What we do need is a change of ideas

Ive had quite a bit of time to think about this lately. Like a lot of people, I felt kind of stuck in my tabletop hobbying and realised it had been quite a while since I had done any painting. 

I wanted to solve that, in part due to also wanting to spend less time online and more time doing actual stuff. Which I suppose is also part of the solution in that spending less time online means more time to do hobby things :) In particular, I realised that it'd easily been over a year since I actually painted anything for fun. I am not bothered about shifting hobbies for periods: Sometimes I am more interested in board games for example, but I AM bothered when it is something I WANT to do and have not been doing. 

But I also wanted to take a moment to examine what ends up causing problems with getting stuff both painted but also on to the table. I am in the peculiar position that a lot of what I do ends up being playtesting, but we are setting that side. I am talking strictly about hobby gaming for fun. 

So I sat down and had a think. And then another. And a third. It was a lot of think's actually. And I think after iterating on my think's, I came to some conclusions and some possible solutions. A few folks were interested in hearing what I came up with, so I thought I would write it up as a couple of blog posts. This first post then is about identifying the problems.

Problem number 1: Too many things that do not add up to a game. 

One squad of something in 7.5mm. A couple of figures for the Westphalian third war of the sausage. A single vehicle for something. I am really prone to ending up with a bunch of stuff that cost money, takes up space and takes time to finish, only to realise that you have nothing that resembles a playable army of anything, let alone two. And since I am playing solo half the time and providing both armies the other half, I need two armies. 

Problem number 2: Aiming too big

Trying to build "armies" is a problem in itself because there is a big mental difference between painting 10 guys and saying that you completed a part, versus looking at a pile of 50 or 100 guys and saying you painted 10% of it. This is ultimately about willpower I suppose but it is the same effect as in problem 1: Spending time and effort and then realising it isn't usable in a game yet. 

Problem number 3: Too much fuss in setting things up

Having to dig out the paint stuff, clear off a space and so on adds a bit of friction compared to just being able to sit down and get started. And since one cat is a thief, I cannot leave things sitting for multi-part sessions, it has to be packed up after a couple of hours. (He still steals paint brushes out of the box).

This also means that multi-session painting is kind of a problem, because if it is going to take me three sittings to complete something, that greatly increases the chances of it taking forever or not getting finished. 

Problem number 4: Too much futzing around to actually get started on playing

Too much futzing makes the game feel like work and if it feels like work, I might as well just be working. 

Futzing includes deciding on which rules to use today, remembering how morale works in this one, realising that these rules expect to have 4 truck models which I don't have or that the scenario really ought to have a company of guys but I am 2 stands short, stopping mid game to look up what exactly happens when two guys with bazookas face in opposite directions and fire exactly simultaneously with their backs to each other. 

There is an additional element here in that the people I game with are newer to miniatures, so rules inconsistency can be a real issue here as well.

Problem 4.5 here is trying to adapt my miniatures collection to the scenario and treating the scenario as the most important part. 

Problem number 5: Sir Higgins is AWOL

The set up problem applies to gaming as well: At the moment, I have to be able to finish the game in one sitting because thief-cat will try to make off with the battalion commander.

Problem number 6: Not very metal is it?

This is sort of a meta-problem, or maybe it is the conclusion, but I also realised that I had gotten caught up in a lot of what is expected of a wargames table or what I thought would be expected. Which of course makes no sense because as I said, half my gaming is solo anyways. But I had fallen prone to thinking that you must be painting big armies for large games and trying to do certain things in certain ways to get certain results, which I think subconsciously I also realise was not actually what I really WANTED to do. 

Ironically, I knew all along what it was, because it is what I started on when I got into "indie" miniatures gaming after we moved to Oregon.

The conclusion to part 1

I think that is all of them. I would also like to note the unfavourable rotation of the Earth, particularly strong solar winds and a general unbalance of the Ethereal Void. 

Part 2 will be about tackling the collecting problems, part 3 will be about painting and part 4 will be about gaming. Those will be a bit more speculative since they are what I am planning to do (or have started to do). So stay tuned. 

If you have your own wargaming blog, please drop a link in the comments, I am also trying to get back into the bloggosphere of wargamers. 

