From StuartL - All's Well That Ends Well

Hi all,

Well, that is Challenge XIII in the bag, so I guess a wrap up post is all that is really left for me to do. First off, my apologies for not commenting on posts anywhere near as much as I should have. Between work, pushing myself to spend every free minute painting and a technical issue where my phone (my main way of viewing the challenge) and blogger refused to co-operate, I found it quite rare for me to have a chance to sit and post. Now that the challenge is over, I have been taking a break from the blog and painting in general, just to clear my head a bit and deal with some things I had been putting off over the winter. It was great to see so many challengers post so many cool models though. 

On to my challenge wrap up then. 

Minioning

This was my first year being a minion and it was.... challenging, but a lot of fun. The Saturday crew kept me pretty busy, and there was a lot to learn about how the challenge works behind the scenes. That said, it was good to see what my minionees were up to and watch their various projects grow. The time differences made things a little tricky in places as the 'challenge day' was split across my Saturday and Sunday. Assuming Curt will have me in such a position of easily abusable authority again, I wouldn't mind minioning in the future.

Duels

As I am sure many wargamers know, there are three great strategic blunders you can make. 

1. Starting a land war in Russia.

2. Underestimating indigenous forces when they are defending their homes. 

3. Entering a Squirrel duel when there is a retiree in the running.

Now, I have never made the first two blunders, but seem determined to make the 3rd over and over again. ChrisW absolutely thrashed me in the Squirrel duel, well done sir. Between the two of us we accounted for more than half of the total squirrels this challenge, so I will hoist my silver trophy with pride.

Despite my loss in the Squirrel duel, I am happy to be crowned two-time champion of the Skullz duel. Not only that, but I also set a new Skullz record at 1575, easily surpassing the previous record of 1363 set by...ME! Given that I have painted nearly all of my old Cities of Death terrain from GW, I doubt I will ever reach those dizzying heights again, but hopefully the duel will continue for years to come.

Finally, in the Turnip28 competition, I was never really in it to win it. Before the challenge started I didn't even have any minis for the game and just threw stuff together from my bits boxes. The minis were fun to build and great to paint, so I will hopefully have a chance to finish off my army sometime before the next challenge. One of my local gaming friends has also started building a force of root-related horrors. 

Painting

For this challenge, I set myself the target of 2160 points, which should have been enough to propel me to the dizzying heights of the 10,000 lifetime points club. In fact, I managed to surpass that target by nearly 1000 points, finishing on a personal best of 3116 points. True, I had to abuse the heck out of the bonus points system, (about 680 points came from the Studio Tour and Lady Sarah's Limousine), but I also finished 449 models, again a personal best. Speaking of models, this is my entire output except for my gift shop entries, which have already been passed on to their new owners:

Wrap-up

So, that is Challenge XIII over and done with, time to start preparing of Challenge XIV. With a new edition of 40K on the way, dozens of armies and projects half complete (and some new ones started) and ideas for a home-made skirmish system kicking around in my head, I have plenty to keep me busy over the next 81/2 months. See you all in December!