Weekender XLBS: RuneWars; Your Thoughts & A Corvus Belli Fantasy Game?
August 14, 2016 by dignity
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Happy Sunday 🙂
Happy early Sunday
If playing an Olympic game, is cheating mandatory?
No optional for all but the Russians
That might be a idea for a Olympic Game, not doing the sports them self but all the stuff around the games, like doping you guys and make the other guys take the fall
@rasmus I had thought of something like Black Ops or 7TV to play a game launching a raid of the Russian Doping facilities… Find the drugs before the Russians destroy the Olympics!
I know I’ve already put my name in to help test things on BoW 2 – that includes from a platform perspective as well – I do a lot of performance testing and would love to make your servers burn 🙂
@geekaylee new site is going to have a pretty sweet backend, if it can be made to sweat fairplay to you 😉
Happy Sunday… Folks… @warzan did you really say “after i creamed justins beard” and Bravo Ben for not dying of laughter at that…
On to the most important bit the sprues for dropfleet look amazing… @dignity did you and john mug Dave before he left for them… Lol
I try my best 😉
thanks for showing the community some love ,we love you back. group hug
Just switched on and I have to say it’s about time Pie Face gets some coverage on this site.
Is there a themed week planned?
id love a corvus belli fantasy game.
Happy Sunday guys. loved the new How to play Konflikt 47, The format got me really interested in the game. playing a full game from start to finish really works for me.
I now you’ve done it before with the original Bolt Action game and I’ve always thought that was one of the best How to plays you’ve ever done.
For the first time ever it’s not working
What is not?
The video…just sits trying to constantly load
I am using an iPhone 6S Plus and get a lot of buffering. I also get a lot of buffering on my Samsung 12.2 Note Tablet.
Where do you guys upload the XLBS videos? Vimeo?
Same 4 me. Try to watch it on Android Chrome Browser and it never stops loading….
But good old Firefox does it works! Happy Sunday!
I watched quite a bit before commenting. So I just wanted to say. I am really loving the focus on community comments and the community at large that is why I really really enjoyed the last backstage video.
Alright guys keep up the great work. oh and @warzan I hope you saw the thing I did up for you based on your comment from last week 🙂 regarding the Star Trek Board
Go to echo cladors sentiment here. The comment response segment of this show is genius. Even responding to a couple of interesting comments from the previous week, i feel, would definitely incentivize people to provide more input.
I completely agree. From a psychology stand point, people don’t actually care about what they put up the comment, sentiment, or work, that they see as an extension of self. But it is the number likes and comments that makes them want to post again, that research was based off Facebook posts, but I feel the point is applicable here.
Happy Sunday 🙂
Justin, this is horrendous! First time you lose your beard that’s not because of a woman 😉
Infinity dungeon crawler would be something really cool. The covert ops theme is something brilliant to make into a crawler.
But a creamed face never the less …
I’ll get my coat
And it seems it is man cream 😉
Warren is correct, it is hithero and not hit-hero
😉
This pronunciation also applies to the town of Clitheroe in Lancashire 🙂
The more I think about Rune wars and what you were saying about not porting other armies in to it, it make sense if you belive in you product that you do not want to delute it with, for instance a race of Pastamen from the dimensions of doom in an other game world.
That said if you have some Undead or Humans, and know a mdf-pusher … getting trays made in the format they use, and some cards – and the world is your oyster
Warren (and Andrea) I am sorry for trouble I caused in your home with my name idea. I also apologize for laughing so hard I cried when you told us all how he pronounced it. The idea sprang from an old Champions (superhero RPG) game I was in with my friends at school. One of the other players, my friend Jim, played a character named Saurus, a dino hero. He wasn’t real bright, but he was strong and soaked up the damage and dished out excellent physical killing attacks. My character, Speedy, and alien speedster martial artist, was vulnerable to physical killing attacks, taking extra damage from them. A running trope in our games became Saurus repeatedly getting mind controlled, and chomping on Speedy. (Jim even drew a great cartoon picture of Saurus chomping on Speedy’s arm, captioned “Best Friends or Fast Food”) There was a joke one day that Jim wasn’t there to play that Saurus was on Safari. The GM, our buddy Hector, pointed out that if Saurus was on Safari he was probably hunting down members of my alien race, and working on a cook book, though he didn’t seem to have a problem chomping on live subjects.
On the Dyson sphere concept, and not having enough mass to make a complete sphere. Eventually we should be able to create matter out of energy, think Star Trek replicators. The first several panels of a Dyson Sphere would be solar collectors and then the energy to matter conversion units, then the construction sections to use the materials to build the additional sections.
I am liking the look of the Rune Wars game. I have been looking for something for fantasy that’s different to to mainstay options and believe this may be it.
