Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I run a 40k tournament every month at my FLGS and Points are awarded for painting. This score is always an all or nothing type of deal. The way I do it is, I ask my self: "Is the whole army painted with at least 3 basecoat colors?" Yes=5 pts No=0pts, and "Is the whole army Based?" yes=5 pts no=0pts. I feel this is the best way to give credit to people who take the time to paint their armies. There is no ambiguity in the scoring and functionally only serves as a tie breaker to separate out the top two or three players. I have only ever gotten 1 complaint about the system and that was from some one who had a fully painted army except for one squad and thusly did not get the points for having a fully painted army.

If a more stringent approach were to be used I would have to include a checklist or at least some criteria as to how I was coming up with the score. If only to show people that I am not just pulling these scores out of thin air to help certain people win.

AdeptArtificer wrote:While this may make a lot of players happy what about the players that spend the time to be exceptional? They get 10pts but their work is just as good as the player that just spray painted three colors and ran it through some sand? That doesn't seem fair to the player that goes above and beyond. Check lists are fine so long as there is room for judge's descretion. Did you do this? 1-5 points. Did you do that/ 1-5 points. This allows for the quality of execution and rewards those that go the extra mile.

My opinion of course after running four events.

I like to really make my armies stand out when I play, but after going to literally dozens of tournaments that either have very biased paint scores or none at all, I tried to come up with a system that is fair and encourages people to make an attempt at painting. I don't know about where you play but near me way too many people just buy and assemble their miniatures and use them. I would ask why this was and the answer was almost always "I can't paint very well so I don't try" or something to that effect. So with this system I give a solid reward to people who at least try to get their whole army painted. Usually the people who go out of their way to have a very pretty army aren't doing it just to get a painting score at a tournament so I don't worry about them too much.