My comment on "Battle write-ups. What do you like to see?"

 Posted on Dakka Dakka

Korvessa

 

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I would like to make my battle reports more appealing/interesting, so I have some question

What makes a good battle write-up?
What makes a bad one?
What would you like to see more of?
What have you seen enough of? 

My answer:

Where can I find your battlereports? I'd like to read more. Mine are on my blog but I always feel I should be doing them better.

I know adding arrows and label's would make things much clearer on what's what doing what, but the extra time to edit the photo's seems to outweigh the time. I don't recall seeing many that DO have labels, and I actually find them more distracting to the picture itself. Does anyone have some good examples to share of what you like to see?

What makes a good battle write-up - a description of the armies, some pictures of the units, the actual army list, lots of pictures.A map of the battlefield (if an overhead picture can't be provided). Some 3rd person story is fine at the start and end (and as captions for photos) but I'd rather read the battle report without story time coming into the middle of it. An initial plan or strategy guide. A description of the battle - it does not need every turn or combat, but I should be able to follow it based on pictures, text or map. Most of the pictures should be showing the table or units, with some action shots of dramatic occurrences and characters. A final conclusion, and some analysis of the army list (what was worth it, what was not), how the strategy worked (or did not) and lessons learnt by both sides. A final story time from the perspective of the armies or characters if you want.

What makes a bad one - nearly every video battle I try to watch :(. I understand the idea of them, but they nearly all seem to be shaky cam showing me dice and telling me how many hits/saves happened. I don't care! I want to know if that unit of tactical marine's succeeded at stopping that Ork unit coming across, not the individual rolls or distance moved. Don't show me someone moving figures either, it takes forever. Ideally some computer graphics with arrows or a before and after shot will do it. The best video one I've seen was a slide show with a voice over of the battle. Also, the analysis is either missing completely or devolves to the level of a sports event- "We I rolled better on the day and my opponent did not, so I won". I want some conclusions. No talking heads except at the beginning (as an introduction) and end. And they need to be less than 30 minutes for me to have the time to read them. And I understand completely the amount of editing this all requires makes it just a dream, it would be a huge investment of someone's time.

What would you like to see more of - slide show video's with voice over. More historical battles with background on the armies and people involved. More written blog battle reports. More comments on my own battle reports

What have you seen enough of - too many battle reports on Youtube I can't stand watching.