Faction ADD + too many projects

[GlassJaw]

Long post alert!

I'm a long-time Khador player (since early MK I) and definitely consider them to be my "main" faction. That said, I find myself only playing specific lists/casters and fine-tuning them for tournament play these days. I'm definitely the type of player that likes to learn about all the factions and try new things and I'm trying to decide what to try next.

Because of that, I've done a lot of trading, eBaying, and Bartertowning over the past few years and have acquired sizable collections of various factions (which are currently in various states of assembly). My problem right now is that I feel like I have too many irons in the fire and too many uncompleted side projects. And because I still need a few things for those projects, I've come to the dilemna that it's too time-consuming (and rather costly) to pursue them all at once.

Here's where my current collection and project backlog stands:

Cygnar - I have a fairly large collection but tend to only break them out for fun once in a while. I like them well enough but have never felt inclined to devote a lot of time playing them exclusively. I'm definitely holding onto them though - maybe I'll get more into them one day. I can field most of the lists I want, although I'd still like to pick up a full unit of Precursors.

Gators - I love me some Gators! My FLGS had a slow-grow league earlier this year and I put a Blindwater army together and had a blast. I also took them to GenCon. It was probably the most fun I've had painting in a LONG time. I definitely enjoy painting beasts a lot more than human-centric/military stuff. I picked up Maelok at GenCon and impatiently waiting for Domination.

Legion - I had originally planned to play Legion for the slow-grow league I mentioned above and got a good deal on an army. Before the league began, one of my friends picked up Legion and the Gator models had me at hello so I went with them instead. I really like the idea of playing beast-heavy and I really want to come up with a cool color scheme. I need a couple of solos and a beast or two to put together a lot of lists. I also want Hex Hunters and Striders for eLylyth and Bethayne tier lists but those could wait.

Cryx - At the end of MK I (and before I took a year+ hiatus), I started to get into Cryx and picked up sizable army. This was the leading contender for what I was going to play next but I'm starting to lose steam with the amount of stuff I still have left to build. I play fairly infantry-heavy with Khador and that's certainly the case with Cryx as well. Another "problem" is that I don't own Bane Thralls and while I know I don't absolutely need them, they are a mainstay unit for many lists and I'd like to get them eventually.

Mercs - Since I play Khador and Cygnar, I have Assassins, Gun Mages, Nyss, and a ton of Merc solos. I also really liked the new NQ tiers for Zerkova (which allows Vanguards) and eMagnus (which allows Cygnar stuff). So I thought to myself, "Self, why not pick up a few Merc jacks and casters and play Mercs?!" Since then, I've acquired quite a few Mercs jacks as well as Gorten's battlegroup. I really only need a few casters and solos to be able to field a bunch of lists, although I'd like to pick up Boomhowler's and a couple of other jacks too.

Circle - I had a large Circle army back in MK I but wasn't that into it at the time so I sold it to fund other prjects. Since then, I've seen a lot of cool beast-heavy lists and I've considered putting a small force with a few casters (Kromac, eKaya, eKrueger) together again. I don't own any Circle right now so I'd have to start from scratch again.

Skorne - I'm a huge fan of the Skorne beasts as well as Zaal, Mordikaar, and Rasheth, especially their theme forces. I really like Naaresh too and picked him at GenCon. Since that's the only Skorne model I currently own, this is also a much longer-term project.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? I feel kind of scatterbrain about where to focus my attention and what I really want to build, play, and paint next. Any advice? Thanks!

[PG_somnicide]

I am pretty sure that miniature wargames companies count on us to keep their companies afloat ;-) I have winnowed down to just Pigs and Khador. Oh and everblight. Maybe a quarter of it painted and I am never going to buy another model until what I have is painted. Oh, except for the new Alexia. And Sturm and Drang when he comes out. Oh and I have to have the kayazy eliminators. And some of those IK models would be awesome so I can get ahead of the curve and have my gaming groups characters and npcs fully painted for when the rpg game comes out. Oh and I absolutely NEED fenris to get this theme list working...