I still like the MIB idea that we are just in a marble.
warren 3 years ago I joined backstage for the xlbs solely because I had watched the Saturday weekender for 3 or 4 weeks prior to joining and thought what the hell £3 or so for double content sounds like a great deal .I had and still don’t really have any real interest in the other benefits of backstage membership for me bow is my wakeup call on a weekend .strong coffee bacon and eggs and you guys waffling on is great and is the sites strongest element and surely is what draws people in to join backstage in the first place ?
Same here darren2961.
99% of my BoW watching is the weekend shows. Same/same…wake up with my coffee and sit on the couch and watch the boys philosphise about gaming.
Very similar here, hard imagine my weekends without now and been backstage for a couple of weeks loving the extra content! Start to factor the participation aspect thy are planning too and it’s a friggin barging! 😀
* they not thy and of course bargin not barging (damn you auto-correct, damn you to hell 😀 :-D)
Many moons ago when I was at school one of my ‘chums” poured a pot of cream over me. It took two weeks of washing my hair twice a day for the smell to fade.
Is Justin sure he didn’t have a small piece of cream up his nose and not in his beard !
The idea of getting the community involved more and the fact that you’ve picked up on some of the comments on last week’s show is absolutely fab!!
There’s a lot of clever, talented, witty, intellectual, spiritual and good natured funny minds out there (as well as common amoebas like me)…in other words fabulous company and the sort of people you want to hang out and interact with. Really looking forward to seeing the development 😎
The Ashigaru army looks absolutely amazing, I’ll have to look up the thread as it has totally escaped me.
Thanks for a great show 🙂
Happy Sunday!
Happy sunday!
Cant wait to see what corvus belli end up doing 🙂
I was puzzled by Warrens comment about FFG not using others minis as being an “American thing”. GW used to kick people out of their tournaments for non-GW mini use.
Imperial Assault looks great especially when the mini’s get painted. The Jabba’s Palace expansion looks amazing.
Corvus Belli do great minis. So long as the fantasy game was not “Fantasy Infinity” it might be a good idea.
Would love a backstage “drop-in” option.
Loved the Ashigaru regiment. Add a matching eastern dragon and I’m sold on a samurai-style army.
Space fleet battles always sound much less impressive than they look. Dropfleet Commander is a perfect example of this. These ships are gorgeous
Thanks for the shout out lads. It means a lot. (You have to understand that I live away from family and gamer friends, from Sunday afternoon until Friday afternoon, most weeks and your videos and forums are my “relaxing conversation” that I have when I get home from work…and In the XLBS’s case something I watch Sunday evening to not think about work…. So I got a rosey glow out of it .)
Cough… okay sentimental stuff out of the way…… A couple of things 1) VALE Justin’s beard.. 2) Warren, what ever you blokes decide to do with backstage I will support it , the quality of stuff you have been producing over the last year is excellent. I have faith in your good taste (god help me) 3) Enjoyed the speculation and new game stuff with regards to FFG , Corvus Belli and Dropfleet (even though i don’t play or am really likely to take up there stuff) The Star Wars Tatooine figures were great, Infinity has always had models which I have admired, so would love to see what one of their fantasy games would look like, and the bloke who developed Dropfleet has to be one of wargaming’s great modern stories. The passion and vision he has for his game always makes me smile.
Thanks for another great show I look forward to see what the week brings. Cheers
Oh and talk to Ben some more ….. poor Ben (although he got to keep his beard)
I didn’t know why the Stegosaurus dance was rated R… unfortunately now I know why.
I play BattleLore which is set in the same world setting as RuneWars and so I may be tempted by this game. Fantasy Flight also plan to release an updated version of BattleLore next year with 28mm scale minis. Which means you should be able to switch miniatures between the two games.
I keep meaning to get into Imperial Assualt. I’ve played a few games and really enjoyed it. The minis are really nice, which appeals to me greatly. There are just too many games to buy and play lol.
In regards to Corvus producing Fantasy, it’s intriguing but it needs to be something different to games already out there. An anime style game set in East Asian mythology, using monsters, creatures and characters from Asian myth, with a Anime/manga feel. Infinity is another game I like the look of, but it’s more the minis I like. A dungeon/space hulk style game set in the infinity world would appeal to me.
I use to play SLA Rpg years and years ago as a teen. So this could be another game to tempt me…Damm when will it end…too many new shiny goodness…
I like the sound of more content on Beasts. I’ve always thought a series looking at the history of table top gaming, looking at rules, games and mini development, with testing out old rule/game systems might be interesting.
Thanks for another hour and a bit of great time and fun guys 🙂 Watching the weekender in both versions is the first time i do every saturday and sunday if my time permits it.
