Thursday, May 8, 2014

Rant: Unpainted Models and Proxying Etiquette

Hi everyone, I know it's been a while since I posted on this little blog, which makes it all the more upsetting to me that what has finally motivated me to write is something that is a bit negative. I have still been playing as much as possible, which is a little tougher now that I have a puppy, but I don't feel like my hobby life has been suffering too much. What has affected the blog is something that I have found to be an ever-increasing problem in my club.

I started this blog mainly as a way to catalog and share battle reports. I love reading battle reports and seeing great pictures of models slugging it out on the tabletop. Lately, however, I haven't been able to provide anything like that to the community because of widespread problems with players not using models that make for good battle reports. So today I wanted to discuss my opinions on painting and proxying etiquette.



Here are three pictures of recent scenes/armies from battles that I had hoped to share with you guys:





Posting reports for those games would be a waste of my time. The pictures would be ugly and in no way contribute to an article that any of you should spend any time reading. Especially for the MW army at the top - there is no reason that you should be playing with multiple nationalities and not have a 10-vehicle army unpainted.

Generally speaking I am very permissive when it comes to proxying, especially these days when Battlefront is having continual supply problems. That said, I have my limit, and a few nights ago I reached it when my opponent was deploying his force and said "Hey, so these german infantry bases are actually American 57mm guns".....

No...just no.... And I know that the guy who played that army reads this blog every once in a while, so dude, please, I enjoy our games together, just get the shit you need to actually play the army. This isn't Warhammer Fantasy where guys put down empty movement trays and call it a giant. At recent LW tournament my tanks were advancing against what I thought were 5cmPak38 guns (AT 9), only to have my opponent inform me midway through the game that they were actually 7.5cmPak40's (AT 12)! His excuse: "hey, Pak40's can go on medium bases...."

Again, I understand that there is some acceptable proxying that has to be allowed given Battlefront's supply issues. Hell, at a recent MW tournament I had to use BA-6 armored cars as BA-64 armored cars. However, substituting infantry bases for gun teams in an entirely unpainted army? Not informing your opponent of a major difference in stat lines of a proxy? That's crossing a line, and I'm starting to become a little ornery when I have to play against stuff like that.

*sigh* rant over...comment below or start a conversation on Twitter with me @PIflamesofwar

4 comments:

  1. ' "Hey, so these german infantry bases are actually American 57mm guns"…..'

    When I read that I really laughed out loud, that is so funny. I can't say I have ever used unpainted minis in a battle, but I can definitely see it happening someday. Good rant!

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  2. Unacceptable to not specify what each model is at the start. Doubly so in a tournament.

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  3. @Mr. T yeah, its discouraging when others aren't putting in the effort that you are

    @Sword it basically brought the battle to a halt. It was in Free for All, and my main attack was advancing against those guns, so once I found out what they really were I had to retreat, and my opponent was a camper so it just became a draw, so lame

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  4. That is tough. I have definitely used unpainted models a few times for FoW and have done slight proxies a few times (especially with not modelling Panzerfaust...). I don't mind if it is someone who is new or building a new army to try out. I'm not a fan when it has not been painted and is being used for a long time. Fortunately, that isn't a problem here as all of my regular opponents have very large painted companies. There is the odd time where one of us does not have something though.

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