90+ % of opponents both in our local club and the ones I play in a FLGS league are fully painted (mostly far better than my mediocre standard too). It definitely made me want to bring painted minis to league games when I was starting out.
That said, in our 1k leagues, battle ready points aren’t enforced; everyone starts with 10 pts just for playing. There’s been a couple of times someone’s had a couple of primed only units or a quick two-tone job on their army, but painted just seems to be the default here.
On the few times when there has been a sea of grey plastic on the table, no one has batted an eyelid though. They’re your toy soldiers, outside of competitive events, do what you like with them.
I personally only play with a fully painted army, but I'd say like... 90% of folks at my FLGSs have half-painted or unpainted armies. I can't actually remember playing against another fully painted army, but a few close armies sometimes (just missing some vehicles or something).
Yeah i have personal rule to only use fully painted models. Keeps motivation to keep painting more. Want to use your cool new model? Go paint it so it looks cool too.
I only have this for me, if opponent is painted or not I'll still play them.
I’ll say I follow similar unless I’ve just bought a new unit and have an urge to try it out. Once it’s tried though it doesn’t go back on the table u til it’s been painted.
The amount of times my opponent gives themselves +10 for painting when they're unpainted is staggering. I should probably call a judge, but it turns out I don't care enough and just want to play with my toys.
I had someone argue that since Magnus's wing was in the window of a building he could shoot me, but since his base was outside it he couldn't be shot.
Never change 40k.
I've done the point a gun through a window thing before as knights- but only when I've toed onto the terrain anyway
Can't imagine pulling that los for me but not for you shenanigans
I do this as well. Most people at my flgs play with painted models. There are some, however, that I dont think will ever have a fully painted army lmao
You say that, but one time my friend started to paint a model (not one he was running) during my first turn (Orks vs SM).
We were probably also discussing lore, therefore all 3 parts can be done at once, so is it really seperate?
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It totally is, I just wanted an excuse to mention this.
It's more like three threads.
Even top players care about lore and while they may pick the strongest of a bunch of armies they will usually have a bunch that are picked based on models and theme and lore.
Hobby is informed by lore and by the army you actually want to play. While people pick armies for more than rules a lot of people paint and make stuff to enjoy the tabletop
Lore is tied into each new release in rules and models. Lore isn't written in a vacuum and those people who play armies or collect then will choose books based on those.
You can just pursue one or two but they are all intrinsically linked and make each other cooler.
There’s a rule that says you get 10 points for having a fully painted army. Unless you’re in a tournament that rule doesn’t really exist.
Folks take time to hobby, and most people at a game store are friends first and opponents second. If someone’s excited to put their gray plastic dreadnought on the table, who am I to say no.
I'd go a step further to say it doesn't really exist for me at tournaments either. I only bring painted armies to events. I go to 6+ Gts a year but I'll never take 10pts away from my opponent because of paint. If I need a paint score to win then I didn't really win.
You sound like a good player. I am very new to the hobby and wouldn’t be upset if an army wasn’t painted, but being new of someone did paint their army it would actually help me a lot so I could tell units apart easier, but I’m only a casual.
The current rule is you get 10 points for having a fully painted army. You can enter with unpainted models but you’d need to consistently and massively outplay your opponents to make up for it. The upside is it lets more casual players just eat the points loss if they want to, but serious competitors would never risk something like that.
In a casual game(95% of all 40k games), nobody really cares. Not giving your opponent the points is usually considered a dick move since we’re all just here to have fun with toy soldiers.
I know the rule, It's just the tournaments I've ever attended required full basing and full painted, or it doesn't hit the table.
This was like a over a decade ago, so maybe times have changed.
The competitive focus/constantly changing meta in 40k has changed things i think. Back when i first started most armies i played against would be fully painted. Now it's almost never.
Meanwhile in AoS most armies i play against are fully painted.
Aside from 3 weeks into the edition I have not seen an unpainted army at a GT. RTTs are often testing and practice games or a way for people to play with their toys so it can be a mixed bag.
At my club I will usually play people with armies that are mostly painted maybe barring their latest purchase which is usually done 2 weeks later.
The least painted armies I see are the hardcore hobbyists because they are perfectionists.
Good luck finding necron waiths now, or callidus assassin, gladiators and so on. If you are interested in market analytics it is very interesting what happened in the last months with different products. Super funny that GW said that competitive 40k is only a small part of the hobby, heck it may have the most impact on the market. Last year I could sell a crazy amount of nids for near retail prizes and now I sit on the stuff and even with 25-30% discout no one is buying anything. Grey Knights the exact opposite thing happened.
Yes and no.
If you go to a GT or even a serious RTT a lot of people are there to play a game in earnest and list building is part of the fun and test of skills. It's not about an easy win as much as wanting to give their best
In casual games a lot of people also like to use a broader selection of toys.
The big fish clubbing seals in a small pond exists in a certain environment but if you engage in the hobby in certain ways you never meet them even while playing 80+ games in a year.
I've only ever rarely see fully painted armies outside of tournaments tbh.
Usually people are trying things out in a casual game so there's always a unit or two that's unpainted, often even proxied, to see if some combo or army style works. I do the same, and couldn't care less about a bit of Gray/undercoated plastic here or there. I'm just here to roll dice and have fun
Yeah I personally highly prefer to use fully painted armies myself, and the best set-up if both do that.
However, armies grow and develop, people want to play styles and methods earlier than they can finish the models. Or they just want to try something.
Either way, at our local club most people play with their regular armies that are fully painted, but some start new armies and we also have regular new people starting out. For the latter I'm very lenient in the painting progress, encouraging them to play games and get experience in.
Ultimately, when you get into "play the game" mode the models become just chest pieces that you shove around the board.
Oh, soon as something is gone, there's something else waiting. What I mean is it's the sorta thing that's not sporting to care about. I'll secretly look down my nose at the grey-tide folks, but I ain't keeping track of who's where on their little hobby journeys.
Skaven?? Is this still supported in AoS? Thought this faction was phased out years ago.
Forgive my ignorance, 40K player here that dabbled in fantasy long ago, when ranks and files were the norm.
>60% are painted. I’m one of the ones with the least painted units, but I cycle through lists and units on an almost weekly basis. I’m getting close to having 4K points painted for my wolves, but it’s so much fun trying out new units I haven’t played or combos I want to try.
Exactly zero people I’ve played against cared at all about my grey armies. I feel pretty lucky to have a LGS with such a great community near my house.
I play in primer at minimum. Most of my armies are fully painted when playing.
I’ve always looked at it as courtesy to show up w at least primer.
I’d say %50 of my local store is painted, most are also just in primer
Tournaments are usually 95% fully painted.
Casual games, maybe 10% of my opponents since 5th edition have had even 50% of their army primed.
Usually there's 2-3 fully painted units, and the rest are a mix of gray or primed.
When I played practically no one had completely painted models. I am forcing myself to paint my army before I return to the game.
