How many sides do you build and paint?

[Grumpy Gnome]

One of the frustrations that risks overwhelming me is the necessity to generally paint all sides in all games. Every time my wife finds some free time to help out is a relief but our gaming is not her only hobby interest.

And with not only the current international health crisis but our physical location we are hardly in a position to have numerous opponents with various opposing forces.

I recall what it was like in my younger days only having to deal with my favorite figures and leaving others to make enemies as well as terrain. That has its own pros and cons. There is a lot to be said for your own comprehensive world building.

My wife keeps reminding me though that it is the journey not the destination that really matters.

[Elbows]

Yeah, I think we can all agree that the very best case scenario is having a small group of like-minded people who have a similar level of motivation and what I call "hobby stamina" or "game stamina".

Finding a player who is interested in fully painted scenery/figures/terrain, etc. and is willing to put in a decent chunk of time to have a solid game is a rarity.  I have a decent local hobby group, but 90% of the guys are the typical mid-20's gamer-spaz types.

[Spinal Tap]

I have lots of friends who play board games but only one who has an interest in wargames, with a caveat that it needs to be skirmish level.

He has no interest in building/painting miniatures, terrain or scenery nor buying copies of the rules.

To be honest if I didn't arrange games he could happily go the rest of his life playing his 100's of board games and keeping his classic car running.

Consequently I play games that lend themselves to solo/co-op most often and he plays them sometimes. The only time we go head to head has been with FFoL Galactic Heroes.

I have just bought the Fistful of Lead Core and Gothic Rules plus the In Her Majesty's Name and will be spending most of this year putting a few alternate gangs together in VSF and Gothic plus making a couple of different terrain tables.

So in answer, I'll be painting at least 3 different combinations of opponents so we can have varied games.

If he loses interest and I cant find any other players then I have plenty of solo rules I can adapt to the minis/setting.

[has.been]

Where-abouts are you Spinal Tap?
Post Covid restrictions you might be able to find more opponents.
Our little group has become bigger due to:-
Mentions on LAF (Two new fellows) and Chatting to workmates (another
closet gamer).
Give it a try, what have you got to loose?
People are, I'm sure, more likely to travel for a game (post Covid).

[tomrommel1]

As I don't have any regular gaming friend living near enough to my hometown, I have to play solo most of the time. So at least two sides are the norm for me.

[Pijlie]

I usually collect and paint at least two sides. Although there are a few exceptions where the other side seemed numerous and dependable enough to paoint just one.

I only start on things I find interesting enough myself and finding other players is a secondary priority. Hence the paint-both-sides apporach. It also gives me the opportunity to play games with occasional opponents. Then again I live in one of the most densely populated areas in the world and finding another player within an hour's drive has really never been a problem.

[Spinal Tap]

Where-abouts are you Spinal Tap?
Post Covid restrictions you might be able to find more opponents.
Our little group has become bigger due to:-
Mentions on LAF (Two new fellows) and Chatting to workmates (another
closet gamer).
Give it a try, what have you got to loose?
People are, I'm sure, more likely to travel for a game (post Covid).

Near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

There are a couple of clubs near me but both are linked to GW oriented shops so play Warhammer stuff which I'm not keen on.

I'm told there's a group in Halifax with wider tastes so will be looking to join once Covid takes a back seat.

[Leftblank]

I live in one of the most densely populated areas in the world and finding another player within an hour's drive has really never been a problem.

I live within an hour's drive of Pijlie :-) so finding another player is never a problem. I paint both sides, though, because often the opponent plays the same rules (for example, Blücher) but in a different scale. Besides, painting is fun and it allows me to introduce newbies or casual players.
I focus. I started my hobby with several small 15mm Ancients DBA-armies but later I restricted myself to Early Imperial Romans and barbarians. My renaissance 15mm P&S armies are universal, muskets and pikes in many colours, but I only paint and collect League of Augsburg miniatures.  My main 6mm Napoleonic theatre is 1814 France, thus French/Prussian, but slowly extending to Austrian and Russian allied troops.
WW2 is Arnhem theatre, Americans, UK and German troops.

