 |
| Karl Bodmer |
I have begun to cull the herd. It's not possible to play every period. It's not even possible to figure out the best rule set for each of the periods I play. Hence, the herd has begun to be culled. Over time, I will be posting painted figures as I even cull my collections and possibly entire periods.
What's the goal? To draw my collection down to a playable collection of games and periods. By games, I mean either a painted and "fancified" hybrid game like Space Crusade, Space Hulk, HeroQuest, Advanced HeroQuest, Warhammer Quest, Frag, Descent, Doom, Shadows of Brimstone, Hour of Glory, No-Go Zone, Spy or Die Trying, Dwarf King Hold, Memoir '44, Command and Colors, Imperial Assault or similar such that you play with figures in varying degrees of three dimensions from corridors to maps with terrain pieces. A"Wargaming Period" is self explanatory but can be as widely defined as Victorian Colonialism or as narrowly defined as the Chaco War.
The boardgame cull is long underway. I have sold off close to a hundred boardgames. More if you count the periodic cull that happens in boardgaming. Typically, I identify a type of game and then determine which of the "type" I am going to keep. For instance, I am weeding a myriad of "Risk-type" games. I have decided to keep Kemet (Wars in Anceint Egypt with Magic and Gods) and Magnifico (Risk in the Italian Wars era with building and Leonardo weapons; I need to play Rune Wars and Age of Conan (both are fantasy with side quests & diplomacy), and eliminated others. Worker Placement games, Race, Storytelling, Roll and Move, Cooperative, etc. games are all getting culled. The Dungeon Crawl is almost impossible to weed as I have spent too much time, there are too many good memories or too much lucre "fancifying" to want to sell.
Culling the miniatures is much harder. To date, I have sold off figures for Age of Sail, Infinity, Battlefleet Gothic, Necromunda, GorkaMorka, Man O' War, and Star Ship Troopers. Potentially "On the Block" are Zombie Apocalypse, 1970's TV, Star Trek Attack Wing, Terminator, Rezolution, GW's Lord of the Rings (possibly), Malifaux, 40K, Warhammer Fantasy and Judge Dredd. My Dungeon crawl collection is under a massive cull as I trim out castings that don't match the lead or or plastic in forms I like back down to small adventure level actions or at best Dragon Rampant. I mentioned GW Lord of the Rings as a sale since they inflated the prices and then terminated the line, I have been drifting back to building my Lord of the Rings that matches more closely Tolkien's intent (i.e. Dark Age armies). Space Ships, Pulp Characters, post Apocalypse, and Cowboys could all use a cull and not impact my games. Too many years, I painted on business trips for my retirement, then as I became more busy I paid and painted to finish periods...and now I have an obscene number of figures. I have scads of painted figures that I have never based for scenarios I designed. It's crazy.
Historical periods are harder to cull...here, the approach has been to identify the periods and scales I like. Thankfully, much of my collection is set up in "Battle in a Box" such that I have collected playable micro-periods. In some cases, not so micro. As I continue the culling process, I must define each period further. There are a series of Common questions not classified or prioritized.
- Is the period worth collecting in multiple scales?
- If #1, will it Look Good* to play the varying levels of representation with one scale?
- Do I like the collection?
- Do I like to paint it?
- Is the period better served by a boardgame or hybrid boardgame?
- Do I enjoy modeling the terrain for the period?
- Do I already have units/terrain/rules for the period?
- Are there one-off units I would enjoy modeling?
- Do I like the rules? Or do I have (or want to write) my own rules for the period?
- Are the games fun/exciting/interesting?
- What's the "Wow!" factor of the period?
- Can I regularly play a game of the period at a convention?
- Does a friend have a collection of the period?
- Is the collection finite? Or a "Black Hole"
- Can the collection be defined and completed in a reasonable period of time?
- How much will the collection cost to complete?
To be fair, the most significant factor in identifying a "keeper" period has been whether the period was interests from the start when funds were low and time was free. I find the original periods are where I am placing my effort and ranking highest on the retention list.
Currently I have a few rule sets listed on Boardgame Geek. I have attached images and links. I am happy to sell them direct. I would prefer to go through Boardgame Geek as they make their revenues from commission.
Check my sale Page HERE for the list of Rules. Feel free to email me if there is anything you are looking for and I will bump it against my list. Who knows, it might be the deciding factor in a period or game getting culled. But, please, reasonable offers only.
Everything is in Brand New or Almost New condition. I will also negotiate if you purchase more than one item.
* Look Good--long ago I gave up collecting micro battalions of twelve figures as I realized I was in the hobby for the look, for the games and for the art. For me, a twelve figure 28mm battalion doesn't work. It works in a game at a convention; but if it's mine I'd rather play the game with a smaller scale of figure on the 25mm basing and ranges such that I get thirty-six or so figures on the bases. Look Good can be a curse. I have painted bunches of Aztecs, Conquistadors, Mixtecs, Tlaxcallans, Zapotecs etc. and ultimately stopped as I could not find a game that looked good and played well...that was the last time I put the cart before the horse.