And guys: i could watch you talk and theorize about all the different stuff, even without other parts of the hobby. Thats always quality time for me 🙂 So where is our BoW-Talk Show with just all of you guys sitting together and talking about stuff? I don’t know how many would watch that, but i would watch it for sure!
And i’m loving how you involved your community with you talking about some of the comments and the community picks. It’s awesome that you involve the community in that way a bit more 🙂 And as a member of the WAYPN-Thread i’m allways happy to see some of the awesome painters in there as part of the weekender where you show their great work to the rest of the BoW-community.
Justin: You’re looking fine without the beard too mate 😉 and at least this monday it will be easier to clean your face ;P
A belated Happy Sunday (from someone who stayed up to watch the less-than-super Saturday Olympic Athletics).
I’m liking the hybrid gameply that Runewars appears to be taking:
– card spec’ed units
– dynamic sized ‘movement trays’; trade-offs (attacks~robustness) and diminishing presence on the battlefield (almost opposite of KoW – all there ’til they’re gone)
– the X-Wing style simultaneous turn plotting and template baased movement; probably initiative driven again for order like x-wing
– ‘accessible’ game in a box with expansions. If all you want is the first box that’s all you’ll ever need; unless of course you want more… Again it get’s you over that “where do I begin?” roadbump.
i think the abstracted core of the Infinity rules makes complete sense in a fantasy skirmish:
– d20 face offs; Love it
– activations; let’s get the “Leroy” bit over with turn one, spend all the activations sending the vanguard barbarian straight in (kill and be killed) then get on with the rest of the game.
– AROs; It’s always your turn – Shoot, counterspell or dodge. “Look – a guy with a cross bow has just stepped out and is pointing it at me… dodge behind the nearest pillar or stand here thinking ‘it is not my turn'”.
However keep the ruleset a lot lighter than the current Infinity N3++ and you have an ideal entry level, accessible yet lead-in game.
As for beard tips… keep it ‘conditioned/oiled’ with a suitable specfic product (not WD40 or whatever else comes to hand) – that way icky stuff can’t penetrate the follicles.
And Warren – that dance was not how to penetrate Justin’s follicles!
Really up for the live call-in show idea! let me know if you want me on to talk bollox…
Also, give me a shout if you need me to test 2.0.
I am working on getting used to Roll20, see if we can get a D&D game organised, I DM fortnightly at my local FLGS but that might be ending soon 😉
R
Really interesting thoughts about the amount of cardboard games have on the table. Personally I’d love to see more companies invest in digital content to go alongside games. I know that Fantasy Flight are coming up with an app for imperial assault which I’m looking forward to but with the powerful phones and tablets almost all of us have now surely this is the way to go rather that having more and more army lists or tokens and so forth? A combination of a place based rules and game tracking along with augmented really would be something I’d jump into in a second so I could leave the table purely for scenery and miniatures.
Happy Sunday!
Think there needs to be a BoW Drinking Game
Every time Ben says:
“cool” – take a swig
“very cool” – Down it
You’ll never make it through a weekender 😀
and “things/stuff like that” you need to down 2 😉
Oddly enough I say those phrases too much in real life – makes me sound like one of the characters from the BBC show, W1A
8pm UK time for the Live Call In is around 5am I think for us Australians, that stings a little.
Good show guys. I would think twice (or again, if you’ve already thought twice) about regularly dropping the Saturday show. I think the Weekender is the lynchpin of the site, and really everything else hangs around it. It’s what gives BoW it’s heart and soul and feel and uniqueness.
Okay, there is a lot of other great content and a great community too, but the Weekender is the the way in to all of it. It’s the accessibility of what could otherwise be an overwhelming site.
I know for me that becoming a backstager was down to wanting to be a part of a community that was lead by the Weekender – and by the feeling of wanting to support it. I don’t mind the odd dropped show when you’ve got something special on, but I think it would be a shame to lose it more frequently.
On to the other subjects discussed…
I’m very interested to see how Corvus Beli would do a fantasy game. Whatever they do it would be original and very high quality, and no doubt would be something special. I’m less interested in an Infinity Dungeon Crawler because it would be much closer to what they already do. I don’t really see the point in it – even though I love dungeon crawlers.
Really looking forward to Dropfleet Commander. I just hope those bases – which look fantastic as well as being very clever – aren’t going to be so fiddly they turn out to be a barrier to enjoyment. I can’t wait till my fleets arrive!
The comment highlights are a nice addition to the show. I usually browse a page (or two) after watching a vid, but it’s difficult to catch everything that might be of interest.
And I’m looking forward to getting to work on my DFC pledge. Those sprues turned out great.
