Art De La Guerre

[highlandbevan]

I can do what I like in the privacy of my own home/club but I’m interested in the consensus for tournaments.


 There is a growing range of increasing quality paper figures at different scales. How would you feel in a tournament facing an army correctly based, same size as your figures, but in paper rather than metal or plastic? 


 Would it make any difference if the figures were individually cut round, or came with an integral background?

https://www.reddit.com/r/wargames/comments/89ines/paper_armies_paper_minis_for_tabletop_wargames/

http://wars175x.narod.ru/wargameprint/jpb/jpb_os_10.html

[AlanCutner]

Makes no difference to me. Its the game that matters.

When I started wargaming 50 years ago I had childhood friends who couldn't afford even plastic figures. So they made their own paper figures. Very memorable, perfectly good games.

[Hazelbark]

Interesting question...I am not sure how i feel.

Here's sort of my reaction.
I get a little twitchy at the notion and the two links are very instructive and I think different. My experience with paper figures and paper terrain makes me more leery, because i have seen a lot of VERY BAD paper jobs meaning they don't look good and look like a slip-shod affair the night before.

However I do believe in being encouraging of more people. So i force my twitching to be an open mind.

As a one off, i would especially work to be open minded and accept. I am also mindful there are other alternatives that are accepted like plastic and slightly different scales or figures per base. Not to mention the people using wrong figures as substitutes. So I need to work through not being on a high horse. I mean I heard one person decades ago, say they wouldn't play against my figures because i had an ugly paint job. While true that is unfair.

So for me if someone had paper figures that were proper to the army they were playing that looked good, I would say yes. The first photo with the cut out nicely done clearly reaches the standard that i am cool and maybe even curious to neat. The Napoleonic's with the ranks and the solid paper above the heads is getting near where i worry. Now that maybe is the period as well i want good stuff, but that is where a bad paper soldier could look really bad.

So if the paper figures looked like they were made with care and looked good and frankly prepared in a way superior to my incompetence i would be open.

Now that is very subjective and i have no standing.

[KevinD]

I largely agree with Dan’s twitchy reaction here.

However, I would be very tolerant of a first time player who wants to get into ancient tournaments and try it out.

Maybe also if it’s an army that just is not (readily) available in lead and paper will look better than any morphed army might and the paper ones look really good.

But rather than banning them outright, putting more emphasis on well presented armies (good figures, well painted and based and historically accurate with quality terrain and baggage) and awarding prizes for these as well as competitive ranking. It’s always a pleasure to play against people with great looking armies.

[vexillia]

Might have been better to use the "Add Poll" feature.
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Martin Stephenson

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[highlandbevan]

I intended to add poll but did something wrong…

[Zoltan]

While the OP is specifically about paper figures, some of the responses talk in terms of overall presentation quality and the spectacle of the thing. While not wanting to distract from the OP, wither “spaghetti spears”, knitted terrain, curly felt terrain pieces, and crap paint jobs etc?🤔

Personally, I’ve always found game presentation to be a key aspect of the hobby. But it’s always difficult to “regulate” that in a tournament. I’m happy to play against a well presented, compliant paper army.