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 April 2026. Let’s start with a reminder of where we got to last month:
Resolutions Recap
Painting Resolutions
- Complete 2 army projects
- Complete 3 smaller/skirmish projects (progress: 2/3)
- Complete 1 board of wargame/skirmish terrain
- Take part in at least 6 club painting contests (progress: 1/6)
- Paint 200 miniatures (progress: 58/200)
- Paint more than I purchase (on track)
Gaming Resolutions
- Play at least 30 different games this year (progress: 4/30)
- Play miniature games at least 12 times (progress: 1/12)
- Play at least 5 games that I already own but have not yet played (progress: 1/5)
- Play at least 3 non-D&D RPGs
Writing Resolutions
- Publish a blog post per day (on track)
- Write 52 reviews (progress: 20/52)
Now, let’s take a look at what sort of progress was made in April.
April Roundup: Painting
It’s been a very quiet month on the painting front. No new miniatures were completed.
That’s not to say that no hobby work was done. I did make some progress, finally, on my Chaos Knights. Here are some pictures of what I’ve been working on:
With no additions to make, here were the totals for the end of last month:
- Purchased: 0
- Painted: 58
This goal is still doable, though I’m starting to feel that time is creeping on. The goal that’s perhaps looking less doable is the one about our club painting challenges. These seem to have fallen apart a bit this year, and I’m starting to doubt there will be 6 to enter. We’ll see.
April Roundup: Gaming
The goal for this year, as with last year, is to play 30 different games. Here are the games played up to the start of this month:
- Magic: the Gathering (Commander)
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Viscounts of the West Kingdom
- Burrows & Badgers
This month, I have added a few new games to the list
- Apiary
- Age of Sigmar
- Sagrada
- Scout
- Escape the Dark Sector
- Isle of Skye
- Century: Golem Edition
- Escape from Tiddles Tower
- New York Zoo
Lots of games this month! It was great to get Apiary back to the table. I do love that game, especially with the expansion mixed in. I do think that’s less of an expansion and more of a new edition, as it doesn’t add much, but it fixes problems with the core game.
It was also fantastic to get Age of Sigmar back to the table, having not played it since December. I fielded a mixed force of Squigs and Troggoths and got slaughtered by the new Sylvaneth book. Honestly, my biggest issue was just not understanding my opponent’s army at all. I knew that the Kurnoth were hard as nails, but other units took me by surprise, meaning I’d spread my forces out very poorly. Still, good game!
Having put in preorders for the new Escape the Dark Forest and the second edition of Escape the Dark Castle, it was good to also break out Excape the Dark Sector. We won! It was bloody close and came down to a single roll, but we did win. I love this game!
A revelation this month was Sagrada. I’m really enjoying it. I’ve been playing it with my wife, my extended family, my club group, a kid group… it’s a hit every time. I reckon this will be May’s Game of the Month.
A fantastic month of gaming! Let’s keep it rollin’!
April Roundup: Writing
With a mix of short and long posts, I once again managed a couple of posts over my goal of one per day. That total includes 8 new reviews:
- Season 1 of the anime, The Promised Neverland
- The novel, The Caretaker
- The movie, Frankenstein
- The video game, Hades II
- Season 2 of the anime, The Promised Neverland
- The Dresden Files novella, Out Law
- The novel, Cousins From a Distant Sun
- The DC Comics Deck-Building Game
Still got a fair few reviews sitting in the queue, waiting to be posted.
Here were my other wordier posts for April:
- Clearly an April Fool’s post…
- Thoughts on the MTG card, Ancient Tomb
- How to play an RPG based on The Promised Neverland
- D&D, saving throws, and gaslighting
- Some MTG cards to induce rage
- What tabletop lessons we can take from Sofia Isella
- D&D and min-maxing
- Thoughts on the MTG card, Crop Rotation
- Dice Prison nonsense
- What tabletop lessons we can take from Gregory Crewsdon
- More bad decisions from CMON
- More rage-inducing MTG cards
- Euology for a Rules Lawyer
I’m particularly enjoying putting together my new tabletop/culture posts. The articles on Sofia Isella and Gregory Crewsdon were fun to research. I’ve got plenty of these currently in progress. I’ve also got some reviews lined up of some TV shows, anime, and novels.
April Summary
Painting Resolutions
- Complete 2 army projects
- Complete 3 smaller/skirmish projects (progress: 2/3)
- Complete 1 board of wargame/skirmish terrain
- Take part in at least 6 club painting contests (progress: 2/6)
- Paint 200 miniatures (progress: 58/200)
- Paint more than I purchase (on track)
Gaming Resolutions
- Play at least 30 different games this year (progress: 10/30)
- Play miniature games at least 12 times (progress: 2/12)
- Play at least 5 games that I already own but have not yet played (progress: 2/5)
- Play at least 3 non-D&D RPGs
Writing Resolutions
- Publish a blog post per day (on track)
- Write 52 reviews (progress: 28/52)
Catch you at the end of May!