TechRaptor Tabletop Resolutions 2020 March Update

Welcome to the March 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

Well, March was interesting. I hope that you are all out there keeping safe and well. I, like most of the population, have been in lockdown for the last half of March and I've been using it to catch up with all the articles that I already had products for. Which hasn't left time for much else. Because I'm usually working a few weeks to a month in advance, what it will mean is that after I've finished all my articles, I'll have lots of free time until the industry picks up again. As Games Workshop and FFG aren't releasing any new products for April, and most UK stores have closed, April and May will be very quiet tabletop wise. We've spaced our articles out, but there could come a point where we'll be doing only tactics articles and retrospective looks at products.

Due to the lockdown, all I managed to play was Court of the Dead and TMNT Change is Constant, both articles will be coming this month. My purchases were limited to a new Feldherr DSLB310 box (my second) in order to store my miniatures. They take 12 full-sized Feldherr trays each, so the storage capacity is awesome. I also bought a box of Esher for Necromunda (my 3rd Necromunda gang and I don't even play the game) and a Myimdon armed with a Spitfire for Infinity to give some firepower to the squad. I also picked up nearly a full range of Citadel Contrast Paints so that I'm fully stocked for a while and can try them out. Our tabletop sponsor, Firestorm Games, are still open online and shipping products, and I picked up the range from them.

I didn't paint anything at all last month, but that should change this month as my time frees up.

Stay safe all.

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

Giaco Furino

Just like everyone else, this has been a very strange month. Living in Brooklyn, NY, we're taking self-isolation extremely seriously, and it's kept us locked indoors for the better part of March. But the silver lining is that this has all been a boon for my Tabletop Gaming resolution to try new games.

I've gotten into skirmish-level wargaming with my review of The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms and Star Wars Legion: Clone Wars (forthcoming), and I've ported my bi-weekly Dungeons & Dragons game over to video conferencing with almost no hiccups. Next up, we're going to try to play Mansions of Madness over Skype with some friends. I hope everyone's staying as safe and sane as they can during all this.

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

Kit Wright

Well, at the start of the year when I made my resolutions, did I know that some global pandemic would impact everyone’s normal lives so drastically? Nope. So I can quite categorically say I've not managed the 1 game a week for myself and probably won’t till lockdown is over. I know there are online means and ways but I would be a hypocrite to utilize them after being such a staunch defender of playing games in person. 

My hobby, my shop, my life helps with my mental health. When we had to close the shop, then we had to move stock out it hit hard. So I’ve not really painted lately, I’ve pottered around with a few things but not finished anything. So march was a right off for painting too, woohoo double fail. So to get my hobbying back on track I’m going to modify my resolution slightly. I have until the lockdown is over to build and paint a new Warycry warband. My new chosen faction, the Fyreslayers.

Adam: Kit won't say it himself, so I'll put this up for him. The tabletop industry has been hit pretty hard with the closures, and now that most small stores are closed, they are making no sales, but still paying rent and having to support themselves. ABZ Games have set up a Patreon to help with the blow while they are closed. I know that lots of stores are struggling, but this is my local store, and Kit has been incredible to me in helping me settle in to a brand new community after I moved away from London last year. So if you can, please help support ABZ Games, because in turn, you're also supporting tabletop on TechRaptor. ABZ Patreon.

Kit co-owns ABZ Games in Aberdeen, you can visit their store page here. He is also a member of the TechRaptor On The Tabletop team and helps us review and preview products for the site.

Kyla Hislop

I and some of the people I am close to have been self-isolating a little longer than most as we have vulnerable family members living with us. Therefore, at the expense of only being able to work on one of my 2020 Resolutions this month, I’ve been spending almost every free evening I have (I’m still working during the day, albeit from home) bringing some entertainment to others during this lockdown, in the form of D&D. We’ve had to move our game to Roll20 for obvious reasons, and I’m now also running a second entirely different campaign as well. Both campaigns are now each playing twice a week, so on top of a third game which I’m a player in, I’m only left with two nights to write and prepare content.

Even though it means that unpainted miniatures have been put to the side, for now, I don’t think I’ve ever been this productive in terms of tabletop gaming before. It’s a little mad trying to keep ahead of the players with so many sessions running each week, but if it means my players get some respite from the monotony than can be staying at home, I think it’s worth it. 

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

Well, this has been a very strange month. It started off well at the Star Wars Legion nationals where I went 2-2 overall and a visit to my parents (which was a blessing with everything that's happening) and another tournament in Glasgow where I came 2nd with a 3-0 record. After that things definitely took a turn for the worse in terms of everywhere closing and the country being placed on lockdown. However, every cloud has a silver lining and it means more time to get through that backlog and with new models on the very far horizon gives me a chance to put some time into the models rather than rush through them. 

