Making a *quality* wargame Youtube video shoot

It’s not what you think!

I received an unprecedented invitation from Mark Fastoso, whom I’ve known for a couple of decades. Mark produces Youtube videos under the sobriquet “Mark’s Game Room“, which, if I’m reading it right, is part of the Little Wars TV network. Mark needed another body for the skirmish game he was running with Kimber VonRy from the Metropolitan Wargaming Club, an organization of long standing with lots of activities. I had the time and a relatively free Saturday, so why not? Brian DeWitt, noted NOVAG gamer and a great game designer, was my partner on the German side. We were recreating the best early battle scene from the Band of Brothers show– the D-Day action of taking the guns at Ste. Marie-du-Mont, famously lead by a young LT. Dick Winters of the 101st Airborne.

German Left Flank. Scenario rules dictated that at least one gun HAD to fire as long as we had action points (drawn by playing cards). Firing a gun took four APs. So, yes, you can get in a situation where the only thing you can do is fire one gun and do nothing else. The crew can’t act independently of the gun and can’t initiate melee, only soldiers can do that. The Americans were very, very good at melee and (cough cough look the other way) shooting prisoners.

Right flank. Oh look, we already lost a gun. Notice the rather large horde of Americans. We have them on raw numbers but most of our numbers are somewhat useless gun crews.

Kimber and Matt on the American side. I believe Kimber made this wonderful terrain. Smashing job.

Lest you think making a succesful youtube series involves pulling out a good Iphone and shooting whatever pops into your head, think again. Mark has won an Emmy for television production, so he knows what he’s about. This is the most professional set up for shooting a wargame I’ve seen– with two angled overheads, a straight down view camera (somewhat useless because all the action was on one side, and a maneuverable pointing close focus on one side, to catch most of the action. All of this on one of those hoity toity wormwood gamer tables (maybe) and with Mark controlling things in an alcove across the room. I used to direct cable shows on FCAC Channel 10 in Fairfax, and this setup rivaled their old beat up high 8 video equipment to pieces.

The top down view cam (not used much)

The Close Focus cam guy

Matt, pensively viewing the tacitcal situation.

Mark blocking the talent…..

Your solemn narrator, mic’d for action..

Things are rapidly going pear shaped in the gun positions.

Matt remains stoic when we got lucky early on, but the situation rapidly turned bad for us.

The Maestro behind the control screen. Things have come a long way, baby! Note the Emmy, far right

The rules were One-Hour Skirmish Wargames by John Lambshead. This is a rapid playing, simple to teach and simple to learn wargame that is 100% diceless and randomizes uses card draws from a standard player card deck.

Yes, I was inspired enough to get a copy for myself. I think I’ll run the Freikorps scenario some time.; Just have to get the miniatures first.

The game played well and was easy to pick up fast so I could make what decisions I could without a steep learning curve. The rules are very random and the results showed. The Americans attacked at my far right and started moving down the trench line, destroying gun positions. Shockingly, we gave a good accounting of ourselves, limitations and all. The Germans killed an unexpected amount of Americans but hit a rough patch in the middle of the game, when we failed a morale test and the center squad broke and ran off. There are moments in skirmish games when you hit that tipping point and you know there’s no recoving for it– the center skarpering off was our tipping point. We did our best to eliminate take as many Americans to Valhalla we could but the tide had turned and we didn’t have enough functional infantry to maneuver and fight back.

Note that we didn’t play it straight through or I suspect we would have been done in an hour and a half, tops. We had to continuously stop to fix a microphone, or change the angle or to get someone out of a shot. That comes with the territory of shooting for youtube. When the game ended, Mark asked us all for our opinions of how it went. I haven’t seen the video posted online yet, but when it is, I’ll post a link here. This was a fascinating process and I’d gladly do it again. Mark’s approach is very professional, in that he has dedicated crew for sound, cameras, production and whatnot, and he isn’t just the one guy with the camera. I was impressed!