I probably won’t build them to recommended standards. Maybe I’ll try some magnets if the model allows for it. But otherwise I’m probably going to build as many carriers as I can get away with. Really like the look of those and the effort Dave put in to model insides of the ships.
Yeah, that’s a nice idea about practicing on garbage mini’s, but I once picked some night goblins to practice black on and now I have an orcs and goblins army.
Happy Sunday to the BoW-team and community of course.
To build up a whole fantasy world will be a big task for Corvus Belli. But I’m excited to see what they will come up with. @warzan – I think you’re right, they have to start with a new rule set.
RuneWars seems cool and amazing enough to give it a second look – is the launch at Gencon the reason we saw no new GW-licensed titles from Fantasy Flight?
I paused at 14:03 just to say a huge “HECK YEAH!”… Warren said he was going off topic again and Justin said “It’s fine, this is why people come here.” Yes and yes. I can read gaming news anywhere on the interwebs, but the spiral nature of the Sunday chit-chats is why I watch XLBS. The easy flow and seemingly unscripted nature of the topics makes it less light a 6pm gaming news cast and more of a conversation with my mates over at the weeks end gaming day chin-wag I dearly love. Keep it up Warren. (no ‘hur-hur’ pun intended).
For Infinity I would love for two things:
One would be making/marking units in to different Tiers of play. Tier 1-very few special rules. Tier 2-the majority of the straight forward rules. Then Tier 3 – everything and and the kitchen sink. To help beginners get in and maybe set up tournament play.
And the O-12, because who are IN the O-12? I would love to finally know what other Nations are in there and how are they different from the rest. They don’t have to be very deep in the model range just something.
Dropfleet PHR goodness…
BoW.2.0 sounds good! I like the idea of the live phone in but I can’t make it at time in the evening, so if it’s possible to watch a recording of the show afterwards (maybe an option to drop in questions to be read out in the show) that would be good.
FFG Runewars looks interesting indeed. It’ll be interesting to see if it attracts AoS or WHFB players to it.
I’m more excited by Mantic’s Kings of war: HIstorical though! Another fantasy wargame isn’t that interesting to me unless it offers something new. So I’m interested to see Mantic mix the historical with the mythological; much more so than their alternative-to-Warhammer game. I think it’s more unique and original and doesn’t rely on providing alternatives to GW’s armies all the time in order to keep people interested – to me that made me uninterested. Just recently when they made their also-ran Tomb Kings army, which although it did look nice, to me it just lacked originality. They need to do their own thing in fantasy, and I’m glad they’re doing it with their historical game. Although it did bring back to mind that GW did used to have their own Warhammer: Historical game, so it’s not an entirely unique and unborrowed idea from GW. But I think it will definitely be more popular. Can’t wait to see more about that game.
The Justin pie face test should be a regular feature. 😀
I would guess (and that is exactly what it would be) that the only part of infinity which Corvus Belli would be really keen to retain in a fantasy setting is some way of making sure both players are fully engaged in all parts of every turn. I am – like Warren – not sure the ARO system would lend itself particularly well to a fantasy game, but the whole ‘it’s always your turn’ attitude is seemingly baked into the company’s entire gaming ethos. That is my opinion based entirely on the contents of my own head!
The “Ambush” mechanic in Bolt Action is perfect for things like this in my opinion.
Happy Sunday!
Yes. More Dropfleet, and it is awesome. really looking forward to getting my pledge. will there bee a Dropfleet week or maybe even a boot-camp when it goes on full release.
A Backstage Live chat sounds like a good idea definitely worth it, more community involvement is always a good idea, broaden everyone’s horizons and encourage friendly conversation.
On the subject of the creamy beard. the problem is not removing the actual cream but removing the smell from the hair follicles, should such a misfortune befall the beard again try washing it with some fresh lemon juice which should remove the smelly chemicals from the follicles, warning this may sting a bit.
I have a friend who has sworn off of historical gaming for as long as we’ve gamed together approach me during the week about Konflikt ’47 because he knew I owned enough Bolt Action minis to give it a try.
I’m loving the idea of an interactive show! Though I’ll chime in for states and say that 8pm UK time would land at 2pm here in the states, which is during the work day for most over here. If it has to be a weekday, there’d be a better chance to catch folks in the US at a later start time- even 9pm might help, though 10 would be better. Of course there’s the weekend, in which it could be almost any time you like.
As for the RuneWars game? I would have loved to weigh in on that! I LOVED it when I demoed it at Gen Con. Yes, there were a lot of bits involved, but I think Justin had it spot on, in that all those bits do the housekeeping for you. This allows you to really be IN the game rather than having to keep digging into a source book for explanations and clarifications. The dials also felt very intuitive once you felt comfortable with what the symbols represented. The Panic tokens and Runes really added fun components to the game play as well.
