(Yes, yet another sad story...)
So, what I am trying to do is get myself back on track with completing some of those pesky projects that I want to have finished enough to play with, as that is the ultimate goal - PLAYING GAMES! Sometimes I have to remind myself of that, because it is so easy to get distracted by all of the new and shiny minis out there - and so many seem to be coming out recently, of all genres and scales. This means that I have finally sorted things out (yeah, right):
1. Scale - 25/28mm is it. I have been off tangentially into different scales, but these were not a true waste of time/money. I really needed to show myself what the other scales were like and not just ponder them. 10mm just went right out; that was easy. 6mm, despite the glorious pageantry of masses of troops, is out also. The bigger minis are just more fun for me to paint (The magic word - fun), although I will try to finish off some strips of the 6mm EPG guys for Kokigami's sake.
2. Rules - Still my Achilles' heel. Whatever the rules I use, the minis will be singly-mounted for flexibility. I want to have skirmish-style battles, and massed battles. Element basing is nifty, but I do not believe it will work for me.
3. Genres - I just can not stay with one period of gaming, unlike my friend Chirine. But, I do want to have a way of using disparate forces together, either allied or opposed. This harks back to a time, while I was in Spokane, when my now-departed friend George ran his New World campaign... Imagine European countries sending off expeditions to the new world during the great Age of Exploration, only to find, not North America, but the mystical City State from Judge's Guild (now long OOP). George had a smorgasbord of countries represented - Romans, Greeks, samurai, lizardmen, orcs, etc. with the injection of 16th century Europeans as well. I want to have a facsimile of this, all under the aegis of one rules system. The other factor in this is that my wife, Feawin, is wanting to set up a Celtic army, both historical (as in Ancient British) and magical. I'll be collecting a Roman force to oppose it.
So, what does this really mean? The Roman/Celt project is slated to begin next year, and the other armies will revolve around this. I will be painting up what I currently have waiting on (or under) the painting table, namely Empire and Tsolyanu forces, and I'll continue poking around for the 'right' rules set.
Just had to get that off my chest - I feel better already! Thanks for reading!
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I appreciate that. And I can fully appreciate your dilemma. I struggle with this as well, owning now DBA/FOG in 15, and unpainted 1/72, Fantasy skirmish in 25, Samurai in 28, unpainted pirates in 25/28, OGRE/Gev (unpainted) in 6mm and HOTT in 28+ mageknight. oh, and I recently added unpainted Bloodbowl.. I need focus, or more space..
ReplyDeleteI think someone mentioned Fantasy rules from Chipco.. they sound quite flexible.
If you decide to sell off the 6mm, either prior to, or after painting, drop me a note.
Seems a large number of wargamers are going through the same thoughts as you this year - more so than I have seen before.
ReplyDeleteWe all seem to get crisis of games / scales at one time or another and drift towards the shiny new things suppliers provide and I applaud your effort in resisting the drift. I have well and truly slipped over the last year (see www.blog.kings-sleep.me.uk for my sad tale) but getting things back under control again. I think the main cause is the darn Internet - when I had to travel to shows/FLGS or buy magazines to see new ranges my purchasing was more range orientated - now I flit from game to game and so scale to scale.
One possible bit of good news - it seems that Judges Guild are slowly coming back to life and I for one hope they do manage it - have a look at http://www.judgesguild.com/ and http://www.judgesguild.org/ for more info.
Good luck with the refocus
Andrew
Sorry to be leaving a comment so late!
ReplyDeleteRe your comment that I only do one genre, it wasn't always that way. I used to have huge collections of Ancients, Medieval, ECW, and SF 25mm figures in addition to the Tekumel collection. I also had a huge selection of spaceships as well, and I think my total inventory of miniatures was around 35,000 individual pieces. It all took up way too much room here at the house, and I sold it all off to local gamers in 1992. I think I depressed the local market for used figures for years...
I specialize in Tekumel these days, mostly because it's what I'm really interested in and what our game group is interested in. There's something like 4,600 25mm and 28mm figures in the Aethervox collection at the moment, and I haven't worked up the courage to inventory the terrain and scenic items yet.
The vast numbers come from my habit of supplying all of the elements needed to play a game; I got started doing it after we had to wait four hours at the old LGS for the players with 'the other side' to show up for a game.
You can download the old Judges Guild maps in pdf format from RPGNow.com and similar download sites. They aren't expensive at all (most are about $2.10 Canadian).
ReplyDeleteYou can also get the "modules" that came with them . . . but for your purposes I suspect that you don't need those.
Be sure to get the maps that start with "Map" and a number, then the name (these are the originals). There are new versions of the maps that are numbered differently . . . of course, you might prefer the newer versions.
http://www.rpgnow.com/
-- Jeff