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Weekender XLBS: What Makes A Good Wargame Review?
August 18, 2019 by crew
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Happy Sunday!!!
It’s the XLBS Show!
Happy Sunday Brothers and Sisters of CoG!!!
What has the gang been up to while recovering from the big weekend?
I deffenetly want to see more Dr. Dave (@lafayette), he has always been entertaining while presenting FoW to us all.
Also, I would really like to see @warzan post up his version of ’40k Lite’. I might be able to use that to get some of my non 40k friends to try the game. Who knows, I just might get some of them interested enough to try the main game!
About time Saga got a mention. Yesterday’s Saga-free zone almost drove me to dispair. I blame a distinct lack of Llyod and Gerry.
Brother Lloyd
good morning everyone, time for coffee and the XLBS weekender?☕️?⚔️?
Well that was a shit show this week
I think the new community norms dictate that you’ve got to watch the episode at least 20 times before you can make that statement! 😉
I pay £3.79 a month so I’m entitled to say this sort of thing
Happy Sunday!
Right from the bat I’ll mention 3 characteristics of a good review:
1) Transparancy – what relationships or arrangements exist with the provider that may influence the review, Including paid promotion, existing advertiser, other commercial arrangements (being a reseller or provider of other services).
2) Impartiality – as a group but also individually with personal opinions
3) Honesty.
Without these three characteristics anything else is meaningless!
4) be thorough and examine every part of the game. Ideally list pros and cons for everything.
opening the box and recapping the advertising blurbs is not a review (too many videogame ‘reviews’ fall into this category already 🙁 )
My opinions on reviews mostly come from my music obsession but the most important thing about a review is actually being knowledgeable enough to give an informed opinion and despite what people think, most people are not knowledgeable enough to review something (yes, I am a snob when it comes to this – listening to death metal for 2 weeks means your opinion on the matter counts for nothing to me). These days I won’t go near a music review, as most of the reviews that are written these days are shite because the people doing the reviews simply have not listened to enough albums or done the hard yards to make an informed opinion. The art of the review is dead, imo, because too many people think their opinion matters (I know my opinion counts for nothing in the wide scheme of things). I think this applies to not just music but games and toy soldiers, books, movies, tv etc.
That is why I quite like Let’s Plays and quick looks, it gives me a flavour of what is going on, then I can make my own mind up, as let’s be honest, opinions are like assholes and I much prefer the smell of my own.
I’d argue that there are two parts to a review :
(1) the pure mechanical objective side that can be quantified and measured
(2) the subjective aka artistic side that is 100% personal opinion
Music reviews are tricky, because it requires an understanding of musical theory in order to appreciate the objective qualities of a composition. It makes it (IMHO) impossible to make them accessible to newbies.
Boardgame revies don’t require such things, unless statistical analysis are a part of the review … and that’s something I haven’t seen anyone even attempt except at the hardcore tournament level where people are too obsessed with statistics to have fun.
@warzan would there be a “demand” for a generic hobby weekend? So rather than 40k, bolt action etc a “bring your hobby to the beasts” so people have a chance for a dedicated weekend of hobby to do there their stuff potentially with Jon, Mennes and/or Romain as support or assistance (obs the rest of you as well but naming the dedicated painters/modellers linked to OTT).
I know it adds peeps travel cost as they are shipping stuff there and back but it would mean I am not adding a “new” army necessarily (unless I chose to and wanted do that there) which would make it an easier sell to the family! OTT would also get a wider range of hobby at one time so yes a nightmare to string together but there may be good ideas that come out of it that others could benefit from…
An agnostic hobby weekend could work well
Personally I think it wouldn’t work as well since it would be chaotic and isolate people into groups. For example if everyone is working on 40K then the guys can go through the projects or people can jump on a Community Livestream knowing exactly what they’re getting and can actually take part. However if some people are doing 40K they isolate themselves from the guys doing Historicals or Fantasy and rather than One big Weekend I think it would become a whole lot of separate and less fun groups all of whom just happen to be using OTT as a Vehicle.
Also I mean it sounds dodgy to say it but these guys are actually working and this is a business with bills and overtime to pay. Asking the guys to come in on a Weekend, work harder for the week or two beforehand and everything else involved then BoW/OTT losing money by doing this sort of thing isn’t exactly going to encourage them to do more of these events. By selling even just an armybox they’re able to at least balance the costs of all the hard work (or put a nice dent in them) but if people just wandered in purely with their own stuff it would put a lot of stress on them for no real pay off and in fact it would mean sacrificing regular content for a weekend that you’re getting no real money for (again I know money isn’t everything but try running a business without it), rather than doing an unboxing the guys are building terrain or reorganising the studio which means less content all to just lose money in wages, increased utilities and loss of revenue from videos.
If it’s a Free for All I think it would suffer from an overload where people just can’t get involved because there’s nothing to get involved with. “Oh I painted X” cool but everyone else painted Y or Z and no one has any idea what any of it is and can’t really relate to any of it so where does the show go from there?
I think it depends on the attendees… I have no interest in 40k but I can appreciate the hobby work, the skills and techniques applied. There is a danger of cliques forming I don’t dispute but if people go expecting a broad church then maybe it gives someone the opportunity to chat to someone about something they hadn’t considered before- take Justin and is 10mm Dwarves – many will say 28 and no smaller until they get a chance to look at it close up…
I don’t argue against the financial implications, and would say the crew know how to make it work for them. I don’t think for a minute it would be a free event, and maybe if a paint set, store voucher etc was part of the bundle it could fit?
I think your final point again goes in part to those involved and the format employed. It works for the Wednesday lunchtime chat – again I do not have an interest in maybe 70% of the actual items but I enjoy the overall hobby chat and hanging out with the community, as well as Johns painting sessions. Giving some of the projects and the thoughts behind them may appeal, rules they are planning on using etc.
I think the scenario of NOT buying a ‘set value product’ from the OTT shop but using their Hobby Temple for the weekend would be a bit like walking into a very nice Restaurant and sitting down at a table and then unpacking a lunch or supper that you brought from home. Then expecting the staff of said restaurant to provide you with service as though you had bought your meal there.
We no longer have a hobby shop here in town, because folks were buying their armies and models from other sources and then showing up to use the hobby shop as their own workshop. The hobby shop had to switch to selling and promoting ‘CCG'(or as I call it cardboard crack), and the shop then forced out the 6’x 4’ tables and those players had no room to play there at all.
Many abusers don’t appreciate the total value being offered by stores like you mention. No they don’t quite match online only prices, but then those sellers aren’t providing them with tables, support and an available local community.
