XLBS: Dropzone Commander, A Warren Rant & Studio 3 Update!
February 16, 2014 by dignity
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Best. Rant. Ever. 😉
For studio three, concerning the lighting, are you going down the generator route, hooking up to an external supply or running it off the car (which if you don’t want to kill your battery means running the engine). Need any trailer advice pm me, illl get on to my old man, built quite alot of them. As for the infinity tournament, I reckon your home town, although that dungeon’s and doughnuts sounds fun.
We haven’t even got to the external lighting yet, but now that you mention it…
I vote for Castlerock.
I vote for the Castle Rock brewery in Nottingham 🙂
That would be Bushmills just up the road 🙂
Awlright! Now you’re talking! 😀
I think a trip to the distillery may well have to go down on the sheet lol
Looking forward to seeing some Dust Tactics, always been drawn to the minis but seen nothing of the game.
Really excited about BoW events in the future and always wanted an excuse to try out Infinity but so many game systems and so little cash.
Maybe we could run ‘Demo Weekends’ where we all learn or expand a new system over the weekend.
Great show
1 thing about the sky TV, I dont know about you guys but apart from the regular news I dont watch TV anymore, its either ‘on demand’ services or youtube, so having a show on TV might be counter productive. I am all for having videos of battle reports to watch (Privateer Press do commentary on their templecon fights) and some other youtube personalities do gome great battle reports (looking at you wargamer girl)
We’re just looking at it as an extension really, a form of recruitment for the ‘passing traffic’ of TV
Well millions watch tv, so as a recruitment tool, you’re bound to draw a few in.
Isn’t Castlerock the seat of the Lannisters :p. Dublin would be by far the easiest place for me to get to as I can get a flight to there. Castlerock would be the next easiest as I can fly to Belfast then would need to sort transport from there. Galway would be the hardest to get to.
That reminds me, I forgot to answer the question about events from yesterday’s show. I will get to wherever I can though the easiest it is for me to drive there from Newcastle, the more likely it is I’ll be there. Nottingham is very easy for me if you combine a road trip with running an event.
I’m no fan of the Winter Olympics but my guess is that you steer those things by shifting your weight and if there’s two of you, success relies on shifting your weight in unison. Could care less either way. I’m not ashamed of my hobby and will happily tell people I tabletop game. That inevitably leads to the “do you mean Games Workshop” conversation and then having to explain it’s that sort of thing but no, I don’t play Games Workshop games.
Yeah, I’m not shy of my hobby. Most of my friends and collegues know I play wargames. The conversation of ‘no, not World Of Warcraft’ or ‘games like Warhammer but not Warhammer’ are a little tedious.
I have one great advantage – my main gaming mate work in the same office – so we rant about it over coffee every day 😉
Hey Ben, we could fly to Belfast, meet up and rent a car to get to the boonies.
Maybe get 2 more Beasts to cover the costs?
Would be very happy to do that 🙂
Let’s see when and where the Meet of the Herd is and make plans then, ok?
We may well run lifts depending on how people arrive. So there should be options.
Warren, you’re not the only on who noticed something ‘interesting’ about the double Luge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=effb2JYiKXM
best super power is turning invisible when no-one is watching
The chances of me being able to travel are virtually nil given family commitments et al, but if I were to travel over, I think Castlerock would be the place I’d like to see most. Its also no doubt much cheaper for you guys to organise at home – and less time consuming.
PS the luge are steered and braked, weight shifting steers, and you pinch your feet together to brake (in effect push the two runners in at the front).
I think the idea of a TV show of people playing games has merit – Will Wheaton attracts big audiences for his board games after all- but you’d probably need more than just a couple of people playing a game to keep it entertaining, commentator types and tactical insight maybe? I’d also think you would need to be a bit choosy over the games too, watching people move 200 minis for half an hour in a game of warhammer fantasy wont be compelling viewing for instance.
