Rumours have leaked and once again, I feel like just... cataloging my thoughs about it somewhere. I didn't really start this blog for anyone but myself, after all.
Suggestions are that the new Horus Heresy plastic sprues are for a standalone boxed game that will later be expanded into a more complete range, using a streamlined and simplified version of the rules for Warhammer 40,000.
This sounds pretty good to me. It gives them a separate game that effectively works as a testbed for things they'd possibly want to put into regular Warhammer 40,000 - After all, that's their biggest moneymaker and if it tanks, it takes them with it, whereas Age of Sigmar was... less risky to mess with.
As my previous post states, I was anxious about them over-simplifying Warhammer 40,000 too much and I feel that this way, they can test, revise and improve the system between the two games - although... that would mean that two of their big games are both set in the one universe and use similar rule systems, which is going to be odd and take some time to get used to.
Of course, I do see this as risk free - They make a new game, if it flops, you have plastic space marine sprues to sell off. If it succeeds, more profit - and of course it takes the pressure off of Forge World, which I've heard is absolutely overwhelmed with the demand for Horus Heresy armour marks on marines, so this'll reduce their stress level and let them focus on new projects...
What is unclear at the moment is what is happening with Forge World's Horus Heresy series - If Games Workshop comes up with their own game in the era, are there just two game systems with the same time setting and similar models? Games Workshop doesn't like confusion, so they may choose to axe the Forge World version. Which has happened before, but only on a small scale - Forge World came up with the initial rules for both super-heavy vehicles and flyers, which are now a standard part of the game (albeit in different states to how Forge World made them.)
I'd hope that if they do replace this game, they condense the content of the current books down with it - such as put all the Mechanicum rules in one location so that all those Forge World goodies can still be used in the new game system.
It'd be a shame, otherwise - while the Forge World team don't write consistent and clear rules (there's some ambiguity caused by poor wording in their work), I do feel that Forge World does try its best to write fair and balanced rules - indeed, a lot of their units are overcosted for what they do compared to generic Codex line books.
I'd love to see some consistency on that front, to be fair... One staff of rules writers for both the 40k and 30k versions of the product would mean that they wouldn't have such inexpliccable inconsistencies.
I also hope that this (and the fusion of Forge World and Games Workshop websites) helps to eliminate some of the remaining stigma surrounding use of Forge World units in games. For some reason, I still occasionally encounter people who think Forge World units are overpowered and way too good to be used in regular games, and it's a shame because there's some really nice units I'd love to see get more use.
There's no reason to feel Forge World units are that powerful really, given how the game is at the moment and how many combinations there are to play dirty - and I really hope that the "you can't use Forge World" attitude goes away.
The other rumour about this boxed game and expansion of Warhammer's Horus Heresy in stores in general is that it is replacing the Hobbit.
They're Squatting the games system and getting rid of it.
This isn't unexpected, the sales of Hobbit only went up with the release of subsequent movies related to the media, it was always going to be a time-limited game system.
I don't mind too much about losing Hobbit - While the Lord of the Rings, Battle of Five Armies and Hobbit deals did get Games Workshop a lot of money that was used for things such as refining their plastic molding technology for superior quality techniques and casts, those things won't go away because it does. They were a learning experience.
I've honestly only met about five people who ever played one of those games - they were possibly less popular than Fantasy - I say possibly because I have no sales or profits statistics to go by - and I think that clearing the range out of the store, out of production, out of maintaining the system will free up Games Workshop's stores, warehouses, sculptors and writers for a lot of other projects.
If the replacement for it is indeed the Horus Heresy, it also stands to be wildly popular and make them more money to use for improving the other works they do, perhaps expanding in other areas...
It's possible that this will mean Warhammer 40,000 isn't doomed just yet - If the rules for this are good, then when that eventual reassessment of the range happens, perhaps just a few unpopular units, mechanics and perhaps even the least popular of armies will go away (I'm looking at you, Adepta Sororitas.) and the rest will just be... slightly scaled back to a refined version of whatever they test for Horus Heresy.
