PAINTING: Points mean prizes

It's traditional at the end of the year to look back at what you've achieved and to look forward to the coming year. Over my next few blog entries I plan to look at each aspect of my gaming life in turn and talk about what happened this year and and what I plan to do next year.

First up is painting.

In 2008 I painted:

• 36 infantry models
• 1 Monster
  
• 3 vehicles
• 1 Superheavy vehicle

According to the formula outlined below my score for the year was 91.

Not bad going. But it could be better.

Now I'm signed up to the Warseer Tale of 40k painters pledge I should continue to finish painting models at a respectable rate. They will be Blood Angels until August when I should have a full 2000 points finished. At that point I'll have a decision to make; press on with my Marines until I complete the lot or switch to painting Orks. At the moment I'm leaning toward the Orks but I'll make the final decision nearer the time.

Scores on the doors
In order to motivate myself in 2009 I'll add a running total of models painted to each of my painting blog entries and I'll try to beat the 2008 score. As I'll undoubtedly be painting models of all shapes and sizes across a range of games systems I'll need a series of categories to be able to compare them.

At the bottom of the scale will be an infantry model, such as a Space Marine or Chaos Warrior. Next will be cavalry or bikes, then come large models like monsters or dreadnoughts. Further up the scale come vehicles and the largest models of all will be Superheavy vehicles.

The formula
I obviously won't be painting exactly the same proportion number of infantry, cavalry, monster and vehicle models so I need a way to compare one set of models to another. Here is the formula I came up with.

• Infantry = 1 point
• Cavalry or bikes = 2 points
• Monster or Dreadnought = 5 points
• Vehicle = 10 points
• Superheavy vehicle = 20 points

My aim for 2009 is to score 100 points or more.

Dogfaces and Wolves
I've added another Imperial Guard game to my battle reports blog and you can scope it out here. It was a great game against Wayne's Space pups.

GENERAL: Howay the lads

This is just a quickie before I leave to go to the match (Newcastle v Liverpool).

I've put up another game involving my Imperial Guard over on my Battle Reports blog. It was yet another game against Gary's powerful Chaos Space Marines army. Could I do any worse than my last two games with the Guard? Read on to find out.

GENERAL: Hounded

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and ate too much and drank too much. I know I did and I'm still devouring the leftovers now.

Even if you don't normally bother reading my battle reports I'd advise you to take a quick peek at this one. Reading it back it would have made me laugh out loud - if it hadn't happened to me. I wouldn't believe the unlucky chain of events if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

It was a game with my new Imperial Guard army versus Gary's Chaos Space Marines. This was back in the day when the Daemons were part of the Chaos Space Marine list. It was also in the days when units could consolidate from one combat to the next. This game alone shows the reason why that rule was changed.

The horror, the horror...

GENERAL: Atten-hut!

As promised here is the first of a whole host of Imperial Guard battle reports. All these games were played with my newly built and lovingly painted Cadians which were released around 2003. As far as I can remember most of these games were played when the book was released just before the introduction of 4th edition 40k. Aaahh, the good old days of rhino rush and consolidating from combat to combat.

I'd love to go back to my Guardsmen one day as I like the standard of painting and modelling I put into them, I still have some spare models to add to the army (and a painted but as yet unplayed Baneblade) and they will have a new codex early next year. Lets hope Games Workshop make them competitive because as these battle reports show, the poor old dogfaces have been struggling for years.

All this reminiscing made me dig out my old Imperial Guard models and I found quite a haul. I could potentially make a decent sized Praetorian and Catachan army with the models I already own, and I could also make a start on a Renegade IG army too. My instinct at the moment (and I have already changed my mind several times regarding the Praetorians in even the short lifetime of this blog) is to flog everything bar the Cadians and Renegades. This would generate more income for my New Model Fund and at the same time allow me to focus on my existing armies better.

Decisions, decisions...

GENERAL: I'm too old for this...

Well, I survived the Christmas party, but only just.

I drank three pints of lager, 10 bottles of lager and had two double Jack Daniels. I paid for it this morning when I had to get up for work at 7:30. Ooof.

I was good for nothing all day except going on the bacon buttie run. I'm rounding off a bad food day by ordering a Chinese takeaway tonight. I really need all those carbs. Honestly.

Anyhoo, this is the last Daemonhunters battle report I can port over from my old, defunct website. It was a memorable game against Gary's fledgling Eldar army. In this game he managed to scrape together 1400 points of pointy ears versus my 1500 points of Ordo Malleus. To help balance the game I suggested Gary choose the mission. Good stuff.

Imperial Guard games will make up the next thirty or so battle reports I'll be reposting. I guess it's a good time to be refreshing them just ahead of the rumoured Imperial Guard codex release in March.

Will I be able to press on with my Blood Angels or will the Guard grab my attention?

GENERAL: Falcons...bah, humbug!

Here we go again with another Daemonhunters battle report. This was an encounter with Gary's Eldar army. Reading it over again I began to remember where my hatred of Falcons came from.

There'll be nothing from me tomorrow as I'm at work and then straight out on my big Christmas party. If I survive the night I might be able to eke out some gaming and blog time at the weekend.

Here's hoping!

GENERAL: Pointy-eared elves everywhere

I'm starting to feel like I'm taking control of things again. My Christmas shopping is all but done and the presents are wrapped, my parties are organised and my work is mapped out until the holidays. I love it when a plan comes together.

Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in some hobby time soon.

Meanwhile, I'm still counting down the Daemonhunter battle reports and here is the third from last. It's a game against Gary's fledgling Eldar army.