Tuesday 12 November 2013

Painting Scores

Ever since I began going to tournaments this year I have been impacted by painting scores. The basic concept behind them is sound: Assign a number of points to each player in a tournament based on how well painted their army is, the better the army the higher the score. At the end of the tournament this score is combined with battles points and sportsman score to give each player his/her total number of points earned at the tournament and thus their final position in the tournament. However this is one major issue I have with this and that is that it punishes bad painters.


I will be blunt, people who can paint well are artists, and there is no denying it. If you are reading this and constantly score highly with painting scores or win best painted at tournaments then you are a highly skilled artist, to argue this point is to debate semantics. However not everyone who goes to tournaments is an artist (myself included) and it is we who suffer the most from painting scores. We go into tournaments with a handicap to overcome, because we aren’t artists we have to do exceptionally well in battle points to fill in for the points we lose due to painting scores, we are at a major disadvantage even before we get to the tournament. 


Now people will tell me to SL2PB (Seriously? Learn 2 Paint Better), or some such unempathetic response, and this is one of the biggest problems with the panting score debate, that people who are excellent painters/artists often  can’t understand the opposing view and show a lack of understanding for people who aren’t good painters/artists. And that’s a problem. I know I am a bad painter, it took me seven years to get my painting to where it is now and it will most likely take me another seven improve it further, for me “learning to paint better” is a long term solution and one that I am not really sure I want to pursue. For me painting is the worst part of this hobby with the gaming part being the best and the conversion part 2nd best.


Skitterleap was the first tournament I went to with my fully painted Wood Elves, and in that tournament I scored the lowest painting wise, earning 15 points total. After this tournament I began to seek out painting commission services for my next army. At the time of writing this I have already sent my next army up to Auckland to be painted to a decent standard in order to avoid being hit with handicap of painting scores, this has cost me in the region of 400 dollars. I would love to be able to bring my own painted army’s’ to tournaments but realistically this is not an option. In order to do well and place higher than the bottom 3rd I need a decently painted army and that is something I cannot provide, I am not an artist, I am not a good painter and so I must seek out alternate ways of getting a well painted army.


To sum up I am strongly against painting scores. I am a huge fan of the first, second and third best painted army system at tournaments because I think that it rewards the best painted armies at tournaments without putting handicaps on bad painters. I know this post will generate strong reaction and I am more than willing to debate this in the comment section. At the end of the day I don’t want people to think this is an attack post, I didn’t write this to “go after” any one, I wrote it because I feel strongly about the issue of painting scores and wanted to say something about it.  Until next time


Rex Foote

11 comments:

  1. Painting should never affect the tournament outcome in my opinion. I dont know of many sports etc who let uniforms or colours change the outcome of a sporting event. But there should be a "dress code" where you need a minimum of 3 colours per model and a flocked base or something simple along those lines. Its off putting to think i will go down/up in rank based on my painting skill. Otherwise players are handicapped from the start. An entry requirement is all thats necissary when it comes to army presentation, one that is easily completed by most gamers.

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  2. pretty much each section has a maximum points up to a certain number (say 32 possible for painting with 25 pts cap) which is actually quite easy to obtain with just a little work. i managed to earn 10 extra points this last tournament by going through and putting a sand on all the bases and flocking half of those.

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    1. Not for poor painters, using myself as an example it was a hard, and at times, boring slog to get my wood elves painted. For people who don’t enjoy painting but love the gaming aspect of this hobby painting scores are off putting because they know they have to get the army finished on time, it literally becomes a chore to do. There were quite a few evenings when I got home from work, looked at my painting desk and said “Screw it I am going play video games” because I just wanted to do something relaxing after work. And panting is not relaxing for me, and I am not alone in this sentiment.

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  3. I can empathize with what you say, though I am coming from it from the other end - my painting is probably better than my skills in commanding the armies I have painted!
    But I agree the two should be scored distinctly on the day, not together.

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  4. If you are playing WE's I wouldn't worry about painting scores you are going to struggle to finish in the top half anyway :)

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  6. I completely agree and it has always bothered me that someone can win a tournament playing mediocre and yet because of how well his army is painted he somehow wins the day. The last tournament I played at the guy who won had a win, a loss, and two ties, and he took the tournament, because he had hands down the best painted army. I know some see this is as a way to punish power gamers and try to balance a tournaments against some of the OP lists, but this doesn't solve the problem at all as any one of those lists can be beautifully painted as well. I think paint scores should be seperate when deciding the overall winner, as IMO the best general should be the one that wins. This is a hobby, but if you want to have a paint competition and have few freindly games, please do that instead of trying to pretend that you are organizing a competetive tournament and then skew paint score heavily.

    I had a tournament I was going to go to, but there was a requirement that all the models be based, and when I asked about it and how strict they were going to be, their response to me was "oh its no big deal to base your army, you can do it in 2 hours". well 1) screw you, 2) I have a few hundred IG, and 3) your tournament is not important enough for me to go to then. Sorry for venting but this has been a long standing gripe I have had about tournaments that I have gone too and it seems too much like hobby snobs trying to scew a competition into their favor and punish people that don't share their views on the hobby.

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    1. Thats exactly my train of thought to. Tournaments test generalship, painting competitions test painting skill. To try and mash the two together is to miss the point. No one ever sports teams for turning up in ragged uniforms, so why should the same be applied to this hobby.

      Also i completely understand your anger at the "it only takes two days comment" it shows a complete lack of empathy with your situation at the time.

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    2. " and it seems too much like hobby snobs trying to scew a competition into their favor and punish people that don't share their views on the hobby."

      This is one of the big things that stops me wanting to go to a tournament. I commissioned my army in the hope that i might go to a tournament. But then i thought, why should i have to do that? So my commissioned army will not see a tournament until i come accross one that doesnt involve painting scores.

      But as you both stated its the attitude that comes with painting scores that really puts me off.

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