Didn't this just start a bit ago!?-DavidB

 

This has possibly been the most stressful challenge year of all I have participated in. I knew my military retirement was coming due, but I was not ready to receive my letter over Christmas. The Sgt Maj of Michigan is someone who I have deployed with many times, the first time I met him he was my company's 1st Sgt. In the twilight of my career, I have discovered that the anyominity I worked hard to keep has been disrupted by many officers and sgt majors who know more about me than I am comfortable with. National Guard is divided with a small full time staff that does a lot to keep the weekend component trained and functioning with long workdays. I have been placed in a priority status which is very uncomfortable especially as I know that much of the meetings and appointments have occured during holidays and often at the whims of multiple schedule conflicts. The soldiers processing my retirement have had their lives disrupted as much as my time reserved for painting miniatures. I am thankful for the retirement processing and as much as it has been disrupting for me, I know of a few soldiers who had long driving times and hours from family just to push my packet along. 

I did have a plan before the challenge which consisted of multiple totes filled with prepped miniatures. When I cleaned the man cave after Adepticon, a lot of those totes had to be placed back into the mountain of neglect. If I had the time available, I would have gotten more of the Horus Heresy White Scars painted, but as no game with them is looming the 5th can wait till next winter. I did get to play many games of WarCry with the stormcast eternals. The games were fast and there is a lot of depth to the game. The Stormcasts are tanks and deal devastating damage even with poor dice. I only lost two warriors to terrain effects like lava pits and none to enemy attacks. the only game lost was due to not achieving objectives. I would like to get a chaos band and perhaps not have to march across a table to fight!

40k and 30k White Scars will be back as I purchased more of each at adepticon.

Although I fell short of my goal, I did get a lot of miniatures painted and have a splendid board for playing Carnevale on...so far only Warcry was played as my friends did not complete their Venice gangs. the blue canal water was considered to be lava in our WarCry games....perhaps I should do another board of lava pools and ruins.... I wasn't able to view the posts and comment much due to retirement, family, and work. I barely found the time to paint what I did and was left with no time to comment on the posts as I would have wished. The cheering from participants and the comradery as well as the parade of miniature eye candy are my favorite part of the challenge and I wasn't able to participate there at all. a big Cheer to Sander for having the most Big Stompiest Robots of Death ever...I have some more stompy robots for next year if you want another go, Sander!

At least Military adventures will cease soon as well as being in places where cyber security shuts down all unapproved websites.  I am sure Stuart maintained his lead, but there are many skulls lurking in my Mountain of Neglect...keep your noggin polished Stuart!

I have some more meetings and classes for retirement even today! I seem to remember it being easier to enlist and there was more typewriters and note pads. Also the mustache is definitely out of regs, however, I am older than most Sgt Majors. My mustache still has a few strands of original hair color and has served longer and seen more combat than most current soldiers too ;)

I hope to see you all when the snows come again and It seems I will have some free time shortly.

A big Thank You to Curt for dreaming up this fun Challenge and for Lady Sarah supporting and now painting! Also a shout of Thanks for Dallas for fixing my posts even as I was more wicked than a cat with a half full glass of water on a table edge! 

Until winter comes again, OldMan actual out.