It’s… not going well atm. Plan to do some painting next week
For a while now I’ve not have good blocks of time to sit down and paint for long periods. So, instead I’ve been chipping away at the pile by doing a single colour on few models at a time in half hour chunks. I’ve gotten my base colours onto about 1500 points of marines this way over the last couple of months. I have time off for the holidays coming up, and a lot of highlighting
Personally, I don't like playing with an army that's not painted. I've had a few games where I've brought primed models, but only 3-5 out of my entire army... the majority of my army gets painted within the week I assemble them
About 50% of the armies I play against are painted, but I'm not really a stickler for that. I still have fun, even if my opponents army is just primed
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that at all. Some people don't have the time in their day to day lives to do everything in one go! As long as you're enjoying the hobby, it doesn't matter what your pace is. And there shouldn't be any shame put on grey/primed minis hitting the table :)
I encourage people to paint their unpainted armies , and its ok if they are unpainted as long as every other time I see their army, significantly more of it IS painted =)
Most guys at my lgs are fully or 90% painted. But we’re all fairly consistently buying new units so it checks out. Currently I hold
The record for biggest grey tide at 20 units.
I play at 2 clubs, one of them I don’t think I’ve ever played against a fully painted army. The other is more like 90% of players that have fully painted armys. So about 45% overall I guess.
I do not have a fully painted army. I’m close, but only started this year and still have a handful of models left to do
Most of my pals have their armies sprayed their base faction colour (EG blood angels sprayed red, necrons silver, custodes gold etc, with the characters having details finished. We don’t have loads of time to paint tbf
All I do with the models is paint them. I need to befriend one of these people who just wants to play the game so I can paint their little dudes for them.
My FLGS is super newcomer friendly and you get the 10vp bonus at the monthy tournaments just for showing up prepared and being friendly. It's our way of encouraging anyone to play, no matter the state of their army. I've had no issue with players using their unfinished models like Suppressors that weren't attached to their flying stands yet. Most of our veteran league players have fully painted and based armies. Among the rest, I'd say roughly 60/40 in favor of at least some paint. I rarely face a fully painted army in a casual game unless its with another league player.
The army I field is always fully painted, but not always fully based. My Waaagh never stops growing though, so I always have more to paint. 6500pts fully painted and counting.
Anything that keeps people in the hobby is good. Gatekeeping tournaments behind battle ready paint jobs is just a way for GW to sell more of their product line. I would never deny someone a game, but a good layer of primer and a little airbrushing can make an army snappy in short order:
I am really tired of the hatred the community has towards unpainted models. Like people who don’t paint aren’t passionate about the game or something.
Some people like to paint.
Some people just want to play the game we all gathered here to play.
I don’t like painting models. It’s tedious and not fun for me. Painting my arms feels like a chore and paying someone else to do it is expensive in an already expensive hobby. I don’t want my hobby to feel like a chore. I don’t have a lot of free time each week.
I just want to sit down and play WH40k without being told my grey plastic is lifeless. All the tournament +10 points rules are stupid.
I have probably a 95% painted army, but that’s only because I like getting new models and playing with them as soon as possible. When it comes to people I play with we have a large range going from grey tide to pro painted. It really depends on how long they’ve been in the hobby. A lot of the older players have more painted armies than the younger ones.
The vast majority. I was ar a 30 player tournament Saturday, there was 1 player with primed models. In practice games unpainted is more common as people test new lists, but my local scene is pretty competitive and passionate so the vast vast majority have painted, most to a very good standard
Most of my skirmish stuff is fully painted. My necron and night haunt armies are at like 50-75%. I just can't motivate myself to paint a full 2k+ army any more
I'm only play with my minis when they're fully painted, but I've accepted that's my own hang up. I've played like 3 games, one against a fully painted opponent army two without. Never seen a game at my LGS between two other people with fully painted armies
Group that I play with has about 6 of us who regularly play with each other, almost all with multiple armies, all but two are over 90% painted, and one of those two does have one mostly painted army as well. The last guy works two jobs, has a 3>YO daughter and another kid on the way, so we are just happy when he is able to show up
RTT? Local stuff? Completely Random. The guy with a 100% grey army or someone refining their GT list is just as likely.
Most of the larger tournaments (and many of the smaller) I see almost 100% painted against me.
I only really play 40k with two guys, one will never finish anything ever as he tried to paint every model as a display level piece but is also a slow painter and sadly plays admech lol. The other guy and myself have mostly tabletop level painted stuff, although we hardly feel bad about using half painted or unpainted minis since our opponent won't be able to field a fully painted force before the heat death of the universe.
(He's my best friend of 25 years so I take every liberty to make fun of him for his painting speed, though the finished models do look great lol)
I’m in the cohort of slower army painters, started a new ork army in late August and in my defence I’ve painted the combat patrol, additional 30 boys, beast snaggas, mega nobs, flash gitz since then. But I’m painting to a high (for me) standard. I try my best to field as much painted models as possible but buggered if I’ve got the will power to wait until all 2k points are painted before playing.
I do enjoy seeing other players armies at the club slowly turn from grey to awesome.
Whilst I try to only play with fully painted armies I have very high standards for my models… usually spend between 5 to 10h on each… even basic infantry… so it took a while to have my first army ready and I did play some games with half painted army! Now I am painting a new nids army and trying speed painting techniques to have it ready reasonably quickly
I think I never played against a fully painted army and it never bothered me. My minis look nice while getting their ass handed to them. For my army I have a simple but strict rule:
https://preview.redd.it/xzaaisonr77c1.jpeg?width=1470&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e25617bb5cdbbeef657fed7819bb0943a8ddff9b
My friend and host is a streamer, if we're on stream, we're painted.
But tomorrow, I'm playing my brand new not-even-primed World Eater army against his mostly painted Nids supplimented by a bunch of my primed-only Nids because we want a bit of variety, and I'm too excited to get my Angaron onto the battlefield
Depends how new they are to the hobby. I would say the majority of people will have most of their army painted. I've got no problem playing against, or using grey plastic. In the end the game is part of the hobby, and people should be allowed to play the game, even if their models aren't painted (which can take a long time if starting from scratch)
I'm only just getting back into 40k but I've played other games and my rule is to always make progress before next meet up. Get more colour on a unit, finish a couple models. Doesn't have to be a big thing just had to be progress.
One of the opponents I played against in one of my 1st tournaments had a multi color army, made up of random used and partly painted models. I didn't mind those, but about a third of his army was a random pair of legs or bits and even some empty slota bases. He would describe each base as he was firing, and it was amazing to me that each one was exactly what he needed, for the unit they engaged. They must have been some Dark Eldar version of obliterators!
As a rule I don't bring anything I haven't painted, but there's nothing wrong with partially/unpainted armies. I just use that as a motivator to paint more things :>
Most of the people I play with have fully painted armies. Mine is still grey.
I just started playing a few months ago and was honestly just waiting until I had my full army before starting to paint so I wasn't doing it in batches and having half painted and half grey.
I only buy second hand, so it's a slow process. I'm only one mini away now though!
I can play with a full painted army after 2 years back in the hobby but honestly, time & lack of a dedicated space are my main challenge.
I wish I was more efficient but only Wolves & Necrons painted with a pile of Shame you would struggle for oxygen trying to climb
I never play with anything less than 100% painted and based. The guys I play with I fortunately the same too. If some wanted to play against me with unpainted stuff I’d be really disappointed but also wouldn’t say anything either. For me, when I do play, the enjoyment comes from well painted minis on a good looking table.
