The 40k2ndAC IV is over and we are ready with the latest announcements of Terminator Honours and stats! It has been a joyful ride for the most of us, with the occasional sprinkling of trouble and hardship for some of us. Now, the deed is done, and it is time to reflect. Please bear with me if this post becomes rather long winded.

Terminator Honours – June!

Every month the present and eliminated participants vote for which Gamer and Painter entries (one each) they think deserve The Terminator Honours.

Their votes are cast in any way shape or form they see fit, and you can win the honours multiple times if it so happens. For Gamer entries, a lot of people focus on the amount and quality you put up, whilst the Painter entries they take a more scrutinizing look at the actual painting involved. Some people just squint their eyes and choose the colours they like best when it’s all blurred.

However, sincce this is the final, we will also have a look at the challenge in total and give out the challenge honours.

Painter’s honours June

Again this month, Mark Rayner took the painter’s honours.

I am sure Mark’s evocative painting, banners and certainly the diorama base for his nurgle squad won people over this month!

A big congrats to Mark!

Gamer’s honours June

Martin Tain Taylor once again is tied with me for the Gamer’s Honours this month, and like last time, it makes more sense for me to yield than to celebrate myself. In all fairness, I do think that Martin’s month 6 is a lot more interesting than mine. Just look at all that Slaaneshi goodness and those nurgle terminators!

Another round of applause for Martin!

Challenge Champions

Now it is time to crown the 2023 Cowabunga Champions of the #40k2ndAC IV. Who got the most votes in total for the Terminator Honours?

There is an element of giving to those who already have it all in this next part, but so is the nature of the beast and vast talent.

Instead of faffing about, I will just hand it over to the stats:

It is probably no surprise that PygmyHippo and Tom Reynolds are the 2023 Cowabunga Army Challenge Champs.

Tom’s army this year was at the highest of painting standards and tackled all kinds of difficult techniques. He didn’t shy away from going above and beyond with his subgoals either. The demonic temple is quite the centrepiece! In fact, when meeting Tom in London, I asked him how he was going to store it? True to chaotic form, he had gotten so taken away with the building that those considerations had not really be made.

Through the challenge PygmyHippo’s Orks were just the gift that kept on giving for me personally. When he did all three subgoals in the first round, I thought to my self “what the hell is going on here!?”. I really think this is one of those armies I will never forget. I can’t remember being blown away on a monthly basis like this before.

It has been a pleasure to follow both their endeavours and I think they have consistently delivered high quality painting. In fact, a lot of people kept voting for PygmyHippo as a PAINTER and not a gamer. Those Judas Priest banners and the complete lack of care for what people could reasonably expect.

There is a a champion’s mug and a T-shirt (hit me with your size) and a diploma (digital) on its way for the both of you. (it might be WEEKS before these actually arrive, it is a first for me doing this).

I would of course be more than happy to send out prizes to even more people, but the cost is too prohibitive for that… at least this time! “Biggest Bonus Barbarian”, “The Dudes Personal High”, “Unsong Heroes”, “First Blood” and other categories come to mind. I will probably add a “donate” button at some point in the future to make more of this stuff possible.

Stats centre

It would not be a challenge recap if I didn’t pester you with some stats.

So the final month saw us combine for 10294 points distributed across 292 models (vehicles = 4, larger bases = 2). The average across the whole challenge has been 282.5 models per month and 9137.5 points. That is pretty decent for a bunch of middle aged no-goods.

We might as well get it out of the way immediately: The much treasured PPF rating for the whole challenge can be seen above. No one beats Alex Dingle who is at 20.1 points per figure for the challenge. Jon is a close second with 20.2 PPF. Despite his insane amount of models Valhallan Winter did so many vehicles that his PPF is at 22.2. At the other end of the spectrum Wargamer Eric reigns supreme – we can call it the Eldar Aspect effect. Clocking in at 57.7 PPF he beats Maddix, Dr. The Viking and Tom Reynolds who are the runners up at ~50 PPF.

Overall stats

Overall stats for the challenge are now also available. As we set out, we were 30 people heading for Month 1. I had made it open for up to 50 participants, but at deadline I had 30. Thankfully!

During the first two month we saw our biggest decline. I think this is fairly common. Some people will realise what they have entered into only when they start painting. Others will realise that actually 2nd edition 40k is better for them as an idea than an actuality. And then some others simply truck through.

Parsing it out on the different codices it would seem that especially Angels of Death and Orks had a hard time going all the way in this challenge. Chaos, IG, Tyranids, and Ultras were 100%. You could also look at it from a Rookie vs veteran point of view.

We dropped half of the rookied on the floor, while 80% of the veterans pulled through. I attribute this to the experience of the veterans. These people are less likely to be surprised about what this challenge requires. I hope to see some of the rookies back in the future, despite having failed this time around.

When I decided back last year to split the challenge in two camps:The painters and the gamers, and introducing subgoals, I caught quite a bit of flak on various online platforms for making it too complicated and prohibitive to enter. Of course, that was not my intention, but I do think those that made the effort have become richer for it. You’d think that, in this light, the Gamers would be dropping like flies, whilst the painters would carry on through. But in fact, it has been quite opposite. We had 15 of each. We lost 2 gamers, and 7 painters. That is food for thought.

My last stat here is the “completion score”. It is the average of models finished/models pledges and points finished/points pledged given in percentage. There is basically three ranges here. The first is those who did not make it. A few (Viden and Malter) came very close. The next looong stretch is those who made it, and more or less stuck to their pledge (with maybe a few extras). Then from TJM and onwards there is those who, percentage-wise, significantly increased their pledge with bonus models. Wargamer Eric is probably the odd man out here in that last category, because he started from a much lower pledge count.

That is the end of my stat brief for this challenge. I am tempted to look into the stats from some of the earlier challenges as well… to get bigger numbers! But I will save that for a rainy day.

Final thoughts on the challenge

As always it has been a delight running this thing. I really liked the addition of Terminator Honours and will definitely be bringing that back in the future. I had a hard time getting the votes in, so I will look into alternatives. Also, getting feedback from those who went out of the challenge was very difficult. I can’t blame them for losing the enthusiasm though.

I also thought the subgoals were really nice additions to the challenge. I might have to look at them again, and potentially make it something you can “hunt” in the hopes to claim a title. On the other hand I might simply make it mandatory to choose 1, and let you hunt as many others as you will.

50 models limit on the Gamer’s pledge has been a bitch. As I aluded to above a few people were vociferous about their disliking about that particular aspect. I really can’t figure out what to do with it. The Gamer’s pledge is supposed to give you an army. But 50 marines is a lot to fit in an army. But then again you have the option of counting vehicles as 4 models. Three vehicles, 3 characters and 30 marines seems to make to be the gist of a Gamer’s Pledge.

Something that had never occurred to me, but makes absolute sense – in the absolute sense – was relaying to me by an expert in planning; a teacher: Use a bloody standardised Scheme for reporting the entries! Yes! How can I never have thought of this before. I will definitely be implementing this during the next round.

Lastly, for those of you who have actually read this far! I have every intention of trying my hands at a bit of YouTUbe for the next challenge. I also promise that there will be a another campaign supplement for those so inclined. This one will be ready from the onset though.

Right, so it is time to take my leave. Just one more special message to go, and then I am done and I can go home: THANK YOU ALL for playing my silly little game.

Dr. The Viking