Hello Everyone - We've just finished knocking together our next episode covering a couple tournaments and the age old issue of painting scores at tournaments. It's also got some of the best (and worst) theme inspired music we've had in an episode to date. 0:00 - Paint it Black/The Rolling Stones 0:01 - Tauranga Open Tournament Review 0:54 - True Colors/Cyndi Lauper 0:55 - Warpfire 1000 Points Tournament Review 1:24 - Colors of the Wind/Pocahontas 1:25 - Painting Scores at Tournaments/NZ ETC Team 2:23 - The Painter/Deep Purple http://kiwihammer.co.nz/kiwihammer-...t-black-with-all-the-true-colors-of-the-wind/ We hope you enjoy the episode and are especially keen to hear your thoughts on painting scores and the show in general. Cheers. The Kiwihammer Cast
Listened through the painting scores, and I must say... To even consider not letting someone play a tourney due to they have not painted their army, makes you sound like a bunch of spoiled boys sitting whining. I cannot understand why someone would "refuse" to play someone who has not painted their army. Makes it sound like someone going on with "I have spent so much time painting my army, there is no way I will accept losing a game to someone with an unpainted army". This is where the painting scores will award the player who spent the time to paint at a good standard, but even if someone receives a painting score of zero, they should be allowed to play. After all roughly speaking, a tourney is about playing games not painting. If it is the painting that drive you then would deliver your pieces to a painting competition and not play at the tourney. [End Rant] With that said, I enjoy a well painted army as much as anyone else, but I also understand that for someone just having the time to assemble their army in-between everything else might be difficult, and we want to bring more people into the hobby, not drive them away.
See I think it comes down to what the community wants to be the accepted norms and standards. I will happily play against and with unfinished/unpainted armies in club and friendly games as will 99% of the NZ community (including those who can paint masterpiece armies.) I guess down here we have a different view when it comes to tournaments as we see these as our exposure and publicising to the public and potential recruits. Having painted armies on the table shows the dedication and artistry in the hobby and just plain looks better to observers. That aside no one would bat an eye at letting a newbie use an unpainted/unfinished army. The problem myself and the rest of the cast have is individuals who either don't paint their army or do so to a terrible standard and then use it for years. Sure they may get done by paint scores, but its just lazy and doesn't do the hobby scene any real good. I totally agree that tournaments are mostly about gaming which is why I'm for capped painting scores and against an uncapped system. That doesn't take away from the fact that at public events I believe that there's a standard which should generally be met. It's interesting when I'm at events where there are other games being played the different attitudes towards painting. Warmahordes tends to have plenty of players playing with bare-metal figures, Warhammer 40k and Fantasy for the most part have a range of armies on show, from shockers to masterpieces. Interestingly enough it is the historicals (with FoW being the best example) that tends to have the most visually appealing games and I don't think I've ever seen a game of FoW where I didn't think all the armies and terrain involved didn't look fantastic. I can't say the same for Fantasy. In fact I'm nearly positive that most FoW tournaments require painted armies, are they a bunch of spoiled whiners? I hope we don't come off as too spoiled, and I can assure you our motivations have nothing to do with not wanting to lose to an unpainted army. All of us actively umpire/run events, help out at clubs and scout for new players. I've run (and will again) events where unpainted armies were allowed specifically to get more people into the hobby as I wholeheartedly agree that bringing new blood in is crucial. Our main problem is when an unpainted/unfinished army gets used year after year or when it's clearly been rushed together to jump on a bandwagon. Call us what you want, but we do think the game is meant to be played with painted miniatures. Curiously enough, in NZ at least, when the Evil Empire was still running tournaments you had to bring painted armies. So yeah, I think it's the decision of whoever is putting the time and effort into organising the tourney to make. People are always welcome to vote with their feet, run their own tournaments or paint their army.