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Monday, December 15, 2008

Too Paint or Not - part 2

Okay,

While going through some of my favorite blogs, I ran across a Rant by a fellow gamer & Blogger John over at Plastic Legions http://plasticlegions.blogspot.com/ To par phrase John, he has issues with the GW Circuit events that are not staying strict with painting. It would seem that most events per the post are allowing unpainted models to be entered in the events. This goes against any sort of GW Grand Tournament in the past which required you to have all painted models.

Now I took some time to take a look at the events & John was correct, most of them state that you do not have to have a fully painted army, but it is highly encouraged. Now most events are using the guidelines found on the IndyGT website http://www.indygt.com/ which is a great site and they encourage people to play regardless of what the paint or model type is made from, hence the Indy GT rules. They are not as strict as the GW GT rules, which is fine and you see a ton of cool looking models with these rules.

Now my Beef along with fellow Blogger John is the paint part. I admit it, I am a paint snob! I like seeing painted models on the tabletop. I have been know to play with unpainted models at my house while trying out a new army. But if I go out in public to play, you will see painted armies from me on the table. Also if I was playing in a tournament that had loose rules for paint, I will still show up with painted stuff. Take for example my good friend Dean who organized a Lord of the Rings primer event this past November. Since it was a primer event, he kept the rules for painting very lax. The purpose was for folks to try out armies for the Gathering in the Desert event in February 2009. I spent the week before hand painting up a 350 point army and had it ready to go with two days to spare. Which I then built a display board for the army (Actually two boards were built. But all but one guy had fully painted armies at the event, so there must be a few people that think like me.

Now I am not saying that all the events should be the same, but my feeling is if this is a Grand Tournament than shouldn't the armies on the table look Grand? GW is moving towards more folks like myself running large events. Now if GW is allowing us to run these events in lue of them running GT's, than shouldn't we as organizers follow some of the guidelines that GW used to adhere too? Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that we need to run all the events just like the last or next one, but shouldn't painting be the same on all of the events? Painting is part of the Hobby of GW, heck most people have at least one or two bottles of GW paint on their paint tables.

I look at painting like a steak, when its raw, it is not very appetising looking, but once its cooked and plated up it looks astounding and you can't wait to eat it! Painted armies are the same way when I look at them. When I see someone playing with an unpainted army, it does nothing for me, but when I see a fully painted army, when I know the person put a ton of work into painting it than it inspires me. Heck it even makes me want to rush out and start another project! So why would anyone want to show up to a Grand Tournament with unpainted stuff.

Another thing, my local guys that I game with are harsh, like I mentioned above, they will give me crap if I showed up with unpainted stuff. This is not a bad thing, in fact for me it spures me onto finishing a project or army. Because of this I have a couple of fully painted WAB armies (Vikings & Normans) 3 Lord of the Rings armies (Dwarfs, Easterlings, and Orcs that can be for any army) there is also about 200+ WW2 28mm figs that I have painted and 2 40k armies (Sisters of Battle & Imperial Guard) and throw in a few other models (Pirates, Old West, Near Future, Pulp) you get the picture. All of these were do to wanting to play with my buddies with my own painted stuff.

So after a longish rant, there you go, I am a Paint snob and as long as I am running events than there will be a painting requirement...

7 comments:

cianty said...

Ha ha, I did enjoy reading this little rant. I think there are two categories of players: A) those you play to win and don't care about their miniatures. They will use Space Marine proxies in order to get a shot at winning a LotHS game. B) those who play for the overall experience of playing with beautiful minis on a splendid gaming table while meeting with friends. Sure, most players are somewhere in between. I'm more a type B kind of gamer as I enjoy the hobby as a whole (but I certainly don't mind winning a game or two ;) ). Modelling, converting, building and painting is a part of that and without it I might as well be playing Computer games.

Tim Kulinski said...

Cianty,

Your right, there are two types of players out there. I also tend to be the B player, for me I enjoy spending time with friends gaming. It helps me unwind after dealing with work (Which is in Auto Finacing).

Thanks for reading, by the way, nice work on your Blog as well.

cianty said...

Thank you, Tim!

I think the B type is what got all of us into the hobby in the first place. Only later the weaker souls are corrupted by the prospect of victory.. :)

The reason behind allowing unpainted minis is probably that they want more people to join the tournaments. Personally, I would be very disappointed if I arrived at a tournament I've been preparing for for weeks only to play against an all black (read: only undercoated) army.

I noticed that you added my blog to your list of links. Thanks for that, by the way!

Cheers,
Chris

Tom O said...

Paint of course!

Tom O, fellow painting snob...

ZeroTwentythree said...

I've read both of your (here & John at Plastic Legions) blogs regarding this topic now, and I've got to agree. I am definitely one of the "overall experience" people that cianty mentions above. I believe that painting is a core part of the hobby.

When I first started wargaming years ago, this was just an automatic thing. Occasionally someone may have put something unpainted on the table, but those figures would usually be painted before seeing the table more than a few times.

But things seem to be changing. With the exception of some of the tournaments where painting is required, non-painted figures seems to be the norm rather than the exception anymore. I'm guessing the tournaments are responding to the "market" -- sad as that may be.

Opponents have become scarce, so I get games in where ever I can. This usually means I face unpainted armies.

Count me as another vote for painted.

Tim Kulinski said...

ZeroTwentythree,

Your right, as I think about it, in years past (over 10 ago)I always saw painted armies on the tabletop. Now it has gone, it makes me wonder.

Is it the next generation of gamers? I am 40, but I notice all the 25 & younger guys that are playing, there is a large portin that are content to play with unpainted. I wonder if this could be the cause? Or else I am just getting to be an old beardy git!

JPL said...

At 42 -I like to think the new generations mindset is a by-product of of video game overload. These 20 something gamers come from a more meta gaming background where is winning is the ultimate goal and the craft doesn't matter..I have whole crew of twenty somethings at our local store, while running my campaign's not only do I continue to pick up more and more players as they start to see the results of the hobby from older guys when they get to play on fully decked out tables with all painted armies..I recently got all but one non-painting stickler to join my painting challenge (2000 pts in 8 weeks) and they're loving it.. you just got to show them them way..

Part of the problem ( as I see it) has got to fall at the feet of the guys who run these Indy GT events..having no painting requirements just undoes what years of people have spent years building and offers new players no incentive to follow suit..it used to be Indy GT's had stiffer requirements than the GW events..I don't understand how everything got flipped upside down in a couple of years!.