Motivated Guardsman?

A new year means new projects and back to work! So we need motivating! The Christmas cheer and New Year spirits have now passed and we are all enjoying being back at work. To help yourself along this first week back you should do some hobby!

Here are some of my top motivators for getting stuck into hobby this first working week of 2015!

1. Secret Santa / Deadlines

Christmas has gone and all the madness is subsiding. I need to complete this mini for ResinJunkie as soon as I can. It’s dragging now and I’m going to feel like a right idiot when he has finished mine and his from me isn’t completed and ready for posting. I should also try and extrapolate this into other projects too so I complete those too. Perhaps a trip to Warhammer World is needed with a fully painted army!

2. Guilt

Playing against others with painted minis sure does make one feel daft. They’ve spent so much time on their minis, given them the attention they need to get the most from the models – then there’s mine still in grey plastic, unloved. The guilt is motivating! Also, it’s simple science that a painted mini results in more rolls of a six. Probably.

3. Losing Games

A lost game is an opportunity to re-read the rules and recap on a codex, break out your favourite list building app and start putting together that much better force. This new force won’t get tabled but will have a model or two left at the end of the game. It won’t win, but it won’t get tabled this time! List building is a massive part of this hobby for me, its not just adding numbers up. It is reading the rules, reading a codex and giving a force a purpose then putting it into that purpose without faltering and letting your opponent control the game’s flow. Undoing an opponent’s ‘best list’ can be extremely satisfying.

4. Tactics Test Drive

Devising a new list with a new purpose is a great way of getting stuck into your hobby and a game. Those thoughts just never stop.

If I use that HQ with that unit and then join this other HQ to that unit too I will get a 2+ save and Feel No Pain – plus a 12″ bubble of Leadership 10!

Of course these plans do not survive the first dice roll, let alone your opponent’s first turn. So we need to go back to drawing board and redo those tactics, read that codex again, buy your opponents codex and read that too. So NOW you’re ready to win!

6. Free Time (Bonus)

A quick bonus, I said five, I meant six. Free time, its rarer than a Guardsman blob of 50 landing more than 4 wounds. When I get some free time I need to pounce on it to ensure it all gets used up! No taking my time getting set up and ready, bish bash bosh and I am up and running. All my hobby stuff is neatly hidden away, I have no hobby area, but it can very quickly be out and ready to go.