
Welcome to the second Facing the Unknown event, a community event to expand your collection by starting and learning a new army with the support of fellow participants.
The official start point is 1 November and it will run until the 29 February next year. If you are interested in taking part read on and sign up in this thread. Participants can join at any time from now right up till the end of the event.
Structure of the event
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.
For your initial Vow you will need to pick your faction and chose either 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 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.
The Vow
You are free to make your own vows as long as they contain the required elements in the summary below and if you are so inclined include a 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 the [Faction/army/other appropriate description] by 29 February 2020 by working on a [Patrol / Vanguard / Spearhead / Outrider / Super Heavy Auxiliary ] Detachment. (Optional: 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]).
The aim of the initial 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.
Once you have completed your Initial Vow you can make further Vows, picking any of the detachments.
When you make your first Vow it would also be helpful to state your eventual goal or aim with the 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 event; just have in mind something that you want to achieve with the army in the long term. The Goal is what you want to get out of the event and you may find that at the end of the event 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.
Mustering forces in the Age of Darkness and through the ages
If you intend to start and army for 30k you are more than welcome, the rules are essentially the same but when you pick your detachment your initial choice is an Allied Detachment or a Crusade Detachment. For subsequent vows you can pick any detachment that is available in any of the HH books.
While I am not familiar with the rules for Adeptus Titanicus, Aeronautica Imperialis, Blackstone Fortress or any of the other variant and sub games you are free to start a force in one of them. If you do, please pick a sensible and relevant force to vow. Such Vowes will not be counted as part of the event but are otherwise still a part on a for fun bases.
An army not for you
If, after completing your initial Vow, you find that the army does not work for you, then you may make a new 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 or subsequent time (i.e. you have already restarted at least once and want to restart a again) that you have a long think about why multiple armies are not working out for you. We are all here to help each other.
Summary
The Event runs from 1st November 2019 to 29th February 2020
The Initial Vow
Must do:
- Pick your faction
- Pick detachment – Patrol, Vanguard, Spearhead, Outrider, or Super Heavy Auxiliary
- State any long term Goal
- Let us know how and why you chose your new army
- Starting pictures
- Include a forfeit with yout vow
Must do:
- Pick any detachment (including the Auxiliary Support Detachment if you just want to add one unit at a time)
- 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 most important thing is to experience and learn a new army, everything else is secondary.
Q: I have played/collected this army/part/faction/theme before, can I still start it again.
A: While the idea of the event is to start a completely new army for long-term hobbies there may not be many or any army that we have not tried at one point or another, as such restarting an army that you have played before but not in a while is also acceptable. Armies change over time so while it may not be a ‘new’ army it will be a new experience. Ask yourself: Will this be a worthwhile experience and is there sufficient newness to follow the spirit of the event? If yes then welcome aboard. This is subjective and in your hands. An army might have the same name/faction as one you have played before but due to a selected theme or new rules it will now play sufficient different to be a new army in spirit.
Q I want to start army/faction/theme X but it is not our yet/ there are rumors it will be updated or there are new models coming.
A: As the event will go on for four months there is a chance that new armies (or an updates) can come out. I am only aware of the expected Sister of Battle but if the next part of Psychic Awakening is coming or more space marine supplements are reveled to be coming there may be other armies that fall in this category. Either way, you can vow for such unreleased armies and if they do not come out when expected, or if they are part of a limited release and you cannot get hold of it then you can revow without having finished your vow.
Q: Is there a banner/badge for participants? And will there be badges and medallions for sucsesfull completion.
A: Yes there is a Banner, please see below. There will be a badge if people want one, let me know and give me a few days. There will also be something along these lines for successful completions; I am still working on the details. Ask me again closer to February.

Q: I see that you have included a forfeit in your vow, do I need to do this?
You do not have to have a forfeit, the option is there for those of us that want to include one for any reason, such as having a price to failure to aid in motivation.
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: 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.
List of participants, their Factions, their Vows and their Detachments
01RTB01: Dark Eldar - Vow - Patrol
Arkhanist: Death Guard - Vow - Patrol
Azaiel: Orks - Vow - Patrol: Completed
Blackheart1223: Space Marine (Astral Claws) - Vow -Patrol
Custom Hero: Space Marine (Knights of Lydda (Custom)) - Vow - Patrol
Dreagher: Genestealer Cult - Vow - Patrol: Completed - Vow2 - Patrol: Completed (other part of vow)
FlackMonkey - Adepta Sororitas - Vow – Patrol
Focslain: Tau - Vow - Outrider: Completed - Vow 2 - Supreme Command Detachment: Completed
Gederas: Night Lords - Vow - Patrol: Completed - Vow 2 - Battalion: Completed
Heckus: Genestealer Cult - Vow - Outrider
Hymnblade: Black Templars - Vow - Patrol: Completed
Larkyn: Space Wolves - Vow - Patrol
Nusphigor: Chaos Space Marine (Night Lords)- Vow - Patrol
Overwhelming Odds: Grey Knights - Vow - Battalion
point_Zer0: Adeptus Titanicus - Vow - Super Heavy Auxiliary
Slave to Darkness: Imperial Guard - Vow - Vanguard
TrawlingCleaner: Death Guard - Vow - Patrol
Trokair: Adepta Sororitas - Vow - Patrol: Completed
Vosyvo - Adepta Sororitas -Vow - Patrol: Completed (additional)
Zephaniah Adriyen: Raven Guard - Vow - Patrol (Changed to Spearhead) + Supreme Command Detachment: Completed
Edit: I was going to have the list of participants as a separate post to make it easier to reference, use and update but when I tried to post it as a separate post it just merged with this initial post.
Edited by Trokair, 01 March 2020 - 01:54 PM.