Well, here we are. The first 6 months of 2015 are over and gone and I thought it would be a good time to see how I was doing on my resolutions I posted back in January when the blog was still in it's infancy. I have put the original text from that article in purple and my commentary in the usual black font to keep it obvious what is what.
1) End the year in the UK top 50 (Malifaux Rankings). People needed 4 solid showings to make the top 50 this year. Think it will be even harder for 2015 so will probably need to end in the top 3rd of 4 events (just a guess, hard to say in advance). Also now that their are faction rankings up I would also like to end up in the Neverborn top 10.
Well it turns out I am stronger player than I thought I would be when I wrote this (having only done two tiny events in 2014). I had this goal locked up by the end of February which is pretty cool. Currently ranked 14th overall and 3rd in Neverborn. The current goal on this front is to qualify for Masters, which means I need to finish in the top 15 at the end of the year. I think I've probably got 4 or 5 more events this year I will attend and I likely need two strong finishes to qualify.
2) Use someone other than Dreamer in a tournament game
I actually just completed this one in my last event, Summer Showdown, where I took Pandora for two games. Hoping to get some more playing time in events with Pandora and eventually expand to the point where I can take any of the 7 Neverborn masters by Nationals in November.
3) Only use painted models in tournaments
So far so good. Have definitely avoided using some strong models because they were unpainted. I can't see any reason I wouldn't complete this one as I have come this far without using an unpainted model and my collection of painted models is growing (sadly so is the collection of unpainted models..)
4) Play in at least two large tournaments (League of Extraordinary Henchman for sure. Hopefully UKGT. Probably more)
By the end of the year I will likely have done 5 or 6 30+ player events and have already done 3 and two events with 28 players (one of which was Vappafaux which was actually 56 players split into two pools)
5) Paint Lynch and Viktoria crews to decent standard
Well this is the first goal I haven't completed yet. Lynch's crew is currently on my painting table and will definitely be done. Viktorias is the one I am not sure about since I am playing all neverborn at the moment and have a ton of models for them to paint but hopefully by the end of the year they will be painted up as well.
6) Try new painting techniques to improve painting quality (same with basing. Thinking about trying water effects for Viktorias)
Have definitely completed this. Started using water effects, tried to do some semi-transparent stocking, gotten better at highlighting and most recently took my first attempt at painting tattoos.
7) Have playable crews for multiple Neverborn Masters (Dreamer is done. Lynch crew is partially built. Pandora, Lucius and Zoraida are in the planning stages)
Dreamer is done, Pandora is done, Zoraida is done. I now have all 7 neverborn masters and am currently in the process of painting my Lynch crew. Undecided which master will be 5th but regardless, this goal is a success.
8) Win a tournament (this is the hardest one and the one most out of my control, but you gotta set some tough calls. Shoot for the stars and all that...)
Well I've come 3rd twice and 2nd once this year but no tournament wins as of yet. Haven't gotten over that hump yet sadly. Not so sure this one will happen as most of the events I am planning on attending in the rest of the year are larger events with some very good players attending, but I always knew this was the toughest goal for me from a playing/hobby standpoint.
9) Continue to keep the blog at two posts a week (with the goal of contributing one article myself most weeks)
With the exception of one week in 2015 (and a couple weeks off for Christmas) we have posted at least 2 articles every week since the blog launched. We were at 3 posts a week at our peak but content has fallen off a bit which is something I need to work on getting back on track (both by encouraging other contributors and by writing more myself)
10) Finish Dreamer tactica (At least the 6 parts I have planned. Currently working on Part 3 still..)
Work has been much busier this year so haven't had the time to sit down and write for hours at a time which is what some of these long-form tactical posts require (for me, others may be much quicker but I am a slow meticulous writer). This has been the goal I am most disappointed in failing so far as one of the main reasons I wanted to start the blog was to do this series and I haven't touched it in 2015. I started writing parts 3-5 in the fall but they ended up incredibly bloated an incomplete. I have also learned a ton since then tactically from all the events of playing Dreamer. The other issue I have with these posts is I never really did figure out a strong structure for parts 3 and 4 (part 5 being much shorter and easier but useless until the previous two are done) which has made it very difficult to go back to and try to finish. Plus a ton of my blogging time has been taken up this year by #TOMB2 and tournament recaps. That being said I am still hoping that I will get this one complete this year. Or at least get Part 3 on Restless Dreams up. No promises though.
11) Help create London tournament scene. Although Peter (Dr Walnut) is our local henchman and the main onus behind our tournament plans for 2015, I would like to blog team as a whole to be involved in creating more of a competitive scene in London. We did a great job in 2014 getting people started in the game, now it is time to work on establishing at least a couple London events in the year.
I haven't really done anything here. But it is still a success thanks to Peter! We are having our 2nd event at Dark Sphere on July 19 and it is looking like a much larger event than the first one. Also the Tanelorn boys and Croydon guys have also had an event each (with another Tanelorn one coming up in the fall I believe) so the London scene is really growing. Our local DS community has also exploded this year with tons of new players coming in and immediately buying handfuls of crews.
12) Get the Abnormalifaux crew organized into a proper team. Need to get organized with shirts, team wooden spoon, etc. Since we all play together already it shouldn't be too tough, but like the idea of being official like all the other cool teams out there.
Still no team spoon/item yet but we do have t-shirts (most of us.. some people still haven't bought them) and we are listed as a team on Malifaux Rankings. Want to try and get the team out to more events, but it is tough with all the real life stuff getting in the way for people who have more responsibilities than me.
13) Start my "(insert Master here) after 5" articles series. This is my series of articles I am planning on writing for Masters other than Dreamer. I have currently only played Dreamer more than a couple times. I am planning on writing an article on each master I collect after I have played 5 games with them. I feel like this is enough games to make some initial reaction without it being too messed up by a small sample size. Obviously these articles will be focused on first impressions rather than a detailed analysis like my work on Dreamer. First up will either be Viktorias or Lynch depending on who I decide to focus on first this year (outside of tournaments, where I will still be using Dreamer).
Fail. Just... fail. Currently I've only played more than 5 games with Pandora so it's not like I'm THAT far behind, but still have no idea whether or not this series will actually come to be and what it will look like if it does.
So in the end I have completed 7 goals, am on pace to complete 3 more, and am currently looking at failing 3 goals. Other than winning a tournament the clear failure is to keep on top of my writing my tacticas for the blog. I've put out a lot of shorter articles, did #TOMB2, and have posted some very extensive tournament recaps but haven't worked on any of the cool tactical articles, especially on Dreamer, that I was hoping to. Hopefully the next half of the year will be as succesful as the first was from a playing and painting standpoint and I can improve my consistency as a blogger and get the Sweet Dreams Tactica back on track.
I guess only time will tell.
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