Spreading Warlord 2.0

[Vil-hatarn]

Depends on what type of demo you're doing. For a 1v1 demo, up to 500 works. I've got a free-for-all quickplay demo, with four sides each just under 200--good for larger groups, basic intro (but it doesn't have magic or multiple troops per player). If you want to be more thorough, 500 should be big enough.

[shakhak]

Basic demo for me, points don't matter. One troop of warriors and one of archers for one player. One mixed troop of warriors and archers and one monster of the other player. It gives them multiple cards to show the initiative deck, and shows them just how different armies can be while still keeping the game simple enough. I always save magic for a second game unless I know the player is experienced. Once you do a few demos you'll find what you like though.

[cutebutpsycho]

I can see being concerned about others playing with your minis-especially if you've done your best paint jobs, lavishing much time and attention on each mini, only to see children who are playing with pre-painted plastic minis arrive. I could see having a minor fear that they might not handle your minis well and those hours of painting could be destroyed. Now, I wouldn't paint a force to that standard, but still.....

[Gus Landt]

Gus - are the v2 datacards good to go or are those still being tweaked?

While they are indeed set, since they are all in the printed book. However, the link I gave out in the playtest books at Reapercon has not been updated since Reapercon, and is indeed out of date. I plan to address that next week.

[joshuaslater]

The release is July right?

[herzogbrian]

I am going to be doing a bunch of demos at several stores around the area. Just picked up an Ebay lot of Warlord figs for ~$1.50 each, so plan on giving a figure away to everyone that buys the 2d Ed rules at the stores that I demo at, at least until I run of of give aways.

 

Was kinda hoping that Reaper might have some plans as well.

[jdripley]

I've been building 300 point demo lists. Each one mostly follows this pattern?

 

LEADER

--HANDFUL OF REGULAR SOLDIERS

--SMALLER HANDFUL OF OTHER TYPE OF SOLDIERS*

--ARCHER

 

MID-SOLO**

 

*For example, if Nefsokar Awakened are "regular soldiers" then Anubis Guard are "other type of soldiers." The idea is to show the difference between a run of the mill soldier and a more special one.

**By Mid solo I mean, not the Bone Horror. You want something easily killed by a handful of soldiers so people don't get the idea that "ZOMG those solos are unkillable!" and also because it's lame to feel like you can't even scratch something.

 

I picked 300 because at 200 it was hard to get two troops into the list, and at 300 you can do that without having too many models. I'm of the school of thought that a demo ought to be brief. You don't really want to jam their head full of information and things to keep track of. You want to give them a taste of the game that wets their appetite and makes them crave the game. THEN you can give them all sorts of information!

 

I've got three armies that I can make demo lists with, I have some blank bases and sticky tack and some old mage knight models that I'll use to put up one or two other armies. Heck I figure that having the icky pre-paints will show off the difference in quality that reaper metals has! I'm going to be buying myself a rulebook, of course, and depending on the price point I may purchase a second one to loan people on a "maybe I won't get this back but hopefully it'll hook a new player" basis.

 

When it gets closer to launch I'm going to lean on my FLGS owner to put out the word, hang posters, run some events... I think that'll be the big hurdle right there, if I can convince him to talk it up there may be a surge here. He has a thriving Magic community and I think he sits pretty on that, so hopefully he can be convinced of the value of having Warlord events regularly. If I can convince him, then I'll be filling out the old Black Lightning form and seeing how that goes!

[simombo]

While they are indeed set, since they are all in the printed book. However, the link I gave out in the playtest books at Reapercon has not been updated since Reapercon, and is indeed out of date. I plan to address that next week.

 

Will the beta datacards for the koborlas, sisters and blood gnomes be available until the expasion comes out? Knowing that they won't be thoroughly tested, it would still be nice to be able to play the factions, since a lot of people have the minis.

[Gus Landt]

The release is July right?

Yes, the final week of July.

 

While they are indeed set, since they are all in the printed book. However, the link I gave out in the playtest books at Reapercon has not been updated since Reapercon, and is indeed out of date. I plan to address that next week.

 

Will the beta datacards for the koborlas, sisters and blood gnomes be available until the expasion comes out? Knowing that they won't be thoroughly tested, it would still be nice to be able to play the factions, since a lot of people have the minis.

