BroLo, this one's for you man. I know how you've been struggling.
Another for the "Best of Yes The Truth Hurts" section. I know a lot of people dug this post when I put it up last October. This post is in direct response to the "Old Stuff Day" celebration, which you can check out here. I'm scheduling this to go up EARLY in the morning, so hopefully it's not too late for some of you to participate.
Originally posted here, on Yes The Truth Hurts.
Re-presented here in all it's glory:
Hobby Overload – Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Grey Armies (at least temporarily)
I am currently suffering from Hobby overload. This is a condition which occurs when one “over-reaches” and starts too many projects at once. This can lead to bouts of anxiety and remorse or fits of angst. If you make the error of moving to a point exactly equidistant from two or more of your armies, you may become paralyzed, shaking uncontrollably as you fight to decide which one to work on. This condition often leads to “not getting shit done.”
Hi. My name is Purgatus. I’m an army start-a-holic.
I can’t help myself, I just love the idea of having variety and flexibility in the kinds of armies I play, or even what game I play.
As a result I currently have the following:
Guardians of The Covenant – Codex Space Marines Biker based army. Assembled, half painted, veteran of two Ard Boyz).
Renegadish Space Wolves Logan Wing – Assembled, was almost entirely painted until I decided I wanted to change the build… *sigh*
Tyranids – Not even close to being assembled, though I have finished painting 40 Gaunts.
Chaos – Not even started.
Lizardmen – Not yet fully assembled, not yet fully purchased, but I have *almost* finished painting my first regiment of Saurus.
Circle Orboros – 28 points purchased and primed, 7 points left to purchase.
Yikes.
I love gaming. I mean, REALLY love gaming. If I could make a living doing this, I almost certainly would. Alas, the University pays more than my local Battle Bunker ever will, and I doubt that anyone is seeking inexperienced game designers right now. (Wait, you read the Imperial Starfire rules and understood them? You’re hired!)
So I get my fix when I can, after work and on weekends, in between chores and maintenance and spending time with the family (not necessarily in that order).
Sometimes this time limitation (self imposed, certainly, and I don’t regret any time spent with the fam, but sometimes I wish I could get that half hour of lawn mowing back…) results in some scarcity. Now I doubt my wife would quite see it that way, she thinks I spend PLENTY of time on my little plastic men. Bless her, she is largely tolerant of my ‘wierding ways’ but there are limits.
So I have to prioritize. A bad outcome of this predicament would be that I find myself frozen and not getting ANYTHING done on the building/painting side. An even worse result would be failing to get any gaming and hanging out in – because let’s face it, that’s what this is all about, right?
Equally awful would be showing up week after week at the FLGS with proxied, half assembled and unpainted minis. I don’t want to be “that guy.”
So how do we compromise? Where do we start?
Well I am setting myself a few simple guidelines:
1) Paint and build a little bit every week. Not every day, just every week. Usually this means a few nights, but at least get some new paint on something before you go back to work on Monday morning, and work on that conversion. I don’t really stress about WHAT I’m painting, as long as it’s something that will eventually go into one of my armies.
2) You don’t have to be “not grey” to play. Ok I admit that was forced but it rhymed dammit. I will never look down my nose at someone who has incompletely assembled minis, primed minis or semi-painted minis AS LONG AS THEY ARE MAKING PROGRESS. If your AoBR Marines (purchased when the box was still brand new) are still sporting nothing but a black dull coat, that’s not cool, man. On the other hand I know some people refuse to play without fully painted armies, but that leads to only one thing for most people, which leads me to…
3) Don’t forget to play. It’s important to get out there and roll dice. Don’t get into a slump where you retreat into your modeling room (ok, I admit it’s a dining tray on my kitchen table) for so long that you forget which end of the flamer template goes towards the bad guys. I had a pretty long period where I didn’t get much gaming in, and it really showed. Not only did it hurt my skills, but I also started to lose motivation to paint which leads me to my final point…
4) Synergy. Painting promotes playing promotes building promotes painting. It’s a beautiful cycle, man.
Don’t neglect a balanced gaming diet.
