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Facing the Unknown
Facing the Unknown is going to be a community event from now until the end of the year.
The goal, at its most simple, is to start a new army.
Specifically New in that is not an army or faction that you have ever collected or played before. This is your chance to learn and collect an army you always fancied the idea of but never got round to, or a faction that is far removed from your current army in flavor or play style.
I want the emphasis to be on the experience of trying something new, learning the new army and seeing where this takes you.
I would also ask fellow participants to offer advice to each other if they have experience with an army another is learning.
Ideally New in this context should be completely and utterly New. That said, as someone who has been a hobbyist for a long time and have collect multiple armies and thought or dabbled about others there is a somewhat limited supply of New. As such the exact spirit of Newness in your project will be for you to judge, the importance is that we all try.
The event will consist of several vowes and you must complete the first before you can proceed to the next. You can start at any time, as it is never to late to try a new army, but bear in mind that the event will end with the closing of the year.
The Vows
As you may not know what units you want to start with, or even the full extent of your options, rather than vowing individual units your vow will be at the detachment level. This leaves you free to work out what you want as you learn about your new army. Completions can be claimed when you have filled the minimum requirement of the chosen detachment. You are free to fill out the detachment as much as you want but you cannot exceed your chosen detachment capacity for the vow.
The standard of the models needs to be tabletop ready. However I will leave it up to you when you consider this to be the case. Our abilities are all different and many of us are passable but not expert painters.
Completion must have pictures to show your progress. Starting pictures are not required as you may not know what you want to build when you start or change your mind as time progress. Obviously starting and progress pictures will be much appreciated.
Progress should be at least monthly. Just show what you have done or learned even if not a lot has happened.
The detachment choices are for this event only and you are free to play your army however you want or works. You cannot use units you completed in this event for another vow unless it is an upgrade vow rather than a vow which ads a detachment. For example, when expanding from Patrol to Battalion you can (and probably should) use the units you have already completed to go towards filling the Battalion. However if you started with a Vanguard and have added a Spearhead then you have two detachments and they cannot share completed units.
Learning Vow
This is the first Vow you will need to make, in it you will need to pick your faction and take the initial steps on this road. Your detachment for this will be a Patrol Detachment, or if the flavor and form of your army works better any one of the following: Vanguard, Spearhead, Outrider, and Super Heavy Auxiliary. For example a bike themed army would pick Outrider and a tank company would pick Spearhead.
The aim of the learning vow is to get your codex/index, familiarize yourself with it and paint up a few units, enough to start having a few small games and learn how they play.
The faction you pick will be the only faction you can work on for the rest of the event, so no allies later on. That said I am aware that several of the smaller factions like Inquisitors cannot form functioning armies, in such cases this rule does not apply and instead you have to stay within the spirit of the faction in the lore. If in doubt ask me.
You also need to state your eventual goal or aim with this army. This is where you think you want to go, or what point level or power level you want to reach. You do not have to reach this goal with the Learning Vow, or any of the subsequent vows. The Goal is what you want to get out of the event and you may find that at the end of the year your goals have changed. The stating of the Goal is as much for you to see how you develop and grow this army as it is for others to see what you are aiming for and help if they can.
The Growth Vow
In this vow you need to expand your detachment to a Battalion or Brigade, your choice which, or pick a second detachment from the following: Vanguard, Spearhead, Outrider, Air Wing, Supreme Command or Super Heavy Auxiliary.
If your Learning Vow was a Super Heavy Auxiliary then you can instead expand it to a Super Heavy.
The aim of this Vow is to expand on what you have learned and done so far, in the direction you feel is right for you.
Once you have completed the Growth Vow you can chose to do another if you want, it must expand your existing detachment to a larger one or add a detachment from the list above. You can repeat this as often as you want provided each previous one is completed.
The Emergency Vow
As you get to know your new army, maybe even play a few games you may find that there is something lacking. This vow can be taken at any time after you completed the Learning Vow, and you can do it more than once even while another vow is outstanding. You get one Auxiliary Support Detachment, that is to say any one unit from your faction. The aim of this is to plug a weakness in your army up to this point without expanding or adding the larger detachments. Advice from fellow participants would be great for anybody making an Emergency vow.
The unit you completed for an emergency vow can be used towards another detacment once the Emergency vow is complete. It is only a Auxiliary Support Detachment while you are woking on it.
Experience is a good teacher, not a kind one.
You cannot fail the event if you have made or completed your learning vow but done nothing else. The aim is to try a New army and you may find that it just is not for you. As such not completing the Learning Vow by the end of the year, or completing it but going no further is not a failure.
All other uncompleted Vows by the 31st December 2018 will constitute failure and a debt of honour will be owed.
An army not for you (added 9th August)
If, after completing your Learning Vow, you find that the army does not work for you, then you may make a new Learning Vow for a new army. However, to do so you should, to the best of your ability, share what you have learned about the first army and explain why it did not work out for you.
I would ask that if you want to evoke this rule a second time (so you have already restarted once and want to restart a second time) that you have a long think about why multiple armies are not working out for you. We are all here to help each other.
The Vow
You are free to make your own vows as long as they contain the required elements in the summary below and your debt of honour should you fail. Pick your own forfeit, whatever you feel is suitable.
