Armies on Parade 2025

So, just to not bury the lead; we’ve made the decision to delay Armies on Parade to mid-year 2026. Given that we’re quickly approaching our usual December timeslot, I wanted to quickly make sure to give everyone the heads up!

Why the delay?

There’s a few reasons why I really think this is the right decision for the event, but to make things clear, I’m just going to break it down into two key reasons:

December is a tough month

Historically AOP has served as an end-of-year farewell for the club, and so December has always made a lot of sense for that. Additionally, as we’re trying to celebrate our hobby for the year, it makes sense that you have the whole year to actually do that hobby.

However, December is tricky for a lot of folks, including myself. It’s packed with holiday events and family commitments, and generally speaking I get a lot of feedback that events in December are really tricky for people.

It’s time to shake things up

AOP for it’s first three years followed a very similar format, and I’ve felt strongly for a while now that it needs a bit of a rethinking. More on this later - but to put it frankly, we need a bit more time to make sure we can do everything we want to do with the event.

What’s changing in 2026?

Well, firstly - the name is changing. Armies on Parade has always been a bit of a confusing name, given that Games Workshop’s own event and format shares that name. We’re not trying to copy that event - in fact, we’re trying to do something quite different, so a name change seems apt.

What’s the new name? Well, wouldn’t you like to know 😉.

Additionally though, it’s become really clear that hosting the event at Guf is a real challenge for everyone involved. It’s a very small space that’s also hosting card events at the same time, and it has proven to be challenging for us as organizers, and also for Guf’s staff. So we’ll be looking at a brand new venue next year. This doesn’t mean we’re not doing this event hand-in-hand with Guf, by the way - simply that we’re going to take some pressure off the store by not dominating their space.

Our Core Pillars

Forgive the corporate talk, but I want to talk a bit about the format and concept of the event next year. When rethinking how we wanted to run a community-focused hobby celebration, we decided there was 3 key pillars we really wanted to nail:

Pillar One: A Painting Competition

This is the part that we’ve broadly got right so far - folks bring their best work, it’s judged and scored, and they win prizes. Simple! But not for everyone. Our community has a diverse range of skill-levels and styles, and the competition part of Armies on Parade didn’t necessarily give those of us in the middle or lower tiers of painting skill a chance to show off our progress.

I still want to provide an awesome opportunity for those really excellent craftspeople to show what they’ve got, get the feedback they want, and win prizes - so this remains a core pillar. But moving forward, it won’t be the only one.

Pillar Two: A Hobby Celebration

Something I loved about our Purple Palette competition in 2023 was seeing so many people who wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves Golden Daemon level painters bring in their awesome creations. It was a chance for folks to be really proud and excited about their work, even if it isn’t an award-winning masterpiece.

As a pretty low- to mid-level painter myself, I really want to capture the spirit of that at our revamped event - so we’ll be creating a separate ticket type for folks who aren’t trying to win prizes or get scored, but just want to show something cool off. They wont be part of the main prize pool, and judges won’t review their work, but instead they’ll be open to receive a community vote prize that reflects their passion and creativity, rather than their technical excellence.

Pillar Three: A Fun-Filled Gaming Day

Just this past weekend we ran the Game Discovery Day event, and it really reminded me how fun it can be to just pick up some new games with some new folks.

We’ve tried demo games at AOP in the past, but simply got the execution wrong. I’m passionate about this being an all-day event that you’re excited to stay for, rather than dropping off your entry and popping back for prizes. To that end, we’re working on some cool gaming events we can do during the event while you wait for the judges to make the rounds.

This wont be a competitive tournament, but depending on our venue you might see some organized intro games, maybe some free play tables, and even some board games or TCG’s. This pillar is the one I’ve fleshed out the least, but it’s definitely something we’re actively thinking about!

How You Can Help

I’d love to hear any thoughts or ideas you have for Armies on Parade. While I’ve got what I think are some really strong ideas and opinions, I’m always open to hearing what you want out of the event. Similarly, if you think you’ve got a skillset that can help us out - such as running a demo game, or helping with photography - I’d love to chat to you.

A big one, though: if you know of a suitable venue for an event like this in the Werribee area, let me know. We are able to hire community venues at NFP rates now, making hiring a venue feasible - but we need help finding good locations that might work for us.

But wait, I want to show off my stuff this year…

Yes, I thought you might say that - we’ll be scheduling in a photo day in December! This will be a ticketed day where you can book an hour of my time for me to take photos of whatever you bring in! You’ll get some slick photos that we’ll also share on the MM website. This is a great option if you were planning to enter AOP, and had a project you were excited about.

The date and tickets for this will become available around mid-November, and expect the day to be the second or third weekend of December.

Thanks for reading if you got this far, and I hope you understand why a delay is the best thing for the event - even if it is disappointing. I’m excited about the future, though, and I hope you are too!