"Which comes first? Figures or rules?" Topic

So. Which comes first?
Figures?
Rules?
An interest in the period?

As I've said here, far too often lately, I was gifted a ton of 28mm SYW Austrian Hungarian Grenz and Hussars.
We already play Age of Reason in 15mm. But the hot "new" set is Honours of War.

I was a total fan of the Lord of the Rings books, long before the movies came out. But I didn't go in for any gaming until Games Workshop started coming out with large releases of BOTH figures and rules.
Likewise, someone here is interested in Robin Hood. He didn't say if he has rules yet, but is asking about figures.

No wrong answers, of course. Only a cur or scalawag or cad would argue with why someone went that way.

I've been building AWI armies for almost 40 years, and I've yet to find rules I like. PLEASE DO NOT SUGGEST your favorite set. I've probably already tried it, and don't like it. 😄
That's not what this poll is about.
By the way, the Hessians and Brunswick troops are a ready made army to oppose the above.

For my money (literally), it's always figures first.

It's been all three for me. Usually the history draws me in and then I find figures and then I buy rules and then I make up my own rules. Occasionally some eye candy figure does the trick and then I have armies and rules soon after. Not sure if rules have started a project….no, wait, Tactica got me into 28mm ancients 30 years ago, so it's all three. Usually history first though.

I had an interest in a period, which led me to look for figures I liked, and then I looked for rules to base the figs and play the period.

Figures first – love to paint – I still have some figs that I have no rules for (so I use them as stand-ins for other rule sets) – although to like the figs you need at least a little appreciation of the history – for example, Perry makes a whole line of very nice figs for the Carlist War, which I know nothing about except (I think) it happened in Spain – hence I have done no Carlist figs

Figs! If they're nice enough and a period I'm into, I can find some rules.

Good question. I would think the answer varies but for me, the figs.

Interest in period

Resources

Then Figures

Finally rules

Interest in period / figures kind of vie for the number one spot.

Rules – not so much, I sometimes get new rules and think "do I already have the figures for this?" I already had some figures when I bought Leviathan, and that did need to be backed up with figure purchases that tied in with the rules.

I will add one more choice, what your friends are playing. If one or more of my weekly group puts on a game of something that I enjoy, I am in. Case in point. A few years ago, there was a game of ACW in 28mm. I have ACW in 15mm. I jumped in.

Last year I bought a Hail Caesar starter set. So now I have EIR and Celts….

I have bought figures because I like them. I pick up rules all the time to check them out.

So for me the answer is all of them can start on the road to ruin.

Interest in the period/genre, first. Sometimes a game sparked that interest, usually it was reading about it. From there I look around and it's usually rules first, so I know how many figures, vehicles, etc, I'll need. (And I end up buying more than I planned, anyway.)

Interest in the period or genre/setting first. Figures second. Rules last.

As a collector without access to a "local club", it is the interest in the period/genre first. Then collecting the figures. Rules are definitely last for me as well.

For me, it has been then figures. Then been burned more than once as I can't find any rules I like.

* All of the above.

With different periods, each one has had a turn leading the way.

Then there were the magnificent GW box sets from the late 80s that did all at once! Blood Bowl, Space Hulk, Dark Future, Space Marine, Man O' War. (OK, I had already done Car Wars since 1981 with paper models…)

Back at the dawn of time, figures. Not a range of figures: just historical miniatures as such. (Hey! It was 1968.)

More recently, it's been period interest. You can always find figures. And you can always write rules.

An interest in a period, rules, miniatures.

Interest in the period comes first but figures are a close second. Rules tend towards an after thought.

I would also go with interest in the period/setting.

I read Patrick Leigh Fermor's book Mani, searching for information on later Byzantines. Almost nothing Byzantine, but the feuds between rival Maniot clans and their fighting with the Turks caught my fancy. I photocopied the parts of the book dealing with feuds and a description of Maniot costume. I did not delude myself that anybody made Maniots. Just something to remember and maybe get around to figure purchases and conversions one of these days.

