I wrote this article a couple of years ago for Goonhammer. It never ended up getting released, so I thought I would share here! The idea behind the series was to share our experiences as a Youtube channel and playing team. I’ve amended it to be more up to date- maybe it will become a series, who knows! This first episode talks through the origins of the team, and things to consider when starting a Youtube channel!

*       *        *        *         *

“Excuse me, are you Chris from 6++?” 

I turn, wiping the sweat from my brow. I’ve just finished an incredible game into Thousand Sons and Flamers during their short lived stay at the top of the power rankings; my Harlequins are battered, bruised and essentially tabled, but I’ve got a 74 point draw. The fact I was 30 odd points up going into turn 5 is neither here nor there. 

“I just wanted to say that I’ve been really enjoying the podcast. You guys do a great job!” 

When you’re scraping the bottom of the Z list 40K celebrity barrel like us at 6++, these moments are always quite nice. Everyone wants to hear the things they are putting out there in the public domain are being well received after all. So we chat about how our events are going, and eventually we come back to the topic of the podcast. 

“The thing I enjoy most about your episodes is that you guys are just very relatable. You aren’t there at the top tables, you are mixing it with the 2-3s, the 3-2s, and it’s great to be able to relate to that.”

Hmmm. This SOUNDS like it’s supposed to be a  compliment…

Fast forward a day, and I’ve just finished my round 5, in which I got shown how to actually play Warhammer by a member of Team Italy. I head over to see a team mate, and it turns out his opponent is also a fan of the channel! We’ll ignore the part where he didn’t actually know that I’d ever been on the podcast, and skip to the part where he tells me why he likes the podcast.

“It’s just really interesting to listen to people who play the game like me, you know? Not sure how to say this without causing offensive, it’s just that you are all very…

Relatable.”

*           *.         *.         *.         *

For 6++, our story of relatability started in the Summer of 2020. Lee and Ben, the other two founding members, had thrown a couple of battle reports up on to YouTube under the guise of ‘Beerhammer Bros’ (drunk Warhammer is still a gap in the market yet to be properly fulfilled on the internet if you ask me) and had enjoyed the process. We kept talking about it as a group but, much like my attempt at learning guitar because I was doing okay at Guitar Hero on medium difficulty, it kept floundering and falling short. Something wasn’t quite clicking, and so our conversations kept going around in circles. 

I’m sure, like us, many people who are invested in the hobby have discussed with their mates the idea of filming a battle report or two at some point. After all, how hard can it really be? 

• Phones are in fact mini computers with professional quality cameras.
• You have a great time when playing a game with your mate, so surely the world would want to hear how funny you are.
• Some of the existing and highly successful channels aren’t exactly pushing the boat out when it comes to video editing, so that’s clearly nothing to worry about. 
• A cheeky little bit of extra money from advertising could go towards that 7th army that actually, this time, might be the one you stick with. 

Well we had the same thoughts too. We had lots of discussions over a variety of topics, and so I thought in this first article I would try and cover a variety of things you may want to consider if the Youtube spotlight is calling your name. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I think it covers the sorts of things we had to think about, and then what we have learnt over the last couple of years. After all, we weren’t always the relatable force we present to you today. 

What’s your general goal?

I think it’s important early on to identify what you are hoping to achieve. The market is generally highly saturated at the moment (more on that later), and as such you aren’t going to accidentally fall into thousands of subscribers and views overnight. Having an early idea of the direction you want to take will help focus things down. Is this something you just want to put out there quickly and simply? Do you care about the number of views? Is this something you want to try and make more serious down the line? For us, we knew we wanted to do it to the best of our ability and then see how it would go. There were plenty of limitations for us – average unknown players and no videoing or editing experience being two of the main ones- and so our early goals weren’t exactly lofty.  However, take many of the big channels and I am sure they would say they were in a similar position. For example, Tabletop Tactics started out with just two mates around a dining table, and now the company has had a new studio crowdfunded!

What makes you special?

None of us had any business experience or expertise when we decided we wanted to try out the Bat Rep game, but we are some reasonably intelligent chappies and common sense dictated that if we wanted to do well, we would need a niche. Filming a battle report on a phone for 3 hours, cutting it together on Windows Movie Maker and getting 50k views wasn’t a realistic goal because, as I mentioned earlier, the market is just so saturated currently. Everyone and their mother has tried that. This point links to the above one. If your goal is simply that you want to share your games with anyone that will listen, then fantastic- you do that. But unless you are a top known player, it’s unlikely that will gain traction. We felt at the time that battle reports didn’t tend to focus on the teaching/learning aspect of playing, and yet as a viewer often we watched games of our armies in the hope to learn. We also felt that 3 hour matches weren’t the way to go, and so wanted to cut away a lot of the unnecessary dice rolls. As such, our goal was simple- we would make battle reports that would be around an hour long, the emphasis would be on why we were doing what we were doing, and that the editing would be sharp enough that the videos were visually stimulating and pleasing. Have a think about what you can bring to the market- is there something out there that you feel is missing? Give it a go! Or even better, let me know so I can steal the idea. 

What will you call yourself?

Funnily enough this was probably the main reason we took so long to get set up- we just couldn’t decide on a name! We had a whole host of them, but none just jumped out. It was a similar experience to when I tried to devise a band name at University (that’s right, I did finally learn guitar! Well… bass) and sat trawling through random websites before coming across a name I liked. The fact that later on and far too late in the day we found out that Enoki was actually a Japanese mushroom is neither here nor there. 

