Closing words : 1st edition of the OWAC

Last summer I met with Chris, to play a game of Oldhammer. IT was then we discussed the idea of an Oldhammer painting challenge. I was searching for my Oldhammer mojo, with me working on different projects like Epic, skirmish Sc-Fi, etc. and I wanted it back. Some kind of peer pressure activity would surely help, right?

It also happens that I love painting challenges (I'm part of the Analogue Challenge every winter). You get to help one another, meet new gamers, gain inspiration and, most importantly, THEY ACTUALLY WORK. Yes, where motivation (and lazyness) is often the issue for us gamers, painting challenges are a proven remedy, and apparently nothing lights a fire under a miniature painter's ass more than competition (and facing the shame of his peers). 

Officially slated for a few gamers, 12 at most, it just snowballed from there and before I knew it we were 36 and I had to refuse people! It turned out like an international event, too, with people from Italy and Ireland all the way to Japan!

The beginnings were a lot of work, to explain the concept and all, but also because many members were "Facebook" people and never used Blogger. Starting a challenge with that many people wasn't easy. 

But then challengers started getting in a groove, and it ran more smoothly. It got real fun, even if challenging. And, if after the 2nd months I got a bit afraid of our drop-out rates, it stabilized after that and I'm real proud we got 26 challengers at the finish line.

So was it a success? Hell yeah it was. Beyond my wildest expectations, in fact. I love seeing the (now) OWAC veterans already planning their next challenge, thinking about their armies, etc. and I hope the challenge eventually becomes a special moment of the year for all involved. As I mentionned on Facebook, there's a guaranteed spot for every victors of the challenge next time around.

Now, I did take notes, and there's gooing to be a few changes for the next round, although nothing major. 

I want to thank Clarence for the logo, Thomas, Chris and Colin on the Admin jobs., and all of the challengers who participated in the challenge, whether you reached the end or not! This fun 6 months ride was possible because of all of you!

See you all in November, December or January (I haven't made up my mind yet), and get ready for round 2!

Keep painting,
Your benevolent Overlord
Iannick

Nathan's slann army

Finally got of my arse and took some pics of my slann army. I won't go through the points value of hat I painted as one could check my other posts for that. I will note that the pics include 4 troglodytes that I painted prior to the challenge and 2 slann and one lizardman that I've painted since. My plan over the next few months is to do a few figures a month to beef the force up to a level where I could use it in a game against some of the other warhammer armies that I have painted. Anyway here are the pics:

Me wearing my 1980s era Fitzroy jumper - fits the topic I reckon!

Ratwig's Close Out Report

This was my first successful painting challenge. I enjoyed it as I mostly had enough time to get my painting in prior to the monthly deadlines. Really only came close to mulligan once, on the last entry.

I painted up 1632 points of Dark Elves total. This ended up being higher than my original estimate of 1500 due to changes in two units, the second crossbow unit receiving extra troops, a character and repeater crossbows and the Doomsteeds receiving crossbows. If I add a magic user and magic items to the army it goes to 2000 points quick, and I’m still short forty warriors. They will be added next. I have enough figs for this army to do another challenge, we’ll see what I get painted before then.

And that concludes my portion of the Old World Army Challenge. Have a good day, I’m still testing a bottle of Jack for impurities…

Ratwig out