Gaming with unpainted models?

[Harry Faversham]

I'll often provide both sides when playing a game - so know the other figures will be painted.

I've done the same for the last thirty years, building and painting both sides for any project. That way you don't get Bob calling at the last minute to cry off, Bob, the bloke who was bringing all the artillery. it's paid great dividends in the fact I've never had the misfortune of having to attend a club!

[dadlamassu]

I've done the same for the last thirty years, building and painting both sides for any project. That way you don't get Bob calling at the last minute to cry off, Bob, the bloke who was bringing all the artillery. it's paid great dividends in the fact I've never had the misfortune of having to attend a club!

Always done this since 1971 when my "Napoleonic" opponent moved away and I was left with one side and nobody to play.  Also allows me to play solo and try out rules and scenarios.  Saves time too, both sides set or laid out ready to go thus we get started quicker.

[Arrigo]

Agree, I also like to paint both sides because this forces me to research both sides. I really dislike the chaps who tell you they will never game with Army X. I had a friend who refused to game eastern front with the Soviet, he only played Germans. Well, beside being an awfully annoying experience at times, it also allowed some interesting surprises... it is July 1941,  you have your schutzen battalion and a supporting company of PzII to secure this important crossroad and its attending village... the Soviet are in retreat... and then from the village... a KV-2 sprang to action! 

Actually I do not consider a project completed until I have at least two playable different sides. It also help plodding forward with larger things. WW2 for example, you build a reinforce platoon per side to start, and then add the rest of the company (talking 15mm).  Saves you from repeating the same basic colors forever.

[Bearwoodman]

As a relatively recent returnee to the hobby who paints slowly and games primarily with a neighbour and our primary school age sons (we have a son each, just to be clear), I am willing to be flexible and non-judgemental! I will always aspire to play with fully painted figures, but as my painted collection is small and growing only slowly I am in no position to insist my opponent does the same.

For example earlier this year I was invited to play a game of 40k at my friend's house, as his son wanted to try out the big box set he had received for his birthday. My son has a few new Space Marines he had picked up here and there (including a free one given to him in a GW Store), but I had no painted sci-fi miniatures at all. I just had time to paint up a couple of old school metal Marines I had acquired from eBay (minus backpacks) as my contribution. When I turned up for the game it was clear that the vast majority of the considerable number of figures on the table were unpainted, and my two recruits were sent into action alongside their naked (but considerably larger) cousins:


Despite this we all had a fun time and it was interesting to be involved in a larger game than I was used to. I think it also helped to spur on my friend's son to devote further painting time to his figures.

A further example of me lowering my standards was when I bought the What a Tanker rules. I remember reading one reviewer claiming that it was a very accessible game because everyone has a few tanks lying about. I didn't! This was remedied in the cheapest and quickest way possible courtesy of Armourfast and a local model shop and once we had an M10 and Panzer III more or less painted up my son and I tried out the rules. What we did not have was any suitable terrain (the terrain pieces I had for playing Frostgrave did not really pass for Normandy and anyway were the wrong scale). So we improvised and used a bit of imagination.


I have since started work on some proper bocage that does not involve tableware.

For me well painted armies and terrain will always be the goal, but while working towards that goal I will take a game where I can find one!

[Elbows]

While I explained my position earlier, I thought I'd expand on one of the unforeseen benefits of my personal stance (i.e. play with painted models/terrain exclusively).

The first step was fully painted models.  This led to fully painted/quality terrain.  This led to gaming mats or a good surface.  This led to good scatter terrain.  This all culminated in my general passion for a project, and my "holistic" approach to wargaming.  I want proper (often custom) dice, reference sheets, and fun little articles that engross people in the game.

All of this means one thing: a project is a time-intensive and often funds-intensive process.

This then limits my projects.  It makes me far more immune to "new and shiny" purchases.  If I see something that interests me I tend to have a decent conversation with myself: Is this worth $X00's, and is this worth hundreds of hours of painting/building/prepping, etc.  My buddies know that if I do a game...I do a frikkin' game.  This means I actually have a rather firm control over my lead pile.  I have almost zero side "projects" that I bought on a whim.

So this type of discipline has actually benefited me quite a bit in helping to curb random purchases.  Now...random purchases which slot into one of my projects?  Still a problem.

[Arrigo]

This then limits my projects.  It makes me far more immune to "new and shiny" purchases.  If I see something that interests me I tend to have a decent conversation with myself: Is this worth $X00's, and is this worth hundreds of hours of painting/building/prepping, etc.  My buddies know that if I do a game...I do a frikkin' game.  This means I actually have a rather firm control over my lead pile.  I have almost zero side "projects" that I bought on a whim.

something worth to consider too... 

