The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[nic-e]

IMO, and I think I've mentioned this before, kids around their early teens or just before get into GW games because of the grimdarkness. Granted, the minis have become chunkier and more OTT over time, but they're still all covered in spikes and skulls and severed heads and things. They look more grim, dangerous, and 'grown up' than what 11-12yos might've just grown out of.

You could make the argument that a vampire-ridden mechano-horse filled with skulls, scouring a dying world on the whim of it's genocidal master, is 'silly and light', but I don't know if you'd get much traction with it. I think you've nailed the right reaction but for the wrong reason: IMO the real turn-off is that we outgrew it because of the darker, grittier stuff. Not so light, but eventually recognised as a bit silly, rather than 'mature and grown up'. We stopped when we thought "it's all got too childish".

I think it's well-circulated, or used to be, that GW makes their bread and butter from targeting kids (or their parents), and selling a starter set and a few unit boxes before that kid loses interest. So I agree with your first paragraph (though not with the 'not dark and gritty' reason), and agree that it's helping to kill GW right now.
I dunno what other distractions kids have these days, though I'd guess the fact that video games and that culture are apparently mainstream these days, while tabletop wargaming is still (generally) a 'sad nerd hobby', has a lot to do with it. In any case, GW's sales are falling so I'd hazard that major revenue source (if it be so) is petering out for some reason; so it seems they're stuck, chasing it even harder and investing more into what they think kids will like - big, chunky minis with superpowered, killy rules. And in that, exacerbating another issue that they've been indulging in for a while: the alienation of older gamers who still like the background and do most of their 'marketing' for them, but who no longer like the OTT aspects of it, who want less childish rules, and who scrutinise the price stickers a little more closely.

Heck, GW have even got loads of older fans who still love the OTT aspects and childish rules, but are just now starting to hesitate and peel away in the face of ratcheting prices. Even just a bit of recognition of that hard core, who stick to them like limpets rather than get bored and wander off, might stall their death spiral. Maybe.

TL;DR: if GW focused less on kids with desperate grimdarkness; dialled it all back a bit - maybe even with a little 'silly lightness'; and acknowledged that there are other age brackets with changed views and tastes, they could possibly see a way to dig themselves out of their hole. But at the mo the only way they can see is to dig deeper...

Well as i say, i got into 40k very young, i enjoyed it for good guys fighting bad guys, then i got into the fluff and the older grimmer stuff and that kept me hooked.When i say light, i mean that these models wouldn't look too out of place in the he-man range, and the general idea of "skulls=evil" seems very much like a way to sell evil to kids without being really evil.

this kind of stuff leaves me cold because despite it being clear they have gone out of their way to show how uber evil these guys are, they're so overtly bad guy that it's comical. there's no malice behind the skeleton horse made of skulls, just bones.

(buy dark, i don't mean the always dark all of the time like alot of the rulebook fluff makes out, i mean the grittier older 2000ad style setting, where the funny little jokes made the dark even darker. these releases are like skeletor, so evil in a world of evil and darkness that they stop looking evil.)

[carlos13th]

Their used to be a Hefty dose of dark humour in GW's settings and models but thats largely gone now it seems. They almost seem like a parody of their former selves.

[beefcake]

I was a bit disappointed with what I assume is the Arkhan the Black miniature riding a horse. I have the old mini of it and he used to be on a chariot. It was a pretty strange looking chariot with pieces of a dead manticore but the Arkhan mini was very nice and could be based by himself if you wished as well. Sigh.

[beefcake]

Do you think they are trying to make them like the horsemen of the apocalypse? Four bad guys (one without a horse though)

[Vanvlak]

I really love the undead, and they're one of the very few armies I actually battled with.

I have a penchant for undead non-humans, and have skeleton doggies, an elephant, a rhino, skaven, a dwarf, a giant and a dinosaur.

However, I cannot understand why the balding gentleman with a very large blade in the first picture on the previous page of this topic is riding an undead mechagodzilla.
Can anyone help with this quandary, please?

[beefcake]

Um... GW fanboys love that stuff. It has skullz.