I'd sort of be okay with that.
Obviously, I'll be sad if specific units I really enjoy go away, and if they removed my army (which I very much doubt as Orks are kind of everywhere plotwise) I would have to stop playing, as it is that army alone that I play with.
Even if that did happen, provided Horus Heresy was a decent system, I could still play that - I do have a small smattering of Emperor's Children. And they're in MkIV armour, too.
Thursday, 30 July 2015
Wednesday, 29 July 2015
In the Grim Darkness of the far future, there are no Codices.
Recently, the same guy who correctly predicted Age of Sigmar and the recently leaked plastic Horus Heresy style kit came out and said that he happens to know that Codexes are going away within the next two years.
Now, at first glance, I see this as a good thing. The Codex format is fairly out of date in the current era compared to a few modern alternatives.
There are a lot of positives to the rules not being in a Codex, but instead being available online, or in PDF or Epub formats - These documents can be updated on the fly, for one thing.
Oh, there was a typo on a unit entry? Well, we can fix that.
Wording a bit ambiguous on this one rule? We can fix that.
The profile for this weapon is different in two different places? We can fix that.
We can also buff or nerf units in the middle of an edition and add in new units or formations to armies that have already seen their updates.
No longer would you be in the situation of thinking, "My Codex has already come out this edition, so I'll need to wait for either a supplement featuring some new content, or I'll need to wait a number of years for the next edition to hope my faction gets an update."
Without the limitation of a physically bound book and a singular primary release in an edition, they actually have more opportunity to focus on balancing units or introducing new ideas.
No one takes Kommandos? Why? What can we do to make them better?
There's no wargear that serves this purpose? Well, let's make an upgrade sprue like the Space Marine ones with a new item on and patch it in today.
Bonus points and kudos to them if they make some sort of app that tracks the factions you're interested in and either notifies you or automatically ques the updates for download, too, because why not use technology if you can?
Also bonus points if the rules are available for free. More and more companies in this industry are doing that these days.
About the only negative I can see to them putting rules online is that I struggle to properly read a current format Codex in digital form and much prefer flipping through the pages of a dead tree version when planning things out. And if the format they end up using is printable, it's pretty moot, really.
There is however... other news that goes with this news.
The latest Games Workship financial report included the following words:
"Secondly, I will review our product range. We believe this is long overdue: it is time for a resetting of the ranges. Not tweaking here and there but a top down reassessment. I expect to update you further at the half year. We will aim to continue to deliver outstanding product and customer service, maintain our Group gross margin and continue to improve our Group stock turn. To be absolutely clear I will not be reducing the RRP of our products: they are premium priced for their premium quality. I will, however, be looking to offer a broader range of price points. This is exciting and is for the long term, so I'm not promising when you will see a change. We have already started the brainstorming in our monthly strategic product meetings. It is early days, but I can already foresee some busy times ahead."
Review our product range. Resetting of the ranges. Top down reassessment.
Okay, sure, some kits don't sell, there's a lot of models out there, streamlining it and removing unpopular units makes financial sense, and it wouldn't be the first time a unit or two vanishes from the game - The entire Squat race, Ork Madboyz and Boarboyz, we've precedent for units going away.
It's probably going to be seldom-used units that vanish anyway: The ones it wouldn't be financially savvy to convert from Finecast to plastic - things like Kommandos and Tankbustas. Sure, it'll be a loss, but if hardly anyone uses them, how large a loss is it really?
However, I feel a little uneasy about this: They're likely going to simplify Warhammer 40,000 when they streamline this range.
This in itself wouldn't neccessarily be a bad thing. The game is complex, I understand it can be extremely confusing and even alienating to new gamers...
However, they recently simplified Warhammer Fantasy with the release of Age of Sigmar, and I know that I'm not alone in not liking the system they came up with and feeling it was perhaps a little too over-simplified beyond what they needed to do to it.