I thought Dreadball, Mercs, Infinity and Bolt Action have been the most photogenic games you’ve done in terms of video interest (from someone who only plays one of those)
“Much worse than porn” should be the new BoW tagline. It’ll do wonders for your SEO 😉
TV battle reports get the thumbs up from me. I’d like to go to Casterly rock sorry Castlerock to play a BOW tournament. Unfortunately for me I don’t play infinity (Never got round to it). If there are other tournaments with other games (Deradball, Warmahordes, 40k 🙂 ) I would definetly show up for the week end.
Well considering its one of these games that you can get away with about five models, I was actually just going to buy some lol
@warzan: Hey Warren, as you did the Dreadball Academy together with James, I’d like to ask you to take a look at Slaughterball. It is just a one-man project and the creator is looking for funds right now on Kickstarter, but what he has shown so far looks amazing both in regards to the sculpts and rules-wise.
I’ll check it out today
Definitely interested in the Inifnity tournament. I have picked up the books, models and scenery but haven’t really had opportunity to play much, but the idea of following Warren’s example for Dropzone and improving as you go through with a bunch of friendly felllow BoW members is definitely appealing, If by the end of it I come out feeling I ok now the game and could introduce others confidently that would be a win for me. My vote went to the BoW homeland. Thinking I could potentially bring the family over to Ireland as well and potentially carry on touring about the week following the tournament for our family holiday as never been to Ireland 🙂
Unfortunately I can’t cover the travel expenses at the moment, but my vote would be to go to Castlerock. A long weekend combining sightseeing at the BoW home and a game event just sound like a wonderful combination.
Great show guys,
I hate snow and the cold in general so meh,,, though the Ice Hockey is always fun.
I don’t know how I’m going to get there so what ever airport is closest will do for me 😀
I like the live show aspect, turn 8 was a smash up good time
I will throw some coin in that direction 🙂
Dublin as I did live there for half a decade – but then again it would mean that I need to get up to speed on Infinity …
Lloyd’s story at the end was brilliant. What a way to close the show! Seriously, great job guys.
Got to agree about the Winter Olympics. How does that grab prime time TV?
In defence of Dust Warfare, there are some mechanics that need tidying up, but I think a lot of that is down to this still being the first edition of the game. Teething issues, and all that.
I was a fan of Starship Troopers a decade back – another Andy Chambers game. This used a similar Reaction mechanic to Dust, and I have always thought it creates dynamic games ( back when there was lot more You Go, I Go).
They do the whole TV thing for Starcraft.. and that’s nuts in Korea they have national stsrs of nerds that click buttons.. Im sure I can be a Bolt Action superstar
Already on your way mate lol
Screaming female groupies camped outside your house Dave, wanting their chests autographed. Do you really want this lifestyle? 🙂
….
yes
He does it all for the nookie you know 😉
I call it, taking one for the team @warzan…lol
If its women we are talking about, Id take one two three… four might push it 😉
The double luge is a strange one indeed. I wonder who invented that as an idea for an Olympic game?
It’s a shame to hear about Dust Warfare not being up to scratch due to too many writers, although I did still enjoy my demo game of it at Grumpy Con last year
I was more keen to play that than the grid based Tactics game, as I preferred the look of a three dimensional terrain board, as opposed to a flat gaming mat with terrain printed on it. But I have since seen that there are pieces of terrain, like the bunkers, to add some sense of a battlefield to the game, so that is swaying me more towards it.
So I’m looking forward to seeing how Dust Tactics plays in the demo. 🙂
Will the TV show only be on satellite? I’ll have to catch it on that TV website again, as I only have freeview. Get the show on Quest, haha! 😀
It’s good to hear that the painting videos will not be in 3D. It was a cool idea, but videos in HD are good enough and everyone can view them easily while they paint if they want to, without 3D glasses getting in the way – if they had a 3D TV to view the video in the first place, that is.
