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There's a post a few threads down the list now comparing an ITC style 40K Battle Report video to a Poker video; it was an old thread, resurrected from the dead, and the last few posts were instructions NOT to Necropost, so I figured I'd let that thread die and start again with a slightly different focus- just asking people directly what they are looking for in a battle report.

I've only started watching batreps recently; I subscribed to ScaredCast and Tabletop Titans.

Tabletop Titans has INSANE production values, well built tables, beautifully painted and a pretty charismatic crew of players. For my taste though, they engage in too much banter during the game- I like a tighter focus on the action; 40k isn't about cult of personality for me. Still, having read through the Necrothread, I think Tabletop Titans covers some of the bases for what people were looking for and not finding.

Scaredcast does a great job of keeping the focus on the game; I started watching it because he's got three Crusade Batreps up- predictably, I've watched all three, and I found them interesting, though I thought they could have further reinforced the story element of the game, particular by labelling the games with numbers, organizing them in a playlist and spending a few minutes before each battle to summarize the downtime between games and the circumstances leading to the battle about to be fought. The production values are lower- there's some shaky cam work, for example, but not so much that it made me stop the stream.

I want to follow a Crusade long term. I want people to put there discussion of rules into the context of the story- so you can tell me that you earned 6 XP for completing X Agenda and that gives you Battle Honour Y, but do that after you tell that the Malicious Enigma desecrated the shrine with the viscera of their fallen foes under heavy fire, and that they have learned to return fire even when they are engaged in otherwise doing the Archon's bidding.

I like dice and other important information in overlay; I like a mix of top down, full table shots and model's eye view shots, and I like a strong narrative focus, including the story material between games, talk about where and when in the galaxy the battle is taking place, etc. I don't object to rules content- in fact it can be really helpful without disrupting the narrative if it's handled properly. I have no need for casual conversation, and I don't need shots of the players.

So that's me, and my thoughts on what I've seen so far. How about you?

There's two formats I've pared it down to - Tabletop Titans and 40K in 40 Minutes.

Play On Tabletop/40K in 40 Minutes is comparatively tightly focused and all about the game in question with high production values and minimal chaff, and manages to make it short enough to mostly hold my attention and help me remember what's going on at any given moment.

Tabletop Titans is the other side; a little rambling and bantery, but the Q&A that lets them intelligently discuss other topics of interest in the middle of the game and after makes it great material for background listening while painting or doing my job whilst still occasionally stimulating thought.

PenitentJake wrote:
What do you look for in a Batrep Video?

Brevity.

Less the 1Hr long. Nothing more boring than watching people roll dice at each other.

Narrative.
There was a battle report I saw a while back. Instead of coming up with some throw away fluff bit that ultimately had no bearing on the game (honestly, why do some people even bother trying to justify a battle with fluff when they're just going to roll dice and shake hands and leave it at that)...back on track; instead, the opening fluff bit was a well voice acted audio drama that set the stage. A turn or two into the game, they'd set in the scenario that if a certain roll happened at the start of the turn then some custodes reinforcements would arrive- it happened but instead of just slapping units down and playing on right away, the video cut to another very well voice acted audio drama, and then back to game. End of game was another audio drama.

I don't remember where I saw it but it was one of the most immersive reports I've ever seen and not seen one since.
I would love to see more like it- dramatised battles.

Tabletop Titans is the other side; a little rambling and bantery, but the Q&A that lets them intelligently discuss other topics of interest in the middle of the game and after makes it great material for background listening while painting or doing my job whilst still occasionally stimulating thought.

They seem like cool guys, and their videos are very high quality. I want to like them so bad, but the chat questions just kill it for me. In the middle on a 9th ed game between Necrons and Space Marines "So guys, CookiePuss69 is asking what your favorite part of the 4th ed Nids codex was...."

I have started a ton of their videos and I end up losing interest. I can see where it probably works for a lot of folks though. Due to how much they jump around, it's almost like a tricky way to have people with short attention spans watch longer reps.