One area where I am falling down is terrain. Hopefully, some will get it's chance on my painting desk in the weeks to come.

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

Jon Webb

Insert pithy comment about Corona etc here.

With that out the way, let’s look at how March went. To be honest, it was a fairly successful month. Did I paint any Warcry scenery? No. Did I paint a Titan? Also no. 

I did, however, end up finishing the scenery contents of the Necromunda core box stat I started back in 2018. I also decided to start working on a Night Goblin army for, er reasons. So far I’ve painted Grom the Paunch and have started building and painting some units of Night Goblins. The plan is to work on the force for the Battle of Maugthrond Pass, the scenario from the 4th edition Warhammer boxset. I’m basing them all up on round bases, though I plan on also making some movement trays so I can play classic Warhammer as well as Age of Sigmar. This way I get the best of both worlds. 

To be honest, the one thing that is probably clear from my scribblings so far is that I am a hobby magpie. I have a fairly large collection of models covering a swathe of the GW stable of games dating back 25 years+ now, plus a whole bunch of other tier 2 and indy games from all manner of companies. So, actually trying to stick to any one project and get it done is pretty much a non-starter for me these days. I paint odds and ends until I swap tracks and don’t always finish much of anything. This isn’t an efficient approach to gaming, but given my focus is usually painting rather than playing, that’s not the end of the world. Let’s see how long I can focus on the Goblins. Being furloughed and at home means, I am actually getting a good four or five hours painting a day in now, so it’s been a strong start at least. I’m hoping to at least paint two of the four necessary units of Goblins to start, plus hopefully, the Shaman on his Wyvern just to break up all those black robes. 

On the gaming front, Sam and I got another game of Warcry in. This time I decided to swap out to a Stormcast force and actually managed to take down the Squigs. The difference was being able to take a round of melee intact and having some ranged options. So, that was nice. 

We also played another game of Warhammer Quest with some friends, this time via the internet due to the lockdown. We are now five games in and doing fairly well. The game itself still feels a little grindy and repetitive (kill all the monsters, don’t open any doors until the room is clear, rinse and repeat), but it’s still nice to play something cooperative not competitive. I also wrapped up my 220 hour, 100% run on Death Stranding, which was one of my games of 2019, so now I have little excuse not to be painting.

See you next month where hopefully I will have 40 Goblins to show for myself. 

You can follow Jon on Twitter.

Virginia Page

March has been a difficult month for many of us. In light of recent world events, I’ve been far less on top of keeping my resolutions. As for the ones I didn’t meet, for very obvious reasons, board games with friends isn’t something I’ve been able to do. I also didn’t manage to get around to painting, as the transition to working from home has meant that it's been impractical for me to set up and pack down my painting setup. 

As for learning new RPGs, while I didn’t learn any from my collection of games, I did get to go more in-depth with the newly released Dishonored RPG that I’ve had the opportunity to work on a little through work. Running a two-shot stream of that was incredibly fun. Sadly, I didn’t get to stream Downfall that I learned last month of the stream since everyone’s schedules rapidly changed over the month, but hopefully, I can make the most of the UK lockdown and convince some friends to join me with it in April.

I think my resolutions are going to sit more front and center, at least in April, as I remind myself aren’t just arbitrary things I want to achieve, they are my passions. With more free time now because of being away from work during the UK lockdown, I’m hoping I can put my energy into doing more of the things I love and hopefully sharing some of those, like RPGs and painting, through streaming.

While I don’t have much to update on for March because of everything that’s happening in the world, my goal for April is to not only spend the time I have getting back on track with my resolutions but to share my progress in the hopes that it can provide some inspiration for someone else to pick up their brushes or RPG books and play again or provide someone with some entertainment as I try to do those things myself. 

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

Ash Barker

Well, March has come and gone in the strangest of possible ways. Here in Canada, we began the first stages of self-isolation and shutdown back in the second week of the month and since then have begun the long strange transition of everyone living indoors.  That being said even with the increased workload of kids being home and the various challenges of getting used to all the hand-washing, cleaning and sanitizing I managed to get a large chunk of painting done. 

Be’lakor the Dark Master is a wonderful classic model and with him a unit of Chaos Furies to add to my Warhammer Slaves to Darkness army. A Chaos Lord and some Chaos Warriors also bolster my ranks of Mortals as well. 

I hope everyone is safe and sane out there in hobby land, until April.

