The Tally of 2020

We've finally reached the end of the pier - time for a count-up!

Of course he's happy!

For those who don't know, this is the idea behind "Project: Micawber"...

"Annual leadpile twenty Pink Horrors, annual painting nineteen Pink Horrors, nineteen Blue Horrors and a Brimstone, result: stagnation.

Annual leadpile twenty Pink Horrors, annual painting twenty Pink Horrors nought and a chaos familiar, result: progress."

Project: Micawber

The premise is simple: paint more models than I acquire, add them up at the end of the year and bring down that leadpile!

After breaking even in 2019, I had high hopes for 2020 (you could say that sort of thing in January). After all, I have most of my collection assembled and ready to go, so how many more models could I acquire?

Well, funny story: you see, there was this lockdown...

Bought

Okay, it's a lot. It's the second highest tally since records began, and I don't even have the excuse of Warhammer Conquest.

A few things that tipped the scales heavily: the Indomitus box set was something no right-minded plastic addict could pass up. The Necron half will eventually find a new home, but I'll add the Primaris to my Space Wolves, as soon as I can stop feeling so dirty using all their new tricks.

I also unexpectedly picked up a hefty chunk of Guardsman (and then Horrors!) at a good price, so I was caught by a late-year rush of horde armies.

In slight mitigation, I've also taken on more commission work this year (for which I am paid elusively in miniatures), so I've added lots more to my unpainted pile without having to pay for it.

Santa was also very kind to my interest in Blood Bowl, so that finished off any hope of a black balance sheet.

Acquisition total: 344 models.

Painted

In an ordinary year, 177 models painted is a pretty good result.

• 5 x Scarab Occult Terminators
• 20 x Pink Horrors
• 6 x Flamers
• 2 x Exalted Flamers
• 12 x Screamers
• 1 x Fateskimmer
• 1 x Bloodwrack Medusa
• 7 x Death Guard Plague Marines
• 1 x Khorne Berserker
• 1 x Beast of Nurgle
• 3 x Fiends
• 1 x Infernal Enrapturess
• 1 x Grey Knights Librarian
• 1 x Fabius Bile
• 1 x Surgeon-Acolyte
• 6 x Black Legion Chaos Bikers
• 1 x Daemon Prince of Khorne
• 2 x Thousand Sons Rhinos
• 7 x Tzeletor and the Gang
• 2 x Chaos Space Marines
• 1 x Sister Tariana Palos
• 6 x Tzaangor
• 18 x Imperial Guard Infantry
• 3 x Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons
• 1 x Leman Russ
• 1 x Chimera
• 1 x Venomcrawler
• 1 x Sloppity Bilepiper
• 20 x Brimstone Horrors
• 1 x Scourged Dark Apostle
• 1 x Purge Terminator Lord
• 2 x Dark Disciples
• 1 x Optimus Prime
• 1 x Starscream
• 1 x Megatron
• 1 x Bumblebee
• 36 x [Classified]*

* These were my commission paintings - their new owners want them kept hidden until they are properly revealed - which should have happened this year, if not for the unfavourable wind. So watch this space - I'm quite proud of them.

Painted total: 177 models
(-168 models)

The first half of the year clearly had some structure, with me adding to the Thousand Sons, and then taking my daemon collection to near-completion (the reason there is no link to the Tzeentch Daemons is because I am just a handful of models from completion and haven't gotten around to it yet).

I also had an unexpected spur to my Imperial Guard army, having to bring 500pts to the table at extremely short notice for the eight-player Averment campaign (although that took so much out of me, I then stopped).

And I finally painted some scenery too! Painted and scratch-built no less, of which I'm particularly chuffed. It's a shame I never factored that into my annual tally - I just assumed I'd never do it.

After the mid-point of the year, I was clearly all over the place. With the absence of regular games, I was just painting whatever took my fancy, from any army and any games system. And I'll admit that proved to be something of a tonic. Converting and painting the Skeletor-themed heretics was one of the hobby highlights of the year (with each one taking a week to complete at a rather-sedate pace, it explains why I stopped churning out units).

