"If you were starting over with a clean slate..." Topic

What would you do?

If you had total liberty to take all that you know now of wargaming and its ancillary subjects, and you could start with a 100% clean slate -

What would you do?

Smaller scales or larger? Grandiose or niche? Well known periods or obscure?

I almost wish I had no minis any longer, just so I could do this.

Nothing I had fun doing what I have and look forward to more and new experiences

I'm not asking if you would do it over, but whether and what you would do differently?

I might consider going with 1/72 plastics for EVERYTHING, even with my love of 6mm for all but skirmish gaming.

Doug

I would not go smaller than 28mm. It is what I enjoy painting. I've done 15 and 6mm, but they are not as nice to paint. I do WW2 in 20mm and they are okay to paint, but given all that is coming out today in 28mm, I would not start a smaller scale.

I would love to say that I would stick with a few eras, but I am too much of a magpie for that to happen.

Matthew

I would start earlier at a younger age. When I was a single army officer I had plenty of disposable income compared to now (married and two kids). The only drawback is that the minis out there now are quite a leap ahead of what was available twenty to twenty five years ago – especially in 15mm, my main focus.

Russ

If money were no object, I would do it all over in 40mm….big tables and big games……still might go that route, just need to increase my cash flow :)

I would have went with 15mm and smaller from the start.

I would have done 15/18mm armies for everything but skirmish, where I would have done 25/28mm and anything WW II to the present, in 20mm. I would have started as a solo gamer waiting for everyone else to catch up!

I would not have started and sold off the following:

3 Sassanid Persian armies
Landsknecht army
Aztec army
Age of sail ships
2 15mm British Napoleonic armies

I have sold quite a few armies that I played with and lost interest in. Those I would not consider failures.

My problem is I start a lot and for a long time never finished. So I ended up with a polyglot collection.

With wisdom I would have stuck exclusively to 6mm for mass battles, and 15mm for skirmish.

I would have learned earlier to buy painted for "side" projects.

I would try and keep focused on my main periods of interest, (ACW, SYW, Punic Wars, & WW2) I would not have switched scales, and kept to true 15's. I still need to make a plan for what I need and quit impulse buying.

I probably would do what I am doing now – armies in 6mm for imagi-nations in 3 periods:

1. Dark Ages / Medieval
2. Horse & Musket
3. Sci-Fi (both land and space battles although I'd scratch build the ships and they wouldn't be 6mm)

I would use One Hour Wargames for the scenarios and army lists. That would mean that I would not need very large armies.

Stick to Ancients, ACW, and Epic Armageddon only all in 6mm scale.

I would have stuck to 54mm from the age of 12 when I started with Little Wars…

Or perhaps been better at collecting one period in depth rather than getting a small amount of lots of periods.

I am contemplating a clear out of a number of periods and narrowing my focus down to a few periods instead of the 15-20 that I currently have forces for…

Mike

10mm for everything, which would make terrain and storage much easier.

I am absolutely sure about this one – I would do everything in 20mm plastic and get all my terrain in just one scale. For fantasy armies I'd buy very limited amounts of metal 25mm figures to be giants and huge monsters etc.

I'd buy less games that I'd never go on to play (that's all the GW stuff cleared out!).

I would get all my armour and vehiclke requirements either from Armourfast or PSC or diecast metal.

Basically – I'd save myself a hog load of time. And probably a shed load of money too.

After thinking about this for a couple of moments, I arrived at a surprising conclusion.

I started pursuing miniatures because of the availability of figures of interest at local shops. They were affordable and available back then.

Now, the local shop carries GW and FOW in the way of miniatures. I just cranked through the numbers, and they are wildly more expensive than what we bought back in those early days. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't do it, if I had to do it now.

I know the figs now are generally better than then, and that less expensive figs are available on the net(but I probably wouldn't know that as a non-gamer). As a student, I simply couldn't afford today's hobby shop figs, and as an older fart, I wouldn't likely consider it.

I'd probably just build occasional display models, and still draw and paint as a hobby.

Now, assuming that I got into the hobby from a different angle, I would have stayed more focused on primary interests through the years (colonials, tanks, and sci-fi). I wouldn't have spent as much time with several pre-1900 periods that simply were not my primary interests. I don't regret the games and time spent with others gaming those periods, but realized that time and health will keep me from doing things that I then thought I would eventually get around to.

1/72 plastics (maybe) but would get both historical sides.

I think I should have concentrated on doing a few things really well and not have been so much of a magpie collector.

I have different answers whenever I ask myself this question. That probably means something …

I've said 1/72 plastics in the past.

But I think if I were to start over now, and budget weren't an issue, I'd go for 28mm Quar instead of the 15mm Quar I have now.

andy

Two ways to approach this question -- you're robbed clean, but given a big insurance check to start over? Or you regain the years, your youth, your passions of the time?

I'd like the youth bit, with the disposable income and better eyesight. But I'd also like the diversity of figures and rules to choose from that we have today.