[Blarg D Impaler]

Kommandant GlassJaw,

You're not the only one. I'm also a huge Khador player, with a lot of little side-project armies myself. I have found that the theme armies have been a huge motivator for helping me decide what to get rid of and what to get. Along with my Big Red Pile of Khador I have been collecting and painting the following theme armies:

75 point Darius
75 point pNemo
75 point eStryker (darn near the same as pNemo...)
50-75 point pCaine
75 point Amon Ad-Raza
75 point Mortenebra
35 - 50 point Venethrax
100 - 125 point pMagnus (I'm already at 75 points. If I can get everything painted it will be disgusting what I could field for this guy...)
100 - 125 point eMagnus
??? point MacBain
??? point Damiano (I have 30 Steelhead Halbardiers painted, this is a gimme...)
75 point pKaya
75 point eKaya
Big Grey Pile of Legion

If I were you I would use the theme armies to guide your purchases and trades. Find a common theme (like warjack and warbeast handlers for me) and stick to it. Everything else goes on the block.

[desertwarlock]

I'm not sure how to help exactly other than to share my own OCD problems with factions. I'm an OCD collector. Once I get into something I tend to spend a lot of time organizing what I have, making lists of inventory and lists of items I still need to get to make a more complete collection.
So about the beginning of August I was looking to start wargaming and trying to decide between 40k and Warmachine. A friend I met at the LGS about that time totally sold me on Hordes, he was so excited about it that I bought Primal right then to read the rules and check it out. I fell in love with the system. It's like Magic the Gathering with models, and I loved to play MTG back in the day.
So...here I am just two months later and I have purchased over 200 models. I have 5 armies, Circle, Trollbloods, Mercs, Cygnar and Legion; bought in that order. Each army is already over 100 pts- Circle is my main one (over 140 pts) and the only one I have actually played with- right now I have a total of about a dozen games played.
It was only just last week I finished assembling and priming all the models for all the armies and just this week that I started painting.
During the same period I made a portable fold-up camouflage table top for gaming and some terrain; painted two hills, made a dozen trees, two sets of rivers, a dozen forest templets, water templates, monoliths (from scratch using foam and clay), 6 towers (made from cardboard), one bridge and a dozen hedge rows.
You think you have too many irons in the fire! Try having an OCD brain that won't quit thinking about Warmahordes even while asleep.
My grand advice is don't worry so much about how many irons are in the fire, work on everything you want to work on, but pick one to finish completely.
It was a struggle for me to quit buying and buying (collecting) and change gears to assembly and painting. I didn't switch completely just focused the majority of my efforts to finishing Circle.
Don't worry about being scatterbrained either, be mindful of what is making you happy and giving you enjoyment. If jumping from project to project makes you happy then keep doing it just don't let it get out of hand. If part of what you are doing disturbs you, let it disturb you enough to force you into changing that behavior just enough that its not an issue.
Remembert to ask yourself one thing only - am I going to regret doing this instead of that? Start there.

[scout's honor]

I've got my Khador mostly sorted (few things still need their coat of paint though) and I'm getting there with my Trollbloods (cav and some UA stuff, plus the inevitable painting backlog). I was going to get serious about Ret, but that's on hold until the Vyre jacks are released - and I do mean on hold, I am not buying anything pointy-eared anymore until then. Thinking about picking up some Cygnar again, but my interest in them is limited to a few specific lists really - I've got my Kraye and Sloan stuff already and although especially Constance and to an extent Haley beckon, that's not at the top of my priority list at the moment. Also fleshing out mercs, but I'm not into the pirates - given what I already have in terms of infantry and solos, I'm thinking 2-3 casters and 4-5 jacks will set them up nice enough for Highborn and Four Star. The big question there is the dwarves: I absolutely love the jacks, but the casters and infantry don't do much for me. I might just cave though... I have a couple of minions models because they're too awesome to resist, I'd like to rock a list or two with them as well - definitely for after New Year's, depending a bit on Ret's release schedule; and after that, possibly, I'd like to get into Circle.

Does that qualify as similar?

Advice? Best I can give is to figure out which faction you can get to where you want it quickest (least number of models necessary, preferably already released and otherwise obviously in release order) and do that first. That way you can really dig in for the bigger projects afterwards, and intersperse those with new releases for the faction that are otherwise done to still have a bit of variety. Looks like Legion first for you, then Mercs.

[PG_LordTyrant Porkchop]

What I've done to try and stave off army ADD is that I picked up a few battleboxes/15 points worth of the armies that caught my eye. I've got Cygnar, Cryx, Trolls, and Everblight. This worked two fold for me. On the one hand, it allowed me to buy the models that have been taunting me and paint them up as well. It has also given me 4 demo kits to use to teach people how to play. There's enough of a variety present that there's not been an issue with having something appealing for someone. Having these on hand has also opened up a new opportunity for me in that, I have no real issues selling off on or all of my battleboxes to A) give new players a cheap, easy start up to the game and B) fund more silly side projects. And with the release of the Journeyman battle groups, I have no issues branching out to grabbing up some Mercs and Scyrah.

