TechRaptor Tabletop Resolutions 2020 February Update

Welcome to the February update for our Tabletop Resolutions 2020.

It's very easy in all genres of tabletop gaming to get side-tracked or overwhelmed with the sheer amount of content that's available out there. Player's can purchase hundreds of miniatures, board, and roleplaying games, only for them never to be played or even opened. These are known as piles of shame and include unplayed games and miniatures that sit around unpainted and unused. Tabletop gamers regularly make New Years Resolutions in order to make sure they control what they buy, or make time to paint and play the games they have.

In order to help inspire others, and to keep us true to our own goals, I've gathered a few tabletop influencers and friends to talk about their Tabletop Resolutions for 2020. We will follow this up each month in an article talking about how we've done, along with what we've played and purchased. Please follow along, and join us by posting in the comments, and then follow up each month by letting us know how you've done yourself, and share any progress pictures you have.

Adam Potts

Another month down in 2020. February went rapidly as my workload picked up. The Tabletop Team tested the DC Universe Miniature Game, Dicetopia and Agents of Mayhem. I managed to get in some games of Warcry and we started our Core Space campaign proper.

My purchases were limited to the Subjugators to reinforce my Necromunda Enforcers, the Wurmspat and Hrothgorn's Mantrappers for Warhammer Underworlds and Shadowsun, even though I can’t use her in Kill Team, the miniature, armament and pose are fantastic.

The release of Psychic Awakening The Greater Good makes me really want to put a force of The Eight together, which may become a project this year.

Painting wise, my plan was to paint an entire Raven Guard Kill Team. Unfortunately, I think I believed my painting skills to still be similar to my ability from a few years ago, which they aren't, and I didn’t do a great job with painting black and white. So I have decided to go back to basics, before I really start to invest in painting the forces that I want, so next month, my intention is to paint 3 Stormcast Eternals and get some tips from the pros on what I need to work on in future months.

Next month will be a short month for me, as I’m going to be away for a small portion of it and I’ve already got my gaming time filled with games to test and the continuation of our Core Space campaign.

You can read Adam's tabletop coverage here on TechRaptor and also hear his random musings on Twitter.

Giaco Furino

This month was another good month for expanding my horizons, tabletop gaming-wise. I finally got my hands on 7 Wonders: Duel. I'm a huge fan of the original game, and my wife and I took to this two-player version of the game quite quickly. If you're a fan of the original, there's a lot to love in this scaled down recreation of the game, where instead of drafting cards with a large group, you lay out cards in a pyramid and take turns picking from the cards. It's fast, fun, and feels much more "heads up" than its predecessor, though it loses something in the long-term strategy that unfolds in 7 Wonders.

I also set up a board game social at the office, and we played Mysterium, which is new to me. It's a little light for my taste, somewhere between Clue and Dixit, but it's a solid family game (even though it centers around a murder). Next month, I'm looking to dive further into Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, which, while not new to me, is a game I've never played through completely.

You can read Giaco's tabletop coverage here on TechRaptor.

Kyla Hislop

February was quite a productive month for me. I’ve gotten onto painting the details on my WarCry terrain, which means I’m about 90% finished the Starter Set. At some point I may have accidentally also purchased Souldrain Forest, so it’s been very tempting to get that started as well. I should probably really focus on one thing at a time though.

I now have 3 out of 4 of my Core Space crew painted, and we played our first campaign game. I’m very much looking forward to continuing our sci-fi adventure.

Lastly, D&D saw my players’ characters transported to a new location via means of a teleportation circle. For most of them, this campaign has been their first introduction to the game, so it’s been exciting to have them slowly understand the scope of just what’s possible with magic. 

You can follow Kyla on her Instagram. She is also a member of the TechRaptor On The Tabletop team and helps us review and preview products for the site.

Alex Jordan

In terms of my resolutions it's not been a bad month at all. I managed to get the crashed escape pod from FFG painted up, it's a nice model and I've painted it similar to my downed At St. So they work together nicely on the board.

