Weekender XLBS: Telling Stories With Miniatures
December 2, 2018 by crew
For some website features, you will need a FREE account and for some others, you will need to join the Cult of Games.
Or if you have already joined the Cult of Games Log in now
What difference will having a FREE account make?
Setting up a Free account with OnTableTop unlocks a load of additional features and content (see below). You can then get involved with our Tabletop Gaming community, we are very helpful and keen to hear what you have to say. So Join Us Now!
Free Account Includes
- Creating your own project blogs.
- Rating and reviewing games using our innovative system.
- Commenting and ability to upvote.
- Posting in the forums.
- Unlocking of Achivments and collectin hobby xp
- Ability to add places like clubs and stores to our gaming database.
- Follow games, recommend games, use wishlist and mark what games you own.
- You will be able to add friends to your account.
What's the Cult of Games?
Once you have made a free account you can support the community by joing the Cult of Games. Joining the Cult allows you to use even more parts of the site and access to extra content. Check out some of the extra features below.
Cult of Games Membership Includes
- Reduced ads, for a better browsing experience (feature can be turned on or off in your profile).
- Access to The Cult of Games XLBS Sunday Show.
- Extra hobby videos about painting, terrain building etc.
- Exclusive interviews with the best game designers etc.
- Behind the scenes studio VLogs.
- Access to our live stream archives.
- Early access to our event tickets.
- Access to the CoG Greenroom.
- Access to the CoG Chamber of Commerce.
- Access the CoG Bazarr Trading Forum.
- Create and Edit Records for Games, Companies and Professionals.
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
Happy Saturday night
… Second …. sigh …. Happy Sunday afternoon
Happy Sunday!
As far as telling stories with miniatures, that’s what I do with every tabletop minis game that I play. I have never played a game with intentions of only winning. For me it’s all about telling a story. Every game is a movie for me that takes place on the table.
I have a very hard time trying to get into the head of a competition only gamer. Why play a game that has no back story. I know everyone is usually aware of the game universe information but what I’m getting at is, how did the forces right there on the table get there today? Why are they fighting? This is not to be confused with what are the goals of the day’s battle.
I always play out how my troops on the table got there. While playing I don’t always make moves just to win. Cinematics are more enjoyable and better way of play in my opinion.
To play just to win seems shallow and not really worth the time to setup and play.
That’s my two cents.
I agree with @templar007 winning is secondary to telling a story and having a laugh with your mate(s) while gaming.
Yep – no point playing a game if you’re out to just stomp your opponent. I don’t like that at all, would much prefer to play through proper narrative experiences where the effect is shared between players.
Happy Sunday!!
Any game I play where my force doesn’t have names and backgrounds is less enjoyable than being able to be completely immersed and working with my named team who is charging at bleeding for me at my orders.
Hmm … Okay.
Happy Sunday… or it would be if my Virgin broadband was working at any kind of meaningful level!
has it been deflowered?
?
Did I hear reference to these or similar MPATHG diorama units?
https://www.behance.net/gallery/2428458/Monty-Python-and-the-Holy-Grail-Warhammer-Miniatures
Oh yes. That’s them. Brilliant army. And one of the main reasons I decided to seriously step up my game when I first saw it.
@warzan I highly doubt Adolf Hitler and Hess were in a Homosexual Relationship that’s a very suspicious story that branches out from an exaggeration of a true story. Out of interest what was the Documentary/Youtuber you watched I’d like to check them out.
The head of the SA Ernst Rohm was a Homosexual (as @dignity mentioned) and when he was arrested and the SA murdered it was announced to the public that he was a Homosexual. The anti-Nazi propaganda that was then put out was that Hitler and Rohm were lovers but that was total lies. Hess was absolutely a Nazi. He wrote the Nuremberg laws, well he oversaw their writing and gave the final sign off to them, it’s where the Blood Classification of Jews comes from, the dude was a committed Nazi. The Nazi’s were a tiny party that was on the verge of being banned when Hess joined it, if he wanted to get political power there were much easier and much safer ways to do it.
