If you're not already a fan, I seriously and wholeheartedly recommend the brilliant, brilliant Norwegian chaps over at Tabletopbattle.com [link here]. In short, they are essentially playing through many of the major land battles of all theatres of WWII - in vague chronological order - through the marvellous medium of Bolt Action, filmed and posted on youtube!
I have essentially become addicted to their material, as it's a way of vicariously getting to enjoy playing the brilliant game that is Bolt Action, and the gentle ribbing and enjoyably Nordic buffoonery is the perfect antidote to all the beardy posturing and gamesmanship that seems to have come to the fore in video uploads of other games. The hosts (led by the charismatic Svein and Damon) are extremely sporting and generous in their gameplay and love more than anything to tell a story.
They are making in-roads to filming other games systems as well (including Flames of War, Terminator Genisys and -soon - 40K) but with the probable exception of Terminator, I don't know how well these will all work for videos: in my (sadly not inconsiderable) experience of watching other people play on youtube, I've realised that I-go-you-go mechanics can swiftly get boring, and smaller minis (like Flames) can get lost.
[Interestingly, X-Wing works really really well through video if filmed and edited tightly and if the commentary is crisp, knowledgeable and inoffensive (why do so many of us nerds feel the desire to be so bloomin' negative and derisory? - anyone'd think we were outcast at school!) it can be a real joy to watch. Competitive games too, as these are usually the ones filmed. I love that even newbies can stand a chance in X-Wing tourneys, and the core mechanic really does translate well. I heartily recommend an Australian channel, Fly Casual [link here], whose videos are very pleasant indeed!]
ANYWAY...All of this brings me back to my stroke of good luck. As I was watching the latest tabletopbattle.com Bolt Action scrap this week (Operation Ironclad - 1942: Madagascar - British Commandos Vs Vichy French), I realised they were inviting answers to a question on their facebook group, of which I am a member. I answered first, and - lo and behold - I soon found out that I won the following:
I've plans for this...and something else as well...but you'll have to wait to see precisely what other excitement I'll have in store.
Cheers,
- D.
