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No credits. Very odd. Would'a thought they'd show off the names of the people behind it, the voice actors especially.

In any case, it was nice to see the story of Yarrick in animated form. Well, "animated", as I think old school anime had more frames per second than this animation did.

Music was brilliant.

 Overread wrote:
All round its great! Sure if they smooth animated the whole thing like an anime from the 80-90s it would be "better" but GW isn't working with those budgets nor staff on this project.

You do realize that the average budget for a 13-ep anime one-cour series as of today (not in the 80s-90s) is about $2M, right?

That should be eminently doable for GW.

And we know they're doing lots of animation that is smooth (and even 3D), so really "budget" isn't an good explanation.

It's just an excuse, and a weak one at that.

Yes but do they even have access to anime studios for this? Don't forget GW is basically totally unknown in the animation market and their IP is something they strictly control that external studios might not want to work with when they can use IPs that are easier to work with or even create their own original ones.

Interestingly they also note in this article that many of the anime cannot expect to recover those investment costs either. Relying on a few big names and merch to basically ensure they survive

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-08-13/anime-insiders-share-how-much-producing-a-season-costs/.91536?ann-edition=uk



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 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And we know they're doing lots of animation that is smooth (and even 3D), so really "budget" isn't an good explanation.

It's just an excuse, and a weak one at that.

Not really - if they are doing multiple then some might have more budget than others. Which does bring in the question of if GW should or could have done fewer but had higher production values. Then again I think they are copying a bit of their Video Game approach - scattershot everything and see what lands and what works and build from their.

 Overread wrote:
Yes but do they even have access to anime studios for this? Don't forget GW is basically totally unknown in the animation market and their IP is something they strictly control that external studios might not want to work with when they can use IPs that are easier to work with or even create their own original ones.

Why would they not? As long as they pay, there's dozens of studios willing to do whatever, and if no japanese studio is, well, even the japanese ones outsource to Korea.


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 Overread wrote:
Interestingly they also note in this article that many of the anime cannot expect to recover those investment costs either. Relying on a few big names and merch to basically ensure they survive

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-08-13/anime-insiders-share-how-much-producing-a-season-costs/.91536?ann-edition=uk

THey do use a different ROI scheme, yes. But GW has Warhammer+. That is the entirety of the thing, here. They're supposed to invest something, here.

Depends on the frequency, indeed.

Otherwise, I was a bit reticent at first but as the episode goes on, I grew on it. It has a very "comix" feeling and since everything is told from the ork's point of view, it makes sense it's used here. Orks like flashy and exaggerated stories, after all - style of comix depicting Yarrick as some kind of superhero / archvillain is pretty much in the line with how they view him.

Question is : is it really worth subscribing to Warhammer + just for that ? I would say "no", but it's not like it's the only content here.

Budget is not for just one animated series, after all.

 Insane Ivan wrote:
The Orks reminded me of the Gummi Bears, of all things..

Oh wow, that is a striking resemblance isn't it?

Was watching it, and it seemed to lose sync with the Audio?

Anyone else run into that?

I thought it was entertaining.

 Overread wrote:
Not really - if they are doing multiple then some might have more budget than others. Which does bring in the question of if GW should or could have done fewer but had higher production values. Then again I think they are copying a bit of their Video Game approach - scattershot everything and see what lands and what works and build from their.

I think they specifically chose Hammer and Bolter and a viable low budget format for it to give them substantial runtime as filler next to bigger budget full on animations that go for "quality" first and foremost. Warhammer+ is a diverse package, but the animations are a big part of GW's marketing of it and as has been mentioned so many times before, it's not going to do its job of drawing in subscribers if there is too little to watch in the beginning and GW can't provide more on a regular basis. This animated comic kind of thing is a viable way of addressing that issue.

I don't think it has anything to do with figuring out what works and what doesn't (beyond any normal evaluation process of a product, anyway). In this case I think GW know very well what they're doing.


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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Was watching it, and it seemed to lose sync with the Audio?

Anyone else run into that?

Worked fine for me. Probably something on your end.

time means money. south park major boobage took eight weeks to complete

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pma_mr1Uh_A&ab_channel=ElDaro

on one hand this, on the other hand Helluva Boss, equally low-budget/small team effort without major corporate backer. Yeeeah.

Cronch wrote:
on one hand this, on the other hand Helluva Boss, equally low-budget/small team effort without major corporate backer. Yeeeah.

Yeah, not even in the same league. Helluva Boss is significantly better in all respects.

 Albertorius wrote:

Yeah, not even in the same league. Helluva Boss is significantly better in all respects.

This. If I'd have handed this in back when I got a degree in animation this would have been C-D material. It made web series like Starbarians look good, and that was animated by one guy.

 BaronIveagh wrote:
back when I got a degree in animation

Oh, do show! Would love to see your work.

So there's an article on "Battle Report", which is a tremendously original title for their W+ battle report videos.

Here's their WIP table for the first one (DG vs Ultramarines):


First of all: I hope that's not it. Planet bowling ball is a bad start.

