Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply! I hope people enjoyed reading each others responses.
I’m really glad I asked what other sites/content people look at - a last minute addition. Though I wish I’d added, ‘If no, why not?’ to the tournament and the online game questions.
The 20 or so responses give me a very different impression of the KoW community than the podcasts I listen to (my other main source of content). Less people involved in tournaments, Universal Battle games etc. Generalising, the forum probably captures more people quietly working on projects at home, compared to a lot of output from people on competitive play on various podcasts. I’m not on Facebook (not a fan) - I wonder if this falls somewhere between kowforum.com and podcasts?
I was also surprised that more people didn’t play other Mantic games (people on podcasts more into all things Mantic?). This might change with opening up and Armada, as a fleet and mass battle game seem particularly well suited to tie in together. Plus the amount of hobby to get started with Armada seems much lower (though I’ve seen some stunning ships!).
I’d be interested in other people’s thoughts on the responses - was there anything that surprised you?
It’s not too late to complete the survey - all the replies are interesting!
I’m one that would like to play more mantic games when I am able to. But i’ve got to balance that out with the fact that I am also very easily distracted by new hobby things. Gotta stay focused!
Of course the most hardcore fans would be the ones to commit the time to coordinate, record, and edit a podcast for free! That makes a lot of sense. As for not playing other Mantic games, they’re all in different genres. I’ve basically already got sci-fi and fantasy skirmish games I’m invested in, its the mass battle I’m here for! …and fleets, when Elves.
In the case of playing online, the reason I don’t is that I might as well play an actual video game with graphics, or paint my models!
Yeah, I picked up on the non-tournament comments of a lot of the responses, and not just a temporary hiatus due to covid etc.
You can get some very competitive event players, some who just really like the tournament scene for the social side and others who can pretty much only get games at these sort of events.
A forum does lend itself well to slow grow modeling threads, and might appeal more to some less media savvy people than setting up blogs etc (me!)
Re the other mantic games, I’ve got 5 fleets for Armada(!), but not got a game in as yet Some of the scifi range(s) do look appealing, and there are a couple of guys who do have some stuff, while dreadball seems quite easy to get into.
Seems little point me filling in all of these as I only play Vanguard and Dungeon Saga and mainly do so with my kids! A distaste for Facebook (I don’t use it) means this is the nearest to a forum I can use for these games. I also like seeing other people’s painting posts etc. in the showcase section!
Relevant questions answered below:
What is your primary army at the moment?
A: Goblin, FoN and NA warbands
What unit did you last work on (painting or building)?
A: Glade walker druid
What other Mantic games do you play?
A: Vanguard, Dungeon Saga
How did you find this forum?
A: Internet search I think
Other than this forum, what’s your favourite site/social media etc for KoW?
A: I don’t use any particularly beyond youtube occassionally.
Yeah. I would have avoided Facebook on the whole if I could, but it seems to be the only way to engage with the community in Norway. That said, I am not good at using the forum my self so can’t really complain.
There are many people (like me) that just really dislike Facebook (for a myriad of reasons that are probably best not discussed here). Technically I think I still have an account but I haven’t so much as logged in over a year and haven’t actively used it in about 3 or 4 years. I find it very frustrating when companies or groups use facebook exclusively, especially when in some cases (like my son’s rugby club) they have a perfectly good website sat there doing nothing! Anywho, that was me trying not to rant…
From an entirely selfish point of view I would like to see more Vanguard content on the forum, but I realise there is a clue in the title of the web address as to the focus so that’s fine
Be the change you want to see in the world, posts generate more traffic on the topic That said, I’ll try to help with some posts in the near future.
I also have no Facebook. I deleted my account entirely about ten years ago in response to one of their updates to further infringe on their user rights. The process that took me more than a month if I remember correctly. If you accidently logged in it cancelled the deletion which had an absurd timer. So you had to make sure you were logged out everywhere and/or avoid the website completely for a month or so. I still get strange looks when I tell people (particularly from job recruiters) that I have no Facebook.
I want to quit Facebook entirely but have a business instagram page with 15k followers, and you can’t access Instagram data analytics without a linked Facebook account. It’s really frustrating how they lock you in. But I don’t maintain any personal presence on Facebook for many of the reasons listed above. I like this forum because I can participate and segment off my life. Facebook wants to mix and match and put everything altogether, and I don’t necessarily like all aspects of my personality publicly available for anyone to see.
On the topic of creating more Vanguard content - I think at least 80% of the more recent posts in the Vanguard section are me mainly rule queries though!
I have just two more models from my daughter’s Forces of Nature warband left to paint, so I might post that sometime in the next month (yes I am that slow at painting…)
I’ve got about 4 Warbands that I still want to paint as well … right after I finish my Elf army … right after I’m done I sure will … i.e. same thing I thought last year
They best way is to make some to attract more Vanguard players to the forum.
Battle reports are popular, something that can be shared of Facebook to get people on the forum.
As far as I understand there isn’t as much overlap as you might expect.
KoW players generally (as far as I can tell) find Vanguard has too many layers of complexity
nothing wrong with that, keep it up and others will come. I’ve most of the Vanguard warbands to work through but that is a project for next year as I don’t have the time or opponents before then
I think yu’re right about the lack of cross-over. On the complexity side I would say that, given my 8 year old can play it, it’s not too complex (and my six year old plays too with quite a lot of help!) More seriously, I do think it takes a few games to get into, but once you’ve played a few games most things come pretty naturally, especially if you typically play with the same warband(s). I only play very frinedly games, so I am not sure how it would hold up to more serious play (e.g. tournaments).
As for battle reports, maybe one day in the future!
The responses above overall show less crossover with Mantics’s other games than I was expecting. I would have thought more people would play Vanguard - using spare minis from KoW units for a low buy-in. I suppose there’s a lot more options for skirmish games, than ranks & flanks.
On Facebook, my local garden centre lost out as they were using Facebook rather than their website to say what plants were in, and I avoided choosing a dentist as they had no website, only fb. My understanding is that young people are less likely to be on fb than they were (seeing it as more for their parents), so groups/companies might be missing more than just the refuseniks.
You would be surprised. Children are incredibly capable when it comes to learning new complex systems.
I took one look at my VG kickstarter book and figured that I couldn’t be bothered. I also remember an old interview with Rick Priestly where he talks about how any dumbing down of Warhammer that they did was mostly to help the adults.
Some of the scifi range(s) do look appealing, and there are a couple of guys who do have some stuff, while dreadball seems quite easy to get into.
mainly rule queries though!
