The fine folks at Warhammer TV did something that we around the office have been hoping they would do for years. They live streamed an Age of sigmar tournament that was being hosted at Warhammer World (the shop/bar/museum/entertainment center/oh my god it’s so pretty) in Nottingham. Streaming war games has become increasingly popular in the last couple of years, and there are some excellent places where you can catch live streamed games. You can also catch others on Youtube, but that’s a different article. So how did those plucky chaps at Warhammer World do for hosting their first live stream? Let’s dig in and find out.
Overall, we were very pleased with this outing. We thought there were some technical issues that caused some problems (sound missing in a couple of sections of the video, some confusion about what was on screen at the time), but the overall product was a fine addition to the streaming community. Here are our highlights and here are some things that we think would help the stream out.
Highlights:
The scenario breakdown videos are astonishingly well put together, and in our opinion are one of the best teaching tools we’ve seen. If the Warhammer TV Team put together a clear, concise set of these for the phases of the game, it would be an excellent resource to teach new players how to play the game. There are dozens of learn to play videos of varying quality around the internet, but this gives Games Workshop an opportunity to talk directly to their fans and show off one of their flagships.
The commentary team: We’ve seen commentary teams before, and they have varying degrees of quality. The commentary team for the Warhammer World event did the job of providing the casual observer with information that was occurring on the tabletop and keeping us entertained while things were moving slowly. With more practice (and get those men a better booth) they could easily be a hit.
The Feature table kept us engaged. Across each of the days of the competition, there were different scenarios and different army configurations in each match. THere may have been the same broad factional grouping, but there were some extreme variations within lists. The one that caught our eye was the Skull Splitterz orruk player who brought 70 archers. That’s a level of quirky hilarity that everyone should get behind.
Food for thought
We know this was the first one of those that Warhammer TV has run, and it showed. That’s not a harsh criticism, but an acknowledgment that there were some technical issues mentioned earlier, and there were spots where the commentary dragged a little. That happens with a new show, and we suspect (and greatly hope) that with more episodes that these little hiccups will work themselves out and the quality of the product skyrockets.
One camera is going to be a serious impediment moving forward. We love the fact that there is a camera giving us an eye in the sky view of the tabletop, but we think you need at least one other camera on that table to give us a model’s perspective of the battlefield. It would give a different feed to swap in and out and would give a variety of perspectives that the game needs. We’d also like to see a roving camera that wanders around the hall getting shots of things going on outside of the feature table. You had a bunch of participants that we didn’t get to see because they weren’t on the feature table.
We hope that you will go on to live stream other events (like your recent Warhammer 40,000 event) and more events going forward. This feels like a wonderful opportunity for GW to make contact with the fans and consumers of their products. We think seeing some of the folks who make the game playing it would be a neat idea as well.
Keep up the excellent work and we look forward to seeing your continued growth. Also, send more Duncan, he needs more titles and fan interactions.
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