"Starting Over?" Topic

Let's imagine a fire and a really nice insurance payoff--or maybe that lamp you bought in the charity shop contained a genie. Either way, you have a chance to convert all your wargaming stuff into other stuff of about the same value. The only things the genie/insurance company can't or won't do is find you different opponents, and additional storage space has to be paid for in stuff.
General discussion: what would you do differently if you had the chance?
Poll question: would you change
1) Scales
2) Periods
3) Basing
4) Other (Please specify)
5) Everything.

I came pretty close to this. Long story. In the end, I wound up with a three-tier system:
A. In 28mm, individually-based figures for (1) Renaissance/Fantasy, (2) Horse & Musket warfare and (3) SF--including necessary castings for skirmish/RPG in 1 and 3.
B. In 6mm armies for ancients, SYW, Napoleonics, ACW and WW2, each set with standardized frontages, and playable on a 3x3 or 4x2 board.
C. In 2mm, sets for ECW, SYW, Napoleonics, ACW and WW2, all playable on a 2x2 board and each set fitting--troops, terrain, board and rules--in a courier bag.

Exceptions: A 10mm ACW set based to play OTR, F&F, TWF and MLW. 2mm WW2 sets with larger bases intended for a 4x6 table.

Still arguably too many, but--except for the 2mm "travel bags"--each one lets me fight battles I couldn't fight with the others, and the travel bags let me fight battles in circumstances the others wouldn't permit.

"I came pretty close to this." Do you still control the genie?

Because, if it was me with your first imagination – a fire – I'd be too stunned, too devastated to start again for a long time. Perhaps for ever.

RP, I understand your question, which is a good one. If I answer it along the lines of what would I do differently, I say, not much. Fewer periods. Same scale (everything). Include Naval & perhaps aerial gaming, which I have never done.

BTW you can sell or even give away stuff you no longer value to make room for stuff you might. I have.

I'm 28mm. Period. Would not change it.
I had a lot of armies that I lost interest in. All 25/28mm. I regret getting rid of few.

My only 15mm stuff was Flames of War, and that ended up boring me to tears.

Add 6: Change nothing.

I wanted Arthurian/Anglo-Saxons back when nobody made them. So, I converted figures. The Saxons are Hastings 1066 era figures; the Sub-Roman Britons are various Citadel and other figures. They are all painted. I have since bought Foundry 28 mm figures specifically designed for 5th-6th Century and never painted them. So, yes, if I could change things, I would postpone my initial purchases, buy the Foundry figures, and paint them.

Aside from that, I probably bought far too many Vikings and different Colonial era figures. I should have concentrated on just one or two countries for the Colonials.

And, like John, I have a Flames of War army, unpainted (except for one platoon), unloved, and I am considering selling them off.

Grelber

I would do 18mm Napoleonics in Spain, ACW in 18mm, SYW and AWI in 28mm and that's it. All of it would be battalions. No single base skirmish stuff and no brigades.

I think I'd just replace what I had. Perhaps change the scale of my WWII stuff from 15mm/1:100 to 20mm/1:76, to match my mate's collection.