I'm worried that if they simplify Warhammer 40,000, that the result could end up being much the same - that I personally wouldn't enjoy their new game system and as such would lose the very last link I have to the company responsible for me being into tabletop wargames in the first place.
Now, it's their intellectual property, they can do as they wish with it, I'm likely not their target audience, I can always play the older edition - All of this is true.
Yes, it is their IP. They can do as they wish with it. However, as a player, I don't have to like what they do, even though I have to accept what they do. If I decide that I dislike what they've put out, and am upset by the changes to the story, I do have a right to be upset by that, and then eventually move on.
No, I'm not their target audience. I spend less than £300 a year on Games Workshop products these days and that's not even a blip on the radar for them. They won't miss me if they change the game to drive me away. I'm aware of that.
And yes, I can and will play older editions. I already maintain that I will continue to play Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition.
The issue comes with continuing to play an old game in the future. New players will be playing new and current games - why would they want to play an older version with defunct models they'd have to locate online or convert?
Eventually, new and different games also claim the players adamant on staying with the older editions. Without updates and some sense of being current, a game does eventually fizzle out into a small handful of players scattered throughout your country.
I'd continue playing Warhammer 40,000, but eventually I would have to hang it up and simply accept it is a memory of another era.
And that's why I hope that their simplification of Warhammer 40,000 isn't similar to Age of Sigmar. I want to love these games. I want to keep on playing the games and reading the stories put out by the company that made me a wargamer through and through.
I don't want to have to replace the games I love with other games, other universes, other stories...
I will, if it comes to it, but I think it's sort of like dating someone. It's hard at first. You keep remembering these little things of the past and it's difficult to come to terms with the fact it's not like that anymore.
Eventually, you can move on and date someone else. There may even be similarities to the way things used to be. But it'll still be destinctly different. There's still a period of adjustment from the one to the other.
...As a side note, do rebound wargames exist? People turn away from one company for a reason, or a number of reasons, go to another wargame, but realise that it honestly wasn't going to last and they were just... grabbing onto anything... but it's not right for them.
Is that a thing?
I just hope that if I do have to break up with GW, they don't make it too uncomfortable.
Now, at first glance, I see this as a good thing. The Codex format is fairly out of date in the current era compared to a few modern alternatives.
There are a lot of positives to the rules not being in a Codex, but instead being available online, or in PDF or Epub formats - These documents can be updated on the fly, for one thing.
Oh, there was a typo on a unit entry? Well, we can fix that.
Wording a bit ambiguous on this one rule? We can fix that.
The profile for this weapon is different in two different places? We can fix that.
We can also buff or nerf units in the middle of an edition and add in new units or formations to armies that have already seen their updates.
No longer would you be in the situation of thinking, "My Codex has already come out this edition, so I'll need to wait for either a supplement featuring some new content, or I'll need to wait a number of years for the next edition to hope my faction gets an update."
Without the limitation of a physically bound book and a singular primary release in an edition, they actually have more opportunity to focus on balancing units or introducing new ideas.
No one takes Kommandos? Why? What can we do to make them better?
There's no wargear that serves this purpose? Well, let's make an upgrade sprue like the Space Marine ones with a new item on and patch it in today.
Bonus points and kudos to them if they make some sort of app that tracks the factions you're interested in and either notifies you or automatically ques the updates for download, too, because why not use technology if you can?
Also bonus points if the rules are available for free. More and more companies in this industry are doing that these days.
About the only negative I can see to them putting rules online is that I struggle to properly read a current format Codex in digital form and much prefer flipping through the pages of a dead tree version when planning things out. And if the format they end up using is printable, it's pretty moot, really.
There is however... other news that goes with this news.
