The Half Way Point of 2020

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**Easy E**

I know 2020 feels like it has been going on forever. It is like watching a really bad post-apoc movie that just won't end. However, after watching a lot of 80's post-apoc I can assure you that 2020 could have been much worse......

Anyway, this was a thread designed to see what progress you have made on your 2020 goals and what you have completely abandoned, or what you have adopted now that we are 6 months in.

I typically divide my goals into four categories:
Purchases
Painting
Gaming
Rules Writing

Here is a recap:

Purchases:
I got a good mix of new rules and terrain. However, I haven't purchased any new models this year. I had to clear some space in the Queue first.

Painting:
I have painted about 75 models/bases. That is halfway to last year's goal, which was a record. However, I only have about a dozen models left in my pile of shame, so I better order some stuff before it is too late!

Gaming:
I have played about 12 games this year from a few periods. That is as many as I played all last year I think!

Rules Writing:
I have sent 1 set to the publishers, have another 1 sold and in manuscript stage. i also completed 1 WIP, and have 4 new WIP games on the blog. Not bad.

Overall, a pretty good year so far. Despite all the madness, 2020 has been a good hobby year so far. I hope I can keep the mojo going for the rest of 2020.

You can read and see photos on the blog: https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2020/07/random-2020-half-way-goal-update.html

**lord_blackfang**

Purchases
Don't really track this, my budget is outpacing my wants.

Painting
Keeping up with the "GW army in a year" pledge about 20 local players are doing with GLoomspite Gitz and I did a full Ghost Archipelago gang, not much else.

Gaming
3 months of lockdown took a toll here. Got 2 games of Ghost Archipelago and that's pretty much it. I thought we'd have done a full campaign by now.

Rules Writing
Took a while to restart after losing all my files 2 years ago. Right now doing a full 40k rewrite and a generic fantasy skirmish that could be considered a full Warlords or Erehwon rewrite. The latter is something I'd look to get published someday.

**Valander**

Purchases:
More than I care to admit. Did get starter for a new little game I discovered called Twilight: Chronicles of Anyaral.

Painting:
Currently 67 completed, which includes a couple pieces of terrain and some funky objective markers and such. About the same as where I was last time this year, but hoping to grind out more than last year.

Gaming:
Not enough, thanks to the Rona. Haven't played any games in meat space since February, and don't like Tabletop Simulator or the like.

Rules Writing:
Started work on another project for solo/co-op horror minis game, been doing some play testing of that. Some general editing/review and art collection on my other big minis game in the process. Jotted down a few other game ideas, but haven't started any work on them yet.

**Asmodai**

Purchases
Basically a complete Sisters army with the exception of the Army Box last year. Also picked up Dark Uprising when it went 50% off at the FLGS and a bunch of used Genestealer Cult I'll get to cleaning up someday.

Painting
Just shy of 100 Sisters models and a few minor random bits of terrain or one-offs.

Gaming
None since March. I played in 4 RTT's at the start of the year and two or three league games before the League was suspended.

Rules Writing
Not a professional rules writer and nothing 40K related, but did some custom D&D stuff earlier and working on my next Genesys campaign for when my turn to run comes around again.

**Nevelon**

From my blog post last week:

Well, June is almost over. While I could wait a bit, doing my half year summery is a good thing to do over a Sunday morning cup of coffee. Here is where we are at. I’ve temporarily moved the stuff that’s almost done up, as it should be done by the end of the day, and end of the month at the latest.

