"How Many Games = Success?" Topic

It depends on the project, but voted 1 as the minimum.

(This excludes, of course, the very occasional thing I paint that was never intended to be used in a game.)

If I am happy and enjoyed tackling the project, then it's a success for me. Games are icing. (But I do prefer the icing.)

Has to be more than 1.

If only 1, that might mean the game was so bad, I never went back!

I went with a somewhat arbitrary 6--or five or more as the poll has it. In the last days of my last regular opponent, a game a month for a six-month "campaigning season" was what we could do, and we'd try something else the next year. But those six games proved the armies were big enough for a game, the rules worked and I had the right terrain and accessories.

I'll grant you that painting 1,000 28mm horse & musket castings and all the necessary terrain and only ever playing with them six times would be something of a Pyrric victory.

I could see the argument for a single game--thinking of the showier convention games. But (a) usually the scenario is run more than once, and the castings and terrain are used in different scenarios, and (b) I really hope there is usually a practice/test game at home before the convention.

I went with 1, because usually I paint both sides. If I can slog through all the work of painting both sides, getting them on the table via a huge success.
I even count as a success my 1920-ish Irish project. I ran a game once, before I had to sell it.
I played with my Polish Renaissance army twice. Once as Warhammer Empire Kislevites. So, a success.
Failures include Trojan War, Aztecs, and so on. Finished painting, never played.

So, 1 is good enough to count as a success. It's of course a lot better if I get more games out of them.

+1 Parzival

There's too many variables for me to just base success on whether I use the figures/models in a game. Examples:

Did I enjoy the reading and research into the new army/period? Yes= success.

Did I enjoy getting the figures/models ready (assembled. painted, based, etc)? Yes= success.

Do I feel I wasted my time? No= success.

Like favourite foods, I think everyone's definition of success will be (at least) slightly different to someone else's.

I need to get a minimum of three games out of project. I measure success by how the games go. If the scenarios work and everyone enjoyed the games. Then that is a success.

Depends on how one defines success. If (as in my case) it consists of having a nicely painted army, then zero works and anything more is icing

I don't really see any of my wargaming activities as a particular "project". I wouldn't paint up an army or build a terrain board for a situation knowing they were only to be used a limited number of times.

I collect/paint stuff with the intention of using it for the rest of my days. Admittedly, some stuff goes sizable amounts of time without seeing action, but the intention to use them is still there.