In terms of actual miniatures, it's mainly been clones, stormtroopers and b1 battle droids which have all been painted with contrast to get them done quickly. However I managed to get the new Luke Skywalker mini painted up using more traditional techniques.

Tournament wise, I came 4th in a Star Wars Legion Prime event at red dice games in Edinburgh and am currently writing this on a bus to Milton Keynes to participate in the first Legion National championship in the UK, where, I'll inevitably crash and burn.

Alex is the newest member of the TechRaptor On The Tabletop team and helps us review and preview products for the site.

Jon Webb

So much for painting that Warcry terrain. February ended up being a slow month as I was doing “adult things” like painting a bedroom. 

Despite that I did manage to get a few things painted. I’ve been working on a couple of Rackham figures for a friend who gifted me with a huge collection of Epic minis (some of which may well make an appearance before all this wraps up). All that’s left with them is the umbrella for the boss snake. 

I also worked on a very top secret thing (™) for work. It’s not the first studio paint job I’ve done, but it’s probably the most high profile thing I’ve done and I’m looking forward to the reveal. 

The other hobby work I’ve done this week (other than resetting up the studio and gaming space post house decoration) is to start chipping away at the pile of shame in the loft. We all tend to buy way more than we paint, but I’m getting to the point where I own armies that haven’t even been built and that’s pretty stupid. 

So, I started building my backlog, if only to get them onto the table. I’ve been reading up all my old 4th and 5th ed Warhammer rules again recently, as I’m on a nostalgia trip (its 2nd ed Epic I’m playing these days) so having some decent sized 2000 point or so armies to get back into the game that really got me into this world seems like a fun thing to do. So far, my Khorne Bloodbound are nearly ready to stand in as Chaos troops but I’ve got plenty more armies to build yet. 

Sam and I also managed to get a game of AoS in, with her Squig horde taking on my Ironjawz. It ended up a pretty bloody game, with combat from turn one and everything engaged in melee by the end. Ultimately, my Orcs weathered the charge and their superior armour and wounds let me grind out a win, but over half my force, including the boss, disappeared down the gullets of those crazy mushroom men. Looking for a rematch this weekend, though I might throw the Khorne boys down now they are built. 

Hopefully March will see me pick up brush properly again, finishing that Warcry box and maybe painting a Titan? Let’s see what happens. 

You can follow Jon on Twitter.

Virginia Page

February has been an extremely busy month, so my resolutions took a little more of a backseat than I’d hoped, however I did manage to hit one of my more important ones that I missed last month. 
 
I’ve had a lot of writing work on, so haven’t had any time to paint miniatures, however I have acquired some new Fallout minis that have certainly got me planning time to paint in March. I’ve been moving my desk set up around a lot because of a new streaming PC, so haven’t had the space to really get the paints out either (not without fear of getting them and possibly water everywhere).  

As for learning the rules for new RPGs, I managed to do one this month. I picked up Downfall at Dragonmeet 2019. It’s a GM-less roleplaying game that’s built around world building rather than traditional play. You pick a flaw that you want to explore and build a world and society around it and then play out why that flaw is its downfall. Once the world is built, you take turns playing characters within the world. You challenge and explore the haven you have built through this lens of the Hero, while others take on roles to help frame the scene to challenge and explore world and its traditions and corruption as you tell the tale of its fall. I’m excited to get to play this, hopefully on stream in March (hitting another one of the resolutions I wasn’t able to make this month), both because I’ve become really interested in these types of RPG recently and because I think it will be a great world building tool for future RPG writing inspiration. Sadly, I didn’t manage to stream an RPG over on my twitch this month (though I’ve been GMing and playing on others, but hopefully that will happen in March with this game.

