Appearance Judging

Painted armies are required. Unpainted models must be removed from the tabletop. Armies that have not been painted by the player will not be eligible for painting awards, but will still receive a score.

Models must be What You See Is What You Get. Units with equipment options must contain at least 50% of the unit with the correct weapon options.

Proxy, stand-in, counts-as, and other non-standard models will be evaluated by the tournament organizers to determine if they are acceptable. If the Tournament Organizers deem them to be unacceptable, players will be asked to remove them from play. If you think that an opponent or a Tournament Organizer might have any doubt as to whether your model is appropriate for a game of Warhammer, you should email the Tournament Organizers in advance of submitting your army list.

This does NOT mean that you cannot use alternative models. Just that they must accurately represent the unit in question.  We take appearance seriously so please take them seriously with us.

Each army will be scored into one of 5 tiers.  Winners for appearance awards will be chosen from top category.  A general breakdown for each category with examples will be added to this site at a later date.  Past the general categorization the judges will assign bonus points (up to +5) as they see fit for something that stands out.

Tier 0 – 0 points

This army is barely meeting the criteria for being “painted”.  Yes we’ll let you play with it, but try putting some effort in next time.  Bases might only be painted, not textured.

Tier 1 – 15 points

This army is painted to a pretty reasonable level.  All of the parts of the model have color, and mostly in the right places!  No expectations for shading or highlighting.  It’s just a basic paint job.  Bases are textured somehow.

Tier 2 – 30 points

This army has some elements that bring it above Tier 1.  Shades or highlights show some depth on the model.  Overall neat appearance, not sloppy.  Most armies will score in this category.

Tier 3 – 40 points

This army has some special attention paid to it.  Perhaps it has some freehand, layered highlights, blending, neat conversions and unit fillers or cool basing.

Tier 4 – 45 points

This army has caught the judge’s eye and might be in the running for a Best Appearance award.  It definitely has clean layering or blending, probably some freehand, a well-executed color scheme and well done details like belt potions, scroll work, object source lighting, and stuff like that.

 

Notes

Overall, the idea is that you are awarded points based on how your opponents get to experience playing against your army.  It’s not a gauge of skill or effort.

Display boards are nice and we love them, but we’ll be looking mostly at the models for appearance scores.  Display boards will contribute more to a bonus point than a general categorization.

 

One reply on “Appearance Judging”

Is there somewhere or someone I can talk to in order to get a unit pre-approved before I bring it to the event? Like say the WYSIWYG might be in question, I just want to know it’s in order before I show up.

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