Here are my goals:
1 Paint 25 SoB
6 done. I kew this was going to be weighted towards the summer, as I couldn’t prime until spring. So not surprised I’m behind, but something I need to focus on.
2 Paint more than I buy. 29+7/34
Once I finish up the 7 guys on the bench, I have this. Until the box of Termagants shows up tomorrow (which I could technically count as a Father’s Day gift, as The Boy got me a gift card). Or the new box set drops. While the nids paint up lightning fast, I’m buying them at about the same rate. Doing some of the backlog will help my overall numbers though. I suspect year end this is going to be a failure. Part of that is the deadweight of the necrons in the new box. I do plan on painting them up as a little kill team/combat patrol, but that’s a back burner project. Unless I find someone who wants to buy them off me, which is unlikely. But even if I don’t count the Necrons, adding 2 dozen marines to the tally is going to sting.
3 Paint At least 12 spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
Nope. Don’t think I’ve painted any bits
4 Try to get more games in. At least 12, with some being non Floorhammer.
2 games this year. I’m going to call this a soft fail, rather then hard due to the Corona virus.
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
I’m a good blogger. My pace of work was a little sluggish for a bit, but has picked back up. This is week 26, and I’ve got more models than that done.
6 Paint at least one unit for all my army factions. (Ultra, Eldar, Deathwatch, Death)
4 guys to fill out vet quads is not quite a “unit” but is close. I’d like to see at least one more by the end of the year. Ultras are good. Better than expected actually. No Eldar, Death is October. Added Nids to my list of army factions, and get to check them off.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. In addition, paint something odd from the back of the bench a/o try out a new technique.
So far so good. Been a good year so far for cleaning up backfill. Nids getting dusted off, and polishing off some of those RTB01s that had been stripped and prepped for 30k, but than ignored.
8 Buy, build, and/or paint at least one piece of terrain.
I have plans and ideas, but need to implement them. The recent supply drop of craft paints will help here. Currently on pause waiting for 9th ed and the new terrain rules.

Overall I’m on track. I do need to do those bits though; that’s one goal I’m way behind on, and had fallen off the radar. The rest I think I should be OK on. Except the lost causes, like getting in more games during a pandemic, and painting more then I buy when the new boxset Is packed with more then a year’s worth of work (half of which is an army I don’t play)

I did finish the guys, but the termagant did also show up. There is a huge amount of stuff in the primed pile, I just need to get cracking on it. Which is actually going pretty good. Finished with the base colors on 5 guys this morning, hopefully can get them mostly finished this weekend, and I have next week off as a staycation, so plan on getting a lot of painting done.

**Ktulhut**

Purchases
A bunch of Tyranid terrain and gear for basing and scenery. Some jump packs for more Big Marine conversions. A handful of models to plug gaps in a few lines, and an order from Hasslefree that I'll probably end up spending dozens of hours sculpting clothes onto.

Painting
I'm sitting at about 60 models finished so far this year, although a few were quite fiddly character-grade jobs, and I'm going to do another 39 skeletons as soon as I get a day without rain so I can base/prime them.

Gaming
Zip

Rules Writing
Turning my fast-playing (aka; beer-friendly) Aliens RPG into something that still deserves to exist in a post-Free-League-Alien RPG world.

**weasel_beef**

I've painted a whole lot more and purchased a whole lot less than years past so far.

Was at 30 models per month for Jan-April, 20 at May-June. Lots of LOTR. Some Infinity, then historical stuff.

Purchased the Joan of Arc kickstarter base pledge from someone online, then got the new Elder Scrolls models from the Modiphius game. Otherwise, have traded some of my old painted stuff/pile of shame for various other LOTR things, but minimal actual purchases of new models.

Had a slow June, but looking to pick up w/ the painting in July.

**Davout**

Purchases: I've been light on miniatures but I've been heavy on picking up new rule sets. Grabbed Oathmark, Horizon Wars, Gaslands and Rangers of Shadow Deep.

Painting: 2020 has been amazing for painting. I've been home full time sense March. Finished 40 dwarfs, 50 goblins, 2 warmaster armies and a bunch of cards for Gaslands.

Games: Zero. Nadda. Nothing. Unless you count playing Hero Quest with my girls (which is awesome, but not a proper war game). I've been away from my gaming group for three and a half years but I'm moving home in 10 days so hopefully that number will go up here soon.

Rules Writing: Not much of a rules writer. I am planning on converting the Battle for Bugman's Brewery campaign to work with Dragon Rampant rules here soon.

**CatachanDevil**

Purchases
My goal was to purchase less this year and save a bit more. Covid has helped with that, and with the Geedubs factory reopening, I am actually finding myself less likely to impulse buy stuff. Hopefully this can stay

Painting
I'm a slow painter and as I am doing a degree through work, my time is at a premium. However, I have managed to get more painting done the last four months than in the preceding year. Not entirely sure on the numbers, but I have managed to paint around 4 Guard tanks, 1 Guard super heavy and six infantry squads and I am currently adding the finishing touches to a squad of Bullgryns.