In my dearly departed local store some customers were doing that and then had the gall to moan when the owner started charging table fees unless you bought product from the store (he also. knew who the hard-up customers were and looked after them).
Just to clarify I do not think OTT shouldn’t be compensated for a hobby weekend and I would rely on them deciding if it was feasible financially, content wise, demand etc etc etc. There should be a cost for the use of services and in my suggestion I did assume there would be a cost for participation as with other weekends/boot camps that would cover this.
As I did say in my first reply “I don’t think for a minute it would be a free event”. My following point about vouchers etc was intended as a link to the bits received at other weekends re supplier sponsorship or buy-in such as with the Flames camp. It was not intended as a cry for free stuff and my apologies if that how it came across
I can appreciate your point and the main point of this thread. As was stated in my project for the 40k weekend I am a novice at 40k, now I have some stuff to be sure but I have never played a game and only painted a little. (A rant for the project when I get a bit farther towards completed)
The weekend allowed me to:
1) stretch my legs into sci-fi
2) deep dive into a project, I learned a lot on using the system.
3) try new techniques and tricks on models I wanted to succeed with but wouldn’t be on my table all the time to remind me of my failure, lol my dice do that for me already.
4) I bought the package deal from OTT and even being an ocean away I could participate. Getting to Ireland is a dream and visiting would be great but … someday.
So for me I used it to try new things and 40k is an easy in for a lot of people. The package was nice (a little expensive for some candies but the extras made up for it 😉 ) and allowed for a common language to be spoken. A couple of experts on lore, which to be honest sounded like mumbo jumbo, and a great modeler made for a nice weekend presentation.
I see the point @warzan makes about not knowing how the weekend went because the tangible markers they are used to were not there. Did the twitch streams and the youtubes drive traffic here to BoW? Did the balance of expenses get covered by the program? This was a new and different bite at the apple and though similar to a boot camp it was very different. Personally I decided to “buy in” on this one and really give it a go and I wasn’t disappointed. If a boot camp was forthcoming where a box of fun stuff arrived at my door and I could be part of the boot camp from home I would be ecstatic.
I think these weekends need focus.
A random unfocused weekend :
– would make it tricky for viewers to decide if it is worth watching at all
– gives the crew presenting nothing to direct visitors to.
– makes it tricky to find interesting items to produce
I do think that there need not be a focus on a specific game.
A generic WW 2 hobby weekend could work as that gives a way to manage expectations.
I think that’s why the Desert War and D-Day bootcamps were interesting even to those not interested in the specific systems used during that weekend.
The Runewars bootcamp was a bit of both (intro into a game and a painting focused weekend).
And also … without a theme/topic … what would they do with that table ?
Potentially a bit more warning – always feels the events are announced with a short turn around time. I appreciate this puts increased pressure on you chaps, but if I have to see my in-laws (and I would) I need a good run up to it!!
Especially announce when the cut of dates are going to be for posting overseas.
This time we were only told after the cutoff date was past. So those of us that were dithering or thought we had more time were caught by surprise.
warren and Llyod you should look at these as we use these for recording and the quality is excellent for what we use them for.
RØDE Wireless Go Compact Wireless Microphone System
https://www.amazon.co.uk/R%C3%98DE-Wireless-Compact-Microphone-System/dp/B07QGGBNMN/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=65526009822&gclid=CjwKCAjw7uPqBRBlEiwAYDsr1zGNEe54t_IMUScas5KJn7Z0vB039fbgaEwcpK3TfrFFOfcoQUN4HxoC_3UQAvD_BwE&hvadid=338769558230&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1006948&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=b&hvrand=7235410755270054673&hvtargid=aud-615477028318%3Akwd-697917495064&hydadcr=5057_1827816&keywords=rode+wireless+go&qid=1566112099&s=gateway&sr=8-1
I think I’m going to snag some of those units. Rode has never disappoint me yet.
Thanks for the link @grimwolfuk
They are really good and compact as well
Nice show guys, good discussions as always, thoroughly enjoyed the yeah ,but no, but yeah its a bit shite
Did @warzan request more bikkies ??
Happy Sunday fellow CoGs
Very good show guys.
I really enjoyed the Hobby Weekend and would love to do another.
@warzan come on man he couldn’t be a Vampire. We all know Vampires cannot cross running water or the Ocean unless in a boat and if the boat sinks he’d be killed. The event is extremely creepy though.
Age of Magic should absolutely be renamed “Age of Fantasy” because wow does it disappoint in the magic department. I think I can safely say that having spent a lot of time with Age of Magic while making “Age of Plasma” (you can get it free here https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1392293/ ) that the Magic is very lackluster.
Instead look at it as Fantasy Saga rather than “Magical Saga” if that makes sense. If they wanted to go with Magic they should have done it via the Battle Board as well as the Magic system. For example my Grey Knights Battle Board directly incorporates Magic into the Board because that’s the flavour of the Force.
I F*cking despise the elitism that runs rampant in the Historical Community and this isn’t directed at anyone on OTT/BoW but more about people on Facebook or Reddit. The f*cking elitism is Cancerous to the Community and it drives people away from the Hobby. So what if you want to play Natchwolf? Guess what after doing that you’ve now got into the Community and are now planning an assault on St Naziere, guess what if you’d been turned away earlier you’d never be playing a “Proper” Historical Game now (as far as the Elitists are concerned). I saw the same thing with Bolt Action and guys being turned away from it. “Oh it’s not properly Historical you need to play X instead” and people being shamed for playing the wrong rule sets just went back to 40K. Guess what people get their start by playing non-historical things then most of them progress further into more “proper” stuff.
Maybe I’m just weird, maybe it’s just because I’ll literally play any game anyone ever asks me to play because that’s what I’m like. I personally can’t understand people who only play one or two games NOT out of Financial or Time commitments but just out of a lack of imagination or elitism. I learned a long time ago from Historical guys in my community that if you want to play certain games you have to have both sides of the game because people will just not get a force even though that are perfectly capable of just because it’s not what they do. That’s why I have 8 Sharp Practice Forces, Two Impetvs Forces (now Four SPQR Armies), Four LOTR Forces and who can even remember what else.
So basically it’s a combination of Elitism, lack of imagination and a lack of desire to explore the hobby outside of the comfort zone. Again this is not directed at anyone on the site, no one on OTT/BoW comes anywhere even close to this but we all know they’re in the Community.
Guess what people can be both. @oriskany just this week was doing a whole ton of prep work and collaborating with the international Community for a recreation of a Battle in Poland at the start of WWII. But at the exact same time Jim is very happy to say “Right we’re in Vietnam in X Province and this is Y Regiment” but the rest of the scenario is 100% fiction. Historical Games can be what you make of them. The thing that makes them Historical Games is the Setting/Vibe not the game itself.