[jdeckert]

I've got that problem. I was up to 5 factions, and a lot of them weren't really seeing the table much. I decided to sell off my trolls, since I'd only played them a couple of times in a year. A bit hard to see them go, but I'm happy I did. Now I've got Khador and Circle as my main factions, and can break out the Cygnar or Mercs now and then for a change of pace. With four armies to paint, when I get bored with working on one I can switch gears. Working well so far!

[PG_Feeple]

I've gone back and forth several times, as any local can tell you.

What I did to rein in this impulse, was to make a Tier 4 Theme Force for the Warlock/Warcaster I liked best in the faction. It gives me a new army, a new playstyle, and I'm not sitting with (quite) the backlog I once did. It's worked for me so far, even with my impulse thoughts of ditching them expanding.

[DoktorVivi]

I used to have that problem with 40k and Fantasy, but I don't have the money to maintain that many armies any more so I'm sticking to Khador and Circle. Though Minions are calling my name...

[PG_malfred]

My rule of thumb is it's not a problem unless it looks like this:

http://pokeminiatures.blogspot.com/2...ollection.html

Feel better?

[frozenfoxx]

That, sir, is a very impressive collection. I bow before it.

[PG_joedj]

I've never set mine out like PG_malfred for fear my wife would see and take my head off! (Impressive! Only 3 of my factions are painted to that extent!)

From now on, I'll only list the factions of which I can't currently field 150+ points.
That would be: Rhulics/Mercs (these only from from lack of sufficient different models!!), and Skorne (though 150pts+ are only waiting on some priming of the custom bases, then mounting and they'll be field-able), Retribution (a paltry 100pts or so...), Farrow and Gators.

Now THAT'S commitment!!

[Deadman]

Don't feel bad....

FACTION /# of Models / Points

Cryx 148 144
Cygnar 48 62
Khador 199 306
Mercs 124 153
Circle 101 166
Trollbloods 39 60
Minions 12 27
-------------------------------
TOTAL 671 918

[PG_malfred]

I've never set mine out like PG_malfred for fear my wife would see and take my head off! (Impressive! Only 3 of my factions are painted to that extent!)

Why do you think I waited for her to go to work before I had my photo shoot?

[tutenkharnage]

So, if we ever need to know how something works in the Iron Kingdoms, we can just go to your house and ask its inhabitants.

[PG_malfred]

So, if we ever need to know how something works in the Iron Kingdoms, we can just go to your house and ask its inhabitants.

You'd have to get past Customs, i.e. my wife.

Good luck with that.

These minis are locked up in foam and bag. It's more like the
Guantanamo of miniatures in my basement.

[roddo]

I pale in comparison to some of you.
Currently I have 165 points of Khador, with every caster. these guys are my main army, even though i have more points of other stuff.

Skorne I have 194 points, missing emorg and rasheth. Lots of points tied up in beasts and cavalry.

Cygnar I have 175 points, with all casters but darius, kara and kraye. Once again lots of points tied up in lights. Funny thing is I have 122 models each for khador, skorne and cygnar.

menoth I'm in the process of trading away over 100 points worth, and i never even played them. Was to busy playing khador.

Circle I just finished trading away over 100 points worth, and once again never played them.

Minions I own 84 points worth, with me being able to field farrow, wanting gators if I can trade some 40k for them.

I own 61 points worth of mercs, with gorten being my only caster.

I had around 100 points of trolls at one point, traded em all for more khador, traded some extra cygnar to get some of them back, then traded em away for more skorne. I have a battlebox and a mauler left over atm.

I had around 200 points of cryx, but traded em away for cygnar, skorne, trolls, minions and khador, with some circle and menoth as well. Have 2 cryx minis left. had all of the casters but scavvy.

been playing a year and a half, and I am seriously addicted to this game. So Glassjaw i feel your pain.

[KavinCross]

My rule of thumb is it's not a problem unless it looks like this:

http://pokeminiatures.blogspot.com/2...ollection.html

Feel better?

Yes. Yes I do. Respect.

[Kyuss]

Not wishing to rain on parades but.....

If its all about painting/modelling - Knock yourself out.

