Okay guys just some thoughts about the psychology of figure painting

Painted armies do better

Well this is possibly true , think about it your foe deploys his rag tag band bits failing off various paint jobs showing and you deploy a lovely army

first the impact on your foe, "hmm thats well painted , this guy knows what hes doing and plays alot" you have fired the first shot against his morale before any dice are rolled

You survey your army , beaming with pride , it looks the business, you feel more confident, with your confidence increased and proud of your army you will be bolder more decisive (always a good thing with eldar) your concentration level improves, you will act not react

Now lets consider some sneaky stuff

if its cr*p on the battlefield paint it well

have you a unit thats cannon fodder? (as much as any unit is in an eldar army) have you a unit you want the enemy to waste time assaulting shooting at ? then paint it well, good paint job and conversions will draw the enemy players eye , also you will get the table hangers on looking , asking to pick up peices all this will focus more of your foes attention on this unit. ever thought of painting your guardians much brighter than the rest of your army? (i once saw abirght orange marine army it won a lot )

If its sneaky paint it sneaky

okay we all have units we dont want the enemy to target or notice till the last minute and surprisingly i have seen players forget about such units with a good camo scheme as they focus on the bright units above. Pathfinders , striking scorpions etc units which inflitrate or use cover , painted well it is easy for a foe to glance at them and not realise how many , or forget about them in the heat of battle or more importantly their shooting phase. example camo your vypers or war walkers using dull shades and brightly colour tougher tanks ,

First among equals

want to hide your autarch among a unit? then paint him to match that unit blended in with the units paint scheme they can often be overlooked till its too late (even missed the power fist hidden in the guard unit?)

Scary Spice

okay lets now assume you have some real surprise units or things that have a great psychological impact a good paint job can max the fear, 2 examples of this are wraithlords and swooping hawk. By going to town on the paint jobs for these you maximise their impact , using banners etc when they arrive they are sure to get your foes attention, play on their impact, trust me a spectaculr painted hawk unit drops in behind his lines hes going to hit it with everything hes got drawing fire away from else where, so use paint jobs to draw fire at tougher units

Haha, good article! I definitely believe a lot of this stuff. I know I've been liable to forgetting about a unit if it is only primed black while the majority of the army is painted.

Good job Rain. Much consideration is being caused by this. I nominate this for the Craftworld Wiki... or newsletter...

Sorry... short attention span :unsure:

I like it! :D

You wouldn't think such things would work, because you have a birds eye view of the battle field and can see everything. But the paint job really does have a psychological impact on your force. To many times have I stared at my ownrag tag unpainted army and compared it to my oponents shining warriors...

Makes me feel like painting!

Cal

haha, it made me go paint. Well I spray painted a base coat and began painting my custom long las. >= ), It's for my good Tanith friend Mad Sniper Larkin.

Calaith Posted on Jan 3 2007, 09:42 AM

:D Well what can I say :P

Calaith Posted on Jan 3 2007, 09:42 AM

You'd be surprised Cal. It can be so easy to overlook certain, usually unpainted units. Sure, it might not happen often, but its a bugger when it does.

Oh well, I'm nearing completion of my Guard (46 more models to paint!), and I've always begrudged the fact that msot games I've played with them so far have been unpainted (maybe thats my problem when facing your crons Cal :D ). I think over the next two days I'll make a real push to finish them, and then I can start on repainting my Eldar forces....

...46..I would hate to be your painting hand..Sounds like my Tau buddy who had a Kroot squad, a devil fish, and a Sky Ray to paint..THEN he got a battle force and now has bout..30-50 more to paint..He never will paint them..heh

Its always daunting when theres a large number of mini's. Especially the Guard. My own is over 200 troops... yet its the tanks that alwasy get me... <_<

Course i was contemplating a hoarde Dark Eldar army... but then i remembered going through and painting my Guard... :blink:

Its not so bad if you don't paint them all individually... like me... :lol:

*On topic*
Painting definately has a MAJOR impact in wargaming, but only against new or young players. Hear me out on this. I have played against some players that left my army a dribbiling wreck on the field, and not because of poor army choice or bad rolling, he just knew how to play a hell of a lot better than me. My army (my crons) looks fairly good, he's army was an unprimed barely glued together (lets just say lots of blu-tac was involved!) Night lords army.

The game started, and by the end of the 4th turn he had handed my rear end to me on a plate. I actually tried some psych on him too, like hiding a unit of warriors behind my lith, didnt work. 1st turn he blew up said lith, realised that the warriors behind were not an immediate threat, and so ignored them for the 1st half of the game.

*Off topic*

Currently my cron army is about a 70% un based, around 20 odd troops are not even primed, another 20 odd are still needing to be "finalised", one C'tan is needing to be repainted (Nightbringer) and the other is in the middle stages of being repainted to match my army more. My lith is almost finshed, but i've been saying that know for god knows how long! Then there are around 10 troops for my death guard army that need finishing off.

But overall, not so bad ;)

Put it in the Wiki!

Camo-coloured theory is something I've heard before, but I believe it works. Good work.

thanks guys and yes krazyboris it isnt a huge edge vs experienced players but sometimes it has a subtle effect on even the best of us

Yes i totally agree, . . . . i have seen it happen before , on an all black table with black scenery a predominently bright yellow imperial fists army with just a single black squad was incredibly effective, the black squad slipping through cover un-noticed.

brak

I'm pretty superstitious about painted models. I just can't place an unpainted unit on the table! On top of that, if one of my units or characters does poorly in games too often, I'll strip it and repaint it. Lucklily Dark Eldar are easy and fun to paint. Black base coat and paint the head, shoulders, arm gloves and boots. After that the more you paint, the better the model looks.
Ernest

i sometimes fall into that trap myself when i get tired or just lazy. (if i cant see or reach an enemy unit from the comfort of my chair it isn't a threat :lol: :lol: )
And id have to agree when playing with a fully painted army,no matter what, it gives you a confidence boost.

Watch youre opponent shooting at the white Falcon while hes forgeting that 2 Black Wraithlords are closing in. I seen my opponents falling for that trick when i used it myself.

yes there is also the other slightly cheesy tactic that i use.
When im playing a new player ill chat a bit and get him relaxed and ask him what his "favourite/best painted" unit is.

Then destroy it as quickly as i can. The psychological blow at losing their most prized unit can often be enough to win the game. even if tactically the unit was only mediocre.

Because there is nothing more annoying than spending a month painting up a new unit. It looks good, its your best effort yet and it dies to the man by turn 2.