Saturday 29 March 2014

A Tale of Duelling Gamers - Prologue



Not quite as ominous as it sounds - there are no pistols at dawn here, and the only things that will be flying are paintbrushes rather than bullets. You see, a Tale of Duelling Gamers is a painting challenge pioneered by Puddingwrestler of Terrain For Hippos blog fame. In previous years, the challenge has been Duelling Paintbrushes and has been an intense competition between Puddingwrestler and Hoodling of The Hoodling's Hole (whose blog regular readers will hopefully have noticed in my own blog roll), and gradually expanded to include other Aussie gamers. This year, the challenge has been expanded to include other participants over an extended time period, and I've taken the plunge and asked to take part in order to work towards completing my ambition of painting all my Wood Elf figures by the end of the year. 

For those who used to read the White Dwarf magazines of old, you might be familiar with the 'Tale of Four Gamers' series and the Tale of Duelling Gamers follows a similar format. 

The Objective

To build up a Warhammer/Warhammer 40,000 army over a period of months, reporting on progress along the way. The challenge is designed to show new gamers how they can build up an effective army without blowing their brudgets over a period of months, and how this can be a much more relaxed process than the insane flurry that is Duelling Paintbrushes. We also aim to show how, through the cunning application of second hand or on special (or from Mantic!) you can accumulate $700 worth of GW stuff for a fraction of the cost.

The Rules

The full rules can all be found on Google Drive but here's the important ones:
  • The challenge runs from April to September 2014
  • The first month's budget is $200, and then $100 for each month after
  • Anyone mad enough to take part from a non-Australian country must base their purchases on current Australian GW retail prices. This is to ensure that the rest of the world feel sympathy for Australian gamers who have to pay these prices normally.
  • Models can be bought second-hand, or taken from an existing collection, but the budget is based on current GW retail prices for the equivalent models in AUD
  • Each month's installment is to be completely built and painted by the end of that month. 
  • Progress is to be reported in a blog post, at least once a month.
  • Those who sign up and then decide to drop out shall be rightly taunted for the weedy gits they are

So there you have it! The challenge starts on April 1st, so I'll be taking stock of what figures I can paint up to make the final legal list. Meanwhile, I've got to start working out how much stuff costs in Australia - I have a feeling I won't be getting much for my money!

5 comments:

  1. There's a common misconception that I invented Duelling Paintbrushes. Actually, The Hoodling is the one who threw down the gauntlet and challenged me. I just came up with the rules an manage the challenge from my blog. I mention this a I feel that he never gets enough of the credit.

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    1. That's OK, nobody cares about such details. Including me...

      And yes Nick, you are correct. Be prepared for a less than daunting number of models for every month after the first. $100 doesn't go far with GW Australian prices.

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    2. Apologies, I had no idea that Hoodling invented Duelling Paintbrushes! I just always remember Puddingwrestler painting everything far faster than anyone else!

      And I've done a quick calculation - for my starting budget of $200, I can "afford" one whole unit of Eternal Guard - a grand total of 30 models!

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  2. Best of luck Nic, I hope to really enjoy the challenge and perchance a game at the end of it all with a small but shiny, Matt actually, fully painted army .

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    1. Thanks Chris, best of luck to you (and Son) as well!

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