I’ll have to look forward to visiting the Nottingham studio as I can’t make it to the ones in Ireland. At least I can enjoy the videos from it though! 😀
You can play dust Tactics on a completely 3d board, with some sort of grid marked out on it. We’re looking into how we would do this at the moment 🙂
And who knows going forward the grid may not even be necessary 😉
That is a cryptic comment, Warren.
Without a grid, surely it becomes Warfare…(my preferred form of the game).
Warren, I tried to contact you several times regarding advertising on BoW website. We are going to do a Comic con next October in Malta and going a couple of good table top gaming companies on board.
Please submit me an email a quotation on [email protected].
For the time being we got Corvus Belli and Knight Models.
Beasts of War should consider the model that Blue Table Painting uses for gaming vacations (Valhalla). That would allow you to have your tournaments, with sponsors and coverage, but treat it more like a vacation getaway for three or four days.
2 great videos again guys, thanks for your hard work getting these out to us. Studio 1 looks fantastic and you seem to have quite a bit of space for filming.
I’m also looking forward to your Dust Tactics shows as I’ve been looking at it for a while now. I am also interested how you would go about it without a grid..
I agree with your thoughts on how Battlefront will take Dust forward and make it a stable gaming system.
A full on BoW weekender event would be swish, surrounded by like minded lunatics. As said 2 posts up a Blue Table type thing.
So was the thought of live battle reports a joke or a serious probe into fund raising to expand BoW ???
If you were to make it part of backstage that should without doubt raise the amount of subscribers. Everyone I know loves to either make or watch or both, battle reports…
The creation of battle reports here has always been a topic of great debate. I don’t understand why?
-whatever
yeah the fundraiser would be to get the kit to do them.
The one thing that turn 8 did was get me in the painting mode. I loved painting while watching you guys go at it.
Along with john He is a beast with the paint brush. and of course the historical knowledge to boot.
A cool fund raiser would be to send John on a building and painting mission with maybe a PHR or other starter army film it and have people buy virtual tickets at 5 or maybe 10 bucks a pop and at the end of all the videos pick at random a winner of the starter army
I will freaking buy 5 tickets right now.
With dropzone the kits come with army transporter or case and all you need to play game
Maybe get john and romain involved and do 1 starter of each faction…
Just an idea I hope I give you guys some food for thought here
I’m looking forward to the dust coverage, looked at it for a long time but no takers in my local club, I ended up using the walking sherman for secrets of the third reich!
@warzan: I hope I’m the first one to post this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLSTXPXsSLg
😉
By the way… How I’d like to get involved in that Infinity special event you’re planning… Why do I live in Canada!? 🙁
Everything about the winter olympics is just weird to us in Australia.
“Wait, so everything is ice, and all the water is ice or snow? Where did they find a bit enough freezer to run the luge in? We send athletes for this stuff? Do we import them from cold countries?”
Interesting to hear about your experience of dust tactics.
I bought the dust warfare books, and it didn’t seem all that great mechanically, which was a shock. Not surprised that it isn’t pure AC as a result. Might have to try out the dust tactics rules, I do love the models!
Enjoyable shows as always.
If chess can be a spectator competition, I never understood why wargaming could not be considered the same. I am no genius, and get my ass kicked more then not, but I have seen wargamers that would put some of the best tacticians in the world to shame. I think someone with the right marketing skills could do televised wargaming the same as they have done a few times with the video game shows and contests.
On that note, as far as American T.V., the free public access channels are local city only. Very rarely do you find any that cross cities. That being said, if you get funds enough from a fundraiser, Roku might be a good option. I don’t know if you guys have those over there,(I assume you do) but they ebb and flow in popularity here. They are internet TV boxes. Netflix, Hulu, soon to be WWE TV, and a large assortment of other companies and private individuals stream to them. I stopped paying for cable years ago because of mine. Already doing internet content, this would just be a step over possibly to a different, if not larger audience.
