Cult Of Games XLBS: Wargaming On TV & Monoliths! Alien Proof!
November 29, 2020 by warzan
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Happy Sunday!
2nd isn’t bad. Happy sunday 2
It’s the XLBS SHow………..Happy Sunday fellow CoGs!
Wargaming on TV is already my main watching pleasure. First Beasts of War, then OTT, and now Weyland Yutani. Or, has that last one not happened quite yet?
So, was the opening of the show a recording of an OTT staff meeting? 🙂
Watching the OTT Team brainstorm really makes me smile!
America has no history??? WhistyTangoFoxtrot @brennon 🙁 hehe
.
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Well Done to all the Golden Button winners!
It’s an old joke but a good one.
Lol Warren is moving to Acheron (LV426)?
Anneka Rice with her wall of dice on the real life battlefield woukd be even more amazing
I do think it will be series based on the wargaming film but….
The potential of 12 30 minute episodes of 4 or so people arguing over period, ruleset and scale woukd be worth a watch
If people watch the Critical Roll rubbish they’ll watch anything
God Bless The Mighty Matt Mercer 😉
Have to ask – why is there so much hate for Critical Roll?
Happy Sunday!
Monolith appears at the same time scientists have been splicing genes into apes to increase their brain size? Coincidence? I don’t think this will end well.
Happy Sunday.
But this is tinged with a touch of sadness at learning David Prowse ( Darth Vader & The Green Cross Code Man ) has passed away at 85.
RIP Darth Farmer
Happy Sunday All ???
Now that I’ve watched the show,
GW have broadcast games being played at Warhammer World for 40K tournament championships on Twitch and had commentators explaining the tactics and the rules of the models. People paid for that content.
When I played competative Warhammer it was common for people to crowd around the top end tables and watch the game. Afterwards you’d be expected to answer questions from less experienced players about what you did and why you did it.
I’ve seen the same thing happen for Magic the Gathering and Bolt Action, so why not other wargames?
I’ve had a similar experience to Warren with BL and my kids. The grim dark doesn’t seem to grip the kids.
The Gotrex novels in the Old World are great. The Gotrex of AoS, not so much. Gotrex without Felix is less than half as appealing. 80% GW reads like it’s pitched at 12 year olds and about the same percentage of the plot lines are illogical. I can honestly say any modern general could kill a Primarch and wipe out a Space Marine chapter with relative ease because their tactics are just stupid.
If you did a TV show it would be best done as a XXX campaign (something like the Total War campaigns) where you could show different factions with different fighting styles and abilities conquering territories. The games would be asymmetric and would have a diplomacy element.
On the plus side of AoS Gotrek, there is something cathartic about him grousing about how much he prefers the Old World to the new Realms.
Plan out a 5ish year tv show Give each nation a celebrity leader who already games. Have them general the whole war with each season being a year and bring in normal people to atually fight the battles. Re-enact WWII but allow things to change based on the outcomes of the battles. Use different systems for different scales or types of combat. Gets a bit iffy when the celebrity playing Hitler starts to win and becomes a fan favourite though. Maybe skip WWII after all?
It shouldn’t be a custom game. Whatever is being played should be something the viewers can go out and get and try, otherwise whats the point? This should be used to bring new people in to the hobby.
Ok lets take a second to think about this 🙂
There are maybe 50 rule sets you could choose from… which one is ‘the hobby’?
Of those 50 rulesets exactly zero have been designed with TV in mind.
So perhaps a made for TV rules to give the appropriate flavour with folk then jumping into the game they like the look of is not such a bad idea? 🙂
Possibly, especially if they offer out the rules set as a free download while also pointing at the games that inspired it and have model ranges. The point would be giving new players a way in. Letting potential new players get interested in something they then cannot try seems unhelpful. As an example, if I was watching people play Flames of War and I wanted to try that but someone pointed me towards Bolt Action, I’m not convinced I’d buy in as its not the game I was after. (Or swap FoW for Star Wars Legion, and Bolt Action for a Star Trek away team mini game). Once we have their interest we don’t want to give them any unnecessary hurdles or reasons to lose interest. Our hobby has got to be intimidating to an interested outsider who doesn’t have a friend to hold their hand as they start up.