For some reason one of my options, 6++, just kept calling me back. Eventually I just thought sod it, and went with that. I got a logo designed by some lovely lad on Fiverr, along with some scorecard screens and general useful pictures, and went about setting up the Youtube, Facebook and Instagram page. It was at this point that I realised/ had it shoved in my face repeatedly by the various websites that the + sign isn’t allowed on website addresses and suddenly there was a slight problem. 6 Plus Plus Gaming just didn’t quite have the zip that I wanted but hey, we live and learn. 

So what can you learn from my mistake? Just double check these things, make sure the brand name doesn’t already exist and think if there are any other ways you can utilise the name- for example, Vanguard Tactics having a V as their logo is great for when they do X army v Y army stuff. The little things go a long way!

What equipment will you need?

Phone cameras are great these days, and in all honesty you can get by using one just fine. Down the line however, you are going to want to think about upgrading some of your technology, not especially for the quality of the picture, but for the sound. Lapel mics are great, or if you are doing a talking head show then a proper mic will really enhance your product. I would highly recommend not investing in anything major too early on though, unless you’re Mr Money Bags, as trust me, it will soon add up!

Along with sound, lighting is incredibly important to a good product. In the early days I had nearly every lamp I could find in the house floodlighting our battlefield, and it was necessary, even if it did create heating conditions similar to that of the Sun. You can fortunately pick up some proper lights at not too large an expense, although storing them can be a bugger.

What software will you need?

You will of course need some software to cut together your epic production and there’s plenty of good free ones out there to try. Because I just can’t help myself, I wanted to do it ‘properly’, so went ahead and got a full subscription to Adobe, which gave me Premiere Pro- “If it’s good enough for Hollywood, it’s good enough for me!” I said to myself, as it took me 30 minutes just to work out how to cut a clip in two. Many hours of tutorials and practise later and I had a reasonable handle on how to do all the basics necessary, but there are certainly easier options out there! 

If you want fancy graphics, there are an abundance of websites out there that provide templates for you to adapt. I personally use Envato Elements, but again these things don’t come cheap. I sold it to myself as financing a hobby which may pay itself back further down the line (it hasn’t yet) and actually, learning the new skill of video editing was very enjoyable!

Input v Outcome

Editing is hard work. It takes a lot of time. Those early battle reports took weeks to do. Sure, a professional could have done it in half the time, but I’m willing to predict most of you lovely readers aren’t professional editors. Take a look at 40k in 40 minutes. Their production values are incredible, but the editors are literally professional editors, and it still takes them a month! In my approaching 5 years of editing experience, what I’ve found is that I have leaned more and more into trying to be efficient with my time. There are lots of little graphics you will see in videos that will pop up and add a nice lil’ summin summin to the visual spectacle, but probably took 20 minutes to edit in. I long ago moved away from those things because I felt the amount of time/effort it took didn’t match up to the outcome. This may just be a personal thing- as I sit here thinking about it, actually this philosophy now underlies my painting as well- but it is certainly something you may want to consider when producing your videos. Or not. It probably depends on your goals! 

Get those viewers

There are a whole host of videos on Youtube on all aspects of how to buff your views, be it thumbnails (simple and eye catching) or titles (to click bait or not to click bait, that is the question). For us, when we started we wanted to have good hook at the start. This is absolutely vital- most videos lose 50% of their viewers within their first 30 seconds. As such, we wrote little skits which we had carry on through the early videos. This also links to my second key point- quite often, people will keep coming back due to the personalities. I know for me, when I first got into watching 40k on Youtube, BBone and Lawrence were two excellent personalities for Tabletop Tactics that hooked me in. As such, try to get your personality across in the way you desire when filming, be it the calm, dulcet tones of Sorestro and Duncan, or the 10,000mph engaging fireworks of Innes Wilson and Adam Camilleri.

Sell yourself

There are hundreds of fantastic Youtube channels out there producing high quality 40k content on a daily basis, and yet you won’t know most of them. Low subscriber counts, low view counts- all these things can put you off taking that initial plunge to check out their content. Youtube doesn’t really help things either, and so it’s important to try and get your content out there and visible. Facebook, Instagram, Reddit- these are all great places to post your latest videos and garner the attention you deserve.

Post Regularly 

Fast forwarding through our opening two years as a channel (more on that in future articles) and we hit a bit of a slump. We were producing only the podcast because life was getting in the way, and we were averaging around 2 new subscribers a day. World domination this was not. We had a rethink as a group, a refocusing, and started hammering out the content (those poor members of the Competitive 40k Facebook group). It turns out more videos means more subs, because due to our varied content, we got up to averaging 20 new subs a day for that first month of the ‘relaunch’. Consistent content is what you want if you wish to draw in the crowds, so bear that in mind.

So there we go! The above are just some of the things you may want to think about if you are considering taking on the world of Youtube. We are by no means experts, but we have some experience in the learning process, and hopefully this has been an informative read! Even as I write this, I keep going back and adding extra things, so there will be plenty more of this in the future. The next article will focus on starting up a 40k team and all the excitement that that can bring! If you have any questions, head over to https://linktr.ee/6plusplusgaming where you can contact us in a variety of ways, or even check out our content!