BoW Awards 2014: Pulp, Punk, Horror Or Weird & Historical Game
January 3, 2015 by dracs
We're moving on to discuss the Pulp, Punk, Horror Or Weird & Historical categories and narrow it down to the final four from the industry in 2014 for the Beasts of War Awards.
This year seems to have seen the resurgence of love for both of these categories and there are a whole bunch of amazing entries for both genres so it's a hard choice to decide precisely which deserves the most praise! It's great that you have to make the decision for us!
Tune in on the days below at 18:00/6pm GMT to watch each of our nomination shows to find out the finalists and then the results show on Sunday 4th of January 2015...
1st January - Sculpt, Painting & Sci-Fi
2nd January - Fantasy & Accessory
3rd January - Pulp, Punk, Horror Or Weird & Historical
4th January - Finals Night!
Talk about the awesome nominations below!
The one I’ve been waiting for. Who ever wins in these categories, I won’t be disappointed
Gutted Wolsung didn’t make the final but was a tough category.
While I figured Wolsung would have been nominated, to be honest, I don’t think it every had a chance of winning in 2014. Besides a rather successful Kickstarter there hasn’t really been anything going on in the game. There is still only a very small number of miniatures available for the game and none of the new factions are available to the public. If they can get most or all of the products from Kickstarter out in 2015 I could see it being Wolsung’s year. As it currently stands though I think the game is still too much in its… Read more »
I’m going to be dreaming about that music by the time this is done lol. I picked up the Deep Wars rulebook last year and it’s on “the list” to try out for this year.
Historical has such a vast background fluff…. wait, it’s not fluff 🙂
A recommendation for anyone wanting to see if Ancients appeals – try readnig any of Simon Scarrow’s Cato and Macro books. Entertaining and full of historical notes – anywher that he has tweaked history for story-telling purposes gets mentioned in the final section.
Menatime I am reading Tigers in the Mud. John will know that book.
Tiger? Mud? Is it anything to do with this….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQfidTOTsLo
You have me and the kids Jiving over here with that lol!
Sadly I don’t have to click on the link to know what’s gonna play.
Sadly I don’t think thats the Tiger he was mentioning. This piece of “history” may be better off buried in the mud 😛
Please, I don’t even want to think of it.
Amen, @dorthonion. It’s not “fluff.”
Looking good for 2015 on the historical front. Saga and anything set in the Dark ages is a firm favourite for me.
Warren is looking at doing some Ancient warfare as well. Beasts of War it’s quite a journey you have been on in a short space of time.
Two out of four for the Weird category. Did not expect Zombicide or Dystopia to make it, although come to think of it Dystopia Wars does have a pretty big following. Three out of four for Historical. I don’t really know enough about Fire and Sword but the other three were not surprising at all. If you even have a passing interest in historicals you know that FoW, Bolt Action, and SAGA are some of the biggest dogs in that category. Yay, prediction time! Weird – It may be tempered by my inner bias, but I’ll have to go with… Read more »
Same here I have never before experienced a game that has created so much interest in historical games, from non historical players.
They definitely seem to have hit a niche in the market, reminds me actually of when FoW appeared on the scene and started to pick up ex 40k/WFB players wholesale. Will be interesting if they can keep up the momentum through 2015.
Congratulations to all finalists! Especially to By Fire and Sword, they are not that popular yet they made it to the final 4. 😛
What has excited me most about all three shows so far is not that my nomination has always been in the top 4, but there have been 2 if not 3 other games that I have yet to experience which have clearly got a huge following. 2015 will hopefully have me delving into some other top gaming systems.
Thats the way to look at it!
Me too! Might well have to have a look at By Fire and Sword, a period of history I haven’t played before.
This might be a little out of left field for this but I wonder if Bandai’s will get in to the table top with Gundam. They are a massive Model company with Gundam close to the likes of the ones mentioned in the show at the end. And Gundam has been in so many different gaming formats why not Table Top?
If they do or not, I have a feeling what the guys said in the video is true. With more traditional model making companies entering the field things are going to get interesting.
If it sells they will make it.
Bandai has not really handled well they TCGs so I do wonder could they handle something that is more complicated and requires recources to developt, produce, market and sell than TCGs. Most of they TCGs have failed because of how badly those were handled. Even one based on popular anime and manga franchise Naruto as well as one based on popular multimedia franchise Digimon.
voting for this one was so difficult… i don’t even remember what i voted for… dust? malifaux? carnevale? uhm… they are all just great and distinctive!
Aww . . . Neither Chain of Command and Battlegroup Kursk made it to the finals. No worries. Glad to see some lesser-known games made it in. 😀
I’m with you there Oriskany. I’m quite a fan of Too Fat Lardies approach to historical. Chain of Command looks like the sort of WW2 miniatures game I would like to try.
For others, I encourage you to take a look yourself. Attention! Chien lunatique!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiT70m6CJO8&spfreload=10
My two votes made it to the final.
I’d choose Bolt action as the winner in historical, but have a feeling it will be flames of war.
Cant call the other one at all.
