How many at once?

[Angel Barracks]

I am quite sure I am quite odd (steady) in that I only do one scale and one genre/period at any given time.
For a number of years I did 6mm Napoleonics, then 6mm sci-fi and now 15mm fantasy.

The advantage to this is that I am certainly spending a lot less, have a very very small if not non existent lead/resin pile and I can concentrate on the task at hand.
The disadvantage, is (and this may be unique to people who work in the business) that it can get stale, as I suspect that when your hobby becomes a job, the hobby side becomes just more work.

All that aside, how many things do you have on the go at once and do you ever complete them and play?

[Les Hammond]

Only 6mm France 1940. Starting to feel like I’m too old to start anything new, anyway 😀

6mm France 1940

http://les1940.blogspot.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/386297688467965/

[A Lot of Gaul]

Just one: 15mm Ancients, i.e. Caesar’s Gallic Wars.

Cheers,
Scott

"Ventosa viri restabit." ~ Harry Field

[deephorse]

I find that a project/period/idea is never finished.  I can always add another ship/tank/platoon etc. to those that are already completed.  Often this is because something new is manufactured and I suddenly find that I really need to add it to my collection.  I can play a reasonable game with what I already have, but that shiny new thing will add a new dimension to the play experience.

For example, we play 20mm WWII using Rapid Fire unit organisations and a heavily customised version of those rules.  We have all we need to fight any game from June 1941 onwards.  However, about a year or so ago Rapid Fire released ‘Blitzkrieg Battlegroups’ and suddenly I just had to add large B.E.F. and French forces to my arsenal.  And whilst I dont need one, if any company releases a 20mm Somua MCL5 I’ll buy one in a heartbeat.

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[Mike Headden]

One period  (1,000,000BC to 1,000,000AD) and one scale (1/6000-54mm) and a lead pile that will shield me if WW3 turns nuclear 🙂

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[Whirlwind]

Angel Barracks wrote:

All that aside, how many things do you have on the go at once and do you ever complete them and play?

I have lots of projects on the go that I switch between (there is a full list on here).  I do an intense initial burst to get two viable forces ready for gaming: I will have already selected a bunch of appropriate scenarios to get me started.  I don’t ever complete these projects as such, but add smaller numbers of more niche units as the project develops if I feel that I need extras for a new scenario or campaign.  For instance, I added some 1812-era US last year to tackle the War of 1812.  This year I am thinking of doing the Gallic War, Montrose in Scotland, the Thirty Years’ War. 1809 and some late WW2 stuff, so I will get a few extra units of Romans and Gauls, some Highlanders, some Cuirassiers and Light Horse (for the TYW stuff that can’t be proxied by ECW units), some Wurttembergers and an extra company of US infantry.

[Rhoderic]

I’m at the opposite extreme end of the spectrum. I just try to keep my number of projects below triple digits 

From my POV, staleness is definitely not unique to people in the industry side of the hobby. I have on three occasions over the past 15 years decided to jettison everything but one project: Once with 6mm military sci-fi, once with 28mm swords-and-sorcery, and once with Heavy Gear Blitz. Each time I managed to stick with the decision for a couple of years, but in the grand scheme of things that’s still not a very long time span. Staleness always set in, eventually. Trying to sustain myself with inspiration for one and the same project always began to feel like scraping the bottom of the barrel after a while, as I kept re-consuming the same sources of inspiration over and over again, and put ever more effort into finding new sources, usually with diminishing returns. Taking up other projects again after that always felt like a breath of fresh air. Fact is, I love flitting between different themes. It adds an extra buzz to the culture I consume, when I allow myself to be inspired by it to do something different than what I was doing in the immediate past. I always cycle back around to the previous thing eventually, with new enthusiasm.

