The third month of the challenge came and went and the entries have been posted. We are now over half way done and it is time to hear a bit from the Cowabunga Stats Centre and to celebrate those who earned this month’s Terminator Honours. I might have gone a little overboard on the stats this month, but you can always just scroll to the end for the Terminator Honours.

Cowabunga stats centre

So, this month has a “first” maybe for the challenge, and maybe just for this season: No one failed! So we are still 22 left, as you can seen in Figure 1 above. Note, that this time around we are doing it “hardcore” – no mulligans: You fail, you’re out. So in that sense this was quite unexpected.

Now let us look a bit at the individual performances. As we can see from Figure 2, Alex Dingle outperformed everyone else on model count. Valhallan Winter is the next on the list (beware that vehicels count as 4 models in this scoring system). At the opposite end of the spectrum we find Wachtmeister, who entered just a single model this round.

The fan favourite – the Points Per Figure stat – shows us who fought the hardest to achieve the least with regards to getting a playable army on the table. And interestingly Jon McMaster with his Orks this month wins it. At just a little over 12.2 points per boar boy, Jon has really worked hard to almost not increase his army pointswise, overtaking even Slice of Dice and Alex Dingle who are churning out models. Bravo! Well done, Jon.

As we are now starting to get a bit further into the challenge we have some data on averages across the months so far. For instance we can look at the “completion percentage” as shown below in Figure 4.

As we are halfway through the challenge, people en route to timely completion, will probably be over the 50% completion line (marked in yellow). People who might have to rethink their strategy, or who have purposefully saved the bulk of their models for the remaining half will be closer to the red line denoting 25% completion. The subgoals have been factored into the underlying equation, weighted at 25% of the total effort (eg., if you painted all your models, and no subgoals, you would be at 75% completion). A single person has painting a lot more models than originally pledged, and has completed a few subgoals as well, and hence is well above the green 100% line.

We can also look at the monthly averages for all participants (still in the challenge). Again Alex and Slice of Dice are a bit ahead of the rest of the field, whilst no one can reach Wachtmeister in attention to single figures.

Finally, there is the average PPF for the whole challenge. It largely follows the trend seen above although some key players move around a bit. Interestingly, Jon McMaster is still at the front of it. Overtaking both Alex Dingle and fellow guardsman Michael Mork. At the other end of the spectrum Tom Reynolds reigns supreme, with Wachtmeister and Mark Rayner looking to usurp.

Terminatus Honorificus

During this challenge, I have decided to each month crown the most impressive Gamer or Painter entry. Now, this is not meant to be anything other than a “fun little extra” to celebrate the challenge.

Only those who entered the challenge were allowed to vote. All participants in fact. Whether in or out of the challenge. I fully realize that once people bottle out, they might lose interest and not respond, but there probably not much I can do about that.

The voting can be done on many grounds… the most technically impressive, the one that gave you the warmest retro feeling, the one that blew you away, the one that was the hardest labour… the list goes on. In the immortal words of Roxette: Listen to your heart!

The prize: For each time you win a Terminator Honours, you will get the above logo appended to your Challenge logo.

Gamer’s Honours

Gamer- Martin Taylor, He was able to knock out some great models while staying in the hospital, a heroic effort!

Gamer: Martin Taylor
Some classic Daemon minis on display here, and excellent blending on those Daemonette claws. Also, sexy murder cow!

For gamer, I have to go for Martin Taylor. Not only is the cow strangely fascinating, but seeing how he got such a beautiful paintjob done on the models in the midst of Nurgle-fest is an inspiration!

Well deserved Martin. I am more than happy to surrender my place (I came in second) to Martin and think this is the right winner by all means. It is quite clear that the Sexy Murder Cow (R) really convinced people. I would say it is about time Martin gets the honours as he has been performing brilliantly for the past 3 years of this.

Painter’s Honours

For the longest time, there was a great drama surrounding the Painter’s votes. Three entries kept being tied for the vote. But in the end one prevailed.

Tom Reynold’s chaos command. The tiny details are meticulously and carefully executed. The subtle gradient on the standard bearer is gorgeous. I honestly think it surpasses his greater demon. 

Mark Rayner: I’ve done my fair share of battle with chaos marines through the years, and this Fabios Bile has got to be amongst the top there is. Astounding work on those vials and needles, and the creepiest face I’ve seen in a long time. Oh and love the details and rims and the juggernaut and Lord. Sick eyes dude.

For Painter Honours this month I nominate Ted Gunnarsson for his excellent Night Lords Dreadnought. The model is beautifully painted; I am particularly jealous of the lightning bolts, which I have never been particularly great at painting myself 🙂 The weapons are just fantastic, with really nice highlights that just scream 2nd Edition to me. Bravo!

In the end Ted took it by 1 and thus, is this month’s Painter.

So there you have it folks! As the big old softie that I am, I wish everyone could get the Honours every month, but I guess it is more fun this way. 😉

Congrats to Martin and Ted! And hope Tom and Mark will keep on challenging!