Welcome once again to Mayday, Miss Marcy!, where we take your gaming queries (and others!) and provide you with answers (and more answers). We certainly have had quite a year to start off 2026, and the range of questions remains fairly diverse and interesting, but there is a certain air of stress and concern in a lot of what I see from some of you. So, as a general opener, I did want to say that you all out there asking me about how to maintain against a rising tide, just keep doing whatever you can and do what you have to do. Send us questions, post in Discord, share your paint jobs, your games, your newest obsession, whatever it happens to be.
If you aren't a member of our Discord yet, consider it if you're a Patron and looking to have a community of people to talk with; our Discord is a lively place with lots of great people, and if you are looking to just try and socialize a bit, to share some breathing space, then come stop by. We (probably) won't traumatize you too much.
Anyway, before we get to this weeks questions, a reminder of how you can ask me things if you want!
Have a question you want answered on just about anything you’d need advice on in this grand hobby space of ours? Board games, 40k, AOS, TTRPGs, MTG, anything and everything that we cover, we can help with!
It is about to be Valentine’s Day, so if you have any questions for Cupid, well, we can try and address those too.
For some examples, take a look at previous editions of our column at this link with a handy tag to see all previous questions and answers!
If you want to submit questions, we have a few days you can do it. Patrons can use the Discord bot command to ask questions, which will be received anonymously!
If you’re not a Patron, or just don’t want extra steps, you can comment on this article, or e-mail Marcy directly at marcy@goonhammer.com!
Last week we tackled everything from a joke to 6-7 and beyond, and this week we have a new set of three questions to enjoy!
Projecting Much?
Hi Miss Marcy,
First of all, thank you for the column — I really enjoy how Mayday, Miss Marcy! tackles very real hobby problems in a grounded, practical way.
I wanted to ask for some advice related to planning, energy, and follow-through in the hobby.
I absolutely love the planning side of Warhammer: designing color schemes, organizing warbands and armies, thinking about narrative themes for Mordheim, or mapping out future projects for 40k and Age of Sigmar. That part gives me a lot of joy and mental engagement. Where I struggle is translating all that planning into actually sitting down and painting consistently.
It’s not that I dislike painting — once I start, I enjoy it — but I often feel like I’m waiting for the “right” moment, the right mood, or enough energy to begin. As a result, projects stay well-planned but not always progressed.
My questions are mostly about structure and sustainability rather than motivation in an emotional sense:
How would you recommend breaking large projects (full armies or multiple warbands) into goals that feel energizing instead of overwhelming?
Are there planning techniques you’ve seen work well for hobbyists who enjoy organizing and designing, but stall at the execution phase?
How can I structure hobby time so progress doesn’t depend on having a perfect block of free time or ideal energy levels?
Related to that, I’m also curious about balance with daily life. Do you have advice on integrating painting into a regular routine in a way that’s sustainable, instead of something that only happens when everything else lines up?
In short: I want to keep enjoying the planning and creative side I love, while finding a better way to turn that into steady, realistic progress — without feeling like I need to wait for “perfect energy” to start.
Thanks again for all the thoughtful work you do for the hobby community.
Best regards,
Mini the awful painter
Dear Mini,
Wow, there's a lot going on here with this question, so let me try and break it down into a few specific things that I think you're trying to ask me about. I almost debated just answering your question alone this week and going into detail for each one, but I think the reality is that I can try my best to give you quick, useful answers to your question(s).
First, you ask: "How would you recommend breaking large projects into goals", and I think that it may actually help to have some form of planner to do this with. A calendar, a notebook, something that you could write out your specific goals and intentions on and then go from there. By taking a larger project and putting it into some sort of tracked or written metric, I think you would have a far easier time seeing what progress you've made, and going from there. There is also something to be said about the tactile nature of writing it out (or down) that can help.
I think to your next question about time management, I would probably try to first divide your concepts into what sorts of things take certain amounts of time. Painting is often considered "long", but the reality is that it really depends on what kind of painting you are talking about. Painting a full mini from start to finish can take a while, but doing all basing may be actually quick depending on what you need to do. So, again, I really think a hobby journal could very much help you, and you could try to categorize things into what level of effort you think it might take.
Then, you can go a bit more into what you have time or energy for. Something that I really do recommend you consider is that any progress is progress, and you certainly could benefit from that bit of advice above anything else. Using a journal or calendar or anything to help you is great, but it is also worth knowing your limits; if you don't have energy for something, don't force yourself, and also, don't worry too much about if you can do a lot or a little, just try to do, and on days when you can't, that's fine. You have many, many more days!
Long Lasting Fun (For You)
Hi Miss Marcy,
I have a confession: I am not a slow player on purpose, but I tend to be something of a slow player in order to really take a good picture of what is happening and plan out my moves. I do not really play competitively very often, but when I have, I sometimes run into the problem of being accused of slow play. I don't really know how to tell someone that I am not playing slow on purpose, because that just sounds both like an admission but also it sort of sounds... lame. I also don't think I'd have fun "speeding up" to make other people happy, because I enjoy playing the way I play.
Turtle Trouble
Dear Turtle,
I kind of feel like it sounds rude to say, but you may have to actually consider the fact that you ARE playing slower than you could be and that it is having an impact on the people around you. You say you like to be thoughtful, but there is a difference between thoughtful play and slow play, and even if you are not meaningfully being slow, you are causing the game to slow down to a grind. I think maybe you are not really understanding how slow you are or what you are doing, and that perhaps is creating an issue in the sense that you play casually, in which the points aren't real and the games don't matter, but then you don't use anything to help you keep in mind that competitive games have time limits and that your opponents are looking to play and move on, not just play you for fun.
Maybe you really don't play as slow as you think, but also I think you need to try and be more mindful of the people around you in the situations you are playing in. If you are going to play competitively, you should avoid being a "slow player", and you also need to ensure that this isn't just some guy one guying you about it; it sounds like it has happened multiple times, though, so you should at least try to consider that multiple people have this problem with you.
The Horrors Persist
Dear Miss Marcy,
How the hell do I do anything these days? Everything seems literally awful all the time, and I am just totally starting to feel like my hobbies are either a waste of time, or some sort of luxury I shouldn't have.
Conflicted in Chaos
Dear Conflicted,
For the sake of the readers, I cut down your question a bit, as it got very specific about certain topics and I opted to help protect your privacy a bit. In reality, I never really expected my little advice column to be a place for people to ask about questions so related to the absolutely horrible state of the world, from transphobia or homophobia to sexism and lately to the danger of just trying to travel to play a game. The reality is that you are not wrong to feel a sense of guilt for having hobbies or enjoying things while the world is on fire, but there is a distinct difference between not caring about things, and caring about things too much!
There's a Boondocks quote, "You do what you can," and that is what you have to remember. Even when things seem absolutely terrible, there's nothing wrong with giving yourself something to enjoy or some escape that helps you survive. I know it is a meme at this point, but there is some veracity to the idea of playing Tetris after extremely stressful or traumatic events, and that kind of applies to many hobby activities. You need to be able to relieve your mind of the stress, anxiety, and other feelings you are having, or you are simply going to not be able to get anything done at all.
There is value in doing good work and helping people when you can, of being informed and being an ally, all of that is important, but you also just have to remember that if you can't help yourself, you can't help anyone. So paint your little plastic dudes, flop cards, roll dice, play the horse game, do something to remind yourself that the world is more than the horrible things that happen on a daily basis.
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