@warzan do you know that you’re basically using the (fantastic) Force on Force system to score hits? Basically anything over a 4+ hits then you knock out attack dice out with defence dice. The only thing that changes is the type of dice rolled. It’s a brilliant and very easy system that works brilliantly and is perfect for kids.
I here about ‘elitism’in historicals like it’s nowhere else… but its rampant in certain 40k groups.
Its also not about the genre of the hobby but about personality types.
Regardless of that, historicals, by nature, relate to a historical period. If something doesnt follow that historical period… then it’s not historical.
If you release a historical game and it has elements in it that didn’t exist in the historical setting… well then it’s not historical and ‘elitist’ people will likely point it out. Rightly so, as otherwise people can end up with the wrong impression of a historical subject.
I’d say I’m elitist in how I like to portray my historical games. I have models and terrain that fit the period. If you turn up to play a game at my house with a pink painted Panther, I will offer you one of mine to use instead…
For me, historical gaming is all about the history. It’s an actual event, history happened and for me the study of it, replicating it and gaming it is all framed in the reality of the real conflict. As the hobby is a visual one, I want my hobby to look like the period of history that I have studied and try to recreate. That’s why I like having a desire to be correct. I’m also lucky in that my group has the same attitude.
Those rivet counters and historians are the first to answer questions on how to paint something, what unit was where, what can be used etc… but there seems to be a distinct effort in the hobby to equate historical wargamers with some sort.of negative stereotype should they dare to mention being historically accurate.
It’s a hobby for all. Just cos some dont care about being historically correct a d respectful to a period, just cos some publishers dont care to get facts right, doesnt mean we all have to follow suit, and if that makes me elitist, then I’m happy with that.
Wars in history were fought by real people. I wish that at times history was treated with more respect than it is.
Good Points and I guess I was being a tad unfair.
The Reason Elitism constantly comes up is because it’s the ONLY toxic Problem with Historicals. 40K and all the Rest have a lot of Meta Gamers who build insta win lists (like the guys at 40K Tournaments who conceed if they lose the first turn roll off) or Alpha Strikers which drive people away whereas we just have the Elitists. So we should be thankful it’s the only real issue.
There’s a difference between pointing out non historical things (like I did with SPQR) and saying someone is wrong to play SPQR because it’s not a “real” historical game. Things like “testudo” being in a skirmish game should be pointed out it’s more the shaming of people for enjoying a game that I was trying to hit on (and should have made more clear).
I just want to be 100% clear that I have never ever seen this on Bow/OTT so i’m not saying you are an Elitist.
Recreating History is a PART of Historical Wargaming but the other part is using History as a backdrop for games. Just like creating a Custom Space Marine Chapter is a part of 40K alongside “Historical” Recreations like playing games set in the Horus Heresy.
For example Sharp Practice using History as a backdrop for people to create their own stories, characters and events within history in the same way as someone like GMF or Bernard Cornwell does. So long as what you’re doing is Historically Based (not inspired but based as in could have happened but didn’t compared to Inspired which to me is something like an “Imagi-Nation or “what if War”) I see no reason why it’s any different to recreation. It’s almost impossible to recreate such small actions (Company Level and below) for anything earlier than WWII since we just don’t have the detailed written records yet we know they occurred. Creative licence is essential to wargame these periods at this organisational scale.
There’s a huge difference between being inaccurate and being disrespectful. I don’t think @warzan was being disrespectful at all when he made his Natchwolf or Cornwell was when he wrote the Sharpe Novels or I am when I create my own Characters and Stories for Sharpe Practice.
“Those rivet counters and historians are the first to answer questions on how to paint something, what unit was where, what can be used etc”
I agree 100000% out of every Hobby Community the Historical Community is far and away the best for Support and anyone who wants proof of this should just make a post on the forums asking for help and see at least 5 people reply very quickly. The only reason it cops so much flak for elitism is again because it’s the only real issue. People don’t Meta Game Valour and Victory, people aren’t Min Maxing in Chain of Command and no one is building Alpha Strike Saga Lists.
I understand why people find Saga:AoM underwhelming, it’s down to raised expectations from a combination of experience with other higher fantasy games and the prominence of the M word in the title.
In its defence… don’t underestimate just how powerful in Saga the ability to drop a fatigue token on a unit is. Games like saga aren’t “my dice pool is bigger than yours” dice-offs, they’re about being able to weave an effective turn out of the resources available (including dice on the gameboard). Add to that the ability to mess your opponents plans and possibilities through magic and it’s another level of intrigue and decision making on top of a good games system.
If you ‘whelm’ your expectations to the correct level in the first place then you won’t be underwhelmed.
Have to agree with Piers on that point – elistism is certainly rampant in 40k as much as any other game/genre
Indeed, try playing 40K using non GW figures and you’ll get a similar response to if you are trying to play a WW2 game with some of the “weird ww2” figures. But sometimes people need to remember it a two way street when playing a wargame (and the expectations thereof). If I’m playing an historical battle I expect to see figures/armies that were there on the day (well other than proxying say Napoleonic Russions for Prussians as your group may not have enough figures), and I wouldn’t expect to see someone come along with Seven Years War figures or a army list they want to play instead (when the rest of us are playing using the ORBAT of the day). For having these expectations, players are called an “elite clique” (or rivet counters). Yet the same expectations are given from 40K players if you turn up with 3rd party figures and/or an army list GW didn’t sanction (even to the point where you have to use GW figures at a tourney organised by individuals and not GW (I can understand the ban on non GW figures in their stores, as they are there to sell you their figures).
It’s all a matter of perspective, and historical players seem to be getting a bad rep of late. Why only last week Warren was bemoaning the feedback from the 40K weekend as they were getting feedback that the tables weren’t “legal” (so does that make them sci-fi rivet counters) and for the lack of imagination from 40K players.
In regards to the 40k weekend I thought the audio was fine. Maybe something different was needed in between the segments rather than fan cam ( I apologise for the heresy. I will do my penance later) or at least shorter periods of fan cam. Maybe these segments could be used for talking to attendees or returning old hobby lab segments and leave what was the live segments to discussions on converting, looking at projects etc.
The fan cam gave me time to do some hobby of my own.
I can’t multitask when I’m watching tv and need to do tasks that are either dangerous (like cutting sprues) or need accuracy.
I’m the other way around. I prefer something like this on the screen while I hobby. Nothing that demands I stay glued to the screen, but something I can listen to and look up at when I want to. So BoW content, live streams of hobbying and sometimes playing. When I run out I put on old episodes of MST3K. Those movies are too bad to pay attention to, but the quips are good background chat.
