Games Workshop and Specialist Games.

[vallorn]

Okay so anyone familiar with the producers of Warhammer 40,000 will be familiar with how they have killed off their Specialist Games over the years, the current list of such follows:

- Aeronautica Imperialis (Forge World Only)
- Battlefleet Gothic
- Man o War
- Epic
- Warmaster
- Gorkamorka
- Blood Bowl
- Inquisitor
- Mordheim
- Necromunda
- Space Hulk (Not quite dead.)

Please note that due to Games Workshop switching from their Pewter-ish metal models to bubbly, bubbly Finecast a few years ago, the models for many of these games can no longer be acquired. There are a few Plastic parts for some lucky games like Battlefleet Gothic which one can dig around for sometimes but mostly these games no longer exist.

Now, a few years ago we had a Space Hulk rerelease, a limited time offer (Which I was lucky enough to get one of) which introduced people back into the spin offs for games set in Games Workshop's many strange universes.

And just a few days ago we had this announcement:
http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Assassinorum-Execution-Force

That's right, a full blown game set to play with the Assasins doing what they do best

Spoiler: You mean this?

No /tg/ not that. How did you even get in this post?

Spoiler: You left the tab open

... Eh fair enough that's better anyway.

Aaanyway... Nevermind, in essence you get to play these scary motherfuckers:

Hunting down and killing people like the murderous bastards that they are (It's warhammer, did you expect it not to be grimdark?)

Either way. With this, the long term and somewhat quiet success of the Horus Heresy game, the way Space Hulk pops up now and then and the announcement (and subsequent silence on) of a Battlefleet Gothic video game, could everyone's favorite house of our Spiritual Liege be moving towards trying to cater to it's audience now that Mr Ward is no longer among them? Personally though, if this box gets some decent expansions to it or gathers a decent set of homebrew missions I will definitely be snapping one up.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I think the problem is that the specialist games appeal to too small an audience to be really good as any sort of long term thing. Though it's the sort of thing that would be nice to have on Spot production, where on occasion the just run some off. But with Warhammer 40,000 being hard enough to fallow on it's own, this just adds further complication.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Okay so anyone familiar with the producers of Warhammer 40,000 will be familiar with how they have killed off their Specialist Games over the years, the current list of such follows:

SNIP

Yeah, I saw that and thought that GW might be trying to get in on the relative success of the FFG games and current resurgence in popularity of boardgames by making their own. They bring back their different lines periodically anyway in one shape or another. Before there was BFG there was Space Fleet, Epic was on what? 5th edition? Before Necromunda we had Confrontation, Dread Fleet came out as a brief follow up to Man o' War, I think Mighty Empires was the forerunner of Warmaster (or maybe it was the Fantasy companion to old school Armageddon, can't quite remember), Blood Bowl went through a few releases. I think the issue with Specialist Games was that they suddenly cut support for a load of games at once.

 

[DC_78]

Ah Specialist Games...the red headed step child of GW.

I loved the Specailist Games released by GW in the 90's. From Bloodbowl, to Necromunda, to Mordihiem I could not get enough of those games and had a very dedicated group willing to ad-hoc rules and games for them. Mainly my friends were into it because the investment was no where near the same as needed for the two Warhammer games.

That was until GW killed the last bits of support for the separate lines. (Damn the Hobbits and the tie in games. Damn them to hell, because I firmly believe they killed the preci...*ahem*)

I believe the monetarists in charge of the purse strings in England decided to kill the other games so as to milk the LotR line for all it was worth. So I am leery of giving GW any more of my time or hard earned money for game lines that can be pulled from distribution just because. Hell I am leery of picking up any more Eldar because I hate the idea of buying another rule/army book.

But those new jetbikes do look sweet......

 

[vallorn]

Ah Specialist Games...the red headed step child of GW.

I loved the Specailist Games released by GW in the 90's. From Bloodbowl, to Necromunda, to Mordihiem I could not get enough of those games and had a very dedicated group willing to ad-hoc rules and games for them. Mainly my friends were into it because the investment was no where near the same as needed for the two Warhammer games.

That was until GW killed the last bits of support for the separate lines. (Damn the Hobbits and the tie in games. Damn them to hell, because I firmly believe they killed the preci...*ahem*)

I believe the monetarists in charge of the purse strings in England decided to kill the other games so as to milk the LotR line for all it was worth. So I am leery of giving GW any more of my time or hard earned money for game lines that can be pulled from distribution just because. Hell I am leery of picking up any more Eldar because I hate the idea of buying another rule/army book.

But those new jetbikes do look sweet......

... I play Chaos Marines... Thousand Sons Chaos Marines... There hasn't been a decent codex for my army for a LONG while since they decided to make them hyper generic and even remove the ability for Daemons to carry Marks of their gods (I STILL despise that feature of the codex...)

Then again... those Helldrakes do look ded killy...

Still it could be worse. I could own an army that had characters removed from it because GW was too lazy to make models for them and so other people picked up the slack...

Captcha: Cloud Nine. Nonono Captcha, Slaanesh's domain is thataway.

 

[vallorn]

I think the problem is that the specialist games appeal to too small an audience to be really good as any sort of long term thing. Though it's the sort of thing that would be nice to have on Spot production, where on occasion the just run some off. But with Warhammer 40,000 being hard enough to fallow on it's own, this just adds further complication.

The thing about Specialist games is that many of them were only made to be played with a handful of models. And since models are where GW make their big bucks I would guess that that makes them less profitable to some degree.

Then again, ones like Battlefleet Gothic, Epic and the like used quite a lot of models.

 

[DC_78]

... I play Chaos Marines... Thousand Sons Chaos Marines... There hasn't been a decent codex for my army for a LONG while since they decided to make them hyper generic and even remove the ability for Daemons to carry Marks of their gods (I STILL despise that feature of the codex...)

Then again... those Helldrakes do look ded killy...

Still it could be worse. I could own an army that had characters removed from it because GW was too lazy to make models for them and so other people picked up the slack...

Captcha: Cloud Nine. Nonono Captcha, Slaanesh's domain is thataway.

I had 2000 points in an Ulthwe web strike force and another 1500 points in generic Ulthwe from back in 3rd(? when ever was the big Abbadon push on Cadia) edition, so trust me I feel your pain in the generic everything rule sets GW started to put out.

GW's motto "Not Listening to the fa/tg/uys since 1999 to appeal to the kiddies and LotR fan boys."

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

It isn't. The manager of my local GW is good friend of mine. Its a one off thing, like any other launch set with a little campaign written in, or better yet Space Hulk or Relic or the Horus Heresy board game. A one-shot deal, maybe an expansion booklet in 5 years, but sorry friends, according my friend there are no plans for any specialist games. They simply weren't profitable.

But do keep an eye out for some Forge World exclusives making a plastic debut. I think he said in the next three years? Two or three years.

 

[vallorn]

It isn't. The manager of my local GW is good friend of mine. Its a one off thing, like any other launch set with a little campaign written in, or better yet Space Hulk or Relic or the Horus Heresy board game. A one-shot deal, maybe an expansion booklet in 5 years, but sorry friends, according my friend there are no plans for any specialist games. They simply weren't profitable.

But do keep an eye out for some Forge World exclusives making a plastic debut. I think he said in the next three years? Two or three years.

Ah bugger. Well that sucks. I was really hoping for an excuse to try and get people together at my college and play Battlefleet Gothic with scratch builds (Orks, Orks everywhere)...

Alas poor specialist games. I knew him Horatio.