Also, I’m increasingly of the mind that I can’t justify buying/building terrain and scenery for just one project. The cost-benefit of that approach doesn’t work for me. I’m a great believer in multi-use terrain and scenery, to the point that I like much of it to be multi-scale. This approach even extends partway into figures and models. If I buy a set of 28mm “mid-tech” sci-fi soldiers for instance, then I can use them for both military sci-fi (where they fight enemies similar to themselves) and Aliens-style space horror. Possibly also post-apoc and other settings besides. Obviously each setting requires a separate set of antagonists, but here the multi-use approach comes into play again. Space horror aliens could also be demons or something such in a fantasy setting, or mutant beasts in a post-apoc setting. They may well even be scale-agnostic enough that I can use them as larger monsters in 15mm, or smaller ones in 35mm, and so on.

You might surmise from this, correctly, that I have a fairly granular definition of what constitutes a “project”. It’s not just “15mm fantasy”, for instance. It’s 15mm swords-and-sorcery, 15mm Tolkienesque fantasy, 15mm D&D-style fantasy, and so on, each as a separate project but hopefully sharing at least some of the figures and much of the terrain/scenery between them. So that’s part of the explanation for my having “very, very many projects”, as I would define it myself. Also, no project is a mammoth one. 28mm is exclusively for skirmish gaming. I’m increasingly of the mind that I don’t want to do massed battles in anything smaller than 10mm, and even then I’d probably go all the way down to 3mm for the really big massed battles.

As for whether I ever expect to finish my projects, that’s another matter. I’m not entirely sure I care, to be honest. I prefer not to be reminded of the downsides of the hobby, such as the “lead pile” or the time it takes me to paint anything. Now that I know from experience that I can’t focus on one single project without having that thing turn bitter in the long run, those downsides are just arguments for why I should quit the hobby altogether, not for why I should “slim down”.

[Geof Downton]

Angel Barracks wrote:

…do you ever complete them…

What is this “complete”?

One who puts on his armour should not boast like one who takes it off.
Ahab, King of Israel; 1 Kings 20:11

[irishserb]

I usually have three or four unrelated projects in different periods, scales, or genres in process at any one time.   I guess that you could say that I only game four subjects/periods/genres; Cold War,  WWII, Sci-fi, and Colonial.  but as near as I can figure, I have 32 sets (seems like I’m forgetting something) of forces for the specific, wars, fronts, offensives, etc, that I pursue in those “periods”.

I’ve eliminated all of the periods that sometimes got “stale”, realizing that some periods never seem to do so, and that they are really at the heart of my interests.  That’s why I’ve narrowed by gaming periods so much(?!).  I also look at all of the stuff I game as life long projects.  There is no finishing or completing a period/project short of death.

I share Rhoderic’s approach about multi-use terrain,  trying to maximize utility and use of everything, when possible.  And similarly, maintain multi use figs that have different roles in different “settings” or “universes”.

I can’t imagine that I will ever take on an entirely new project/period/game system demanding all new figures and terrain.  I can see adding things though, likegetting back into fantasy ( still have all of the figs) or maybe gaming in the setting of the movie, The Wind and The Lion.  I would add some figs and terrain, but use existing rules, terrain, and figures as well.  Would that be a new project?  I wouldn’t think of it as such, just an expansion and continuation of something that I already do really.

[kyoteblue]

I only game in 15 mm ( except Naval ) so all my terrain works with whatever period ( kinda) I’m doing.

[OldBen1]

About 5 years ago I switched from 28mm to 15mm for most of my projects.  I sold a ton of terrain as it took up a ton of storage.  I stuck with 10mm for my fantasy because I really liked the coppelstone miniatures.   10mm and 15mm terrain are sometimes interchangeable.  I also still have my 28mm cowboys and terrain that I can’t bear to part with.   Let me know if you are interested! I like sci fi stuff the most, especially when it’s related to movies with aliens and blasters.   I try to finish one project at a time, but I will occasionally add to the terrain if something catches my eye.  I’ve sold a lot and given away a lot too.  I have recognized over time that I get more pleasure planning, researching, and building terrain than I do playing games.  That often helps with selling, I thank the terrain for the creative process, and then sell it.  I also have some 3mm Hoth too.

Oh God I think I really do have a problem!