The latest Games Workship financial report included the following words:
"Secondly, I will review our product range. We believe this is long overdue: it is time for a resetting of the ranges. Not tweaking here and there but a top down reassessment. I expect to update you further at the half year. We will aim to continue to deliver outstanding product and customer service, maintain our Group gross margin and continue to improve our Group stock turn. To be absolutely clear I will not be reducing the RRP of our products: they are premium priced for their premium quality. I will, however, be looking to offer a broader range of price points. This is exciting and is for the long term, so I'm not promising when you will see a change. We have already started the brainstorming in our monthly strategic product meetings. It is early days, but I can already foresee some busy times ahead."
Review our product range. Resetting of the ranges. Top down reassessment.
Okay, sure, some kits don't sell, there's a lot of models out there, streamlining it and removing unpopular units makes financial sense, and it wouldn't be the first time a unit or two vanishes from the game - The entire Squat race, Ork Madboyz and Boarboyz, we've precedent for units going away.
It's probably going to be seldom-used units that vanish anyway: The ones it wouldn't be financially savvy to convert from Finecast to plastic - things like Kommandos and Tankbustas. Sure, it'll be a loss, but if hardly anyone uses them, how large a loss is it really?
However, I feel a little uneasy about this: They're likely going to simplify Warhammer 40,000 when they streamline this range.
This in itself wouldn't neccessarily be a bad thing. The game is complex, I understand it can be extremely confusing and even alienating to new gamers...
However, they recently simplified Warhammer Fantasy with the release of Age of Sigmar, and I know that I'm not alone in not liking the system they came up with and feeling it was perhaps a little too over-simplified beyond what they needed to do to it.
I'm worried that if they simplify Warhammer 40,000, that the result could end up being much the same - that I personally wouldn't enjoy their new game system and as such would lose the very last link I have to the company responsible for me being into tabletop wargames in the first place.
Now, it's their intellectual property, they can do as they wish with it, I'm likely not their target audience, I can always play the older edition - All of this is true.
Yes, it is their IP. They can do as they wish with it. However, as a player, I don't have to like what they do, even though I have to accept what they do. If I decide that I dislike what they've put out, and am upset by the changes to the story, I do have a right to be upset by that, and then eventually move on.
No, I'm not their target audience. I spend less than £300 a year on Games Workshop products these days and that's not even a blip on the radar for them. They won't miss me if they change the game to drive me away. I'm aware of that.
And yes, I can and will play older editions. I already maintain that I will continue to play Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition.
The issue comes with continuing to play an old game in the future. New players will be playing new and current games - why would they want to play an older version with defunct models they'd have to locate online or convert?
Eventually, new and different games also claim the players adamant on staying with the older editions. Without updates and some sense of being current, a game does eventually fizzle out into a small handful of players scattered throughout your country.
I'd continue playing Warhammer 40,000, but eventually I would have to hang it up and simply accept it is a memory of another era.
And that's why I hope that their simplification of Warhammer 40,000 isn't similar to Age of Sigmar. I want to love these games. I want to keep on playing the games and reading the stories put out by the company that made me a wargamer through and through.
I don't want to have to replace the games I love with other games, other universes, other stories...
I will, if it comes to it, but I think it's sort of like dating someone. It's hard at first. You keep remembering these little things of the past and it's difficult to come to terms with the fact it's not like that anymore.
Eventually, you can move on and date someone else. There may even be similarities to the way things used to be. But it'll still be destinctly different. There's still a period of adjustment from the one to the other.
...As a side note, do rebound wargames exist? People turn away from one company for a reason, or a number of reasons, go to another wargame, but realise that it honestly wasn't going to last and they were just... grabbing onto anything... but it's not right for them.
Is that a thing?
I just hope that if I do have to break up with GW, they don't make it too uncomfortable.
Sunday, 19 July 2015
Life and death in and of the Old World
This is my first post on this blog, 'Tablestrop Gaming'.
I feel that it's important to first give a small, simple bit of background.
I started playing tabletop wargames in 1998. I'd been fascinated by them for a few years, but that was the year I actually got to start playing.