Hitler did try to make peace with the British but you don’t fly your deputy in, by himself, to start discussions. Both sides had agents and spies that could have handed over messages or packets with ease.
Churchill absolutely did not push the UK into War. That is absolutely not true. Churchill had spent a lot of time in a lot of warzones (Sudan, Boer War, Afghanistan and the Trenches of WWI [where he went over the top many times] to name a few) he knew what war was and he knew Britain could not beat the German’s alone. The King hated Churchill because Churchill supported his older Brother who was forced to abdicate for marrying an American Actress not because he was pro or anti German. Churchill was given the PM job after the Opposition demanded Chamberlain resign and a giant political shit storm erupted that I can’t go into here but Churchill got the job.
Hess was an Infantryman in WWI and got trained in aircraft at the very end of the war. He also admitted that he was faking the Amnesia during the trial. Goering was a master of Charisma during Nuremberg. He would give lengthy speeches about everything under the sun until the Prosecution got to the Death Camps. The second they showed footage of Death Camps it all disappeared and he knew it was over. He killed himself before he could be executed. There’s a documentary series on Hess, Goering and Speer that covers the Nuremberg Trials pretty well called Nuremberg: Nazis On Trial.
I’m a huge fan of telling a story. Every one of my armies has a story behind it. My Star Wars Legion are based around an urban/moonscape environment, my This is Not a Test/Post Apocalyptic force is an anti-Mutant Cult, one of the minis is loading a shotgun and in the fluff he’s the Executioner who’s job it to execute any mutants even my Historical Skirmish armies have a story (Check out my projects for more on that).
Heck Darkstar isn’t even published yet and I’ve gone and both made minis as well as given them backstories. I think my next mission should be to finally build that Space Marine Chapter I’ve had in my head for about a decade. So yeah to me telling a story with your minis and about your minis is very important.
I would add that the King was a very close friend of Lord Harris who was trying to make peace overtures with Germany even after Churchill became PM. So with Churchill advocating no negotiation with Germany and Hitler something to be fair he’d been advocating throughout the 1930’s his working relationship with the King was never going to be perfect
@torros you’re absolutely correct. I believe it was Lord Halifax that bought the initial Peace Treaty (via Italian Mediation) to Churchill but he took it to the King First as a kind of power play to force a peace. Churchill eventually opened up negotiations under extreme protest but the Italian’s exposed themselves a few months later and that just increased Churchill’s reluctance to negotiate.
@warzan if you’re interested in Churchill I would recommend the movie “Darkest Hour” it covers the politics as well as a movie and so it’s not perfect but it’s a good way to get eh General vibe of what the British Government looked like in the first few months of WWII.
No idea why I typed Harris
Thanks very much for the Darkstar mention, @elessar2590 – and I’ll chime in that your 3D models for your the game and backstories on your starship classes look great!
https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1305519/
As far as the what you say above re: the historical discussion, I agree just about 100% with what you’re saying. I would just add Wilhelm Stuckart as a co-author of the Nuremberg laws, and given Hess’ overall levels of competence , hypochondria, and co-dependence, I would probably place most of the “credit” (if you want to call it that) with Stuckart.
I should elaborate re: Churchill.
Prior to WWII Chamberlain and his Government were utterly opposed to another War. They were willing to do anything to avoid a war until people like Churchill (he wasn’t alone) drew a line in the sand and got the Government to agree to it. Austria had fallen, Czechoslovakia had fallen both of them had flooded Germany with men, weapons and equipment and a sense that they could operate with impunity.
Think of Germany like a street gang, the USSR like a Mafia Boss and the Western Allies like the Police. The Street Gang can operate within some basic perimeters so long as it pays the Mafia and intimidates the Police. The Police were squabbling within their own ranks about how to deal with the gang, whether to just let them go and save money and blood or to stop them early before things got out of hand.
The UK decided to draw a line in the sand with Poland. That was their big moment, it was an unhappy compromise rather than a push for war, most people thought it would be enough.
Prior to WWI the prevailing though was that Belgium could be invaded with impunity by the German’s since the UK wouldn’t go to War over “A scrap of Paper” (A Treaty). The British proved them wrong once and they hoped the German’s remembered the lesson.
