Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, I've been playing around with the idea of starting a 40k channel for a couple years now. Been messing with editing software, contemplating camera equipment (Holy feth that's expensive!) and deciding on the direction I'd like to take it in.

One of the things that I love about most game systems that I play in is when I can build weird and obscure lists and making them at least somewhat viable. I did this a lot back when I played MTG semi-competitively and have been having a lot of recent success with Kroot in competitive 40k. The thing is, I don't just want my channel to just be Kroot and the bits of other armies that I've managed to paint 2k points worth of as that will only last for so long and not really be anything that hasn't been done before. So for the last year, I've been shopping around the secondary market making trades and getting good deals where I can, but even so, most of the niche armies that I've been trying to build for the channel are still at best only half complete and by the time 11th rolls around, they might not even be playable armies anymore.

So I got to thinking about using TTS to supplement these armies while I work to build them for the actual table and it's really allowed my to stretch my list building creativity and come up with some crazy theme lists that I think would be pretty fun to see played. Some things I've been thinking of are:
- Full Null Maiden's Vigil (Essentially max SOS riding around in a bunch of Rhinos.)
- Guard Auxiliary (Abhumans and Cavalry)
- Tyrand Warrior Spam (Going full max Warriors in the Grotsmas detachment.)
- Tau Recon Cadre (Ghostkeels, Pathdinders, Stealthsuits, Pirahnas and Marksmen)
- Necron Anihilation Legions (Destroyers and Flayed Ones)
- Orks Speed Freaks (Lots of Warbikers, Deffkoptas, and all the variations of the racecars)

It could also allow for games with models that are damned near impossible to get anymore, like running Canoptek Court with a bunch of Tomb Sentinels and Acanthrites.

Beyond that, once I get more comfortable in TTS, it would great to make some larger scale and unique maps for narrative campaigns too.

Anyhow, one I hit on the idea, the possibilities seemed really expansive and interesting, and I do still plan to supplement them with actual games on the tabletop with my creative physical armies that are finished like my Kroot and Agents of the Imperium lists.

What I did notice though is that even with TTS being out for a while now, no one really has done batreps on youtube through them so I figured I'd pop this in here to test the waters and see if there was interest in this kind of content.

The thing is TTS isn't "real warhammer". There's no painted models; no hand crafted terrain; no fancy tables happening and no real dice rolling.

So a lot of the physical immersion is missing and instead replaced with nice looking but more functional than pretty systems.



So as a purely spectator element its not as exciting. Also sure you can use rare things; but part of the joy of rare models is seeing the actual model not just a cutout of one.




I think it would have value if the focus was on the tactical side of things. Ergo remove all the bling and decoration and focus on tactical teaching. Then you've 100% got value to engage people with.
Otherwise if its just battle reports on games its not quite the same as a real world game; its going to miss that magic something.

I'm fussy about batreps.

I might watch a particularly narrative fight- I watched the WH+ Batrep that was based on the Blood Angels vs. GSC show. I watched the Red Gobbo Christmas battle.

But in order to commit longer term than cherry picking occassional battles with a narrative focus, it would have to be a series that covered a Crusade-based escalation campaign where the presenters really emphasized the connections between the growth of the Crusade and the game.

I've found very few batreps get Crusade right.

As one of the horrible people who watch 40k games on twitch, I really enjoy watching the game unfold between two players and seeing the models pushed across the tabletop.

I guess I could hunt down some TTS games and give them a look-see, but I've never really given them.much thought when I can watch live action games.

 Overread wrote:
The thing is TTS isn't "real warhammer". There's no painted models; no hand crafted terrain; no fancy tables happening and no real dice rolling.

So a lot of the physical immersion is missing and instead replaced with nice looking but more functional than pretty systems.

So as a purely spectator element its not as exciting. Also sure you can use rare things; but part of the joy of rare models is seeing the actual model not just a cutout of one.

I think it would have value if the focus was on the tactical side of things. Ergo remove all the bling and decoration and focus on tactical teaching. Then you've 100% got value to engage people with.
Otherwise if its just battle reports on games its not quite the same as a real world game; its going to miss that magic something.

That is a pretty good summation of both my concerns and my hopes.

The idea is to have TTS be used for wild and crazy skew armies that I would never be able to collect all of and do them very tactically, showing the kinds of wild things that can still work on the table.

In contrast, doing some live batreps for more narrative focused gaming where characters and stories can really shine. I was thinking about the kind of level customizability you could do in TTS, but others have raised good points above about the models just being generic and not having any particular attachment to them which is a great point on that front.

What info would help the most to figure out is if these are two completely different audiences without overlap.

Yep - anyone can load up TTS and do silly things with models that are out of print of insanely expensive. So unless you can teach someone; or tell a really good story or other elements you're not really going to capture as much of an audience

There's certainly value to the tool for battle reports and heck you could even use it alongside a real game to help simplify and show the moves and such.

But as a whole video experience I don't see it working purely for battle reports

 Overread wrote:
Yep - anyone can load up TTS and do silly things with models that are out of print of insanely expensive. So unless you can teach someone; or tell a really good story or other elements you're not really going to capture as much of an audience

There's certainly value to the tool for battle reports and heck you could even use it alongside a real game to help simplify and show the moves and such.

But as a whole video experience I don't see it working purely for battle reports

Thanks for your thoughts on this. Much appreciated.

For me it's absolutely no. TTS may be a thing to test something check new army or try absurd things. But battle report from tts is like battle report with empty table, but signed bases.

Yes, maybe, depends is my thoughts on it.
Probably for a short video, where it was more a display of the battle as you go through it.

You could also have cool miniature shots and video to supplement the battle commentary and images. Probably depends a lot on production value and how good it is to listen too.

My favorite kind of battle reports are in the style that minisodes does, like this one, https://youtu.be/nh6VpbOnz9g?si=7S596yodKeY_zdSg

These battle reports use video taken from the battle being played, zoomed in shots, post-battle recorded narration, and things like video clips and sound effects. It requires editing, but it is superior.

What I don't like in battle reports, are battle reports that just record the game being played, and have a lot of talking that doesn't have to do with the battle, and have no editing to cut down the video.

You don't have to go as full-blown awesome like minisodes does, but you could go half-way. grab video clips from during the battle, edit things together, record a post-battle narration for the video instead of using what you might be saying during the battle.
It could work out to be entertaining/fun to watch but you'd need to do more than just record the game being played and post it without any editing.

 Overread wrote:
There's no painted models; no hand crafted terrain; no fancy tables happening and no real dice rolling.

That's a lot of what I was about to say - It depends on the quality of the "graphics".

TTS by its nature is low quality warhammer. There is a ton of other channels with real models I could watch, so you would have to do something really unique in order to pique my interest.