[Autodidact-O-Saurus]

I only focus on one project at a time and generally I’ll focus for months at a time before shelving it a resuming something else. Since purging so much stuff a few years ago preparing for a move I’ve been pretty restrictive on what I work on. My projects are generally things I have enduring interests in. I’ve been able to successfully resist ‘ohhh, shiney!’ since the purge. I know I’ve got several more moves in the future before landing in my forever home.

Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/

[Thorsten Frank]

I change frequently. It´s a bit depending on my current interests. And I think of my RL ventures in this case, which always plays into my wargaming interests. And if I lose interest in one topic I change to another one. I know myself good enough that I know in a few weeks or months (in some cases years) I will return to this again.
I´ve done mostly 6mm and fleet size (FT) hard sci fi most of the time.  If that´s got a bit stale I change to Silent Death (which I really love) or 28mm sci fi (I have only a few minis in this size). Currently I´m planing to start 15mm sci fi skirmish but I´m a bit unsure about that because I want to have some cardboard buildings in this size. Sadly, there aren´t many in this size. Another project lying dormant for some years now is a medieval/low fantasy game like the Mount&Blade computer game using 1:72/20mm. I never really got into WWII.
So, for example I´m currently in a Silent Death craze and I watch a movie depicting modern warfare I will change to a ground combat game. A few weeks or months later I read a novel (Honor Harrington series and the like) and change to spaceship combat. Then I see a YT vid on air combat and go on to SD again and so on.
But I´m, for sure, not the neurotypical example..

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[jeffers]

I have effectively given up actual ‘gaming’ as the reality of playing never matched the fantasy of planning, but I still like toy soldiers and model kits, so will continue to sculpt, buy, paint and plan whatever takes my fancy. To keep it under control, however, I have cut down quite a bit. I stick to 20mm for Cold War and WW2 desert, 25mm for Napoleonics and 18/15mm for ACW and 1866. I suspect when I get back to AWI that will also be 18mm so I can use the same terrain. My 20/25mm terrain is interchangeable and mostly old Airfix and Masterplan buildings (as per Old School, all my big terrain looks like 1950s Britain).

All that gives me enough to bounce between and keep me fresh. For example, this year I’ve finished sculpting a 25mm Saxon range and some French upgrades for Warrior, primed the last of my West Germans from Elheim and BPM, completed some scratch built ACW fences and about four hours ago sculpted a hand on a Belgian NCO to finish the Cold War range I’ve done for RHModels. Doubt I will ever completely finish anything, but it keeps me off the streets.

oh yes, and add a 1/72 Saab Draken in Danish colours….

More nonsense on my blog: http://battle77.blogspot.com/

[Tony Hughes]

I’m certain that I couldn’t stick to a single period/genre at a time, my interests are too wide and I get distracted very easily. I have managed to get some projects completed to the stage of being able to play a range of games but, as others have said, ‘complete’ is a surprisingly flexible word, you can always add to a ‘complete’ army.

Currently I probably have 4 ‘active’ projects plus terrain items that will be used for two others recently ‘completed’. Queuing up behind those are 4 more that I have at least some figures for and then plans (dreams ?) for about 3 more.

I can handle that in the sense that they will all get some of my time over the next year or two and I will derive enjoyment from them beyond the planning and reading and thinking already done; which is actually my favourite bit.

I know I haven’t finished my Medieval armies that I started buying 30 plus years ago but I don’t really care – I still go back and get them out, re-work the armies I’ll paint one day – and then put them away again. I enjoy that from time to time, not a problem for me.

I’d feel a bit obsessive just doing one period.

 

 

[McKinstry]

Two usually and yes, I get to completion on everything (eventually). Currently I’m almost finished German and British Cruel Seas fleets (Brits for my friend) and then I’ll get back to rounding out mounted Late Romans and Saxon archers for SAGA as I already have finished armies for both. I like keeping two projects in the pipeline to give me a little variety but I won’t take on a third until one of the two is complete. I finished 100+ 1/3000 Age of Sail before starting Cruel Seas and if I knock off the Saxons soon I’ll start in on either Cruel Seas Italians or return to adding some 6mm Blucher.