My favorites are 40k in 40 minutes and Table Top Tactics. 40k in 40 minutes is quick and well done. Fast paced, with high production value. Table Top tactics has high production value, but they tend to be more long form, and I'm mainly watching for the personalities (already missing Bone ...). There's is the only 40K related video service I actually pay for.

 Giantwalkingchair wrote:
Less the 1Hr long. Nothing more boring than watching people roll dice at each other.

Narrative.
There was a battle report I saw a while back. Instead of coming up with some throw away fluff bit that ultimately had no bearing on the game (honestly, why do some people even bother trying to justify a battle with fluff when they're just going to roll dice and shake hands and leave it at that)...back on track; instead, the opening fluff bit was a well voice acted audio drama that set the stage. A turn or two into the game, they'd set in the scenario that if a certain roll happened at the start of the turn then some custodes reinforcements would arrive- it happened but instead of just slapping units down and playing on right away, the video cut to another very well voice acted audio drama, and then back to game. End of game was another audio drama.

I don't remember where I saw it but it was one of the most immersive reports I've ever seen and not seen one since.
I would love to see more like it- dramatised battles.

that sounds awesome, do you have a link? and yeah I agree., hell a batrep series like that done for a crusade campaign might have me actually WATCHING the Batreps.

For me, in order of importance to me, and must have MOST of them to keep my attention:
1. Text lists of the army in the description and/or in the video intro (like Priority Orders Discarded) AND game format/objectives used
2. SHORT army introductions (camera pans over minis, no more than 10 seconds per unit)
3. Accuracy. I cannot stress this enough. Looking at you, Dave.
4. Descriptive play by play format with limited dice rolling.
5. Good audio. Nothing kills a batrep for me like drastic fading audio from cut to cut.
6. COMPLETE ACCURATE SCORECARDS
7. Postgame discussion involving what went right, what went wrong, what could have been done better, and MVP units for the match.
B. Memes are appreciated but not required.

I do love Priority Orders Discarded and I do generally enjoy Play on Tabletop but I have to be in the mood for them. They are.... expressive and it can be distracting.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Giantwalkingchair wrote:
Less the 1Hr long. Nothing more boring than watching people roll dice at each other.

Narrative.
There was a battle report I saw a while back. Instead of coming up with some throw away fluff bit that ultimately had no bearing on the game (honestly, why do some people even bother trying to justify a battle with fluff when they're just going to roll dice and shake hands and leave it at that)...back on track; instead, the opening fluff bit was a well voice acted audio drama that set the stage. A turn or two into the game, they'd set in the scenario that if a certain roll happened at the start of the turn then some custodes reinforcements would arrive- it happened but instead of just slapping units down and playing on right away, the video cut to another very well voice acted audio drama, and then back to game. End of game was another audio drama.

I don't remember where I saw it but it was one of the most immersive reports I've ever seen and not seen one since.
I would love to see more like it- dramatised battles.

that sounds awesome, do you have a link? and yeah I agree., hell a batrep series like that done for a crusade campaign might have me actually WATCHING the Batreps.

I wish I did. When I say a while back, I mean over a year ago. I don't even remember who did it any more. Just came across it on YouTube.
I do remember that it had guard vs nids.

I believe the excitement of watching a 40k match isn't in the present; it's about the future. The present in 40k is always boring. You're moving dudes, rolling dice, removing models... whatever. That may be functional, but it's pretty bland. What's exciting is when you think of what the future will or won't be. If you move dudes, what decisions does that force on your opponent? When you roll dice, did you acquiesce to the odds, or did you beat the odds and now are presenting a new challenge? When you remove models, are they models that change your opponent's plans?

40k in 40min dips its toes in the water with commentary about what a certain action will or won't mean. The classic line of "don't split fire!" and seeing it backfire is just PERFECT, because it tells you why it matters, and then shows it mattering.

I think the future 40k battle report that really breaks the mold is going to do it from a much more "sports-cast" system of a live match showing just why a certain dice roll or movement - even if just a slight repositioning - is worth it. It'll get people interested in the "I'm doing X, because of Y" aspect of the game, and that's a secret sauce that just hasn't quite been explored enough yet online.

