40K Online
Main => Campaigns and Battle Reports => Topic started by: The Hive Custodian (Retired) on December 21, 2002, 05:01:03 PM
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Okay, in this forum, there have been a lot of one-paragraph posts that people try to pass off as battle reports. Generally, they will be about the actions of one unit, and often about one turn. They lack details, are confusing, and are generally regarded as a waste of space.
Don't do this.
All battle reports should have at least a general description of the units involved, and a turn-by-turn breakdown of what happened. Follow these guidelines:
1. People reading these battle reports don't know everything you do.
In real life, it is usually boring to say everything that happened. This is not the case in battle reports. The more details the better! Now, it's not to say that you should put down what every die roll was; use your good judgement. Pictures are a plus, but not required.
2. If you can't remember much of it, don't post it.
The only thing worse than somebody assuming that the other people know what happened in the battle is somebody who doesn't remember what happened themselves.
3. Just because you think something was amazing/funny/sad/etc. doesn't mean other people will.
Sure, extreme instances of luck happen, but generally, it's not worth making a thread over. Think twice before you start a new thread.
4. Try to use good spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, etc.
Now, we're aware that some of you aren't quite as solid on English as others. However, if you know the language well, do go back and try to correct mechanical errors.
5. If somebody does start a thread which you consider useless, don't flame the person in question.
This goes without saying, but still...
Edit: Title changed for those who can't be bothered to look at stickies.
Edit2: For details about how to post battle reports longer than the 20,000 character limit, please look here (http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=23942.msg2731237#msg2731237).
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Yeah, I agree with you. A lot of people post things about their armies, etc. but not really about a battle.
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Good job, someone needed to do this, im getting tired of seeing peoples post things like MY WRAITHLORD CHARGED INTO A SQUAD OF MARINES AND IT WAS RELY FUNNY CAUSE THEY COULDNT HURT IT.
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Yeah, you absolutly right. People do do things like that, and you moderators have to move em' it just not good. >:(
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Well I tend to ignore those posts anyway. It figures that Custie (no offense) had to make this thread because he's the only mod here. My report that I did was 7 turns, but really only about 3 turns of hard fought action, turn 7 was kinda boring, all that happened was my Archon blowing the crap out of a Dreadnought in CC (something new and different).
-BA
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right, since im a newbie, have i got this right here?
DO NOT post one paragraph saying 'my wraithlord stomped some humies!' for two reasons
1- its not very useful
2- you are talking like a greenskined mon-keigh (ork)
am i right?
instead post things like, 'in my first turn i moved the...' and then tell you about the whole battle (not just wraithlords playing with a human trampoline?)
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Yep, that's right!
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I find building story into your report makes people like it. Well, it doesnt MMAAKKEE people like it, but they like it more.
I've never stopped reading a report because it was too long, but I have stopped reading a report due to people not using grammer just because they are on the internet.
When I'm reading I still need paragraph breaks.
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2- you are talking like a greenskined mon-keigh (ork)
Just think of what some Ork Eldar would really say.
Gaurdian: Oi me disk shoota shoots betta than yours!
Farseer: Wagh his head go booom!
Saim Hann Army: PAINT IT RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Banshee New War Shout: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
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Ive had an idea to get people to write serious and well documented reports make a competiton out of it.
The best report i.e. most informitive most deatield should get their report posted on the home page of eldar online. what do u think The Hive Custodian. please reply.
p.s keep up all the good work mods
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Well, you can already submit battle reports to the site; check out the collection here (http://www.eldaronline.com/battlereports/batreps.shtml).
Also, we've had one contest (http://www.eldaronline.com/contests/contests_batrep01.shtml).
Still, it was a good idea. I appreciate your concern.
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Yeah, I hardly ever give Reports, but not too many peeps frequent this forum (I'm here cause its 4 in the morning, I got nothing better to do). Usually I don't know much about Eldar anyways... I am DE, and since so many BRs are Eldar vs. something or other, I just don't bother (no good guys to root for :P).
just my 2 cents
-BA
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(no good guys to root for :P).
That's easy, just root for whoever isn't one of our misguided kin.
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*grins innocently*
Oh, that's right, this isn't a DE forum.... 8)
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Ouch, :-[ sorry. my first battle report in this site was a really bad one. All of you have a good point. The english is no my first language and I use the forum to learn about the game as much to read and write english and that can't be a excuse to write $#@5%2 . again I apologize :)
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i agree :Ptheres my one paragraph reply
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Yeah suppose I should have read this BEFORE I posted!
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Well, of course Ive gotta agree with this sentiment. Whenever I make a batrep I tend to need at least 2 replies (for a total of 3 pages) to fit in the whole report. ANd I dont even use photographs, no digital camera for one thing...
Generally a batrep should always include both army lists, the points limit, the names of the combatants, the mission played. Then tell us a little about deployment, if you can make a map of the deployment, all the better. Tell us who wins the roll for deployment and most especially who wins the choice of first turn.
Then, depending on what points you want to make, you can either go through a proper turn by turn analysis along the lines of WHite Dwarf. Or you can summarise the quick or routine turns and just get to the particular turn or event you want to focus upon. As Hive Custodian mentions, more detail tends to be a good thing. WHile we certainly dont want to know the results of each dice roll, a quick look at WD reports will show it's possible to fill page after page with a batrep that is interesting and attractive to read (all those lush pictures and maps really help) without getting bogged down in boring details.