If Poland fell then the USSR and Germany would control Europe between them and the only direction for Germany to go would be West.
So in reality the British waited until almost all the land to the East was taken before putting their foot down and essentially saying “Look we can see what you’re doing stop now or we’ll strike first”.
I think another problem was that that the public in the 30′ saw Churchill as a self promoting rogue politician flip flopping between parties eventually getting back into Parliament as an independent. People’s memory of the Dardanelles campaign and to a lesser extent his fervent opposition to Indian independence meant he was in he political wilderness from 29 to 39 and so without much hope that the British people saw him become PM after Chamberlain
I shall hunt it down, popped up on auto play during a bout of recent insomnia 🙂
If it was during a bout of insomnia, are you sure sleep deprivation didn’t mess with your perceptions and get what was actually said muddled up? ?
I’m not that familiar with the period, but i thought it worth adding that i did hear somewhere ( i cannot recall where ) that Chamberlain wasn’t a pacificist as such. Chamberlain ployed money into the navy and was more inclined to make sure that Britain continued to maintain it’s place as a world power via that navy. Do correct me if i’m wrong about that.
@totsuzenheni you’re 100% correct. There’s a big difference between Pacifism and plain not wanting to go to war.
Pacifism to me is doing anything possible, including damaging concessions to avoid war while “Avoidancism” is just doing everything to avoid war without giving any ground personally.
@ elessar2590 I’d not heard of the term ‘avoidancism’ before. I’ve read about the distinction between ‘non-violence’ and ‘pacificism’, a distinction that Gandhi made if recall correctly, with non-violence being about methodology and pacificism being about avoidance.
To be fair I made it up because i couldn’t find the right word. I wouldn’t call them non-violent but more inclined to avoid war.
It’s a good term. I might use it. Miss out the ‘c’ for slicker pronounciation maybe. ‘Avoidanism’.
Morning everyone!
Morning!
Our entire house was packed out WED-FRI. Had a nice relaxing morning watching the show, now off to start cleaning the house so we can turn it back over to the Army!
Great show as usual guys. Would have to agree that the minis are a crucial part of gaming/narrative for me. For me it truly is about socializing with other gamers and telling a story. Just playing a points match for me is really not fun at all, and I’ve come to the point that without a narrative I almost don’t even bother playing a game. I’d rather socialize and hang out with other gamers while they play. That was probably evident at the FOW boot camp as I only played in a couple of games. I think the only exception for me is a doubles match where you almost create a narrative by having four people participating.
This XLBS was a great way to relax after the packers finished packing out our entire house this week! Thanks guys. Your shows will keep me connected during my transition back to the U.S. until I get all my stuff on 6 FEB.
@dracs. Bill and Sam look great!
wow what a table and screen upgrade…..
Time to listen to some big talk on the issues of the day. See you on the other side ?
come on Boffins!
I would have thought every game was a story be it a campaign, competition or just throwing stuff on the table for an evenings gaming (Sorry can’t remember what the new fangled hipster names for these are) without going to all the trouble of names and back stories
I will leave that for when I’m playing RPG’s
Of course, but there’s something kinda awesome about it being elevated above just metal/plastic/resin pieces being moved around a tabletop.
Even if it’s ‘Grey Marine Bob’ and he does something epic, that’s kinda cool.
@dignity NOOOO! Stick with vallejo. They have far more blue intermediate tones in the range. Highlighting is easier with more intermediate shades as you have to do less mixing for blends. Don’t be scared of having edge highlights that are not blended but have quite a stark transition between them and the base tone. It looks weird close up but at the tabletop distance (2′ or more) it doesn’t look as odd.
Happy Sunday guys.
@dracs Damn fine work dude. The army looks great now it’s finished.
Great episode guys, really enjoyed it!
@dignity lovely stuff with the Ultramarines mate! I’m working on some myself currently! The edge highlights is something i’ve just started to try out… Though a light dry brush can look good as well as it picks out all of those edges.
@dracs Congrats on the fully painted force! Hard to beat that feeling of seeing all your work on the table top.
