"Why wargaming projects fail" Topic

You dove into a new period, bought the rules, bought the figures… but it all came to nothing.

What are the primary reasons that wargaming projects fail?

Projects don't fail, they just succeed at different rates.

(I have every intention of getting back to those figures, someday…)

Define fail. Selling or throwing the miniatures out before ever touching them? I'm currently painting FASA Star Trek ships I collected twenty years ago.

Project management is a skill that requires practice to pull off routinely.

I've only had one period that I consider a "fail" in that we only got a couple of unsatisfactory games in and that was spaceship gaming. I was pretty gung ho about it, painted up numerous ships for both sides but we just couldn't find rules that hit the sweet spot of not too simplistic, not overly complicated and fun. It's been mothballed for a while now but I may try again in the future

I don't know why they fail, but they get sidelined because something new and shiny has come out… like THAT, over THERE!! I'll be right back…

Wargamers tend to lie somewhere on the Neurodivergent Spectrum and gaming companies use this to make more money.

The ability to buy is greater than the ability to model, paint or complete a project. Add in FOMO and immediate gratification with endorphins and we are almost doomed.

Borrowing from technology, I think the key is to limit WIP (Work In Progress). If you buy a unit then make no more purchases until the first is finished. If you already have a pile of shame, create a prioritized backlog. That way the tanks are on deck pending completion of the infantry.

Set a time period to purge the backlog. If you bought it at Historicon last year, sell it this year if it's still not WIP.

Short attention span, Life, Companies going out of business or dropping lines.

It could be that when I decide on a project, I buy everything I need and it gets out of hand before I get started….and since I have everything I need, I'll get to that project when I'm done with this one.

Falling for the "ooh shiny" syndrome. Happens to me way too often.

The only projects I consider failures are the ones I played, but could not make work right. All my other projects are dormant or in progress.

Examples:

• I've yet to find a way to do a naval map campaign (that is fun, keeps players' interest, doesn't burn me out, etc.).
  
• I apparently don't like gaming the FPW; I keep trying different rules, but never enjoy the games.
  
• I ran Age of Sail fleet games until I ran out of players. I try again with new rules every few years, but almost never have any player at the table twice. It's just not a local interest, I guess.
  

Friends failing to live up to their commitments on building and painting forces. These days I paint all sides myself.

Well, since you ask, the reasons projects fail, or at least don't come up to expectations, is what I call 'The Good Ideas Club'…

You know, THAT guy…joins the project late, contributes nothing for a while, then, just when the plan is settled and everything is agreed and folks have their heads down painting, comes up with a set of suggestions that completely turns the project on its head and loses sight of the original vision. And because most folks are polite, he gets his way, but in so doing exhausts all remaining enthusiasm for the project….

Sorry, too much?

I'll let you know when it happens …

If I'm not dead yet, I haven't failed yet.

In the past I have jumped ahead a gotten the figures and painted them only to find I hate the rules I was going to use or can't find a rule set I like. Other times I get attracted to other lines or periods and just never finish what I started.

I've made a number of attempts to do Trojan War Greeks over about 30 years. Here are some of the reasons they failed.
1. Enthused about the period but couldn't find appropriate figures.
2. Finally found figures for the Trojan War and ordered samples. They came and they were horrible! End of that effort.
3. Maybe I can convert them from RAFM Ancients and some Ral Partha. I already had two armies of conversions, and in theory one figure can be converted into anything else. Apparently, this was just too much, though. One package bought, nothing done.
4. Let's switch rules and scales! I saw some guys playing DBA and thought it would be fun to play with my son. I thought he was interested in ancient Egyptians, turns out he wasn't. It also turns out DBA isn't a set one can readily learn by reading the book--it works better if somebody shows you how. I spent too much time trying to find the appropriate rule while the urchin's mind wandered.
5. Yay! Lovely new figures, which I bought, but apparently by then, I had lost the interest and enthusiasm required to paint them. Sold off the figures.
6. New figures, again quite lovely. New set of rules, but still no energy.
7. I'm at it again, painting away this time! Almost have enough painted to try a small game. To quote Bullwinkle the Moose, "This time for sure!"

Grelber
Hope springs eternal

I have only ever had one "fail."

Spanish Civil War. Had a nice 20mm collection. Never found rules I liked. I realize, in hindsight, my attraction to the period was the politics. Bolsheviks won't fight with anarchists who won't fight with Communists, who won't fight with Republicans who….

But on the ground it's just WW2 Lite and…."meh."

Sold off the collection and never looked back.

I have an interest, others don't.

Firstly, the "ooh, shiny" syndrome where gamers will jump in on a new range of handsome figures. This is usually followed with forum posts such as "I ordered loads of Perry's new X range, I don't know anything about the period, what colours do I paint them?!?", or "I just ordered loads of Perry's new X range; I'm not actually interested in X, can I use them for Y?!?!"

