"Inertia?" Topic

We often read excellent ideas here at TMP —better basing systems, simpler rules, smaller armies, new scales, different terrain methods—but many of us stay "locked in" to old habits.

Re-basing is the obvious example: sensible in theory, often daunting in practice.

What hobby changes have you resisted, even though they might make gaming easier or better?

Examples might include:
changing figure scale
Using fewer figures per unit
switching rulesets to something more modern/revolutionary
Using sabot bases/movement trays
etc

What's your hobby inertia? What change are you resisting—and why? Habit, cost, nostalgia or simply too much invested already?

Butterfly gaming.

There is a terrible trend in our hobby to try every new rules set that gets released, then abandon that for the next new rules set that comes out, and the next, and so on. Too many games are first games, learning games, introductory games, etc. I prefer to settle on a set of rules that work, and play them enough to get competent. These days it takes me longer than the life of a rules system to build the armies and terrain to play it.

There's a second trend which is unrelated but fits the same name: playing a different game every gaming session. I like a little variety in my gaming life too, but it becomes impossible to have a good game that moves along at a reasonable pace when the table is full of butterflies who couldn't possibly stand to play the same game twice in one year. It's impossible to be an experienced player of a game without frequent experience playing the game.

There are a few things I do through inertia, but for purely pragmantic reasons. A couple examples:

15mm scale. I started with 15mm, all my terrain is scaled for 15mm, my measuring systems are adapted to 15mm, it works well for the kind of small-army gaming I prefer from the black powder era on back, it's easy to acquire painted units and armies in flea markets, etc.

I've tried branching into other scales, but I never get anywhere because it's too danged much work to create duplicate sets of all the goodies (terrain, bases, measuring stuff, etc.). Multiplying the storage problem is also a really bad idea.

Fire & Fury basing for 19th C. armies. It's flexible, reasonably generic, and my favorite rules systems can all use it.

I thought I'd stick to this for everything, but last year I began to adopt Koenig Krieg (and Napoleon's Battles) basing for 18th C. armies. This is the deeper-than-wide stand system with 4 figures in a 2x2 arrangement (15mm base size: 20mm wide x 25mm deep). I never liked it, but so many flea market units come that way, I decided to quit swimming upstream and just go with the flow.

Words of wisdom, YA. Sadly, just call me "Lepidoptera" – I get bored with a period or rule set & need to move on periodically.

switching rulesets to something more modern/revolutionary

Nope. Nope. Nope.
Fake "Confucius say…" joke:
"This is good because it is old. That is better because it is new."

A new area of research insured by several sources.
I delay painting 28mm and getting a 3D printer

Speed paints, contrast paints. I just can't be bothered to learn a new painting style. I love paint pens though.

My stuff also goes in old fashioned A4 box files, which are increasingly hard to find. Good job I have a lifetime supply….

Speed paints I keep thinking I should adopt – but tell me more, please, about these paint pens (I'm so behind the times on painting techniques)?

Main Inertia -painting. Keep thinking I should make movement trays – I'm never going to rebase (which is a pity for my Terry Wise based 20mm ACW figures who delight in 12.5mm bases).

I have become enamored of speed paints. They really come through for any project, large or small. In the last decade, smaller figures for larger armies. The inertia is finally being able to say a project is 'good enough' to start gaming with it.

I just got tired.

Not sure. Sabots maybe. They're on the list, but not everything can be top priority, and they'll be serious time if not money.

Basing is sometimes a group consensus. The group may feel differently now than it did in 1969, but we all feel the same way about rebasing 30,000+ 30mm Napoleonics and agreeing on new rules to go with any rebasing.

Mostly, the last ten years--have I been retired that long??--have been more a matter of focus--not trying new things so much as discarding a ton of projects and using the time and money to get others in better condition.

I've never taken up the Air Brush, even through its been in the hobby for decades.
I remain skeptical of 3D printing – of the time needed to do it myself, of the quality of the resin, of the quality of the sculpts.
Next generation paints with better coverage are slowly infiltrating into my paint collection, although speed paints have yet to make an appearance.
I game/collect in 28mm. I keep thinking smaller scales will be cheaper/faster to get on the table. But the table is still the same size, which means I'll just need more units to cover it.

I did make a recent change to 25mm round bases from 20mm square with decorated unit trays. The resulting Viking/Saxon armies look good and use fewer figures. Not sure if I want to go there with Ancients and lose the precision of squarebasing.

Guilty as charged: I am a sucker for WW2 skirmish & AWI any scale rulesets.

I have a gaming narrow focus but a wide ranging thirst for said rulesets.

Butterfly gaming

Amen, brother, amen.

All of the above!

Totally agree with YA.

It isn't inertia to decide on a set of rules that work and stick with them – it is resisting the butterflying that means you never play the same rules twice.

At the my local club there is a sudden need to play the latest Sam Mustafa rules Scourge of Captains. I will pass, as I did with Billhooks, Soldiers of Napoleon and other new rules that have come along recently.

I have a set of rules already (Through the Square Window) that I feel will work for TYW, so why spend £37.00 GBP on a new set?

I have settled on rules I like for pretty much all the periods I do, I have collections that cover everything from Punic Wars to WW2 plus some fantasy and SF skirmishing and don't see the need to start a new period or new set of rules now.

I will concentrate on finishing the periods that have yet to get to the table and painting the figures I already have.

Contrast/Speed paints. Really? Can't be bothered.

Sabot bases/movement trays. Next to unpainted figures I cannot stand seeing movement trays.

I have so far resisted the trend towards large unit bases. Impetus style basing if you play Ancients. I would have to rebase all my single based figures, and what would I do with all those 20mm Litko squares? I like the look, but don't have the desire to rebase or replace my existing figures just for that.

I also, so far, am resisting the urge to upsize my Ancients. I have a huge collection of 2mm Irregular minis that will allow me to do any Ancients battle I like. I opted for generic painting rather than distinct historical schemes. I have a matched pair of 6mm Baccus Punic Wars for Warmaster. I may add to that, but it will be filling in a few gaps. I see beautiful figures in larger scales and have been seriously tempted by the Epic Hail Caesar figures, but so far have resisted the temptation.

I have so far resisted the trend towards large unit bases. Impetus style basing if you play Ancients.

I'm worse: I got my ancients collection halfway in between the old WRG standard and the Impetus standard.

Back when I was playing ancients, I settled on BBDBA, and I decided the "right" way forward was to switch to big bases full of figures. DBM (and DBR, DBMM, FOG, etc.) taught me that adding bases makes the game slower and more fiddly, and I really prefer the straightforward simplicity of DBA (or now, Triumph). However, I wanted an impression of mass that the bigger games were going for, so keeping the same number of bases but adding figures could achive that. I rebased some figures to try Impetus (didn't like it), bought some collections already based for Impetus, bought more painted collections with the intention of rebasing onto bigger bases, then… I sort of just stopped playing ancients. Now my collection is uncomfortably in between, and it will take a rebasing project to go either way.

I have posted a response to this topic on my blog:

link

I bought some paint pens, Ultra Fine tip, for red, white, yellow and gold. I have some SYW Austrian Hungarians to do, and my brushwork has suffered over the years.
Blue/red trousers with gold knots"? 🙄🤷😱🍺 Uhhh, yeah.