Gaming
Played one mini weekend doubles tournament with my friends consisting of six games the weekend before lock down and that's it. The timing was purely coincidental as we'd had this planned since last year.

Rules Writing
I write fun narrative campaigns for my circle of friends with custom characters and missions. I have the narrative of a new campaign written, but I've held of writing missions until the new edition drops.

**Llamahead**

Purchases
Mortal Realms has been expensive but excellent value. So I've picked up a fair few models but without Salute and no real big must have kickstarters for me I've purchased a fair bit less than last year.

Painting
I'm uhh well over 400 models for the year. 15mm paints quick and I've been having bursts of work off with my company reordering to do with the pandemic and a mild but still nasty burst of Covid-19 meaning I've had several periods where I've needed not to work but could still paint. Loka's finished and I'm well on the way to almost completing Conan, Massive Darkness and a Gates of Antares force.

Gaming.
Lockdown means the clubs probably closed until September but I did get fairly regular Gates of Antares and Board Games in while it was open.

Rules Writing
Haven't felt the urge so I haven't bothered this year.

**Rygnan**

Purchases
I'm mainly "finishing off" collections this year, and I've done a pretty good job of it. Full factions for Batman, Necromunda and Warcry (all painted too!) plus my crews for Malifaux all purchased waiting paint. Picked up Legion to collect the Rebels and Bushido to add some more ninjas to my collection but both are smaller projects and mostly already managed.

Painting
I'm keeping on top of paint:purchase and staying fairly stable if not decreasing the backlog. Most of my paintjobs are basic tabletop, but they do the job and I'm happy with them. If only I would get around to doing the bases...

Gaming
I'd like to delve into the variety of games I own, but time is only so limited. Aim for the back half of the year is to play at least 2 games each of Bushido and Necromunda. Batman and Battlefleet Gothic I'm playing a lot of, and I'm gearing up to playing 40k in the next few months with 9th edition

**Turnip Jedi**

My PC popping its clogs totally curbed my hobby purchases, as best I recall its 4 Guildball Captains, 1 Circle Warcaster for Hordes and some damage decks for X-Wing

Painting, very slow as usual mostly terrian and a few x-wing ships

Playing, the slow-mo apoc has stopped play prior to that 10-12 games of either x-wing and guildball

**thechosen1**

Purchases
I have been terrible this year. I snagged three Eldar support characters, Saga of the Beast, 2 1:35 APCs for my Imperial Guard, a whole new Tallarn counts as army (using Wargames Atlantic Afghans, about 42 minis as I can re-use a lot of my existing IG armor), and a ton of bits orders from Anvil, Mad Robot, and Victoria to spice up my Imperial Guard collection. Never mind all the X-Wing.

Painting
I tallied my Pile of Shame at the beginning of the year to somewhere under 2,000 models. About 1/3 of this was commission work for local gamers. I blasted through all the commission work and have painted another 400 of my own this year. I am deeply ashamed to admit this high amount of minis, but that's counting everything, including terrain. Most of my stuff is in between Battle and Parade ready, to use GW parlance.In June alone I got about 120 models done, so I'm going strong. I'm also in the process of selling off a bunch of minis I don't need, so I hope to see this pile shrink even further.

Gaming
COVID has killed a lot of game potential, but I got a little under 20 games of X-Wing in from January to March, about 12 games of 40K, 2 AoS games, and 1 Warmachine game in before the quarantine. All this on 80 hour work weeks; I'm somewhat impressed looking back on it.

Rules Writing
I'm writing homebrew stuff for an Edge of the Empire game with friends. Nothing too spectacular.

**ccs**

Purchasing: 100% on track
My only real goal here, as every year, is to keep it within budget. Yes, I set a budget, allocate funds each month, & even have a separate "Hobby" bank act. So far, mission accomplished. And with no conventions this year the act. has a surplus of thousands of dollars. So long as the act. has the funds for a purchase/project,

Painting: 100% on track
I never have a painting goal. I paint as the whim strikes/stars align/there's some need/or when particularly stressed, worried, depressed.
So far this year, mostly due to excess time & stress/depression, I've painted 230+ goblins (and some orcs), a few dozen Age of Sail ships for Black Seas, & a handful of D&D minis.
Next week I'll start painting a D&D Aurinax Gold Dragon mini (mostly whim, a bit of need, ongoing time+stress)

Gaming: about 50%
Well the pandemic has greatly screwed up a lot of actual gaming.

