philBrad2 wrote:Not much on design studio. FW Bran Redmaw (nice) plasma macharius. Eldar warp hunter. Falcon with a, D cannon. (...)
There is nothing on the Deisgn Studio stand (I currently sit above it) for 40K all GW are doing is pimping Dreadfleet, Ogres and Storm of Magic. Only interesting 40K bits I've seen is a some new greens. New Cadian IG, a new Warlock and a Storm Guardian,

FW nothing really apart from Bran we've not seen, semiar is sold out couldn't get a ticket for sither session this year. Retial is an absolute nightmare, who thought of putting BL, FW and GW retail in the smallest hall with restricted access needs giving the Emperor's Mercy its totally stupid. So far with GD2011 I'm disappointed.
(...)
Tamila has confirmed to me when discussing IA11 the Solitaire has been removed , wondering if this is at GW's request??

Sephiroth wrote:No sign of Necrons...

eldargal wrote:No details yet, DrLove on BoLS Lounge just said there were 3 new DE skimmers, he was on his way into the FW seminar at the time. I think he said he would post pictures afterwards.

DrLove42 wrote:FW seminar over. Lots to post. Big things:

IA12 is not DE. Its a prison asteroid, penal guard, minotaur marines and Tzeentch chaos
The 3 new DE skimmer I mentioned will not be made due to time constraints. Other than the phoenix lord, no new xenos is planned for a while
But a chaos contemptor is due

More when I can

Chaos Undecided wrote:The guy at the FW seminar said that Book 11 The Doom of Mymeara (spelling?) should be out in the next few months so I guess they want it out before Christmas, Book 12 The Merros Incident still in the works and there was mention of another masterclass book.

TheMournival wrote:Was told by FW designers that the Chaos Contemptor is 3-4 months away! A generic version will be released first, then legion/God specific versions later!

stickmonkey wrote:Ill also confirm the eldar warlock and storm guardian are training sculpts.

fraggle wrote:Managed to attend both the BL & FW seminars. Not sure if here is ok for BL so will stick to 40k stuff.

Imperial Armour masterclass 2 is next book after IA 11.
Then IA12 - The Morros Incident - contents as reported previously. Little extra details given except for minotaurs pads etc.

No further Badab Characters to be released.

New Contemptor arm - power claw with a graviton gun mounted inside (pic to follow).

Land Raider Proteus variant with side armour like the 'pre -heresy style mk2' LR. and also different weapon load out to the proteus just released (heavy bolters and melta guns (pic to follow)

Shadow spectre lord - dont think it is female judging from photo

Rapier and Omega as prevously mentioned (although name of omega may change based on Tony's poll in the sem)

Pre-heresy termies very likely - talked about in a tongue in cheek way.

Probable chapter specific versions of contemptor - although 'not in the order you may expect'. Think the khorne one is a conversion at present.

More to follow
(...)
New land raider looks much better painted / in flesh than on website.

IA11 - Solitaire gone due to story change as I said before. Also the corsairs list has been chaged quite a bit since I last saw it at the FW open day.

Corsair Psychic (Voidlistener?) - is a navigator for them but acts like a warlock in game I think. Can cast one or two powers (if with stones) - one of which does D6 strength 10 attacks minus the targets toughness with an AP2. (i.e against T4 is S6 etc). 12 to 18 inch range I think.

Probable model for this but not female IIRC.

From the DE side they have kept kabalite warriors and venoms in the list but seem to have removed raiders etc.

3 New Apoc templates in back, one for hornets, one for wraithlords + wraithseer.

I'll try and get photos up and remember a bit more
(...)
Tzeentch confirmed - they didnt say that it was 1K sons buts it was inferred. They also said they'd hope to get to undivided chapters (alpha, black, word bearers etc) at some point.

Rapier is very nice. Omega looked unfinished at back.
Wulfen redmaw was only half done as far as I know but didnt see it myself
(..)
Contemptor fist has the graviton gun inside.

FW are planning to possibly re-release some of the terrain which has been removed from the website but it needs redoing for 'hollow resin' to work, like the first emplacement.

Jokaero! wrote:Let's start off with Forge World.

DAREN PARRWOOD. I went to speak to the two guys involved in the Tantalus and Reaper and see what they had to say. First of all I spoke to Daren Parrwood who had the concept models for the Tantalus and his little sketch book, all of which is floating around the webway so I won't repeat what I have to say on that. I spoke to him about what he plans to do with a big thunderhawk sized barge. He originally planned on creating a few vehicles Tantalus sized but thought some of the other ideas were strong enough to make into a bigger vehicle and has plans for that.

