Last year I set a challenge for myself to not buy any Warhammer miniatures. It was my personal Warhammer challenge for 2024. It’s now the end of the year and I decided to review the past 12 months. I wanted to see how the challenge helped me against my pile of miniatures.
Overall, the NO Warhammer challenge didn’t go badly. The whole idea of the challenge is to divide your miniatures collection into discrete sets determined by specific criteria, i.e. all the miniatures for one faction. You cannot buy any miniatures that meet those criteria. First, you must paint all your existing collection of that set.
This worked pretty well for me because it allowed me to buy some bits without going crazy. It also forced me to finish what I had before buying new stuff. Sometimes it just prevented me from buying anything altogether. So let’s see what happened in 2024.
Gitz Gitz Gitz
I planned to focus on a primary set this year. My goal was to finish my Gloomspite Gitz for Age of Sigmar. This project involved finishing an impressive army. It’s an army which counts over 50 models and a massive piece of terrain. And that’s just the 2000 points I had in mind – there is more that’s still grey! Given my painting speed I’m super pleased to finally have an army fully painted. This is, hands down, the biggest achievement of my hobby life because :
- I never ever had an army in the first place
- Never ever had a fully painted one at that.
Now, the viability of the army it’s a whole different kettle of fish. I took so long to paint that the 4th edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar came out. This rendered the squigs completely useless.
Moonstone
Moonstone was another game which was its own set. If you haven’t already, please check out the game as it’s incredibly fun! I painted some characters of the Goblins (obviously) faction. They are super fun. I didn’t manage to completely finish the collection before buying some more. Due to time commitments and a game that was scheduled, I had to buy a couple more minis for it. However, the last miniature before the purchase was about 70% complete so I’ll give myself a pass.
Warhammer Underworlds
At the beginning of the year I set myself to paint my Wurmspat Nurgle Underworlds warband. Suffice to say that I haven’t got around to it. Game Workshop released so many Underworlds boxes that I pretty much checked out and lost interest. Until the new edition was announced.
I really like the Brethren of the Bolt warband. However, I knew I couldn’t buy it. Not all my Underworlds stuff was painted. And so I came up with a grand plan: sell what I have, then get what I want.
And so I managed to stay within the boundaries of my Warhammer challenge. My set was complete so I was allowed to buy new stuff!
Some Sylvaneth
I went to my first ever Warhammer tournament at Warhammer World this year. I had a blast. It was an incredible experiece (thanks Tim for inviting me!).
I played against Jimbo’s amazing Sylvaneth army. For those who do not know, Jimbo is one of Age of Sigmar’s designers. His army was gloriously painted. This, combined with the hype of being at the event, made me buy some Sylvaneth to take home. I purchased one Arch Revenant to try some paint schemes.
Concluding the NO Warhammer challenge
In the end I didn’t quite stuck to the rules. I broke the challenge with both Moonstone and Age of Sigmar. Thankfully I didn’t break it by much, and that was the whole point of the challenge.
I’m looking forward to repeating it for 2025. Keep an eye out for the next post, where I’ll formalize the rules so that you can take part yourself!