Welcome to Epicomp 2009  

The aim of Epicomp 2009 is to encourage Epic-scale game players to paint their models  and show off what they can do. People are encouraged to enter no matter how good or bad their painting and converting skills are.

This thread will include the rules and guidelines for participating in Epicomp 2009.
These will be presented at the start of this thread. Any updates or corrections will be applied to the rules given here at the start of the thread for ease of reference. The following posts will include:

1 Dates
2 Categories
3 Submitting an entry
4 Picture format
5 Voting
6 Prizes

Any queries may be posted in this thread.

Before we begin – a word of thanks to:
Cybershadow, who hosts this show and does a lot of work in it too;
Black Horizon, whose rules for Gothicomp I shamelessly plagiarised;
the conversion competition judges;
and last but not least, all prizegivers – more on these later!

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1 EPICOMP 2009 DATES

Opening date for submissions and start of EPICOMP 2009
1200 UT 1st September 2009

Deadline for submission
1200 UT 30th November 2009

Voting starts
1200 UT 10th December 2009*

Voting ends and winner announced  
1200 UT 31st December 2009*
*subject to revision.

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2 EPICOMP 2009 COMPETITION CATEGORIES

EPICOMP 2009 is subdivided into a number of categories - please make sure that you enter your model/s in the correct category.

Miniatures for other gaming systems and produced by manufacturers other than Games Workshop are allowed, as long as they are to 6mm scale (allowing for the somewhat tolerant nature of  Epic scale models) and pertinent to science fiction.

EPICOMP 2009 is a model painting competition, thus all voting by forum members in each category would be on the basis of selecting the best-painted model. The conversion competition also rewards conversion/scratch-building creativity - see below for details.

A model can only be entered in ONE category, with the following exceptions:
1 – a model entered as a single model or ware engine/titan can also be entered as part of a Battleforce
2 – all models which are converted or scratch-built are automatically entered in the conversion competition.

Category 1 - Best single model
PRIZE: 8 Bisons (or 8 Slaggers) and 4 Hadrian artillery donated by Otterman  
Any entry in this category consists of any single science fiction model or stand of troops to  6mm (Epic) scale. War engines and titans should be entered in their specific category, category 2.  

Category 2 - Best war engine/titan
PRIZE: MIB Imperial Warlord MK2 donated by Ghudra  
Any single war engine or titan-class model in 6mm (Epic) scale. This could be either a titan-size vehicle or monstrous creature of any type, or a superheavy vehicle or similarly classified monstrous creature. Although the Epic Armageddon classification of such models will be adhered to as far as possible, there may be models the category to which they belong is less easily defined. In case of doubt the owner of the model should send a query to me by PM, and I will consult with experts who are better acquainted with the rules to determine the category. Models entered in the incorrect category may be redirected to the correct one by the competition organizers.

Category 3 - Best Battleforce
PRIZE: 4 current unpainted metal Epic Armageddon Land Raiders donated by GlynG  
For the scope of EPICOMP 2009, a battleforce is a small force of 6mm (Epic) scale science fiction models consisting of AT LEAST 4 of the following:
1. formations of 4 models each (vehicles, creatures, troop stands etc.)
2. formations of war engines (titans or superheavy vehicles or their equivalents in size and capability)
ANY ONE OF WHICH IS A FORCE COMMANDER.

Thus, for example, a valid entry could include e.g. 3 formations of 4 stands of troops and 1 superheavy tank, with one of the troop formations including a commander.

Category 4 – Open competition
PRIZE: small pile of Space Marines including troops and some heavier stuff  donated by Vaaish  
This category is open to 6mm scale science fiction models of one of the following types:
terrain
1 - dioramas including at least 6 single 6mm troops (not stands) OR at least 2 6mm vehicles
2  - seagoing or riverine vessels of any type
3 - terrain or buildings
4 – extraordinary vehicles which are clearly not covered by any vehicle category (e.g. outlandish gigantic flying machines, large unarmed vehicles (do these even exist in the 40K environment?!), industrial vehicles, etc.)


Conversion competition
PRIZE: 5 WF Android sprues (once produced) donated by Dave  
This is NOT a distinct category! All converted and scratch-built models entered in EPICOMP 2009 will take part in the conversion competition, the winner of which will be selected by an appointed jury, instead of by voting. Please note that as EPICOMP 2009 is a painting competition, all models have to be painted. An unpainted converted model will not be allowed to participate, no matter how outstanding the conversion is.

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3 EPICOMP 2009 SUBMITTING AN ENTRY
To submit a picture of your entry to Epicomp 2009 mail a picture of your entry to: comps@tacticalwargames.net

The header of the email should contains the following: model name/category
The email should also include your Tactical Wargames forum name.

Please note that you do not have to be a member of the www.tacticalwargames.net boards to enter this competition; you will however have to sign up in order to vote.

A gallery of the entrants will be compiled and placed online. This gallery will remain as a permanent fixture to the site, and you will be able to browse the pictures in the future.

Please note that this year only the entry name will be shown in the gallery, and not the name of the person submitting it.


IMPORTANT - entries should be models which have been completed at least during the past year and have not been previously entered in a previous Tactical Command or Epicomms competition. This is to avoid having extra exposure to some entries in contrast to others.

All decisions are final, any prizes are non-negotiable and the competition organizers reserve the right to remove competition entries or request that they are resubmitted or altered.

