Games Workshop has reversed rules changes to its Armies on Parade army painting contest which would have prevented entrants from combining parts from both Warhammer fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 model kits in the same submission. Fans were disappointed when they discovered the update to the rules and took to social media to voice their displeasure.
Armies on Parade is probably Games Workshop’s most popular painting competition, despite the substantial commitment of time and money it requires. As the name suggests, the goal is to build a coherent army for Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar, or any of Games Workshop’s current game systems, plus a customised display board to parade it on. The parade happens in local Warhammer stores between July and October, and this year there will be an online exhibition on November 13.
Games Workshop announced this year’s competition on January 17. Around January 29 fans noticed that the Frequently Asked Questions for the contest had put new restrictions on entries. While it was permissible to mix and match components from multiple Warhammer 40k factions, and even bring in parts from its sister game Necromunda, you couldn’t blend Age of Sigmar components with 40k model kits, and visa versa.
The response among fans wasn’t positive. Former Warhammer TV presenter and founder of Rogue Hobbies Louise Sugden tweeted: “This means that both of my gold armies on parade entries wouldn’t be allowed anymore”. She followed up by pointing out that fellow former presenter and YouTuber Chris Peach’s popular Ventrilian Nobles Astra Militarum conversion would also be disallowed.
A post in the r/Warhammer subreddit, calling the change “a phenomenally stupid rule and will really impact the creativity of people”, received 1,000 upvotes and 400 comments. Prolific YouTuber KiriothTV quickly produced an oped video decrying the change:
As Kirioth points out, some of this year’s winning entries for Armies on Parade would also be ineligible under the new rules. Ricki Smith’s Orruk Warclans army, which took third place in the ‘Individual’ category, and Eddie and Andrew’s Aeldari and Imperial Knights, which were first and third in the ‘Staff’ category respectively, all combine Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40k components.
The fans most likely to be affected by the change to the competition were experienced and committed hobbyists, the ones willing to buy Warhammer: The Old World kits to get the perfect parts for their custom Space Marine chapter. They’re influencers, some of them capital “I” social media influencers, others simply influential members of their local community.
These are the fans that give the most value to Games Workshop when they participate in this kind of contest – and have the most ability to create bad press when they’re disgruntled.
As of January 30, the offending sentence had been removed from the Armies on Parade FAQ section of the Citadel Color website. The FAQ now states that participants can mix and match components from different game worlds in their models, but can’t produce a display with complete models from multiple settings.
Conceivably, the paragraph banning cross-universe model conversions was the result of a miscommunication between the team running the competition and the team writing the the FAQs up on the website, or the wrong version of a file being published. We haven’t seen screen-captures of the terms and conditions with the same restrictions as the FAQ, for example.
But there are limits on some conversions in Games Workshop competitions. The firm has never permitted fans to combine components from the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game and the various Warhammer games in any of its painting contests. This is most likely a condition of the licensing agreement with New Line films, intended to prevent any muddying of the line between the Lord of the Rings and Warhammer brands.
Similar reasoning may have been at work with the restriction on cross-universe Warhammer conversions. Every one of Games Workshop’s annual reports states that protecting and developing its IP is a key priority. Models that combine components from different settings could make it harder for people unfamiliar with the IPs to realise that there is more than one type of Warhammer, or to work out what is part of fantasy Warhammer and what comes from the grim dark future.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a good goof-up and walk-back from Games Workshop. The decision to demote the Deathwatch from a full army list to some datasheets in codex Imperial Agents is the last one we can think of that: Games Workshop reversed that by releasing a new index in December, an army list that Mark Hertel used to win the Las Vegas Open this January.
We’re not sure we have the room for a parade board, but we are pretty tempted by the Aeldari as a new army this year. Check out our Codex Aeldari review to see why our team is so hyped by them.
Source: Wargamer