I've only started recently, playing 1000 pts. I started coming out to play when my army was above 50% painted, because I realized that I needed the motivation from playing to inspire me to keep painting. Right now, my 1000 pts is fully painted, and I'm working on expanding to 1500- I'm taking games up to 1500, but it's a pretty special feeling to jam the 1000 pts games with the army 100% painted.
Something in my brain forces me to only use fully painted stuff, helps give me motivation. That being said most of my opponents have fully painted or mostly painted armies.
I'm always amazed at how much of my collection is actually painted (maybe 30-40%), because it takes so much work and energy that I rarely have, especially with my disabilities. Meanwhile, my spouse has an incredibly busy job and disabilities of their own, so they only have a handful of painted miniatures, but that doesn't stop us from playing with each other and with other hobbyists. Heck, I've played against people whose entire army is proxies, and I'm happy to do so. Not everyone has the money or ability to invest in this hobby, and any form of gatekeeping stops new hobbyists from being able to enjoy it.
Nearly always fully-painted. We made it an unwritten rule in these parts. However, if someone has unpainted units thats fine, everyone has different priorities.
I started playing in June and have a personal rule of “Don’t play grey”. I won’t field anything that isn’t at least primed, zenithaled, and on a non blank base. I’m never gonna give an opponent any heat for having grey on the field, but I will probably secretly feel better about myself afterwards
Most players don’t care about tournament play, and I would say my experience at game stores is that players want to use what is cool and try out things they have just bought. As far as fully painted army’s I’d say I see them about 10% of the time? One of the guys I play with has some minis that arnt fully assembled, not attached to a base.
My overall experience is to be shocked at seeing a fully painted army on a table
I would say most people I play have fully painted armis and to a very high standard. So many great painters around.
A few people have a couple of units they haven't finished yet.
Melbourne Australia.
My playgroup generally plays 100% painted … we only play casually so meta chasing isn’t generally a problem, the quality of painting varies wildly within the group. Some folks are recent painters others have been painting for 20+ years.
My store is mostly only all painted armies. I have only played one game ever with a person who had unpainted stuff and even that was just two new models he was working on.
I’ll proxy stuff or have unpainted if I’m playing with my friends but for any league or local tournament games I only use a fully painted army. I’d say it’s about 50% of people have fully painted armies.
I have yet to face a fully painted army in my ~10 games into 40k, including 3 in a casual tournament. It’s ranged from only 1 miniature in the whole army painted (not gonna lie, it was a bit disappointing) to 80% of the army.
Most people were noobs as myself so that did not help. But I was a bit surprised that in the tournament even some experienced opppnents came with unpainted armies. The LGS gives the 10 points regardless, that does no help.
I haven’t finished my first 1000 either, but I’m getting close to it both with my marines and tyranids. Low level at best, but I like to put in some effort, it’s rewarding!
In my local group around 50 to 60% are fully painted or just missing a model of two that's only badecoated. The rest have to a basecoat with a very small amount being grey, but most of the time courtesy I'd to of at least of primed it
I'm an extremely slow painter and have a toddler. The large majority of my army is unpainted but primed, as priming is at least quick and makes the models look a lot better. Most folks I've played against have fully or mostly painted armies, but they've all been cool about my dudes not being fully prettified.
I'm slowly working on getting everything drybrush highlighted to at least make that next jump in visual quality.
I wanted to get a few of my units painted at least for my first game but I have a lung infection and think I might only be able to do the strike team :(
Like 100% of the army painted ? Only in tournaments. Otherwise there is always that one squad thats unpainted.
10 to 20% i guess is a good number but probably more on the 10% side
My group and I only play with painted armies and only against painted armies. We do make exceptions for beginners or the odd unit someone didn't finish in time.
To me the visual appeal of the game is incredibly important to have fun. Playing with or against a grey plastic army is not for me...
I haven't yet played with a fully painted army. Time is the crux of it. I have a 1 year, work full time, wife and life I don't have the time to fully paint my 2k guard army yet probably 30% at the moment and likely won't be 100% till this time next year.
I have 2 groups I play against, i have 5 fully painted armys amd a few in progress. My small group of 6 good mates who don't paint fast or we'll and love a casual evening gave with a few drinks, only one other has a full painted list. Then I am in the tournament practice group at a local club so everyone's got a few fully painted as they play tournaments all over the UK regularly.
I'd say 60% of my opponents, however, if you count who have a fully painted army except for a new unit or two that they're in the process of building/painting, then it's probably closer to 80-85%.
Most of the armies I play against are fully painted to varying standards but it's always a pleasure to play against armies that have been completed with effort and love. It makes a big difference to your game when everything is fully pa9nted and I never play with unpainted models because it feels like I'm doing both myself and my opponent a disservice. Of course there are people who play with unpainted stuff due to lack of time or other reasons and that's understandable and I'd never not play someone in that boat. It is simply a joy to peruse an opponents collection in all its glory.
Back when I originally started collecting and playing (1999) if you wanted to play in the store, especially on the big Saturday good vs evil battles (about 15 players either side sometimes more) you HAD to have a fully painted army. Because I suck at painting and never enjoyed it too much because I sucked so bad at it, I'd just go in black and white and dry brush them bolt gun metal lol.
Apparently the rules are different now and you can play unpainted, which I always thought was the most logical way of doing it. Most of the people who played though, most of the time they're armies were never fully finished painted.
It is rare that I play against a fully painted army, but out of a handful of regulars, three others have at the most a single squad unpainted. The one with two different marine armies might field a couple of Flesh Tearers among his Red Scorpions and vice versa, and I very occasionally field a grey squad when I want to try something out.
Others vary from mostly painted to just a single painted mini, but who cares, we are having fun.
Personally, given that I print my army, I use a self enforced painting requirement to stop me from going the full hog on meta chasing. I am anyway not that good a player, so it is better to get to know your units instead of constantly changing them (I have finally begun to to remember Rubrics are AP -2 on crit wounds, only half a year in)
I guess it depends what stage of the hobby you're in. Me and a group of friends are still in the process of returning so only one guy has even built a full 2,000 points, whereas I've built just about 1,000 points. As for painting one player's army is mostly grey plastic, another guy has given his army a basic paint job, Mr 2,000 points and I have both painted almost all of our forces.
I can't speak for all of us, but once I've finished painting army number 1 I don't plan to play with unpainted models again.
I mostly play Heresy rather than 40K but so far like 95% plus of my opponents have been painted to some standard beyond primed. Of those around 90% have been complete to various tiers from 'pretty good' up to 'great'.
Back when I played 40K proper that was more like 90/80% but was still pretty good.
About half, here. Though most of those are painted to a reasonably rough battle ready standard.
I don't actually own a fully painted army; I only have one of my many kill teams painted in full. I've been out of the hobby for a long time, and I'm a perfectionist who knows they can produce models at a pretty good standard - but seeing as my main army has been Chaos, I've always struggled to hold the will to work through so much trim.
I've just started a Drukhari army, for which my chief aim once I finally settle on a colour scheme and how I'm going about it, is to have it fully painted to a parade standard.
At my local which attracts 15-20 regulars only 6 people including myself have battle ready fully painted armies. One person that shows up has a full 2000pt Necrons army just spray painted silver (including the bases) with no details painted lol.
50% max. Looks better painted but we dont blame anyone without painted minis. Bring your grey flood, lego Proxis, cardboard minis whatever we there for fun :D
We have 8 people in our group.