That was live from the black Friday sales.
Happy XLBS folks.
It’s a warning device to tell the aliens earth is in quarantine we are the 21 century planet Murder?
Lady Gaga?
Council T.V.
5, 4, 3, 2, …, …. Happy Sunday!
Henry Hyde’s big news was indeed about Miniature Wargaming the Movie. It’s now streamable in Amazon Prime and Apple TV plus in USA.
Have to wait until Spring 2021 in the UK
I’ll watch it on Amazon Prime. ?
I don’t do Apple…….(I refuse to drink the Kool-Aid) ?
it’s worth the wait
Don’t forget the leather clad Alice Roberts guy’s.
Or
&exph=230&expw=300&q=TV+Historians&simid=608046272939035340&ck=D06D3B4F4539E8E20442621543E5402E&selectedindex=6&form=IRPRST&ajaxhist=0&vt=2&sim=11&iss=VSI
I’m looking forward to the christmas supercut of all the pre-show countdown failures combined in to a massive 27 hour long argument
It would be quite the revelation I assure you heh
What’s that saying all the planning go’s out the window with the first contact with the enemy.
You could always tag on the miniature painting and scenery stuff a la “extra slice” from Bake Off.
I think that would be a cool idea 🙂
Weta miniatures?
Peter Jackson’s Weta.
https://www.moviefigures.co.uk/collections/weta-workshop
The Imperial Guard factor BS.
http://sepulchreofheroes.blogspot.com/2015/02/astra-miliwhat-youre-in-guard-son.html
More great button winner’s
Loved it Guy’s
Pretty sure I watched a Game of War about the Crimea, when it was on???
early 90s on channel 4, one series only mind you
Well folk are happy to watch paint dry with commentary and it’s called a DIY programme. So there there’s bound to be some out there willing to watch two grown men push toy soldiers around a table.
@lloyd noooo! Justin will do voodoo with your hair clippings!
Or clone me 🙂
Good luck with that. My money’s on voodoo!
Wargaming on the TV. Assuming you could actually get people to watch their TV’s I think it would easily work.
Wargaming some Historical Battles would be far easier than trying to get someone up to speed on 40K in the five minutes of talking before the game starts. It would be really cool to do it in the Time Commanders style with sub commanders and a General, have three tables divided by screens but give the commanders a telescope that can see through them (Kind of like the WWII Submarine Training Screens). So you’re against the person in front of you but you can spend 2-3 seconds with your telescope trying to look across the battlefield and see what your neighbor is doing. Meanwhile the commander is getting info from all 3 players and has to map the battle out with their own wooden blocks. Obviously you’d use minis on the tabletop. So if you don’t give enough info then your commander could make a big mistake and assume you’re out of position or doing well when the opposite is true, give the turns a time limit to force players to split their time between all their activities.
So you play against your opponent when you get a note from HQ saying that you need to send two Battalions to Table 2, you take out your telescope which can see through the coloured screen and see that Table 2 is overreacting and doesn’t need them so you ignore the order/send an answer back. Do this enough and your commander can come down from his desk and personally move your troops against your will but now he’s wasting his time managing you and not dealing with the Grand Tactical plan.
So some commanders could be very hands on, some could be hands off, you could have a team where you know the guy on Table 3 isn’t going to panic and if he asks for it he needs it, I think it would be really fun.
Apparently the monolith has now disappeared…
Returned back through the alien portal to its home planet now they’ve made contact.
Absolutely.
RIP David Prowse AKA the green cross code man/Darth Vader.
Strictly come warring! Watch wargemers weep as Phil Tufnell gets glitter on their hussars!