As for additional factions, Fantasy Flight said during the demo that they were already working on 2 additional factions, so I think we will see plenty of options for folks in short order once the game launches. Obviously this is a huge commitment for them, and they want it to succeed. I think they’ll absolutely do right by it. 😀
I have to agree with what @angelicdespot said. I think dropping the Saturday show would be a mistake. The free weekender show is a good portion of what attracts new backstagers I think. Without you guys talking to your public and advertising backstage, how will you tell people about it? Your show on Geek & Sundry is what lead me to you guys a few years ago, and I can’t imagine going a few days without my BoW fix. And a weekend without my coffee and weekender wake up just sucks. Although I would be disappointed without it, it you really need to make a sacrifice for time, the xlbs would be a more practical sacrifice. I know I would continue supporting you guys for all you do and think most, if not all, the other backstagers would as well. The front stage draws attention and supporters because of the wide net you guys throw with it, so the more the better. Maybe time limiting it could help bringing it back to an hour or less. I personally enjoy watching you guys for several hours and listening to all the news and stuff out there, and the rambling just makes it better because it is like a bunch of friends sitting around BSing. But all that being said, time being a commodity, I hope you guys will find a good solution.
If you do the live chats, could you post them up in a feed for us to check out later? Maybe that could be the new alt for the xlbs.
@nsogre – that’s an interesting suggestion, and I think a good one. If either of the weekenders had to be cut, it would make more sense to cut the XLBS (it could be replaced with a weekend VLOG if there wasn’t time to do a full show so us backstagers could still feel we were being included in things).
That said, I’d really like to keep both. I’m sure that whatever other content they’re trying to make time for is going to be good. But really, the weekender and XLBS are my favourite bits of the site. Even if it takes up a lot of time and resource, personally this is where I’d like the time and resource to be spent, even if that means slowing down the pace of other things.
Very enjoyable episode. Justin is indeed a very good sport. Much respect for his restraint and good nature. Very nice to see and hear from Dave at Hawk. Impressive sprues and glad to see the company doing well. Keep up the good work.
As for the WEEKENDER, a few thoughts:
Bearing in mind it’s a big draw to the site every weekend for the broader YouTube audience. It could however be lightened up a bit (i.e. shortened to consistently under an hour) and I like the idea of a weekly round-up. This could highlight (as you already do) some of the main stories from the week – I like the way his show picked up on member’s comments. There’s always space for a deeper section on one of the top stories.
XLBS – wste a couple of my hours rambling away on a Sunday morning fro your lazy-biy chairs – no issue for me.
For example I note that in recent weeks you’ve dropped in quite a bit (25-40%?) of interviews etc. these could be simply launched on the main feed (either with YouTube or BS avilability) with a couple of excerpts highlighted on the show with studio comments and feedback. Add YouTube embeded links to the full videos and attract people across to BS with tasters of backstage content.
With a finer granularity of content you may also benefit from more external links to the site with the SEO benefits that brings.
Oh yeah – and the sooner we can edit our posts the better as far as my crappy fingers on tablet keyboard and autouncorrect is concerned 😉
I know that the whole Pie Face clip was recorded over the span of a few minutes, but that was the firmest spray can whipped cream I’ve ever seen. The brands available in the States would have turned to soup before the third question. And I now have doubts of the efficacy of the soaps and shampoos in the Emerald Isle.
Ben is next, right?
Irish Spring come to mind
I think there is definitely a place in the market for Runewars!
Right now a fantasy player can choose from two big and supported games.
There is Age of Sigmar, which is a fast, not over complicated system, which can be played with just a couple of units or with bigger armies. There is Kings of War, for massive armies and battles, where you can use any miniatures you like, you can multibase or make dioramas. The rule system is straightforward and easy to learn.
It seems Runewars will be a game of big armies and battles, with a more complex movement system and unit managment.
And as an AoS and KoW player, I can’t wait to try it out! Also, I want to explore the game’s world.
Corvus belli fantasy game I could see them doing charts for different weopons for it and have dodge bonuses/negatives depending on armour for example also the reation could be more like range area (polearms), parrying/counter attacking with bonuses from sheilds or dual weilding ect. they could defiunatly keep the depth of infinty but using very real weopon/armour philosophy.
It’s not fair ? Fairness should never take precedence over fun when it comes to games 🙂
Justin next time you play this game maybe reach out to rest of the community and introduce “phone a backstager* Then one of us could help or hinder with the answer.
Seriously funny show today guys you had me with tears in my eyes a few times.