My first experience with wargaming was provided by Games Workshop - I tried an introduction game of Warhammer 40,000 and got into the game, and then tried the other games they had available, eventually starting to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles in around the year 2000.
By the current year, 2015, I'd grown to love the Old World, it's armies, characters, stories and locations. I was attached to it and cared deeply about it.
I was interested in the End Times - doomsday perils in the Old World, with some of the big bads coming back and major alterations that advanced the story? Teriffic.
Of course, then came something unexpected I didn't feel so enthusiastic about: Age of Sigmar.
I know most people either bandwagon hate about the system, or are bored of hearing about it... But I really wanted to get my opinion across. After all, I'm a wargamer, I've been with the system for a decade and a half, I'm invested.
For those that don't know, Age of Sigmar follows on from the End Times. The Old World as we know it gets destroyed. The entire planet is ruined, Sigmar discovers new realms of reality and everything gets really confusing...
Here's where my first problem comes in.
It's not the Old World anymore. Any of the places or people I cared about are gone.
While they've very generously provided us with rules to use our old models in this system, eventually they're going to stop selling them and replace them with new models for the new armies that formed in the wake of the End Times.
I don't care about these guys. I don't know any of it. It's all new.
The things I do care about are all gone. Any battle to defend or attack a place that happened no longer matters - Chaos literally blew it up.
So, firstly, I already have no emotional connection to this new world. I don't know anything about it, so it's impossible for me to care about it. None of the armies will be the ones who hailed from the lands I knew and cared about, so... I don't care.
And I think that was the main problem: They chose to advance the story too far.
No, I'm not saying it should be static forever, it's their property and they can do what they like with it.
But imagine, those of you who play Warhammer 40,000 if we do advance into the next few years:
The 13th black crusade nearly broke through the Chaos Gate, being routed at it's apex hour. A weakened and weary Imperium with little fighting spirit left stands brave.
But there's a crap-ton of events that are meant to happen now:
At least two Hive Fleet tendrils are going to intersect Earth.
Multiple Ork Waaarghs have been heading this way.
The Void Dragon on Mars is meant to wake up.
The Emperor's life support is meant to fail.
Now think if this happened. None of what you know would survive.
Cadia would be eaten and destroyed, meaning the fact that all models they have, being Cadians, are from a dead world.
The second the Emperor dies, Terra floods with Daemons, destroying the Imperial High Council.
The second the Void Dragon wakes up, Mars is doomed - Perhaps all AdMech technology that isn't from STCs is based on his infernal whispers, splitting the Cult Mechanicum from the rest of the Imperium.
The remnants, scattered and beaten, are forced into a chaotic skirmish...
The Emperor comes back to life to lead those remnants to a new era, but they're already shattered and beaten.
As an Imperial player, you'd have to admit you'd probably be pretty miffed. Your Forge World for manufacture of Titans and Imperial Power Armour, your source of Guard... all gone.
They'll be replaced with something similar, new worlds will be founded, things will go on... But it'll be different. Do you even care anymore?
Sometimes it's better that impending doom is just that: Impending.
The fact it's looming over your head the whole time is dark enough, new advancements may happen slowly, piece by piece, bringing the doom closer...
But once it's happened, that's all it is. Happened. There's nothing else to it, everything's changed and there's no going back.
It's a risky move, and one that will divide fans.
Personally, I'm happy to keep playing 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy. I liked the system... If I'm honest, I thought it was superior to 7th edition Warhammer 40,000 - and I do play both systems and love both systems too.
I see this now as a specialist game. Just like Necromunda and Gorkamorka and Mordheim, people will still play it. Many groups will make tweaks and their own fixes to the systems to run them by themselves, some of those groups will even make annual outings to Warhammer World to show them that people still give a crap about the old systems, too, which is wonderful, and a true testament to how even decades after support is dropped, fans can still love and use systems that their parent company has likely all but forgotten.
