Weekender XLBS: What Makes A Good Wargame Review?
August 18, 2019 by crew
For some website features, you will need a FREE account and for some others, you will need a Backstage Pass.
Or if you already have a Backstage Pass Log in now
What difference will having a FREE account make?
Setting up a Free account with Beasts of War 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 a Backstage Pass?
Once you have made a free account on Beasts of War you can upgrade it by adding a Backstage Pass. It allows you to use even more parts of the site and access to extra content. Check out some of the extra features below.
Backstage Pass Includes
- Reduced ads, for a better browsing experience (feature can be turned on or off in your profile).
- Access to The Weekender 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 Backstage Greenroom Forum.
- Access the Backstage Bazarr Trading Forum.
- Create and Edit Records for Games, Companies and Professionals.
- Lots of enhanced functionality on the way.
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.