Interesting bit about 'proper' dice.  I am not that keen on 'custom dice' I have some but are more something vanity than anything else... but I tend to keep a dice tray away from the table and roll the dice there.  Probably something we have in common as principle, but materialized in different ways...

Oh another thing... player aids, rosters, all the pharaphernalia do not belong to the game table too! And I really dislike pictures of awesome game tables covered with that clutter or, even worse, refreshments...   

[N.C.S.E]

Agree, I also like to paint both sides because this forces me to research both sides. I really dislike the chaps who tell you they will never game with Army X. I had a friend who refused to game eastern front with the Soviet, he only played Germans.

I feel like historical gaming mightn't have been the thing for that guy.

I will always aim to have figures with at least *some* paint on them before considering them "table ready". It's the hobby first for me so if figures aren't ready for a particularly then they aren't ready and I'll organise (or won't organise) games accordingly. The visual aspects of the hobby are the most important to me so I really have no choice.

I won't say anything, but I will (safe in my own head) judge the people who haven't painted their stuff. Even an undercoat will do to make me not notice. For my money it detracts from what we're here for (pretty stuff on table) and to me displays a certain lack of respect for the effort others might've put into their stuff that will now likely be photographed with their ugly unpainted things.

Tables and terrain I can give a bit more leeway to, terrain setups on top of figures are pretty expensive and timeconsuming to make look good, so long as its not a billiard table I'm happy.

I'm also of the preference to paint multiple armies. I like the idea of hosting and it gives a lot more flexibility in organising games - if I can roll up with both sides, then it can be the guy's first ever game and it won't matter.

[Arrigo]

I feel like historical gaming mightn't have been the thing for that guy.

Sincerely I do not known, he was a weird chap. For NWE and North Africa he had assorted sides (I know, I painted them for him).  That was just eastern front... and the ACW... but we played ACW usually with The Gamers Brigade Series so both armies were included in each box. Oh, I gave me his entire collection of the Brigade series in exchange for painting WW2 troops, then he rebought it (not from me, I prize them). It is worth to note that, while he never painted anything he never gamed with unpainted miniatures, because at start, even when he got the troops painted he had no terrain, he was coming at my home where terrain was available. We had some enjoyable matches.  Then I moved, he got married (I think), and he once was also a bit disrespectful with a Korean friends of mine so we drifted apart...  oh he had also a bad opinion on Brian Holden Reid ACW research... once we had a chat on that... ended with 'you know I have to meet him next week when I am back in school' (it was Xmas break, Brian at the time was my supervisor).

[Norm]

Both the hobby and the internet are global, so we have a huge audience that all sit in different places in terms of money, resources and gaming space.

The lowest common denominator then is probably ‘the game’s the thing’.  Everything else is dependent upon individual circumstances. To pontificate that only painted figures, followed by good terrain etc, should ever grace a gaming table, is a narrow view.

I was reading a post recently in which a gamer was asking a lot of questions about a boardgame. it became apparent that financially, the purchase of a single game was so significant that they could not afford to make a mistake of buying a game that they might regret buying, hence all of the questions.

To walk in another’s shoes as they say!   

[Just a few orcs]

I am primarily a gamer not a painter. When I was in my early teens and starting out I did use unpainted models when playing with my friends who had similar unpainted models.

Once I started painting them I realised that I liked the game to look good aesthetically as it made the game so much more enjoyable. I am not a fast painter but paint to a reasonable standard, plus I find painting relaxing. So much so my partner can tyell when I have not painted for a while - and tells me to go and spend an evening painting.

Having had many years to build up a collection of figures and terrain. I would never use unpainted models - what's the point of having several hundred pounds worth of good looking terrain spoiled by unpainted miniatures

Personally I would never play with unpainted miniatures, I would rather use proxies. There is also no place for unpainted miniatures at a demonstration or participation game at a show. 

However where someone is just starting out  at club that is acceptable. They should be encouraged to paint their models and given help and advice to achieve that.

At home you can do what you like, but if I was invited to a game to find it was mainly unpainted miniatures, I would not accept another invitation.

   

[redzed]

[grant]

Fuck me. I remember a kid at my LGS that had his collection in zip-loc bags makes me laugh 

[Antonio J Carrasco]

You should have included a warning: The following pictures may be disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised!

[warlord frod]

Orks in Plastic bags  You have to be kidding. 

[Arrigo]

I am the only one wondering why the orks did not tore the plastic bags from the inside, and then proceed to eat that chap? I am not a fantasy/silly sci-fi gamer, but I have been told that bagging whole armies of orks could be dangeorus... 

I am  also curious about the date... was 'yesterday' April 1st?