Weekender: Team Yankee History Lesson & Replacing Rulebooks With Dized
September 2, 2017 by brennon
We're back to bring you more awesomeness from the world of tabletop gaming this weekend with our little show known as The Weekender!
Weekender Podcast Download
We've got some awesome news to share as well as a great interview with @oriskany about a new article series that begun this week.
Off To Mythic Day!
Az & Justin are off to Mythic Day in France this weekend and will be chatting with Leo and friends about not just Mythic Battles: Pantheon but also Time Of Legends: Joan Of Arc too.
Follow them for lots of awesome pictures and videos across Saturday to see what's going on in the South of France.
Prizes & A Hobby God Bag Winner
Additionally, we are giving you another week to get involved in the Gen Con Live Blog comments and potentially win yourself some awesome goodies from the event.
All you have to do is Comment To Win on the particular posts for companies in the Live Blog and you could be in with a chance of walking away with some goodies.
We also announce the Hobby God Bag Winner from the last Hobby Night Live as @fishman and his project showing off some ace Goblins although we had to give a resounding honourable mention to @tmsmnns' amazing Redemptor Dreadnought.
News
We've got some great news to share with you today so let's dive in...
- New Grymkin & Sorscha From Privateer Press - Get a look at some new models for both sides of the coin.
- Micro Art's Ace Infinity Terrain - Some new terrain which inspires a fast-paced tabletop.
- Games Workshop Announce Necromunda Underhive & More - Get a look at what came out of NOVA this year.
- Age Of Sigmar: Blightwar - A new way to dive into the narrative battles of Age Of Sigmar. Check out our General's Handbook Review too!
We hope some of this news caught your eye today.
Talking History & Team Yankee
Az and Justin sit in with @oriskany to talk about the new article series he is writing alongside @benc and discuss how Team Yankee would have unfolded had it actually happened.
This article series is going to be well worth checking out in more detail and you can read Part One Here to get started.
Fundraisers
Just one IndieGoGo for you this time and it might be a robotic replacement for Az (don't worry buddy, we wouldn't replace you with an android...yet).
- Dized: Board Game Companion App - Learn your board games as you play.
Personally (BoW Ben), I think this is a great idea but we share our thoughts and want to know what you think too.
Have a great weekend!
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Good morning all
Happy Saturday – Long weekend so time to work on some DfC
Hurrah for the weekend and a chance to relax and catch up on what’s been posted this week. Work really does get in the way of my hobby time. Still, it does pay for all of the shiny!!!!!!!
Huge thanks to @az and @dignity for the great interview segment. 😀 Yes @Warzan – Challenger went up in January 1986 (Reagan’s second term). I was a freshman in high school taking English midterms when we heard. I was in my second month of recruit training (Weapons Training Battalion) when the Wall came down. You are so isolated in that training (absolutely no TV, newspapers, phone calls, no Internet in those days, and even your mail in censored) I didn’t even learn much about it until a month after it had happened. I notice Warren and Az are going for… Read more »
Yeah the American influence on me during those (formative?) years was incredible looking back.
And you know what… I love it I think the 80’s was an awesome time to grow up 🙂 lol
And I meant to say, @warzan , great job with the American Presidential history. It’s sad to estimate that only one out of three Americans could probably do that off the top of their head.
The Challenger I was in service from 1983.
I’ll be damned. I’m always very wary of the phrase “entered service” or “was introduced” or some such. Prototypes, production started, . When does the tank actually enter battalion or regimental service, and a quick click to Wikipedia doesn’t count as research. But sure enough, I found on more than a few sites (Janes, WorldSecurity.org, etc) that you are absolutely right. Finally found (quote): Initial Challenger Mk 1 production vehicles were received in March 1983 and these were delivered to British divisions in West German as a deterrent from Soviet invasion through East Germany. Some five regiments were equipped with… Read more »
Happy Long Weekend!
Happy Weekend everyone Some lovely models for the Hobby God bag. I do like the look of the sculpts for the Necromunda release and have been thinking about the question posed by Warren. For me I think there is definitely a nostalgia component to seeing the game released again but the big draw is the character/gang progression which was done so well in the past version and bitz box building a gang. With the huge increase in companies since the original release the potential models and bitz available are now so much more. I am looking forward to building a… Read more »
Great response 🙂
That feels a bit like you ‘loving’ the game rather than this ‘product’ (package of the game)
If the books and rules were available separately does that mean you would maybe skip buying this box?