Interesting group, on the subject of historical don’t forget it will be the 200th anniversary of (WATERLOO on the 18 June) so this may be a good time to do Napoleonic wars @warzan ?
Also the 600th anniversary of Agincourt
Very tough choices. Well presented, thank you guys.
I don’t remember any Werewolf’s in Dust….
lol I don’t remember them either 🙂
Well Justin, at least you tried.
Just a shame that your fishtank line sort of… well… sank, basically.
Yeah both Justin and I had a laugh at that during editing.
Another great show (and I retract the comment I left on the first saying that I wanted more chat about the games… I do, but I don’t think these videos are the place for it). It’s nice to see historical wargaming growing in popularity, because of it’s influence on all the non-historical games that were inspired by it, because some of the attention that has gone to SF & fantasy gaming for a long time is now going back to historicals and because history is just interesting! Also great to see the expansion of ‘Pulp/Punk/Horror/Weird’ gaming. This is really an… Read more »
Very good observation regarding the PPHW group. I have noticed that women, a demographic that is normally rather small in wargaming, tend to LOVE Malifaux.
Not going to speculate now as to why but it is a trend I’ve noticed over the past few years.
I’ve noticed it too. With RPGs, White Wolf’s ‘Vampire: the Masquerade’ and the associated live action game drew in female players in numbers that I haven’t seen other games do. It could be a local thing, but I get the impression it was more widespread. Of course, I think the way the game was designed and written may have contributed (i.e. not all of what made it happen was to do with the genre), but I think it was more accessible to a more mixed group of players than DnD type games are/were. But I’m also thinking children too. Take… Read more »
Can’t wait to see the results especially in historical section. I have always been a sf/fantasy wargamer but since begining of 2014 got myself into historical games and OMG. Started with FOW, went through some Napoleonic Times and now collecting By Fire and Sword. All it took there was a leap of faith and a box of Ottoman Empire skirmish force. Grand minis, grand game. Now my eyes are looking keenly on Saga – Vikings baby! 🙂
You won’t be disappointed with Saga – absolutely fantastic game, lovely rules system and pretty cheap to play too. Glad to see it get into the final 4!
Obviously we were a little disappointed that In Her Majesty’s Name did not get into the top four. However, even to be nominated alongside such splendid and well-supported games was an honour in and of itself.
It is also an award for the loyalty and enthusiasm of our players without whom IHMN would be so much less.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen for your continued support.
Cheers,
Craig & Charles.
Well this was the one I was waiting for… as a historical player in the main.. it was interesting to see which games were nominated and chosen… disappointed to see that Chain of Command did not get to the finalists its a far far far better rule set than Bolt Action, I guess its just not people on here have been brave enough to pick up the rules and try playing it yet;-) Anyway good to see that @Warzan going to explore Ancients… I wonder will he start with the rules that are played by the majority or Ancient players… Read more »
Although there’s been a big growth in interest for historicals, much of it has come from people used to Fantasy / SF gaming (or so it appears to me). It’s probably not a surprise therefore that as people move towards historical games, they’re not primarily being drawn by/to ‘realistic’ rules sets that accurately represent conflict they may not actually know very much about. It’s also not a surprise if they are drawn to historicals by games designers and sculptors / companies that they already know from Fantasy / SF games. I don’t have the stats to back this up, but… Read more »
Actually I am all for bringing in people into the historical arena by any means, In terms of land warfare my interest actually stopped at American Civil War until a couple of years ago. Then two things happened first I got hooked on Very British Civil War (ok not Historical but set in an alternate history) and second I played Bolt Action which I initially loved playing, I do like the mechanics and started on my Japanese force etc… Then I was introduced to CofC and it highlighted some of the flaws in Bolt Action for me and I stopped… Read more »
I agree with Rob that getting players in historical gaming by whatever means is good, agin like Rob Bolt Action and FOW dont really do it for me as they dont give me what I think a WW2 game should be. I also think ( and its just point of view) that historical players stay in their own groups and forums more and find a set of rules and stick to them. I know Napoleonic players that found a set of rules they like and are still playing them 30 years later with no reason for change I suppose another… Read more »
My guess is that historical miniature producers were selling to a market that for many years wasn’t growing very much / very quickly, while GW was able to sell to a new market (kids and young adults) that grew and was constantly turning over and that demand allowed them to raise prices. I suspect that GW’s constant price rises have however opened up a lot of space over the years, allowing new and established producers of both fantasy/SF miniatures and historicals to raise their prices too – and in so doing, to employ new writers, sculptors, etc., invest in new… Read more »
Bolt Action and Saga have each accounted for about a third of the minis I’ve painted in 2014.
But you can use you BY minis with CoC . ..lol
BA minis even…grrrr bloody tablet
Like Bob, I am disappointed not to see Chain of Command go further. Our group abandoned BA completely once we found CoC. It’s just as easy to play and much more fun and exciting. I’ve been disappointed that the rules haven’t had more coverage from the team here. That seems to have had a real effect on voting.
Sorry, meant to type “Like ROB”.
That’s ok will let you off this time….lol