So, supposedly one of the reasons Games Workshop killed off Warhammer Fantasy was because it just didn't make enough money anymore and was dying as a system: It was too expensive to keep all those models on the line, so simplifying the game, downsizing the range of models and stepping away from the less popular regimental battle system to a more popular skirmish system all made sense.
And I guess it's a sensible move to make.
But the thing is... I like regimental battle systems. And I liked Warhammer Fantasy. So I'm keeping with it - I already have the rulebook, after all.
So they didn't get me to spend more money with them (which is the overall intent, more profit) by stopping the system I did play - Now, when they stop producing the models for my army, I'll go source them from another system. After all, Fantasy models manufacturers are dime a dozen, even if I don't think many are on the same level of quality as Games Workshop was.
Now, I've tried Age of Sigmar, and it's okay as far as tabletop skirmish games go.
But that's just it: It's okay.
And there's so many other tabletop skirmish games out there fighting for attention and players that merely being okay isn't okay anymore.
20 years ago, when Games Workshop were kings of the field and there weren't so many well known rival games, sure, this could have worked because people didn't have an alternative - it would be a case of this, finding an almost entirely obscure system, or not gaming.
But this isn't 20 years ago.
There's a lot of tabletop skirmish games out there, many of them have free starter rule sets online.
You can probably find one to fit you and your friends.
So, after trying Age of Sigmar and deciding it's not for me...
Well, they didn't get any money from me here, either. I'm not going to buy any rules or stories, I'm not interested in the current range, and if I am interested in models in the future, it'll be to paint - so I won't ever need an army.
Essentially, they just reduced the amount of potential revenue from me.
I'm aware that being just one fan, I don't really matter. My profits, or lack thereof aren't a concern to Games Workshop because it's making the average happy, rather than pleasing everyone, as it's impossible...
But I do wonder if I'm entirely alone on not being interested in their new game - I don't believe for a second that every single Fantasy player is going to welcome Age of Sigmar with open arms, and I doubt it's suddenly going to bring in people who were intimidated by the complexity of it's predecessor either.
Oddly though, Games Workshop did make me thirst for a tabletop skirmish game.
I never enjoyed the Lord of the Rings/ Battle of Five Armies/ Hobbit systems, but Age of Sigmar did make me think more of something akin to Mordheim, stripped down without the advancement system built in.
It just so happens that I was in attendance at a local wargaming exhibition a fortnight back, as people were adjusting to Age of Sigmar and as you'd expect, there were a few companies and many fans of companies showing off what there was in the wargaming world for people to enjoy - possibly the best chance to find a new game.
Oddly, absolutely no one had brought Age of Sigmar for a demonstration game.
At the wargaming exhibition, I saw a small skirmish game called Relics, made by TOR Gaming. This company, unlike the others, didn't seem to have a generic setting I'd seen a million times before.
Their game looked like something you'd expect to see in the world of Labyrinth or Dark Crystal - Jim Henson style creations that were cute, but a little odd or creepy, but in their own way unique and charming.
The system itself is fairly simple, has familiarities that any wargamer would understand instantly, but has its own unique properties that make it stand as it's own product, rather than trying to immitate any other successful game.
So...
Games Workshop, in trying to re-invent and improve a product... managed to get me to stubbornly stick to a product they no longer support and managed to encourage me to pick up items from someone who is now a direct competitor to one of their games systems.
They do say that irony abounds in war. I just never knew it applied to the tabletop variety, too.
No, I don't hate Games Workshop - I still play and enjoy Warhammer 40,000 and will continue to play it in the forseeable future, too - they've just lost my custom in the fantasy game market.
I just felt that I needed to get the thoughts out of my head about what has happened lately...
I feel strange, because Games Workshop were the company responsible for getting me into tabletop wargaming.
They are responsible for me being a part of this wonderful hobby and several wonderful communities as a result, and I really do feel a little lost with them dropping support for Warhammer Fantasy.
I feel that it's important to first give a small, simple bit of background.
I started playing tabletop wargames in 1998. I'd been fascinated by them for a few years, but that was the year I actually got to start playing.
