"Planning is Everything" Topic

President Eisenhower is most famously associated with the saying "Plans are worthless; planning is everything.", though the words had been around for a long time in the military community.

It highlights that the conditions of action are often different than the conditions expected during the planning effort. Thus, plans tend to lose value as more related action goes by, and often there is a big drop off in value at the start.

That notwithstanding, the things you learn and the habits of mind you develop during planning are often still very valuable, even well into the action.

So, for your minis projects (as opposed to your gaming), what is the value of Planning and Plans?

Let's rank them each on a scale of 1-10, with lower numbers being lower value.

For me: Planning 9, Plans 5

Planning is essential (and enjoyable). I put plans as mid-level. My plans include a lot of numbers and such that I tend to stick to tightly. Also, while I often do not follow the "facts" I learned in planning, I often deliberately plan to do so. That said, I do leave a few things TBD and allow a fair degree of control to in situ inspiration.

I am not certain I understand the difference between planning and plans. That said, I planned, in the late 1990's, to model the infamous AD&D module series, "Against the Giants", in 3D, with models for the buildings, dungeons, and the Giants, of course. I never knew, when I set out on the project, how it would all come together.

Around four years ago, I managed to pull off the first adventure, in 2.75D, with appropriately scaled (1e AD&D) models. I ran it at a couple of conventions, and it was successful. I'm still working on building the terrain for the 2nd, and 3rd installments. I have prototypes built, and I have the majority of the Giant figures ready for the table. The terrain is the killer: for the Glacial Rift, I am using full 3D terrain, and painting it is quite tedious. For the final installment, the dungeons are, again, exceedingly tedious to build, using 2.75D techniques similar to what I used for the Steading of the Hill Giants.

Originally, I had planned to use 2e BattleSystem Skirmish rules, but during the setup for the playtest, I realized that this would drastically alter the way the game played, so I went back to the 1e AD&D RPG rules, to preserve the experience, as much as possible. That worked, quite well.

So, in the end, my plans were altered from what they originally were. This actually worked out rather well. The execution of my plans has met several bumps along the way, namely that my terrain-making approaches were altered as new concepts, and new terrain types, arrived on the hobby scene, making things faster, and easier -- sort of.

As the US Marines like to say, "Adapt! Improvise! Overcome!" I prepared plans, things changed, so I adapted my plans, I improvised, and I overcame my ob-stay-culls! (Reference to, "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?", movie.)

I wish I could rate them for you, as requested, but I don't get the difference. Sorry. I hope my explanation will illustrate, and perhaps answer your question, at least, in part. Cheers!

Planning is essential (and enjoyable)

Well, "enjoyable" when it comes to Wargaming. We on the staff had a saying, "He who plans early, plans twice." Commanders always had a way of throwing a wrench in your beautiful plan.

Yea, I think the notion of "planning" is just as important as the "plan"; or maybe even more important.

As I wrote an answer to the original post, I realized that I had really not thought about this issue much at all, but that I do in fact create a flexible plan for my work before I start. The plan itself is much less important than the process of figuring what I'm going to do, and how I'm going to do it.

That's generally true for kitbashed/scratchbuilt projects, miniature figures (whether individuals or organized units), terrain features (which I guess are just kitbashed/scratchbuilt projects), and repairs (which reminds me that I forgot to look for a repair project in my storage unit while I was there today! blast!).

So overall, I would go with
planning 7
plans 3

Planning at least gives you a view of the end state.