wargaming is a wild hobby it's not for everybody but it's also
not impossible to get or coerce your friends into it
either hey guys jay here welcome to eons of battle it's not a fun topic but we
all know what the most difficult part of the wargaming hobby is it's not putting together
the minis it's not painting it's not reading and memorizing pages and pages of complicated rules
it's getting people to play the game with you the best way is to get in with a friend most games
have a starter set a big expensive box that comes with two armies and everything you need to play
but that doesn't always happen more likely you'll have to become a game advocate in a perfect world
every game system would have a large playerbase ready and waiting for you to jump in but
that's rare although not impossible you can ask around at your friendly local game store
or look for facebook groups in your area one time i was shopping at a hardware store and
it turned out that the owner and employees played 4k in the basement of the shop every friday night
more likely you'll have to do everything yourself buy all the stuff learn everything about the game
paint all the stuff learn the rules inside and out be able to answer questions and this can
actually be a fun hobby in itself basically you can become a wargaming dungeon master
now the game i want to play is called dead zone it's a skirmish war game a little bit 40k with
points based army list building with a leader followed by troop specialist and support
and it's a little bit necromanda played on a tight claustrophobic board with lots of verticality it's
also built on a d8 system which is great which means that those two extra results on the die
adds a lot more fine tuning and they don't have to resort to special rules and rerolls so much to add
uniqueness i've also already built and primed all the trains so i'm gonna start here i gathered my
supplies terrain painting is a lot of fun instead of many many small steps i can get away with just
a few big ones i mixed up a gray paint and began stippling this all over the train pieces this will
give them a texture i used the biggest dry brush i own and you know what i wish i had a bigger one
then i mixed up a lighter shade of gray and this time i let more paint be on my bristles and i
dragged the brush across the model to highlight edges and make long scratches i want this terrain
to look so good that it tricks people into having a good time while playing the game with me finally
i sponge some white paint all over to create some chips step one of the train is done i have created
an undercoat this is going to let me paint them up really really quickly basically i have painted
everything in black and white i've added all of the chips and scratches and weathering i wanted
using huge dry brushes and sponges so it was really really fast and now to get them the color i
want them to be all i have to do is tint them with my airbrush an important thing to remember about
an undercoat is that the tints are only going to darken and that's why i highlighted everything all
the way up to white so that when i tint them they're at the exact color i want them to be
i prepared to get colorful the airbrush is a great tool for getting things done fast and to
tint the pieces the colors i want i'll need some transparent paints and that means inks washes and
speed paint i am always the one getting war game started x-wing warhammer 40k star wars legion
aegis sigmar kill team one and two malifaux so i know a thing or two about a thing or two
and when trying to find people to play with it's important to choose your mark carefully
if someone plays video games they're a good candidate do they play war game like video
games if they play civilization xcom or mario and rabbit's kingdom battles they're a prime lead on
a new tabletop buddy they might already have a foot in the door to tabletop wargaming if they
play games like mechanicus vermintide or total war warhammer then they're already halfway there
also anime fans are a good get anime fans love to get lost in fictional universes i have a little
bit of color on the terrain i don't know if i would call it finished but i'm ready to move on
this box came with 24 figures so i got to get a little paint on them too
so let's move to the painting desk i gave all these models xenothal prime i'm going to attack
these models the exact same way i did the terrain with this xenothon acting as my undercoat all i
had to do was put on some army painter speed paints on top it's nothing special but it's
a great simple first step to get my mini's tabletop ready and i want them ready because
it's better to show how cool tabletop gaming is with painted minis nick and i are planning on
playing this game tomorrow but oh no it's not all done well i think that's fine i actually
think it's a good idea to play with unpainted or unfinished minis i could have taken a couple
of weeks or more likely a month to get everything perfectly painted and wrapped up in a little bow
but i actually think that might have been a recipe for disaster you see there's two schools
of thought here there are those who say that if you allow yourself to play with unpainted minions
you'll open the floodgates and now you'll never have any incentive to finish anything
because you've proven you're willing to play with unpainted minis and so why bother ever finishing
anything but on the other hand these things are games to have fun and after you have a game you're
gonna have a solid endorphin hit that'll carry you through the next painting session you're gonna be
excited to get things painted up so that your next game is even more fun i fall into the second camp
do whatever you want if you hate painting but you love the games you never actually have to
paint your stuff i think you maybe should give it a try you might find you actually like it but
you don't have to and taking a break from building and painting will give me an important opportunity
to familiarize myself with the rules and what better way than with some b-roll
there's always a little bit of a frustration learning a new war game it's no fun to be bad
at something and when you just start out you're gonna be a little bad at it when you're trying out
a game especially for the very first time it's always frustrating to have to constantly check