I’m not big on totally new eras or scales so Cruel Seas was an aberration.

 

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[MartinR]

I have many periods and many scales, but I have so much stuff that really I’m at the stage of just adding bits and pieces to them. In some cases this is something fairly small (I have some  15mm SU76s for my WW2 Russians to do) and sometimes a but more grandiose (I added two entire Corps to my 15mm WW1 Russians last year)

I rarely do something brand new.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[Whirlwind]

Martin, do all your toys get some playing time or do some collections get a lot more use than others?

[OB]

Mostly half a dozen projects bubbling away with one or two taking precedence for painting.  The aim is to have enough units for both sides to put on a game.  Anything above that is a bonus and new units might be added years later.  Pretty much everything is 15mm.

OB
http://withob.blogspot.co.uk/

[Chris Pringle]

Angel Barracks wrote:

I am quite sure I am quite odd (steady) in that I only do one scale and one genre/period at any given time. […] how many things do you have on the go at once and do you ever complete them and play?

I am pretty focused on two categories:

• 19th century grand tactical (roughly corps-sized or larger, using BBB)
• WWII grand tactical/operational (used Kampfgruppe Commander a lot for brigade-sized actions; now getting into the new Breakthrough! rules for corps-sized operations)

These two categories are focused enough that we don’t need to wrestle with a different ruleset every week, but broad enough to encompass a huge variety of armies, weapons, terrain and conflicts so the games never get stale.

Between me and my regular gaming buddies, our collections are large enough that I’ve hardly painted a figure in years. I think I’ve added three armies in the past three years but they were all painted to order complete.

I am therefore happy to report that all my projects are complete enough that I spend my precious time generating scenarios and playing games regularly, rather than painting stuff that may or may not ever get used.

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!

https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info

http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/

[Mr. Average]

I mostly do Sci Fi, and maybe a little modern, and mostly 3mm and 6mm scale. But I don’t say I do “only” one or the other – I just let my mind wander with my projects.

[Darkest Star Games]

I always have way too many projects going, with very few completed.  Since I opened DSG I have been even worse about collecting minis and not getting them on the table, as well as even painting my own armies of my own product, or even having the time to play games at all!

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Deleted User]

I’m a butterfly….not literally, so don’t send for the men with nets.

Only ever one size of figure (1/72 – 20mm) but a dozen different periods; both sides. And I flit from one to another constantly.

Either I have a low attention span or I crave change.

As for finishing periods; never say “never” but AFAIK, I’ll never buy another Punic figure, an additional NKE chariot, a French SYW infantryman etc.

Indeed, if I stick to my “no new periods” rule (with a possible naval breaking of rules), I may well just buy the odd figure, extra unit here & there from now on.

 

donald

[Ruarigh]

Too many projects. Too many different scales. I’ve tried to rationalise my gaming and stick to one scale, but the different scales have different advantages and I, apparently, do not like to limit myself too much. I have completed a number of projects along the way, but there are always ways to expand any given project, so no single project is beyond being picked up and worked on again.

Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

https://roderickdale.co.uk/
https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

[Sane Max]

total opposite to the esteemed OP.

It recently struck me I don’t have anything for the 15th century.Otherwise, I have something for every century from Sumer to WW2, and some SF stuff that might conceivably cover the 21st century as well. (Where IS my flying car? I was promised a flying car. and food pills. Damn you, Tomorrow’s World!

Complete… well, there I AM odd. I am a fundamentally disorganised person, only by exercising ruthless discipline can I prevent myself being buried under piles of sh*t, so I buy an army, paint it, put it in its box, and any leftover bits I bin or give away. I almost never, ever go back and add to stuff. On very rare occasions I will buy something I missed first time round – that’s usually at the point where an army is looking tired and I am stripping and repainting it – but that’s very much an oddity.

At one point I was one of Martin Goddard’s best customers. His little face would light up when i approached his stand at a show. Now, I walk past the stand and he looks sad…. I have bought what I want, done, thank you and goodnight 🙂

Pat

[Author]

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