"Re: The Curse of the Newly Painted Unit" Topic

Now, not meaning to rile anyone, but I imagine that many of you have heard of "The Curse of the Newly Painted/Green Unit" – that a newly painted unit is doomed to disaster on the first time it hits the table. To test this, I did a little experiment at the last game with our local group. We did a SYW game and I included a unit of hussars so new the paint was barely dry (they were pretty, though) – in the style of medical research it was blinded, i.e. none of the gamers (I did GM) knew this – for the first game the unit was in, it charged and routed an enemy battery, re-joined its parent brigade and then took part in a brigade-wide melee that routed the enemy cavalry, at which point the enemy infantry brigades went "Sauve qui peut!" and fled the field in droves

So – The Curse of the Newly Painted Unit

A – Does not Exist
B – Is a Very Real thing
C – Depends
D – This is Ridiculous
E – Not my cup of tea
F – I have no clue when units were painted

Certain units are certainly cursed, but I don't believe it's connected to either recency or the quality of the paint job. One of the best-looking British hussars I ever saw on a table were known pretty much from their first game as "The Rotten Routing Tenth" and years of play failed to improve their rep. On the other hand, it was always good to have the 14th ("Lead Pipe") Polish Cuirassiers in your corner.

I almost always lose the first time I play with a newly painted army, but not always.
Come on guys, next you will be saying the precocious Dice gods don't exist!!!

B
But since I paint both sides, I try to counter by having newbies on both sides.

C.
I think the likelihood of the curse appearing is mostly dependent on how well everyone at the table knows that the unit is freshly painted, new, and in its first battle. Let's measure that occurrence using that list of variables

G — Quite the opposite! Morale is high when the paint is fresh.

Has no one else ever spruced up a unit's paint job to try to improve morale? A little detailing and shading shows the toy soldiers you're taking an interest.

C. If the unit is one with a good reputation on history, eg Saxon Garde du Corps, then they seem more prone to put their runners on. Others seem to vary between running and being (very) average.

I agree with RP, though, and some units do seem to develop a "personality". I had a battalion of Landwehr that my mates called "Krishna's Own" (it was suggested I repaint them in orange coats…) because they never caused a casualty and never found a morale roll they couldn't fail, no matter who had them on the table. I have yet to paint up a "Lead Pipe" unit, though some (Itzenplitz) come close.

I am with John the OFM. I have many, many figures that have yet to see the table, so it is newbie vs. newbie most of the time. I personally think that is the dice rollers who screw up new units and their morale rolls so that those units need more love with someone who knows how to roll them bones…

It is entirely traditional that your brand new, freshly painted tank immediately blows up on first contact with the enemy. So B all the way.

My confirmation bias tells me it's B.

B

Just had 2 units of newly painted Piano Miniatures horse units, destroyed on their first appearance on the table, the curse is real!

Tally Ho!

F

B! In the olden days my French 1st Cuirassiers were infamous for their failures. Just to keep it even I recently fielded
the British 16th Light Dragoons. Yep, routed and vanished even though they outnumbered their opponents. My excuse this time are the "Empire" rules!

B: I figure a bright shiny new unit will be used in a lot of the action. If used more, the odds of bad stuff happening will be with that unit. If a unit of Bright Shiny New Elite troops is held in reserve…. little bad will happen to them. So, it is a real thing but only because many people use such units out front in the center of the action more then they use the old stand bys.

C. I've experienced both the thrill of victory AND the agony of defeat with new units.

Back iN the 1970s, we had a g,amer in our group who primed his units.
If a unit preformed well during a battle, he would then add a color(tunic or pants, etc). So on the battlefield you could tell which units were good.

Let's not forget that your opponents will always target new troops…. dastardly bastards!

Only good stuff – just have to give them lots of extra Elan/Morale bonuses

D not into myths, actually almost all my units get into disasters no matter how recently painted.