hey guys jay here welcome to eons of battle warhammer plus
yep it's time i want to talk about it and i will be using some footage from the platform so to the
games workshop employee manually reviewing this video for copyright hey how you doing
after six months i now feel enough time has passed that we can really deep dive into this new service
that games workshop has dropped on us and decide if it gets a pass or a fail and i would like to
preface the mood this video will take because as you can imagine i might have a criticism or two
airing of grievances a bit of public complaining i hope for some people this can be a little
cathartic negativity can be downright fun in the right context few things are as fun as complaining
but online context is often lost and i would hate to bring anybody down or put somebody in a bad
mood so i want to stay positive and reasonable so if you don't like negative content then i
think you'll be pleasantly surprised and if you're frustrated that i'm not as mad at games workshop
as you are please leave a comment telling me all about it so for those of you who've been hiding
under a rock warhammer plus is a new service that the fine people at gamesworks have concocted
and i hesitate to call it a streaming service because it's really not it has streaming shows
and videos but it's also a collection of some published books apps models and other stuff so
really it's a warhammer content bundle when this service launched it was accompanied by an article
that listed the features a taster to get people excited so let's look at the platter that game's
workshop has promised us a wealth of warhammer animation check there is currently three shows two
ongoing and one which is concluded weekly in-house warhammer hobby shows check these take the form of
painting shows battle reports and a lore show a digital vault of classic warhammer publications
and white dwarf issues check these are housed on a different website called the warhammer vault
full access to the warhammer apps check that's currently the warhammer 40 000 and warhammer agent
sigmar apps which i have heard mixed reviews of but there is a promise of more to come
premium access to our official events i don't know what that means exclusive subscriber offers
again don't know what that means either and a free exclusive citadel miniature worth at least
25 pounds every year on the anniversary of your subscription check you get a model specifically
you get to pick one of two options so that's what was sold to us and i'm going to review each
product starting with the hobby shows and ending with probably the biggest and most divisive draw
the animations and let's start off with episode one the phantom paint class my favorite prequel
and my favorite warhammer plus hobby show master class this is a show where the host usually louise
shows us how to paint something really well and it's just a good show it reminds me of the
old school youtube i used to watch it's just long videos where you see good painting in the citadel
style no airbrush no oils or inks just acrylic paint pushed to its limit and i really like it
this is the sort of content that would probably do poorly on youtube because
it's not very exciting it doesn't really end it's not flashy it's just educational
and as someone who really likes painting this is the show for me i watch this show like most people
probably watch sports i get excited and cheer when a glaze goes on well or a highlight is just
perfect and louise is a really good host she's a great painter and explains things really well
when she leaves games workshop and it's time for her to kickstart a line of paint i will definitely
be pledging there is currently 21 episodes and every one of them i have watched has been good
let's move on to episode 2 attack of the lore my least favorite prequel and my least favorite
warhammer plus hobby show loremasters now i want to preface this i don't like long dry lore videos
where the lore is just explained to me and that is exactly what this is wade price is the host and he
has a good voice and the presentation is good but i don't really care about the facts of a fictional
universe a list of information just doesn't do much for me i want to get swept up in the story
i want a narrative and that's why my favorite lore tubers are voldemort's guide to warhammer
and adeptus ridiculous baltimore's content is great with his homemade in-universe first-person
stories told in his deep sultry voice it gives me goosebumps and gets me excited adeptus ridiculous
goes the other way with it where the host humorously explains just how weird and wacky 40k
lore is to make his co-host laugh and that makes me laugh warhammer plus his loremasters is just
fine but i would expected a lore show from games workshop itself to be a bit more enlightening and
maybe even have never before heard details as they have a direct line to the authors
behind these stories but it's all just the same content you get from the rule books and codexes
there are currently 12 episodes of loremasters and it's a show you might like it but i don't
now onto episode 3 revenge of the battle reports the prequel i find the most frustrating and the
warhammer plus show i am the most conflicted about the battle reports and these are fine let
me preface once again i don't like battle reports i've seen all of them out there on the internet
and i just don't like watching warhammer be played i like playing the games a lot but watching them
is a different thing game's workshop's battle reports are good the explanations are clear and
everything looks very nice but it's just not how i want to spend hours of my time
big ol butts things do get interesting for me when they start making things up and i cannot