Interestingly, it's only my second failure in the seven years I've been keeping track. Which is a lot better than I thought.

Other notables of 2020

• 
  Favourite unit:
  I haven't painted that many units this year. I think I might pick the Death Guard Plague Marines - somewhat pedestrian, but I tried a new technique with it, and was thrilled by the result (good job - I've got a whole army to do!)
  
  
• Favourite model:
  No contest here. Tzeletor was a conversion that had been brewing in my bitz box for months, and I was delaying getting started in case I messed him up. Not only was I very happy with the result, he inspired a whole crew of henchmen - and a castle!
  
  
• Favourite battle: 
  Narrowing it down those I've actually played face-to-face (five people - which doesn't sound like much, but is an improvement on a few years ago), I think I'd have to pick the epic Thousand Sons vs Mordian Iron Guard - a seven-turn bloodbath that was my last 'live' game of 8th Edition and one heck of a swansong.


• Battles played: 
  24 battles of 40k played overall (11 x 9th Ed, 13 x 8th Ed), which is a drop from last year, but as you can imagine, it's been hard to meet with opponents. Only eight of them were played person-to-person, so it's been a banner year for Skypehammer.
  Speaking of which, I could also throw into the mix the eleven games of our online narrative campaign - although I didn't actually command any forces, I had to move all the armies around!
  You could also add at least another thirty games of Dungeon bashing and Whateverhammer that I've improvised with my kids over lockdown - so it's not been a total drought.
  
  
• Blog posts: 
  It has to be the online campaign we launched at the start of lockdown - not quite the same as playing in the same room, but it was great fun to get eight awesome players fighting over the fate of a doomed world, over the course of two months. Capped off with some first-rate narrative from Kraken. Brings a tear to the eye.
  Honourable mention to the Skypehammer guide, which I understand has actually proved useful for people to pick up the baton.

[Non] Goals from 2020

I kept my resolutions limited last year, but still managed to miss a few marks:

• 
  Astra Militarum
  At least I'm out of the blocks with this one, and now have enough for a modest patrol. It's possible I could crack on with the army, but more likely to get done in fits and starts.
• Black Legion
  To my surprise, this barely had any progress at all this year. I finally got the Biker unit done, which I'm happy about. This army is about half a dozen units from completion, so I'm optimistic of getting it done this year.
• Daemons
  This army was the nearest I've come to hitting the mark. A couple of Tzeentch HQs and a handful of Horrors are all that stands between me and completion.
• Something non-40k
  I painted a Bloodwrack Medusa and four Transformers - that's about as non-40k as I get.
• A dozen models that have no use for gaming
  Add the above five models to the seven Masters of the Universe gang and I've reached my dozen 'non-gaming' models. This was a real treat, and one I'm going to continue next year (see below). Looking at what I have waiting to be painted, I'd rather pluck out some random models than start another army.

Goals for 2021

We're trying something different this year. Two things different, in fact.

Goal 1

To spur myself on to paint my collection of nonessentials (i.e. things not immediately required for the next game), I quickly jotted down my unpainted collection and fed them into a random generator.

At the start of every month, I'll give it a spin and paint whatever fate has in store for me.

It could be a single model, or a whole unit, from any system I own. It's the same idea as the Advent Challenge we did a few years ago, which was tremendous fun but had the slight drawback of nearly killing me. One random choice a month should be enough to keep the palette fresh.

Goal 2

This one is simpler and yet more ambitious - no purchases in 2021.

Fear not - I haven't given up the hobby. But I am very conscious that time is limited and the lure of the new is drawing me away from all the things I currently own (and the reason I still own them is: I want to paint them).

So it's a complete cold turkey. No purchases of any Warhammer models (books and paint are fine) for a year. Let's see how long that lasts.

Have a great 2021, leadfellows. May the ones you roll only be for morale!