Welcome to Epicomp 2010

The aim of Epicomp 2010 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 2010.
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.
EPICOMP 2010 will open for submissions on the 1st of September 2010, so if you have any rules queries or comments please make them before then.
ANY PROPOSED CHANGES WHICH ARE ACCEPTED WILL BE INTRODUCED IN THE RULES PRESENTED IN THESE FIRST DEFINING POSTS IN THIS THREAD, FOR CLARITY.

The rules are generally based on the final version of EPICOMP 2009; I have left these pinned as a sticky in case anyone wants to see the discussions we had last year.

1 EPICOMP 2010 DATES

Opening date for submissions and start of EPICOMP 2010
1200 UT 1st September 2010

Deadline for submission
2359 UT 7th December 2010

Voting starts
1200 UT 15th December 2010*

Voting ends and winner announced
1200 UT 31st December 2010*
*subject to revision.

2 EPICOMP 2010 COMPETITION CATEGORIES

EPICOMP 2010 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 2010 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 war 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.

NOTE: THESE ARE THE PLANNED CATEGORIES WHICH WILL OPEN; PRIZES WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER. SHOULD PRIZES NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR ALL THESE CATEGORIES WILL STILL OPEN; SHOULD MORE THAN THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF PRIZES BE DONATED, OTHER CATEGORIES MIGHT BE OPENED. THE DEFINITION OF CATEGORIES WILL END PRIOR TO THE OPENING OF SUBMISSIONS START DATE, 1ST SEPTEMBER 2010.

Category 1 - Best single model
PRIZE: 8 TBA
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: TBA
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: TBA
For the scope of EPICOMP 2010, 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: TBA
This category is open to 6mm scale science fiction models of one of the following types:
terrain
1 - dioramas and duel scenes
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: TBA
This is NOT a distinct category! All converted and scratch-built models entered in EPICOMP 2010 will take part in the conversion competition, the winner of which will be selected by an appointed jury, instead of by voting. lease note that as EPICOMP 2010 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.

3 EPICOMP 2010 SUBMITTING AN ENTRY
To submit a picture of your entry to Epicomp 2010 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.
Anyone submitting an entry will receive an email indicating receipt of the submission. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE THIS WITHIN 5 DAYS PLEASE CONTACT THE ORGANISER (i.e. me) TO CHECK WHETHER THE ENTRY HAS OR HAS NOT BEEN RECEIVED.

Please note that you do not have to be a member of the http://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.

4 EPICOMP 2010 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. IMAGES SHOULD BE OF A pixel size NOT GREATER THAN 1024x768.

5 EPICOMP 2010 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.

6 EPICOMP 2010 PRIZES

The prizes for the categories will be announced as soon as the allocation of these is finalized. All persons supporting EPICOMP 2010 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.

So, where would dioramas with fewer than 6 troops go? say a duel between 2 figs on a scenic base (eg non legal epic size) Also, would dead/wounded casualties count towards the 6 count?

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

640x480 is fairly small?

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

I agree. The image size restriction was necessary when EpiComp first started and broadband internet connections weren't common. Since then higher screen resolutions and faster connection speeds make larger images a much more sensible option. My laptop is 1600x1200 for example, and my stationary is 1900-something. A 600 pixel wide image is really tiny!

It also makes it much easier to judge the actual painting quality of the submission. Lots of things are hidden at that size and a mediocre paint job can be disguised by the lack of pixels to render the imperfections of the paint job. A truely well painted model will still stand out on a larger image. Previous years I don't think all entries got the attention they deserved because the pictures didn't do the models justice. Up the size to something like 1000x700 or even larger. It still shouldn't be more than a couple of hundred Kb in size when compressed a bit.

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Sofa General

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

Ah, to work
Right, the dead (or wounded) count; and a ratio of 3 troops = 1 vehicle means that 3 troops + 1 vehicle would be ok as well.
As regards 2 figures: well, 2 monstrous creatures or Dreadnoughts (for example) would be fine; 2 troops normally based as 3-5 per base would, in my opinion, be a waste of opportunity offered by the epic scale. But that is, as I said, my opinion, and if there is general support of this I am ready to change the rule. I can see the point if you have 2 nicely posed troopers requiring loads of conversion work; and probably having (eg) an unconverted Space Marine and an unconverted Eldar warrior on a base would be 'punished' by the voting, so it could work out.
Opinions?

Good point re the final display - that's a residue from the previous comp.
The size is limited by the constraints of the galleries CS puts up for voting. I eliminated it from the rules for now - anyway, it does not effect submitted pics as it is not the limit for submission. I'll put up the size once I know what t actually will be.

If dead/wounded count then that would work out ok, and if the scenic base was large enough i suppose it could count as terrain anyway? It would just be rather annoying to put a lot of effort into converting and sculpting 2 figures in a duel/diorama and then be forced to add in extra figures just for the sake of it. I wasn't suggesting just sticking 2 off the sprue marines on a 25mm base and calling it a diorama ofcourse

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

I think some of the new non size restricted gohticomp pics show that there does need to be a resolution limit. one of the pics in heat 2 is 3872 x 2592 px (eg it won't even fit on a 30" display) ...its clearly jsut been an excuse for many people not to bother cropping their images at all and is annoying for viewers to horizontally scroll across blurry pictures of peoples carpet, to a spaceship that barley fits on the screen. Also at that size (if everyone sent in 3000px) i imagine we would see a big difference between DSLR and compact users image quality (a couple of larger gothicomp entries are showing rather bad image quality/jpeg artifacts).

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

Hi,

on GothiComp: I know some of the larger ones are cropped. With FireFox I can click right mouse on the image and select view image, this brings them to screen size.

And yes, this does pull in for size limits. (pixels).

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Light at the Horizon.

Warp Rift
Project Distant Darkness
Eldar MMS

GothiComp Hall of Fame
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19176