GW Management Changes - The Year Ahead

[40kGamer]

Limited run releases could be cool. Say one every six months.

Get the main box, and expansions. Then when they're gone, they're gone - until next time.

Ebay prices show people are willing to pay a premium too.

I'm plenty excited over the possibility of limited release games. It's beats having nothing at all.

[ElectricPaladin]

AND, with big box games, we get the fun of finding our own ways to play with them...

[Path Walker]

Just give me Warhammer Quest and a few expansion sets and I'll be a happy little chap.

[Erik Setzer]

Board games like Space Hulk, fine. I'd like a release of more of the old board games they had, like Heroquest.

Dreadfleet didn't sell particularly well, because you can't force an entire game system with multiple forces into being an all-in-one box.

If they did a starter set for a game (like Mordheim) that had two warbands and then also had rules for other warbands that you could make with GW models, that'd be fine. But replacing entire game systems with a single box just doesn't work. It's not the same.

I'm not opposed to new board games. They're good fun. I am opposed to future attempts to replace full game systems with woefully inadequate "all-in-one" boxes.

And as limited stuff goes, I've seen far too many players left out in the cold without a copy of the rules to play their army with the latest toys or whatever because the stores have only enough copies for a tiny fraction of the players. Right now, I would have no moral issues with just photocopying all the relevant rules and handing them to every player wanting a copy, and telling them later, "Don't worry about buying the book now that they came out with another edition, you have what you need. If you want to buy it, fine, but if you're okay playing with just copies, I'm quite happy to let you do that. They told you they didn't want your money, you're just obliging."

In fact, I feel like going around encouraging that. Asking players everywhere to take their limited run books, photocopy all the rules for their friends, and just encourage their friends to not buy the book. Or only buy a single group copy to share in a club. Even better, because sharing a book isn't something their way-too-happy legal eagles can jump all over. Let the sales take huge hits for a completely stupid ploy that doesn't even make sense from a business standpoint. They don't listen to customers, they'll only listen when they start losing money. So let them lose money from their stupid decisions. Screwing over the customers to try to make your immediate revenues look better is not something that should be encouraged, it should be discouraged with extreme prejudice.

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Just give me Warhammer Quest and a few expansion sets and I'll be a happy little chap.

Warhammer Quest is the kind of game a single box release (backed by expansions later) would work for. But that's what it was in the past, too.

It can also work well by later putting articles for it in WD that have rules for models from WFB, especially character models, which help you sell more models.

[ElectricPaladin]

So, hm... how would I do BFG-in-a-box?

• Core box only includes Imperium and Chaos (other fleets to follow in supplements IF it sells well) as well as some basic terrain. Several of the terrain pieces are somewhat customizable/paintable, while others are pretty but static tiles.
• Ships are NOT customizable, but we can create our own ships, missions, or even a fleet construction guide if we feel like it.
• Series of characterful missions following a narrative (a la Space Hulk)
• A brief random mission generation system.
• Supplemental boxes always include a new race's fleet as well as a campaign that can be played against the Imperium OR Chaos (the only two fleets you can be sure someone owns).

[Brenlak]

Electric Paladin I feel for you brah I really do, but Battle Fleet Gothic is done for...

When they gave up on Mordheim we were able to continue not only because of online support from people who uploaded rules, made new ones and kept our heads in the game; but also because you can use regular fantasy models for your warbands (well except for those Warnuns). BFG would need the support and a new line of models unless as suggested they released an update in White Dwarf and the occasional stand alone add on content. I haven't been to impressed with White Dwarfs one off games so far (Remember the Dark Eldar one? You and your friends all go and buy a Hemonculus and a box of Wracks and take turns moving them around this piece of paper!! Keeeeewl!), and most of the "New" models they are coming out with replace finecast or represent some Intellectual Property they haven't slashed from there canon(Can you tell I played Dark Eldar and Nids?).

Grab a nice bottle of wine and your Battlefleet Gothic, sit by the fire and think about all the great times you had together. Then grab a shovel, smite BFG into gobbets and bury it in your backyard. No tears Electric Paladin; your doing the right thing here. Then head down to your game store and pick up an X-Wing starter box, who says you can never fly again?

[Erik Setzer]

Grab a nice bottle of wine and your Battlefleet Gothic, sit by the fire and think about all the great times you had together. Then grab a shovel, smite BFG into gobbets and bury it in your backyard. No tears Electric Paladin; your doing the right thing here. Then head down to your game store and pick up an X-Wing starter box, who says you can never fly again?

While I'm going to eventually get around to playing some X-Wing (I bought the box, and I love Star Wars), I plan on playing BFG when I can still. There are plenty of people in my area who still have fleets and rules, and whenever someone offers to sell their stuff, there's plenty of eager people waiting to snatch it up. So even if GW doesn't recognize the customer base is still there, I recognize the player base is still there.

Also, Star Wars Armada might be a better option.

Oh, and fair point on the making up rules. Used to do a lot of that back in the day, for all of GW's games. That's what a lot of the oldest fan sites were. Then people forgot you can do that while getting on this kick of "It's your game" and "Play like you want." Okay, sure, GW's legal eagles were scary, but if you're just making up stuff and especially if you're not trying to somehow profit from it (i.e. ad revenue), there's not much they can do about it, assuming they'd even want to.

[ElectricPaladin]

The real problem, I think, is the lack of model support. Things like Mordheim can survive because you can still get Fantasy models and kit-bash them a bit. The same is more or less true of Necromunda, and I know for a fact that several people have written 28mm scale Inquisitor rules. But BFG? That requires its own models. BFG actually survived as a community-driven game for a long time, and I was part of that community. I dropped out when GW finally killed the line, because it became to depressing to consider how expensive it would rapidly become to grow my fleets any. And it's true - if you check out places like eBay, BFG ships are rising in price dramatically. Shapeways has some gorgeous alternatives, but... at about 150% the price.

The sad thing is, I firmly believe that GW could continue to sell and promote BFG if they wanted to. It's no coincidence that Spartan's Firestorm Armada exploded onto the scene, with a new edition and updated models, right after GW finally killed BFG.

Ah, well... hope springs eternal. I'll just be giving my money to Spartan in the meantime...

[Grom the Paunch]

A rerun of Warmaster would be most welcome.