What I'm getting from this thread is that I need to start watching 40k in 40 minutes.

Scorpion 82 is my favorite. Beautiful boards and models, various armies and opponents, pro cam work and a pleasant tone… I like to put a bat rep into an small inset window while I scan for other things, work, yada, and zoom in to focus on interesting phases when I can and have interest. Then after the rep, I know that this much time had passed…

Length isn't really an issue, though I i'm not going to bother with something less than hour long. Usually 2 hours is good. I do not like one camera angle for the whole game. I prefer zooming in and out, the camera moving around, seeing the people, good banter, I like seeing the dice rolls, but I hate dice trays, I like dice rolling all over the place.

My favorite would be tabletop tactics, followed by Winters and Strikingscorpian.

I'm partial to WintersSEO & more recently Sayhipaul.

MWG(miniwargaming) has had some really good stuff in past but has been lacking(canadia's covid restrictions) notwithstanding.

Grim Resolve is another really great thematic channel.

Miniwargaming produces the best narrative campaigns, they're my favourite to watch, became a Vault member during the Lockdown. Matt does amazing work of building up a story and campaign. Dave's campaigns are usually pretty chaotic and far less developped, but if you like his banter he's still fun to watch.
I looked at other channels but MWG is the only one I kept watching. Games lasting between 45 min. to 1:30 is a good length and the guys are fun to watch. Only matchups I avoid is Steve vs Luka as they approach the game from a more competitive view I find annoying.

Racerguy180 wrote:
I'm partial to WintersSEO & more recently Sayhipaul.

I like their videos, but I stop watching once we get to the report. I'm more interested in them showing off the board, terrain, and explaining the armies.

I pay for Tabletop Tactics, and what I appreciate is the sense of fun and the genuinely friendly banter that they bring to playing the game; it is basically their personalities which make it an enjoyable experience for me.

I don't care about brevity; I am quite capable of watching a video over more than one session, and 30 minutes of humourless droning is still time that I will never get back.

 CEO Kasen wrote:
There's two formats I've pared it down to - Tabletop Titans and 40K in 40 Minutes.

Play On Tabletop/40K in 40 Minutes is comparatively tightly focused and all about the game in question with high production values and minimal chaff, and manages to make it short enough to mostly hold my attention and help me remember what's going on at any given moment.

Tabletop Titans is the other side; a little rambling and bantery, but the Q&A that lets them intelligently discuss other topics of interest in the middle of the game and after makes it great material for background listening while painting or doing my job whilst still occasionally stimulating thought.

Exactly what I think, too.

Genuinely different lists in a meaningful way, and genuinely different strategy in games.

Tabletop Tactics is the gold standard for me personally. The guys can play, but it's calm and fun all the same, sometimes they go ultra competitive, sometimes they do not, I also like the Banter... I've read comments recently about some people being glad Bone has gone because the game got derailed so often.... They must be fun people in social settings.

For narrative miniwargaming used to do excellent campaigns, the first few deathwatch were outstanding... The channel took a steep decline when Luka came onboard for me, he plays the same list and is too focussed on winning, to the point he absolute ruined a narrative campaign with a really gamey move recently. EDIT: I forgot about Steve as well, they were playing a 4 gamers campaign thing where you got crusade/exp throughout the turns, and Steve conceded in turn 2, meaning Dave missed out on a lot of potential upgrades (which he desperately needed)... This was a really poor attitude for what should have been a casual campaign mainly about fun (Dave was playing a custom Khorne Ork list thing)... If you can't take losing that badly and throw in the towel, quirky/swingy dice games are not for you.

Tabletop Titans is fun like tabletop tactics, it gets a bit too weird with the chat at times, but it's good, though I think they play a little too competitive mindset at times, recently a report had a drukhari list literally hide everything behind LOS till turn 3... However, they did the absolute best necromunda game I've ever watched of late as well, it was hilarious.