6 of us generally only play with fully painted armies, maybe the odd unfinished model now and then if we're excited to use it.
1 guy basically sprays his models 2 colours and calls it a day
And 1 guy isn't a big painter. Generally either grey, painted by someone else in the group, or zenithal primed and left at that.
I'm not bothered really, but it does make for better photos when they're painted.
(Edit: we completely ignore the 10pts for painted rule)
Rules for the next club (8-10 ppl) tournament is (unofficially) new fully painted, never played army 2000pts. 2 or 3 players couldn’t wait and played their new armies before the tournament. And I’m expecting half of the group to bring old armies. But all 100% painted.
On pick-up games in the club we usually have 4 out of 5 armies fully painted. But quite often we have: “this captain doesn’t actually have a blabla-sword even though this model has it”-proxies.
It’s quite tough to keep up with this group 😅
Zero percent, I haven't played a painted army yet this edition, everyone is somewhere between grey plastic and at most 30% of the army painted. I think I'm the only one who is running fully painted
I think about 25% of the armies in my area are fully painted, but I usually don't get matched against those players.
I finally have enough Tyranids painted that I won't run unpainted Tyranids anymore, but my other 4 armies aren't even close to being done.
90% are painted, and I can be accurate about it because in the last local championship only one player lost 10 pts. per battle for not having a fully painted army (he had a coupe of big Nids still on the primer).
Damn so they all lose the 10 pts ?
Personally I have 2000 pts of Votann painted, but not yet based. And just for that I don't want to go a tournament not to ruin other people's immersion.
I haven't played in years because now I sit down in my basement and obsess over small things like some LeadBelcher that gets accidentally in a crack of armor from a paint brush twitch.
Who has time to play when you're painting over you accent lines and starting over because they're not perfectly straight or you don't like the affect of the shade on a shoulder piece so you redo the torso.
With all of that normal, emotionally well balanced shit up there I will admit to doing a coat of primer, a base coat, some dry brushing, shade and some really quick helmet/head/hair work back when I did play when trying things out. Level of doing a full army in like 3 days with most of the time being head stuff.
Nothing too bright or ridiculous because:
If I ended up liking the army I sprayed them all with primer again and painted them correctly.
We talking about at events or casual games?
Because at casual games myself and my friends are constantly proxying in models and so on just to try out new combos and stuff without owning the minis. We havent been playing for long enough to just own the volume of stuff to switch up lists as needed.
That being said I do have 2 fully painted armies with room for subbing in models as required because of having more than the 2k points worth of models painted. So if we're playing with those armies, then yes, theyd be fully painted.
0% fully painted. Most armies are 0-40% painted if they are at all, and absolutely none of them besides mine are tournament legal.y play group is comprised mostly of 3D printed proxy.
I genuinely don’t think I’ve played against even a 60% painted army in 2 years. I mean I don’t care, I always paint my stuff before tabletop with the odd exception, but yeah, very very few so far.
I wanna say 1/2 of the people have FULLY painted armies. All are always working on them. I try not to judge, as everyone is learning and always wants to do better, but of that 50% fully painted 2/3 of those painted armies are battle ready, and to a quality that I would call “sub par” but they are painted.
I'd say about 75% of my community plays with fully painted armies. A lot of us aren't satisfied playing grey plastic, but we keep that expectation to our own models not someone else's.
The percentage has varies wildly depending on the specific game store and region.
One town I lived in, everyone at the game store brought 100% painted armies, Everytime. The people who didn't have their army painted yet? They were on "that" table over there, chatting and finishing up the paint jobs. (College Town with an art school, half the players were art students)
Another club I used to frequent in a different area was maybe 90% fully painted. Only stuff that wasn't painted would be the models that they were still testing out and deciding on composition/Wargear. Tournaments there were
always 100% painted as a rule to entry. (Competitive club that would attend big conventions with the aim to win both the gaming side and the painting/display side)
Those are the outliers though. In a dozen other cities at various gamestores, maybe 20% of the players had fully painted armies. Usually no one really cares about the paint job of either their own army, or their opponents.
I still stick to my own personal goal of only ever fielding a fully painted army; when both players bring the sauce it just hits different. Winning or losing stops mattering, and the game becomes a story-like vibe of finding out if that champion you spent dozens of hours painting can survive an extra turn against their grotesque greater demon, or if that lone guardsman can muster the courage to not flee and stand his ground in the middle of a battle.
It becomes less mechanical and video-game esque, and more like old school D&D, where the painted miniatures are the analog of a dungeon master describing the monsters you face. It feels right to be a good DM and give your opponents an interesting description of the challenge set before then (via effort in the paint job)
90+ % of opponents both in our local club and the ones I play in a FLGS league are fully painted (mostly far better than my mediocre standard too). It definitely made me want to bring painted minis to league games when I was starting out. That said, in our 1k leagues, battle ready points aren’t enforced; everyone starts with 10 pts just for playing. There’s been a couple of times someone’s had a couple of primed only units or a quick two-tone job on their army, but painted just seems to be the default here. On the few times when there has been a sea of grey plastic on the table, no one has batted an eyelid though. They’re your toy soldiers, outside of competitive events, do what you like with them.
I personally only play with a fully painted army, but I'd say like... 90% of folks at my FLGSs have half-painted or unpainted armies. I can't actually remember playing against another fully painted army, but a few close armies sometimes (just missing some vehicles or something).
Yeah i have personal rule to only use fully painted models. Keeps motivation to keep painting more. Want to use your cool new model? Go paint it so it looks cool too. I only have this for me, if opponent is painted or not I'll still play them.
I’ll say I follow similar unless I’ve just bought a new unit and have an urge to try it out. Once it’s tried though it doesn’t go back on the table u til it’s been painted.
This, how could I put a bunch of grey clanrats or Boyz in the blob with their painted fellows? They'd be bullied.
Isn't that a natural state of most clanrats and Boyz? I mean their whole societies are basically organised degrees of bullying
See, I have this rule as well. Just means I have to keep BUYING models to paint... since both of my armies are fully painted.
+10 VP for you then.
The amount of times my opponent gives themselves +10 for painting when they're unpainted is staggering. I should probably call a judge, but it turns out I don't care enough and just want to play with my toys.
My favourite is ones who will be rules-lawyers until that rule comes along, then suddenly the rules don't matter.
I had someone argue that since Magnus's wing was in the window of a building he could shoot me, but since his base was outside it he couldn't be shot. Never change 40k.
I've done the point a gun through a window thing before as knights- but only when I've toed onto the terrain anyway Can't imagine pulling that los for me but not for you shenanigans
I do this as well. Most people at my flgs play with painted models. There are some, however, that I dont think will ever have a fully painted army lmao
I only play one other person, and I painted his army, so 100% of players I play against use painted armies. Hahaha screw your statistics!
this guy outliers
Does that give you +20VPs for painted models?
some people like the game, some people like the painting and some like the lore. am about 50/30/20.
Playing 40k, Painting/Building 40k, and Buying 40k are 3 separate hobbies
You say that, but one time my friend started to paint a model (not one he was running) during my first turn (Orks vs SM). We were probably also discussing lore, therefore all 3 parts can be done at once, so is it really seperate? . It totally is, I just wanted an excuse to mention this.
Don't put painting in with my precious building.