I do love the game and that may be me seeing it through rose tinted spectacles. I think the models look good for this product but nothing else is jumping out at me and I am unsure if additional scenery would have made a difference to my wish to purchase. I think this is because I am a nostalgia buyer which means I have access to ample scenery to play and am not really seeing this as a product but a game that brings back happy memories. I feel GW are not necessarily pitching this as a tabletop game but… Read more »
I think you’re right about the board game marketing, and i think the reason they are doing that is because they are designing their games, as much as possible, to be both a game that can be played out of the box and as an expandable hobby.
The reality mimics the game theme. This isn’t Necromunda (as the community have maintained it over the decades GW haven’t given a s#!t) – this a sanitised, packaged commercial revenue stream for GW I’ll call “Necromunda(tm)”. OK – nice sculpts… but apart from that this will be another 3 month revenue stream they re-release every few years which will end up gathering dust on 80% of its owner’s shelves; 10% will play it occasionally and hopefully 10% will venture beyond the board edge to discover the underground community of hand hobbied 3d terrain and personalised crews assembled from a wide… Read more »
I would disagree with the gang progression being done well in the previous version. It was terribly flawed and led to player drop out quite quickly or 1 or 2 gangs have so much dominance it wasn’t worth fighting them after a couple of games
I would agree with this completely back when I was playing at its release and shortly after but now the older me plays keeping the objective in mind, with more emphasis placed on keeping my gang members alive and that actually made the system work a lot better. I used to treat it like a 40k battle when I should have been using guirrella tactics, especially when fighting the dominant gangs. The other thing we found was we were not using enough scenery or volume which again made a big difference. I will say it did die the death at… Read more »
The Challenger mishap took place on my 20th Birthday which all seems a long time ago now? I remember watching the wall come down live on TV after weeks of protests in various countries . I have a bit of it in the house somewhere? A lady I work with was in Bucharest when Ceaușescu fell. She remembers being scared and hopeful all at the same time To add a little to TY . The big games I mentioned in another thread were always based smaller Satellite states of the Warsaw Pact. Rumania Vs Hungry is an obvious choice given… Read more »
Great ideas, @torros . 😀
Wow. Tough crowd this morning. That’s what I get from not doing up my bases 🙂
But seriously. Congratulations, @fishman. Those goblins look absolutely awesome! I love the magical style that they have. I tip my hat to you, sir.
So I guess I’ll have to try even better next time? Challenge accepted! Getting a hobby god bag before Steve Jackson just became a life goal 😀
Mate you could have (to paraphrase the hound from GOT) won all the f******g hobby god bags lol
Your stuff is genius 🙂 Looking forward to see what you have up your sleeves!
Nah, just admit it. You just want to keep that carrot dangling in front of my nose to see how crazy I can go, don’t you? 🙂
Well now I am @tmsmnns I want to see you at your craziest! <3 Az
It’s the Weekend! (I think… been off for 2 weeks so every day’s like the Weekend)
Reading the printed rules for some games is important to know what rules are where. A tutorial app is all well and good for the core mechanics etc – but how many games a serious gamer will play have countless little ‘rulettes’ dotted about. When you need clarification mid game “Who you gonna call?”
Ohh that is a brilliant point! We totally overlooked that one!
Dare I mention that Ben looks like he’s been overdoing the “furious and sexy” – ease up Ben, you’ve got to take that stuff at a pace…
… either that or it’s jet-lag!
This is an interesting one – Privateer Press does a really good job of making rules on War Room cards link directly to descriptions and specific rules, making searching for the rules when you need then very easy.
If Dized has similar system I’d be very happy. Az
ghostbusters..
dized works well for somethings, board games certainly but i think it would struggle with tabletop mechanics and things which dont resolve as move n square or collect n tokens as it currently stands, had a look at games expo and seemed ok, at best, perhaps as a demo game in pocket system, but with out the known constraints of the board i think it will struggle i.e. if you dont have the same terrain and exactly same layout as they use a demo of say 40k would be the same crappy getting started battle as you get in the… Read more »
ah, the week is back on track starting off with a weekender. Not even a hordes player but I want all the new Grymkin models, the entire collection is great and might just turn me into a collector. The dized app is interesting but I would much prefer to watch a Lets Play. A shout out to @thisisazreal for his recent Dark Souls lets play, watched those and they pretty much taught me the entire game but was done in a way I was enjoying the show and learning at the same time. Only a couple of weeks now until… Read more »
ah, the week is back on track starting off with a weekender. Not even a hordes player but I want all the new Grymkin models, the entire collection is great and might just turn me into a collector. The dized app is interesting but I would much prefer to watch a Lets Play. A shout out to @thisisazrael for his recent Dark Souls lets play, watched those and they pretty much taught me the entire game but was done in a way I was enjoying the show and learning at the same time. Only a couple of weeks now until… Read more »
Many congratulations to our latest Hobby God; @Fishman. And kudos to our Demi-god; @tmsmnns. Great and deserving winners!