If its about gaming - Ask yourself this question, how many times do you get to game? Multiple times a week? Once a Week? Once a Fortnight?

Personally, I stopped my ADD by realising that I only play a max of once a week. Sometimes I don't play for at least two months. Hence I NOW have my main faction (Circle) and one faction which I buy and then sell on when I get the itch as my 'refresher'. At the moment thats Trolls. Saying that I really love the change in style so will now probably keep them as the refresher for good. I have always brought 2nd hand for the 'Refresher', but allow my self to buy 'New' for my main.

(On that point, anyone in the UK want to sell me Borka, Doomy2, min tuffalos, Horthol, Eathborn, Bomber, and a Stone Scribe Elder... Give us a PM )

I intend to keep playing Trolls these till end of the year, which should be enough time to see how people get on with the Domination releases, then see what I can buy to give myself max impact on my Circle lists.

In short, I think if you play multiple times a week, you can sustain playing with 3-4 factions, once a week 1-2, and if less, then really one. Unless of course you're a painting nut.

Hence, taking the original posts comments, I would keep the Khador and Mercs as your main, the Gators as your 'refresher'. If you play a lot, keep the Cygnar, if not, sell it to a mate and 'swap' over occasionally. Sell the Legion and Cryx. Resist the temptation of Circle and Skorne, as I think you will find in the near future that you can run the Gator's Beast heavy enough to satisfy your cravings.

Hope this helps....(?)

[GlassJaw]

Ok, I feel a little better now...

The biggest thing for me is time. The financial aspect is obviously a factor but my hobby time is limited so I definitely start to feel like I'm spreading myself too thin by having a lot of projects going at once. If I don't focus on only one or two things at a time, I'll never get anything done.

I also find that I'm a completist. I don't necessarily need to be faction-complete but I usually try to acquire everything I want within a faction before I start to build and play. I need to start playing with what I have first and then pick up the rest down the road, especially after I get some experience with what I have.

[PG_malfred]

Limit yourself to what you can get painted. That should slow you down.

Or teach you to paint more/faster. (worked for me)

[Da-Rock]

The biggest help for me has been to stop buying piecemeal. I started out in gaming as a painter - painted 1500 to 2000pts of Imperial Guard and never played them for around two years. I have so many different 40k and Warmahordes armies my wife wants to beat me!

Instead of buying this and that when I get that burning obsession, I research the army, make a list and get advice. Try and watch someone else play it or close to it, then order the list exactly. My latest purchase:

a 35pt Rahn list - received it last Monday and I am two Battle Mages away from being done with the paint job on that 35pt list. I own 5 factions and all are painted, but most of them are scattered pieces here and there. Now I can buy, paint and play for about $130 with a week to two weeks painting time.

* another tip: If you are in a store and see something awesome to buy, follow these rules:

1. Is this a model I will play with or just paint?
2. When and how often will I play with this model?
3. How much else will I need to buy in order to play this?

Sometimes I will just buy a Warcaster/Warlock to satisfy my hunger knowing that it will be used someday unlike other models I have purchased.

[PG_warlordgarou]

Mine isn't as bad as Felix's, but it is pretty close to Deadman's - if my current count is correct, I have the following:


FACTION /# of Models

Cryx 69
Cygnar 68
Khador 35
Menoth 38
Retribution 81
Mercs 29
Circle 35
Legion 37
Skorne 117
Trollbloods 85
Minions 80
-------------------------------
TOTAL 674

I have some more stuff on the way, though it won't put me past the 700 barrier. And, I am trying to decide if I should put together an order for a Talion charter force (since that is the only faction, charter or pact that I cannot field at least a battle-box equivalent force), or bulk up the forces that still need some serious lovin' (by which, I mean anything that is under 50 figures, and, more long-term, anything I cannot yet field in an unbound game).

And, of the 674, a whopping 22 of them are painted. (I should finish another couple of them tonight, however - which matters not a whit, actually.)

My advice is just learn to deal with it, accept it, and move on.

ETA - At times, I have had more of some of the armies. I traded them away, and have regretted it ever since.

[PG_Neomorte]

I will admit that I did not read this long set of posts, but I thought I would point out the worst case of Faction ADD known to man. Yup, I am calling out PG_Aslain Kheog. He is missing a mere 12 SKUs from the entire Warmachine/Hordes line that has been released.

There, no need to feel guilty. There is one man that has it so bad it might actually get a medication.

