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I had an odd thought last night. If something happened and most/all my models were damaged beyond salvation, what would I do? I thought it would be interesting to extend this same question to others!
* Would you cut your losses and quit/move to a different game?
* Would you go on a hiatus for a while before starting again?
* Would you start over and slowly restore what exactly you had (perhaps now with the ability to paint things better than you had before)?
* Would you collect the same models, but paint them a new colour scheme/chapter/craftworld/etc?
* Would you start a new faction, now that you were no longer invested in the old one(s)?
* Perhaps you would do something completely different I did not even consider?

With my Sisters, I would just cut my losses. They were too expensive and difficult to collect when I started them back in fourth edition. Now, they cost three or four times as much and half the models I own are out of print.

For my Nids, I am divided. Part of me wants to recollect them and repaint with the original colour scheme I had, but another part of me thinks I would just give up and move to a different faction (with nearly 200 painted models, going back to painting Gaunts is a little demoralising).

I'd be pissed if I lost my Sisters but, meh, it's only metal. I might replace some of the main stars of my collection with either originals or similar-but-better models from other companies, but, outside of that, I'd not really be missing much, I hardly play the table-top game anymore.

To be honest my army has a rider on our home owners insurance so I would start over

Probably retire and switch to card or board games

I'd probably just start over.

My army is also covered in my insurance, so I'd start again. Might not pick SM back up, though.

Use the opportunity to begin again. Might start a Dark Eldar army since they have killer models.

Like others, I have homeowners insurance, so replacing the models with brand new ones would not be a concern. The time and effort lost would be devastating, though. I would need to take time off and decide if it would be worth starting from scratch or to simply walk away and find another hobby.

I would probably sit down and wonder at how I just lost a couple thousand dollars worth of plastic toy soldiers

War Kitten wrote:
I would probably sit down and wonder at how I just lost a couple thousand dollars worth of plastic toy soldiers

I would likely do the same, then switch to proxies while I use the opportunity to build up a new army. I still have a large collection of templates cut to all of the base sizes, which I still use to supplement my army anyways.

crawl up, try not to cry, cry a lot.

I love my minis, I have no clue what I would do. Probably try to start from scratch. I would do different schemes for both my dark eldar and AM.

I'd see if my insurance covers it, then rejoice at having some free shelves and never look back.

I'd convert my games room into a nice office, if I got a big insurance payout then I'd go on a few holidays, finish some bits on my house.
I'd pick up occasional nice models and use the time and space that I am currently spending on churning out/finishing armies and terrain to be a better painter.
Once I was over the shock in I'd probably start to collect something completely new.

move to tcg's full time

I would be pretty damn annoyed but at least my collection isn't into the hundreds of models. I would perhaps buy a few models of my old faction (daemons) and ally them with a newly crafted space marine warband.

I would probably try to pass of my old models as some weird new army. I mean they are still GW models so they have be be accepted...Right? RIGHT! The 1st melted legion. The cadian gate needed more guns to defend against the large threat of chaos, and the only problem is they have run out of room. One commander sarcastically says "But sir! The only place left would be to build on the sun!" Creed narrows his eyes and mutters "do it. "

Why is this in 40K General Discussion? Is this not something that might affect players of Warmachine or Infinity?

I'd claim on the insurance and start painting. It's really not that important. There's always something needing painted anyway, so it's not like I'll be doing loads of painting that I otherwise wouldn't. I'd just have to play smaller games for a while until I get a decent force painted up again, though.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Why is this in 40K General Discussion? Is this not something that might affect players of Warmachine or Infinity?
.

Fair point - A friend lost his Napoleonic Army (ex-wife sold it), rebuilt it from scratch only to have the replacement army stolen from a lock-up. He hasn't had the heart to replace it again.

Personally I'd rebuild but probably start a new faction, re-doing something I've done once is not in my character!

A lot of my armies are not what I'd have chosen if I'd planned it all out beforehand - odd weapons options because they were bought and assembled for a previous edition, too many fancy characters and not enough core units, that sort of thing. If I lost my army and started from scratch, perhaps I'd make things a bit more structured.

