2007 Results and 2008 Goals

There has been a lot of focus in hobby blogs and forums lately on the progress made on projects this year and goals for next year. I guess I'll do the same here. Last year on The Miniatures Page I posted that I wanted to:

1. Finish my Skaven out to 3000 points.

2. Purchase and paint 3000 points of Orcs & Goblins

3. Paint 3 Reaper Warlord armies.

4. Start my Eastern Front WWII project.

5. Paint Pirates and build a tavern for them to brawl in.

Well, I didn't finish any of those projects. I got up to about 2350 points on the Skaven army, still haven't fully painted any Orcs & Goblins, only have 10 Warlord figures painted, didn't do anything for the WWII project aside from buying some scenario books, and still don't have a tavern for my pirates (although I did paint a barkeep and a serving wench to act as staff for the tavern).

Unplanned projects that I worked on include a half-squad of Space Marines and a fair start on a Moria Goblins warband. I painted a couple of one-off figures, including a toxic orange bodybuilder superhero.

So what do I want to do for 2008? I've got a whole lot of projects I'd like to do someday, but there isn't time or money to do everything in one year. I've made a list of projects I think I can get done this year, as well as some stuff I'd like to start on once I get this list cleared out a bit.

1. Finish Skaven out to 3000 points and then some. Around 50 figures total, I think.

2. Orcs & Goblins out to 3000 points. I have to retool my list somewhat because of some figures recently released that I absolutely have to have in the army, but this should run around 230 figures when it's all done.

3. Mordheim Sisters of Sigmar and Witch Hunter warbands. This is a pretty small project, around 30 figures. I already have most of the figures I want for this project.

4. Finish 3 Reaper Warlord armies. I've got most of the figures for these, and I really like the sculpts, so I'd like to finish this up even if I don't end up using the ruleset for anything. I figure I can work them into a game someday. This project is around 75 figures.

5. Finish 4 of my 7 planned Lord of the Rings armies to 500 points. I've nearly finished the Moria army. I'm probably going to do Easterlings, Dwarves, and Gondor armies as well. This should be around 180 figures, but they are smaller minis and seem to paint up faster than the 28mm figures.

Those are my top 5 projects for 2008. They total out to around 565 figures. That's 47 figures a month, 11 per week, and 1.6 per day. I think I can do it but I have to keep up or I'll get bogged down like I did in 2007. Having a good portion of them in the smaller Lord of the Rings scale will help immensely. After I've made good progress on these 5 projects I'd like to start moving into my other planned projects. This secondary list is all subject to change, of course.

6. Build a Pirate tavern and fill out the ranks of my pirates with a Foundry Pirate Horde, civilians, and the Town Watch/Governor's Troops.

7. Warhammer Ancient Battles project. I've ordered the rulebook and a couple of sourcebooks. Not sure yet what I want to build, but more than likely it will involve the Foundry Viking Army and an opponent for them. They offer some nice 1500-point package deals, so that is probably the game size I'll build for first. I am extremely unfamiliar with the period, so I need to do some research to find out exactly who the Vikings were fighting.

8. Reaper CAV - I really like the look of these miniatures, and I have the rulebook and stat cards for the armies. I need to look through the catalog and build some big stompy robot forces. This project can wait a bit, as Reaper is still deciding whether or not they want to support this game.

9. Warhammer 40k - I've sort of shelved the idea of building a full Chapter of Space Marines as the time and money could be used for a lot of other projects. I would like to build a full Battle Company, though. I also really like the new Ork figures and fluff. So I'll probably build those up as opponents for the Space Marines. I have been going back and forth on finishing up my Sisters of Battle army, and I just don't think I want to do it. Space Marines and Orks are much more exciting to me.

10. WWII Eastern Front - I still want to do this project, but I need to do a lot of reading and research. As much as I am interested in the period, I've really not done much reading about it in the last ten years. And I need to decide on a scale and a set of rules to use.

11. American Civil War - I'll probably use GHQ's 10mm figures for this. As with all my other historical projects, I need to do some reading and research if I'm ever going to do this project. I've got a couple of general history books on the war, so it's at least a start.

12. GW Lord of the Rings - After the four armies on my list above, I'd like to keep filling out the various factions until I can field a whole lot of figures.

I think that about covers all of my wargaming ambitions for now. I think that finishing these projects will take me a good couple of years, then I'll probably expand each of them further. I don't really plan on starting any new Warhammer or Warhammer 40k armies, as none of the other armies really grab me. Maybe Wood Elves or Dogs of War for Warhammer, but really I could see myself just expanding my Skaven, Orcs & Goblins, Space Marines, and Orks forever. There are two or three other Mordheim factions that interest me, and plenty of options for Warhammer Ancient Battles and the other historical periods I'm interested in. But for now I think I'll focus on these current projects, with an eye toward finishing the Top 5 this year.

On another topic, the Fantasy Football season is over. I finished with an overall record (including playoffs) of 41-23. In the ultra-competitive TMP Fantasy Football League I went 13-3 overall, but lost a key playoff game and dropped to 5th out of 14 teams. Last year I was 6th out of 14 teams, so I'm moving up. In my Public Leagues I continued my less-than-stellar playoff streak and went 10-6 for 4th place out of 10 teams, 9-7 for 3rd place out of 10 teams, and 9-7 for 2nd place among 10 teams. So I got two trophies, a disappointing finish in the TMP League, and the Denver Broncos didn't come close to the playoffs. Not a great football season for me, but next year will be different. I'm looking forward to the Fantasy Baseball season, and my Fantasy Basketball teams are doing okay.

And I think that about covers it for today.