Starting New Armies/Projects

[club]

I recently found myself down the 'starting a new army' rabbit hole and thought I would throw the question out to you all - what's your process when you want to start a new miniature army/project?

I usually start by finding manufacturers, then researching via books (a lot of Osprey), and then consulting which rule systems I should use for the final breakdown of what I should purchase, finally pulling the trigger anywhere between a week to a month later after my initial interest in a new army. And per usual, I tend to spend much more than I originally intend on

[Imperial Dave]

blimey........a question for the ages

It really does depend. Sometimes I buy figures because I like the look of them and it snowballs from there. Sometimes I read a book fiction or non fiction and get the bug for that period/arena. Lastly sometimes I just have a favourite period in history that drives me to collect, do further research and occasionally paint the associated figures

[Jon Freitag]

If you already made the decision to start a new army, well, then my project planning process is similar to yours.  A more interesting question is what inspired you to pull the trigger on building a new army in the first place?

[Andreas Johansson]

Hm. Sticking to SoA-relevant ones, I've started less than a handful of genuinely new projects in the last decade, and in each case having an historical opponent for armies owned by other local players has been a major consideration, so what rules and what scale have been given from the start.

So my process would be something like: i) decide what rough time and place I want an army from, chosing among ones where there already are armies around locally, ii) chose what particular applicable army to get - I typically avoid ones somebody local already has -, iii) read up on the army chosen and look for a suitable range of figures. It may easily be a year before I pull the trigger and actually order something.

As to what prompts me to start a new project in the first place? Dunno really, but it typically involves underestimating how long it'll take finishing the stuff I've already got.


Back in the day, when I had more spare time and mostly played DBA, I'd buy and paint new armies for themed tournaments, choosing something that seemed interesting among those eligible to enter.

[Dextropy]

I've started 4 MeG armies in the past 6 months, and find myself in a similar situation. So far my interests have largely formed around what models I can actually get my hands on. I'm a bit more limited than most as I try to exclusively deal in 3D printable miniature lines.

I'm cursed in that I'm usually the trailblazer for my local gaming group, so I don't have the boon of coming up with "historical opponents" as I don't have any to start out with. This tends to get me in trouble due to the fact that my historical interests tend to be incongruent with the rest of the gang. I went so far as creating a line of Sengoku Japanese miniatures to appease my group only to realize I find them brutally boring to paint, and the period of little sway to me.

My first step after that ordeal shall always be getting some of the models and seeing that I can enjoy painting them. I have a bit of notoriety in bringing unpainted half-built armies to international tournaments (in other game systems) that I'm trying to abandon. For the longest time, the gaming side of the hobby was my only interest, but 15mm historicals give me enough entertainment in regards to painting and research to make it compelling.

I finally got some bite from my group in starting a Mediterranean campaign ~500-300BCE. Of course all the "easy" armies such as Sparta, Persia, Athens etc get gobbled up, and I get lost trying to come up with something different. Different usually revolves around choosing an army that there's very little written about, or choosing a daft period (See my latest two posts)
As I dig into research mode, I tend to find that my initial vision for the army is wildly anachronistic. This gets complicated as I'm a "competitive" gamer at heart, and reconciling the history is always a pill. I'll find an army I love to play and hate to paint, or have a gorgeous competitive list that's taking some creative liberties.

There are some armies that interest me that just don't fit my playstyle (regardless of competitiveness) for example- I really enjoy the Germanic tribes historically and visually, but horde style armies aren't at all interesting to me tactically.

That said, it's a bit like finding the holy grail when things fall together. I'm tickled pink with my Early Imperial Romans as they found the nexus. It's the search for that nexus that's intoxicating.

TDLR: For me, the steps are as follows:
1.Find a range and make sure it's fun to paint.
2.Make a list in the rules you're aiming to play that's fulfilling from a gameplay perspective.
3.Shape said list to something historically feasible.

Complete all three and move onto the next conquest!

[Martin Smith]

Back in the day, when I had more spare time and mostly played DBA, I'd buy and paint new armies for themed tournaments, choosing something that seemed interesting among those eligible to enter.