I first encountered BoW on TV so it is a very useful media for widening awareness and should increase participation, which is no bad thing. If wargaming is destined for a new TV show it will be interesting to see what they come up with. Something like the Great Model Railway Challenge should be easy enough and would show the range of talents in the hobby; 3D print the scenery, build and paint the table, build and paint the minis and then wargame with them. Having a game at the end is loads better than watching some trains not quite make it round a slightly shonky layout. I’m not sure where we are getting the extremes of emotion and tears from as they are compulsory on this type of show. Perhaps, you could add the right level emotion by feeding the losing team’s models into a woodchipper at the end?
Happy Sunday. Thanks for the golden button the gem in silver Vallejo metal colour with warp lightning on top with heavy build on bottom so lots of reflection from sliver.
ahha I was right, metallic and tints are great for gems
I’m glad its wargaming documentary that is going to shown as watching other people play games either on you tube or in person is not very interesting
Warrens mic/sound cutting in and out is getting worse with every episode.
We are seeing if we can do something about it for next week
Bean tins an a long length of string?
?
My idea, for what it is worth…
Each episode is based around a piece of well liked TV/movie, so:
* Band of Brothers
* Game of Thrones
* Lord of the Rings
Pick an actor from the work and they accompany the host through this journey of “From screen to TableTop”. The actor’s character is a model that will appear on the tabletop.
So we are really seeing this through the actor’s eyes.
Building of armies and terrain is treated like a DIY show – the viewer sees the highlights but not the full work. The actor gets to drop in with the host at important points.
Intercut with relevant still pictures and action scenes from the episode/movie.
The refight features the actor using the figure of their character at an important point of the battle scene. The host talks them through what they need to do, decisions to make, dice to role, what they need to score to succeed, etc. And then the outcome, followed by a quick debrief.
An example would be:
Show = Band of Brothers,
Actor = Damian Lewis,
Refight = the taking of the 88 gun,
Use Bolt Action rules and figures.
Could possibly include directors – that’s how you’d get Jackson involved.
To really show off the figures and terrain on the Tabletop, use a periscope on the tabletop to feed into the camera.
I really like this idea! Have them do it on tabletop and then see if it could be done for real. Either way you get the cinema of your army’s actions
00:00 Oh, we start with a live stream from the annual club meeting?
00:40 Forty seconds in and @avernos already laughing tears… I’m scared!
02:00 a bag of hair for Justin…. tell him it’s pubes.
03:30 “not bad” @brennon ? It’s terrible! But then again, Gerry will love it…
05:40 Utha… good one @lloyd …
07:00 Bansky is an alien! @warzan is on to something!
09:00 Ben going full tin foil hat now XD
14:30 Pimple TV …. all full circle.. wargames are 14 again… XD
15:00 Warrens audio is a bit too high.
17:00 poor Ben
18:00 CoG Radio is Christmas music only? I’m out. Nope. Not having that. Sorry Warren but I can’t stand Christmas tunes for the most part.
27:30 What the hell…. Train vs WW II? how did we get here?! oO
31:30 “Dangermouse of historical people” … I’m lost… this is a “people who grew up with the BBC” episode… But I know Richard Hammond… the car crashing dude.
45:00 the word “palatable” pops up all the time… but I think that would kill it. Normies still wouldn’t be interested and “real” war gamers would be “na, that’s boring”. I can’t see myself watching this. (Especially I don’t get BBC TV here XD)
46:30 Drone pictures on the tabletop: another reason metal minis are superior! They stay where they are!
52:00 David Dickinson … who? What? This is so confusing…
55:00 A documentary …. yes please. Something more serious. Like “The Toys That Made Us”.
57:00 Moist of Lipwick!
59:00 “The Toys That Made Us” but in miniature wargaming! That’s what I want!
1:02:00 GÜLDEN KNÖPFE
1:10:00 Convoluted stories on Warhammer? how can that be? 😉
1:14:00 Hero Kwest? Never heard of her *grumbles in German*
1:18:00 BOOBIES!
1:21:30 EXTRAS! Three is the number and the number is three…. *g*
This show was… different… at least for a German XD
HAPPY SUNDAY…..
Happy Sunday!