Solution to the creamy beard. Have a shave before you play 😉
I like the idea of skyping as I reckon most people generally have far more to say than they have time to write. I think you would also have to give it a bit of time before people got comfortable seeing themselves on the show and participated fully.
Just don’t make it Mondays or Wednesdays as I’m always out.
Didn’t Corvus belli do fantasy minis before infinity.
Yes they did, if you google warcrow you can see some of the minis,
Also I would like to get involved in the talk discussions.
Love the idea of a phone in show, I doubt I’ll have the time to listen live, but make sure it’s released as a podcast to get the most listeners.
While I agree with XLBS has to have more of a focus. You do still have to have something out there for free to get more Backstagers in. I actually look forward to both,even when Warren goes off the rails.
Agree 100%. The only reason i became a backstager was by watching the saturday show for free and hearing about all the cool stuff on backstage. Made me get my membership about a year go.
Great show guys, I love the new ideas for content and the willingness to experiment . I will say I became a backstager because of front stage. It’s a real entry point for new people. So although I understand the need to create more time, pleas don’t miss to many if possible. Anyway guys keep up the good work.
You really need to get into Infinity to like it. Just start with a few mini’s and add more with different rules so you don’t get a rule overload. I love the idea of them doing a fantasy game. I would like it to be the same style as Infinity both figures and play style. With loads of magic and special rules for all kinds of classes.
The one thing I don’t understand is why if they wanted to diversify they didn’t bring out the RPG themselves?
@zaknafein5 – I guess that launching and supporting an RPG requires different skills and resources to running a miniatures company. The seem to have got a pretty big and pretty well respected partner and everything I’ve seen makes it look like it’s going to be a game which supports everything they’re doing with the miniatures, so I guess the question is ‘why would they do the RPG themselves, when they can outsource it so successfully?’
Launching a new line of miniatures is going to be challenging enough, but is still something that they can do at their own rate. I can see why they wanted a partner to do the RPG though.
Happy Sunday, although it is almost Monday!
Are you sure that with the “dance” you were not trying to give Justin the Sore Ass Safari experience?
a great show guys, Justin was DOOMED from the start of the game @warzan was toying with him.
I’m wondering if reducing the Sar show would be a better idea than canning it altogether.
Really looking forward to Dropfleet Commander. Still waiting for the resonation with Dropzone Commander.
Love the idea of Runequest. Played it decades ago when it was the RPG and can’t wait to see what it’s like.
I’m not watching this for UCM spacecraft… I’m watching for the cream beard! :p
I think the potential for an interactive show is huge , especially if you would have a chance to have your say with people from the industry. this would attract a lot of people to backstage if they felt they could interact with the people who make the games they love. mixed in with the opportunity to interact with the beasts of war team as well as the community as a whole would be awesome.it would also give us a deeper sense of being part of a larger beasts of war family. there are so many places you could go with what shape , structure or medium that a backer interactive show could be. the idea is raw and is so vast in scope it will need some serious thought.
the obvious worry is with the impact of changing the current format.
practicalities compared to the potential ,me i’m all about pixey dust and dreams.
With Justin’s shaved beard you guys almost look like The Ricky Gervais Show.
@warzan I think I disagree that FFG is not using Runewars as a test bed for a SW mini game. I think more people why buy products with a SW name on it solely based on that. Since the market doesn’t really have any SW minis game…FFG has a massive license with LFL. Recently they released an App to that makes Decent playable with the app running as the DM. Imperial Assault is almost the exact same game but skinned for SW theme. They announced at GENCON they will release an app for Imperial Assault that acts as the GM.
Why wouldn’t you use your own IP to design a mini game and you can totally flush it out and make it perfect. Then pitch the success to LFL and reskin it for SW? This way LFL…and FFG…isn’t taking a risk on making their first mini game totally tank AND have the SW name on it. If Runewars doesn’t do well…then no biggy in terms of investment and licensing. If they made a mini game for SW first and it failed…that could hurt other SW licensing going forward.
Imperial Assault, while being a SW Descent, is also a Star Wars Mini Battle Game. And its successful. Given the detail and special abilities of units in the game, it would be hard to widen the battles without greatly changing what it is at its core.
If FFG were laying track for one of its license to follow Rune Wars, Game of Thrones would make more sense. They did it already with Battle Lore becoming Game of Thrones Battle Lore. The only problem is they don’t have the license to make minis for GoT. That’s owned by Dark Sword Miniatures who make minis, but no actual rules/games. Rune Wars being about fantasy formation fighting, it fits Game of Thrones perfectly. But I don’t think that’s there plan either. I think Rune Wars is their goal because of all reasons listed in the show.
Great show guys. Really like the ideas for BoW2. 3+ hours of Weekender content is a lot to get through and even having you on in the background in the wargames room I sometimes don’t get to finish both shows until sometime in the week, which means being tail-end Charlie with comments.