Lastly, I did manage to play some boardgames this month. We had a games evening after work where we all got together to play. I got to try out Dominion for the first time (I’m late to the party there, I know.) and I really enjoyed it. It was good to play with my co-workers and friends, especially those that work in the office next door, and in different departments that I don’t usually get to talk to a lot during the workday. We also played a great game of Werewolf, which I had also never played before. I’d overlooked how relaxing playing boardgames can be since I haven’t played them for a while, especially as they don’t require as much prep or improvisation as RPGs. When I’m playing or GMing, I have to be switched on to react to all the possible things a group might want to do or try to remember prep work, where as with boardgames you can know the rules basics (or have someone teaching them to you) and then just chill out knowing that nothing unexpected is going to pop up. 

Overall, I’m glad that even though I didn’t get all my resolutions this month, I hit a couple that I didn’t manage in January. Hopefully this means that in March, I can hit all four of them. It’s a slow start to keeping them at the beginning of the year, but a steady one. I’m enjoying the challenge to trying to stick to the resolutions, and I’m hoping by the end of the year, it will have helped me get into the habit of doing these more often.  

You can follow Virginia on Twitter and watch her exploits on Twitch.

Ash Barker

February has now come and gone and we’ve had another ‘just for me’ project get worked on. This time it was Osprey’s new 'Roadside Picnic’ themed Skirmish Game Zona Alfa. Set in a post-alien visitation Earth in the seventies teams of Stalkers enter a restricted area to retrieve strange artifacts, battle odd monsters and generally hunt for fortune in a zone where reality can shift and warp and everything is potentially deadly. For this project I used a selection of lovely Anvil Industries modular miniatures for my Zone Stalkers. These great resin kits can be mixed and matched with a variety of weapons and equipment options meaning I could build and kit them out however I wanted. 

Zona Alfa is quite liberal with armaments allowing you to select a gamut without a lot of up-front bookkeeping and so I had free reign to make models that looked cool but would still be functional on the game table. For painting I leaned into the Citadel Contrast Paint range for quick base-coats and then touched them up with washes and highlights afterwards. If you’d like a look at the rules check out the Let’s Play already featured on my YouTube Channel.

Onwards to the Ides of March.

You can follow Ash on his YouTube channel Guerrilla Miniatures Games and via his Facebook Page.

Chantel Marie

This month has flown by. It’s also been a bit of a rollercoaster for me. I’ve had a few things to deal with, nothing major but still very inconvenient and a little stressful. 

Painting has been keeping me busy though and is always a good mood booster. When I’m not working on commissions I’ve been working on my Gloomspite Gitz army. I now have 2000 points worth (yes most of it is still sealed in boxes but that’s normal right?).

What I’ve found very important recently is making time for me. I enjoy commission work and content creating for my platforms but I’ve definitely made sure to take time out for my own hobby, my family and just a little self care. It’s easy to feel like you aren’t doing enough and as quickly as you would like but taking time for you is so important and clients, fans, followers etc will understand. After all this hobby is meant to be fun and enjoyable.

On the resolution front, I really feel I have gotten my head around more tactics when it comes to playing AoS, I feel I’ve taken Nurgle as far as I want to for now and I’m looking forward to trying out my Gloomspites and seeing how they work in battle. We also plan to try out the Path to Glory. 

A busy, up and down but successful month of hobby and I can’t wait to see what the next brings.

You can follow Chantel on Instagram: @the_warhammer_lass.

Andy Roo

I'll address each of my goal's with the progress for the month.

Have a functional and good looking board for home – Ok, so, I’ve not actually made any more progress with the board itself. It’s still set up in my office/hobby space, and I think having it all out there in front of me might be a little daunting. That said, I’ve also not had long periods of time to really get into a hobby task this month, instead having short amounts of time on a semi-regular basis. However, I did play my first game at home using the board. This has been a hobby goal of mine for many years, so it was great to finally tick that off the list. My friend Chris came over with his Nomads, and we played a game of Acquisition, which was super tight, but one that I managed to win in the last turn. Looking forward to cracking on with the board when I have a bit more time in March. 

