GW revives Specialist Games?

[Psychosplodge]

Now I just need to get people to play necromunda...

[JamesP]

Iirc one of the HH campaigns has a spot to inject BFG so I wonder if any heresy Era ships will be released. Really hope so as its pretty neat to start with BFG then Planetstrike/city fight/epic and skirmish can all be worked in. Immersion ftw.

Perhaps they will. Atia mentioned 'Battlefleet HERESY' on Bolter and Chainsword, though whether that should be read as confirmation that Heresy-era BFG ships or rules are coming, or as an informed guess, or just as something to be hoped for, I have no idea: [URL="http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/315945-gw-reopens-specialist-games/page-2#entry4222879"]http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/315945-gw-reopens-specialist-games/page-2#entry4222879[/URL]

I agree entirely about linked games (it's one of the reasons that I've pledged to the Dropfleet Commander KS) and FW have some good history in this regard, I really liked the BFG section they did for the Badab War books.

[Kirsten]

a lot of imperial ships will work for 30k as much as 40k battlefleet, they didn't change much.

[JamesP]

a lot of imperial ships will work for 30k as much as 40k battlefleet, they didn't change much.

And some of what are Chaos-only ships in the 40k-era could be used as Loyalist or Traitor vessels in a 30k BFG.

It'd also be an opportunity for GW to create the 30k-only ships we've seen in various bits of Heresy artwork over the years. [URL="http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/2c/Iron_Blood_IW_Flagship.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140326182258"]Gloriana-class battlebarge[/URL], anyone?

[Charon]

I'm curious... I quite like the community rules. They are pretty well done.

[Mr.Pickelz]

If this is indeed true, i'm really hoping Forgeworld handles BFG, their Tau fleet was many miles and/or kilometers ahead of what GW offered, and their Space Marine Frigates were insanely detailed versus the little metal sticks that GW charged for.

[Alaric]

a lot of imperial ships will work for 30k as much as 40k battlefleet, they didn't change much.

Agreed, its what we use right now but coyld you imagine the awesomeness of fw ones??! So awesome... Except...the price..what am I sayin. Ill still buy them.

[JamesP]

Sales are sales though.

I guess the concern was product development and maintenance. You need to do releases at some point, otherwise a game can become a bit stale. However, that of course costs time and money.

It's arguable that time is the biggest factor here. GW, like any company have finite man hours to get done what they want to do. Whether it's a model for Necromunda or 40k, the sculpting and development time is likely to be the same....

One option might be to focus on periodic new model releases and let the rules stay as they are. Analogous to when GW still sold specialist games models on their site and had the rules and (most of) the supplements available as free PDFs. If it works for AoS...

Of course, unlike AoS, most of the specialist games models are a) metal and b) old. So they would probably need to spend sometime producing plastic updated versions of older metal models as well. Would this be a profitable and non-time intensive model? Answers on a postcard please.

As for writing material, they could try what the old Fanatic/ Specialist Games used to do and look for writers from the hobby community who are still into those games. It's over ten years ago now IIRC but I and some mates from the Kingston Games Group in SW London were fairly active on the BFG Yahoogroup mailing list, which Andy Chambers used to frequent. We did an online summer BFG campaign, as GW wasn't doing one that covered BFG that year and Fanatic eventually got wind of it and asked us to rewrite some of the online stuff for publication in BFG Magazine.

There are a lot of BFG/ Epic/ Bloodbowl players still out there and still producing material. The question is whether GW might want to go down that route again and whether anything 'fan' produced would be considered suitable under GW's current management culture, which is arguably a bit different to what it was ten years ago. Then again, Fanatic Games was, I understand, sort of Jervis Johnson's pet project and if he or similar advocates for specialist games are still allowed that kind of leeway, who knows?

...Get this right, and they'll have their feeder games back.

Definitely. I think they'd also appeal to existing players and not just because of nostalgia or, for younger players, the "I've been hearing for years how good [INSERT SPECIALIST GAME HERE] was and now I want to try it" factor.

Stating the obvious, all of the specialist games offered something different to WFB and 40K. Don't feel like 40k but want to play something skirmish level? Try Necromunda. Want something fun yet tactical and also portable? Bloodbowl. 40k but portable? Space Hulk. Mass combat but a quicker and more suitable rule set than Apocalypse? Epic (and it's also a lot more portable).

(And, though it's not a specialist game, play Block Mania if you ever find a copy. Because it's brilliant.)

Everyone I knew who played specialist games also played 40k and/or WFB. They might have spent a little less than they otherwise would have on the two main GW games, but their overall spend was higher. Of course, that's anecdotal evidence from a small(-ish) group. And it falls down a bit in the face of GW cancelling the entire specialist games line due to low sales. But I still think it'd be worth their while to bring them back.

[Erik Setzer]

I'm going to wait for something truly official. Then see what they release, and at what price point. If they do it right, I'll cheer.

It's kind of believable just because the market is getting more and more games similar to the line they decided to up and cancel, and those games are making sales. GW's been sitting on solid competitors (if they don't price themselves out of the running) but didn't want to do anything with them because you can't get someone to spend $800-$1000 on a game just to have one faction, and probably didn't want to be associated with so many games (because, you know, games are so evil.)

But there's so many sales they're losing out on, and more so as people decide it's better to spend $100-$150 on a game, and if they choose to spend more, they can add extra factions for variety. And $100 is better than $0, which is what GW's getting from a lot of people right now.

It really does depend on if they do it smart, though (against, assuming this is real). If they try that "premium pricing" BS, they'll find themselves out of the running fast. Infinity is the worst case scenario of pricing for a small game (though everyone discounts their models anyway), but even they'd pale in comparison if GW decided to try doing $30-$40 characters in Necromunda. At least Corvus Belli has the excuse that they're a small company using pewter, a material so expensive GW ran from it in such a hurry they pushed out the worst garbage material ever used to make "professional" figures. But some people are still turned off by the prices. They prefer other games, cheaper games.

I'll hope for the best, but I'm not going to expect it, because that path leads to disappointment, especially as GW's track record isn't the best lately.

[Mr Mystery]

Yup.

If anything, the decline began with Epic 40,000.

Now don't get me wrong, as a ruleset there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it (much of it was ported over to BFG, a game still held in high esteem). But, it just wasn't a patch on Space Marine and Titan Legions.

It was quite a dramatic shift in how you approach a battle. You needed to think a lot more about how you grouped stuff together for maximum firepower - and it just wasn't for me. And sadly, I wasn't the only one who didn't take to it.

Epic Armageddon was much better, but alas too little too late it would seem.

And as Epic seemed to sell better than the other SG range (probably because you needed more stuff), it could have given the impression people didn't want that scale of game, when all I for one wanted back was Space Marine.

And again - if this turns out to be a cruel joke, I'll be unhappy. You wouldn't like me when I'm unhappy.