The 40k weekend last week also helped me delve further into converting. Yesterday marked the first time I’ve ever bought a model, with the intention of cutting it up to use with a completely different model. I’m using the idea from the lad last week who made a tech priest using the Night Haunt king model. Absolutely loved how it looked and want to do my own, with my own spin on it. I’m really sorry, cant remember what your name was, but thank you.
As for your games for your kids Warren, I think they are an absolutely great idea, I love seeing you talk about these and the ideas and solutions you have come up with to introduce your children to the hobby. Your Not 40k game sounds like a good game and one that most experienced gamers would probably enjoy as well.
The Sperm……..Just-In! ???????????????
Happy Sunday guys
I am not sure reviews should be a thing at all when it is a matter of opinion rather than a matter of fact. I think Play Throughs should be as far as people go, that way you can see the game and the interaction between the parties to get a better understanding of a product and determine whether you would like to try or purchase said product.
Far too often now reviews are in the realms of the person that doesn’t like something rather than those that do.
I am beginning to wonder if there is a gift that @lloyd has ever received which he wanted. A free t-shirt, models and other random things that are never quite right, has a gift ever been right 😉
@warzan I think the vampire stories may be a misdirection by the mermen of that area. Obviously once every so many years they are able to walk on land and grab a ticket using the name they always have. They then sink the boat, feed the family and job done. Leftovers are placed into salt brine tins for future consumption 😀
Sadly with the plastic pollution, their numbers have been dwindling hence the need for fewer people onboard. Vampires are just the fall guys for this tale.
The pistol looks really good, I think the old SM Bolter would be a good one as it is a bit of an icon.
Have a good week everyone.
Gaz was a pleasure to meet you last weekend! Very much enjoyed the whole weekend, everyone was awesome, and the Diet Coke flowed freely!
100% agree with you on the review thing, I do like to watch something to see how it plays or works and to make up my own mind to see if i think i would like it! A review for me is good for other products here and there to get an idea on durability, feel and quality of items. (thank you Amazon reviews!)
I do also agree with the original Bolter idea for the store, although the way things are going the new Bolt Rifle might be good for the future!
Good times buddy and we definitely helped their Diet Cike sales 🙂
You only have to look at the Welsh rugby team to know the Welsh all share the same 2 or 3 names so Hugh Williams is just a coincidence – if it had of been anywhere else in the world, I’d be off to Mass to steal a crucifix and fill my water bottle from the font! Warlord Games already do a WW2 Nazi Vampire and a British Vampire Hunting Officer so the models are there for Justin to do his Vampire in WW2 stuff!
Also will blowing up a Vampire actual kill it? It might put it out of action for a period of time, but after a while, all the bits will start attracting themselves to each other, someone will then start to heard voices in their head, and soon Mr Vampire is back together ready to teach kids how to count on TV or slightly more heinous running round shouting “I want to suck your blood”.
I really liked @lloyd‘s point regarding the value you get from the SPQR boxed set. It is the same with the 40K starter sets, and the FoW starter sets. Even if you don’t end up loving the rules, the mount of minis you now have to play games for the hundreds of other rulesets out there.
That was going to be my response too – is Hugh Williams the Welsh equivalent of John Smith? 🙂
Good morning everyone, happy Sunday
As for the 40k weekend my son and I joined remotely and we felt very involved with the wider community that came into the stream, what we missed was being involved with those in the room… Whilst everyone loved fan Cam it was a bit dull for us.
Discord is a good idea, maybe a larger hangout, squad streaming, hosting/raiding during downtime so the audience does not have to take action…. Lots of small things could be done to improve it.
Morning all!
My feedback on the 40k weekend was that it was fantastic. On the Monday morning I really missed it. I missed getting up, putting on the stream and being part of the event. Given this is the first time you’ve done anything live on this scale I thought you did a cracking job. Fancam was cool – it got a bit samey after a while as people were in pretty set places in the hobby lounge but it did as was intended and it was good to feel connected whilst hobbying by having it on live. The fancam interludes also meant that I could do basic things like eat, go to the toilet etc without missing any key content! The chat was fun too, but I get the point about it moving on quickly and potentially causing a bit of disconnect for those who aren’t glued to it all day.
I get that 40k isn’t everyone’s jam, but it is probably more people’s jam than anything else so for a first event it was the right game to choose in my opinion. I can’t imagine any other single game being as broadly appealing as 40k so it would be interesting to see what other games would generate the same level of digital interest. Probably many are people like me who would jump in on pretty much anything just to be involved, so it may not be a huge problem!
I think I am also up to about 426 different pronunciations of my username – I really should have thought that through better when I set up my account! If one of the crew wants to go into the back end and change it to DarkDannigan, please do, that might make life easier 😀
Negative Reviews
We don’t need to hear you say things are shite. We don’t need definitive reviews after 100 play throughs. We need to know you can and are willing to say things are bad if you feel that way. We want your honest opinions and feelings on a game, given the context of how much time and experience you have put in to them. Lloyds opinons on S:AOM today are helpful. He’s not found the enjoyment yet, but he still wants to. Thinks the magic system is lacklustre, but that might be that he’s just not ben playing with as many wizards as intended. Shows there’s enjoyment there, but you might have to work to find it, and perhaps moderate your expectations on the magic. Possibly think of it as Saga: Age of Fantasy instead. A YMMV game. Allows people to make informed decisions.
Vampire Hugh
I’m not sure on this. Firstly, why wouldn’t you change your name every time? I question the fact that its always the same location. Makes me think that it’s not a vampire. Whoever it is is sacrificing the others to something at that location. I suspect a cultist to a dark god at the bottom of the sea, buying an extension to his own life (And presumably some enhanced boyancy) with the souls of others. This makes much more sense to me. Also, as a vampire he runs the risk of getting trapped at sea when the sun comes out.
Hobby Weekend Feedback
I was a digital ticketer / remote attendee. I had a lot of fun. I took the equivalent of 29 infantrymen from primed to ready to varnish in 2.5 days. I have never done that much before. I got caught up in the momentum and the drive of the weekend and loved it. I got up early, and painted late. I saw the eld of Ellesar’s austrailian streams, painted through yours and Laughingboys, and was sometimes still painting afte rthey had stopped and Ellesar came back on. Awesome stuff and I’m really looking forward to more.