Secondly, wargaming is a hobby that one spends a lot more time preparing to play than actually playing. Thus buying stuff is almost a sub-hobby in itself and it's a lot easier to get the little dopamine kick from a parcel of new toys arriving than from putting in the consistent effort to get the dopamine kick of painting them.

Thirdly, sometimes you have an interest in a historical subject, there are figures for it, but its gaming potential is limited – the Crimean War is like this for me.

I think wargaming is sort of like a mental illness. I've certainly fallen into the traps mentioned above, and although I am more disciplined with myself now, the temptation is always there. I used to listen to the Meeples and Miniatures podcast, and it was embarassing when every week the host would detail all the figures he'd bought, all the kickstarters he'd backed – spending a huge amount of money week in, week out – and then when it came to saying what he'd actually painted, the answer was always "nothing."

I've had a lot of bad ideas, but I think the actual failures all boil down to either the lack of critical figures or lack of time and storage. Either I bought one army believing the manufacturer would soon make their opponents, or I (eventually) admitted the limits of my own painting time and storage space and sold them off short of a game. In a lifetime of miniatures, you can do anything--but not everything.

A persistent tendency to overestimate how quickly I'll get stuff painted.

Having too many projects on the table at once. Also, for me, I tend to buy figures first and worry about rules later. I had a 15mm WWII Japanese army that I sold off because I never found a set of rules that I liked. The same with a medieval army.

Oh. And full agreement with Extra Crispy on the SCW. I rated it as a "bad idea" rather than a "failed project" but for just his reasons--interesting politics just didn't translate into an interesting tabletop miniatures game.

I rate "bad ideas" as something I should have known better than to start, and "failed projects" as something which might have yielded a nice set of games under different circumstances.

Laziness and procrastination -- the twin banes of my existence.

1. I am interested in the genre others are not. (I have $1,000 USD Darkest Africa miniatures in storage. I always wanted to try post-colonial African wars of the 1960s in 28mm…)

2. Too many interests, inability to focus on a project to completion. (Currently have 7 all in various stages…)

3. Realizing you bit off more than you can chew, too big too epic. (Napoleonic's…)

4. Not enough storage space.

5. Cost overrun

6. Disillusioned with time invested versus return time in actual playing. (This is the biggest killer for me…)

It sounded like a good idea at the time.

That was my failed 28mm WWI project. I wanted to do the BEF in 1914 at battalion scale but realized that the size of the battles meant I would only be able to do a small portion of the battles.

I pulled the plug on it and sold what I had painted. I still have some unpainted figures that I need to unload. Have some buildings too but I am hoping to use them for Bolt Action. Some conflicts just don't lend themselves to 28mm.

Add to the list of reasons; Unable to find a set of rules to my liking. I would have had to settle on a set of rules. But that is true of most projects.

Undertaking projects that are far too ambitious because they require large numbers of figures and a long time to complete painting them, so that progress is so slow that enthusiasm for the project wanes and finally disappears altogether is, IMHO, the major reason for failure.

Undertaking projects that are far too ambitious because they require large numbers of figures and a long time to complete painting them, so that progress is so slow that enthusiasm for the project wanes and finally disappears altogether is, IMHO, the major reason for failure.

Frothers post above I think is very accurate.
Im doing the opposite now and seriously downsizing, and thinking about what I "need". I do not live in a Tardis.
Massive over- acquisition seems to be endemic in the hobby
Its too easy to get stuff now! Once upon a time you had to send off for a catalogue, write your order out, write the cheque, and post it. Plenty of time for cool reflection.
Like many others Ive had, and disposed of, too many things that seemed like a good idea at the time.

Personally Ive always failed with the Zulu War..much as I find the opening actions fascinating in a disaster movie kind of way I realised that this is really the only bit of it that draws me . Ive had a couple of false starts over the years.

No one makes a 20mm Tachanka that is affordable and sturdy enough for the table. My attempts at head swapping 20mm plastic figures have been mixed at best. Thus, both my RCW and Russo-Polish projects are on the precipice.

Other projects- bought more than I needed, or never found the right rules. Have not shaken the desire to buy neat figures with the idea to do something with them in the future.

Have adopted a more forgiving attitude toward my painting. Less is more, infer detail v. painting detail.

Still not playing enough.

To quote Bilbo Baggins "Time, give me Time!"

Some people get everything together and painted really quickly and some of us…don't. And then the next tempting thing comes along.

So it's time and focus. And ignoring new things that come along.

So it's time and focus and willpower. And…

The one I would actually chalk up as a fail was because of bad rules.

Looking at you, Relic Knights from Kickstarter. Painted some. Played one game. Fun minis, horribly over-complicated rules, just not chuffed enough to write my own.

Many go dormant. Working on one now that was started just after the turn of the century (SE Asian DBA armies), and one started last century (Napoleonics, getting rebased and on the table for DBN).

There's a lot of wisdom in this thread – thank you all!