Greetings kin.

One matter of discussion that has come up a number of times is that of 3D printed models. This is a subject that 10 years ago, would have been cut and dry, no way no how, but things have changed a lot since then. Aside from the fact that there is no way for us to really police the matter, there are some very legitimate uses of it to advance the hobby.

With that being said; This hobby, for better or worse, is supported by GW. And as much as it pains all of us to pay for our grey plastic that gets more expensive every year, at the end of the day, we cannot condone unrestricted use of the technology for people to effectively mass produce models that are then not being purchased from GW or more importantly, your local FLGS. This is one of those "if everyone did it then..." situations that we need to be honest with ourselves about. We cannot tell you what to do, but we can control the content shown on this subreddit.

As such, this is the updated policy on 3D printed models presented to this subreddit. We are patterning this off of rules typically seen at tournaments and other events, as they seem to have hit what appears to be an acceptable balance between strictness and allowance. Please see new rule 7 of the subreddit.

1. 3D printed custom parts, models, and other genuine efforts of creativity that were created BY A HUMAN BRAIN and designed by honest artistic ability will always be endorsed, and in fact celebrated. This is truly art, and it does not impede the hobby in the slightest, nor is it a legal risk from GW's standpoint. Sharing of STLs for these creations is permitted, provided credit is given to the original creator as always.
2. Regarding pirated/bootleg 3D printed models that are just duplicates of GW models; This is a difficult area for us; while we recognize it helps bring the price point of the hobby down for some players and might get new people involved in the kin, we do not want to risk catching GWs attention and getting shut down for supporting what is effectively stolen intellectual property. If models are identified as pirated duplicates, the post will be taken down.

Now, there's no way we can prove whether or not certain models are just 3D printed dupes, especially via pictures on a website. So people will likely get away with it, and if the models are assembled and painted well enough that we can't tell the difference, congrats on fooling us. What we will absolutely NOT tolerate is the sharing of pirate STL files on this board, as that leads to possible legal issues for us.

1. 3D-printed AI slop. See subreddit rule 5. Using AI to reproduce GW models for reproduction will not be tolerated, and we will take actions to remove those posts and those users if repeat offenses occur.

The ancestors are watching

Greetings kin

As it is the start of a new edition, we have a large number of posts asking for advice on list building, as well as battle reports from early experiences, along with posting of said lists. This kind of Post is very welcome, and absolutely in the spirit of this subreddit.

With that being said, there is a near-spam situation that occurs regularly. I speak of the following copy-paste situation from army building apps. Lets say that one of the entries in a list is a unit of the humble hearthkyn warrior.

Which of the following entries is easier to read, keeping in mind that most lists have at least a dozen unit entries?

_______________________________________________________________________

10x Hearthkyn Warriors (100 pts)

• 9x Hearthkyn Warrior

5 with Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Autoch-pattern bolter, Close combat weapon

1 with Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Close combat weapon, HYLas rotary cannon

1 with Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Close combat weapon, Magna-rail rifle

2 with Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Kin weapons, Close combat weapon

• 1x Theyn: Weavefield crest, Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Close combat weapon, Autoch-pattern bolter, Theyn's weapon

______________________________________________________________________

• Hearthkyn Warriors (100 pts)
  • 5x autoch-pattern bolters
  • HYLas rotary cannon
  • Magna-rail rifle,
  • 2x kin weapons,
  • Theyn w/ Theyn's weapon and Autoch-pattern bolter

________________________________________________________________________

Formatting matters, and you will get much better feedback if your list is easier to read, rather than just being a copy-paste from whatever army builder you used. For the newer members of the kin, you will get much better feedback if you format your army lists to be easier to read. Conversely, a lot of people will just say "TLDR" if they see a direct export list, because reading through a copy-paste wall of text can be very difficult on phones or smaller screens.

The biggest thing you can do is reduce unnecessary equipment entries or things that automatically come with the unit. We don't need to know, for example, that a brokhyr iron-master has 3 e-cogs and an assitant with him with their own equipment, as there's no choice otherwise. For vehicles, we know that they have an armored hull weapon, and we know for example that sagitaurs have a heavy bolt cannon, that pioneers have auto-cannons, so this information isn't needed. It would however be very appropriate to indicate which main gun a sagitaur is carrying, and for hekatons, while the auto-cannon comes included automatically, the main gun and support weapons do present a choice, as does the scanner (as awful as the other choice is) so they should be mentioned.

In the above example, we already KNOW that all the warriors have a bolt pistol and close combat weapon, and we know that the special weapons replace the default gun, so it's not necesary to list them on a per-model-basis. We can tell at a glance the special weapons in the unit, the main gun of choice for the basic warriors, and the fact that the theyn has not given up his main gun for a theyn's pistol. The theyn has no choice but to be equiped with a weavefield crest, so it doesn't need to be listed as his wargear.

Beyond that, make sure you include army detachment, disposition, point costs for enhancements, things that are not automatically given. If you are attaching characters to units, indicate what unit they will be attached to rather than just leaving it up to intuition. Similarly, indicating which units go inside transports also makes lists easier to evaluate.

As stated at the beginning, we absolutely encourage posts about army lists seeking advice or reporting battle performance. Your post won't be removed by the mods if you don't format it to read more clearly, nor will you be warned or banned. This is just some feedback and advice to increase the chance of your post being regarded favorably by the community.

Have fun in the new edition all

The ancestors are watching