lie when the warhammer team makes up fun scenarios it makes the show way better they played a game of
kill team recreating a scene from the animated show angels of death creating custom armies
and terrain to match the show's aesthetics and it was sick and around the holidays they did another
custom kill team game where louise created a custom all-grot christmas-themed army and that was
really cool too if you like battle reports they are decent but they'll definitely not win you over
if you're like me and you don't get much out of watching other people roll dice this show
is probably a pass i feel the exact same way about star wars episode 3 revenge of the sith
the animated show clone wars was great the movie did it terribly leave your comments accordingly
next up let's look at the warhammer vault and this i actually really like it's a collection of
previously published material mostly white dwarfs and army supplements and you can open the books
and read them i am very excited that the gathering storm books are on here as i have been wanting to
read them but they are no longer being published and tracking down a used copy is kind of a no-go
as these are still going for a premium on ebay they have all the white dwarfs from 2011 to 2021
so nothing really old and nothing really current warhammer plus will not replace the subscription
to white dwarf magazine i really like to curl up in bed and fire up the old ipad find a forge
rolled supplement or army book and just give it a read now as much as i like these books and
magazines the app is rough my internet is not the fastest out there but it really shouldn't
take a minute or more to look at stuff it's kind of frustrating to wait and let each page load in
the pages load in about as fast as i can read so it's not a big deal but the sluggishness
is annoying but hey maybe that's just me and my wi-fi and your mileage may vary
now before we get to those darn animations let's talk about that free model a one-year subscription
to warhammer plus comes with an exclusive sculpt not an exclusive model as games workshop already
sells these models the vinicar assassin and the uruk mega boss these new sculpts are neat i went
with the vindicaar diorama as is a clear winner between the two the auric mega boss is a step down
in my opinion of the one games workshop already sells i would much rather have that one in fact
i already bought it i'm converting him into an orc war boss now the animation is going to be the
hotly debated topic but first i would like to say that not everybody likes animation and that's fair
i love live action stuff real actors and cinematography props costumes it all brings
in an amazing amount of subtlety there's just more to look at and take in but animation is an
amazing thing too it's a different art form what i love about animation is the clarity every frame
is a painting nothing is incidental and artists have to make every single line color brush stroke
in animation you have an unparalleled level of control it's brutally hard to start with nothing
and invent everything you have total control over what the audience sees and that leads to purity
and storytelling i think nothing can tap into our emotions faster than animation i watch a ton of
animations both professional and novice and some that are hard to look at but i love it because
it really cuts through to the author's vision you really see their soul on display in the pictures
they decide to draw things can be really stylized it's literally an ultra take on reality and
that is why i think it's such a perfect fit for warhammer storytelling these universes are so much
larger than life they exist outside of reality and what better way to show that than with animation
which exists as a literal different reality animation by nature is surreal and so it's super
easy to tap into that suspension of disbelief you can address serious topics in a less serious way
so let's look at these animations there are three shows currently hammer and bolter a show that does
short little anthology stories from within the 40k universe and presumably they will do age of sigmar
too that's the hammer part of hammer and bolter i think this show has some high highs and low
lows some episodes i really really like and i've watched them three or four times and some that are
one and done for me but that's what's great about an anthology show every week is a different story
with different characters so if one is not gripping you you can just try again on the
next one angel of death is a serialized show done in 3d animation and it's really good i like
the show a lot if you like space marines i think this is the best thing out there
the show follows a band of blood angels who are trying to get back to their home planet ball
and it's done in a style where everything is black and white except for the blood angel's red armor
and blood the animation is good sometimes it can look a little hokey but sometimes it's absolutely
gorgeous the story is 10 episodes long each episode around 20 to 30 minutes and if you like
brim dark imperial stuff it's great and finally the new show exodite it's another 3d animated
show this one done in a much more realistic style following a tau warrior on a mission and this one
is probably the most interesting the tao don't often get much attention in 40k and now all of a
sudden you're seeing tao ships tao technology tao and conversations with each other it feels really
fresh and new i didn't expect to enjoy a tau story as much as i am but two episodes in i'm hooked
i like all the animated shows that they've put out i don't think every episode is a banger
in fact i think a few of them kind of suck but i like that they exist even the bad ones
