"What figures will you never own?" Topic

Following on from this thread over here, I thought I'd ask somewhat the opposite question:

What periods or forces do you really want, but will never get?

The first one I'll mention is the Italian Wars.

I've wanted a Landsknecht army since I first discovered what a Landsknecht is (mid-1990s sometime), and the obvious context to game with them is the Italian Wars. This is among the most colorful and visually impressive battlefield periods in history – heraldry, wild costumes, a riot of bright colors, big pike blocks, knights in full splendor, and all set in Italian scenery that can be absolutely gorgeous if done right.

I quickly determined I would never even try to own a collection for this conflict because it has too many problems:

• This period is all about the pageantry to me, so 15mm is the minimum scale, and they have to be nice figures with good poses and detail. That makes shopping and collecting a bit of a challenge right from the start, but also means:
  
• It would take me as long to paint one Landsknecht figure as entire stands or even whole units of other figures. I struggled in my twenties to complete armies, and now I don't paint figures at all (just planes, ships, scenery). The only way I finish armies now is by paying other people to paint them, and I have yet to find a painter I think would do the chaotic look of the period right. A Landsknecht or Swiss pike block would take me the remaining free time in my natural life, and I still wouldn't have a whole army to play with.
  
• It's not a terribly popular period. I mean, there are some dedicated adherents among our ilk, but not near me, so after years of effort putting together a collection, I might get one game a year out of it. Related to that:
  
• This isn't a period that appears in flea markets. I gave up the idea of finding a complete army for sale about 20 years ago.
  
• Rules are a problem. Serious pike & shot wargamers seem to be pretty ambivalent about all pike & shot rules. I gather it's just a difficult period to get right on the table.
  
• I sometimes get into new periods just because I love playing a set of rules that has enough popularity to draw players; I've never seen that phenomenon with the Italian Wars. I would be forcing my concept of the "right way" to game the period onto an audience that just wants to play once, or maybe twice.

All that said, if I find a beautiful 15mm or 20mm Italian Wars collection big enough to play with in a wargaming flea market, I might lose all grasp of rational thought and take it home.

- Ix

War of 1812, or Mexican American War.
Our group is sort of Lone Wolf. If you want to play or game a period, you do both sides.
I'm too old and too slow to start such major projects.

It is hard to answer to that question.. because if I really want something, I may just do it by myself.

Moderns I do have some post Apoc figures but Modern warfare never really got me interested. Like hand to hand, bows, early firearms.

My second: An Anglo-Dutch Wars naval collection.

This was my first love in naval history. Mid- to late-17th C. men-o-war are splendid, the ADW battles were huge and magnificent, the conflicts would be nicely self-contained miniatures campaigns with very constrained limits (great for gaming), and I just find the politics and tactics of the period fascinating. But:

• The fleets are too big. I know of no practical way to wargame a battle with 200 ships in a reasonable time and space without excessive abstraction.
  
• Again, I don't think I'll be alive long enough to paint enough ships well enough.
  
• The best ADW miniatures ever made (Langton) were too expensive to make whole fleets and too big (1/1200) to fit on a real life table in sufficient numbers. And they're gone now anyway.
  
• League of Augsburg has stepped up with an almost-as-nice line of 1/1200 ADW miniatures… but the cost for 200 of them is still more expense than I can imagine tolerating, and they're still too big for full battles.

In the last couple years there have appeared a 1/2000 scale option (from Spithead) and a 1/2400 scale option (League of Augsburg) which have each come this close <pinches fingers together> to making me pull the trigger on an ADW project. I still might. Despite the fact I'm pretty sure it's impossible to game this period to my satisfaction, I might have to try while the miniatures are available. Decisions, decisions.

War of 1812, or Mexican American War.

Those are both on my list too.

I turned down the opportunities to buy fully painted collections of each (twice for the MAW). I had the money, the collections were really nice and I have the terrain already, but… I just didn't think I'd find time to game with them. Too many periods, not enough gaming time.

Anything before the War of the roses, and after World War 2.

IF I want them, I'm getting them. There are many periods and/or conflicts that I simply don't have any interest in gaming. Now if you asked what period are you "sort of" interested in, then it would be Bronze Age and Napoleonic for me. I wouldn't turn down either if they were offered to me, but I am not planning on purchasing either in the near or distant future.

For me it would be an 18th-century or Napoleonic "Imagination", because the charm of Imaginationworld is that everybody makes up their own zwergstaat with its unique uniforms, cast of inbred royal cretins, etc etc., but I do nearly all the painting for my club and doing six such armies is more work than I want to take on.