They will not be, sorry. I completely understand that this will be frustrating to some old players, but I simply cannot afford to give anyone the impression of change. Change killed CAV, change killed Warlord 1. It will only be a little over 2 months from the day Warlord 2 is released until final koborlas/bsg/sister cards will be available (I plan to make those 3 available online as soon as they are set, unlike the other new factions which people will have to wait until the book is out). You will just have to ask your players to be patient.

[Shakandara]

I've been building 300 point demo lists. Each one mostly follows this pattern?

 

LEADER

--HANDFUL OF REGULAR SOLDIERS

--SMALLER HANDFUL OF OTHER TYPE OF SOLDIERS*

--ARCHER

 

MID-SOLO**

I use demo forces very similar to this as well. I like using 2 activations for each side, as well as having a little mix of troops. I generally skip magic in the first demo game for someone (mostly because now there are so many choices of what to do with your spellcaster), and I also usually skip ranged combat as well, since it really isn't fundamentally different from melee in the resolution process. My goal is to play the demo in about 20 minutes, and the 300-400 point neighborhood works well. When that game hooks them, then I bring out the 750 lists that include magic and ranged.

 

~v

[jdripley]

What do you guys think of the idea of making up a demo board? I find that if I see a group of people playing a game around a table and there is nothing that looks too fabulous about the game, I don't give it another thought. BUT! If the game looks visually attractive, I'm inclined to go over just to ogle the game.

 

I'm debating making up a 3'x3' demo table with some basic terrain.. a hill, maybe a patch of rough terrain, perhaps a forest or something, or a dry riverbed (maybe that's the rough terrain?), then painting it all up nice. It's not really "something about Warlord" but if it gets people close enough to see how cool the game is, it may as well be tried, right?

[Warwick]

I'm going to build a demo board, 3x3 I think. I recall seeing demo boards for Warmachine, fantastic round board with so much character that people ran to see what they were. Hmm, maybe I need to think about a 3' round board. That would look great. I'm not planning on fixing terrain down. I like being about to move things about. That way the board doesn't get boring. Even if I demo for the same group, the board can change and that will change the game. An open board is very different fight than a crowded board.

[Gus Landt]

3x3 should work well for demo. 2x2 is just too small. Definitely get some terrain on it - a hill and some trees. I hardly ever see a dry riverbed, so I would probably recommend against it.

[rgtriplec]

I think demo size depends a lot on who you are demoing. I got started in the game because I won a painting contest. in which Adam/Shakhak and the owner of our old FLGS went 50/50 on starter sets for the winners.

 

Since I had already painted two dwarf halberds for the paint and take, Adam gave me the third. I then bought the bear rider, 3 more halberds, 3 maidens and Freya to go with my starter and the 3 halberds.

 

So, I had a 21 man army the first night. My demo was a full 1000 point game against another new player, who was playing Nefsokar's Dessert Wind sublist.

 

My first Cav game was in a tournament. Adam, Dewen, Castlebuilder and the Mansfield Bears wrote my list and taught the basics in about 15 minutes.

 

A large part of demoing is how good the teacher is and not the size force or table or terrain. I was fortunate that both our BLs were great teachers.

[jdripley]

I'm going to build a demo board, 3x3 I think. I recall seeing demo boards for Warmachine, fantastic round board with so much character that people ran to see what they were. Hmm, maybe I need to think about a 3' round board. That would look great. I'm not planning on fixing terrain down. I like being about to move things about. That way the board doesn't get boring. Even if I demo for the same group, the board can change and that will change the game. An open board is very different fight than a crowded board.

I read the same article an it's what got me thinking. Today before lunch I actually sketched out a preliminary plan for a circular 3' diameter board. One side has a hill, a road snakes down the middle, a smaller hill towards the middle of the other side, with a forest snuck against one of the sides. A patch or two of rough terrain..

 

I'm planning on making it look like a rocky desert, with tan and browns dominant, and having the forest be a scrub brush look. The road will be brown and deep red flagstones. Maybe if I'm not lazy I'll do a WIP on it.

 

Heck I have the parts I need to get a healthy start on it in the basement, I may as well stop typing and get to work!

 

*dashes off downstairs*

 

**EDIT**

WIP thread for the demo board