Ah gentlemen, I share your taste in historians. I would add in Suzannah Lipscomb with her pierced nose and deadly households. We will need Hannah Fry to explain the maths of everything as well, of course.
Well that’s it now Warren and Lloyd have their own Imdb listings – film stars no less.
Happy Sunday.
Congrats to all the Golden Button winners – although I have to ask, is @irishdave a pro-painter? Damn that brushwork is stunning!
I think you need your own show on TV. A comedy show. As usual the show was great, just not long enough.
OTT’s whole business model, and that of several thousand YouTube channels, is filing people playing games and painting minis. What about this being on TV is so radical?
Best ending EVER!!!
I think any wargame tv show where they’re refighting a a battle needs Mike Loads as one of the historians on it, purely for the energy he brings.
I second Ben’s suggestion of trying the Gotrek AoS books/audio dramas; they’re enjoyable anyway, but if you’re ambivalent on AoS, then you’re going to get extra enjoyment out of Gotrek being a fellow old grognard and moaning about the new setting. I haven’t read/ listened to an abundance of AoS literature, but what little I have, I think part of the problem stems from them trying to cram in as many of their invented terms as possible to a far greater extent than with the WHFB and 40k/HH books, so if you’re not well versed in them it can be tricky to understand them (a couple years back I tried to read one AoS book and it felt like the stereotype how a ‘normie’ would feel trying to read general fantasy/sci-fi. I have no experience with Black Library’s children’s line, but maybe next time try the 40k ones @warzan ? Maybe those will be better? They’re read by David Tennant, so you and your kids shouldn’t have an issue with the narrator, so should be able to gauge whether it is BL writing that’s the issue or just the AoS setting.
No I’m Kurt Russell…..and so is my wife!
What an amazing discussion! About five years ago I was involved in a pitch for a TV show that initially was about wargaming.
The basic idea was there would be a team of three people – a historian, a game designer, and a terrain builder. The team would go and walk the battlefield (Normandy, Waterloo, Gettysburg, Marathon etc), talking about the troops involved, the decisions made, and how the terrain impacted the ebb and flow of the battle. This would be the first third/half of the show, and the rest of the show would flip back and forth between a small team that would design a game/rules that could help make or adapt a wargame that was specific to the battle, and a team building the table that would feature the key terrain elements of the actual battle. I think the “gaming” of the battle would only have been 5 minutes or so.
To the concept of “things that are static vs. things that are moving” I think that TV producers want to make things as simple and convenient and easy to consume. By the time they actually started shopping it around, the concept had moved from 28mm wargaming to 1/6th scale remote control vehicles and explosions. Suffice to say, it was not picked up.
To Warren’s thoughts on the Age of Sigmar stories and the hyperbole, I think there’s something very strange about the way the lore is presented in the army books. It feels that there’s a very “pulled-back, slightly out of focus, high fantasy” feel, where things are spoken of in vague amounts of time, with little real ability to connect with the characters because they are incredibly discardable.
Take care, guys, and have fun!
Warzan proves yet again that he is a man of culture with astute observation comparing Bettany Hughes and Danger Mouse… but I don’t think hyperbolic mean what you think it means (complete with Spanish accent)…go with pedantic. Uhhh… more laughs to be had thinking that perhaps it might be damn well interesting to throw a Celebrity Deathmatch style wargame together. The punishment… well death of course. As Eddie Izzard put it “Cake or Death”, that might not be a bad reward for winning. Each and every time battle commences open up with an Iron Chef type intro for the honorary dessert and fighting factions in the conflict with anti-climatic mentions of who’s in control of each side. Who really needs to know the name of the busty airhead who’ll be eliminated in the first game by the overconfident muppet who gets his in the fourth? It might just work. BBC America could become entertaining
Am I the only one who wants to see @warzan read Warhammer lore on camera? LoL
Do we know what the “big” TV news is yet?
@jamjarst yeah the wargaming documentary that was is going on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Are there any details anywhere?
https://miniaturewargamingthemovie.com/
I know I’m late with this, but what if the Monolith was an artpiece placed by aliens… ?