Wednesday 11 November 2015

Army Collecting

Hey all

Coxer back with some more musings on wargaming. This time it's about collecting your army.

Over the last month I've painted up 
Scout platoon for my UAR 
T26's for my Finnish
Kleinpanzers, kv1's Flammpanzer for my Germans.

And to me these three all show the different ways in which you can collect an army.

That specific list. This is how I would imagine most people start 
an army - and it's how I started my Germans/French/UAR - you come up with a list, bye the list and well - that's it! It's about working it out before you bye, whether by rule of cool or a tournament researched list - you buy what you need and leave it at that - quick efficient simple. The problem I always get with this approach is that every time I do this it ends up getting changed with play testing, but if you want to copy a net list then this really works for you. 

The completion list - this is for the OCD player who needs EVERYTHING.  It's not complicated, all you do its but every option available. I always look at my Finns as an example - as I basically can fill the force organisation chart (did the same with my Volksgrenadiers) some forces this suits more than others but it's really pleasing to have all the options for this. I always think the biggest problem with this style though is the need to really keep the motivation going, I remember every time that I've got to the end of a project I find myself hating the models, just wanting to finish it, but when doing this it's that vs the need to finish - i often regret the later models as they're sub par on the painting front.
The sprawl - now this is my German army, I keep realising 'oh one more platoon and I can do this' but it's always more than one platoon - and you just keep getting more and more and more! This is one of those projects which never end no matter what you do. The difficulty with this one I find is that due to the time it covers painting style etc can change leading to a fairly disjointed army as it progresses, but it is far kinder on the wallet.

The other way I have heard to collect (but have only done once) is the opportunist, just getting a few models you like and that's it, not for a project, but just 'because' somewhere I have an inifnity force which I did this fore.

Anyway I hope that's given you pause for thought, and tell me how you collect your armies?

Till next time

4 comments:

  1. German forces are terrible for the sprawl. It is so tempting to add one or two platoons to totally change the force organization. My german list seems to be never ending.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My Late War Brits were finished a while ago, with an infantry company and two tank companies, with various support items. The main thing is that they're all painted!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bargain finds are my joy and equal pain, as suddenly you end up getting a load of support units to complement your find on the bring and buy stall at the local Wargaming con and then there's another army on the go...

    ReplyDelete
  4. My Germans have definitely become a sprawl, I keep finding new lists and combinations that I like the look of and want to play, so buy more models, and the collection grows without any real direction..

    I'm starting to work on developing specific lists then picking support options from what I already have available for my Germans, and I am planning an EW foreign legion French army which I will buy the models for about 1500 points plus a few options to swap out here and there for points changes and leave it at that. Any other non german lists I do in the future (if my wife doesn't crack it!!) will be the same, a well planned out list (well as best as can be done without play testing) buy and paint the models and thats it

    ReplyDelete