Strikingscorpion82 I find hard to watch... He only plays one way all the time and is hyper focussed on command re-rolls, his play style is very bland, his guests are good and fun though and occasionally he does huge battle reports which are always good.

WintersSEO is good, but lacks the production values and different game boards due to being a one man outfit, but it's good all the same.

I've watched loads to list all my C&C about them, anything but Reece and the ITC crowd anyway

I watch Tabletop Tactics the most, mainly for the reasons Harlokin mentions. The personalities are good, the reports tend to have good variety of armies and game type and while the banter is there, they do focus primarily on the game. Tabletop Titans are good but the livestream format kills it for me. I also watch a few SS82 and WintersSEO reports but I tend to find myself losing interest in those quite quickly.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

PenitentJake wrote:
What do you look for in a Batrep Video?

Brevity.

I'm with HMBC here, anything over an hour is tedious

Also not having the words tactics, tabletop, or vanguard in the credits in a big plus, shill factor far too high, apart from the odd pander to the squeeky wheels but soft enough not to enrage daddy dubs

Channels I like:

Miniwargaming: that's the best channel IMHO, huge variety of contents (they play everything, including old editions), reasonably quick videos and good personalities without being stupid.

Tabletop Tactics: love the variety of lists played, videos are well done, but I can't stand their dumb attitude most of the times.

Winter SEO: very good bat reps and I like the guy's attitude, the only downside is the quality of filming which look a bit amateur.

Striking Scorpion82: very high quality of filming, excellent range and quality of armies and terrain, no dumb attitude but dull way of playing, with almost no tactics involved and only the same 4-5 stratagems used per army.

Tabletop Titans: excellence in everything, except lenght. 4-5 hours are unbearable to me. I can't watch their videos, typically just take a look at the lists the play, the deployment and then skip to final comments. Who cares if it's live?

SkaredCast: I like this guy a lot but most of the games he's in are played on dull tables using amateur terrain.

Never heard of 40k in 40 minutes before, I'll take a look at it. Priority Orders Discarded really isn't my thing.

Art of War 40K for the competitive side of 40K, but tables and armies are not exactly beautiful. Then again, their focus is competitive 40K.

StrikingScorpion82 for the best looking tables, armies and a less competitive focus.

Tabletop Tactics is a good mix of competitiveness, banter, great looking armies and tables.

Tabletop Titans are great for tables, armies and some instructive comments and discussions that spark from in game events and interactions.


In general I look for batreps of the armies I play, even better if they use similar lists or units as I do.
I prefer beautiful painted armies and tables but the competitive batreps have their place. It depends on what I'm looking for in watching a batrep: entertainment or info useful in preparation for a tournament.

Most my time watching games on youtube is spent on either

1) mini war gaming i enjoy a lot of their narrative stuff and watch it if i don't feel like listening to a audio book while hobbying

2) if sitting to watch a game then art of war, it helps that i know several of the people involved and cheer my hometown pro on

3) Skaredcast really interesting guy who can make a narrative campaign great. I love when he does MWG crossovers too

4) tactical tortise does a lot to TTS stuff so has has quite a bit of content. I have been listening to him a lot lately as i am trying to learn tyranids as i just got basically a whole army to build of them and there are very few sources of info on them.

I think my major requirement is variety.

Unfortunately watching the same people play the same lists eventually runs out of combinations. There have been times when I've seen every video MWG and Tabletop Tactics put out - and equally times when I was very bored them.

Banter can get old. But equally games of 40k without personality tend to get old even faster.

There are several things I'm looking for in a batrep.
Personality is number one. I'm watching to be entertained, it's not an assignment.
Well painted armies and good terrain. I want to be immersed in a visual spectacle.
Production value. I will not watch top down only reports, just awful. Also, if you throw in some additional editing that adds to the experience, gravy.

My number one watch is Tabletop Tactics. Lawrence has done a stellar job of making this channel work. The personalities mix really well, and although the silliness between Bone and Beard got a little much at times (it seemed to be toned down in recent times), Bone leaving will be tough to replace as he was a key part of the dynamic.

