March Painting, Final Results

The end of the month has arrived and I have not made my goal. I won’t lie, while disappointed, I’m not surprised. I came very close and encourage you to check out my finished models and works-in-progress over at Instagram. I’m proud of the work I’ve done and anxious to finish the few pieces I have left.

Of course this also means I haven’t played my marathon of games in an attempt to advance through the campaign. I have a couple of interested parties but two things factored into my ability to hold a day of gaming. First, I wasn’t finished painting. To be fair I might have considered playing with some unfinished or unstarted figures but then something else happened; Easter. I was actually unaware that Easter was in March this year. As such, the last week of March ended up being so busy I fell off of my painting and hit the inevitable wall of people doing family things for the holiday.

I’m sad I din’t finish the challenge this month, but I’m happy I tried. In the end, I think that’s what this entire project is for. I will continue to try new things. I wil lkeep challenging myself to new highs and harder goals. For April I have a tournament coming up. It’s a road trip and while I’ve already taken part in a tournament that I’ve written about this year, I may try and do something new for this one. Maybe, play a faction I haven’t used except for some pickup games. Maybe instead of the Guild I’ll play Ressers, or even Gremlins. I don’t know yet. I just know I’ll enjoy the challenge.

March Painting Challenge

This is a short post because I’m done with this month yet. This month, I’ve decided to take a page from the Dice Tower and complete their February challenge. Last month Sam Healey and Rob Oren painted every miniature in the board game Arcadia quest. Once finished they played a game and streamed it live over the internet. I’m trying the same thing this month.

There are a couple of things that make the challenge different for me. First I got the game on Kickstarter. This means that in addition to the base game I have several additional miniatures, boards, scenarios, and expansions. Because of this, I’m limiting myself to only painting the monsters for the base campaign. Additionally, I have lots of extra heroes, so I’m only painting twelve mostly randomly chosen heroes. Second, I said Rob and Sam painted the base set. There are two of them and only one of me. This means that I may not be able to finish. I hope I can; I really want to. Part of my attempt to accomplish this is leading to another gaming first for me, but more on that later. The third problem I’m having is finding enough people who can commit to spending a day playing Arcadia Quest. While I don’t think we’ll finish the campaign, I’d like to at least play deep enough to use all of the figures once. A full campaign consist of six games, I think I can play every mini once in four scenarios. At ninety minutes a game with a break for dinner, that’s a whole day. The original Dice Tower challenge involved streaming the game. I’m just not going to be able to do that. I do not have the cameras, equipment, or experience to accomplish the feat. I wish I did, I’d love to try. I just don’t have the necessary things.

There’s a lot stacking up against me here. I’m going to try very hard to accomplish as much of it as I can. Right now, I’m not sure how much I’ll succeed at.

There are a couple of things I’m doing to help me accomplish my goal. One of them is something I’ve often talked about but never done. Several of my friends play various miniature games. For those games we like to have painted figures. Over the years we’ve talked about having a painting party. A day where we all get together at someone’s house and paint all day. We’ve talked about this for probably twenty years and yet, it’s never happened. This Saturday, it’s going to occur. I will be painting some figs with my friends. They will bring their own minis and projects but we will all hang out, chat, paint, and watch the live stream of Heroes of the Dorm. Go Chicago! (I picked HeroesMeon for the bracket.)

We’re half-way through the month. I still have time to get some people together to help me play. I have a couple of tentative ideas but need to start really nailing people down for the day. Hopefully, I can get done and be ready to go with a completed game.

I’m giving myself a little leeway on this one. I’ve accepted that it is possible I will fail at this in some way. I hope I don’t, but I realize I might. I will post here again as I grow closer to talk about what I might or might not be capable of. Hopefully, I’ll have some pretty good news for you. If you want to follow along, I’m posting pictures on Instagram. I will also try and periscope at least a little of the days in question. If I can accomplish the periscope, I’ll see if I can load them to my YouTube channel. Hopefully, I can succeed. Only time will tell.