Could listen to @oriskany the whole weekend!
I’m very much looking forward to the article series 😎
Thanks very much, @suetoniuspaullinus . 😀
First part is live. More parts to come every Monday (as Az says) through the rest of September.
http://www.beastsofwar.com/team-yankee/history-team-yankee-part1/
I am finding the Team Yankee stuff really fascinating. I am not normally ‘into’ historical minis/games, but there is something about the ‘Cold War gone hot’ theme that is rather appealing. That and being born in the seventies means that for me, the Cold War is something I was born into, and the imagery is something I grew up on.
Lookign forward to seeing how the article series progressed 🙂
Thanks very much, @avicenna . Although it’s technically “historical,” I agree Team Yankee can feel somewhat different because it obviously never happened. The tanks were there, the APCs, the infantry, battalions, helos, order of battles . . . so there’s plenty of rivets for us grognards to count . . . but at the same time it’s “open” for non-historical gamers (no actual campaign, battles, dates, generals, etc). So in many way it’s the best of both worlds. 😀
The new Necromunda has cash-in written all over it. Setting aside, is it really Necromunda with different rules and 2-dimensions?
Yes, you can use 3d scenery, if you have it, but the tiles look boring and uninspired.
Good question, and I think only time will tell if this new style Necromunda is going to feel the same as the old version, however I think not. Either way it will likely, as you noted, sell well.
Fo me, the deciding factor is going to be how much of an after thought the 3d terrain is. It could well have been designed with 3d in mind from the start and have been a decision to remove it and add a 2d element. We just don’t know yet – it might be the best thing since sliced bread!
I think, in many ways, you could argue that between Necromunda and Shadow War, Shadow War is the cash in. Using existing figures and bits of an old 40k system – They probably should have waited and put the two together.
That’s probably my problem with it. Between Necromunda and Shadow Wars: Armageddon, the whole thing seems backwards. SW:A, as a skirmish game using 40K models, would have made much more sense if it used the modified 40K rules that Necromunda will be using. And vice versa.
Instead we have this bizarre situation where the relaunched Necromunda won’t play or feel like Necromunda. At least not out of the box.
gangs of commorragh has 3d card terrain so there is a precedent within “new gw”. i was gutted when i saw the flat munda layout, it would cost the same to do 3d. still buying it though 😛
A few crappy card spikes doth not a return to the card terrain business make.
It’s also technically what @warzan calls 2.5D – it’s a 2D board with 3D scenic elements. But I don’t think GW could have realistically produced card scenery like that in the original game without potentially undermining sales of their sector Mechanicum range (launched with Shadow Wars). What I think they’re hoping for is for people to buy into either the Sector Mechanicus or the Zone Mortalis boards
Ah the Weekender and a free weekend to watch it… how I’ve missed this 🙂 Team Yankee – I bit the bullet a few weeks ago and picked up the US and USSR starter sets and hoping to drag some of the local club guys in with me, so article series is perfectly timed for me, looking forward to seeing where it goes 🙂 Necromunda – If you look closely the tiles are based on FW’s Zone Mortalis tiles, and are designed to replicate the sewers of the underhive. They’ve already stated that the game is fully compatible with 3D… Read more »
One of Team Yankee’s best features is its accessibility. Start with just tanks and the rules are so streamlined the guys at your club might be playing in as little as 20 minutes.
Getting them to play won’t be an issue, getting them to buy into anything outside GW can be though! 😀
Gotcha, @olliep – if this helps, the new BF plastic tank boxes are usually $45 USD for five tanks, or $9 per tank. That’s gotta be a drop compared to GW prices. 😀
Happy weekend all.
@ben, without glasses, looking good, and nice for us, the Reflexion of your laptop was always on your glasses.
Morning All,
@oriskany Nice interview and thank you for your kind words. I’m still a bit spaced due to jet lag so I haven’t had the opportunity to get fully engaged with the discussions from Part 1 of the TY series.
Fully agree with your points around the technological advancement. It’s a discussion I’ve had in my FLGS and various online areas.
Time to do some more work to my TY T-64 Battalion.
Thanks once again, @benc for all your help with this article series. It’s always great to have another viewpoint. There was at least one error you “saved” me from before these were written and published. The photos and additional writing were a huge help, time saver, and ‘quality control’ measure. 😀 😀 😀
On necromunda. I was a huge fan of the original game, which I owned and played when it first came out. I too was disappointed at the prospect of the new game being a 2D board game. I understand that the rules will still include the skirmish/campaign game played on dense high rise terrain which we loved as kids, and that including such terrain in the box would have increased the cost. I also understand that unlike when Necromunda first came out, there is a profusion of such terrain available on the market now, including the shadow war stuff produced… Read more »
Grindr for gamers? Gamr.