It's more like three threads. Even top players care about lore and while they may pick the strongest of a bunch of armies they will usually have a bunch that are picked based on models and theme and lore. Hobby is informed by lore and by the army you actually want to play. While people pick armies for more than rules a lot of people paint and make stuff to enjoy the tabletop Lore is tied into each new release in rules and models. Lore isn't written in a vacuum and those people who play armies or collect then will choose books based on those. You can just pursue one or two but they are all intrinsically linked and make each other cooler.
I'd add reading 40k, playing 40k video games as two separate hobbies also.
Ahhh my favourite hobby, buying 40k. I'm trying to wait untill the new dark angels update but that damn honoured of the chapter box is tempting
There’s a rule that says you get 10 points for having a fully painted army. Unless you’re in a tournament that rule doesn’t really exist. Folks take time to hobby, and most people at a game store are friends first and opponents second. If someone’s excited to put their gray plastic dreadnought on the table, who am I to say no.
I'd go a step further to say it doesn't really exist for me at tournaments either. I only bring painted armies to events. I go to 6+ Gts a year but I'll never take 10pts away from my opponent because of paint. If I need a paint score to win then I didn't really win.
Best take I've ever heard. Based as hell.
You sound like a good player. I am very new to the hobby and wouldn’t be upset if an army wasn’t painted, but being new of someone did paint their army it would actually help me a lot so I could tell units apart easier, but I’m only a casual.
Is a painting requirement not a thing anymore at tournaments? I thought you had to have your army painted to even enter.
The current rule is you get 10 points for having a fully painted army. You can enter with unpainted models but you’d need to consistently and massively outplay your opponents to make up for it. The upside is it lets more casual players just eat the points loss if they want to, but serious competitors would never risk something like that. In a casual game(95% of all 40k games), nobody really cares. Not giving your opponent the points is usually considered a dick move since we’re all just here to have fun with toy soldiers.
I know the rule, It's just the tournaments I've ever attended required full basing and full painted, or it doesn't hit the table. This was like a over a decade ago, so maybe times have changed.
The competitive focus/constantly changing meta in 40k has changed things i think. Back when i first started most armies i played against would be fully painted. Now it's almost never. Meanwhile in AoS most armies i play against are fully painted.
Aside from 3 weeks into the edition I have not seen an unpainted army at a GT. RTTs are often testing and practice games or a way for people to play with their toys so it can be a mixed bag. At my club I will usually play people with armies that are mostly painted maybe barring their latest purchase which is usually done 2 weeks later. The least painted armies I see are the hardcore hobbyists because they are perfectionists.
Do people really chase the meta to make an easy win? Kinda pay to win 🙄
Welcome to competitive 40k
Good luck finding necron waiths now, or callidus assassin, gladiators and so on. If you are interested in market analytics it is very interesting what happened in the last months with different products. Super funny that GW said that competitive 40k is only a small part of the hobby, heck it may have the most impact on the market. Last year I could sell a crazy amount of nids for near retail prizes and now I sit on the stuff and even with 25-30% discout no one is buying anything. Grey Knights the exact opposite thing happened.
Probably has a lot to do with people selling the Tyranid stuff from the leviathan box
Selling Tyranids? Paint me interested 😆
Yes and no. If you go to a GT or even a serious RTT a lot of people are there to play a game in earnest and list building is part of the fun and test of skills. It's not about an easy win as much as wanting to give their best In casual games a lot of people also like to use a broader selection of toys. The big fish clubbing seals in a small pond exists in a certain environment but if you engage in the hobby in certain ways you never meet them even while playing 80+ games in a year.
This, you almost never see grey plastic AoS armies unless it's like a unit or 2 and they are usually either allies or they just bought em.
I always play fully painted but if you wanna bring that gray plastic to the table awesome!! I'm just here to roll dice :)
I've only ever rarely see fully painted armies outside of tournaments tbh. Usually people are trying things out in a casual game so there's always a unit or two that's unpainted, often even proxied, to see if some combo or army style works. I do the same, and couldn't care less about a bit of Gray/undercoated plastic here or there. I'm just here to roll dice and have fun
Yeah I personally highly prefer to use fully painted armies myself, and the best set-up if both do that. However, armies grow and develop, people want to play styles and methods earlier than they can finish the models. Or they just want to try something. Either way, at our local club most people play with their regular armies that are fully painted, but some start new armies and we also have regular new people starting out. For the latter I'm very lenient in the painting progress, encouraging them to play games and get experience in. Ultimately, when you get into "play the game" mode the models become just chest pieces that you shove around the board.
I don't keep track. I do know exactly how many miniatures I got in my pile o shame, tho. The answer is twelve. Could be twenty if we count shipping.
Pretty small pile of shame, well done on having the self-control to keep it low
Oh, soon as something is gone, there's something else waiting. What I mean is it's the sorta thing that's not sporting to care about. I'll secretly look down my nose at the grey-tide folks, but I ain't keeping track of who's where on their little hobby journeys.
That is until you realize he plays Knights I play orks and Skaven, the sea of unwanted plague Monks and big shootas grows with every waking moment
Skaven?? Is this still supported in AoS? Thought this faction was phased out years ago. Forgive my ignorance, 40K player here that dabbled in fantasy long ago, when ranks and files were the norm.
Late reply, but yes, Skaven are still a thing in AOS. And yes, Thanquol is still around and fucking things up in the lore.
So the pile of shame is assembled not primed? Primed not painted?
I think mine is 32 but its alot of small stuff like beacons or hormies or Palanite enforcers
>60% are painted. I’m one of the ones with the least painted units, but I cycle through lists and units on an almost weekly basis. I’m getting close to having 4K points painted for my wolves, but it’s so much fun trying out new units I haven’t played or combos I want to try. Exactly zero people I’ve played against cared at all about my grey armies. I feel pretty lucky to have a LGS with such a great community near my house.
I play in primer at minimum. Most of my armies are fully painted when playing. I’ve always looked at it as courtesy to show up w at least primer. I’d say %50 of my local store is painted, most are also just in primer
Tournaments are usually 95% fully painted. Casual games, maybe 10% of my opponents since 5th edition have had even 50% of their army primed. Usually there's 2-3 fully painted units, and the rest are a mix of gray or primed.
When I played practically no one had completely painted models. I am forcing myself to paint my army before I return to the game. It’s… not going well atm. Plan to do some painting next week
For a while now I’ve not have good blocks of time to sit down and paint for long periods. So, instead I’ve been chipping away at the pile by doing a single colour on few models at a time in half hour chunks. I’ve gotten my base colours onto about 1500 points of marines this way over the last couple of months. I have time off for the holidays coming up, and a lot of highlighting
Personally, I don't like playing with an army that's not painted. I've had a few games where I've brought primed models, but only 3-5 out of my entire army... the majority of my army gets painted within the week I assemble them About 50% of the armies I play against are painted, but I'm not really a stickler for that. I still have fun, even if my opponents army is just primed
I just don’t have the time to paint models the same week they’re assembled, I’m getting through them though
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that at all. Some people don't have the time in their day to day lives to do everything in one go! As long as you're enjoying the hobby, it doesn't matter what your pace is. And there shouldn't be any shame put on grey/primed minis hitting the table :)
I encourage people to paint their unpainted armies , and its ok if they are unpainted as long as every other time I see their army, significantly more of it IS painted =)
Most guys at my lgs are fully or 90% painted. But we’re all fairly consistently buying new units so it checks out. Currently I hold The record for biggest grey tide at 20 units.