I would urge a little caution on reigning back on the front end Weekenders. That is what got many of us here to the Backstage. Perhaps a regular news (with random chat of course) show of 25-30 minutes front stage on Saturday and then the in-depth musing on a central topic with a bit of a longer showcase of community content would be a cool format for XLBS. That would still be 50% less than you are putting out at the moment. As has been mentioned many of us tune in each week to listen to you wander off topic in grand fashion so please don’t stop that. I’m also well into the live talk show idea so get it set up and I’ll try and call in if I have anything worth saying on your chosen topic.
If I could have something different about Weekenders I could live without the extended puff pieces for forthcoming sponsor games, but I appreciate they probably help pay the bills. I don’t mind a few minutes of “Here look at the shiny-shiny” but that would be enough for me. I’d prefer that the extended ones had their own preview vids like the unboxing series so we could go and seek them out ourselves if we were into a game. I daresay I’m out on a limb with this one but I’m not a Dropzone/fleet, Infinity, Warmahordes, AOS or Boltaction player so seeing their latest efforts is only of passing interest. You might ask why I tune at all given what I don’t play, but there hasn’t been an episode yet without something for me in terms of interesting or thought provoking hobby content so keep up the diversity. On that topic – loving the ashigaru regiment.
Finally remember to play nicely. Don’t be mean to Justin and let Ben say something at regualr intervals. Perhaps you should have an alarm, the Ben Buzzer, that goes off if he hasn’t been allowed to speak for 4 or 5 minutes. Just don’t use the IM alert noise!
Overall I love being a member of this community so keep up the great work.
On the topic of a Corvus fantasy skirmish game. I’d be up for that one – their minis are incredible. Didn’t we already have a manga fantasy game though – wasn’t that Anima Tactics? Great sculpts but perhaps miniature cost and the character driven nature of the game partly led to its demise.
Happy Monday guy`s…………….(i know it should of been Sunday, but i had a crappie internet connection yesterday and it took me quite a few hours to watch the show all the way through. So i`m re-watching it again this morning, fingers crossed the internet works the way it should).
First of, great show as ever guy`s. At the time of the comp winner being announced, i was just swigging down my first (of many) cuppa`s of the day. At which point i almost spat my brew all over my laptop, as i thought i had herd my user name being mentioned. So to make sure i back tracked the video, and sure enough there it was again (This time no cuppa near the gob). Can`t wait to get them in my greasy old man mitt`s, and get a really good close up look at them.
@Warren have you had your kicking yet, and does your Saurus hurt. Rule of thumb for you @Warren, “Think before you say”. In this way you wont get into trouble with your better half.
I`m head over heel`s with @brushstrokes Cracked Ice bases, and now there`s a link to “How to” i`ll be trying this out. This is one of the main reason`s i love the BoW community, you just never know what your gonna see appear. Great work on the bases @brushstroke, very well done.
Corvus Belli Creating A Fantasy Game, now that`s something i would like to see them do. As they already do an amazing futuristic game with some of the most lovely mini`s around , so i think they would not let there fan base down with a half “Arsed” sorry excuse for a game. Can`t wait to see what they come up with, and i bet it`ll be knock out.
Now on to the part i`ve been waiting for…………..Dropfleet Commander, now like everyone else it`s almost time to have it in our greasy little mitts. I`m loving all the frames that`s being shown on the show, the detail of the ships is out of this world. Look`s like @john is biting at the bit to get to his “Faction”, but @justin is making him wait. Which is not a bad thing as most of us like to keep the “Best” till last, now don`t get me wrong all the factions are great, but for me it has to be the “UCM”.
I’m another one for whom the frontstage Weekender was a catalyst for becoming a Backstager. Whilst it was the determining factor, I likely wouldn’t have been paying as much attention to the site without it. I wouldn’t object to shorter Weekenders, though. I rarely have the time to make it through all 3+ hours we often get when there are two shows. If that means a 30 minute Saturday Weekender and the XLBS is kept to its current length then that’s fine with me.
I agree wit red ben here I joined only because of weekenders. after watching you guys for year or so I decided to try that 7 days trial as soon as you annouced it and all contend keept me in.