Example:
I, [name], Vow to face the unknown and will [learn about / grow] the [Faction/army/other appropriate description] by the end of the year by working [on / to expand to / adding] a [Patrol / Vanguard / Spearhead / Outrider / Super Heavy Auxiliary / Battalion / Brigade / Air Wing / Supreme Command / Super Heavy] Detachment. Failure is not acceptable, but should I suffer it I will owe a debt of honour to my fellow participants and I will [insert your forfeit].
Summary
Learning Vow
Must do:
- Pick your faction
- Pick detachment – Patrol, Vanguard, Spearhead, Outrider, or Super Heavy Auxiliary
- State long term Goal
Optional extra:
Let us know how and why you chose your new army
Starting pictures
Growth Vow
Must do:
- Expand one of your current detachments to a larger one or pick an additional one from: Vanguard, Spearhead, Outrider, Air Wing, Supreme Command or Super Heavy Auxiliary
Optional extra:
Let us know what you have learned so far and what you hope the new additions will bring to your army. Are you moving towards your long term Goal or has it changed?
The Emergency Vow
Must do:
- Auxiliary Support Detachment- State the role you need to fill and what unit you think is going to fill that role.
The unit you chose is not final and you can change your choice if another unit better fulfils the roll you need it to fill once you have had some advice or thought about it more.
List of participants, their Factions, their Vows and their Detachments
Brother Argent – Eldar – Learning Vow – Patrol Detachment
Chaplain Dosjetka – Black Templar – Learning Vow – Patrol Detachment
Dragonlover – Genestealer Cult – Learning Vow (Completed)– Patrol Detachment
Gederas – Deathwatch – Learning Vow (Completed)– Patrol Detachment
Focslain – Adeptus Mechanicus – Learning Vow (Completed)– Patrol Detachment
Greenz – Death Guard – Learning Vow – Patrol Detachment
Grieux – Space Wolves – Learning Vow – Vanguard Detachment
HCMistborn – Black Legion – Learning Vow – Vanguard Detachment
Larkyn – Dark Eldar – Learning Vow – Patrol Detachment
Lhorke The First – Crimson Fists – Learning Vow – Patrol Detachment
Lionofjuda – Imperial Fists – Learning Vow – Patrol Detachment
Lokkorex - Solar Auxilia/Tempestus Scions – Learning Vow (Completed)– Patrol Detachment
Lord Commander Eidolon – Thousand Sons – Learning Vow – Patrol Detachment
MrBadweed – Elder/Ynnari – Learning Vow – Vanguard Detachment
Oldest – Primaris –Learning Vow – Patrol Detachment
Ὀσυμανδύας – Imperial Agents – Learning Vow – Vanguard Detachment
Skidman – Iron Warriors – Learning Vow – Vanguard Detachment
TheBlackPumpkin – Emperor’s Children – Learning Vow – Patrol Detachment
the ergonomic enginseer – Iron Hands – Learning Vow (Completed)– Patrol Detachment
.Torch. – Adeptus Custodes – Learning Vow (Completed) – Patrol Detachment
TrawlingCleaner – Sons of Orar : Word Bearers – Learning Vow (Completed) : Lerning Vow 2 – Patrol Detachment
Trokair – Deathwatch – Learning Vow (Completed) : Growth Vow (Completed)– Patrol --> Battalion Detachment -- Emergency Vow! (Completed)
FAQ and other things
I have tried to think of everything, but I will have missed things, not clarified or otherwise not acounted for every senario. that is what the FAQ is for and I will add to it as and when. If you have a question ask.
The most important thing is to experiance and learn a new army, everything else is secondery.
Q: I have already started a New army and painted a few models, can I still join?
A: You can, as long as you feel that you are still in the initial stages of starting the army. There is no time limit on this, so if you started an army a few years ago but never got past a few models and have not done anything with it since then that is fine.
Q: Can AoD armies take part?
A: Yes, as long as they are new to you. Causion is advised if you have one Legion force and want to collect another that is similar, but the same applies to any faction that has strong similarities/ties to another faction. What counts when you select an army is that it is New to you and you will have a New experience in collecting it. You define the Newness.
Q: I see that your forfeit is a donation to the B&C, do I need to do this?
A: No, I do not expect and would never ask for you spend your money in any way that you are not happy with. So if you cannot or do not want to have a donation as a forfeit then that is fine. You pick the forfeit after all, so it is something that you will need to be content with should you fail. The forfeit can serve as a motivator (as in you don’t want to do that so let’s work hard so it does not come to it) or as penance (I for example will lose hobby budget should I fail so that I cannot just by new things/go out and must instead try to finish, that the B&C benefits is just a positive side effect (as I would probably have donated some unspent hobby budget anyway, this way it will just be a bit more.)
Q: I want to build/paint/convert a model/models for the army theme but there is no data sheet for it in my army?
A: You are free to build and paint them; you just won’t be able to use them to fill a slot in a detachment.
That said Count as is fine as long it is clear what the conversion is supposed to represent and is recognizable as the unit/equipment on the datasheet.
So if for example you are building a Kill Team for the army then go ahead, you may be able to find a way to make it into a legal unit and fill a slot in a detachment but if not then you have still added to and learned something about your army.
Edited by Trokair, 05 January 2019 - 09:26 PM.
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