Parade Ground Tips on Improving the Spit and Polish of Your Armies

Do you have mounds of unpainted lead from many time periods, in varying scales, sitting around collecting dust along with an endless supply of rule sets and other miscellaneous source material?

About a year ago, I went through my gaming room and its bewildering array of junk scattered about. The figures included 25mm Dark Ages, Fall of Rome, War of the Roses, American Revolution, Civil War and 15mm WW II. In 25mm Foundry Ancients, and in 15mm, some American Revolution Miniatures and Polly Oliver, along with an unpainted Russian Napoleonics army a friend talked me into buying. He was worried I would plunge in and do 15mm SYW Russians after having a blast playing my first "Age Of Reason" battle instead of doing the Russians for Borodino and his Napoleonics.

Even with the help of a professional painting service, I could never hope to cover all of the eras. Along with this overwhelming load of unpainted lead was the need for terrain and buildings for both scales, and as the editor can attest. we like to do these to the highest standards. For some -- or I fear many -- gamers, this is not a problem. However I found that this huge unpainted collection seemed insurmountable. I was losing interest in gaming and sending hordes of figures out to be painted professionally, as I no longer enjoyed painting.

The General Plan

Well, as any good tabletop general knows, one needs planning, a little luck, and a grasp of reality to succeed. The first thing I decided was that I needed to scale down my projects, eliminate many of them and concentrate my efforts. Next, I also needed to settle on what scale to game with and finally come up with a plan for finishing some of these projects. First, I did an inventory of what I had, concentrating on what was actually finished and ready for battle. I then compared this to my mental wish list of gaming periods, and finally found out what our gaming group was interested in, had done, or really wanted or did not want to do in the future.

The Danger of No Opponent

In talking and gaming with our group over the past couple years, I also stumbled upon a reality of gaming that has helped shape my view of projects. Gamers come and go. With constraints imposed by wives, families, girlfriends, jobs, and even sometimes the need to relocate, a whole opposing army can be shipped off to California, Florida or the back of the closet behind the baby stroller and diapers in an instant. Needless to say this can seriously disrupt things!

The friend who talked me into buying the Russian Corps has a massive, perfectly painted, Napoleonic French Corps, while the opposing Austrian and Russian players never finished their armies and have since left the hobby. This same poor soul was also painting a 500-man Union army, and we just lost the Rebel painter/general to a promotion moving him to Las Vegas. This has instilled in me the need to buy, paint, and own all of the opposing armies for a conflict. It seems best when one person can control the scale, figure manufacturer, painting, ownership, and choice of rules and method of basing for an era they relish -- preventing many problems which can arise. While exceptions can and assuredly must be made, this had substantial influence on my decisions.

Honing It Down

It was obvious looking at my unpainted hordes that I needed to play God and decide who stayed in my gaming heaven and who was shipped off to someone else's unpainted purgatory. I found inspiration by looking over my growing library of military history. It was evident that three eras held the vast majority of my interest: The Viking raids of western Europe; The American Revolution; and WWII. In gaming terms, this made sense that one was Ancients, another Horse and Musket, and a third combined arms Modern warfare. I did notice a goodly number of books dealing with the naval aspects of these wars, however others in our group had both the "Wooden Ships and Iron Men" and "General Quarters" projects underway, so I quickly ruled out anything nautical.

Next, I had to decide on scale. Most of what I had so far was 25mm, but I did feel that 15mm was the way to go for Horse and Musket. Unfortunately, I took some advice and ordered, sight unseen, about 300 15mm AWI figures. I did paint some up and then painted some 25mm AWI. The choice was easy. Additionally, many of the 25mm AWI would mix nicely with a friends 25mm F & IW collection. So, the 15mm AWI figures are now collecting dust elsewhere (Editor's Note: My closet!), and with AWI my only choice for Horse and Musket, the few Civil War and F & IW figures I had were happily donated to the gamers concentrating on that era.