My first experience with wargaming was provided by Games Workshop - I tried an introduction game of Warhammer 40,000 and got into the game, and then tried the other games they had available, eventually starting to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles in around the year 2000.
By the current year, 2015, I'd grown to love the Old World, it's armies, characters, stories and locations. I was attached to it and cared deeply about it.
I was interested in the End Times - doomsday perils in the Old World, with some of the big bads coming back and major alterations that advanced the story? Teriffic.
Of course, then came something unexpected I didn't feel so enthusiastic about: Age of Sigmar.
I know most people either bandwagon hate about the system, or are bored of hearing about it... But I really wanted to get my opinion across. After all, I'm a wargamer, I've been with the system for a decade and a half, I'm invested.
For those that don't know, Age of Sigmar follows on from the End Times. The Old World as we know it gets destroyed. The entire planet is ruined, Sigmar discovers new realms of reality and everything gets really confusing...
Here's where my first problem comes in.
It's not the Old World anymore. Any of the places or people I cared about are gone.
While they've very generously provided us with rules to use our old models in this system, eventually they're going to stop selling them and replace them with new models for the new armies that formed in the wake of the End Times.
I don't care about these guys. I don't know any of it. It's all new.
The things I do care about are all gone. Any battle to defend or attack a place that happened no longer matters - Chaos literally blew it up.
So, firstly, I already have no emotional connection to this new world. I don't know anything about it, so it's impossible for me to care about it. None of the armies will be the ones who hailed from the lands I knew and cared about, so... I don't care.
And I think that was the main problem: They chose to advance the story too far.
No, I'm not saying it should be static forever, it's their property and they can do what they like with it.
But imagine, those of you who play Warhammer 40,000 if we do advance into the next few years:
The 13th black crusade nearly broke through the Chaos Gate, being routed at it's apex hour. A weakened and weary Imperium with little fighting spirit left stands brave.
But there's a crap-ton of events that are meant to happen now:
At least two Hive Fleet tendrils are going to intersect Earth.
Multiple Ork Waaarghs have been heading this way.
The Void Dragon on Mars is meant to wake up.
The Emperor's life support is meant to fail.
Now think if this happened. None of what you know would survive.
Cadia would be eaten and destroyed, meaning the fact that all models they have, being Cadians, are from a dead world.
The second the Emperor dies, Terra floods with Daemons, destroying the Imperial High Council.
The second the Void Dragon wakes up, Mars is doomed - Perhaps all AdMech technology that isn't from STCs is based on his infernal whispers, splitting the Cult Mechanicum from the rest of the Imperium.
The remnants, scattered and beaten, are forced into a chaotic skirmish...
The Emperor comes back to life to lead those remnants to a new era, but they're already shattered and beaten.
As an Imperial player, you'd have to admit you'd probably be pretty miffed. Your Forge World for manufacture of Titans and Imperial Power Armour, your source of Guard... all gone.
They'll be replaced with something similar, new worlds will be founded, things will go on... But it'll be different. Do you even care anymore?
Sometimes it's better that impending doom is just that: Impending.
The fact it's looming over your head the whole time is dark enough, new advancements may happen slowly, piece by piece, bringing the doom closer...
But once it's happened, that's all it is. Happened. There's nothing else to it, everything's changed and there's no going back.
It's a risky move, and one that will divide fans.
Personally, I'm happy to keep playing 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy. I liked the system... If I'm honest, I thought it was superior to 7th edition Warhammer 40,000 - and I do play both systems and love both systems too.
I see this now as a specialist game. Just like Necromunda and Gorkamorka and Mordheim, people will still play it. Many groups will make tweaks and their own fixes to the systems to run them by themselves, some of those groups will even make annual outings to Warhammer World to show them that people still give a crap about the old systems, too, which is wonderful, and a true testament to how even decades after support is dropped, fans can still love and use systems that their parent company has likely all but forgotten.
