The new year is a perfect time to start fresh and refocus yourself on the hobby you love! Check out my 5 New Year’s hobby resolutions!
Normally this time of year I will look back at my New Year resolutions I made the previous year, along with my mid-season predictions and resolutions. However, with the way this year has been, I am not going to bother. Instead, I am going to start fresh and look forward to a pandemic free spring and summer (we hope) and eventually get the chance to get together with hobby friends again and get the dice rolling. Without further fanfare here are my 5 hobby resolutions for 2021!
My 5 New Year’s Hobby Resolutions For 2021
- Once I am vaccinated, I am going to commit to playing at least two hobby nights a month if not more. My kids are getting old enough to where I can get them to bed at a decent hour on a weekend and escape out for a couple of hours without feeling guilty for leaving my wife alone to do all the work. I also have the space to host people as well now so that is an option as well, and I think this is very doable.
- Finish my Everchosen army and have a display board ready in time for the Michigan GT in October. Hopefully, by then we will have reached herd immunity and the event can go as planned. Currently, I need to paint 6 Varanguard, 20 Marauders, Slaves to Darkness Endless Spells, a large realm gate, and make the display board to have this completed.
- Start a Necromunda group and have a set of painted terrain for it. I loved Necromunda as a kid and I think it along with Warcry are great entry games into the hobby. I have a Warcry set all painted up so this is the next variation I want to have ready to roll.
- Continue to write one article a week for Spikey Bits and be more active in social media for hobby groups. This past year was hit or miss with being able to find the time to write a weekly article. As well as answer comments on Facebook. Having another kid and being forced to work nights a lot as daycare shut down basically forced me to take a break from the hobby and writing in general. As things return to normal and my kids get older, I can continue to write an article a week and hopefully, pop onto Facebook to respond to any comments it might get on there.
- Continue to paint through my backlog of projects and paint or sell more than I buy this next year. Right now, I have an army from every faction (Stormcast, Tzeentch / Everchosen, Ogor Mawtribes, and Nighthaunt). I have done a pretty good job of getting 2000 points painted up for all these armies (minus the Ogors). But I also have all sorts of other characters I bought and never painted or got in trades that are just sitting collecting dust not doing anything. This year for every model I purchase I want to either paint or sell 5 others. So that I have more completed models than ones on the workbench.
Tall Tasks, but Doable
These are tall tasks for me especially as I only get a couple of hours after the kids go to bed to work on hobby projects. But I think I can do it. We started a weekly zoom hobby night that I hope continues beyond the pandemic. As it is a good way to talk about what you accomplished over the week and to catch up with friends.
I am currently working on the Everchosen army so I think having that finished by October is very doable. And forcing myself to paint 5 models for every one I buy will make me tackle some of the larger blocks of troops I need to get to if I want something shiny and new. Finally, a couple of people I used to regularly game with expressed a lot of interest in doing every other week’s Necromunda game. So I think getting people on board for that will be easy enough.
My 2021 Predictions!
- Broken realms will each come with a starter box. And I think they will come out every 3 months or so. All the big players will get involved and you are going to see more splitting within the factions. I think GW wants to move away from the “Order, Death, Destruction, Chaos” idea and instead, have each army be its own thing. They will still release rules for mixed armies in white dwarf and the specialist books but that is it.
- There will be an Age of Sigmar 3.0 this fall/winter that is tied in with the last broken realms book which will be a much-needed reset for Sigmar. In that, it will continue the story but also allow GW to make some much-needed game balances. Anything leftover from original Sigmar I think is going to go away like the double turn or legacy armies. It will allow them to clean up the activation wars. As well as how overpowered magic can be.
- Games Workshop will start releasing updated army books this spring. That will begin the transition to Age of Sigmar 3.0 and it will begin with the Stormcast and Nighthaunt. I think they will come out with an updated book every 2 months or so along with a new model for that line.
- I think they are going to write the new rules to reflect the smaller table size as well. Like they are doing in Warhammer 40k. The smaller table size allows for more kitchen/dining room tables to be used which will help people play at home and increase their footprint. It will also reflect the shift from ranged and magic combat and give more life to melee centric armies.
- You are going to see 2 brand new armies. And the first I think will be the Shadow Aelves which might be more aligned with Destruction over Order. Then you will see a new death faction in Vampire pirates. I think this faction because I believe they started making these a ways back. But then shelved them with the end times.
Wrap-up
There you have it some hobby resolutions and five predictions that I certainly hope to come to pass. I am usually about 50% right on my predictions so will be very happy if I get 2 or 3 of these right. As always, thank you dear readers for sticking with me for another year. Especially with how inconsistent I was with articles. I appreciate the understanding from everyone over what a crazy and difficult year it has been for the entire world. Luckily, it looks like there is a light at the end of what was a very long and dark tunnel, and we can soon get together and roll dice again like normal. Until then though, please take care of yourselves and your family and stay safe.
Happy New Year,
Trav
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