[PG_somnicide]

I will admit that I did not read this long set of posts, but I thought I would point out the worst case of Faction ADD known to man. Yup, I am calling out PG_Aslain Kheog. He is missing a mere 12 SKUs from the entire Warmachine/Hordes line that has been released.

There, no need to feel guilty. There is one man that has it so bad it might actually get a medication.

If you tell me it is all painted I will be forced to rock back and forth in the corner, for my mind cannot handle such a reality.

[PG_malfred]

I will admit that I did not read this long set of posts, but I thought I would point out the worst case of Faction ADD known to man. Yup, I am calling out PG_Aslain Kheog. He is missing a mere 12 SKUs from the entire Warmachine/Hordes line that has been released.

There, no need to feel guilty. There is one man that has it so bad it might actually get a medication.

Sweet. I don't feel so bad.

I only really buy models that I like. And then I sometimes
buy them twice.

[PG_Feeple]

If you tell me it is all painted I will be forced to rock back and forth in the corner, for my mind cannot handle such a reality.

You have made St. Louis laugh, as you have asked if he paints.

We can get Aslain to paint, but that's pretty much getting him to do a chore. He'd rather not. He's capable of doing it, but it is like excercise is to me: if someone isn't badgering me about it, I'll never do it.

[PG_joedj]

I feel, in part, that it is my duty to maintain a certain buying level at my FLGS.
I spend approximately 12 hours per week gaming there.
$20-30/week for models and for 12 hours is cheap entertainment.
Keeping the doors open = priceless.

The time I spend painting is where the real $/time valuation starts to get ludicrous. If I spent my painting time working at a job instead, I'd own Starbucks instead of just drinking their coffee

[Lawso42]

If you tell me it is all painted I will be forced to rock back and forth in the corner, for my mind cannot handle such a reality.

Your mind is at ease... Its not all painted... If I recall correctly, the most of it painted is the majority of his Cygnar and Mercs, with smatterings of painted stuff out of the other factions. Although PG_Neomorte could probably give a better insight to the painted-ness.

-Lawso

Edit: ninja'd

[PG_Neomorte]

If you tell me it is all painted I will be forced to rock back and forth in the corner, for my mind cannot handle such a reality.

He has a ready stream of deals where he trades painted models for unpainted models so that he doesn't have to paint. In essence, the whole of St. Louis paints AKs models for him.

[PG_Duckboy]

I have one main warmachine faction, Khador (of course.) and I delved into hordes a little bit which i have finally found my main Hordes faction, Minions. In this time period of "Finding my own" i have owned cryx, skorne, legion and trolls (twice).

[Otzlowe]

This is somewhat off-topic, but it seriously sounds like St. Louis has an awesome gaming scene.

That said, I have theoretical faction ADD. I don't have much in the way of an income to support a lot of purchasing, but I routinely spend the beginning of each month questioning and re-questioning which factions I want to play. I basically want to play all of them to some degree, and have, at some point, told myself that "I will definitely start this faction!" until I have said it about all the factions.

I literally cannot make up my mind, and my summer was consumed with proxying and play-testing to force myself into deciding via game mechanics, since I clearly cannot decide based just upon aesthetics / fluff.
For example: I've been pretty set on Pigs. Like... really set on pigs. Carver is my 1st/2nd favorite model in the entire range and I find the fluff for Farrow to be hilariously great, but now that I've finally decided to actually settle on starting up some minions... I've decided to start Gators first.

[PG_warlordgarou]

I will admit that I did not read this long set of posts, but I thought I would point out the worst case of Faction ADD known to man. Yup, I am calling out PG_Aslain Kheog. He is missing a mere 12 SKUs from the entire Warmachine/Hordes line that has been released.

There, no need to feel guilty. There is one man that has it so bad it might actually get a medication.

Wow. Having one of every SKU. . . . is it bad that I think I have found a new goal for next year? I mean, I was simply going to shoot for having a decent 50-pt army for every faction, charter and pact by the end of 2012, but that goal seems so easy by comparison.

[jdelrio22]

I fought my faction add at first, eventually I came to accept that I just love the hobby and the game

The thing you want to make sure you don't do is what I did which is start a faction, sell it/trade it and get it again later. Just put them in a box and when the itch comes back they will be there!

Skorne - 220 points - it is my main faction and even after shedding points its still high - kind of wish I had them all painted though
Trollbloods - 75 points
Retribution - 150 points
Cryx - 112 points
Khador - 100 points