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Hi guys,
I'm finally getting into a club, so now I want to play only with what I painted (I think it is a good way to motive myself).
A new way to do the hobby, more seriously, perhaps.
I'm curious to know, is it usual to play with an unfinished army, just as I used to do with my friends, or not ?
Personnally, I never finished my Space Marines army because I began a new army (IG), and then began another one (30k). I paint every week, but I didn't use to focus on one of my 3 armies, so none of them was being painted very quicly.
This is why I still have some marines to paint, after all these years.

I try to play with a fully painted army. Sometimes I'll have partially painted stuff on the table for whatever I have in the works, but it makes me sad whenever I do so.

 Yarium wrote:
I try to play with a fully painted army. Sometimes I'll have partially painted stuff on the table for whatever I have in the works, but it makes me sad whenever I do so.

This.
I always aspire to put down painted models.

Makes me feel a bit elitist and a bit grumpy if people cannot be bothered to do the same to be honest.
Friend of mine now is putting down a torso-less Defiler counts as Soulgrinder for 2 years now... It's about time I refuse to play an even unassembled model.

Two years !That's a lot of time^^

If I bring anything unpainted, you can bet after the game it's going right on my painting table to be finished in time for my next game. I always hope the other guy puts down a painted army, but I don't judge them if they don't. Personally I try to play with a wholly painted army every time.

In my experience it's very unusual for club players to use unpainted figures.

I don't want to reignite the debate about it, though. Certainly some people are more accepting of grey armies.

I play with at least 90% painted models and never bare plastic (they at least get a primer before seeing the field) unless it's a horde army. Then it's gonna be a while.

always painted without compromise.

With our local gaming club its play with what you have, painted or otherwise. At the local game store I always only use the armies I have painted. Sadly, in my area the hobby takes a back seat to all the Computer versions, so only two of our 6-7 regulars take any time ion the hobby side (painting modeling converting). I suspect that this is far more normal than we want to think. Remember, places like Dakka attract the more serious players and hobbyists, so polls and such on these sites can be skewed. I can't blame them either. Painting, converting etc is time consuming, and not their real interest in the game.
In counter, the two serious players have multiple 2k plus point armies converted and painted...

If it’s not painted, it’s not on the table*

(I did play some unpainted Eldar in an escalation league. I just couldn’t paint as fast as we were adding points)

But besides that one exception, I only field pained models, and I keep as close to WYSWYG as I can.

Only playing painted is actually a good motivator to spend more time at the bench. I want to field that sternguard squad? Better get cracking with the brush. Envisioning the carnage they can cause on the table helps me though the doldrums of motivation getting paint down.

I prefer to face off against other painted armies. Part of my enjoyment of the game is watching two well painted armies clash. But I’ll play against anyone, painted or not.

Painted always. If it is a small skirmish game and we run into a situation where we need a specific figure we'll proxy or if one is on the painting bench primed we'll use it. That's rare.

My take on it is rather simple. Miniature wargaming is about putting painted models onto a table filled with nice scenery to create a visual event through which we game. My opinion is that your army is your contribution to a greater whole.

I see it as a bit of a common courtesy that I put on a great table/game/army to better the enjoyment and spectacle of the game. It's a small sign of respect for my opponent, ie. "Hey I bothered putting time and effort into this collaborative process...".

Better than just having greys. But if you must, keep them grey. But most gw's i went to said you arn't allowed to play with greys....

I currently don't play with a fully painted army, but it's all WIP. But my friends and I just started this year, so I feel like that's perfectly valid. We all are working toward painted and WYSIWYG, and it's a process, and we want to play games in the meantime.

It helps that the nearest GW and our LGS don't require paint to play, so we still get to practice with actual terrain.

My policy is to play with fully painted armies only.

Frankly, I haven't applied this policy to my AoS games and to the BoC Marines in our 30k games.