All told, I think I've enjoyed the journey that got me where I am today, and while there were dead ends pursued and piles of unfulfilled dreams in my basement, there were some grand times to be had in the process.

Go with 1/72, 1/600 and 6mm.

Standardise on 15mm for everything.

And 6mm for everything else:)

I'd probably use 15mm for my mass battles still and use 28mm for skirmish,ive made too many rebasing errors trying to use small scale stuff for skirmishes.id also not sell anything on ebay ever as I always end up with sellers regret!

I started gaming many years ago with 20mm (1/76/1/72 scale)WWII company level games, then wanted something bigger so I went to 1/300:1/285 scale. And Battletech of course. When I lived overseas the group I gamed with used 25mm Napoleonics in company level games but upon my return to the states everyone was into 15mm and battalion size game. It is not the level of choice but the level of your fellow gamers that drive the scale. Now it is also the industry that will dictate the scale as every decade they change scales and force us into something else.

just my nickles worth of dimes

1/72nd plastics

Stayed with my Avalon Hill collection…..would have saved thousands……

1/72 plastic.

Not gone into it at all and saved a bundle and would have had hung out with a more sociable crowd.

28mm Napoleonics and WW2 Flames of War at least if I follow the advice of play what is most popular in your area.

I just wish I was more interested in gaming those two.

Otherwise I am really attracted to 3mm Cold War, but can't see them at tabletop distance the way I used to.

I'd probably stick with 28mm fantasy and sci-fi. I'd probably skip 40k, but I did have an awful lot of fun with that game.

If I was sure my club would go with me, I would strongly consider going 15mm.

28mm Napoleonics instead of 1/72 Italeri plastic. I am admitting that I cannot paint that small anymore due to vision problems and now have to possibly get rid of them -- 30 to 40 boxes of them. Not good at all…

I would commit the same mistakes and would end with the same mountain of unpainted lead. That's the sad truth.

I'd have really limited myself. Only two periods that need mass armies, both in 15/18mm and not even looked at 25/28mm. This seems to be a common thread with lots of people wishing they had gone for smaller size figures.

I'd still do WW1 and WW2 air in the same way – no regret about how I went about that. I think I'd also add WW2 as a skirmish level game/collection.

My one main real mess up was doing the Sudan in 28mm. If I'd bought one box and painted them that would have been enough for me but I was given ten boxes so had to paint them all. Having got that many figures I then needed more. I'm still not convinced that it's a great period to play even though the figures I have might be amongst the best in my collection. (Oh and painting pirates was great fun but a futile exercise for me.)

I like the idea of never getting into the madness – how much more I'd have gotten done and there'd be lots more storage room – for my wife to fill up!

But seriously, I'd have switched over to 10 mm and been dissatisfied until Pendraken joined the fray and then I would've gone a little nuts.

Simple: 28mm for skirmish level games and 6mm for larger games on my land based games: 1/1200 for my sailing ships, 1/600 for my ACW ironclads and coastal WW2 boats and 1/2400 for my WW2 big ships. For aviation I would go 1/285 or 1/300 for all but my WW1 biplanes which would be probably 1/144 scale. This is all what I do now so the the only change would have been to skip the forays into 15mm and 20mm which diverted precious resources away from my true enjoyment.

Interesting responses. My own discontent is based on my own overreach. Too many scales, too many periods and often to try to mesh with the enthusiasms of others. In fact, I am choked on lead and don't get anything done.

Like many, I'd go smaller scale for mass battles, and mostly 6mm. I tend to like the slightly offbeat – SYW instead of Napoleonics, Peloponesian War instead of Alexader and Successors. But… Maybe the wrong decision. With hindsight, I think I'd focus more on the archetype for a period than the niche.

More focus on building periods I like for friendly games than for tournaments as well.

Definitely I'd do it again. I think I'd do it more like a business plan than a buffet though. Perhaps it would still be worthwhile to do it that way.

I would always buy, paint, field both sides of any conflict I was going to table. Write my own rules. Write my own club newsletter/blog. Read a lot of history. Watch cool movies that inspire gaming. Have 54mm armies that people look at and shake their heads in amazement that I store all that terrain.
…oh wait, that's what I do now.

Sort of have done that since the family grew. Consolidated into 6mm scify, 10mm fantasy, 6mm and 10mm napoleonics.

I don't know if I would do anything very much differently. I have learned a lot and have had a lot of fun with everything I ever played, play-tested, rewrote, painted, and/or built.

I suppose I would not have bought quite so much 15mm stuff which I'm eventually going to dig out of my storage and put on eBay or something. Maybe I would have stopped buying 1/72 plastic figures a few years earlier. That blister pack of about 12 identical medieval peasants with bills that I bought in 1978 or so had about 8 more guys than I will ever paint. It's stuff like that that I would change.

Also, I would have made a lot more money so that I could have bought a much bigger house with space to store terrain and miniatures, and a big garage for a workshop, or maybe I would have been able to rent an artist's studio.

Pick one scale and just do everything in that.