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Comments

Giorgis
We’ve already talked on point 1 and 2, but I’d like to propose my solution on point 3. My painting space is the half part of a big desk that doubles as my gaming space, and also needs to be emptied once per week for the kids tutoring session. The other part of the desk is a work desk for our day job. My solution is a portable DIY painting station made from a large shoebox, lined with plastic foil. I’ve got also a bunch of magnetised miniatures paint holders that help keep things in place in between sessions. Looking forward to reading the next part! Cheers
MrNightmare
As a fan of your Perilous World of ZEEN, Ivan, I think that you’ve solved Problem Number 1. Zeen is great because you can just grab some minis with a friend, accept or tweak the profiles that are given for the Zeen units, come up with some invented reason why forces A are fighting forces B, and go to town nearly immediately. Now thinking about it, I do think that Zeen could also benefit from a story generator random table (that is specifically Zeen flavored) to accelerate the process of coming up with a reason for the conflict. A roll of the dice rather than 5 minutes of cogitation. Problem number 2 I don’t think is an issue in skirmish games. Games that are force on force like 40K, sure. I don’t know how to address that in big squad combat battles. In Problem Number 4 I’d also include “Analysis Paralysis” for myself. What game do I want to play; oh my god I have so many, and there are so many options! I think this problem is somewhat solved by thinking up the beginning of a story around one unit or character. Once a player has that in their head, the activation energy to actually play I think is sufficiently reduced. In terms of cats, consider trying reverse psychology. Give them a safe thing to steal and then mock-berate them for it. Or include the cat MacGuffin on your wargame board and specifically tell the cat burglar to NOT touch this piece then turn your back. All pet advice is given with a mine of salt. Not responsible for feline reprisals.
Punkrabbitt
Problem #3 is my main holdup. I take a lot of medication that leaves me very tired pretty much all the time. Do I have the energy to clean off the table so I can get a game set up and played during the evening? Do I have the energy to even sit up straight and paint for a while? A lot of times it's much easier just to lay down on the couch with my laptop and play some World Of Warcraft with my wife than actually be upright for hobby stuff. My blog can be found here: https://punkrabbittsgamesandhobbies.blogspot.com/
Skeaze
I feel like I might be qualified to give some advice here, since in the last 1-2 years I’ve painted hundreds of figures, including plenty of vehicles and large monsters, and also modeled, built and painted multiple full boards worth of terrain in that same time. I think this is not just a miniature painting problem, this is a problem one could have with many hobbies. I’m not perfect, and also often get distracted by random small side ideas, but you really just have to pick a small number of projects (like 1-2) and just commit to finishing those things. Plan with a specific end-goal in mind. “Build an army” is pretty vague and hard to stick to. But if you have specific units lists it can help keep goals in sight. For example, when we played Mystic Space I knew exactly what units I would need to have 2 small armies to fight against each other, and was able to churn them out pretty quickly. This is definitely going to be my “meanest” take, that you might not like. But it sounds like you have a major training/behavior problem with your cat. IMO you should not be just accepting that “that’s just how it is” and trying to work around it. You need to solve that actual problem. Multi-session painting is the norm. If you can’t just put down some minis, and come back and finish them a day or two later, then yeah, you’re not going to get anything finished Same response as 1 & 2. Pick 1 or 2 games you want to play, figure out exactly what models you need to play it/them, and then get those models ready. I’ve never even attempted to split a single game over multiple days at home. I’d say schedule a specific day and time when you know you’ll have time to finish the whole game. Put it in your calendar, tell your wife about this event you’ve scheduled. Make solid plans to make it happen. I don’t have much advice for this one. Just like, do whatever you think is actually fun. I usually play games with custom sculpted/kitbashed models that are all fully painted to a decently high standard, and with full boards of homemade scratch-built terrain, often specifically made for the game/scenario I’m playing. I don’t do that because I think that’s what you’re “supposed” to do though. I just genuinely love modeling and painting my own unique miniatures and terrain. For me, the “journey” is just as fun as the “destination”. One last random thought: If you REALLY want to get a force/army for a game done quickly… DON’T make it a solo game. Scheduling a specific date with other people gives you a hard deadline that forces you to get your shit together.
fean_arnailes
