Paint or Die 2 – Equinox’s Thoughts

I want to start out by saying that I am a fan of the site hosting this contest. The group of guys that are the core of the site are very friendly and provide a lot of thoughtful discussion and feedback on the hobby. It is for this reason that I like to promote what is happening on their site and participate in any kind of events they may be hosting.

If you recall some of my prior blog entries or have visited their site, the prior PoD contest was about painting up a 1000 point army in about 7 weeks. I tried to participate, but truthfully, I didn’t get far past the starting line. Regardless of how I did, I was glad to help out the site by paying the entry fee and at least trying to participate.

Now Rites of War has announced the next PoD contest, and I must admit that upon reflecting over the rules, I am not a fan of them. I know I am being critical of a free event, but I feel like I should comment a little as the rules are not sitting well with me.

At this point, I need to put in a disclaimer for this entry as I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression. The proceeding comments are not intended to sway anyone from participating in the contest or insult the cool guys over at RoW. My intention is to simply share how I feel regarding the event and how I will approach it.

Upon posting the announcement here, I received a comment regarding the wording of the rules. There was some confusion about which systems were eligible for the contest as the wording seemed focused to WFB. My original comment back was that later in the rules it spells out the models allowed by stating which base sizes could be used. While I feel my feedback was accurate, I now feel that Cawshis Clay was onto something with these rules.

As I read them, I find that the requirements/restrictions don’t work well. Take for example the regiment rules. The typical minimum model count for most core units (20mm/25mm) in WFB is 10 models. So the contest rules make sense if we are talking purely WFB. Once the rules are also applied to 40K, the minimum model count for 25mm round bases seems a bit high to me. I feel the same holds true regarding the rules and the larger base sizes.

I think the problem is that the rules don’t account for the fundamental differences between the two systems. In general, WFB calls for more models than 40K. Yes there are exceptions, but I think my prior statement generally holds true. In the case of the contest, I believe that a better rule would have been to require each entry to simply conform to the minimum number of models needed for that unit to be legal.

The reason I feel this would be a better ruling for the contest is that it would allow for a bit more flexibility in terms of what participants can do within that month. Let’s take myself for example. I am currently working on ratling snipers. The minimum squad size is 3 with a maximum of 10 models. My current plan is to field a unit of 5 of them in my army. In order to participate in the contest, I must either add more models than I want to the unit or start a whole other unit and put my current project aside.

So you may be asking yourself, “Why is he bringing up this point? The contest is set and no one is forcing him to participate”. My response to that statement would be, “I totally agree!” The thing that drives me to write this entry is that I really want to participate this time and I want my participation to not be hollow.
When I say I don’t want my participation to be hollow, I mean that I want to make the finish line and don’t want to just throw something together.

The finish line is x number of painted models that meet a standard that I am comfortable with at the conclusion of the contest. Knowing what is the finish line for the contest, am I capable of entering the race? That is really the fundamental question of this diatribe.

I am currently staring at three projects: The Emerald Eye (Chaos Daemons), The Amethyst Veil (Vampire Counts), and Imperial Guard. Since my approach is to usually work on what grabs me at the moment, I am finding it hard to find something that I want to do that fits the requirements of the contest. The avatar of the Emerald Eye is out. The ratlings are out. The first unit of guardsmen is an option. Another squad of bloodletters or horrors could also be an option. Everything else at this point seems to require more time and effort than what I can invest towards the contest while still meeting my personal hobby goals.

The good news is that I have a week remaining before I must decide on whether or not I want to participate. During that time, I think I will continue to work on my current projects and declare my final decision after I have made a little more progress. If any readers of my blog have any thoughts about the contest or my thoughts regarding the contest, I hope you will post them here and we can discuss.