"How many minis are enough minis?" Topic

I was wondering if you have a goal in mind when you start an era, or do you run out of steam and stop buying minis for that period? Or does it depend on the scale and the era? I could imagine someone collecting many many small 6mm, 10mm, 15mm armies. Also ancient battles seem to require big armies like: Romans, Greeks, Celts, Persians, Lace Wars, Renaissance Wars, the wars of the 1800s and other eras like that. I personally ran out of steam on Warhammer and Warhammer 40K a number of years ago, although I have 6 Warhammer 40K armies and 2 Warhammer Fantasy armies. I don't know how many points I have or minis I have. I also stopped buying German WW2 (soldiers and armor) in 28mm. I felt like I had all that I wanted or needed for the games we play.

I almost always over-buy. That's okay, because I usually figure out something to do with the leftovers, or I give them away to friends. Sometimes I go over by ten or twenty figures, sometimes its hundreds.

As I've gotten older I've tried to be a bit more precise in my figure purchases.

There is never enough.

I would say it depends on the rules used, your affection for the period and size of games you want to play.
For DBA basic force plus all the options.
Chain of Command basic platoon plus 2-4 options in each of the supports.
Pulse of Battle 2-12 unit armies.
for Periods like AWI or ACW I have 15-20 units per side plus Artillery.

As David Bowie said in the old MTV ads, "Too much is never enough."

A great man once said, "He who dies with the most toys, wins!"

I rarely have a plan. Sometimes I start with a specific battle at a specific scale but there is always something cool for the period which doesn't fit that battle and away you go.

DBA has such a great checklist for collecting all the armies!
Sets of 6-8+ historical opponents for campaigns for each major time period.
Preferably with double or triple army + ally combinations for big battles.

Ideally, at least one Big Battle army for any tight historical theme campaign/tourney.

Super ideally, each of those with a big battle historical opponent.

I may not ever meet the goal, but the dream will drive on ^,^

One is too many, a million is not enough.

It is an unanswerable question like "How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?"

There is not such thing as too many! I WANT THEM ALL!!

Well, I usually start out with a plan. If I am really thorough, it includes not only figures, but rules, books, and any new scenery I will need.

Frequently, the plan gets added to. Right now, I'm on Viking Expansion III, but only because I didn't care to name the last two additions to that. The basic Vikings had a plan (WRG ancients) and expansions I, II, and III each have had a plan. I've actually done a Viking Expansion IV and am winding up Viking Expansion V (or is it VI?), but I didn't make up a new log for them. For what it's worth, I do like painting Vikings. More than many other periods, this is one where I might see some company bring out a new line of Vikings, and decide I just have to add some.

My 1897 Greek force was just going to be one unit to take part in our colonial campaigns. Then, I realized our default armies consisted of three infantry units, a cavalry unit, an artillery unit and a commander, so I bought more. Then I moved, and I realized TSATF used four infantry units per regiment, so I added more figures. I had a plan, it just changed several times.

I have tried to scope things down, with the standard for Dark Age armies changing from WRG to Saga size armies. Right now, my Irish army is getting expanded a bit to be capable of being divided into two Irish armies, because the Irish spent so much time fighting each other and I liked the figures.

Right now, I'm looking at retirement in a few years, and a need to buy all those armies I've always wanted before my income drops. This does make it hard to keep concentrating on my Vikings and other Dark Age armies.

Grelber

I don't understand the question.

There is never enough but I've generally found that all my armies (15mm) are around the 500-600 figure mark.

Obviously it depends upon the system played. All my stuff is non-skirmish.

I usually plan what I need to make a period viable for the level of game I'm interested in (so X units for both/all sides with Y variations and Z extras) and buy and paint that.

Those basic elements may get added to over time in chunks of varying size or they may not. I've got a few armies which I've never added anything to as they are entirely adequate, some which have had a few extra bits and some which are never ending projects.

ERROR….ERROR…..

Does not compute……..

I have far too many, I'll never paint them all in my lifetime, but I still keep buying, "madness, sheer madness"

About 10 million probably, but maybe not.

Like all megalomaniacal army commanders I started out with Big Plans.
I kept buying new units, when if I had started small I could have been playing right away.
Perfect example is my 15mm galley project. I had 20 of them for 32 years because I had it in my head that I needed to paint and finish all 20 of them before I had a game. My solution was to buy more. And more 15mm Ancient marines. Finally a fellow gamer got sick of hearing me whine about them and bought them off me. Two months later we were gaming with them.

Ditto my Jacobite project. My first game was to be Culloden. That's insane. So the lads languished in boxes for 15 years. I would finish a dozen or do every two years. Then it occurred to me that Prestonpans is eminently playable and probably a lot of fun. Then the idea for using TSATF hit me and now I am making progress.

Don't get me started about the Trojan War project or Ireland 1920.

I guess the lesson to learn from me is that if you think your collection has to start out with Waterloo or Gettysburg the figures will never see the light of day.

The answer to the question "How many minis are enough minis?" is NONE!

Until you buy the first mini you can be satisfied. As soon as you buy that first one, well then you buy a second to keep the first one company. Then a third to see how the first two are getting along. A fourth to see why the third is taking so long to report back. After that, well, you already have the start of a collection so why not keep buying?

10-24 more than your current collection.
(update after each new acquisition)

Temptation is not bound by such mundane concepts as 'too many'.

500 per period makes for a nice table. Don't tell my wife I said that.
Bob

I once started an ancient Greek army. Plan was to have around 100 – 120 figs for the then popular Warhammer Ancient Battles rules.
I ended up with well over 600 painted figs.
Maybe I should have some more…

And that's the way it goes with all my projects, it seems.

When I own all the base metal and resin on Earth, then I will stop. Until then, "Gimmie, gimmie!".

You can never have too many.

How many are there?

1=1 Borodino, maybe.

2 of each. 1 for collecting, 1 for painting (and realistically, painting extra duplicates is what eats up the time. ;-)

When I can do Leipzig, Borodino and Waterloo at a 1-1 scale then that might be enough.

What am I saying even that would not be enough.

Twelve.