Would you play against a 3D printed army ?
Aug 25, 2020 4:06:14 GMT
Jbizzy, mattblowers, and 1 more like this
Post by yoritomo on Aug 25, 2020 4:06:14 GMT
Yeah, I'm not touching this. There are several walls of text that I will not go through. I'd be here all day if I did. Besides, my corgi is wagging his little bunny but, begging for attention.
I will say this; once you get past the perception that 3D printing models is easy and it's not casting by other means then you are basically playing with proxy models or 3rd party models. It has been my experience that there are 3 reasons people play with proxy or 3rd party models:
1) They are cheap. They don't want to pay full price for Games Workshop models. I used to be harder on these people, but I have noticed that as players play the game they grow out of this. Either they are in school or want to get a large army quickly. But once they are out of school or have a base army they tend to begin to buy actual Games Workshop stuff. These people become fine upstanding members of the gaming community given enough time.
2) They want models that are visually different than what Games Workshop offers. This can be a theme army, or they just like the look of someone else's minis better. These people take pride in their army and it shows. I generally enjoy playing these people because they embrace the whole aspect of the hobby and not just winning games (though they are usually pretty good players as well).
3) They are trying to get an edge. I'm not talking about someone who proxies a unit before he buys it; I'm talking about people who try to keep up with the meta but don't want to spend the money on new units because they know the meta will change. They also tend to have unpainted or unfinished models. I never like playing these guys because they always seem to be try hards who miss read the rules in their favor.
So if you go back and read my first post, you'll see that whether or not I would play a 3D printed army has very little to do with the actual 3D printed models. Are they jerks? Then no, I wouldn't play them and the 3D printed models are just an excuse. Model quality? I'd play them, but if it didn't improve then I'd eventually stop. A good member of the gaming community tries to improve his army. If you don't improve a poor army then you aren't trying to be a good member of the gaming community, and that's not a person I would enjoy playing. Are they using their 3D printer to try and power game? I don't enjoy playing power gamers, so no, I would not play against that 3D printed army if I could.
Killercroc asked where the line is. There is no line. That is because your army is a reflection of you. What you hold dear you put into your models. If you just want to play the game I can tell by how you built your models and what kind of painting you did. If you enjoy customizing and painting I can tell by the poses of your models and the bits you added to them; or the subtle techniques you used to paint them. I can see effort and I can appreciate that effort. That is what sets apart a good custom mini versus a cheap knock off.
And because we're talking about proxies, I thought I'd better throw this in here
I will say this; once you get past the perception that 3D printing models is easy and it's not casting by other means then you are basically playing with proxy models or 3rd party models. It has been my experience that there are 3 reasons people play with proxy or 3rd party models:
1) They are cheap. They don't want to pay full price for Games Workshop models. I used to be harder on these people, but I have noticed that as players play the game they grow out of this. Either they are in school or want to get a large army quickly. But once they are out of school or have a base army they tend to begin to buy actual Games Workshop stuff. These people become fine upstanding members of the gaming community given enough time.
2) They want models that are visually different than what Games Workshop offers. This can be a theme army, or they just like the look of someone else's minis better. These people take pride in their army and it shows. I generally enjoy playing these people because they embrace the whole aspect of the hobby and not just winning games (though they are usually pretty good players as well).
3) They are trying to get an edge. I'm not talking about someone who proxies a unit before he buys it; I'm talking about people who try to keep up with the meta but don't want to spend the money on new units because they know the meta will change. They also tend to have unpainted or unfinished models. I never like playing these guys because they always seem to be try hards who miss read the rules in their favor.
So if you go back and read my first post, you'll see that whether or not I would play a 3D printed army has very little to do with the actual 3D printed models. Are they jerks? Then no, I wouldn't play them and the 3D printed models are just an excuse. Model quality? I'd play them, but if it didn't improve then I'd eventually stop. A good member of the gaming community tries to improve his army. If you don't improve a poor army then you aren't trying to be a good member of the gaming community, and that's not a person I would enjoy playing. Are they using their 3D printer to try and power game? I don't enjoy playing power gamers, so no, I would not play against that 3D printed army if I could.
Killercroc asked where the line is. There is no line. That is because your army is a reflection of you. What you hold dear you put into your models. If you just want to play the game I can tell by how you built your models and what kind of painting you did. If you enjoy customizing and painting I can tell by the poses of your models and the bits you added to them; or the subtle techniques you used to paint them. I can see effort and I can appreciate that effort. That is what sets apart a good custom mini versus a cheap knock off.
And because we're talking about proxies, I thought I'd better throw this in here