The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[OSHIROmodels]

Unlike in the days of Titan Legions, chicken dragons and chaos books with D1000 tables? Wasn't the rant last week that the games have been simplified and dumbed down too much?

Rants change as much as the games 

cheers

James

[Cubs]

I fairly recently painted up a load of original 'McDeath' (remember that?) models for a customer. I'm afraid to say, nostalgia aside, the actual quality of the sculpting and casting was pretty rustic.

Now, that's not to say I don't prefer the older GW stuff, just that I think everyone has their own 'sweet spot' where it was a little too naive before and a little too cheesy after for their own taste.

Personally I find early to mid-nineties stuff (give or take) to be my own fave, but it does vary from figure to figure as well.

[Vermis]

Wasn't the rant last week that the games have been simplified and dumbed down too much?

I dunno. I haven't said anything like that, AFAIK, and I don't think anyone else really has. I fervently wish Warhammer would be simplified in some ways!
As it is, I've been talking about how the background might've always been a bit 'dumb', even if it's gotten 'dumber' (please note inverted commas!) and that, along with all the complicated listbuilding rules might be designed to appeal to younger early-teen gamers.

Now I'm talking about how the in-game crunch might've worked when you had 10-20 of your minis on the table, but these days it's more like 100-200. The chicken dragon might have had some wacky rules, I dunno, but I'd guess that they came up pretty rarely. (how many chicken dragons or similar models littered the tables of tourney-mad GW fans back then, compared to riptides and wraithknights and things?) Whereas these days, specific army and unit rules pile up so that even lowly skavenslave speed bumps have to have special rules to make them 'characterful'. Or google the daft situation surrounding the 'always strikes first' special rule, that grew out of the old high elf 'speed of asuryan' rule.

And did you have to consult and roll those d1000 tables several times in the middle of a game?

[Diakon]

these days, specific army and unit rules pile up so that even lowly skavenslave speed bumps have to have special rules to make them 'characterful'.

Yeah definitely seeing that kind of thing in 40k a lot right now.

Also regarding dumbing down/overcomplicated rules I find that 40k seems to be going through a bit of an identity crisis right now. On the one hand it is trying to simplify the rules a bit (the core mechanics, special rules aside, are much simpler than the days of 1st and 2nd edition) but at the same time they've slowly been adding loads of special rules and random tables. And then there's the new Tactical Objectives in the new edition. These are generated from a D66 table as the game goes on and change throughout.

[FramFramson]

I fairly recently painted up a load of original 'McDeath' (remember that?) models for a customer. I'm afraid to say, nostalgia aside, the actual quality of the sculpting and casting was pretty rustic.

Now, that's not to say I don't prefer the older GW stuff, just that I think everyone has their own 'sweet spot' where it was a little too naive before and a little too cheesy after for their own taste.

Personally I find early to mid-nineties stuff (give or take) to be my own fave, but it does vary from figure to figure as well.

That's about the sweet spot for me too. My favourite GW model of all time was the games day elf hero from 2001 (a late offering for that era, but still very much in the same style).

[beefcake]

Bad comparison!
I still prefer Shaun the sheep, Postman Pat or a modern stop motion film like Coraline over CGI any time!
GW today seems more like a lifeless CGI remake (of a remake, of a remake) of a once loved classic.

I guess that's dependent upon your idea of older stop motion movies. Hence the word older. I'm thinking the clunky ones where the animation of creatures was overdone to show excessive movements. I'd take good examples of CGI over that any day. Modern stop motion works great. I'd never knock the likes of Wallace and Grommit where the animation works excellently.

[nic-e]

I guess that's dependent upon your idea of older stop motion movies. Hence the word older. I'm thinking the clunky ones where the animation of creatures was overdone to show excessive movements. I'd take good examples of CGI over that any day. Modern stop motion works great. I'd never knock the likes of Wallace and Grommit where the animation works excellently.

What about ray harryhausen? the latest episode of game of thrones seemingly spent alot of effort making their own walking skeletons move like his,trying to give cgi that sense of weight and real,faltered movement you get in real human motion.

[beefcake]

What about ray harryhausen? the latest episode of game of thrones seemingly spent alot of effort making their own walking skeletons move like his,trying to give cgi that sense of weight and real,faltered movement you get in real human motion.

By clunky I mean, the frame rates.

[redeaston]

Having recently revisited 40k because my son was interested in it I can say it’s defiantly not a simple rule set. As mentioned above the basic rules are easy to get your head round but then there are so many special rules for each unit/army that it quickly gets very complex.

I was always more of a fantasy player but the cost of updating my armies to what would be needed to play these days makes it very unlikely I will ever some back to it.

Having said that I do love the Lord of the rings rules and miniatures. The fact I have a large LOTR collection and that you can get some good deals on ebay means that I am still buying games workshop stuff even if it’s indirectly. The price of most of the hobbit figures are excessive and  they are yet to pop up in ebay much so beside the starter set I don’t have any of the Hobbit releases.

[FramFramson]

Ohhhhhhhhh lads. Sometimes the gods are kind.

Tom Kirby offers his resignation - buried in a ridiculous, rambling, lunatic diatribe. AKA the annual investor report... leaked a day early!

The comments are gas too.

Did Tom Kirby actually refer to himself in third person as “Kirby and his cronies?”

It is possible that someone leaked a satire of a letter from Kirby before it was finished?

My favourite part was where he bets against 3D printers getting to sufficient quality that people will be able to print good quality miniatures at home.

(In Tom's favour - sort of - he IS right that designing miniatures isn't as easy as all that. But you only need a few. And we've got lots even on this board.)

This document is hilarious. This guy is clearly not a literary genius either. He was “deluged with two comments”… really?
They hire people for attitude and not skill?

That idiot paid £4 million for a webstore?!?!?!?!?

[Dr Mathias]

The chairman's preamble is pretty odd reading IMO.

[FramFramson]

I'm still boggling over the £4 million they paid for a website redo. That's just insanity.

[nic-e]

but on the bright side, looks like he's stepping down.

[beefcake]

Only read a little but seems like a piss take. $4,000,000 for a website is a ridiculous expense. I don't think any company could justify spending or in fact charging that amount to build a website. The GW one is t that comprehensive really.

[nic-e]

Only read a little but seems like a piss take. $4,000,000 for a website is a ridiculous expense. I don't think any company could justify spending or in fact charging that amount to build a website. The GW one is t that comprehensive really.

A website with significantly less than the old one and many more pages that are impossible to get too from the home page.how did it cost THAT MUCH?