Anyone else think that in that colourised pic of Hess that Justin showed, he kinda looked like he was supposed to be presenting The Twilight Zone? ?
“Hitler was bisexual” – great, as if us LGBTQ folk didn’t have it hard enough, now there’ll be Nazi comparisons. ?
Sam is getting sick of Hobbits? Surely a sign of the End Times – What’s ext, Ben is selling all his Burrows & Badgers minis?
?
Fun > Winning
I’ll disagree with @dracs that it was right to cut Scouring of the Shire from the films because there were already too many endings; I think it was right more due to length (iirc when I saw RotK in the cinema it already required an inetermission as is). The reason I disagree with Sam is that I think if it had been included, it would have broken up the endings somewhat and would have alleviated that problem a bit.
Gollum biting off Frodo’s finger: it was in the film, but he bit off the wrong finger iirc; iirc in the film he bites off Frodo’s index finger while in the books it’s his ring finger.
Telling a story with minis is always nice; back in the day I had a Chaos Knight army where I’d used loads of different mounted minis to reflect that these were fallen knights; eg I used a Grail Knight standard bearer as a unit standard bearer, a mounted Wight King as a unit champion, the torso of the third Valten mini kitbashed with a plastic Runefang as an Exalted Champion, etc. I even named each knight on my army list (not that hard when your 2k army only has about 20-25 minis lol).
With my current Thousand Sons army (see my Project Log for pics), I’ve kitbashed my Exalted Sorcerers to reflect their pre-Heresy occupations even though ruleswise it has no effect; one is kitbashed to be a former techmarine, with mechadendrites and a cloak of mechatendrild while the other has a nathecaum on his wrist to reflect he’s a former apothecary. Beyond that I’ve recently assembled some Tzaangors using Frostgrave Gnolls and Snakemen and I plan on expanding that unit with various other beastmen/anthro-animals minis, rather than using the standard Tzaangor minis to reflect that there’s more than just the bog standard bird-goat-men, and I’ll be selecting/converting them with an eye to showing them as downtrodden/outcast wretches that the proud sorcerers are using as disposable resources. I’ve also ordered some BTD Egyptians which I’ll be converting to use as Cultists, but rather than the rag tag madmen look of standard cultists, the minis I’ve selected and the planned conversions to them will be to represent Spireguard so will have a more regimented look. Beyond this I have plans to add another Cultist squad using Genestealer Cultists converted to be slightly mutated humans; the fluff for my army is that they control their own world with hives and this squad will represent workers from the hives conscripted into being a militia/extra troops. I also have plans for a second Tzaangor Squad which will be heavily converted to be mutants, representing an even more downtrodden underclass than the second Cultist squad. I also have an idea to use AoS Nighthaunt as summoned daemons, with the idea being that they are spirits from Prospero that the Thousand Sons are summoning to unleash their resentment/anger/vengeance on the Imperium, and this might tie in with the planned kitbashes I have for Mauler/Forgefiends and a Defiler using the AoS Mortarch mini with the bound spirits inside the mini now representing some of these spirits which are being used to power the construct.
Forgot to add that my plan for Tzaangor Enlightened is to use some Tomb Kings Ushabti I have lying around; I dislike the idea of Tzaangors riding discs (as above the theme in my army is that they’re downtrodden scum, so aren’t deserving of the honour of discs), so I’m taking advantage of the fact the whole model has the Daemon keyword, not just the disc, so the idea is that these are Tzaangor that have been used to make Daemonhosts and their bodies have become twisted/mutated by the daemon bound to them.
I’m also considering a Tzaangor Shaman, but not sure yet what to use. One idea I’ve got is to use the AoS Svaneth Kurnoth as the base, adding ornamentation like that worn by the Ushabti and a headswap, with the idea being it’s been even further twisted by the daemon ehich is on the verge of breaking out.
Also, idea for next week’s topic – spinning off from this week’s, how about discussing fanfics and writing background fluff for your armies.
Happy Sunday guys, @dignity when your right, your right. You and the community managed to turn Warren around again buddy.
Are we seeing less diversity through bitz bashing in the miniatures that people field? In my community that’s a yes.