Or then again, maybe not; the slightly ramshackle, less than optimal nature of my army is part of the charm, I suppose. Off to Ebay it is, then!

After weeping openly for the first time in 4 years, I'd probably buy into Imperial Knights, which I plan on doing anyways, so it all works out.
Or I'd just buy more WHFB and convert them since those armies are selling on the cheap now.
Except for daemons.

I have over a decades worth of loving care, time and attention placed into my models. Losing them would be a terrible thing and in all honesty I am not sure if I would ever be able to fully restore my collection. I might re-build my Bolt Action armies, my Darkage and my Warmachine Cryx but my other stuff would remain lost, with the exception of the odd model I really liked. I would probably end up leaving 40K for the most part and take up other games like Infinity and Malifaux.

This actually happened to me about 12 years ago. I had a decent sized white scars army, all painted with old style rhinos, old style vindicators, metal attack bikes etc.

I accidentally left them in a friends garage and they were mistakenly thrown out

It was around this time that I started noticing girls and having funny feelings so I decided to pursue other "interests" until the back end of fifth edition when I got the itch and, as I had money, bought a world eaters army (back when CSM were good) which led to a khorne daemon army when the daemon codex was released. I now have a guard army and I've started collecting white scars again because I love their fluff and I miss my first army

Be pissed. Not being exorbitantly rich I had to save a lot of money and time to get this stuff.

I don't know if I could. Probably go some cheaper game.

Been there, done that.

1995. I had a 3000pt wood elf army nicked off my front porch whilst moving house. They were ALL metal models. Plastics didn't have the character at that point. Took me 3 years to collect it all.

I gave up WHFB for 17 years as a result.
I picked up the slack with 40k, which had been my "other game" at the time and my new "other game" became Warzone.

If it happened these days, find a miniatures game with low model count with models I liked the looks of and go with it. The mass-battles games aren't cost effective at GW scales.

Curl up into a ball and cry because my house obviously burned down due to the copious amount of bourbon I horde for the zombie apocalypse.

Noooooo!

If it were all my models, for all of my games, but none of my hobby supplies, I'd likely take the insurance money and rebuild armies for at least one or two games. I doubt I'd replace my 40k right off the bat, as I no longer really play, and I wouldn't build as big of a Cygnar army, but I still enjoy painting and I'd like to get back into playing, so I'd probably buy/build a few focused builds:
1) Bolt Action Falschrimjaeger (I played Heer prior, but the new plastics are tasty)
2) WM/h army TBD. Likely legion, as I think I'd enjoy their play style the most.
3) Kings of War army. I'd probably troll eBay/Bartertown for the most interest Fantasy army lot, and build from there. (I like the ideas of greenskins, rats, Brets, or Khemri)

If I lost my hobby supplies as well... I dunno. I'd probably take a bit of a hiatus. I have over a grand invested just in paints and brushes, so replacing all of that would be tough. OTOH, I could just buy a paint range wholesale and move on.

I have not much to lose really. I'm about to trade 2k points of DA for some Tau this weekend to bolster my 500pts list. And I have ahriman + 1 squad of thousand son for my little brother.

So if my stuff burn before I make the trade, well my bro ain't gonna have a xmas gift. As for my 2k something of models, I would probably reinvest in 40k, after a little hiatus for sure, because all my friend are in that system. I might look into Infinity instead tho, if I can convince my friend to proxy their model and get into the game with me hehe

Collect Space Wolves. My playstyle is very assault oriented (unless playing 'crons - even then with the old dex I always included wraiths, Destroyer Lord and CCB's), and SWs have absolutely excellent assault units in ThunderWolf Cavalry, Ferrsian Wolves, Characters, etc. The only reason I don't is because I have over 10k of BA and ~5k of CSMs and the thought of having another 3+ save assault army is holding me back... admittedly Daemon Princes are nothing like Sanguinary Guard which are nothing like ThunderWolf Cavalry... but it will still be power armour assault at the end of the day.

I've always wanted to be including more than 1 JuggerLord with AoBF, ThunderWolf mounted Characters would bring this wish into reality.

I want to start a new army anyway.