How many sides do you build and paint?

[Mr. White]

When you get into a game, do you just paint the army/gang/warband/faction that you plan to play or do you paint up multiple for others to use?

Whenever i get into a game, I tend to want to have at least two sides, and terrain, so I can play with non-painters, casual friends. It feels weird for me to have models in my collection without an opponent or a table to battle on. I also like to have the flexibility to be able to run the games at home and not have to depend on other locations and scheduling. Unfortunately, it means it takes me a lot longer to get a game to a playable state because I'm doing terrain and at minimum two forces...

[warlord frod]

With only a few exceptions I have always painted two opposing armies so that I can get friends to play. I wish I lived near folks who would paint an army so I did not have to do this but that is not the case.

[Tom Reed]

I always try to build paint at least two sides anymore. A bunch of the guys got burnt too many times for us to let that happen anymore.  Years and years ago we had some really great Seven Years War battles...until the guy who owned the French sold them to someone out of state.

[Cat]

How many have they got?  I tend to build up forces to host large convention and club games, so my initial thinking usually starts with enough for 8 players at least; and if I can work in more than '2' sides, the better.

[has.been]

Similar. Burnt too many times by not having both sides.
One club campaign, ACW, failed when all the Confederate
players left (different reasons) before we even played one game.
I try to have at least a matched pair, e.g. Republican Romans &
Carthaginians for DBA.
It is also possible to have various forces that can be allied or opposition,
e.g. Sepoys in Indian Mutiny could be with the British, Loyal, or
opposing the British, Mutineers.
In AK47 I have three 'forces'  Army, Navy & Air Force, (eventually I will add
a forth, Marines).  They can fight each other or I can mix & match, e.g. drop
the tanks from the army & substitute the Navy's armoured cars or the
Air Force's recoilless rifle equipped jeeps.

[Elbows]

If it's a "popular" game amongst my group, I start with one...then I often try to have a second one on hand in case interest disappears, or I want to play something different.  If it's a game I write/host...then I paint everything.

I was fortunate enough to cut my teeth in a group of hobbyists who introduced me to the idea of "hosting" a game.  While the group assembled every Thursday...if you had a game you wanted to play, you provided everything - other players just showed up.  That meant everyone could play everything.  If it so happened that other people were interested in the same game/genre/setting and they added stuff...even better.

If I run Old West, I'm providing everything.  If you have cowboys you want to bring along, even better.

If I run my dungeon crawl, I'm providing everything.  If you have fantasy minis/heroes that you want to bring...even better, etc.

I currently only have one army for 15mm WW2, but I'll rectify that eventually.  For 40K/sci-fi I have two armies which can oppose each other.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I always do two opposing forces.

[Inkpaduta]

For most of my gaming career I have played with people who do not paint or collect figures.
So I am the one that does the buying and painting. Overall I don't mind this is my hobby after all,
but it has been very nice the few times I have actually had wargamers in the group who also buy and paint.

[AKULA]

Painting armies for Game of Thrones...

...think I’ve probably got about 15 different armies/Houses/forces on the go currently.

Plans for more though

 

[BZ]

I play with my family, so I (or more and more often we) make 2, but sometimes 4 sides. But if I were alone with this hobby, I still would make at least 2, just to have more chance to play with anybody, and also to have more options for myself.
I guess, if You dont play some very popular system (unfortunately in my area this means almost always GW), You will need more armies to play... Either solo, or with somebody, who is interested but new.

[dadlamassu]

I have always built at least two forces for any period that I play.  Only once did I raise one side and that was for a demonstration game of Waterloo in about 1970, I kept the figures and only recently sold them.  Our small club meets in either my house or a friend's  one and has done since the early 1970s with the only breaks being my operational deployments and the current Covid restrictions.  We, two, are the ones who put on the games and provide everything - scenario, troops, terrain, rules - everything in fact (including tea and biscuits).  This has stood me in good stead as when children came along I had most of the forces until they caught the "Warhammer" bug.  Now more that half a century later I am providing the forces for the grandchildren's games. And again I have most of the stuff needed. 

[fred]

It depends. In our group everyone builds and collects armies.

So for some games I only have 1 force. But it rarely stays that way...

For 10mm Fantasy I think I had 15+ armies at the last count - which is probably a bit excessive. But I keep adding to them!

As said above with Covid and remote gaming it is proving very useful to have multiple forces available so that I can put on a game for remote players.

[Antonio J Carrasco]

Both.

[FramFramson]

"All of them" 

Only half kidding, really. For example, I have painted hundreds of figures for Pulp Alley (though none recently, sigh), including specific full leagues with fixed rosters, league cores and partial leagues which can have variable membership, in-between figures who can serve as bystanders or temporary league filler, and dedicated bystanders.

For my old Mage Knight collection, I really did end up collecting armies for all the factions.

[pixelgeek]

My Perry WotR figures are going to do double duty as human troops in Oathmark so I will be building two Billhooks forces as part of that process. I doubt the Elves I fight will mind a mix of liveries.