don't feel pandering and i certainly don't feel insulted that sometimes the animation looks bad
and its quality of animation is improving every episode whatever teams are working on these
they're learning quick and i think it's fun to watch it's plenty good enough to tell a story and
i'm excited to see what comes out next so that is warhammer plus the greatest wargaming content you
have ever seen a bold claim but gamesworkshop doesn't really have a choice but to say that
what should they do hedge hey folks we're doing it too so check it out maybe
it's marketing are oreos really milk's favorite cookie does america really run on duncan i think
we're all big boys and girls who know better than to take any corporation at their word
no we have to investigate and see for ourselves so is the subscription of warhammer plus worth it
no it's not now games workshop gave early adopters a real sweetheart deal 60 bucks for
the year and that comes with a mini that's worth about 30 dollars and a 16 store credit it's a mini
i wanted so really the price for the year was 14 bucks and for 14 bucks it's hard to complain but i
sure did it anyway a lot of people pat themselves in the back for not subscribing warhammer plus and
i don't think that they're wrong but it points to why this product is such a disappointment it would
be great if we were all stoked on this and i think that would have happened if it was on youtube sure
people still would have complained but i think people would watch and get excited and want more
popular content on youtube generates more popular content i could watch the new episode of angel of
death then watch valrax breakdown on it then read the thousands of comments underneath the
video getting lost in the digital zeitgeist of the comments seeing the global community's reaction to
it and feel like i'm a part of something watching it alongside every other hobbyist instead it feels
very isolated i don't really know anybody else with a subscription so it's just me alone watching
a show now it's hard to be mad at games workshop because they made a cool thing for us to enjoy
they made sets set up cameras wrote scripts hired presenters and film stuff and did a good job
but it's not enough content for a streaming service but it would be more than enough to
populate a youtube channel as is warhammer plus is completely stifled without that word of mouth not
having a community building momentum around it i think if angels of death was premiering on youtube
week to week we would have seen people hanging on every moment clipping the memeable stuff having
thousands response long comment threads in the comment sections of the videos reddit rabbit
holes around the tiny details and the ships and armor but instead it's behind a paywall so some
people saw it and most people didn't the one great thing about warhammer is its huge social aspect
that is the draw even more so than the cool minis and fun books there is always that expectation of
doing things together playing games together discussing with friends even painting is often
working towards that endorphin rush of showing off your minis either in person your friends or on
social media this hobby is a social hobby and that social aspect is gone when it's behind the paywall
so why doesn't games workshop just listen to the fans well because they shouldn't i
do mean that which fan should they listen to what changes should they make what do we really want
that's for games workshop to decide and for us to make up our own mind spout
maybe i can get the point across better with a story one of my favorite things in life
was watching star trek tng with my boyfriend and if you know star trek you know not every
episode is a winner and so often we would finish a 40-minute stinker and we would say to each other
well that sucked right and we'd have a grand old time discussing what did and didn't work and
laughing about the more ridiculous moments from the episode and that's kind of what the internet
is it's people with a shared experience publishing their thoughts online without any context right
now that's all games your trap has to go off of in this case game shark shop would be the
trekkie who just listened to me crap all over the show they liked and it'd be kind of gut-punching
i wonder if the producers of star wars just went through the same thing after six years
of relentless non-stop online criticism you know what screw it it's only shows streaming on disney
plus from now on screw the fans we will publish right to our real audience i think what games
workshops should do is trust themselves and their product and trust the fans to just exist and right
now that means youtube that is where the fans are their current youtube channel with over 400 000
subscribers proves that if they want this stuff to grow in popularity reach importance they have
to put it out there and warhammer plus doesn't do that so that's what's going on with warhammer plus
games workshop took a risk in the least risky way possible it's hard to argue that
that isn't a smart decision but you can't plan for greatness no one has ever mapped out a masterpiece
the reason we love warhammer isn't games workshop always making the right choice it's ourselves
and what we bring to it so the best move is to just throw it out there and let us at it
gamesworkshop if you're listening on august 25th end the subscription service power down the web
page and just put it all on youtube maybe start a new channel maybe call it warhammer fan site
and just publish it all there it might all crash and burn probably not though it might
be great it might blossom into something no one could have anticipated thanks for watching