Rules writing: N/A
I don't really write rules. And definitely not for publication. The few of us still getting together for games have begun talking about revising the format for our AoS Path To Glory. So I have a page of 1/2 formed ideas to further flesh out by the next time we get together.

**Egyptian Space Zombie**

My first model purchase of the year will be the necron half of the new box. I'm not planning on getting anything else this year. I keep buying paints and brushes, but I don't feel bad about those purchases.

Painting wise, I finished one army and made a lot of progress on the other stuff. Outside of some dark angels, I haveall but two 40k models painted. I need to get those, and the indomitus necrons done and then finish my fantasy armies. Priority one will be the wood elves.

I haven't done much gaming because of COVID. I would like to do some more once things settle down a bit more and it's safe to do so.

**Commodus Leitdorf**

Well I've painted 59 models so far this year. Lockdown meant I didn't buy anything for roughly 3 months but I also didn't paint much during that time.

Once lockdown was done I did pick up some terrain (which I did paint!) and a few odds and ends for D&D so I've been doing ok so far. But with the summer here I probably wont get back into a groove of painting until the fall. but I am on pace to paint as much as I did last years so go me I guess!

**LunarSol**

Purchases

I've been working on cutting back on purchases to reduce the pile of shame. I'm not crazy enough to think I'll just stop buying things until I'm caught up, but every purchase has become a priority and outside of some recent birthday gifts, almost everything purchased in 2020 has been painted.

Painting

Work on the backlog is coming along pretty well. I dug into a couple of old Warmachine armies I hadn't quite finished and got them mostly complete. Still a lot to do but things are moving in the right direction. Hoping by the end of July I'll have things down to my next goal and I can lower the ceiling to a new low before setting a new goal.

Gaming

Ha, why do you mock my pain. We had a really good group going that was going to help promote and run events for a variety of game systems that got obliterated by COVID. I'm kind of hoping to try out some Warmachine on Wartable and I've had fun with the MonPoc solo mode, but its sad sad sad sad sad days.

Rules Writing

Not something I'm really working on lately outside of event stuff that isn't happening...

**Pacific**

Nice idea for a thread

Purchases
Fallout: Wasteland Warfare (basic sets + raiders), bunch of Vanguard Miniatures & classic GW stuff for Epic, just getting into another system (or two - oh no!) and have ordered the AoS and Battlegroup: NORTHAG rulebooks.

Painting
Got loads done in the time saved from commuting this year. Good bunch of Epic and Fallout, as well as two plastic kit aircraft already (normally average 1 a year!) which is my other similar hobby.

Gaming
Very little, all before March - a game of Epic, a few board gaming evenings (Massive Darkness, Dead of Winter) but nothing since lockdown.

Rules Writing
Hmm.. not really rules writing, but have had some fun thinking of scenarios for Fallout (which can be very narrative-focussed) and writing a Great Crusade-themed blog over on the Bolter & Chainsword forum.

**Easy E**

Wow, so many people have had very productive years so far! That is great to read and see the accomplishments!

**chromedog**

Purchases:

Some 2nd hand eldar from a 2nd hand goods stall at a con (6 wraithguard, 8 Dire Avengers,4 guardians and a weapons platform and most of a wraithlord, all still on sprue and with all weapons options.

1 infinity model. Chunky heavy infantry figure for my QK.

2 packs of flying stands for my 40k eldar army (I have 5 shining spears and 9 guardian jetbikes to rebase because of broken stands).

Painting: All of the above, plus a 2 story building for my gaming table. This also includes the wiring up of electronics for the building.

Gaming: TT? Big Fat Goose Egg. De nada. Zilch. Zero. Playing through a couple of games on my PC backlog, instead. No online or P2P (solo only). Currently on Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Yes, I know it's like, 9 years old. I got it when it was new as a gift, but the computer I had couldn't run it. That computer has been replaced twice since. Current one does it easily.

Rules writing? I leave that for others.