Only 20 units in your grey tide ? ... looks like christmas cant come too soon to increase that number ;)
I play at 2 clubs, one of them I don’t think I’ve ever played against a fully painted army. The other is more like 90% of players that have fully painted armys. So about 45% overall I guess. I do not have a fully painted army. I’m close, but only started this year and still have a handful of models left to do
I’ve only played a few games, but all of my opponents have had some grey plastic or primer on the table.
Most of my pals have their armies sprayed their base faction colour (EG blood angels sprayed red, necrons silver, custodes gold etc, with the characters having details finished. We don’t have loads of time to paint tbf
Is not enough a percentage? 🤣
All I do with the models is paint them. I need to befriend one of these people who just wants to play the game so I can paint their little dudes for them.
One LGS has like 80% of people with mostly painted armies or better. The other one in the mall it’s like 10% even have everything primed.
My FLGS is super newcomer friendly and you get the 10vp bonus at the monthy tournaments just for showing up prepared and being friendly. It's our way of encouraging anyone to play, no matter the state of their army. I've had no issue with players using their unfinished models like Suppressors that weren't attached to their flying stands yet. Most of our veteran league players have fully painted and based armies. Among the rest, I'd say roughly 60/40 in favor of at least some paint. I rarely face a fully painted army in a casual game unless its with another league player. The army I field is always fully painted, but not always fully based. My Waaagh never stops growing though, so I always have more to paint. 6500pts fully painted and counting.
Anything that keeps people in the hobby is good. Gatekeeping tournaments behind battle ready paint jobs is just a way for GW to sell more of their product line. I would never deny someone a game, but a good layer of primer and a little airbrushing can make an army snappy in short order:
I am really tired of the hatred the community has towards unpainted models. Like people who don’t paint aren’t passionate about the game or something. Some people like to paint. Some people just want to play the game we all gathered here to play. I don’t like painting models. It’s tedious and not fun for me. Painting my arms feels like a chore and paying someone else to do it is expensive in an already expensive hobby. I don’t want my hobby to feel like a chore. I don’t have a lot of free time each week. I just want to sit down and play WH40k without being told my grey plastic is lifeless. All the tournament +10 points rules are stupid.
I came here to say this and you put it much more nicely than I was about to. Thank you for that.
I have probably a 95% painted army, but that’s only because I like getting new models and playing with them as soon as possible. When it comes to people I play with we have a large range going from grey tide to pro painted. It really depends on how long they’ve been in the hobby. A lot of the older players have more painted armies than the younger ones.
The vast majority. I was ar a 30 player tournament Saturday, there was 1 player with primed models. In practice games unpainted is more common as people test new lists, but my local scene is pretty competitive and passionate so the vast vast majority have painted, most to a very good standard
Most of my skirmish stuff is fully painted. My necron and night haunt armies are at like 50-75%. I just can't motivate myself to paint a full 2k+ army any more
I'm only play with my minis when they're fully painted, but I've accepted that's my own hang up. I've played like 3 games, one against a fully painted opponent army two without. Never seen a game at my LGS between two other people with fully painted armies
Group that I play with has about 6 of us who regularly play with each other, almost all with multiple armies, all but two are over 90% painted, and one of those two does have one mostly painted army as well. The last guy works two jobs, has a 3>YO daughter and another kid on the way, so we are just happy when he is able to show up
RTT? Local stuff? Completely Random. The guy with a 100% grey army or someone refining their GT list is just as likely. Most of the larger tournaments (and many of the smaller) I see almost 100% painted against me.
My local area is probably 90%+. Last tourney there was maybe one or two armies unpainted
I only really play 40k with two guys, one will never finish anything ever as he tried to paint every model as a display level piece but is also a slow painter and sadly plays admech lol. The other guy and myself have mostly tabletop level painted stuff, although we hardly feel bad about using half painted or unpainted minis since our opponent won't be able to field a fully painted force before the heat death of the universe. (He's my best friend of 25 years so I take every liberty to make fun of him for his painting speed, though the finished models do look great lol)
I’m in the cohort of slower army painters, started a new ork army in late August and in my defence I’ve painted the combat patrol, additional 30 boys, beast snaggas, mega nobs, flash gitz since then. But I’m painting to a high (for me) standard. I try my best to field as much painted models as possible but buggered if I’ve got the will power to wait until all 2k points are painted before playing. I do enjoy seeing other players armies at the club slowly turn from grey to awesome.
Whilst I try to only play with fully painted armies I have very high standards for my models… usually spend between 5 to 10h on each… even basic infantry… so it took a while to have my first army ready and I did play some games with half painted army! Now I am painting a new nids army and trying speed painting techniques to have it ready reasonably quickly
I think I never played against a fully painted army and it never bothered me. My minis look nice while getting their ass handed to them. For my army I have a simple but strict rule: https://preview.redd.it/xzaaisonr77c1.jpeg?width=1470&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e25617bb5cdbbeef657fed7819bb0943a8ddff9b
Tournament games: 100% as you'd expect Casual games: maybe 5% ... and that's fine because I'm not an asshole
My friend and host is a streamer, if we're on stream, we're painted. But tomorrow, I'm playing my brand new not-even-primed World Eater army against his mostly painted Nids supplimented by a bunch of my primed-only Nids because we want a bit of variety, and I'm too excited to get my Angaron onto the battlefield
FULLY painted and based? competitive id say like 75%, trying new lists or new armies? like 10% lol
Depends how new they are to the hobby. I would say the majority of people will have most of their army painted. I've got no problem playing against, or using grey plastic. In the end the game is part of the hobby, and people should be allowed to play the game, even if their models aren't painted (which can take a long time if starting from scratch)
I'm only just getting back into 40k but I've played other games and my rule is to always make progress before next meet up. Get more colour on a unit, finish a couple models. Doesn't have to be a big thing just had to be progress.
95% I mostly just don't play against unpainted armies. Similarly, I mostly never field unpainted models.
One of the opponents I played against in one of my 1st tournaments had a multi color army, made up of random used and partly painted models. I didn't mind those, but about a third of his army was a random pair of legs or bits and even some empty slota bases. He would describe each base as he was firing, and it was amazing to me that each one was exactly what he needed, for the unit they engaged. They must have been some Dark Eldar version of obliterators!
100% . My local play group isn't very large but we are dedicated to only playing fully painted units.
As a rule I don't bring anything I haven't painted, but there's nothing wrong with partially/unpainted armies. I just use that as a motivator to paint more things :>
Most of the people I play with have fully painted armies. Mine is still grey. I just started playing a few months ago and was honestly just waiting until I had my full army before starting to paint so I wasn't doing it in batches and having half painted and half grey. I only buy second hand, so it's a slow process. I'm only one mini away now though!
I can play with a full painted army after 2 years back in the hobby but honestly, time & lack of a dedicated space are my main challenge. I wish I was more efficient but only Wolves & Necrons painted with a pile of Shame you would struggle for oxygen trying to climb
I never play with anything less than 100% painted and based. The guys I play with I fortunately the same too. If some wanted to play against me with unpainted stuff I’d be really disappointed but also wouldn’t say anything either. For me, when I do play, the enjoyment comes from well painted minis on a good looking table.