with the rule book so it's good to know as much as you possibly can going in so the game flows
better and you have more fun doing it i've read these and i feel like i am ready for my first game
while playing the game do everything you can to make sure that your opponent is having a good time
let your opponent pick what faction is more interesting to them and it's a good idea to
play a little example game first just go through the phases and actions of the game and then you
can move on to a full game if a rule is confusing or your friend is asking the same question over
and over don't just reread the rule or read it slower but try and compare it to something else
an action from a video game maybe to put it into context and when it's your turn
explain exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it and another good way to rope your friends
to playing war games with you is to let them win it's a good way to keep them engaged i mean i had
18 points and you had five yeah i i i i killed i killed way more guys i let you in but it was fun
right yeah great i loved it yeah awesome so same time friday sure sounds good great get out okay
i i let him win
i am jazzed after the game and i am ready to now take these minis to the next level the
almost finished speed paint job i did before our first game looks decent but now i want to take
my minis a step further i did some free handing on all my gsps soldiers reasonably the markings
would mean something to the soldiers and the stripes on the weapons and helmets will show
off how well organized the marines are compared to the rabble that is the vermin all these rack
folks have containers of glowing green goo so i airbrushed a neon green on all of the tubes
and i wanted a little gore on my rat king's knives so i brushed some blood for the blood
god onto the tip of my airbrush and let the air blow it off to get some good splatter
and now onto the bases i put just a little texture paste on the base to represent the texture of
concrete then i mixed up some brown and black ink and slobbered this all over the bases i want
to recreate the look of the board the game came with as all my matches we played on the same board
my goal with these guys was to make them super beginner friendly if i'm going to be
teaching this game to people i want the models to represent exactly what they are at a glance
i painted all the flamethrowers bright orange so it's easier to spot them and it did the same for
the grenade launchers making them blue to stand out from the green of the normal laser guns
stuff like this is very helpful for normal looking models like these soldiers the rat
folk are a little easier to make out as they're physically much bigger and there are larger
differences between the different units on the terrain just like the minis they had some color
but i can do more so much more i used masking tape and stencils to sponge on some stripes and letters
to really punch up what was already on there i use sponges instead of the airbrush because i
don't want these things to look clean the airbrush would have given them a crisp symbol but sponging
will make them look chipped faded and weathered which is perfect for the battlefields of deadzone
now that i've played the game and i like the game it's a joy to continue working on the minis
i want it all to look nice the nicer it is the more enticing it is to prospective noobs
it's fun playing games that's the real draw but you can relive a little of that fun while you're
painting and getting ready for the next game reminiscing about all the amazing things the
minis pulled off in that last game and thinking about what stories will unfold in the next
it's not a bad idea to text your burgeoning battle buddy with some work in progress pictures
of the minis keep the game alive and keep them excited and if you and your friend had any big
rules questions that you were not able to figure out on the day give the rule book
another read when you find the answer let them know hey you remember when you couldn't figure
out if the models could shoot into cubes with friendlies they can but if there's a penalty
i think that's what makes war games better than video games sure it's a lot more work
but i find it a lot more fulfilling you get the satisfaction of learning the rules instead of
just letting the computer do all the thinking and you get a bunch of amazing figures and of
course the best part of getting into any war game is looking at all the beautiful minis you can buy
i got everything looking spicy i am really liking using undercoats to get good interesting value
and texture on my minis it works best with bright colors on both the terrain and the minis i started
out simple and i was able to layer on more and more paint to make them more interesting
i think they're pretty good right now and i could keep working on them to make them even better but
for now they're ready for a rematch if your friend is back for a second game you got him if they're
not already a gamer or used to board games and table tops maybe you can try to glob on wargaming
to something else go out to eat before or after make it a tradition that before your weekly froth
sessions you get a game or two or maybe you could plan to watch a movie afterwards just work it into
the schedule and if you're lucky they'll be hooked the second game of dead zone was a lot closer
i mean it was 6 to 18 versus 5 to 18. yeah closer but you've got a few games of dead zone under your
belt so what do you think of it i like it a lot i love that we don't have to deal with measuring
tapes you just move the cubes that is nice between the humans and the rats which faction you prefer
i like the rats a lot because there's a lot of different options in this box but i think i like
the marauders the orc units interesting well i'm gonna keep on working on the vermin and the
humans the gsps as my main faction and the rats as the loners and you know to be a good little
advocate of dead zone i think i'm gonna need some more factions you know maybe maybe i'll pick up a
box of enforcers the space marines of the mantic universe that could be pretty cool and you know
maybe you know maybe i get some forge fathers the dwarves that could be really cool you know
all right i hope you guys enjoyed the video and as always thanks for watching