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