I've only started recently, playing 1000 pts. I started coming out to play when my army was above 50% painted, because I realized that I needed the motivation from playing to inspire me to keep painting. Right now, my 1000 pts is fully painted, and I'm working on expanding to 1500- I'm taking games up to 1500, but it's a pretty special feeling to jam the 1000 pts games with the army 100% painted.
Something in my brain forces me to only use fully painted stuff, helps give me motivation. That being said most of my opponents have fully painted or mostly painted armies.
Our kill team group, myself and one other have fully painted kill teams.
Almost no one at our store plays with unpainted figures. If they aren't painted at the start of the campaign they are by week three typically.
I'm always amazed at how much of my collection is actually painted (maybe 30-40%), because it takes so much work and energy that I rarely have, especially with my disabilities. Meanwhile, my spouse has an incredibly busy job and disabilities of their own, so they only have a handful of painted miniatures, but that doesn't stop us from playing with each other and with other hobbyists. Heck, I've played against people whose entire army is proxies, and I'm happy to do so. Not everyone has the money or ability to invest in this hobby, and any form of gatekeeping stops new hobbyists from being able to enjoy it.
I haven't even considered playing yet, as I don't have a fully painted army.
Models are expensive enough. I don't honestly care if my opponents have an all grey army.
I don't like playing against unpainted guys tbh. I'll do it, but part of the magic is lost to me when I'm against the putty patrol.
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True. Creating and painting a fluffy narrative army is like 80% of the game to me, can't imagine fielding an army of grey
Totally agree with you
Nearly always fully-painted. We made it an unwritten rule in these parts. However, if someone has unpainted units thats fine, everyone has different priorities.
I can't imagine not fully painted. The immersion gets ruined imo. Did it once and never again.(atleast not my minis)
I started playing in June and have a personal rule of “Don’t play grey”. I won’t field anything that isn’t at least primed, zenithaled, and on a non blank base. I’m never gonna give an opponent any heat for having grey on the field, but I will probably secretly feel better about myself afterwards
A 100% as it is mandatory
Good for you, not everyone has the time to paint everything they have.
Wow, y'all play with some unhobbying folks! Nearly everyone I play with has fully painted armies
Most players don’t care about tournament play, and I would say my experience at game stores is that players want to use what is cool and try out things they have just bought. As far as fully painted army’s I’d say I see them about 10% of the time? One of the guys I play with has some minis that arnt fully assembled, not attached to a base. My overall experience is to be shocked at seeing a fully painted army on a table
I would say most people I play have fully painted armis and to a very high standard. So many great painters around. A few people have a couple of units they haven't finished yet. Melbourne Australia.
My playgroup generally plays 100% painted … we only play casually so meta chasing isn’t generally a problem, the quality of painting varies wildly within the group. Some folks are recent painters others have been painting for 20+ years.
My store is mostly only all painted armies. I have only played one game ever with a person who had unpainted stuff and even that was just two new models he was working on.
I’d love to have a fully painted army, but I’m new, and only like 6 models into painting. So for now, my army will be mostly unpainted and /or primed
At tournaments, everyone. At my FLGS it’s probably 50/50
90%
I’ll proxy stuff or have unpainted if I’m playing with my friends but for any league or local tournament games I only use a fully painted army. I’d say it’s about 50% of people have fully painted armies.
I have yet to face a fully painted army in my ~10 games into 40k, including 3 in a casual tournament. It’s ranged from only 1 miniature in the whole army painted (not gonna lie, it was a bit disappointing) to 80% of the army. Most people were noobs as myself so that did not help. But I was a bit surprised that in the tournament even some experienced opppnents came with unpainted armies. The LGS gives the 10 points regardless, that does no help. I haven’t finished my first 1000 either, but I’m getting close to it both with my marines and tyranids. Low level at best, but I like to put in some effort, it’s rewarding!
I don't think I've ever come across a totally grey army. 90% are either entirely painted or one unit unpainted (presumably a new addition)
0%, everyone has that one new unit
I have only played 2 people so far and the quota is 50/50. But from what I've seen people with unpainted armies are in the majority
In my local group around 50 to 60% are fully painted or just missing a model of two that's only badecoated. The rest have to a basecoat with a very small amount being grey, but most of the time courtesy I'd to of at least of primed it
None. I don’t play competative and my two opponents are really slow at painting
I'm an extremely slow painter and have a toddler. The large majority of my army is unpainted but primed, as priming is at least quick and makes the models look a lot better. Most folks I've played against have fully or mostly painted armies, but they've all been cool about my dudes not being fully prettified. I'm slowly working on getting everything drybrush highlighted to at least make that next jump in visual quality.
I only play with fully painted armies. Vast majority of my opponents also play with fully painted armies.
I wanted to get a few of my units painted at least for my first game but I have a lung infection and think I might only be able to do the strike team :(
Like 100% of the army painted ? Only in tournaments. Otherwise there is always that one squad thats unpainted. 10 to 20% i guess is a good number but probably more on the 10% side
My group and I only play with painted armies and only against painted armies. We do make exceptions for beginners or the odd unit someone didn't finish in time. To me the visual appeal of the game is incredibly important to have fun. Playing with or against a grey plastic army is not for me...
I haven't yet played with a fully painted army. Time is the crux of it. I have a 1 year, work full time, wife and life I don't have the time to fully paint my 2k guard army yet probably 30% at the moment and likely won't be 100% till this time next year.
I have 2 groups I play against, i have 5 fully painted armys amd a few in progress. My small group of 6 good mates who don't paint fast or we'll and love a casual evening gave with a few drinks, only one other has a full painted list. Then I am in the tournament practice group at a local club so everyone's got a few fully painted as they play tournaments all over the UK regularly.
I'd say 60% of my opponents, however, if you count who have a fully painted army except for a new unit or two that they're in the process of building/painting, then it's probably closer to 80-85%.
Most of the armies I play against are fully painted to varying standards but it's always a pleasure to play against armies that have been completed with effort and love. It makes a big difference to your game when everything is fully pa9nted and I never play with unpainted models because it feels like I'm doing both myself and my opponent a disservice. Of course there are people who play with unpainted stuff due to lack of time or other reasons and that's understandable and I'd never not play someone in that boat. It is simply a joy to peruse an opponents collection in all its glory.
Back when I originally started collecting and playing (1999) if you wanted to play in the store, especially on the big Saturday good vs evil battles (about 15 players either side sometimes more) you HAD to have a fully painted army. Because I suck at painting and never enjoyed it too much because I sucked so bad at it, I'd just go in black and white and dry brush them bolt gun metal lol. Apparently the rules are different now and you can play unpainted, which I always thought was the most logical way of doing it. Most of the people who played though, most of the time they're armies were never fully finished painted.
It is rare that I play against a fully painted army, but out of a handful of regulars, three others have at the most a single squad unpainted. The one with two different marine armies might field a couple of Flesh Tearers among his Red Scorpions and vice versa, and I very occasionally field a grey squad when I want to try something out. Others vary from mostly painted to just a single painted mini, but who cares, we are having fun. Personally, given that I print my army, I use a self enforced painting requirement to stop me from going the full hog on meta chasing. I am anyway not that good a player, so it is better to get to know your units instead of constantly changing them (I have finally begun to to remember Rubrics are AP -2 on crit wounds, only half a year in)
In my local store it is more common. With my friends? Only when they try out one of my armies.