Paint up my Spiral Corps – I’ve actually made some pretty strong headway here, getting another 6 models finished off fully (this includes the polish and varnish stage), tidying up and varnishing a few models that needed it, starting another 4 models (all Chaksa auxilia, so easy enough to do in batch), and continuing on with a couple of other models whilst waiting for bits to dry on the others.
    
Along with these models, I’ve also finished off the Sheskin commission I’ve had one. Quite pleased with how she came out, and her owner is super stoked by it, which is the main thing. This means I’m now commission free, so if you have something you want done, get in touch.

Start a Combined Army force – Oh, man am I excited here. I’ve bought a bunch of stuff, including an Avatar, and the REMs, and a load of Morats, and a couple of support units. Infact, all I have left now is a Charontid, the Anathematic, and an HVT, and I have all of the models I want for my first two lists. However. I am not going to let myself get distracted fully until Spiral Corps are done. They’re my main focus right now, as I need to have them painted by May, ideally by April (for the Firestorm Satellite event in Cardiff). I have started looking at colour schemes though. 

Attend as many tournaments as possible – So, I’m still on track for my 1 tournament a month goal, headed to St Alban’s Smackdown at the start of the month. It was, as it always is, an excellent event; really well run, with great boards, top opponents, and a healthy prize stack. It even had a dog there this time. The tournament went really well for me too, securing three wins; 10-0, 8-3, 10-0, and finishing in 1st place, which I was really pleased with.  For next month, there’s a tournament in Aldershot which I’m planning on going to on the 7th, and then a really special even on the 29th.

Run some tournies - It’s happening. It’s actually happening. Infinite HATE are presenting their first ever tournament, with the Spring Seasonal 2020, happening on March 29th, at the Bethnal Green Working Mens club. Tickets sold out in less than 24 hours, which I’m humbled by, and I’m really looking forward to hosting what I hope will be a super fun day. I’ve been busy trying to muster up prize support, and a couple of boards for the day. For more details, please check out the event page here.

Maintain my site - So, I’ve done that thing again where it’s been nearly a moth, and I’ve barely updated my blog. It’s hard doing it regularly, particularly when you want the content to be good. I have, however, set up a Facebook page for Infinite Ramblings (go on, give me a like and follow), and even done myself a new little logo. I’ve got a couple of posts incoming, one on my general hobby activity over the month, and another which has been taking up most of my time - a write up of the Spiral Corps army. Hopefully this sort of content will be interesting enough to keep people interested whilst I get my act toegther and do more posts. If you’d like to read about what I’m up to on a more regular (apparently) basis, please check it out here.

That about wraps me up for February, roll on March. As always, if you’re interested in Infinity and want to give it a go, or have something in mind you want painted up, please do get in touch, using my blog, or IR Facebook page. Until next time sports fans!

If you want to know more about Infinity in London, check out Infinite HATE, or get in touch with Andy through his blog.

John Rees

This month was super busy, but I still managed hit my target. Most of the month was taken up early by having to write my Warband Review articles for the newly released The Wurmspat and Hrothgorn's Mantrappers for Warhammer Underworlds Beastgrave. Skaeth's Wild Hunt were painted up to a more Battle Ready Standard. This time I used mainly contrast paints with a single or no highlights. The skin and faces had the most time spent on them as you can't really rush those areas. The gold was all painted with Scale 75 golds and I have to say I'm fully converted to their golds, truly amazing paints. Overall I'm really happy with how the warband turned out. 

Next month should see me finish off The Wurmspat, they were almost done but I ran out of time. If I'm luck I should be able to finish my Hrothgorn's Mantrappers too. Getting all this painting done is a huge change of pace for me but it's something I'm finding really enjoyable. 

If you want to know more about Warhammer Underworlds, you can read John's blog on all things Underworlds, Can You Roll a Crit.

We'd love to hear your Tabletop Resolutions for 2020. Share yours in our Resolutions article here, and then keep us updated each month. Let us know in the comments below what you've been playing and painting this month.