Otherwise you're never finished.

[jon_1066]

One of the frustrations that risks overwhelming me is the necessity to generally paint all sides in all games. Every time my wife finds some free time to help out is a relief but our gaming is not her only hobby interest.

And with not only the current international health crisis but our physical location we are hardly in a position to have numerous opponents with various opposing forces.

I recall what it was like in my younger days only having to deal with my favorite figures and leaving others to make enemies as well as terrain. That has its own pros and cons. There is a lot to be said for your own comprehensive world building.

My wife keeps reminding me though that it is the journey not the destination that really matters.

Good advice from the wife there.  Enjoy the process of painting and don't focus on the final goal.

Also way to go getting a spouse who will play a game with you and also occasionally paint stuff!  Living the dream. 

I have found having a series of small manageable steps was the way to go.  eg my 6 mm Naps I started off with cardboard bases for the units and focused on getting some scenery together.  I then chose a small scale battle of the 1809 campaign and have gradually painted up forces and scenery allowing me to get larger and larger battles on the table.  I have enough painted figures for most of the battles in the 1809 Danube campaign except the three biggest battles of Eggmuhl, Aspern and Wagram.  Of those only Aspern will fit on the table at my chosen ground scale so I'm pretty happy with how things have gone. 

My latest mission is to get a couple of Blood Bowl sides painted up.  These are nice figures to paint, a good change from 6 mm Naps, very limited in number (only 12-14 per side) so a nice distraction without being overwhelming.

[has.been]

Near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

There are a couple of clubs near me but both are linked to GW oriented shops so play Warhammer stuff which I'm not keen on.

I'm told there's a group in Halifax with wider tastes so will be looking to join once Covid takes a back seat.

I have a similar experience living in Rugby. When I finally tracked down the Rugby club it felt
like the scene in Blues Brothers.
"What kind of music (Wargaming) do you have here?"
"Oh we have BOTH kinds, we have Country AND Western! (40 K  AND  30 K !)
Still managed to find fine fellows. Of our informal group of nine,
two were pick ups from LAF,  five are ex local club members (3 different clubs),
one worked along side my Father for a week & wanted to find out about Wargaming
and... well me.

[Spinal Tap]

I have a similar experience living in Rugby. When I finally tracked down the Rugby club it felt
like the scene in Blues Brothers.
"What kind of music (Wargaming) do you have here?"
"Oh we have BOTH kinds, we have Country AND Western! (40 K  AND  30 K !)
Still managed to find fine fellows. Of our informal group of nine,
two were pick ups from LAF,  five are ex local club members (3 different clubs),
one worked along side my Father for a week & wanted to find out about Wargaming
and... well me.

 :

That's a bit surreal too, I was only watching The Blues Brothers again yesterday.

[has.been]

"The Penguin!"  WHAP!!!!!!!

[Elbows]

Also, I think it's worth noting that even if an area has a specific crowd - many of those people might be worth "saving".

While I enjoyed the start of 8th edition 40K (coming back from 3rd edition), I no longer play it - but by joining a local 40K group locally, I found a group of fellow minded gamers.  We now do various skirmish games, play D&D together, do Old West, Battlegroup WW2, we game online, do RPGs by Discord, go shooting together, etc.

Now that's a small group "picked" from the larger 40K crowd, but a lot of people who play 40K would be interested in other stuff - sometimes they're even more passionate about other stuff, they're just stuck with 40K since a lot of people don't play anything beyond the GW grasp.

[Mr. White]

I have found that sometimes, when joining a local game group, they don't see the same game or setting through the same lens I do. Or sometimes, maybe we have different levels for what we tolerate in social settings. For those reasons, I like to have multiple sides ready on hand because I've found I'd rather play with a non-painter/gamer who's more agreeable to hang out with rather than spend my luxury time around folks that I don't jive with, but who happen to buy the same models/books as I.