It can depend on what you are reporting. When I give a report for a tournament where I descrie up to 8 games of 40K, I wont go into as much detail about even every game, let alone turn analyiss. I do gibve at least a summary. I will get more descriptive when I come to the more interesting games, or something funny. If I want to point out a particularly jammy dice roll in one game while the rest of the game was routine, a quick paragraph about the game and another about the event should suffice.
Probably the most important thing to give in a batrep iis a final result! A lot of people will go to a batrep and go straight to the end to see if the army of his choice is the winner. Depending on the outcome the reader may decide not to read the batrep after all but it's a dead cetainty he won't read it if there's no result at all. It's like having a book with the last couple of pages missing or leaving the theatre before the climax, etc.
For longer batreps, it's always nice if you can have some closing comments from BOTH participants, just like in WD. If you've made the effort to make an outstanding report complete with force organisation, photos, turn by turnanalysis, then you may as well take the extra 5 minutes or so it would take to give your opponent a phone calm and ask for his opinions. Or better yet, get his comments at the end of the game down at the time - sometimes that can be more fun too as an opponent analyse his mistakes and actually learns something from those errors. SOmethimes it is more instructivefor the reader to read the loser's comments and what things could have been done differently. I know I tend to pick up more lessons when I lose - it's harder to see your errors when you've just won a game.
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Generally a batrep should always include both army lists, the points limit, the names of the combatants, the mission played
YES, in the name of God, please put up both lists. If I have to read another report that describes the reporter's list in full detail and leaves his opponents to simply "Three mobs of boys with one of those large guns" or "A squad of marines with special weapons" I'm going to throw something. I understand it requires a lot more effort to know your opponent's list than your own, but if you're going to keep notes and do a battle report correctly (which you should all be doing if you plan on posting it here) then you should get a copy of his list.
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It is very hard to evaluate a battle without all of the data on hand to do so. We are currently playtesting rules for a CA article and have to rely on battle reports to determine how the rules are working out. You can imagine how hard that is when they don't give you the information...
69Lazarus.
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But you thread is mainly play-testing rules, so giving every piece of information is not really necessary. The point is more how the Eldar units work. With other battle reports, a whole thread is being dedicated to that battle. If you want a thread all to one battle, it's worth putting in the time and effort to make the report good
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Posted by: Draza
But you thread is mainly play-testing rules, so giving every piece of information is not really necessary.
True, I don't need to know what color his tank was or anything like that. When I ask for data I need hard numbers so we can see what happened.
Here is an example of what I don't want as a report: (what is sad is that this is a real report)
"Um, I used the vypers and they like totaly rocked with the rending cannons. I shot a bunch of stuff up and I think they made me win the game. Rending is too powerfull."
Instead how about this: Two double cannon vypers come up over the woods and unleash a volley of fire at a tactical sqaud. I score 7 hits and 2 of them are rending.I wound 6 of them and a total of 5 marines die. We can see by this the player had slightly above average rolls and the defender had below average rolls. Only 2 of the 5 killed were due to rending. Statistically speaking there should be 2 rending results in 12 shots on average and we see this plays out in this case.
Another example of what I don't want:
"The BS upgrade on the falcon was completely overpowering. I hardly missed with it at all."
If he had kept a record of the important data we would have learned this: The falcon rolled a d3 getting 3 shots for the pulse laser and also had a starcannon and shuriken cannon. All weaponry fired at the terminator sqaud. Pules laser and starcannon each hit 3 times and the shuriken cannon hit 2 times (no rending). All to hit rolls were 4+ or better except for a single shuriken cannon hit that was a 3'. We now find that 7 out of 8 hits would have happened regardless of the BS upgrade.
This is the type of data I'm after. :)
69Lazarus.
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Oh yes, I am such a noob! How do attach pictures to posts, anyway?
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http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=93854.0 (http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=93854.0)
Furthermore if you have nothing useful to add to a topic and do not know where to ask, ask a mod and they will direct you, since such posts are considered spam.
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Question: Is there a contest or not? Is there any reward (except for not being called annoying noob...) for making a really good report?
not that I'm after rewards and stuff, I write reports for fun and to show off my fluff... but it would be nice to see it like sticky or something or you know what I mean...
I'm willing to keep writing my reports anyway, the first one has recently been posted... it's the first in a series of battle reports... all will have fluff and explicit detailed turn-based reporting, some will have pictures, all will be linked together in a campaign-style fluffy story, which will get more and more exciting
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Not really.
We're not as big on contests and rewards as some other forums. If you make a really good report, all you can realistically expect is praise from your fellow members.
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good enough for me :Das i said, just asking...
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Pfew... I fully expected to come out of this thinking that my battle report was completely unqualified to have even been posted at all. Now, I see that its at the lower end of the acceptable spectrum, but still passable. I will endeavour to include more non-mundane details of the battle, perhaps even including a picture of the start of the game and end of the game, and perhaps a picture capturing the start of each player's turn.
Would that be Kosher?
N8
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So if i were to post a battle report pretty much follow this:
- Use full english & check at the end
- Add in a bit of background
- And don't over do the "it was so funny" statements
?? ?? ?? ?? ??
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So, how do you post a battle report that's 38,000 characters?
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1 - Make the first post and fill it up as much as able.
2 - Make a second thread with the remaining material.
3 - Hit the report button for your own second thread asking it to be merged with the first.
4 - The two posts then get merged into one contiguous thread by a moderator and it's tea and medals for everyone.