 Yarium wrote:
I try to play with a fully painted army. Sometimes I'll have partially painted stuff on the table for whatever I have in the works, but it makes me sad whenever I do so.

This.

Too bad it means I have crapload of models that have yet to see use...Stupid impulse purchaces!

edit: As a side note btw as long as there's at least visible progress in painting I don't mind unpainted that much. Armies take time to paint so do I prefer to wait months before first game? Not really.

But as long as there's units getting painted fair enough.

I play allmost only painted stuff. Because it looks better.

I only play painted models, even if its, to my own detriment.
Not finished my SM Devastators...
Facing IG tank formation...
Tough gak. Work with what you have.
Only thing I let slide on is if I've not quite based them completely as I tend to do this last and in bulk... as in 30+ models at a time.

It's a bit of a self imposed punishment for not being proactive enough with painting and a good motivator to pick up that brush.
I only apply this rule to myself though and won't stop someone playing with unpainted figures... I just do the very Christian thing of internalising my burning hatred of their pitiless, waste of space "army".

I try to field fully painted armies. I will see if I can snag some pics at tonight's game!

My army is mostly painted. I do try to only field painted models even if those models aren't finished. I have a lot left to do to consider all my models finished.

For my own army I try to get as much painted as possible, if it has to be used unpainted then I will make sure it's done to a degree by my next game.
For my opponent I don't really mind. Painting takes a lot of time and for many it's more of a chore and they'd rather just play. I'd obviously prefer it if everything was painted and we had a fully decked out table full of amazing scenery but it rarely happens that way.

Try to, unless I get something I have to play with immediately. I don't really care if my opponent does or doesn't.

as a guy whose more into building and playing, not painting, i dont care if mine or my opponent has a painted army. recently our clubs leagues and tournaments have started being full painted only or your opponent gets prefered enemy vs the unpainted models which is a ridiculous advantage and i stopped playing till my army was painted.

Got about 4k painted on commission by a guy at my club, now when i play against guys with unpainted armies or armies painted like gak that were the ones pushing for the prefered enemy rules, i makesure to make some good natured jokes about the poor quality of the paint jobs.

I want to but i always end up stripping and redoing them at like 90% completion

Its like a greek tragedy or something.

I prefer to play with a fully painted and based army but , unfortunately, it rarely happens. I usually buy an army big enough to play games and paint a few models then get a bit overwhelmed at what I have left to paint and give up. I have, however, started only buying a squad at a time and making sure I finish painting it before I buy anything else for that army.

I play wit painted and unpainted models.
Currently, all my dark eldar are unpainted, and about half my harlequins are painted, but I still have fun playing them.

I do personally but I don't really care if others do as well. It's always nice to see a beautifully-painted fluff-friendly army but at the same time I'm much more about the people I'm playing with than I am about whether they properly modelled that Assault Cannon or if their paint-scheme properly reflects the 5th Company of the Spess Rehvens or whatever.

I only play to show off my painting so no greys on the table from me. I don't touch my models without gloves till they are fully painted and sealed so no half painted models from me either. I won't refuse a game against a grey army of doom but I doubt I'll be able to hide my smile though. If I happen to ever run out of orks to paint I might even offer to paint those greys.

I use tourney's to motivate myself. It sets deadlines for myself that I have to meet, and the reward is showing up at the event with a shiny, painted army.

I'm a big lover of the game itself, despite everything and socializing. So I don't let the fact that my army may not be 100% painted yet stop me from playing a game if the option is there for me. Having fully painted armies does allow players to earn brownie points with each other with passing compliments too.

Of course the end goal is to paint everything, but not having a fully painted army (or if my opponent's army is yet to be painted) detract from the game for me, personally.

It goes without saying that both people having a fully painted army makes for a much more optically pleasant experience.

I play with fully painted armies.

I find it visually more appealing and I find it easier to identify what a model is supposed to represent.

You don't need to jump straight into 1500 point games either, you can play smaller games if you have a limited number of models available.