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Better cameras for Honest Wargamer coverage

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Hi, my names Rob, and I run The Honest Wargamer.

We basically have one mission and that's to do event coverage of Warhammer events as well as we possibly ca. I'm here to ask you lovelies to help us do it even better.

The little guide at the side tells me to denote who will benefit from this campaign and quite simply the answer is you, your friends and the wider Warhammer community. Event coverage of matched play events is important for several reasons in my opinion:

1. They show the current trends and armies being played and showcases them not in a made for entertainment batrep but under the crucible of competitive play. This is important as it helps people see what they may face and if the purchases they are making to get into tournament gaming or to attend events are sensible.

2. It teaches people, how to play better, what mistakes to avoid and how to play games well. The commentary team we have does a solid job of translating what's happening and making it engaging to the audience but due to technological restraints, we can only do so much. More on that later. 

3. It encourages our community to grow and attend independent events. New people watching at home or friends of competitors see how much fun it is and we get new cool folks into the hobby.  I see no stigma to the games we play or the friends we have but it certainly has been hard at times to be a geek. Id like to think people telling their family, friends or loved one that they are on table 1 of a 200 person tournament and they can proudly watch is very cool and makes me smile. I've seen people first hand telling me of people watching and its great.

4. It showcases actual talent. In the same way, cool mini or not shows of painting we want to show the beauty and SKILL of tactical play. There are some incredibly talented gamers and presenting that skillset as well as the beauty of well-placed moves and the luck of some amazing dice rolls is what keeps me wanting to drive the entire movement forward. 

In short, everyone who plays benefits. 

The funds we are asking for are to buy and use a camera that will allow us to show more action shots. We have wanted 2 ptz cameras for a while and in an amazing act a kind benefactor, saw the coverage this weekend and wanted to see how they could help and so bought us one which has inspired us to start this go fund me to realise that vision. 

The camera is super fancy and can be programmed to have a suite of preselected shots and can zoom in on the tabletop to give all those angles people have been asking and craving for. It is a way to add cinematic shots and showcase the models better.

https://www.newtek.com/camera/ndihx-ptz1/  <-- The specs

The top-down view of a streamed game is good cause it shows you the general tactics and movement of a game. Movement is the key piece that needs to be seen visually as its one of, if not the most deciding factor outside of the game. Personally, as someone who has commentated on more Warhammer games than anyone alive, there is little more than most viewers need to see in order to learn, however that isn't totally true, pile in, and micro movements are functionally very important. As is the distance in units, spells, terrain and other factors which not only will help with learning but adds to the drama of the event and games and I'm all about hype. 

9 months ago when the BOBO organisers asked me to cover the event, I wasn't sure. I thought id done that part of my life and I knew what it would take to drive this entire endeavour forward to the vision id had when I went to work for Games Workshop. However, I loved it and I could see people we desperate to have games and events covered in a fashion that they deserved. We got rave reviews and it was done by me, some pretty low tech equipment and a group of amazing volunteers.

So I'm in.

In the past 9 months, we have covered events in Australia and Ireland as well as the UK. We built the entire honest wargamer site to help make gaming and list finding easier. Nikos designed the SOL objective system using coloured LED lights to indicate clearly on screen objectives locations and owners. I wrote a workbook to educate the audience, gamers, myself and to hone the coverage. That's also an important point to make. Improvement.

On Youtube, you can find the BOBO 2018 coverage and the coverage from BOBO 2019 in 9 months we have improved or developed:

- Better sound ( way harder than you think )
- Better visuals so as to make what's happening in the game easier to understand for viewers as well as tables, charts and stats to make more engaging sports like feel. 
- Additional camera feeds ( Again very hard to do especially on a budget )
- Created the ability to cover team events and do multi-table action
- Improved the commentary and understanding of the game and the info coming from tables to deliver more precise info ( more work still needed here )
- Developed the red vs blue system so people can cheer on players

We have a deep and driving passion to make the best coverage possible but we have a problem.

Warhammer isn't the visual spectacle of say boxing or f1. The static overhead is pretty decent to capture all info however we miss something we all love and that's the models in detail. Particularly telling was game 3 of the BOBO 2019 coverage. Both armies were visual feasts as was the terrain provider by a 3rd party supplier. However, the top-down view really did make it look like 2 grey armies battling it out. Everyone, for all time, missed out on a gorgeous game of Warhammer that fit the narrative of those 2 mortal enemies battling and it made me truly fucking sad, There were also missed moment of detailed deployment and movement that occurred in game 2.

So my request is this, provide us with the tools and me and THWG team will bring you the best coverage in the fucking world, we are committed to improving and developing the very best experience a viewer or competitor could want. We aren't doing it for money or to sell our products we are doing it cause tight, tactical games of Warhammer or just a game of Warhammer between a farmer with a carrot as 9" measurer and a chef who should never go 4-1 with an army  are amazing things that I want to capture for prosperity like other sports have.

Not just the UK, We will travel, we've done it before and we will again. Also everything we learn we have been happily sharing with the wider community as people can attest to. 


Also to show our gratitude, if anyone would like to buy one outright for us, they can pick the first game we show of an event we stream every time for a year and they can name the camera whatever they want.  Cant say im super excited about saying "and if we take a look at what Martha ( the cameras potential name ) is showing us..." but if it gets the coverage sweet let's do it. 

If its a collective then we will randomly put everyone's name into a hat for every £10 they add and announce a winner.

If its both of those things then even better. More cameras means better coverage!

So let's do this!  Let's take this whole thing kicking and screaming into the future.

Lastly, if you can't add anything then do not worry  but it would be great if you could leave your thoughts about the coverage as a comment so people can see :) 

 

 

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    Rufio Symes
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