Less But More...

 When I was younger, I used a shotgun approach to gaming, as many gamers do, I suppose. By that I mean that I threw a lot of money in a lot of directions, and amassed a LOT of lead which never got painted and was sold at a fraction of the cost. It was frankly sheer madness, but there's a train of thought which we all fall prone to, which is thinking that to be a 'proper' wargamer we need to play every period, even when sometimes we have very little real interest in it.

Were I able to go back in time (I can, but that's classified information and if I told you how, I'd have to terminate you afterwards with extreme prejudice) and confront the younger me, I'd point and laugh.

Hitting myself wouldn't work as I was a stubborn little fucker, and besides the thought of damaging those gorgeous features is too much to contemplate.

Hopefully, the younger self would get all red-faced and riled up and demand to know what I was on about, and I'd point out that I was just throwing 30-50% of the money I worked hard to get, away. Let me tell you, earning £50 a week in 1983 and holding down a regular 9-4 shift at school was not easy until the 5th form when 'The Great Accord' was ratified between the P.E and History departments in direct contravention of Sheffield Education Authority and Department Of Education rules. (no, really...)

There would be less scalping dealers, if we all only showed a little more thought and restraint. When you buy and discard a project, you are simply supporting often shark-like second hand dealers (there are others who are wonderfully fair, like the late and very great Terry Wise, who probably broke even at best financially but was rewarded with getting more young blood into the hobby) who then max out on their margins.

Now, it's taken me over 40 of my 45 years in the hobby proper, to realise that it makes more sense to maybe do a bit of experimental spending and lots of gaming with friends whose 'bag' is this or that period, to see if it's also yours. 

Look, many periods appeal to me visually, but just don't cut the mustard for me as games. I can get by in most periods, but can hand your arse to you on a plate when it comes to pike and shot, because it clicked with me. I understand how to use the seemingly simple premise of pike and shot tactics with careful timings and authentic deployments. 

I have a friend who will 'roll over' because they use napoleonic tactics (which they excel at, let me say) in pike and shot games and get hammered as a result. Likewise, I struggle with napoleonics, but have another friend who sees these complex tactics with the same clarity as I do pike and shot.

So, it's quite clear that I get the most enjoyment when playing games with men with pointy sticks, guns, tights and flouncy shirts.

Thus, concentrating on a collection within a relatively narrow timeline is probably the way to go, with one or maybe two 'side projects' to allow you some respite.

It sounds pretty obvious, but how many of us actually do that? Like I said, it took me 40 years to get that concept straight in my head because I had to own everything to display my 'proper wargamer' credentials.

Absolute bollocks.

However, equally, you need to know when to stop with a particular period or theme. This is where I am now with my fantasy project. I have amassed somewhere in the region of 6000 pieces over the years, but it's only in the last two years that I've dug them out, sorted them, paid extortionate prices to complete units and armies and actively and determinedly directed money into the collection with single-minded purpose to make them pay for themselves by being useable armies which rely on nobody else.

Two weeks ago, having decided over the last few months that I'd neglected my historical gaming for 18 months or so and was feeling the urge, I decided that I was going to focus on the back end of the pike and shot era, where I have had some interest since 1989, which has never fully evolved into a concentrated drive to build armies.

Now, I paint for a living so I generally don't want to waste weekends doing that for my own use, so I employ other talented painters to paint my stuff, but at the same time, being 56, I know that time is against me, so if I can get a head start with some pre-painted stuff, then the chance of a project gaining traction is much higher.

So, the cheapest way, is to be willing to invest a good chunk of money into the search for two armies of the standard you want. It sounds counterintuitive, but look, you will save in the long run because you don't risk that unpainted pile of lead being sold for a fraction of the price paid. Rule of thumb: when you buy an army, do so thinking that 1 second after spending those pounds on that lead (or worse, plastic) at least 35% of that money has been wasted, unless you get it painted and based - and used.

So, by buying sizeable armies to start with, ready painted (with maybe a bit of work you can do to make them 'yours') and based, you waste less money in the future and the risk of binning the project decreases exponentially.

You also have the potential to get a larger collection together in a shorter time. I will be still having another 40 or so regiments painted for my latest project on top of the 30 or so I am collecting today, but the pressure to get them back is reduuced, because I can be playing games whilst a hopefully more relaxed painter can focus on creating beautiful figures which please me and add to their own legacy as artists.

What I won't do anymore is buy everything which is pushed at me as 'essential' or 'the latest thing'. That way lies both madness and disappointment at a time in my life when I really just want to get together with friends and push little toy soldiers around on a table.

Politics, real world events and all that conspires to make us scared are irrelevant to me, so I'll be danmned if I have to also contend with a pile of unpainted lead alloy models which get less valuable or interesting by the day.

Just remember a lead pile is just a that. It's not a measure of how good or dedicated a gamer you are...