**celebrandas**

Purchased:
30 British Commonwealth troops
1 Matilda II tank
1 Churchill Tank

Built:
Matilda II tank
2 of the British Commonwealth guys

Painted:
Nothing fully, I'm working on the Matilda II and it's taking forever to do by hand.

I'm thinking of doing a custom guard regiment using WW2 minis since they're fairly cheap. The scaling might not match up 100%, but I'm not really looking at playing 40k any time soon. This is just a fun project.

**SkavenLord**

Purchased - A number of bundles have lead to a number of RPGs. Really curious to try out Dungeon Crawl Classics, since I’ve heard nothing but good things about it.

I’d also like to drop this off in case anyone’s interested. It’s a wiki of free wargame rules, with links to the PDFs and websites. It’s all legal.
https://freewargamesrules.fandom.com/wiki/Freewargamesrules_Wiki

Painting - Haven’t really painted in a while.

Gaming - Finally getting somewhere with that second-player simulator, so managed to get some games in to test it out. Rediscovered a love for Warhammer, and finally got to give Vampire Counts a try. Wrapping up a couple of Warhammer campaigns. Hoping to try an LoTR campaign with crazy necromancer Elrond, since he’s an oddly fun villain to use.

Rules Writing - TF2 Necromunda has stalled a bit. Trying to find out how to align the class weapon abilities in-game with Necromunda’s ruleset. The bones are there, just need to add the meat.

In the middle of butchering the Unisystem. Currently trying to add rules for mechs, magic, cyberspace, and weapon diversity. All Flesh Must Be Eaten is certainly not the right ruleset for this sort of thing, but it’s kind of fun finding ways to circumnavigate its limitations.

Learned about Card Vanguard, but can’t find the cards. Working on a bootleg version with the same “feel” but different rules.

Easy E wrote:
Wow, so many people have had very productive years so far! That is great to read and see the accomplishments!

It’s quite surprising to see so many people doing their own games writing. Good way to take the mind off the news for a while.

**Easy E**

SkavenLord wrote:

I’d also like to drop this off in case anyone’s interested. It’s a wiki of free wargame rules, with links to the PDFs and websites. It’s all legal.
https://freewargamesrules.fandom.com/wiki/Freewargamesrules_Wiki

I'm a fan. You will definitely find a few of my works there!

**SkavenLord**

Easy E wrote:
SkavenLord wrote:

I’d also like to drop this off in case anyone’s interested. It’s a wiki of free wargame rules, with links to the PDFs and websites. It’s all legal.
https://freewargamesrules.fandom.com/wiki/Freewargamesrules_Wiki

I'm a fan. You will definitely find a few of my works there!

Wait, really? Good on ya!

Care to name a few? I'd love to give them a shot sometime.

**Easy E**

SkavenLord wrote:
Easy E wrote:
SkavenLord wrote:

I’d also like to drop this off in case anyone’s interested. It’s a wiki of free wargame rules, with links to the PDFs and websites. It’s all legal.
https://freewargamesrules.fandom.com/wiki/Freewargamesrules_Wiki

I'm a fan. You will definitely find a few of my works there!

Wait, really? Good on ya!
Care to name a few? I'd love to give them a shot sometime.

Sure! I think I have at least these three, but I may have more. I can't remember....

1. Aquanautica Imperialis- Wet Navies in the Warhammer 40K Universe
2. Combat! Starring Vic Murrow- WWII Skirmish on TV
3. Tournament: Pagentry and Pain- Knightly Retinues at Tournament

**SkavenLord**

Easy E wrote:
SkavenLord wrote:
Easy E wrote:
SkavenLord wrote:

I’d also like to drop this off in case anyone’s interested. It’s a wiki of free wargame rules, with links to the PDFs and websites. It’s all legal.
https://freewargamesrules.fandom.com/wiki/Freewargamesrules_Wiki

I'm a fan. You will definitely find a few of my works there!

Wait, really? Good on ya!
Care to name a few? I'd love to give them a shot sometime.

Sure! I think I have at least these three, but I may have more. I can't remember....

1. Aquanautica Imperialis- Wet Navies in the Warhammer 40K Universe
2. Combat! Starring Vic Murrow- WWII Skirmish on TV
3. Tournament: Pagentry and Pain- Knightly Retinues at Tournament

Awesome. Thanks! Tournament especially will fill in that medieval itch.