Then during a family shopping trip, we stopped in one town with a great bookstore (gone these many years now), and they had an illustrated book on the Mani, with a picture of Maniots fighting the Turks. Way cool! Next town had a nice hobby store (also long gone, alas), and looking through the figures, there were the Maniots! Well, not exactly. They wore turbans, not fezzes (what are files for?) and carried carbines instead of long muskets, but I could do a weapons swap. They were technically 50+ years later than the feuding Mani, but costume back then in that part of the world didn't change all that much. So, in due course, I bought the book, figures (and long guns), and then tinkered with the rules I was currently using (TSATF), to produce something acceptable.

Grelber

DisasterWargamer +1

How about sorta both. Get rules for a period you are interested in. Get figures. Toss the rules originally bought and find rules that suit you better.

Books. The fascination with the period is the trigger, figures and rules follow, but absence of a ‘good' figure range can kill it, I'll make up my own rules if necessary.

Interest in the the period, then figures.

Rules come and go but figures last forever.

+1 Grelber
That's a fascinating story.
TSATF, eh? 👍

A brief Google search suggests that the following figure ranges might be useful.
Old Glory, Fife and Drum, or Front Rank Grenzers
Dayton Painting Consortium (RSM) SYW Ottoman Turks
Old Glory later Turks?

Figures for me too…most of the time!

The intrest in the period first, then figures and then the rules. Always! Why buy wargame figures when you are not interested in the period to wargame?

It varies; sometimes the figures make me look at a period, or it can be the period then the figures. But rules don't draw me in to any particular era, they are always the last thing.

Figures is my guess

Something it's someone else's figures (and game) the get it started. Several years ago, I attended Colonial Barracks and played in a Latin American game. Upon my return home, I dug thru the lead pile, found some Old Glory Boxer Rebellion USMC and some other random figures, converted the canteen, added some Thompson SMG's and BAR's, and had a reinforced platoon ready in no time. A few more Thompson figure for the rebels (OG SAW Cubans) and I was ready to go.

I think that as Wargamers we have an interest in many eras of military history. Some of us will go deeper into the social and economic history of a particular period. If we come across a range of figures that we find attractive we may buy them and become more interested in the period. Sometimes we may be interested in a period but there's no figures we like so don't game in that period.

Rules most always come after figure purchases but I have gained an interest in new periods from playing and owning a set of rules that cover a longer period of time. An example would be having played DBA for the Carthaginian wars looking through the army lists may have me build a 100 years war army or ancient Chinese army.

It depends. If I see figures I like, I think about settings for them and that leads naturally to rules. If I play a game and enjoy the rules and setting, I might buy figures that will work for the rules and setting. If I get interested in a setting …

It is always the interest. Everything else follows in no particular order.

I was making my Sunday afternoon last minute blitz of the dealers' area at a convention, when I saw some 1920 Irish figures for sale. Being Irish, I had a vague interest in the period. But seeing the figures prompted me to buy them. Then the usual "research" books. I slowly built up my forces, on both sides, before I ever got any rules.
So in that case, figures definitely came first. Before I saw them, I really had no interest in gaming the period.

Intetrest in the period
Figures
Rules

BillyNM +1.

Usually it's interest in the period, then figures. Rules are secondary since I can write a set of rules if needed.

If other gamers in the group have an existing set of rules or preferred figures/scales that may go by the board.

An interest in the period.
Rules
Figures

If I can't find a set rules I like than I have no need for figures.

Inspiration comes from a variety of sources – film, local history, books (Funckens' Napoleonic books have a lot to answer for); then figures; then rules. As I'm sure we can all attest to, the search for the 'correct' rules can take forever. How many sets of rules for your favourite period do you own?

Figures then research then rules.

To me the fun is starting with a mini and then making up a story about it. That is true even when the "story" is a historical scenario,

Hard to say. Either. I've experienced both phenomena.

OFM, I'm going to look at "Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles" rules to run an Irish Uprising 1916 game at Little Wars this April. I think those will work well for this period, at that scale.

For a new project, it's usually historical interest first, followed by rules (often this is more-or-less automatic, having go-to sets for certain periods), and then looking for figures. Sometimes I don't find any figures that I like and the project gets shelved, at least for time being.

Great question!!

Cruel Seas, interest in location having spent over 4 years in the Med spiked my interest, ships were appealing then rules.

SAGA, the rules, figures and interest were all equal.

WaT, tanks I already had, then rules because I had the tanks.

So, interest, figures and ruleset for most.