As a Ditital Ticketer, however, I do not feel I gained anything out of this weekend experience that I would not have, had I not bought a ticket. I have no real suggestions for how you could have engaged more with us though, without pandering, or excluding non-backers. I suppose you could have given us a special camera and microphone that caputured everything at one table, but we agreed not to be offended by anything that was said and pump this out during the FanCam time. Put a disclaimer on the ticket and hopefully that would be enough to cover you? I am happy to support BoW though. I basically live in your content whenever I can, so while I might not have gotten premium value from this expenditure, I always get value for money out of every penny that goes your way.
I was dissapointed by the amount of time we spent looking at Fan Cam, which I assumed was a 30 second loop and not live footage for a while). I did love that this void was filled up by Laughingboy and Ellesar. They really tied everything else together. Without them I may as well have been watching prerecorded clips. Next time you do this I hope you coordinate with them and pump their stream through yours during the FanCam segments and have a formal handover. If everyone involved is always just watching one twitch stream it helps keep everyone togther and build that sense of global hobby room we were all after.
I hope to see you do more of these weekends, and find a way to involve the community more, especially digital backers. If there is a private chanel for digital backers for disclaimer reasons, please do a cheaper ticket with no physical content as well as the full price box. Also, when you design the full price box, please bear in mind that people won’t likely want a second dice bag.
While themeing the weekend around one game does allow everyone to focus, it does exclude those who do not want to get involved in that game. I hope next time you open it up to more systems, even if it is just the ones you sell, for practical purposes.
Here is a spin off idea I would like to see, which doesn’t mecessarily need you guys to get directly involved. We already have the hobby weekender forum thread every weekend. I would love to see a quarterly hobby stream weekend, where our streamers coordinate to put out near constant content from friday eveing through to late sunday. We pick the date far in advance, and everyone pledges to work on a declared project they already own, and to do a bare minimum work on it before the end of the weekend. BoW don’t need to be involved, but might be a good rallying point? Individual staffers might choose to take part if they want to, possibly even streaming wether in the office or in their own hobby space. Could be nice if the Friday evening was kicked off by BoW, and the following Hobby Hangout looked over the related content?
My huge thanks to the BoW team, and to @elessar2590 , @laughingboy and Boy of Laughingboy, and especially to our new god, FanCam for a great weekend. I look forward to the next one!
I’d be keen to stream morning and night for 2-3 hours once a month.
Between the whole Community I think we could get something going especially with members like @oriskany who basically streams games every weekend and @laughingboy
The main issue is just working everything out and making sure we can actually do it and that people are going to be watching the streams. Trust me when you’ve got 10 people watching you and no one in the chat it gets pretty tedious to stream however if you’ve only got 1 person watching and they’re engaging with you it’s a lot of fun.
Maybe create a forum post and ask for volunteers for say the 13th of September to the 15th of September? I’m sure we could work out a theme and a schedule among ourselves with a months notice.
Thanks, @elessar2590 . 😀
Yeah, Sitrep Podcast streams twice a week, Thursdays and Sundays.
https://www.twitch.tv/sitreppodcast/
We’ve only been hosted on OTT once (Falklands Air War) – not sure why that is, I’m guessing we’re always streaming when the office is closed? No worries. 😀
Streaming and hobby at the same time, without assistance or a production team, or even worse … wargaming during a stream … it’s a challenge. But it’s totally worth it because it totally engages with our community in a very direct way. We don’t just talk about games with you, you don’t just WATCH us play games, we BRING YOU TO OUR TABLE … EVERY WEEK … and from the comfort of your own home. We’re also on Facebook, Discord, Podbean, and Twitter.
Ally our have to do is reach out and we will have you chucking dice with us in no time. 😀
Hi @lawnor you hit it on the head, Saga: Age of Fantasy not Age of Magic completely agree, also the monsters are a great addition but need to be more powerful
Hmmmm.Having now watched the show in it’s entirety I’ll give you my 2 cents worth;
Bring back the community comments show/segment. It was an interesting perspective. I’d also love to see community members brought in via skype like Ben to fill in vacant chairs.
Negative reviews on product are fine so long as they are fair. Other games shows like ‘the Dice Tower’ regularly deliver honest reviews trashing new products. The reality is that shows like yours act as filters for the community which has limited time and money and is relaying on you to show them the pros, cons and value of the games available to them. Being excitedly enthusiastic about every game that gets released doesn’t really help anyone.
I think Lloyd’s view on Saga Age of Magic is flawed, but it seems to be because of what he was expecting from one facite of the game. If magic was more powerful it would be ‘Magic in the age of Sagas’. As someone said elsewhere, a better title would be ‘Saga in the Age of Fantasy’. The magic is underwhelming compared to what magic was like in Warhammer, but that was massed combat, not skirmish. I doubt a wizard single handedly obliterating a unit every turn would be interpreted as anything other than ‘Herohammer’. There’s a reason 4th Ed Warhammer is not so fondly remembered.
On the elitism of historical gamers, all historical gaming is historical fantasy. At best it’s a “What if?”, at worst it’s a historical re-enactment using a wargame. The most boring historicals battle I ever saw was a game set at the battle of Gettysburg. The players moved the forces to the ‘historical’ starting positions for the different days despite finishing in different positions, units being wiped out etc, in the play from the day before. It put be off ‘re-enactment’ wargaming for life.
The 40K Hobby Weekend was great. Loved the coverage, loved the energy.
I too liked the comment show, but only you saying it reminded me it was a thing for a while…. Perhaps because it was so short lived?
Hmmm, if you are going to have critical reviews then you better not have anyone from the company there with you as you will not say anything about their game. When you have your guests, everyone is the best thing since sliced bread and awesome, sometimes you see Justine struggling with a game but will always put a positive spin on it. You even change your mind as to whats good or not, example: Kings of War is awesome as you get to activate your entire army in one go all the time, then you get an alternate activation game; this is so awesome as you are always involved in the game.
I don’t watch the lets plays for this very reason.
I watch other channels’ content for reviews.
Happy Sunday all
Good to have an XLBS again, feels like ages since the last one! Been feeling a bit flat on the hobby front this weekend, plenty to do but lacking desire to do it, so this was a good way to keep up the levels
As far as reviews go, think I said it on the thread – I’d rather have a bit more depth to a review than just remove packaging and be told how shiny something is, as it may very well be a well-polished turd! 🙂
Good morning, I must admit that the problem I had with both Mantic and Privateer Press was that although I enjoyed both the games and settings their use of resin in their miniatures quite put me off. I don’t know if the resin or moulds were of a cheap or poor quality but I seemed to spend more time trying to scrape off the mould lines (mostly unsuccessfully) than I did painting. This gave me a very negative opinion of both companies and even though I spent a very enjoyable day at a Mantic open day and have nothing but admiration for the passion and hard work that Ronnie and his staff put into their company, I find that I cannot bring myself to purchase any more of their products. A shame really as I still follow Mantic on their web page to see what their up to.
lol! “Rage of smegma – with a bit of magic” that has to be on a Cards Against Humanity card now.
