The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[Major_Gilbear]

The background, stories, and details about Mektown were always some of the best bits about the game for me - and probably the most detailed explanation of Orky life since RT days.

[zemjw]

Just got an email from GW saying Grombrindal's 40th Birthday figure is back in stock for pre-order.

Managed to get him this time

[horridperson]

@Major_Gilbear

In a lot of ways GorkaMorka struck me as the last hurrah of Rogue Trader.  The more whimsical elements of the 40k universe went there to die as the grimdark was becoming so serious.  It was a fun Mad Max homage and I still regret never tracking down the mutants with their brutal demi-lunes .  I thought those were really cool looking models. 

[thenamelessdead]

Yet another baffling Blood Bowl release. By what logic do GW produce a goblin team consisting of 12 goblins (useless in game terms) and top that off by setting the price in line with, say, 12 orcs? I haven't looked at the new supplement yet but that policy is gouging in anyone's language. Such a shame.

[Wirelizard]

Yet another baffling Blood Bowl release. By what logic do GW produce a goblin team consisting of 12 goblins (useless in game terms) and top that off by setting the price in line with, say, 12 orcs? I haven't looked at the new supplement yet but that policy is gouging in anyone's language. Such a shame.

From the GW website's fluff on the new gobbo team:
"The Scarcrag Snivellers made a decision a long time ago to make an attempt at playing Blood Bowl without all the sneaky tricks employed by most Goblin teams. Eleven Goblins line up at the start of the match – no Trolls, no Secret Weapons – and do their very best to last at least a couple of drives before they’re stomped into the ground."

That seems like an attempt to justify the most boring and cheapest-to-produce gobbo team possible. I'm kind of assuming they'll gradually add the Trolls and Secret Weapons one figure at at time, each in it's own blister, to make turning these figures into a playable, fun gobbo team as expensive as possible.

I'll stick with my gobbo team converted from Reaper Bones Pathfinder gobs, thanks, with the full slate of weapons and trolls.

[nic-e]

I can see the logic. Half of what prompted kirby to axe BB was that people didn't really need to buy anything once they were in.Great for the player but terrible for a business, So while it may be something of a Richard relocation, I do understand.

[Elbows]

I can see the logic. Half of what prompted kirby to axe BB was that people didn't really need to buy anything once they were in.Great for the player but terrible for a business, So while it may be something of a Richard relocation, I do understand.

This is correct in one business sense, and wrong in another.  It was a commonly held belief back in the mid-late 90's that Specialist games detracted from the sales of normal Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000.  What they didn't really address was that it brought in a whole new customer - who was never going to build/buy an army.  Plenty of people play Blood Bowl and don't play 40K/Fantasy.  So is it worth the small amount of time/money to produce one-off game boxes?  I think so.  You're opening up a whole market.  Maybe not a huge one, but a sale is a sale.

Warhammer Quest was probably the most well thought out concept toward this - as it had numerous expansions, as cheap as the $15 character packs (DLC of yore!) and most importantly featured a large monster list, which allowed people who played WHQ to throw in any Warhammer Fantasy models into their games.  So someone who wouldn't spend $900 on building a big fantasy army, might spend $200-300 on additional boxes/blisters of monsters to populate his dungeon.

While plenty of GW's consumers maybe played both, plenty didn't.  You had a lot of dedicated 40K/Fantasy "core" players and a lot of folks who almost exclusively played the 'big box' specialist games.  You want to support something like Blood Bowl?  Make an occasional expansion.  Make plenty of teams (no one plays just one).  Make some nice neoprene stadium mats, and funky dice.  You won't  get the amount of investment that you will from a big spending 40K player but that's no reason to ignore that market segment.

[Dr Mathias]

Make plenty of teams (no one plays just one). 

This is completely anecdotal of course, but many people I played with in the days of Necromunda and the like easily bought a 40k marine army's worth of gangs. Heck, I had a full fleet (every option/ship type available) for each of the four main factions in Battlefleet Gothic. Glad I never totaled up what I spent on that...

[Elbows]

Oh, I agree.  I have friends who had 4-5-6 gangs for Necromunda aaaand a lot of hired guns etc.  Again, it may not add up to a full big army, but you can get a lot of money out of folks with Specialist games (and...gasp...make games people like!)

[horridperson]

The release sched around BB does seem pell mell.  I am tempted because Blood Bowl was my first GW game.  As much as I like to see the game getting attention I'm just not sure I can give it mine.  With everything already existing (mechanically beyond an odd tweak or two) it falls to the trickle of models breaking into palatable "buy em all" sized lots.  The only logic I can see to the "season" nomenclature is the realization Guild Ball is popular and divvies content into seasons.  In the case of the latter there is narrative and progression of the teams where BB is just time-gating existing clubs to break up the sales.

Tempted but GW actually has me modelling some AOS28 and SW:A/Inq28 stuff atm so I'll keep my dose of GW somewhere it's pleasing me for the time being.  I hope they do well enough they do something with BFG though.  If they relaunch that all be over it like a fat kid on smarties.

[The Voivod]

Glad I never totaled up what I spent on that...

Yeah, I did a rough estimate on what I spend on x-wing.....
Suffice to say, I ain't informing the missus.

I actually really understand the fact that GW continually brings out small additions to the game, instead of making it a huge release in one go:
They have to keep it on the radar. People need to keep talking about it.
Other games that continue to get support do this. If they don't, people will maybe buy in big at the start, but then the internet will 'forget' about it.
By all these small releases it keeps appearing on gaming websites, drawing the attention of new players and keeping things fresh for existing ones.
I think they made the right call by doing this and GW is finally finally using the internet to their advantage....

So, I spend more money on GW products than I did in years.
I'm painting GW models at the moment and I just said I think their buseniss approach makes sense....

WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?

[Duncan McDane]

So, I spend more money on GW products than I did in years.

I can top that. This year alone I went to the GW more often than in my whole life before  .
They're onto something, I like what they are doing, I'm back buying some of their paints and "specialist" Games and I even like playing them. So far I refrained from buying their sprues ( if they were metals/resins I surrendered long time already, those brilliant Skitarii and Dark Eldar... ) , but one day, who knows...  .

[Momotaro]

It comes to us all, Duncan, but you're among friends here... you can talk about it

This week I bought White Dwarf - my first since issue 102 in 1987!

[nic-e]

Well, looks like I'll be buying some of the new primaris marines for use as true scale deathwatch.

Also the AOS skirmish book goes up for pre order this weekend, £6 retail.

[Daeothar]

Many good things are happening in Nottingham of late, but the munchkin has not quite left the building it seems...

Primaris Marines: