Keeping The Motivation Alive

Got a big hobby project and feeling the motivation waning? I have found over the years of building armies and playing miniature games that it’s easy to lose motivation when working on a big army project. This is more so for me because I am into multiple game systems (Flames of War, Warmachine, Epic, Malifaux, 40K, and Fantasy) and sometimes I even have more than 1 faction for each game system. I usually make good progress in the beginning, but about a month into the project I start to lose that steam. I have found success before on occasion and I want to share what has worked with me and some people within my gaming group. These two steps have been helpful for me:

 

1.       Break any large project into manageable chunks and set a realistic deadline to achieve a fully painted unit or points goal.
2.       Celebrate your recent achieved goals by playing a game with the minis you just put so much time into.

 

Additionally it really helps to have other people that are willing to take on a similar project with you. It could be for an escalation league where every month you all meet up and play increasingly larger games with your new army. Starting campaigns where each battle result carries over into future games is also a great motivator. I can’t overstate the importance of having a goal in mind.

 

In my kill team game against the Salamanders this lone marine lay in ambush on turn 1

 

 

What I am currently working on is not only a costly project, but time consuming. I am building a Heresy Era Emperor’s Children army at least to 2000 points. This involves purchasing a lot of Forge World minis which I have a budget for, but I have to be smart about what I purchase. I have to be interested in painting what I’m buying so my army might not be the most competitive, but it will definitely look great on the battlefield and be fun for me to play. My gaming group just celebrating the first leg of our escalation league and played 200 point kill team games with our heresy armies. It was a great way to get some games in with our new (and costly) minis and everyone is excited to continue on to our next goal of 600 points.

 

In turn 2 against the Salamanders I had secured an objective moved in for the kill on the right flank

In my 2nd kill team game I fought against a force of Dark Angel veterans in a Rhino. My marines are taking cover against incoming plasma.

I had to play defensively since the Dark Angels had mobility over me. I was hoping my lone haywire grenade toting marine would get to take out that Rhino.

 

After a night of gaming my Emperor's Children were defeated in both of the games I played, but I still had fun showing off my work. I look forward to fielding them in greater numbers when we moved on to standard battles.