Combine that somehow with “Chocolate covered hobnobs” on another card.
And also “Shoot enough into me, or I’ll be disappointed”
okay, that’s enough taking random lines out of context
Ah, the Unsinkable Hugh Williams 😀
I guess I’m part of that “elite, uber historical re-enactor” grouping (never knew I was). But for me the refights of major battles is the main draw of the hobby (it’s actually rather fictional, as you start with the map, armies that were there on the day, but what ensues doesn’t normally follow history. For example nine times out of ten Napoleon actually WINS at Waterloo).
Doing the “research” is exactly like reading the Black Library books if you are into 40K. The research forms the “fluff” of the game, and puts everything into context. But basic tenants like keep it basically “historical” are also important. I wouldn’t like to see Waffen SS vs Imperial Japanese in a WW2 game, just like many 40K players wouldn’t like to see Ultra Marines vs Imperial Fists (it’s not illegal, just rather “unfluffy”). Also it raises balance problems within the game (like SS fielding a Tiger tank, when the Japanese army isn’t equipped to deal with such because they never had to “historically”).
As to historical coverage, you say you’ve covered more historicals than any other genre, just look at the boot camps for example. But I’d say what Historical games have you done bootcamps for that HASN’T been published by Warlord or Battlefront Miniatures? I think most historical gamers are looking for more content that covers the WHOLE of the genre (rather than just a few manufacturers). Historicals tend to have many rules systems published that don’t have miniatures produced for them (and miniatures produced that don’t have rules designed to go along with them). So does the Sci/Fi and fantasy genres, but we see little coverage on these compared to the “big boys” in town.
I don’t think you can do rules reviews/lets plays for all games as many offer “starter sets” that offer not only the rules, but the miniatures as well. So you can only really do an objective “What in the Box” (I still remember those from the BoW site of old and a very young looking Warren doing the job of the presenter). But I would urge all at BoW to reach out to cover areas they’ve not covered before (as news of the same old thing again and again just becomes “info spam” and we don’t really take it in). You’ve taken onboard doing Boardgames as a mini focus lately, perhaps you could do the same for other areas (not just Historicals). I’ve like to see more on smaller scale gaming (like 6mm). I’d say that many of the manufacturers that do just historical products aren’t good at reaching out to online content creators (I keep mentioning to Pete of Baccus to reach out to you do cover his products), whereas companies like Warlord excel at doing so (even seen they’ve been in my hometown of Northwich and done some videos/lets plays with Goblin Gaming who’ve only just started their own YouTube channel).
Perhaps Pier’s point was more about coverage of historicals (rather than separating it from the rest of the community), and the fear that BoW is just spread too thin trying to cover absolutely EVERYTHING. Rules do take a lot longer to try and do a review than a box full of miniatures, but as of late we’ve seen a lot of “minimalist” rules released that are only just serviceable and don’t emulate the periods/genre they report to cover very well. I think some of the cries for more critical reviews are spawned by the frustration gamers are starting to feel upon receiving such in a “starter set” these days.
0:00:00 I’ve got my brew, my notepad++ and some time… HIT IT!
0:04:00 Discord! I’m on board… heck I’d volunteer as Admin/Mod… or got back to IRC! That’ll be amazing! 8) (Seriously, WordPress has add ons for that)
0:09:00 11 years? That’s young…
0:13:30 Fanatical? Drink some booze and grab a metal ball on a chain! XD
0:15:00 Where is that picture of the spermghost!?
0:21:00 Eat WHAT?! oO
0:33:00 Having creators playing the games is great, from a theoretical perspective. I have found myself more then one time because of, for the lack of a better word, cringe. Either the creator(s) had a bad on screen presence or just a god awful way of speaking which makes it really hard for me to stay focused.
0:50:00 Sorry, but you’re wrong Justin. YouTube has autoplay as default 😉
1:12:00 A missing knob is nothing to make fun about! XD
1:19:00 Hoglords? XD Insta-Win because all opponents die from laughing *g*
1:30:00 That is a lot of effort to get you’re kids to play 40k. Much respect for that @warzan
1:35:00 I’d really like something like a “critical review” show… maybe collect send in review copies of games and minis that have a reaaaaally bad production quality?
Thanks for the XLBS and gooood night… no wait it’s just 4pm
I believe @justin is correct. One of things you get with online games is a match making system. In real life gaming, you are either playing the same people every week because those are your friends or you are getting whomever you can get to play even if it is not a good match for you skill, experience, and how you wish to play.
I have said my opinion before about historical games. I seem to run in to those who want to a pure simulation including the correct uniform colors, the exact formation of an army and the opening move of the historical battle. This is why I rather play Fantasy games or the Osprey games like Frostgrave, Gaslands and soon Reality’s Edge: Cyberpunk Skirmish. You have a mission or set of objectives and then just play. Nobody even cares what your miniatures look like along as it is clear that this miniature is XYZ and the information is open.
Happy Sunday!
Happy BOWthday Guy’s.
I missed the 40K video’s I would jump in just as or after they ended an see the security video film on loop.
A good review is informative. It should tell me enough to let me know if I’ll like the game regardless of the reviewers personal opinion.
@lloyd I enjoy AoM as it gives me a framework for an army that I can add magical elements to like monsters, warmachines and wizards. Wizards obliterating units with no recourse is no fun. Wizards buffing your army or debuffing an enemy is a lot more interesting because you have to make decisions about how much and what type of magic you’re going to use.
me n my GF deffo think discord would b a great idea, you can set up multiple channels 4 all the topics u cover
Wouldn’t multiply channels be dividing the audience up?
No, you could have a more focused discussion.
Listening to the part regarding setting gaming expectation and social contracts and my god it is depressing. Black and white on this for me, this is tabletop “gaming” with “toy” soldiers. I can’t believe someone game @warzan grief regarding his saucers because for me I thought it was great and met my only requirement for gaming which is FUN.
Its the bla bla bla effect?
I really appreciated the 40K Hobby Weekend even though I didn’t/couldn’t participate because of personal logistics. But checking in every once in a while was cool. I am not a huge fan of the live stream – isn’t that really just going back to flow TV? It would have been great if there was an easy way to watch the streams immediately after they are done (maybe there is and I am just not young enough to find it).
In any case; I hope you do more of them in the future! Thanks for a great weekend.
The rebroadcasts were available pretty quickly on the Twitch channel.