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

Chantel Marie

It’s been a struggle to think of what to say this month, but one thing I do know is the hobby community is a wonderful place to be. If it wasn’t for the people in this community, mainly Instagram, I would feel a lot worse mentally than I do right now. I’m trying to find positives each day, losing myself in painting and shutting out the bad, anxiety fuelled thoughts. If I’m not feeling painting, my family jump into our D&D campaign my partner runs for us now. 

Resolutions wise, they’re not my main priority right now. As long as we get through each day as best we can and try and have some fun amongst the chaos, that’s all I can ask for. I’ve got a few little projects to keep me going and I even ran a one color painting challenge on my Instagram account. Everyone loved it and it felt good giving people something to do, a little fun distraction.

I hope you are all safe and well. Stay home. Look after yourselves. 

You can follow Chantel on Instagram: @the_warhammer_lass.

Andy Roo

Well, it’s been a funny old month. You’d think, given the current lockdown, that I’d have plenty of time to do lots of hobby. This is not, unfortunately, the case.  I started the month well, making some progress on my Spiral Corps, and even treating myself to starting some work on my Combined Army. I made it to a tournament and got lots of casual games before taking a long weekend away at a festival, just before we all got told to stay in our homes, which is where things started going downhill.

Have a functional and good looking board for home – I’ve not made any progress with my board at all. I need to crack on painting the buildings, but I need some priming spray which is proving hard to source right now. I also need to modify some of the trees I made to make them more playable. I need to find a way of injecting some enthusiasm into myself for the project again, but right now it’s proving very difficult.

Paint up my Spiral Corps – With both the Nordic Masters being canceled

and the Cardiff satellite being pushed all the way back to August (hopefully), my drive to get my Spiral painted up has basically deserted me. I’m very close, with only 6 or so models to finish now to get me across the line, but I think I’ll give it a while before I push myself to get them done.
 
Start a Combined Army force – Now, this is the one goal that I’ve actually done ok with. I’ve accrued a, erm, a fair amount of Combined Army lately, and I’ve managed to assemble, prime, and underpaint my first list, as well as fully painting a couple of models as a test for the color scheme, and have got all of the required basing materials sorted.  Since the lockdown came into place, I’ve also managed to get a couple of games in on Tabletop Simulator (I would highly recommend this for anyone out there suffering from Wargames Withdrawal Symptom). Both games were complete successes and has reassured me that my initial lists are worth building and painting. 

Attend as many tournaments as possible – Well, this has been utterly scuppered by the lockdown. I managed to make it one last tournament before everything started being canceled, the appropriately named Aldershot - Outbreak. It was an awesome little event, with 12 people taking part, some excellent boards, and some good chums there. I managed to pull off three major victories, 10-1, 10-0, 10-0, and with maximum surviving army points; this has been a background goal of mine for a while now, so I’m quite chuffed to have pulled it off. The win also pushed me to the #1 spot in the UK rankings, and #10 in the world, which I’m stoked about. Unfortunately, the tournament scene is on hold indefinitely now, so we’ll have to see how the rest of the year plays out. 

Run some tournies - Annoyingly, the first event I was due to happen on March 29th, but alas had to be postponed. The new date is provisionally May 3rd, but that is obviously subject to change. The positive sign, however, was that the event sold out within 24 hours, with 24 people wanting to come, so that’s nice.

Maintain my site. - I've not posted up recently, mainly as I’ve not had much time to think about hobbying and less time to write about it (work has been exceptionally busy of late, and I spend too much time at a computer as it is). That said, I posted a new type of article up, a faction review, focussed around my current army, and that was received really well, so I have another one of those in the work, along with a more comprehensive March update, in the works. You can check my page out, right here.

I’m really hoping that April comes with a bit more inspiration and inclination to get some hobbying done. I’ve opened my painting desk up to some commissions (so I now have some 40K and Malifaux to be painting), plus I’ve acquired some inks to paint with, and oils to make washes with, so hoping to try some new techniques. 

I hope everyone out there isn’t going too mad in the isolation, and keeping healthy. Happy hobbying and stay indoors.

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

March has been far too busy with me despite the lockdown in the UK as it doesn't stop me from working as a nurse. As such I'm not sure how my free time will evolve from now on but I did manage to stick to my resolution. I managed to paint up the Wurmspat and Hrothgorn's Mantrappers. This leaves me with only 1 Warhammer Underworlds warband left to paint, Ironsoul's Condemnors. You can see my Wurmspat below. It is mostly traditional blending this time with contrast as a base for skin and details. I really pushed myself with the weathering effects this time and love how the teal green came out.   

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.