[Dr. Zombie]

One (other) thing that really turns me off from these new GW models is all the modeled "special effects" Souls, magic, fire, ice, smoke and what have you. That is damned hard to paint convincingly!

I mean everyone, even a 12 year old kid, can stab some paint on an Orc or a Skelleton an make it look halfway decent. But you have to be rather skilled to do these "special effects" that are on more and more models these days.

I blame computers for that!!

[Major_Gilbear]

Do you think they are trying to make them like the horsemen of the apocalypse? Four bad guys (one without a horse though)

That was my thinking as well.

Not thrilled with these really. I know GW stuff is supposed to be OTT, but these... Are way too much for me; in both money and design.

[beefcake]

Yep, the design is quite strange as well. The horses have exceedingly long tails and it looks like their ribcage extends up their neck.
Of all those new minis, nagash is the best of them 

[Vermis]

Nic-e: I do agree with you, especially in that cutting out the humour cuts out the appeal to older gamers. Though, like I say, all the extra grimdark that filled the gaps doesn't look sinister, badass and 'evil' to us.

Basically, this:

Um... GW fanboys love that stuff. It has skullz.

[nic-e]

One (other) thing that really turns me off from these new GW models is all the modeled "special effects" Souls, magic, fire, ice, smoke and what have you. That is damned hard to paint convincingly!

I mean everyone, even a 12 year old kid, can stab some paint on an Orc or a Skelleton an make it look halfway decent. But you have to be rather skilled to do these "special effects" that are on more and more models these days.

I blame computers for that!!

Everyone who paints competitively now uses airbrushes, look at the golden demon winners from 10 years ago compared to today and you can see the shift. now  it's all smooth transitions on models with flat surfaces. Gw are modelling to this trend and brining out kits that are a ballache to paint without an airbrush.i suppose a model without character deserves a flat uninspired paintjob.

[Dr. Zombie]

That might be so.

But how does that fit in with their target audience being pre-teens and tenagers?

An airbrush is not exactly cheap to buy or easy to use. To me it looks like GW is trying to sit between two chairs.

[Major_Gilbear]

Everyone who paints competitively now uses airbrushes, look at the golden demon winners from 10 years ago compared to today and you can see the shift. now  it's all smooth transitions on models with flat surfaces. Gw are modelling to this trend and brining out kits that are a ballache to paint without an airbrush.i suppose a model without character deserves a flat uninspired paintjob.

...Um, really? I don't see that; seems to me that yours is possibly a bit of a green-eyed statement.

Granted, some things are easier to do with an airbrush, but even the studio efforts are pretty much hand-painted (I'll let them off basecoating with a main colour though - since you can always buy a coloured spray primer yourself to achieve the same).

[Tactalvanic]

Perhaps they are bringing out a new Gamesworkshop overpriced airbrush kit as well..?

Kiddies though - hey they will just use a bigger brush, much bigger. Just need a lot of purple and a few dabs of white don't it?

I think perhaps its been overlooked that this Nagash thing is completely new, old people and ex customers from way back in time that remember the previous version/s -  are dead/ceased to exist to GW...

Only the young innocent skull and grim/dark craving kiddies are alive to them. So its all shiny new...

Ooooh lets update undead, put in another layer of management make it "optional" for now, new  big big boss etc etc, no-one will remember it from years ago as all those customers from back then are gone, and we have the IP for the name already. redo the existing characters, up the price lots...Especially as we won't sell that many....

Next year there will be an even bigger big boss one, fully articulated with led lights in every eye-socket and a voice skull/button for choice snippets like:

"Thats not valid in the current codex, you need to get the new one", "I need more Skulls up my butt", "Colour me purple" etc.

Supplied unpainted, requires assembly, batteries not included, LEDs sold separately.

I am increasingly convinced its set in their skullpting software by default to include a minimum number of skulls on each model now - no option for none

- if they did a headless horseman of the Nagashaplypse it probably would have more heads to hold than arms... Skeletal heads of course.

Simple version:

 Do not want.

[Dr. Zombie]

Isn't there already an overpriced GW airbrush set?

I seem to recall something about some faulty ones being withdrawn.