Animated Battle Reports

[Justin Swanton]

I've been toying with the idea for some time of doing a few animated battle reports ('few' because they are quite a bit of work). Ideally from games by SoA members and posted on the SoA account on Youtube.

For this to work I would need in-focus pictures of a game. Every turn needs to be photographed (once for each player's moves). The photos must show all 4 corners of the battlefield and I would need to know the battlefield's dimensions.

Is anyone willing to supply pics for this noble venture? They should come with a commentary that gives the players' initial battle plans, tactical coups and mid-battle improvisations. They could also illustrate how the ruleset employed for the game works. Over the next year or so I would post, say, 3 - 4 on Youtube, depending on my other commitments.

Here's a link to a YouTube AAR I posted a year or so ago, just to give an idea (quite a few infractions of DBA rules, I know).

What say?

[dwkay57]

What quality would the photos need to be in terms of the detail? I take some overall shots of most of the battles I fight (like the initial ones in my battle reports) but I don't know if they would show sufficient detail.

Alternatively as my terrain is all hex based I could supply diagrams to support the photos.

[Justin Swanton]

What quality would the photos need to be in terms of the detail? I take some overall shots of most of the battles I fight (like the initial ones in my battle reports) but I don't know if they would show sufficient detail.

Alternatively as my terrain is all hex based I could supply diagrams to support the photos.

Enough detail so I can make out the individual bases and what they are would be fine. If the movement system is hex based then it becomes much easier - I just need to know which bases are in which hexes at any given moment in the game. Email me one or two photographed games and I'll tell you if I need anything extra.

[Prufrock]

Would vassal screenshots work, Justin? If so, Lost Battles would be a candidate, as would Commands & Colors: Ancients. A CCA report could be great publicity because it's still a very popular game.

[Justin Swanton]

Would vassal screenshots work, Justin? If so, Lost Battles would be a candidate, as would Commands & Colors: Ancients. A CCA report could be great publicity because it's still a very popular game.

Vassal screenshots are fine. Lost Battles is actually a good option as there are relatively few manoeuvring elements, which speeds up video production - each entity that moves separately has to have a separate layer in Flash. The fewer the layers the quicker animation becomes.

Also anything with a grid is easier - I don't have to worry about movement and positional precision quite so much.