Easy for me, India Mutiny. I've had the Osprey book since I was a teen.

Love reading about it. There are some great figures out there.

Just too big a project to take on at my age.

+1 Yellow Admiral. Early on I was not interested in Swiss/Landsknechts armies. The uniforms were so different from what I was used to in Napoleonics or AWI. But as time passed, I looked upon them as more interesting. Now I won't be starting anything new, however, so it is not happening. (sigh)

I guess that there are things that I want that take up too much storage space or are unjustifiably expensive. Spaceship models suitable for 25mm miniatures, for example, are in this category. My house isn't big enough for them and my wife.

Many, many begun or planned projects have passed away in the post-2015 purges, and there's probably more left--painted and based--than will ever be on a tabletop in my remaining years.

If I were guaranteed years, money, health, space, opponents, and in one case information, my first picks would be 15th & 16th Century Italy--a single city, or perhaps only a band of condotierre in a larger campaign--and a similar WOTR contingent. (That's the one I'd want information for: far too much guesswork in our understanding of WOTR as a military event.) They're colorful, they make nice 28mm armies, they're very suitable for campaigns, and the commitment would only be a few hundred soldiers.

As it stands, nothing. I paint more for flea markets ot to help out friends than for my own forces.

SYW Russians in 20mm. I'd want line infantry, jager, grenadiers, cuirassiers, dragoons, cossacks, command & artillery for a 200+ figure army.

I doubt any manufacturer – plastic or metal – will ever take up the task.

Aztecs and Conquistadors. Just do not have the skills or patience to paint up the Aztec war society uniforms.

War of 1812, or Mexican American War.

I have a small force of US troops for War of 1812 but am not overly enthusiastic about building troops for the British. I'd like to do MAW but then that would mean new terrain.

Two others are Mau Mau Emergency and Algerian War for Independence. Conversion isn't something I enjoy and most available lines of figures I've seen just don't motivate me.

Zulu And Sudan. Just don't have room in the docket. If I were to find some deals online or in the flea market I might possess them. But I'll never collect and paint

ochoin said:

SYW Russians in 20mm. I'd want line infantry, jager, grenadiers, cuirassiers, dragoons, cossacks, command & artillery for a 200+ figure army.

That's a big gap for the SYW. Were there ever any figure ranges (maybe now defunct) that covered this topic?

This is one of the reasons I've gotten colder about 20mm (and 1/72) scale. Every period seems to have gaps like this, except maybe Napoleonics and ACW.

You might try ordering a sampling of Blue Moon SYW Russians. I love Blue Moon figures, but I've stopped buying them because they're so oversized. They might be a bit short/small compared to many 1/72, but they might just barely mix with smaller 20mm ranges like Newline.

FusilierDan said:

I have a small force of US troops for War of 1812 but am not overly enthusiastic about building troops for the British.

Just a thought: you could get away with buying Napoleonic British already painted and based, and just use them as-is.

For the war in Canada, the militia are the hardest figures to find.

28mm Egypt and Sudan from 1882 to 1898. I was inspired by the movie "Khartoum" when I was very young. But I just can't see it anymore. I'm up to my eyeballs with projects that are complete but unused, and others I'll work on until I can paint no longer. No regrets though, I'm still living my best gaming life.

Most of them?

I honestly couldn't tell you. I never know what a whim will be.

Least likely: Napoleonic, Biblical/Chariot Wars, Southeast Asia (any period), World War I ground, Spanish Civil War, post-colonial/modern day Africa, Korean War, Vietnam War, anything representing modern terrorists, GW Age of Sigmar (yuck), and most 40K models (exception: Space Hulk).
But I'm not gonna say "never."

I have 50,000 painted miniatures: 6mm to 75mm, cavemen to spacemen, historical to fantasy, multi year wars to one day conlicts(eg, Harpers Ferry and Tippecanoe). There are no more figures that I "need" :) Except I do want some British light infantry for Concord, 1775.

Renaissance.

Umm, if I really want something then I'll get it.

If there is something I'm vaguely thinking might be interesting, then I probably won't. Or I will and then regret it.

I do sometimes think about replacemeing my 6mm Napoleonics with 15mm, but then I think about the practicalities, and don't.

ECW. It's tempted me for 40+ years. I have the rules, some books and one token 28mm (generic) musketeer. If I started that period it would grow out of control in a day.

* 15mm WW2 Italians. WW2 Italy is my historical car wreck I can't stop looking at.

* WW1 aircraft and naval.

* Age of sail.