@oriskany Was an infantryman in the mid80’s, and really looked forward (not) to the annual Reforger type exercises held in Germany every year. Used to amuse me how the Officer types and SNCO used to make a habit of stressing how short our expected survival time would be in the event of the Warsaw Pact coming over the line. It seemed that as far as BAOR was concerned, it would be similar to your recent topic (Dunkirk) on a larger scale, very much a defensive and delaying action in pre-identified choke points. Later transferred to RSigs and found out that… Read more »
@bonesbs – great post! Another veteran on the thread, one of my favorite things about this topic, it brings out all the vets who were getting ready to play this game at “1:1 scale” as it were. Indeed, Warsaw Pact forces would have inflicted horrendous losses on that first defensive belt of NATO defending formations. If nothing else, the 200,000+ troops the Soviets had in their dedicated chemical attack regiments and demonstrated willingness to use it (Afghanistan). Our Part 03 goes into the “Corps Containment Zones” you’re referring to (different armies and planning staffs / bureaus may have had different… Read more »
Must agree, the Battlefield chemical low persistent threat was always higher and more likely and let’s be honest the West would have deployed it sooner than nuclear. We spent far more time training in the detection and working in the environment. Will we see NBC regiments make an appearance in 15mm I wonder?
Really looking forward to this series, not a Team Yankee or Modern player but this amount of balanced background must give players endless scope for current and future campaigns.
Great question on the chemical warfare elements, and how they might one way work into Team Yankee. Honestly it might just be a “neutral” scenario element. Or say a Soviet chemical attack is dropping in – in advance of an actual ground attack. So NATO has set up a defense and the Soviets are about to come on the board. Every NATO unit has to make a save at the beginning of the game. Fail that save and the unit comes off the table before Turn 1. Maybe 2+ for tank units, 3+ for infantry units. Okay, now the Soviets… Read more »
Awesome, now you’re cooking, must be some way of showing the debilitating effects of fighting in “noddy” gear as we used to call it, sliding scale reduced accuracy on hits for each turn in the affected area or whilst the agent is considered persistent?
More an affect for Infantry possibly, maybe I’m creating too much complexity, but a real consideration for Commanders as can gain casualties just through being in protective equipment.
I’ll shut up now, thanks for persevering
Yeah, I suggested the infantry w/a reduced save (longer to put on full MOPP gear than to dive into your AFV with NBC overpressure-filtration protection system) … and then give the infantry a lower movement rate (NBC-protected vehicles would not be effected) while the infantry have to trudge around in those suits (MOPP-4, the full fit, the only protection against the nerve agents the Soviets would’ve been using).
I dunno. Something like that.
On the subject of Chernobyl, I’m personally fascinated by the history of the disaster, and the fallout, speaking both figuratively and literally. The controversy about the ecological and public health impact of Chernobyl demonstrates how little we still know about radiation and it’s impact on the biosphere. I think Warrens surprise about the fact that people still live in the exclusion zone, and the fact that it will be many thousands of years before some areas are safely habitable (both of which are true) stems from the vastness of the areas covered. The site of the reactor itself is still… Read more »
Great post, @tachycardia – I don’t know nearly as much about this, but I have seen where fauna and wildlife has flooded back into much of the area, wildlife populations have recovered at rates far exceeding the most optimistic estimates. I saw one biologist call it “an unlikely Garden of Eden.” Seems that, at least for nature, even nuclear disaster is preferable to having hundreds of thousands of people pouring waste, filth, and pollution into the ecosystem on a constant basis. If this wildlife could speak, might they be saying: “we’ll take your radiation levels, just get the hell out… Read more »
There are companies that do holidays to the area – a friend of mine visited and came back with very ‘Fallout’ photographs. No luck trying to persuade ben_c to go though…
That would be an interesting vacation to be sure. And I thought I took @gladesrunner to some strange spots for holiday. 😀
@warzan You’ve might seen it already, but some ace cosplay photos taken in Chernobyl from the cosplayer Maul Cosplay and photograpther EOS Andy: https://www.facebook.com/pg/maulcosplay/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1385235881553190
There was “Eldar Jetbike chase” rules for 40k in a White Dwarf maybe 10-15 years ago. The idea was that after they player turns you’d move the terrain down the table lengthwise to simulate the jet bikes zooming through jungle or whatever setting you were playing in. When the terrain piece reached the end, on next turn you’d place them back from the other end. We played it slightly modified (but way cooler!) with Orks vs. Dark Eldar. Dark Eldar were on Raiders and jetbikes and Orks on Trukks and other vehicles. We had rules for boarding and fighting on… Read more »