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4 EPICOMP 2009 PICTURE FORMAT

All entries should be submitted as single pictures, and only one image is allowed per entry.
A composite picture consisting of different views of your model/s from a number of different angles is however permitted.
Each photograph should be no more than 3 megabytes large. They may be of any pixel size as long as the file size is not exceeded.
The final image displayed on the website will have a 640x480 format.

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5 EPICOMP 2009 VOTING

Once the galleries of entered models are set up after the 30th of November online voting will start using the poll post option permitted by the forum. Only Tactical Command forum members can vote. Each member can vote once in all categories.
Voting will take place here on these boards. Entries will be split into heats of up to ten entries each (this depends on the number of entries). The winner of each heat will go through to the next round until a winner is determined. Please note that entries will be placed into heats in the order in which they are submitted here. Voting will start once the galleries are set up and will end at noon on the 31st of December.

Selection of the winner of the conversion prize will be determined by a jury appointed by Tactical Command.

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6 EPICOMP 2009 PRIZES

The prizes for the categories will be announced as soon as the allocation of these is finalized. All persons supporting EPICOMP 2009 by donating prizes - thank you! EPICOMP would not happen without your support.

One prize will be awarded to the first placed model in each category, and a conversion prize will be awarded to the best conversion across all the categories. The prizes awarded are non-negotiable. The decision of the judges for the conversion prize is final.

Any winner will be awarded one prize; thus if an entrant wins two categories she or he will select the category she or he prefers to win; the prize for the other category would then be awarded to the second-placed entry in that category.

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Couple of questions:

I consider myself a good painter and converter but I'm no good with green stuff. If I were to get someone to help with a small amount of green-stuff work on an entry would that be allowed to enter the category/conversion competition? I would otherwise be extensively converting the model and obviously painting it all myself.  

Can you enter the same category multiple times? I was assuming no but thought I saw people doing this before.

For the battleforce entries, I perferred the 2007 rules (8 units, WE count as 2). Could we have a poll/discussion of going back to that?

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Dave

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So can a model which has previously been seen on tac-com be entered, as long it has not been entered in a competition before.

Also, if i enter a cast of 1 of my own scratch built models, does it count as a scratch build? and if someone else enters a cast of 1 of my scratchbuilds, does it count as a scratcbhuild to them as well?

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A quick discussion which should be ended by the 31st August - discuss away, on this thread  - since people were happy enough with last year's similar battleforce description I did not change it, but may be convinced otherwise.

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Beginning with the simpler, second question: any person can enter as many entries as he or she likes in any category. So if you wish to enter 10 different models in the single model competition you are free to do so. Of course we might decide to introduce an entry fee....    
No, we won't, only kidding.

As regards the first bit: strictly speaking, the work on the model should be made by the competitor; but this can be defined better:
1) we always assume (and I believe this is the case) that all entries are painted by the person who entered them. Painting is the basis of all categories except for the conversion one, so that's simple enough.
2) the conversion competition is a tough nut. If someone sculpts a model entirely from scratch, would that be a conversion? Not quite, but we usually accept it as such. If someone were to cast that sculpt, would that count? This is Apocolocyntosis' question. I suppose yes. If someone cast a model off a sculpt, but then gave it to someone else, and this someone else painted and entered it, would it count? Strictly speaking, no, because the conversion (which is what is judged in the conversion competition) is not her or his own work. But it's not easy to determine what is what. The case indicated here is a further extrapolation of this case - part of a conversion fabricated by a third party! Good grief! Is there a lawyer in the house?  
The conversion competition includes all models entered in any category, nominally; the ones which are not conversions but standard commercial models are obviously not considered for this category. As for all the remaining variety (conversions, part swaps, sculpts, part sculpts, scratchbuilds, prototypes etc.) - that is up to the discretion of the judges. The are usually three of the senior (i.e. older, or senile, and experienced, or downright dull, and regular, i.e. nerd-like) members of Epicomp - the pool of judges for Epicomp usually includes Cybershadow, Warmaster Nice, Nealhunt and myself; that means excluding our own models from this prize, something I personally consider painful, even though I have no hope of winning this. In other words - the decision is left to these wise, old men. But if you wish for a more direct answer - if the sculpted part does not constitute the entire conversion work done to the model, then it would probably not matter at all and would be eligible. Thus if someone sculpted a new Warlord Titan head and that was the only change to the model, this should not be eligible for the conversion prize unless it were your own work. If the head AND the weapons and details to the legs were all changed, and the head were made by someone else, that would be ok.
Clear as mud, I suppose...

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See above for the second question.
For the first:
As long as it not had been seen on Tactical Command, or had publicity elsewhere, prior to the 1st of September 2008. If a model only appeared on the Internet after 1st September 2008, AND has NOT been previously entered in Epicomp, then it is eligible.  

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The are usually three of the senior (i.e. older, or senile, and experienced, or downright dull, and regular, i.e. nerd-like) members of Epicomp - the pool of judges for Epicomp usually includes Cybershadow, Warmaster Nice, Nealhunt and myself;

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Nobody expects the Inquisition!!!
http://theepiclounge.wordpress.com/

Does anyone else have strong feelings about this? I suggested it only because 8 units is a pretty good minimum for most EA formations and I think we'd see more entries at this number than at 16.

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