Steam & Sorcery

Been working on the September batrep video for the past 2 weeks off & on as family time / work allowed. Decided to take a short break this afternoon to test out a few things that I'm hoping to incorporate into the October batrep: a 3-axis motorized gimbal & filming in 4K. This is just a rough test of both since I didn't want to take too much time away form recording audio narration today. I still need a lot more practice with the gimbal to get a better understanding of how to control it & I need to spend some more time calibrating it to adjust more smoothly to the speed of my movements.

The Story Of How I Got Here For about 8 months, I've been interested in learning how to make video battle reports. I wanted to take my written narrative batreps & push them to the next level. I was inspired by old batrep videos I'd seen from the likes of House of Dice & Wargamer Girl, as well as taking inspiration from others like Warjax, War Budgies, & Tangible Day. Each one inspired a different aspect of my overall vision, m y batreps aren't going to be like any of those above.  For one thing, my batreps have always been more about the story than the "numbers". In my written batreps, I include *most* damage roll info because I don't want to lose sight of the fact that I'm still narrating a game . However, I pretty much never include attack roll info. Attacks are covered by the story. An attack is described to have missed or hit with some appropriate flavor text. I don't care to bog down my batreps with every stat or dice roll. Some people

Oh...hey...it's another one of those verbal explosion rambling thoughts blogs that I tend to write every now and then... Prefacing all of this to say that I'm just giving some perspective on my experiences, what I've seen / read, and maybe asking an honest question or three. I'm certainly not saying how I feel is the "right" way or only acceptable way.  People invest a lot, both financially & emotionally, into a game like Warmachine. Afternoons & evenings spent around the table with friends rolling dice can be an important escape from the world around us, from work, from worries, from whatever might be wearing us down in some other aspect of life. As such, people have strong opinions and social media gives us all an instantaneous outlet to unleash them. The small, but vocal minority of people who are angered by the changes coming in MK4 are readily evident of that. People are angry & they're making their voice heard. They have every right to be

I'm going to preface everything that I write below by emphatically stating that this blog is written in the spirit of fun discussion & maybe a little bit of respectful debate. It's not at all meant as a judgment or negative statement on anything the Warjax crew talked about in the episode in question. In episode #50 of their podcast (which by the way, CONGRATS on 50!), they discussed their newfound love for the 75 point Steamroller variant of Warmachine and how they're gravitating to it a bit more than Brawlmachine lately. I have the utmost respect for Brandon, Craig, & Shaun. I have been a fan & proud Patreon supporter of Warjax ever since I first heard about them last year. I continue to support them & enjoy their content. As a matter of fact, I believe it was through their YouTube channel that Donna & I first learned about Brawlmachine & the LOS crew originally. I also want to point out that before I ever put fingertip to keyboard, I reached out t

When we ordered our first mystery boxes from PP, I had my heart set on Protectorate of Menoth. I fell in love with the bulky, ornate aesthetic of the faction. Our first boxes were Protectorate & Skorne. Donna had no idea that I'd been eyeing Protectorate. So, it was no harm / no foul when she chose them. I was happy to play something else, because at the end of the day, regardless of what faction I'm playing, I was going to get to enjoy the game at home with my wife. Fast-forward a year and Donna is 5 months or so into playing Circle Orboros; a faction that she's really connected with from the play style to the look. It just checks so many boxes for her. After playing Skorne for the last 6 months, I decided to mix things up & pull her original Protectorate army out to start running against her Circle. We wanted to see what kind of shenanigans we could pull off. I was especially excited to see what I could do against her new list that included a Druid Wilder, Gorax R