Arena Rex Forums

Before discovering Arena Rex, I have played and enjoy many other table top games, as I'm sure most everyone here does as well. Time being as limited as it always seems to be, I often go fairly long periods without being able to get a game in. So I personally enjoy watching battle reports and videos about games on YouTube, to get a taste of gaming when I can't. That being said, I have not been able to find much Arena Rex content online, other than a few demos from the last few years.

My personal favorite place to watch battle reports, is Guerilla Miniature Games channel on YouTube. Run by a wargammer named Ash, he manages to put out daily content on a huge range of games. I have emailed him to see if Arena Rex is on his radar, and turns out it is something he might like to check out.

So couple of questions:
How interested are you in watching battle reports online?

And is anyone else a fan of GMG, or have any other favorite places to get your tabletop fix?

I'm currently not interested at all in watching battle reports online, I guess would be my very boring answer to your question.

I also don't play very often - I think I have had four separate AR gaming nights all in all since October. But I spend my non-gaming hobby time painting and modeling (and writing on the forum).

Maybe I should try it sometime though.

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YouTube battle reports are great and good entertainment. Also helps grow a game.

They aren't for everyone. My girlfriend thinks I'm crazy for watching other people play games, and she's probably right. But I still enjoy them and would say it's something to to check out if you don't get to play too often. Especially if you play or are interested in multiple games. If you do ever decide to take a look, I highly recommend Guerilla Miniature Games, as the reports are tight and concise, the content is consistent, and there is a huge range of games for all interests.

Watching games is becoming very popular in miniature games. I'm watching. X-Wing world championships today.

It's definitely something I discussed with my game group. I have some mics and such but it's just still something that is hard to find the time to do with everyone's schedule. But hopefully soon!

I enjoy watching some battle reports but tend to be fairly picky about them. GMG is alright, I really like Beasts of War battle reports for just about anything, the production level it awesome. I don't even play Warmachine but, I love WarGamerGirl's battle reports because she puts just the right amount of narrative, rules explanation, and audio/video production together to make the best battle reports ever. Team Covenant does an awesome job as well, I just wish they would focus on more than X-Wing!!

I, like you, have searched for Arena Rex battle reports and have a hard time finding anything worth while so, a couple buddy's of mine and I are working on setting up our own channel on youtube. It's been in the works for a while but, we're getting there. Hopefully we'll be filming some of the demos we do at Texicon this year.

I really like the idea of streamed games, but I mostly just find watching them too slow. I really appreciate when major events get streamed so you can see how the championships play out, but most of the content I find is just a little drawn out and I find myself skipping around until the end.

I agree with being picky towards battle reports. From my experience for every great report, there are 100 boring or poorly edited ones.

I have to echo tldanon, Beasts of War is another great site that I visit almost as much as GMG. They just recently did a whole week of content for Guild Ball, aimed at new players. Including how to play videos, overviews of factions, and and various battle reports. I know they have done other such events for games like Infinity as well. I would love to see AR get a spotlight like that, as I think it would be a great way to generate a lot of new interest.

I always find myself starting to watch video Battle Reports... but hardly ever finishing them. I think there is potential for a lot of benefit from them, but they are usually too difficult to sit through to get that benefit.
In my dream world, a good Battle Report would address the following:

1. Length. Any time I see that a video is over 30 minutes long my interest begins to diminish a bit... if it's over 45 minutes long chances are I will not be watching it. I know it's tough to keep it under 45 minutes, but I think with some clever editing it's possible to keep the action and remove the extra minutes.

2. Production. A lot of Reports out there have terrible production values. There's either a stationary camera from an angle that is too far out to really see anythig, or it's a jumpy/blurry/dark handheld that makes it hard to follow. Worse than that is sound. Often times you can barely hear what's going on... or you can't really tell who is talking. When you see a well produced Report it makes it a thousand times better to watch. A couple of cameras from different angles and distances and good sound quality make all the difference in the world.

3. Content. I like watching Reports that give some insight into the strategic and tactical decisions being made by the players. I usually watch them because I am looking to see how certain factions or models interact... or I'm looking to improve on my own game by seeing how others play and think. I think this is best achieved through a post-production voice over. While playing it is hard to engage the camera and audience when trying to make game decisions, it may also not be advisable to give away too much of the strategy while your opponent is right there trying to counter it. I think the Reports I enjoy the most are those where the players are narrating the video after the fact and they walk the viewers through their thought process through the game. I think that kind of set up provides the most beneficial content (for me, at least). I also find that the conversation between players tends to be more enjoyable when they can focus on describing the game without having to play it at the same time.


I know that's a lot of work for the video makers, but thats the format I would love to see on more video Battle Reports.
As mentioned by previous posters, Beasts of War, GMG, and Team Covenant are some of the ones I do enjoy.

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