Painting a DBA army for the next themed tournament was a trigger for me, too...that produced Later Mycenaeans, Parthians, Central Asian City States, early Spartans, Makkan, Burmese, Sumatran, Tamils and a few more I cannot remember...but after a while the themes tended to come around again, so there was the 'already got one for that theme' phenomenon, meaning no need to paint.
New projects these days tend to be fired up by whatever inspires me right now, so (out of period) ACW and ECW for Portable Wargame, C18th and WW2 for One Hour Wargames and greenskins for Hott and 'Sword, Sorcery and Squares' PW have all set me off collecting and painting.

Process tends to be 1) establish what I need (or what extra units I need to extend an existing collection) with a look at reference material, army list books etc., 2) source the figures...new, ebay, fb marketplace, bring n buy...3) sort and prime, and then 4) get distracted by a different project, so leave them six months .....and then next calendar year make a start 😶.

[dwkay57]

In the old days at 25mm I was only interested in Early Imperial Romans so just bought them, lots of them, apart from a few allies.

At 6mm, the interest is a bit - but not much - wider with the key driver being that armies fit in with my not-quite-historical-but not-totally-fictional world and other armies but are different in some way to my other armies (even though I have 9 Greek armies they are all unique, in some way).

But sometimes there are other prompts or drivers e.g. gaining a daughter-in-law from Illinois has sowed the seed for ancient North American armies.

[Imperial Dave]

Competitions never drove my enthusiasm to paint but say an up and coming game with a friend would give me a push to do some

[Swampster]

I have only really started three or four SoA period projects in the last 40 years.
When I first started, I liked the look of Greek hoplites in the Peter Connolly book but I was frustrated that I couldn't paint the shields properly on Perter Laing figures. I only had the purple primer army lists to go by so plumped for Carthaginian. Even though I never used it properly, it started me on the Hellenistic period project - more or less Alexander to Actium. Once I was in that rabbit hole, I've gradually built a lot of the armies from the Atlantic to the Indus. Part of the attraction is that as you build one, you often have also made the substantial part of another. Ironically, the one I have never gone back to redo is the Carthaginian, even though I have the lead and it just needs a few cavalry and spearmen to finish it.
I have to credit/blame Duncan for a lot of this - AMPW being a huge influence.

My original medieval interest was three fold. Part was that the WRG rules changed to cover up to Bosworth. Another was that I hadn't really used massed archers in previous armies. Another was that I wanted to try doing heraldry. This got me into the 15th century, though I eventually settled more for the later part where heraldry was less of a thing.

I returned to medievals much later and thought I would just do a DBA army. Mirliton were at Salute, so I bought a Communal Italian army. At the time, I played against a couple of people and we would generally use historical or at least reasonably so opponents. My DBA army expanded to MM size and then larger so that it could be split to provide two armies. I had to buy the Mirliton Manesse Codex inspired Germans and their Teutonic Knights. And I might as well get French. The Legio Heroica figures didn't really mix with the Mirliton so they became English. It seemed rude not to get Alain Touller's Spanish. Then I started on the Islamic opponents, then the Mongols, the Sung and the Japanese.  The West Africans are partly done. If I could find some Byzantines of the same period which I liked, they would be done. Welsh are done - Scots and Irish have parts done. My main gaps for the 13th century are the Balkans, South East Asia and the Americas.
That one DBA army has snowballed into goodness knows how many. The knights are, as far as I could find, in suitable heraldry for their army largely because I liked researching and painting it.

I haven't gone quite so wild with the late 15th century. The look attracted me to begin with. It has helped that DBMM has pushed into the 16th century so the Various Italian Wars ranges can be used.

I have got a few armies which don't fit into those three projects. My NKE were purely to get an army of the same period as my friends' but I have never really got into that period. I have dipped my toe into the roughly 800 AD to 1100 AD period but it hasn't got me inspired in the same way as the others - my book purchasing probably shows how much I have got into an era.

One thing which affects my army choice is an almost inverted snobbery. WotR and Ottoman armies are very popular and that rather puts me off doing them, even though I have the lead. The Matthis Corvinus period Hungarians are very popular so I use either the Arpad era Hungarians or the post Corvinus types.