Narrowing It Further

Next I had figure out what to do with my near 1000 Ancient and Medieval 25mm Old Glory and Foundry figures, The bulk of it was six armies from the Viking raids on Western Europe -- mainly the Vikings, Saxons, Irish, Welsh, Scots, and some Normans. To flesh these armies out and add variety (so I had convinced myself), since the Old Glory range ignores the Scots and Irish, I bought hordes of figures from many eras and manufacturers. Soon, I had been contemplating armies for Ancient Ireland and Britain (I have a weakness for chariots), the Fall of Rome to go with the Arthurian Period, the Viking Era and then on through William Wallace, Bannockburn, and the 100 Years War -- OUCH! While the bulk of the Viking era figures were done, most of the rest where still slumbering in their plastic barracks. Not wanting to part with all of these, I knew I had to scale back.

Here is where the luck element enters in. The armies of the Celtic Fringe (Welsh, Scottish, and Irish) changed little from the Arthurian Era through the Viking era and into the Norman Feudal period, so this is where I would concentrate my efforts. These Celtic armies all relied mainly on a mass of unarmored spearmen and poorly-armed skirmishers that can easily be used for the whole period of say 450 - 1100 A.D. and beyond. With the addition of a couple of time-period-specific units for them, both periods can be finished with relative ease. I then pounded out all the relevant army lists, laid out all of the figures I had, and sold off on the Internet all the superfluous figures for this period, and everything for the later medieval period. This hefty sum off money, while still on average a 25% loss, I then forwarded to my painting services along with the most desperately-needed figures. This was an important lesson on the evils of impulse buying that will hopefully stick in my mind for a long, long, time.

Approaching a New Project

Previously, around Christmas, while I was absorbed playing Talonsoft's "Battleground Ardennes" computer game against my best friend, I decided some of those Old Glory Panthers and Panzergrenadiers would make for a nice present. So, I bought some along with a few halftracks. They sat around for some time until he decided to pull out the old airbrush and produced the finest looking vehicles I have ever seen.

We were further inspired by playing our first couple games of Crossfire (I consider them the best miniatures rules ever). Then, needless to say, seeing "Saving Private Ryan" added further fuel to the fire, Six months and many, many dollars later, we still are putting together our Crossfire battalions and Spearhead regiments. The sheer size and expense of this project meant that it had to be cut up. I took the Americans, another the Germans, and a third the Russians and some eastern front Germans, and then we vowed no Afrika Corps till Europe was finished. While this went against one oOf my commandments of gaming, sheer necessity forced us to divvy things up. As a compromise and precaution, each of us plan on doing a small force of the opposition to provide at least enough of an enemy, like late-war German Paras for me, for some good skirmish or Crossfire games.

So, now I have only three areas to concentrate on and a renewed interest in painting and playing. The last two years of indiscriminate buying and jumping from project to project only lessened and not increased my enjoyment of the hobby as my gaming room and spirit began to sag from the sheer weight of unpainted lead.

Resisting the Urge

So what should one do it they are caught in the same dilemma?

First, resist the urge created by one inspiring book, movie or convention game. Also, ask yourself, when contemplating another era, is it really that different form one you are doing presently?

I really can not see having both, say, SYW and Napoleonics, or even WW II and Modern, as the battles are really not going to be altogether that different unless your interest are wholly one period-oriented, or the figures carry over nicely from one period to the next.

Then, I suggest using the Internet, Library, and friends to decide upon a set of rules, or better yet, after much research, write your own. Then, with solid army lists in hand, buy the bulk of common troops and paint these first. I know the impulse to paint the Guards or Companions or Huscarls first is often irrepressible. However, the hordes of imperfectly-painted regulars will look fine, while the practice garnered from painting these will assuredly help painting the elite units of the army. Finally, try to finish the project completely, both sides, before moving on. I know that a new period or line of figures is often one of the greatest thrills in gaming, but when one has numerous unfinished projects, an unbearable painting load, and an empty checking account, the thrill subsides. One may soon find themselves drifting from the hobby, as I was months back.

That's all for now, I've gotta go -- can't wait to put the finishing touches on the last unit of one more army ... !