@templar007 that’s probably true. But I have never used Twitch. It is not really a channel that I would otherwise need. I engage with BoW/OTT via the website (or sometimes YouTube for convenience). Most of the times I checked the site there was just the ‘Fan Cam’ aka ‘The Stalker Cam’ and nothing else going on on the the site. That was a bit weird. One would have expected that the frontpage was alive with 40K hobby stuff and projects etc. Maybe this is just feedback for next time 🙂
Again, I love the idea and hope it is repeated.
Surly if everyone is having fun and no one complained who Care’s @lloyd if they play the game different.
It’s only competition’s you needed the rules.
@warzan Loving the look of 40K Junior, let me know if you need some playtesters!
Hi guys any chance of sharing those tweaked settings you using on your Anycubics? 😉
I’d be interested in those settings as well.
Ok I have to ask who or what is Discord?
Dunno for sure but I think it’s like twitch? I’ve heard it mentioned a lot but not investigated as I have enuf trouble with Facebook and more old forms of internetting- god I feel old!
It is a service that provides chat rooms e.g. you would join the Beasts of War Discord server, then you would have access to different Beasts of War chat rooms. You could have a general one, a sci fi one, a historical one, an event one etc.
Cheers
Isn’t more than just chat rooms?
I’ve not used it, but from what I have heard, people can leave voice messages as well.??
quite possibly – my use is very limited. I am a member of another hobby discord server but have rarely logged in due to work/life in recent months. The chat rooms were the most obvious thing to me, but i think it can do something akin to skype calling etc.
we use Discord for our monday night D&D session – justin, me, Brucelea, Lina, laughingboy, Commodorerob. it’s a great tool for gaming with others. Gerry introduced us to it.
you can roll dice, chat via txt and voice, share content its a blast
You should get a pen to have a laser on the Gun’s?
I’m a historical player more than I’am a fantasy or Sci-Fi, yet I don’t go don’t go down the road of re-enacting battles. The reason is because I’m not that keen on that style of play and the guys I game with are predominantly Fantasy/Sc-Fi who just wouldn’t game with me if I tried playing exact simulations of historical battles.
Yet I do like to research the history side of periods I play. In my Chinese Army project there are articles I’ve written about the Chinese military and that particular theater of war.
My long term plan for the China theater of war, is to build Chinese Nationalists and Communist army. I’m also planning from October on-wards to build a 28mm scale Chinese town which I will blog in a project. I’m converting my garage into a hobby room,which will allow for a much bigger space so I can build terrain for gaming in there. I plan on using the images I took at the movie set in Shenyang for reference, which I’ve placed in an ongoing project blog. This is leading me to do more research on Chinese architecture for the early 20th century period. Fortunately a lot of buildings are similar to Japanese and Korean, so I’ll be able to make use of the terrain for games set in the Korean War.
A bit off topic, but why do you feel a barrier to doing a refight? I mean if you’ve played Bloodbath at Orcs Drift (or any of the excellent GW boxed campaigns they did for Warhammer back when), you’ve already played games in a similar format (map and army list already defined).I must admit most “re-fights” do tend towards being bigger games and needing more than one evening to play (which is the main barrier for many). But I enjoy the challenge of being given an army containing units I wouldn’t normally field if it was a point based game, and the challenges of playing an asymmetrical battle (each side isn’t normally pointed to be even).
The people I play with don’t like historical reenactments, so I would never get a historical game if I insisted playing one.
A fabulous XLBS Guy’s the Jr hammer sounds promising @warzan
@warzan ‘s Junior Warhammer 40K looks awesome.
Let’s play!
I might even buy an army….
I thank you all for saying and doing what most of us, dream of being able to do. I love my time after coming back from Sunday gaming, to sit down and listen to your rants lol. keep on doing your thing, we love it,
Warren This idea of junior 40k or 4c lol is a brilliant idea for your little ones. Nice idea for my grandkids.
Ave Fan Cam Dominatus!!
Happy Sunday, now the Junior40k looks brill Warren,love the lightness of it and cards just looks excellent.
@dignity as to the “bad” filament, there was an interesting video on makers muse about old filament etc that may be of interest.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CTrG7OAlsEA
@warzan I’d be interested in Jnr 40k
Happy Sunday/Monday
Nice t-shirt there @lloyd LMAO. to clarify it was purchased as an xmas present in hobbit land (NZ) by my brother who was being a smart arse bollox. I did get revenge… very very noisy toy for my nephew.
with regards to AoM it was a fun game but… yeah Magic??? where the hell was that, even with multiple wheezards there would be no “magic” ranges suck, spells suck, no epic moments. The War machines should have been devastating but were very, very disappointing
So we just played Saga with non historical minis. Warren’s @warzan Chaos minis are spectacular, very thematic and full of character.
+1 for the rules on young 40k.
My 2 cents…
I played Saga Age of Magic a couple of weeks ago, two games in a row, and loved it. It was actually the first time I’d played any flavour of Saga. Really enjoyed combining unit types with the battle boards with the spells.
Magic was subtle but that was how I prefer it. If I lay out 40 minis on the table I don’t think I am refighting the battle to end all battles. Instead I think these are mid sized engagements so raids, chance encounters, ambushes, assaults on sml towns. You wouldn’t get Gandalf turning up to those so Magic should have a supporting role.
Also, and I know this was discussed previously, too much magic detracts from the game as a contest. I remember games of WFB where basically, buying Tyrion and the other one would win you the game, so there was no point in painting up 20 knights or 40 spearmen.
With regards to reviews, ultimately I think we have to accept soft reviews. Anyone can go on YouTube and give a game a savaging. With one or two exceptions thoughthis industry involves small businesses providing publicity and a platform for other small/micro businesses, and it is not viable to expect someone to rip a hole in a game and expect other content providers to send their products in and cross their fingers. It soon comes out if a game is poorly written or clearly just created to clear out a warehouse of grey plastic.
As usual it monday evening before I get to watch Xlbs , spot on @warzan for the hobby vs rules. Lets be honest most companies such as GW, Bolt Action, Battlefront want to sell mini’s they produce the rules and background to keep you hooked, but at the end even if you don’t like the rules, you can generally find sets for the genre, or if you have enough gaming experience write your own! What you still have is the minis, the time you have enjoyed making, painting and organising your forces is not really lost.@dignity is correct that the rules run your narative, but finding a new set that suits your play style is easier than buying a set and finding the figures to match, @avernos has been around in gaming as nearly as long as myself and will remember when the later was the norm.
Happy Sunday (even though its Monday now!)
Great to hear your chat guys. Glad you have recovered from the hard work of the last weekend.