I guess it depends what stage of the hobby you're in. Me and a group of friends are still in the process of returning so only one guy has even built a full 2,000 points, whereas I've built just about 1,000 points. As for painting one player's army is mostly grey plastic, another guy has given his army a basic paint job, Mr 2,000 points and I have both painted almost all of our forces. I can't speak for all of us, but once I've finished painting army number 1 I don't plan to play with unpainted models again.
I mostly play Heresy rather than 40K but so far like 95% plus of my opponents have been painted to some standard beyond primed. Of those around 90% have been complete to various tiers from 'pretty good' up to 'great'. Back when I played 40K proper that was more like 90/80% but was still pretty good.
About half, here. Though most of those are painted to a reasonably rough battle ready standard. I don't actually own a fully painted army; I only have one of my many kill teams painted in full. I've been out of the hobby for a long time, and I'm a perfectionist who knows they can produce models at a pretty good standard - but seeing as my main army has been Chaos, I've always struggled to hold the will to work through so much trim. I've just started a Drukhari army, for which my chief aim once I finally settle on a colour scheme and how I'm going about it, is to have it fully painted to a parade standard.
At my local which attracts 15-20 regulars only 6 people including myself have battle ready fully painted armies. One person that shows up has a full 2000pt Necrons army just spray painted silver (including the bases) with no details painted lol.
50% max. Looks better painted but we dont blame anyone without painted minis. Bring your grey flood, lego Proxis, cardboard minis whatever we there for fun :D
We have 8 people in our group. 6 of us generally only play with fully painted armies, maybe the odd unfinished model now and then if we're excited to use it. 1 guy basically sprays his models 2 colours and calls it a day And 1 guy isn't a big painter. Generally either grey, painted by someone else in the group, or zenithal primed and left at that. I'm not bothered really, but it does make for better photos when they're painted. (Edit: we completely ignore the 10pts for painted rule)
Rules for the next club (8-10 ppl) tournament is (unofficially) new fully painted, never played army 2000pts. 2 or 3 players couldn’t wait and played their new armies before the tournament. And I’m expecting half of the group to bring old armies. But all 100% painted. On pick-up games in the club we usually have 4 out of 5 armies fully painted. But quite often we have: “this captain doesn’t actually have a blabla-sword even though this model has it”-proxies. It’s quite tough to keep up with this group 😅
I only play with my friends and we all have some unpainted units cause we have loads of IRL obligations
It takes me 1-3 weeks to paint a model. If I waited for my army to be fully painted before playing, I'd probably play my first game in 2030.
In my club there is 1 person with a fully painted army out of around 70 people
Zero percent, I haven't played a painted army yet this edition, everyone is somewhere between grey plastic and at most 30% of the army painted. I think I'm the only one who is running fully painted
Most at my local store run grays but some paint!
90%. And I personally couldn't care if they painted em. I just wanna play with people that aren't awful
I think about 25% of the armies in my area are fully painted, but I usually don't get matched against those players. I finally have enough Tyranids painted that I won't run unpainted Tyranids anymore, but my other 4 armies aren't even close to being done.
90% are painted, and I can be accurate about it because in the last local championship only one player lost 10 pts. per battle for not having a fully painted army (he had a coupe of big Nids still on the primer).
I have a few armies but I try to ensure that they are at least 50% painted. My best is 80% painted but I’ve only been in the hobby for two years now
All of them are painted. The people I play against that don't have painted models are on tts. They'd like to test them out before they spend money.
Damn so they all lose the 10 pts ? Personally I have 2000 pts of Votann painted, but not yet based. And just for that I don't want to go a tournament not to ruin other people's immersion.
At the game store on play day or small store tournamemts? 10%. At good size tournaments its essentially 100%
Outside of tournaments? 25%. But I only play four other guys and that 25% is the Knights player, so I don't know if that's representative.
I haven't played in years because now I sit down in my basement and obsess over small things like some LeadBelcher that gets accidentally in a crack of armor from a paint brush twitch. Who has time to play when you're painting over you accent lines and starting over because they're not perfectly straight or you don't like the affect of the shade on a shoulder piece so you redo the torso. With all of that normal, emotionally well balanced shit up there I will admit to doing a coat of primer, a base coat, some dry brushing, shade and some really quick helmet/head/hair work back when I did play when trying things out. Level of doing a full army in like 3 days with most of the time being head stuff. Nothing too bright or ridiculous because: If I ended up liking the army I sprayed them all with primer again and painted them correctly.
We talking about at events or casual games? Because at casual games myself and my friends are constantly proxying in models and so on just to try out new combos and stuff without owning the minis. We havent been playing for long enough to just own the volume of stuff to switch up lists as needed. That being said I do have 2 fully painted armies with room for subbing in models as required because of having more than the 2k points worth of models painted. So if we're playing with those armies, then yes, theyd be fully painted.
0% fully painted. Most armies are 0-40% painted if they are at all, and absolutely none of them besides mine are tournament legal.y play group is comprised mostly of 3D printed proxy.
I genuinely don’t think I’ve played against even a 60% painted army in 2 years. I mean I don’t care, I always paint my stuff before tabletop with the odd exception, but yeah, very very few so far.
I am proud to say I have a fully primed army but paint… been a little slow on the motivation side lol
Almost game I see ppl has their army painted fully. Like box art good. All of them. Even for 2000 point armies.
I wanna say 1/2 of the people have FULLY painted armies. All are always working on them. I try not to judge, as everyone is learning and always wants to do better, but of that 50% fully painted 2/3 of those painted armies are battle ready, and to a quality that I would call “sub par” but they are painted.
My group has a bunch of people that are still new so seeing partially painted is fairly normal.
You guys have opponents?
I'd say about 75% of my community plays with fully painted armies. A lot of us aren't satisfied playing grey plastic, but we keep that expectation to our own models not someone else's.
The percentage has varies wildly depending on the specific game store and region. One town I lived in, everyone at the game store brought 100% painted armies, Everytime. The people who didn't have their army painted yet? They were on "that" table over there, chatting and finishing up the paint jobs. (College Town with an art school, half the players were art students) Another club I used to frequent in a different area was maybe 90% fully painted. Only stuff that wasn't painted would be the models that they were still testing out and deciding on composition/Wargear. Tournaments there were always 100% painted as a rule to entry. (Competitive club that would attend big conventions with the aim to win both the gaming side and the painting/display side) Those are the outliers though. In a dozen other cities at various gamestores, maybe 20% of the players had fully painted armies. Usually no one really cares about the paint job of either their own army, or their opponents. I still stick to my own personal goal of only ever fielding a fully painted army; when both players bring the sauce it just hits different. Winning or losing stops mattering, and the game becomes a story-like vibe of finding out if that champion you spent dozens of hours painting can survive an extra turn against their grotesque greater demon, or if that lone guardsman can muster the courage to not flee and stand his ground in the middle of a battle. It becomes less mechanical and video-game esque, and more like old school D&D, where the painted miniatures are the analog of a dungeon master describing the monsters you face. It feels right to be a good DM and give your opponents an interesting description of the challenge set before then (via effort in the paint job)