I say you should invite this shop keep over to the studio and get her in the hobby.
Ask her if she would like a starring role in a video 😉
The 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary is the whole reason I moved to Canada. I love Winter Olympics but with crazy work schedule I haven’t watched one event.
I am so jealous of the lucky 14. I am desperate to get into Infinity but it’s a slow starter here in the Great White North. I would love to take part in an Infinity tournament.
Great show. Glad to have you all back. Justin…dude…shave yer head, I can’t take you seriously right now. You remind me of those wierd Chinese Monks. I have the same hair line as you so I know what its like.
Looking forward to the Bolt Action and FoW stuff.
We would fly over to Castlerock. I saw Infinity played at the Games Day over the weekend. Looked interesting.
As far as trailer lighting for the LEDs, you could trace the wires looking for the short (start at the connector that is where it all goes bad usually or a wire that has lot of movement while in motion) or what we have done with our boat trailers is just rewire. It really is not difficult and would only take a couple of hours. For interior lighting you can run it off of a battery or a separate power source i.e. a generator.
As far as American TV there is public access, usually run by the local community college or cable network. But for national you would have to get syndicated and that can cost big bucks.
When you guys are ready let us know we can have Studio #4 setup for you for here for your American Satellite reports! We have a studio (really its a small stage with lighting and sound system along with an HD camera) if you all decide to do an American tour.
I think that would be great 😉
I vote for… CASTLE ROCK (cue thunder & lightning effects)
Being from the States it would be hard for me to attend this year. That said if I was to cross the pond I would like to visit the HQ and see the sights. Of course when I get back to the Isles I will have to make a lot of stops as the better half hasn’t been and that means visiting England and Ireland’s tourist stops.
If it’s doable on BoW’s part, a BoW event in Nottingham during one of their roadtrips would also provide a great opportunity for those further afield to make the pilgrimage to the lead belt.
I think that is doable 🙂
I’d be game for that, only an hour and a half from me is Notts.
@warzan – Sorry it’s really bugging me! Whats the Judge Dredd thing behind your right shoulder in the full shots of you?
It’s a Judge Dread Minis game sold by Warlord Games 😉
I subscribed to Backstage especially for this XLBS, to hear your plans for Dust coverage, and I came away disappointed.
Warren, I think you’re completely wrong about Dust Warfare. Fair enough if you don’t like it, but I don’t think it’s “convoluted” or “cumbersome” at all. In fact, I think it’s one of the finest wargames published in the last 10 years, and it was well received upon release in 2012. Every time I’ve run a Warfare demo, the person I showed it to said that they enjoyed it (one person I demoed the game to at GrumpyCon actually bought a Revised Core Set after the demo!) and the London Dust Warfare scene has kicked off at Dark Sphere – albeit with only two of us, but it’s a start (and better than the zero Dust played before that!).
One thing I particularly like about Warfare is that it’s written with both casual and competitive gaming in mind. It has a lot of definitive statements (what I like to call “US-style rules”) that say you can or you can’t do something; no maybes. That appeals to me because it reduces rules arguments and makes for a tighter game.
Warfare isn’t the perfect game by any means (some people still scratch their heads when they discover that artillery can hit a hero attached to a unit but leave the rest of the unit unscathed), but it’s damn good. While I’m sad that BoW won’t feature it, that’s OK. Dust Warfare will live on through an expanding community of people around the world who play and enjoy it.
@cannor We’ll feature it for sure as it gets updates, for the moment though we’re going to follow dust as it expands into the desert etc.
Both myself and @lloyd are fans and really want to see the game get traction so we can get more games of it too 🙂
This is an exciting time, so I wouldn’t be too disappointed!
I have always thought that kick butt battle report coverage would sell. Before game commentary and break down on the army lists really showing the strategy of creating the lists and the play by play moves. I would support a fundraiser for sure!! Crazie German via YouTube will elaborate! Cheers!
Up in yours is my vote.