I didn’t sign up to backstage in order to be part of the community, nor is this the reason i tune into weekenders. Usually, when i watch weekenders, it’s background noise and largely not of interest to me, or covered elsewhere on the site. That’s not to say there’s nothing of interest, but i can take or leave the chit chat, innuendo and splat. I signed up for the interviews you have, insider knowledge, tutorials and expert advice, and, specifically at the time, for the content you had on airbrushes. I also signed up to support a site i was / am using. As an aside, i think asking XLBS weekender watchers what kind of content they like is a bit like asking a group of people half way through their umpteenth twice weekly horror flick what film genres they like. ( You can replace ‘horror’ with any genre you like by the way – ‘horror’ was just the first thing that came to mind. )
RuneWars doesn’t interest me, though i am always on the look out for skirmish / battle games. I’m for the use of various pieces of card as bookkeeping tools, and i like the xwing style of system – wherein both players must choose what their troops are going to do before both players’ troops’ actions are taken ( indeed i’d been waiting for games to go that way for a good long time ), but on the other hand i’m not against tables and dice and tape measures either. I’m for whatever does the job best. It seems to me, for example, that if they are going to use the same type of card measuring template that x-wing ( or man o war ) used then the types of terrain that can be put on the table could be limited in a way in which it wouldn’t be with a tape measure. I’ll wait and see what happens with that. The clincher for me though is the miniatures, which are very much not to my liking.
More generally, i’m less interested in games that tend towards creating a universe that is designed in order to facilitate the game, its mechanics and marketing, and more interested in games that tend towards being designed in order to recreate a universe ( or aspect thereof ). In reality i think this can be quite a slight difference. Most fictional universes are ‘inspired’ and recreated from others, and it seems to me there are certainly fictional universes that i wouldn’t of heard about if their ongoing creation hadn’t been to some extent for and / or facilitated by the games that are set in them, but that are non-the-less created because they are a universe which the game designers would like to play in and imagine even if they weren’t a commercial success. That said, there are plenty of other fictional universes whose armies have clearly been designed to be ‘fair’ despite all the fluff to the contrary.
Wow, great show. A couple of points:
1. I really like the section on last week’s comments. Having three kids myself, I only get to watch the weekender late in the evening and sometimes even only during the beginning of the following week. I never have the time to look at the comments and I only post, if there is a competition with a really shiny prize. So having you guys tell me what was great in the comments is a team plus.
2. Can’t wait for my Dropfleet.
3. I really do not like shows that feed on the misfortune of others, so the pie thing was not for me. I know that Justin has his weird moments and I really did not like Warren to pick on it (keyword polarity). However, I do appreciate the “when he is right, he’s right” attitude. While I did not like the pie thing in the first place, I am looking forward to Justin’s revenge. Warren, you earned it.
so am I mat. Icould not put it better :D.
please let me know! I am a software developer and I can help!
runewars excites me… but I am curious about the scale, the trays would be perfect to be used as trays if they fit 28mm.
Warren, sounds like you might be interested in implementing something like that Adafruit does with their Show and Tell stuff. I could see that being cool here.
@dignity Try using a bit of shampoo and washing it thoroughly. It works for pubes, it will work for beards
shaving cream pie in the future?
Happy Sunday ( Tuseday) I am not in to space battles games but that new havk game looks interesting, is there a chance For play game also I would love to see infinity dungeon crawler.
@warzan totally onboard with your reasoning for having some minis ready to paint at a moments notice. Eliminates a lot of arguments for reasons not to paint. I primed some minis for Shadows of Brimstone. Nice sculpts but the minis are pretty bad quality wise so I’m not worried about doing too bad of a paint job with these. They are now ready for a base coat of paint!
The test models idea is a really great tip. I suffer from skill paralysis all the time when it comes to painting projects. But I do have a load of models I will never use. Thanks guys!
Thank you for an entertaining XBLS – sorry to see the Cream in the Face result in the loss of your Beard, Justin – may it grow back longer 🙂 . Note I don’t get to watch XBLS until Monday morning at the earlist and often later due to time constaints – but I do watch and sometime my wife will sit and watch as well as she enjoys the discussions (although not a gamer she does model work on her n gauge railway).
I am thinking that the Fantasy / SiFi gaming area is getting crowded – is it time for some of these companies to look to Historical and try something different in that space – say a skirmish game/ card game based around the War of the Roses – where ‘backstabbing” was brought to a high art? Lots of real life characters who can interact plus smaller scale combat – just thinking.
Maybe next for the pie game have Ben over and give him one click for every time he says “and stuff like that” on the sobs show 😉
I wonder if Fantasy Flight will allow heroes from Decent to enter the RuneWars game. If they’re in the same world, that’d be a fun little crossover.
I have some older Warzone plastics that I think I’ll use the @warzan maneuver on. Good idea….
@warzan and @dignity if you want to play Imperial Assault, check out Combatzone Scenery and their scenery for Imp Ass (ok abbreivation for it?). Looks awesome ordered it all, and picking it up when going to Manchester and Ardacon in October!
And @brennon, I’m definiatly going to use Sorastros guides to paint my Imp Ass!