So, supposedly one of the reasons Games Workshop killed off Warhammer Fantasy was because it just didn't make enough money anymore and was dying as a system: It was too expensive to keep all those models on the line, so simplifying the game, downsizing the range of models and stepping away from the less popular regimental battle system to a more popular skirmish system all made sense.
And I guess it's a sensible move to make.
But the thing is... I like regimental battle systems. And I liked Warhammer Fantasy. So I'm keeping with it - I already have the rulebook, after all.
So they didn't get me to spend more money with them (which is the overall intent, more profit) by stopping the system I did play - Now, when they stop producing the models for my army, I'll go source them from another system. After all, Fantasy models manufacturers are dime a dozen, even if I don't think many are on the same level of quality as Games Workshop was.
Now, I've tried Age of Sigmar, and it's okay as far as tabletop skirmish games go.
But that's just it: It's okay.
And there's so many other tabletop skirmish games out there fighting for attention and players that merely being okay isn't okay anymore.
20 years ago, when Games Workshop were kings of the field and there weren't so many well known rival games, sure, this could have worked because people didn't have an alternative - it would be a case of this, finding an almost entirely obscure system, or not gaming.
But this isn't 20 years ago.
There's a lot of tabletop skirmish games out there, many of them have free starter rule sets online.
You can probably find one to fit you and your friends.
So, after trying Age of Sigmar and deciding it's not for me...
Well, they didn't get any money from me here, either. I'm not going to buy any rules or stories, I'm not interested in the current range, and if I am interested in models in the future, it'll be to paint - so I won't ever need an army.
Essentially, they just reduced the amount of potential revenue from me.
I'm aware that being just one fan, I don't really matter. My profits, or lack thereof aren't a concern to Games Workshop because it's making the average happy, rather than pleasing everyone, as it's impossible...
But I do wonder if I'm entirely alone on not being interested in their new game - I don't believe for a second that every single Fantasy player is going to welcome Age of Sigmar with open arms, and I doubt it's suddenly going to bring in people who were intimidated by the complexity of it's predecessor either.
Oddly though, Games Workshop did make me thirst for a tabletop skirmish game.
I never enjoyed the Lord of the Rings/ Battle of Five Armies/ Hobbit systems, but Age of Sigmar did make me think more of something akin to Mordheim, stripped down without the advancement system built in.
It just so happens that I was in attendance at a local wargaming exhibition a fortnight back, as people were adjusting to Age of Sigmar and as you'd expect, there were a few companies and many fans of companies showing off what there was in the wargaming world for people to enjoy - possibly the best chance to find a new game.
Oddly, absolutely no one had brought Age of Sigmar for a demonstration game.
At the wargaming exhibition, I saw a small skirmish game called Relics, made by TOR Gaming. This company, unlike the others, didn't seem to have a generic setting I'd seen a million times before.
Their game looked like something you'd expect to see in the world of Labyrinth or Dark Crystal - Jim Henson style creations that were cute, but a little odd or creepy, but in their own way unique and charming.
The system itself is fairly simple, has familiarities that any wargamer would understand instantly, but has its own unique properties that make it stand as it's own product, rather than trying to immitate any other successful game.
So...
Games Workshop, in trying to re-invent and improve a product... managed to get me to stubbornly stick to a product they no longer support and managed to encourage me to pick up items from someone who is now a direct competitor to one of their games systems.
They do say that irony abounds in war. I just never knew it applied to the tabletop variety, too.
No, I don't hate Games Workshop - I still play and enjoy Warhammer 40,000 and will continue to play it in the forseeable future, too - they've just lost my custom in the fantasy game market.
I just felt that I needed to get the thoughts out of my head about what has happened lately...
I feel strange, because Games Workshop were the company responsible for getting me into tabletop wargaming.
They are responsible for me being a part of this wonderful hobby and several wonderful communities as a result, and I really do feel a little lost with them dropping support for Warhammer Fantasy.
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