If so what are the reasons behind that? I find that a lot of people within my gaming community and the events it runs rarely have a fully painted force these days nevermind a converted one and that’s okay.
I doubt it is due to time constraints as they are the same now for most people of a gaming age as they have always been, that of hobby versus family and work.
Could it be financial? Is it because the miniature quality is better? Is it because we just don’t feel the need to? Maybe you just don’t have as many bitz left over these days or have traded or sold them on.
Would having more tutorials of sculpting and other kitbashing techniques at varying degrees of skill help?
I guess these are all questions for the community and you guys. Maybe at your local clubs, there are plenty of kitbashed minis and this is something just where I am.
Have a great week everyone.
Personally I don’t bother but it’s less of an issue in the smaller scales
Surely @brennon would be the Great Oz, he is after all just a disembodied head 😉
Happy Sunday.. I really have to say Tomas’s Farmers are utterly fabulous. Although @warzan I will say that with you comment about there is nothing the creators of Guild Ball can do to to remove that story, are you aware that there is a very fleshed out background for the guildball universe including the farmers…lol so it not gaming in the gaps but creating an alternative story.
Happy Sunday folk’s Hesse’s plan crashed in the Hill’s behind largs Guy’s
@warzan BOWs version of haggard.?
(Hagrid)!
Happy sunday!
@warzan back to Hitler,Hess abd Mien Kamf – they wrote it while imprisoned after a failed coup in Barvaria in the 20s -so to call Hess less that a true beliver in the cause … You might enjoy Hitlers Henchmen on Netflix
Is it just or are others pissed that saruman never used magic to breach the wall at helms deep.
On the subject of game’s terrain I loved some of the setting’s in space marine between ork wave’s. @warzan @dignity @crew
On the topic of telling stories with miniatures, you really need to check out this blog:
https://bigsmallworlds.com
The owner is running a long standing campaign in the Tilean city states of the Old World with very elaborate stories, custom built terrain, armies and photography.
I find there is a certain aesthetic and joy to be had with having miniatures in tableau, and then moving them in accordance with the choices that have been made and the structure of the rules, and then to find them in a new tableau. It’s not so much a narrative as a series of moments. ‘Dungeon crawlers’; i’m thinking particularly of ( a modified ) Advanced HeroQuest here, i can find to be particularly good at this because the laying out of the dungeon is systematic and at the same time suggestive of open endedness and the unknown, channelling the decision making process but not undermining it with obsolescence once one is familiar enough with the game and it’s rules. Done well miniatures and their use in games are a canvas for the imagination; a language by which to communicate or whisper barely audible incantations.
Feargal Sharkey tale
He worked in A&R after his pop career. He showed up in the early 90s judging Blackburn’s battle of the bands competition. He was sat at the bar furiously HAMMERING back the whiskey. The fella on the door didn’t recognise him and tried to charge him to get in 😀
I must say whoever edited this video to remove Warren’s huccups and repeated comments of, “Your my best mates. I love you guys. No, I really love you. I do.” did an amazing job. The cutting is seamless.
Ouch the innuendos.. I was building Soviets.. Laughter can cause exacto blade injuries!
Any lessons Juatin receives need to be videos. Him being tought and him applying before and after. These are the kinds of things we could benefit from seeing.
Hitler and Hess making sweet love… I think it more likley to be true that Hitlers Wiener (he was Austrian after all) was bitten of by a goat while teasing the animal when he was a boy.
It’s an End Zone guys.. that’s how you score in American Football. Second of all, I haven’t really been loving the “new format” other then the first couple tries,but this was really interesting. 3rd of all.. Activate you Windows!
New Drinking game … whenever Warren says ‘Apparently’ 😀 Always love these Sunday shows.
Sorry, i thought the topics couldn’t be getting worser. Then Waren startet about the homosexual relationship Rudolf Hess and Adolf Hitler. Absolut low for now. Next time put a time mark so i can skip this.
Happy belated Sunday, an amazing show as ever. Wonderful to hear all the insights on story-telling through miniatures from the master Mennes.
The burst through the glass heresy diorama is quite incredible!