I was just wondering how important you guys think it is to have the exact figures when you play 40k with some friends and how you feel about them being painted or unpainted.

My friends and I don't have tons of cash and we just like to play for fun so sometimes i let them use other models to represent something else.... althoughhhh one time i got attacked by what I thought were just tac marines (cuz thats what they looked like) because they jumped over a 3" wall and assaulted a squad of my troops...rar! Yea, I lost that game but I called foul...

Opinions are welcome, thanks :)

Well, if you and your friends are happy with it, then keep doing what you're having fun doing!

Me personally, I LOVE to have the miniatures. I mean, nothing looks more awesome than a real full fledged scale army sitting around your room somewhere. I am not a good painter (yet) and so painting isn't TOO important to me, but I do love a nice pretty paint job, that and when your entire army is done to the same extent with the same colors, it is beautiful. That's what draws me in these kinda games, the sheer amount of "realism" and realistic qualities you can put into the army through painting, posing, etc.

But as I said, keep doing things the way you are if you're fine with them! Whatever makes you and your friends happy man! I don't a lot of cash to spend on this either ;).

yeah well it's ok to use models to repreent somthin' else but you gotta let the other player know..and you gotta have a way to indentify them..just tape a lil' sign that says what the unit is to it..hell i did tha' for meh Death Company for the first few games me and meh brother played..tac squad marines with lil' pirate flags taped to 'em...it was probably against the rules but meh brother din' care..e was usin a regular DE soldier with a Lego cowboy hat as a sybaraite..e' taped the hat on <_<

nono of my battlesuits ever have the right weapons configuration, i bought all 6 of them second hand and none of them have set ups that i like


they all have numbered bits of paper blu-taced to their chests so i can reference my army list to see who's got what


my next major project is cutting off every weapon and then using pins to make them interchangeable

As long as they have a basic color, they can be played in tournaments. A guy bought, assembled, primed and painted a who squad of Blood Angels a half an hour before a game. They were not the best looking army out there, but I think he was more focused on the game than painting.

I like to have my army painted. I mean fielding units onto a table where everything is all painted up is great.
Just stand back an admire your own work type of thing.

Sometimes I'll field minis that are semi painted or undercoated, but I hate to field units that are still grey or metal, just doesn't look right for me I guess.

As for using other models. Well if its not 40k then I don't nomally like it. I mean using say a toy soldier or a lego man for a space marine just doesn't look right to me.

It's very okay to play with other things then the exact models, aslong as your opponent agrees to it.
I would like to have a big fully painted army, but i dont have the money for it.. In the summer i might get 2000 points, going to my local (by local i mean 170 kilometres away) GW shop and buy a crapload of warhammer!

I personally like to play with and against fairly well produced figures. But I have found that once you get into the flow of a game it that it doesn't matter how well painted they are, as long as they are recognisable.

Some squads of my own Blood Angels army are painted in an almost impressionistic way, with very little detail or much care, and others are painted to near-competition standard. On a busy battlefield you have to stop and examine them to tell the difference.

I'll be redoing my Orks over the next year or so, but won't be spending ages on painting them. I'll just work out a painting strategy to achieve a certain level of finish.

Some armies, like Sisters of Battle do seem to require a lot of detail work, but with most armies you can get away with rough work.

But I wouldn't field bare metal or plastic minis though! :)

Gah...i hate people who have had the same minatures for years and never paint them....but a fully painted army where everything has the right stuff on them that is the best experience in warhammer you can have! or so i say.....but when you have it all wysiwyg that can become boring at times but it does work..

i hate people who have had the same minatures for years and never paint them

hey thats me

ive been playin space marines for like 3 years and i still dont have 1500pts worth of painted army unless i play deathwing which is pretty pathetic since i can make 6000pt lists i should probably get to it but im just to damn lazy

a while back i got a friend to give me 10 lego men just so i could use them in 40k not cos i was short of guys i just thought it would look kool i planed on givin them bolters but like i said im lazy theyve been sitin in my bits box untouched since i got them

Although I prefer to have Golden Daemon standard armies fighting against each other, proxy models can be a laugh. One thing I have noticed though, if you do use a proxy model, they will only do as well as the model they actually are. For example, my friend recently managed to loose an entire squad of terminators before our battle (he found them later) so he used a squad of orks instead. In the entire game, only two saves were sucessfully made.