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Cult Of Games XLBS: What If We Had To Start Wargaming All Over Again?!
July 20, 2025 by crew
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Does N.I still gave different laws when it comes muzzle velocity of airsift weapons compared to the rest of the UK?
as far as i know its set to near the 300fps mark
Start my hobby all over again but recoup all I’ve spent? Damn! That’s quite a chunk of change amid what I’ve kept for myself, binned or given away. Between books and minis alone my mind is boggled.
I’d also just dive headlong into a woodchipper for sheer overwhelming agony thinking I had no chance to rebuild. All my work gone and nothing to show for it with so little time left in mortal dread is almost as bad as realizing one’s insignificance in cosmic horror.
If I had the chance to restart as a young man with my experience I’d change the spending to solid games that I would be able to play and models I know I’d paint. I might buy a Kislev WHFB army from GW (yes, shock and horror for some) for the aesthetics to use for SAGA or KoW. I know I’d be better at armies and go harder on display painting so take more opportunities for getting paid ting workshops under my belt. I’d also have started teaching years ago when offered to as opposed to declining because I felt unqualified.
Happy Sunday! Ah, great topic – “Zero-based Thinking” – its always a good exercise to mitigate past decisions influencing future actions. I use it quite a bit on other topics, but have avoided using it on my hobby! So, to answer the question would require some proper thought. Proper thought that I will give it, because I am a bit overwhelmed with stuff and would very much like to streamline. It is time! One option I would give serious thought to, is whether I would limit myself to GW worlds. I know this is the opposite to most people on here, but if I could be reborn as less of a hobby butterfly, the idea of going full-bore into one niche, and sticking there, is an appealing idea. I could never do it, I would get stuck, but I like the idea!
Great show this week. If you plan on coming over to any of the East Midlands shows here @brennon, drop us a line. We do most of them and it would be great to meet up.
Re: the main topic. The things I would change are
a) that I would not buy or play anything from Games Workshop
b) I wouldn’t back big board game kickstarters ‘because the minis would be great for game X’
c) i would collect two playable ‘armies’ or forces for each game and move on to the next game. I would not keep collecting beyond a playable force for any game.
d) I would not buy any wargame before trying it first.
The only two games I’ve ever bought stuff for that i probably wouldn’t second time around are Moonstone and Flames.of War.
I will certainly do so – sounds like a grand idea
This has prompted me to do two things.
Good idea! I also ended up looking back into 3rd Ed Warhammer 40K this week because of this discussion too. BUT – Necromunda ftw 🙂
Who’s that lad on the title picture
01:00 you’re all wet!
02:00 Shawn?
06:00 Violence never changes anything!
15:00 Half man, half badger… or fox?
29:00 What would Jeebus do?
36:00 Kindoms, Deaths and Justin.
44:30 “on the internet” – “find them in places” CALL THE POLICE!
46:00 *GASP*
47:30 has @avernos clubbed @brennon to death now? 13.5?
50:20 Cheating!
1:10:00 slight correction: Moving wings on the X-Wing came with V2.
1:11:11 lovely tasty metal! 8)
1:17:11 THE FORUMS HAVE BEEN MENTIONED! say their name!
1:17:50 Backstagers
Start over? Buy all the X-Wing stuff except the 2. edition upgrade. Buy Blood Bowl, Battletech and Bot War again. Get Frostgrave again and grab copies from HeroQuest, BFG and Gorka Morka. I probably would do much less terrain building as there are way to many open projects for me.
A good selection of games to dip back into
poor ben turning to violence … is this what all badgering does ? 😉
Happy Sunday.
For me I’d definitely stick with 5 Parsecs and Leagues but I’d have a lot less random miniatures.
This would have been an interesting question for Gerry (my guess is he would rebuy everything).
Also is this a sign of the end times, Ben saying no to Burrows and Badgers!?!
I think that’s quite a key thing – removing some of the random miniatures I always end up with. As for B&B – I may have been twisted back towards it being the one that wins over MESBG!
Happy Sunday….Excellent show gents.Loved the torpic,I decided quite a while a go of just sticking to what i enjoy building/ painting and playing. So what i have collected is for a reason. So i have built armys for WW2 ,Fantasy and scifi. My armies for WW2 are histroically based they are based on an actual platoon layout from a certain regiment, i ldo not build by points lists.
I also play fantasy and scifi but i buy and build for a reason for both so i wouldnt really go back and start all over but a briiliant topic raised..my only possible change would be maybe size i might of gone the 15mm route instead of 28mm but 28mm looks bloody good on the table when layed out.
To start from scratch I’d go with a Blood Bowl team. Not my favourite game but fairly likely to get a game now and then. I’d maybe then look at a generic fantasy or SF collection for one of the Stargrave and Five Parsecs OR Frostgrave and Five Leagues. Then I’d get distracted by Silver Bayonet etc and soon end up drowning in hobby like I am now.
A lot of the things you’re talking about don’t depend on a restart. You can be more organised, you can play more games, you can go to shows and tournaments, etc.
Very true – I am certainly trying to be more organised now. Only buying for games I know I’ll play and focusing in on armies within those. I just need to take the leap for tournaments and shows tbh
What a thought-provoking episode – thanks guy!.
I have a mate who I met in the mid 80’s through role playing, we carried on wargaming and role playing for many years. One day he phoned me to say it was no longer a hobby he was doing, he cleared up a few decades of hobby, put it in the loft, never to be seen again. We still talk and he asks me what I am doing around the hobby but he has no interest in coming back. If I had to start from scratch, I suspect I would think long and hard around if I am doing this hobby because “this is what I do” or if there is still “fun to be had” from starting again. Sometimes I think I do this hobby because I have always done this hobby, I remember the fun times (perhaps a long time ago) and do the hobby remembering those times of my youth (I started doing this hobby in the 70’s so I might have a few years on some of you).