I really like some of 40k in 40mins reports, great production value and ticks the other boxes too.

SS82 really puts effort into his terrain and like that he is more into the lore/fun aspect of the game.

I miss D6 evolution's videos, they were good at the time but I think one of the main presenters is an ER doc and had to be pulled away with Covid?

Tabletop Titans videos are just too long for me, especially with the added commentary. Otherwise I think I could watch them.

Warzone Morloc has some really nice armies and I've watched a few of their videos.

MWG just doesn't work for me, I think it's a personality thing.

Winters is also hit and miss but does have some decent videos occasionally.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

PenitentJake wrote:
What do you look for in a Batrep Video?

Brevity.

Wow, I love those. Why didn't I know about this?

Personally, I feel like my time is too valuable to watch a full hour or more of battle report, and I vastly prefer music as background noise.

The only time I really watch them is when a book for one of my armies is still new, then I'm looking for people who already had in-depth knowledge of orks or DG and am curious about their thoughts and ideas on the new rules.

Thanks so much for all the responses and suggestions- I have a ton of new content to explore now.

I want to document our Crusade campaign on the youtubes; I know I can hit production values and really highlight the narrative. Unfortunately I'm a slow and weak painter, and I can't afford commercial terrain in addition to my models and books, so I'm making my own.

Some of the commentary here, aside from showing me what else I need to watch, will also give me some input on what I should aim for in my own batreps once I'm ready... If I ever get there.

My favorite by far is Winters. The right mix of silliness, visual appeal, length, and narrative creativity (with fun guests too.) To me, no one comes close, and if I only paid for one channel, it would be Deployment Zone (even though I'm much more of a Winters guy than a Liam guy, though I like Liam too.) He's got a really interesting campaign coming up that I look forward to (and in general, nobody does narrative campaigns like Winters does, those are by far the best thing about his content.)

SayHiPaul is pretty good but I do wish he'd do some editing.

StrikingScorpion is also great, as everybody has mentioned.

I do like Tabletop Tactics a lot, but I will be honest, the recent persecution complex from Spider has gotten a little old. He probably wins 90% of his games with the other guys now. Yeah, that's not that big a deal, but then he whines about how everybody calls him the villain. Unless he's got access to a bunch of youtube/website comments that I don't, he's overwhelmingly beloved by the community and the whining just comes across as kind of vain. Plus, if I have to watch Dark Eldar in a stompfest that's over on turn 2 again... well, I won't cancel my membership but those videos are so lame. I get they're his favorite army, but I'm a paying customer and I have a right to voice my opinion.

Glasshammer Gaming
Pros: Skilled players. Mani is very good and Dan is good enough to make Mani play well. Not sure how good Dawid is.
Cons: Very long streams, some production issues, bit UK laddish at times.

Art of War 40k
Pros: Skilled players.
Cons: Long streams, production values somewhat lacking, has a vibe of US nerds trying to be jocks at times (whatever it is I don't like it).

Tabletop Titans (my favourite)
Pros: Two skilled players. Amazing production values.
Cons: Long streams. Brian and Adrian are too good against most other opposition. The non 40k Q&A chat could annoy some. The camera angle they mainly use might annoy some.

Tabletop Tactics
Pros: Production values.
Cons: Only one skilled player. The others are a mixture of average to frustratingly poor (Beard and the aussie painter guy).

Vanguard Tactics
Cons: Stephen Box. Something about him annoys me.

Well painted miniatures, a good looking board, and a narrative (doesn't have to be crazy in depth, but ultramarine vs imperial fists or something like that means i'm not interested). Camera angles typicaly around eye level are usually best. Top down is absolutely terrible. Going in close every now and then is great, but overdoing it can be bad. Editing the game down to around 30 minutes while still conveying the overall flow of battle is also important.

Honestly Little Wars tv have the best Battle Reports from what I've seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xdJEILS_GM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDKIHp3jhd8&t=3s

SS82 and MWG can last a bit long at times.