Question to those who paint multiple sides for a project

[jon_1066]

For Blood Bowl I have many different factions.  For fantasy and Sci-Fi I have both due to 30+ years of collecting.

For historical gaming I pick a campaign then build up the forces starting with the smaller scenarios and expand the forces to accommodate the larger battles as time goes on.

[crafty]

I'm a 'deep and have all the options' hobbyist now.

I went in boots first when I started painting, collecting and gaming Second World War in 1/72. I just went nuts with Germans, Russians, Brits, Italians...but soon began to narrow my focus to two major opponents with more options for vehicles (Germans/Soviets).

Painting many opposing armies was a bit unfocused for me. It soaked up the time I could have been used to paint up more vehicles & terrain. So for me, multiple options = multiple scenarios, and greater replay-ability for games like Crossfire/Bolt Action.

For the past year I have been painting more & more English & French 100YW/Medieval armies in 1/72, with a view to playing bigger battles, with larger units on the table. I'm doing this to be able to scale up from Lion Rampant to games like To the Strongest! and Kings of War.

I like having the option of using my armies for differing rule-sets, for the different opponents I've gamed with. If I have all the stuff, I can easily convince my mates to come and throw some dice & cards around. Until recently, I've lived remotely in Australia, so having all the stuff to actually get a game going was the most important thing.

[Silent Invader]

When I start a project I research the period (one hobby), collect together most of what I think I’ll need for both sides (another hobby), then I start painting it (a different hobby), and if I’m still enjoying it I might game with it (an even different hobby) else at any stage I either sell or bin it.

[has.been]

or bin it.

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
I quote rule One of the wargamers' handbook,
'...on no account throw stuff away!'
Give it away, yes.
Repurpose it, yes.
Convert it, yes.
Or the more usual,  put it in a box & file it away for some
unspecified distant time when you may look at it again.
 

[Michi]

If you’re someone who ends up painting multiple factions of a project so friends can play, do you tend to prefer to have:

1) many different factions to choose from, four or more, but not much more than the minimum required models/units
2) two sides, but go deep and have all the options available

This depends on budget and effort to get stuff done. I rather buy all factions if these are pre-painted/ready to play. Being the slow painter that I am, I tend to limit factions if I have to paint them myself. Often enough I find myself having only one faction finished when my fellow gamers have already moved on to the next shiny thing. Over the decades of painting and tabletop gaming, I decided to have at least two factions for every game at least. I bolster them thoroughly for variation and if time and budget allows (and I really PLAY the game), sometimes I step further and start additional factions. However I consolidate games I already own, rather than buying new ones. Does this all make any sense?

[Mindenbrush]

I game with 2 very different groups.

With the local group it is very much if you are interested in a period then one has to paint both sides with enough for 6 players.
As I am off to Historicon in July and have access to the OG Army card 40% discount, I suggested they take a look and see what they need.
Blank faces……

The other group are a 2 hour drive away, but they all get together and build compatible forces for a period whilst also building both sides for other periods that they are personally interested in.

[Easy E]

Enough for 6 players!  That seems.... unreasonable to say the least.


I tend to create two opposing forces that I would want to play.  I am not sure if that means I go deep, or wide but there you go.  Since I am setting it all up and doing all the work, I will paint the things I want to paint; thank you very much!

[Khusru2]

I'm 1 and 2!
Several choices with lots of add ons. But, then, I've been gaming decades. The only exception? ECW.

[Hobgoblin]

I tend to think of any painting project as just adding to the stack of miniatures that can be used for many different games. I really just do fantasy and sci-fi gaming, which makes it easier to use anything and everything together (and the fantasy figures are a good source of primitives for sci-fi games).

I do, though, pay attention to unit sizes for games like Saga and Dragon Rampant. So a group of goblins (say) might be primarily painted up for an RPG encounter, but I'll probably make sure there are 12 of them for use as levies in Saga or light foot in Dragon Rampant.

One thing that's handy, I find, is to paint up some 'officer' figures that can be added to quite different units to show which side they're on. Standard bearers, leaders and 'discipline masters' (common in old Citadel sets) can be very handy for this.

As an example, we recently played a game of Saga in which I was fielding a bunch of pallid orcs as the Irish. I wanted to use warhounds, but didn't have enough dogs to do so. What I did have, though, was a group of feral-looking Frostgrave gnolls. Most were very lightly armed (daggers and clubs). By adding an orc discipline master to the rear of the group, I got a convincing look for a group of fast, bestial monsters lashed into action - which fits the warhound profile nicely.

I'm currently painting up various human types to make use of the Norman and Carolingian battleboards and dice in Saga. The main thing is to get some heavy cavalry. But I'm also painting up some spare foot knights with the same sort of gear. The idea is that these can be dropped in as leaders for units of orcs or beastmen or whatever, to show that they're part of the same force as the knights.

That approach, I think, would work well for many per-gunpowder historical forces - to allow generic troops to look the part through their leader and increase the versatility of the available figures.