From idea to army

[steve_holmes_11]

(Excellent content clipped for brevity - available above).

1. This looks interesting.
I am notoriously butterfly in my interests. I pulled together a Spanish-American war set after buying a book about it in a sale. I stumbled upon an OoB for the Japanese air fleet at Midway and found I had to recreate the Akagi air force. Pendraken brought out giraffes and I had to emulate the exploits of Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.  This is probably why I have 41 different periods/conflicts.

This is the dangerous "corridor of uncertainty".
I've several boxes filled with figures for projects that never saw the light of day (Various reasons).
I've now learned to exercise great caution, and ensure all elements are present before committing.
If not, It gets whacked to the cover boundary with a "stick o' rhubarb".

2. I could get the models I need.
I try and stay with Pendraken. If it hasn't been blessed by the Dark Lord, it isn't going on my table!  All praise the Dark Lord and his munificence! This is why I don't have chariots, for example.

The key piece of due diligence.
If you can't buy the models, you can't do the game.
Sometimes proxies help, especially at the smaller scales, but if it's genuinely unavailable, the project is off.

3. There are sensible rules.
As for rules, I write my own. As a solo gamers this means they're probably not as complex as others, as I tend to be able to say "hmmm... 5 or 6 and it's good."

This is a tough one.
Some rules read and are presented beautifully.
They may even enjoy support of an enthusiastic social media crowd.
Occasionally this crowd are "the club" shilling for the commercialised set of their house rules.
More often, the rules simply incorporate mechanisms that we have grown to hate, or perhaps they play with all the grace of a punctured spacehopper.
It doesn't help that so many blog reviews are written on the basis of a single read through the rules.

I've concluded that I am a poor judge of which rules will play well, and which won't.

4. OK Let's do this.
Research, purchase plan, purchase, paint, play!

Once you've mentally greenlit the job, it's time to commit.
Place an order, and get painting before the next big thing erases it form your "to do" list.

[paulr]

3. There are sensible rules.

This is a tough one.
Some rules read and are presented beautifully.
They may even enjoy support of an enthusiastic social media crowd.
Occasionally this crowd are "the club" shilling for the commercialised set of their house rules.
More often, the rules simply incorporate mechanisms that we have grown to hate, or perhaps they play with all the grace of a punctured spacehopper.
It doesn't help that so many blog reviews are written on the basis of a single read through the rules.

I've concluded that I am a poor judge of which rules will play well, and which won't.

This is indeed the tough one, hence my steps 3-5

3. Look at current rules we use, can any be used or adapted

If no, think really hard about the desire to do the period/conflict and see if there are any great rules available for the period (e.g FK&P)

4. Do some test games using cardboard cut outs and Junior General top down views

5. If test games are successful run a test game or two for regular gaming group

If popular enough (or I'm extra keen on the period e.g. Sail age naval) continue

There is no substitute for getting some bases of some sort on the table and giving the rules a try or three...