[Mark G]

Good thread idea.

My process depends on the initial inspiration.

If it's from period reading, then it's a lot like Club.  More reading, best figures planning planning planning.
Occasionally, rarely, it's an oh shiney impulse figure line, but that's rare and goes straight to reading and planning.
Even if it's a club project I'll try to find one book to fit the project.

But if it's rules based, then it will be by thinking that an army with x and y would play well, then list research and then figure hunting and reading to keep interest up.

Or, it practical, it will be an idea that army x vs army y would make a good match and then we're off.

Paired army projects also allow you to not give a flying shag about whether the army is balanced or tourney safe, which is a big plus to more interesting armies, and most of the tourneys (really they're just wargaming weekends) are based around some kind of pair or pooling of armies.

Either reading or really good figures keep motivation going.  I find off you don't like the figures you give up fast.

Currently on the infantry for the paired visigoths to match my DBA Huns - ready for autumn Mr Knight.

[CarlL]

Its interesting that what figures a person likes or what figures a person can obtain are often key drivers; I suppose back in my youth that would have been case for most gamers with Airfix in plastics (and then only a few boxes) and a very few metal figures around till the WRG books fired off several sculptors / mould makers to replicate figures from book illustrations.
But I have often found its an historical story, fictional or historiography that fires my imagination and desire to make something that gives the feel (possibly imaginatively rather than representation of facts since we often have few facts or artwork to go by); so I recall making Huns from Airfix US Cavalry and Robin Hood figures then Hinchliffe did a range !!
And I suppose converting or looking for look-alike figures has been a theme in my army building although it can be time consuming it gives you something unique ish!!
Reading about history, a good article or a book fact or fiction are big drivers. Hollywood blockbusters in their day too! All the spectacle ... 'never mind the fact feel the spectacle' eh... Of course other blockbusters existed but didnt reach our screens from other foreign parts.
Another theme for me is the untold histories... we / I got a lot of classical Greece v the barbarians, or Mighty Rome (another bunch of barbarians really) v the known world (as told by writers in Latin and Greek of course); but there was so much neglect of other known civilisations or  untold stories (except perhaps in oral histories or writing dismissed by Europeans - with the exception of the fascination for hieroglyphs)!
Now I wonder how many times I have badgered a sculptor for metal masters to make one or more of those !!
Enjoyable thoughts
Carl

[Imperial Dave]

ahhhhhh but watch out for the incredible morphing projects...........they suck you in without you noticing!

[Denis Grey]

My current project - a 28mm DBA Viking army - was prompted by:
a) a Christmas present of a "Vikings on Tour" tee-shirt from my elder daughter
b) a comment by a friend who has a lot of 28mm figures that he was quite drawn to the DBA rules (spoiler: it seems to have been a passing phase with him), and
c) the realization that I could make the whole army quite cheaply using a single box of Gripping Beast plastic figures plus a sprue of their Dark Age archers.

More usually, new armies are prompted by competition themes and the availability - and cost - of attractive figures. (Even if I have one that is "in theme", I generally look at what else might take my fancy.)

Occasionally, it is the figures themselves that inspire the project.  I built a DBA Condotta army simply because I liked the look of the Mirliton figures.  But this is less common.

[Anton]

Sometimes it is because the toys look good, mostly it is books.  Then it's major research and buying.  Closely followed by project creep and repeat the cycle.


I think I have about 4 abandoned or dormant projects, not too bad.  Only 2 of them in our period.

I'm guessing we all more or less doing similar things.  Isn't it fun.

[Duncan Head]

I'm currently wondering about what army to build next - once I've finished off a couple of "unit-sized sub-projects" that are hanging around. My starting-point has been "what's in the lead-pile". Though of course the contents of the lead-pile were influenced by existing interests, mostly ultimately from reading. And then there is "what do we need for the next Battleday", which does mesh nicely with the Greeks in the leadpile - though in fact I think the group may have enough hoplites and so forth between us to do Mantineia anyway.