Couple of comments:
1. Old historical gamers are called “grognards” for a reason! They are NEVER satisfied and always grumble. It is the mentality that is never, ever satisfied with a set of rules and always wants to modify it to make it more “realistic” – in their opinion, notwithstanding doing so makes the game have to have 7 dice rolls just to walk 6″ across the table. They also tend to look down their noses at gamers who prefer “simpler”, “dumbed-down” rulesets because in their opinion those people are less intelligent than they are.
For what it’s worth, in MY opinion, these people lack empathy and imagination, and while entitled to their opinion, should just be ignored because they just don’t get anyone elses’ point of view. There’s no point engaging with them bwcause in “their” perfect opinion there is only one way to enjoy the hobby, and that is “their” way.
2. That said, I did engage in the thread, and if I recall correctly I think I put my 2p in favour of “more detailed” reviews, not because I dislike “lets plays” or feel they are biased or unfair or something, but because of the point you made – these games are so complex that only after a lot of play do we get a realistic view of what they are like That knowledge is interesting and valuable, simply because it is hard to get to, and we as punters will only get it if we invest a lot of time and money in the game and play it ourselves. So if a game is “a bit shite” or “really detailed”, or “treats magic in a way I find underwhelming” that is valuable information to me.
So I know it was said in jest largely, but Lloyd’s opinions that “Age of Magic” was (probably) a bit shite was actually of interest to me, as knowing that you felt the magic was underwhelming as an experienced Saga player has weight to me who is sitting here owning the Saga and AoM rulesets and wondering whether to invest my next few weeks painting up an army for Saga AoM or into painting up a Gaulish army for SPQR (which even if SPQR is a bit shite can be used for other games!)
Hey ho. Good stuff!
P.S. “Daddy 40k” sounds like a heck of load more fun that “real”40k does to this particular grognard! 😀
Happy Sunday. @warzan I am absolutely with you on ‘histerical’ games. some people need to chill out. I got myself waffen SS army. I am Polish and dont feel comfortable to play as SS but, I am happy to play hydra forces, 😀 so I got myself waffen SS in long coats and I ordered german helmets heads with gas masks and if someone doesn’t like that idea they can play someone else because I don’t care that Hydra forces are not historical accurate. list is build according to Bolt action rules and you can kiss my hairy arse if you don’t like it, I’m here to play GAMES not plan to invade Poland and holocaust Jews.
Warren.. the 40k game for your children looks really well thought out and enjoyable.
Would be a great way to get more young gamers into the hobby.
I apologize for not reading all 103 comments.. I’m late to the party…
But as for the elitism and all that.. Justin & Warren have it right and have for a while… You CAN ONLY play YOUR hobby… you don’t have to play anyone else’s hobby. And whether it’s historical accuracy, beer & pretzels, 40K or 40K conversions, or serious tournament play and winning at all costs… you have to decide what YOU want from your hobby… AND THEN you have to find other players that feel the same way.
Honestly, Warren asked what “On TableTop can do” and it would be to device a “social contract” that people can put on their phone (maybe an app?) to say “what do I want out of this game” and “what do you want out of this game” and “what are we going to try to get out of this game”…
There is a huge difference between I’m practicing for a tournament vs I’m testing out a whacky list.. there is a huge difference between I want to replay Waterloo as accurately as possible and I want to paint up some blocks of infantry and just see the heraldry… and that is the problem in our hobby at the moment, doesn’t matter if it’s 40K or historicals or card games and board games… if you and your buddies want to flub your way through Zombicide vs build the ideal crew to win every scenario… both are great.. but you aren’t going to want to mix those two groups if they aren’t aware what is going on. Really, it goes all the way back to RPGs and power-gamers vs story-driven gamers vs hack-n-slashers… so none of this is new… people just are doomed to forget the history of our own games and then forced to repeat the same mistakes… (which is fine if you are looking for 100% historically accurate mistakes =p) =p
Another very interesting show, guys.
Gotta say, from a consumer’s perspective, the variety of games and aspects of such you explore is a huge draw for me. I have discovered so many things from systems to genre’ watching Boot Camps, Let’s Plays, etc that I never would have glanced at in a store, even bringing my attention back to historical games after decades away. Wolsung is a perfect example in that I first saw the minis and buildings on Beasts of War. I received a starter gang from a friend after we discussed the Let’s Play I had watched (he was already hooked on the game), watched more Let’s Plays and the Boot Camp while painting them and I was hooked as my Project Blog will attest to. There’s always something I can learn or be inspired by from the tutorials so tend to spend time there as well. (How is Mennes not glued to the furniture?)
I guess what I’m failing to articulate is that I am dumbfounded by the concept not having tons of stuff to watch on OTT even if I’m not interested in what is Live/Latest though I find the idea of NOT checking out what a group of enthusiastic, good natured gamers are exploring confounding no matter what the system. I’ve not played 40K in over a decade but I loved watching every stage of that table coming together as much as I did checking out people’s idea’s, skills, and progress. I might even dig out some Inquisitor figures next.
Rage of Smegma! LMFAO!!! Though best not to think about the minis…
The junior Warhammer 40k sounds rather good. Please post to the project system.
@warzan I am loving the concept and execution of your junior 40k and would love to see your, wait for it, .pdf’s up for download… Bloody genius idea!!!!!
Beasts of War and On Tabletop opened up a whole world of hobby and miniatures historical and fantasy I never knew existed. You definitely created a local hobby store experience it’s brilliant. I am very OCD and passionate about historical accuracy but combining and using a mix of historical accuracy with imagination and flight of fancy is surely the best approach. I was that codex kid when I was at school. Everything had to be as it was in white dwarf and eavy metal etc. Rules to the n’th degree of accuracy No one wanted anything to do with me in the end. It’s not worth being that way.
Had a drr! moment on the topic of review looking at ‘Ceasers’ latest cartoon………
Isn’t the point of ‘Lets plays’ to show the base game mechanics……. therefore isn’t it up to the
viewer to make the critical appraisal and review of the game?
In fact often based on the OTT’s lets plays I have decided whether I want to play , review further or not bother!
In fact that’s a lot of the reason I watch them…..
So we don’t need Justin,Gerry etc to do a deep critical review of game, they are there to present it, the review is our bit!
At the end of the day if it looks crap (to me, it is subjective) during the play through I wont buy it(well not for the rule, the minis may get me)!
I am fine with the representation of magic in Saga AoM but I am pretty disappointed by the lack of warhammers in Warhammer 40k.
I’m right there with you @warzan on just enjoying historical gaming, re creating exact history is basically impossible. For me it’s about fun in a historical environment