Secondly, it suddenly reminded me that every "Battle Report" is going to take place on a Realm of Battle board. Great...

Thats such an awful terrain layout. I get its meant to be a casual narrative game, but the complete lack of line of sight blocking pieces on 4/5ths of the table, as well as the fact that what LOS blocking terrain there is is placed where it will be essentially completely irrelevant to actual gameplay, just makes this feel like its going to be a tactically uninteresting engagement.

Payed for advertisement it is then.

Or 40k is so boring to watch there going to fudge a lot of it into a narrative.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So there's an article on "Battle Report", which is a tremendously original title for their W+ battle report videos.

Here's their WIP table for the first one (DG vs Ultramarines):


First of all: I hope that's not it. Planet bowling ball is a bad start.

Secondly, it suddenly reminded me that every "Battle Report" is going to take place on a Realm of Battle board. Great...

But its a 'custom' gameboard made entirely of... things out of GW boxes. And its so important for the premiere of Warhammer+ that they.. rushed it in two weeks so they could churn out the next one.
Maybe I'm the crazy person, but why not go all in on excellent paint jobs on terrain that they can reuse like normal people?

'Battle Report' is... huh. Truth in Advertising I guess, but not exactly compelling. Is everything going under this umbrella? Nothing game specific for better advertising... to the people already invested enough in the games to sub to the channel that tells them about the games they already bought into... nevermind.

Well, I look forward to not watching primarchs brawl in an empty space urban ruin that represents the garden world of Iax. So evocative!

Yeah, unless there's an awful lot still to be added to that table, calling it 'custom' seems a bit of a stretch.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So there's an article on "Battle Report", which is a tremendously original title for their W+ battle report videos.

Here's their WIP table for the first one (DG vs Ultramarines):


First of all: I hope that's not it. Planet bowling ball is a bad start.

Secondly, it suddenly reminded me that every "Battle Report" is going to take place on a Realm of Battle board. Great...

Gee, looks like its going to be "guess the xenos scum that gets to run over open broken ground to fortified imperial lines". Wonder who will win, hmmmmm?

That assumes imperial army has loaded up with guns.

It's DG vs Ultras. It's Guillman vs Mortarion.

Their first BatRep is a historical reenactment... on a blank table. I hope they leave the clattering of dice on that blasted rubbish RoB board in the video.

so we are finally going to see how GW intend 40k to be played

this is the setup the rules are written for......

Did anyone seriously expect these battle reports to be anything but an advertise for GW products?
They already took White Dwarf in that direction and that's what their youtube painting tutorials are for.

Well, I don’t think anyone expected them to be GW promoting another product or laying into their own?

They’re not Gerald Ratner.

 kirotheavenger wrote:
Did anyone seriously expect these battle reports to be anything but an advertise for GW products?
They already took White Dwarf in that direction and that's what their youtube painting tutorials are for.

of course it is advertising you are supposed to pay for

but they are taking their painting videos serious (unlike the 4 step guides were 10 steps between 3 and 4 are missing) although it is advertising

so coming up with such a battle report either means they are not taking playing the game as serious as painting their minis
or they are serious about it and this is how GW thinks everyone should play 40k

The game this board is being used for is a narrative driven battle between two Primarchs.

And you complain that the board isn't sporting the correct amount and placement of LOS blocking terrain... why?

My magic 8 ball told me that they won't be using cutthroat tournament meta lists either, can you imagine?

And what makes you think this is how everyone is supposed to play the game?

Have you forgotten about the article showing the two officially used boards for GW tournaments already, or do you just want to gak on the company because it is that time of the week again?

so only tournaments should play with terrain?

I always thought that narrative game will use more terrain for more flair on the table even if it hinders gameplay for the larger models
stupid me

and of course GW showing this board means they are playing very niche setups you should never use if you play this battle at home, that is why they show it as you will never see something like that outside WH+

Probably because games on planet golfcourse are boring as hell to watch, since there's no movement or tactic to speak of?

a_typical_hero wrote:
The game this board is being used for is a narrative driven battle between two Primarchs.

And you complain that the board isn't sporting the correct amount and placement of LOS blocking terrain... why?

My magic 8 ball told me that they won't be using cutthroat tournament meta lists either, can you imagine?

And what makes you think this is how everyone is supposed to play the game?

Have you forgotten about the article showing the two officially used boards for GW tournaments already, or do you just want to gak on the company because it is that time of the week again?

Either the game is just about smashing two Primarchs into one another while everyone else watches, which is boring as hell. Or it's a narrative game about a historical conflict involving two armies which happen to be led by Primarchs, in which case a table with no appreciable cover makes for a boring game. It doesn't have to be a tournament game with cut-throat armies but it at least has to be engaging and what they've shown so far isn't that.

I'd also argue that almost every narrative game I've seen or played in tended to have more terrain than normal, not less. It also tended to be very thematic, not just standard GW realm of battle stuff.