BYOB - The Wrong Kind (Build Your Own Battleplan)

[Groomy]

Hello all, 

Having built myself a career in digital content and love for certain ways to play AoS - I've gotten a vision. With everything stampeding towards becoming entirely digital, some of us who like the smell of newly printed GHB might feel slightly bitter-sweet. However the digital content also allows for near endless opportunities to generate fresh ideas, ways to play and especially - scenarios, with a comparably small community effort.

The battleplan section of AoS app hasn't been updated since the release of Beastclaw. I understand that GW has their hands full with so much and constantly generating new battleplans won't be a top priority for now.

That's why I propose for us as a community to start generating new AoS battleplans that might have a chance to then be officially published by the GW if/when they come visit TGA and if/when they like it. Takes a load off GW's shoulders, allows them to make extra money with no investments (Means we get more stuff and appreciation as a community in the long run), gives us an amazing stream of new ideas and inspirations and allows for TGA to take initiative in another niche of the hobby. I've seen what you guys can do here, and the thought that this community will start generating scenarios for games to play excites me to no end.

The way I see it, there could be a dedicated forum section for community generated battleplans where one topic = one battleplan and those can be discussed, tweaked, experimented with and even be seen by GW who then can copy-paste the best ones into AoS and Tournaments and whatever else the happy thought might bring.

Celestial Community, @Ben @hobgoblinclub @Gaz Taylor and other mods, would you consider this thought to be beneficial for everyone? I did not find the same proposal on the forum and hope I ain't wasting your time with a repeated thought that was offered in the past. 

A good successful example would be an existing dedicated forum section for New Hero Concepts on Blizzard's "Heroes of the Storm" game or Riot's "League of Legend". If I'm not mistaken, these companies get much of their new releases directly from the community generating concepts for heroes. I'm sure our community is more than capable to generate such a quality concept of battleplans (and other digital content) that GW will see it as a good thing and use it as a cost/time saving instrument that will lead to a win-win for us and them. 

I cannot stress this enough: Digital Content is ridiculously powerful in terms of ROI. You don't have to store it, you don't have manufacturing costs per se, you can sell it and you can slap discounts on it if the margins are tight on physical products. In the right hands - digital content can keep the companies profitable on it's own. For most of us, this will mean more ideas, richer worlds, deeper rules and so much more.  

Given that GW's creation of their own forum is a high maintenance flight risk at the moment, this might be a great opportunity for TGA to cover another niche in the hobby.

I hope you will find this vision appealing since I, for one, am thirsty for new battleplans, a bit stuck in my own imagination, and lack people to bounce ideas off in my area. 

[Kramer]

27 minutes ago, Groomy said:

I hope you will find this vision appealing since I, for one, am thirsty for new battleplans, a bit stuck in my own imagination, and lack people to bounce ideas off in my area. 

I will update my campaign pdf to include all the scenario's. Most of them are based on old 8th scenarios or aos scenarios but it's a start with 20 +- battleplans. 

[Gaz Taylor]

Nice idea. @Ben might have different plans but from my point of view go ahead creating battleplans and we can see where it goes. I personally don't think it warrants it's own section or sticky post at the moment, but I'm sure if you created a topic to come up with and discuss the plans (and have links in the first post of topic  ) and it's popular we could do something.

From GW's point of view, I suspect they will see things differently but come up with some ideas and I'm sure they might see it as some of the studio guys may lurk on this forum. Alternatively, send some stuff into them or see if they are at any of the open days and chat to them about it. I think the reality of it though will be they will look at the ideas, cherry pick what they like the look of and release if they like it.

Cheers

[Groomy]

36 minutes ago, Gaz Taylor said:

 (and have links in the first post of topic  ) 

I'm not sure what this means  but I do want to do it cause I feel it's somehow important.

 

37 minutes ago, Gaz Taylor said:

From GW's point of view, I suspect they will see things differently but come up with some ideas and I'm sure they might see it as some of the studio guys may lurk on this forum. Alternatively, send some stuff into them or see if they are at any of the open days and chat to them about it. 

I don't presume to know how it will work out or make claims that it will happen. Mine, is one of the positive scenarios that can play out if enough of us get together and make a thing of it. 

Quite honestly I am very impressed with the amount of detail that people put into their projects on TGA and inspired by the thought of poking these same people enough times to see them build a library of battleplans. The idea of sending thoughts directly to GW is nice but there won't be feedback and polishing that can be so crucial in making or breaking a scenario. Maybe in the future, when they get even more involved in the dialogue with the fanbase. 

 

42 minutes ago, Gaz Taylor said:

I think the reality of it though will be they will look at the ideas, cherry pick what they like the look of and release if they like it.

That's partially what I'm going for. Even if a habit develops of coming here in search of missing bits and pieces for a release, it would still make you guys (TGA) much stronger as a community and much more involved in the shaping the future years of AoS into an endless universe of cool stuff people love to participate in.


@Kramer I look forward to it very much. Thank you.  

[hobgoblinclub]

Something like this may get looked at by GW. They're obviously aware of TGA. While it's doubtful any of it would be used by GW, great ideas may well have some influence what comes in that future. @Benand co being invited in to help with the General's Handbook is evidence enough the they appreciate the ideas of the community.

I think it's a great idea to compile battleplans somewhere. I'd wait to see if it takes off before giving it a dedicated forum (there's a new forum idea every day at the moment). 

What about having people post new battleplans to the downloads section and linking them to a single thread? Whoever opens the thread could add the links to the original post and we cold discuss there which ones work / what can be done to improve them.

It could prove a popular thread. 

[Groomy]

1 hour ago, hobgoblinclub said:

I think it's a great idea to compile battleplans somewhere. I'd wait to see if it takes off before giving it a dedicated forum (there's a new forum idea every day at the moment). 

What about having people post new battleplans to the downloads section and linking them to a single thread? Whoever opens the thread could add the links to the original post and we cold discuss there which ones work / what can be done to improve them.

It could prove a popular thread. 

Thank you for sharing a thought. 

Whatever you guys see fit. I rely on the seniority and experience of veterans on TGA to know what would the most convenient battleplan dump look like technically and would gladly help if told what to do. 

Also, I'd like a disclaimer of a sort: I see this idea might be considered aiming to catch the eye of GW as it's main purpose. Please don't focus on that.

While it might be beneficial a long time from now, it is not the primary goal for my thread, nor it will help to point them to it before it snowballs into something large and of high quality, as @hobgoblinclub and @Gaz Taylor pointed out. My main hope is to come here everyday and read new battleplans from you guys that I'll be able to borrow for my own games as well as practice my own whatever battle ideas might come to life.

I'm sure there are people among you who are familiar with historical warfare. Imagine taking a famous battle between Spanish and Dutch and replicating it into a battle between Slaanesh and Moonclan with all the details mirrored.