons & Dragons
Santorini
King of Tokyo
Ticket to Ride
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
Ark Nova
Arcane Academy
Robot Quest Arena
UNO
Root
Apiary
Dixit
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Quadropolis
1960: The Making of the President
Everdell
Age of Fantasy
Call of Cthulhu
Raiders of the North Sea
Scout

I added some more game to the played list in July:

Warhammer 40,000
Kluster
Rummy
Lorcana
Flotsam Fight
Twilight Struggle Red Sea: Conflict in the Horn of Africa

I did play some more Scout as well. It’s our game of the month, and it is well-earned. It’s such a solid, little game.

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We were away in a caravan for a bit in July and Scout saw a lot of play in the evenings, along the usual huge number of rounds of Rummy.

The smaller, Red Sea-centric version of Twilight Struggle was a lot of fun. I still prefer the full version, but I really enjoyed the cut-down experience, and it is certainly a fast game it’s been sitting on the shelf for a long time, so it’s good to get it into the table.

Writing

I’ve managed to maintain my goal of posting a blog post per day. I’m happy to be doing well on that front. I worried, given that I was away for a chunk of the month and there were a lotcof painty posts, that I wouldnt manage many substantial posts. I actually managed quite a few! Here are some highlights, though:

Ive also finished a book review and an RPG review for August, along with a post about using music in RPGs. Ive nearly finished another couple of novels to review, too. Still no progress on the ol’ DTRPG stuff…

July Summary

Painting

Paint at least 4 Warhammer armies of approx 2000 points (July status: 1/4)
Paint an Underworlds Warband (July status: Complete! 1/1)
Paint two Malifaux crews (July status: 0/2)
Paint 2 starting forces each for 2 different games (July status: 3/4)
Take part in at least 4 club painting contests (July status: Complete! 5/4)
Paint 366 miniatures (July status: 273/366)
Paint more than I purchase or print (July status: on track!)

Gaming

Play at least 40 different games this year (July status: 32/40)
Play 6 games that I already owned but had not yet played. (July status: 3/6)
Play at least 3 non-D&D RPGs (July status: Complete! 3/3)

Writing

Publish a blog post per day (July status: on track!)
Publish 6 items on DriveThruRPG (July status: 0/6)
Write 18 reviews (including Game of the Month reviews) (July status: Complete! 32/18)

And that was July. Catch you in August!