Interesting thoughts. I don't quite grasb on what you mean by problem 6. It however reminded me of how I noticed that in pvp gaming, boards started to follow a pattern (no hills on deployment zone, big impassable LoS blocker in center of board) and although that might give fairer and maybe more interesting game, it generally makes things more predictable and less immersive. Which partially contributed to my focus on solo gaming, only one that gets hurt by unfair terrain is me and games can still be interesting. Regarding problem 2, I am trying to 3D print all armies I want for certain sci-fi setting in 15mm scale to fill my backlog. I hope that if I focus on painting core of each army first and then paint additional units every now and then, things don't get too daunting. Time will tell. To me problems 1 and 4 are related. Since I got 3D printer, it has been easy to make armies in multiple settings and in 15mm scale. Currently I have few armies from ~6 different sci-fi settings. Does it kill immersion to play with mixed settings? How about original 40K Beakie marines against modern Primaris marines? Maybe some things are mixable (Aliens, Predators, Terminators) and some are verboten (Aliens and Care Bears). If I decide to mix settings, what rules to use? Proxying might not feel right enough for some armies or I might have to use same army list for too many different forces. Build your own forces games have lot of work before getting on table. One Page Rules has wonderfully large collection of publicly shared army lists on their app and Squad Hammer works really well even when musing unit stats on the go during play. Friction is a good word. I think I should make a list of things that add friction to hobby time and try to solve those.
Skald
I accidentally wrote an essay so posted it on my own blog Skaldsdrápa. https://skald.bearblog.dev/musings-re-overcomin... For ease of access I am adding the link to Tradgardsland below as an example of a blog I think more people should follow for no-nonsense oldschool wargaming. https://tradgardland.blogspot.com/
MrNightmare
For the record, my wargaming blog with most recently Perilous World of Zeen battle reports is here: https://nightmarethoughts6.blogspot.com/
Psychichazerd
This doesn't attempt any solutions. When I finally realised that i simply don't have the time to build or store fantasy terrain or to play fantasy games as well as my sci-fi collection, things became much easier. I don't have to buy, paint or store fantasy minis. I now focus exclusively on sci-fi stuff for Planetfall. I do have a lot of minis that i used for Five Parsecs, and I'm sure I'll find a use for them in Planetfall, especially if expand my game to Planetfall: Tactics. Up until now I've been storing a lot of the raw materials for traditional fantasy terrain making, my plan is to use them up making stuff for my local games group to use, which will clear enough space to store a load of sci-fi stuff that i was generously given recently. Before I got onto that, however, I made a point of actually finishing 3 or 4 smaller projects that had been sitting around unfinished. This wasn't particularly easy, but it just require a little bit more discipline. I feel a lot more focused and less over-projected (not overwhelmed, just trying to do too many things at once) as I have a couple of tangible goals (clear some space; use the new space) which I find useful.
Jonathan Brown
I've faced (and still face) many of those problems. Some of which you've actually helped with (see below), but here are some things I've found helped: Have my modelling and painting stuff either set up or at least ready to take out and put on my table. Start a 5 Parsecs from Home campaign and (after an initial couple of games with unpainted minis), commit to painting up the forces I play against every game. This is enabling me to get to a wide variety of stuff. Start a blog (actually a Substack). This is kind of a separate hobby that I've been wanting to do for a while but it helps with my gaming hobby because it's another form of accountability. (And recording what and how I paint will hopefully be useful.) You can find it here: https://2000jb.substack.com/ (I initially started with Legions Imperialis but since then have been mostly 5PFH. I do intend to play and record other games in due course.) Get a house, stake a claim to a room and get some proper shelving so that I can sort my models, see what I have, reduce the barriers to getting stuff out to make but also begin the process of identifying what I know I'll never use so that I can get rid of it. (It took a long, long time for my wife and I to be able to get a house of our own, so I know the first part of this isn't something everyone will be able to do, but the principle of 'sort your stuff' might still be doable on a smaller scale. Accept that if GW won't write decent rules, I won't play them. Which doesn't mean I can't still buy their minis, even if most of them are too IP-specific for me to want to play them in other games, or at least in the same game as another manufacturer's minis. It just means I'll fine a rules set that works for me to play with. This frees me up from worrying about 'unit builds' or even trying to put together a 'proper' army.

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