Having had this moment of introspection I would get the 5PFH/5LFTB/Frostgrave/Stargrave/ROSD type games and collect the figures I liked the look of (inc GW if they look cool to me). I am unsure if I would buy or make the terrain but I know I would paint my own miniatures.
Ben’s comment about going to a local club to get more gaming buddies had me asking why he does not just do it? But then we all have reasons we do not do what we want to do.
To be honest, I’m painfully set in my ways and I “know” that the games I play with my couple of pals will be good. I have a terrible fear of going to a club and people being awful haha – but, I did it before so there’s no reason why I couldn’t do it again.
If I was going to start from scratch I would try to do more “try the game before buying in.” My shelves are littered with games where I bought in, painted a ton of models, and then found that I didn’t actually enjoy the game that much. Of course, I could always try to find new rules sets for the models, but somehow I never seem to, and most of the stuff I buy because “I could use that with this other game” rarely get used.
I’d like to focus more on actually playing rather than endless building and painting, so would probably stick with games that have bespoke rules sets and model ranges like Shatterpoint or Star Schlock, and maybe one or two board game/miniatures hybrids like Mythic Battles where everything I need to play is right there in the box.
Deffo a good idea on the try before you buy side of things
Showing the name of blinky465 while tagging his username @blinky465
What an interesting topic this week, thanks Ben!
I’m not sure I would change much if it all disappeared. I have a huge pile of potential at the moment but am going to retire soon and have promised myself that I’ll tackle most of it then. Perhaps I would be restrained enough not to immediately re-buy miniatures for 50+ different projects but I know eventually I’d be back at the same sort of level. That is because one of the things I enjoy most in the hobby is putting army lists together and searching out suitable models. I try to embrace shiny syndrome as I enjoy the consuming nature of enthusiastic obsessional thinking. I have quite a clear aesthetic in my head when I first start on a project idea and I’m quite happy mixing and matching miniatures from as wide a pool of manufacturers and ranges as I can. I also find a range I like and then try to match the missing elements in from other ranges. The internet definitely helped with this, it was a total pain in the 1980s when everything was via poorly illustrated paper catalogues.
Things that would definitely make the list are any of the output of Mark Copplestone in 28mm, but especially the Grenadier Fantasy ranges and the Foundry and Copplestone Castings Africa ranges.
I sometimes feel like I’ve started from scratch because so much of what I have is in long term storage. I was out rummaging through it last week and came across whole unopened starter boxes and kickstarters and terrain sets….along with armies I had forgotten I even painted. 30 years of hobby is a lot to keep track of.
If I were to start from zero
1. Dropzone UCM I’d rebuy in a heartbeat
2. A complete set of pro-acryl paints and some top quality brushes
3. A good airbrush set up
4. Dreadball, just two teams, though which two I’d have to really think about
5. Deadzone enforcers and forge fathers
6. Get all my battlefleet gothic stuff back
7. Terrain for everything above
I’d be pretty sad about all my old GW armies, even though I’ve not played them in nearly a decade but there’s nostalgia in just having them.
I do quite like the whole stillman concept. It appeals to me for the very reasons Justin hates it.
Very interesting topic!!
Interesting topic chat this week, and thanks for the GB.
Coincidentally, that Napoleonic project was my hobby restart from ground zero. I had stopped hobbying for around 15-20 years, with all of my old stuff essentially inaccessible in another country. I started from scratch with no backlog, paints or brushes, just an itch to do something creative again. Although I re-cut my teeth painting a few Imperial Assault figures, and some Burrows and Badgers, I consider the Napoleonic project the starting point of my ‘right, I want to painting things again’. The project was (and still is) a focus on a period of history I am very much interested in, as is as much about reading, learning and immersing myself in the period as about the painting, collecting and gaming.
Since getting going with the hobby again, there has been a bit of butterflying, but largely I’ve been quite deliberate about what I buy. Silver Bayonet has a been a good excuse to explore other Napoleonic theatres beyond the Peninsula and in different scales, but with a much lower model count. Other projects are usually driven by a desire to paint something in particular, or to try a different hobby technique.
I think that’s the main difference between my hobby now and before – being far more deliberate and intentional in what I do. I’m far more time poor as an adult, and whilst I enjoy painting, I want to paint figures that interest me as a priority.
Starting over? Hmm.
I bought entry level models when dipping a toe into 3D printing and airbrushing, now I have more experience with them I would buy upgrades if both. And I think I’d just buy some of the larger paint sets to have the choices and be done with it.
Next, I would abandon minis storage cases and magnetise as much as possible into storage boxes from the start. I would also buy a bunch of boxes that stack well together in one go and really plan the storage aspect of the hobby up front.
Any wargames that haven’t made it to the table in 18months are probably getting cut. If. Not playing it, I’m not re-collecting it because I don’t display much.
I would try to buy slow and focus on what I’m playing here and now. Get a table and the core of one faction ready for a game before adding a second. While I have lots of projects sat in my pilei often feel guilt over how long some of it has been sat waiting for attention. I think it would be more motivating to have less to work on and bounce between.
I think my biggest hobby regret is piling up too many projects and not giving myself time to get through things before another big kickstarter or black Friday bundle lands, stretching my attention and time too thinly.
There are a few games systems and boardgames knocking about the house that I’ve had great times with but are now lacking my focus (or have been neglected by the companies behind them) and I wouldn’t rush to reaquire them. I’m struggling to make a break and sell them as I hope they might come back around, but if they were just to go, so be it I suppose.