STUART WILLIAMSON. Stuart also confirmed that he would like to work on a bigger ship soon and I asked him about any plans for vehicle upgrades such as enhanced aethersails and such and that they had no plans to do so at all. I raised the possibility of them doing an upgrade kit for Trueborn and again, no plans. He did however debunk the theory that FW aren't allowed to step on GW's toes and said they could fill gaps in the codex at a later date.

TONY COTERILL. I went to the afternoon seminar. IA 12 will be guard and chaos so DE will NOT feature. I also asked a question about whether he could add any more to what the other guys had to say about a larger ship and said nothing was planned and that no further Dark Eldar were planned as of yet. One of the reasons holding them back is how organic and curved the models are which makes them very complicated.

TANTALUS RULES. 12 12 10, comes with a flicker, can fire 12 dissie shots, transport 16, access to some other upgrades. Heavy support or dedicated for the court. Can do D6 S7 AP2 hits to a vehicle or troops it flat outs over or 1 S7 2D6 to a vehicle. A bit over 200pts.

JES GOODWIN. I'd start by saying I spoke to Juan Diaz first but didn't have much to say. Jes however is a cracking bloke. Started off speaking about the forum and that he checks up now and then and thinks we're getting a lot stronger. No confirmation on the Voidraven. Special characters will be divided up between himself and Juan but no concepts are done at all. He'd like to see them come out one a month in the future.

*EDIT Jes said he was pressured to do a court box set but decided against that as he wanted to do them individually. He also said he was asked to do a new archon model but really didn't/doesn't want to do another one. He also made a small quip about how you can make two Medusae out of one blister and assumes the suits don't like that fact.

Anyway, hope this sates all the Dark Eldar players out there.

And I got a Tantalus. NERRRR NERRRR.

TL;DR = DE superheavy planned but not for 2011/12. No more FW DE planned either any time soon, complications of the kit cited. FW won't rule out anything mentioned though. Jes will be doing the special characters with Juan but not even in concept form, on to do list.
(...)

The 3 new DE raiders (1 with 2 Pulsars, 1 with 6 Lances and one very similar to the Tantalus) were used to get the correct idea of size for the Tantalus. They won't be made at present due to time constraints and not needing them. Come IA13 (if it is DE) theres a strong chance they could return

From what Daren Parrwood said to me, they were three different concepts for the Tantalus and looking at them you can see one won through. However he said that whilst doing them he'd like to use their combined aesthetics for a super heavy. Obviously you can't rule out them returning.

t-tauri wrote:Forgeworld seminar. As always Tony Cottrell makes the event worth the money.

Imperial Armour Apocalypse 2 was available today according to Tony. If you could get to the front of the queue.

Some of my pictures are a little blurry, so we'll see what we can remember.

Next book releases IA11 (end of year/Christmas) Masterclass v 2. Imperial Armour 12.

Models mostly eldar (Mymeara and Alaitoc), Corsairs and cold weather Cadians/Elysians. Small amount of Space Wolves. Bran Redmaw miniature.
(...)
The "old school" section. It seems as if Forgeworld are keen on doing "early" (not necessarily pre-heresy) kit. Tony had a show of hands in the seminar on early terminators and seemed keen on the idea. The idea of robots was pitched to several FW staffers who all seemed to like the prospect of revisiting them as an Adeptus Mechanicus book. More Contemptor variants including a power claw hand with integral graviton gun. Chapter specific and chaos ones are both highly likely but it might take a long time before your particular chapter gets one (compare with the release schedule of ordinary Dreads over several years).

Tony was asked re Thunderwolves and his answer (to me at least) implied that FW weren't doing them but "someone" was. I'd guess a GW one is on the way.

redbristles wrote:I was at the first FW seminar, which was really well done I think, Tony Cotteril showing off some pics of their recent and upcoming releases, and a few sneaks at whats next, followed by a Q&A session...

confirmed (from my limited memory):
After IA11 its Modelling Masterclass 2
IA12 is a penal planet job like previously mentioned in the thread
New contemptor weapons, some sort of power claw
Book of monsters for FW coming soon, kind of like storm of magic but just filled with Warhammer Forge monsters, looks lovely
"many more monsters to come"
and a mention of more "classic" (they're very reluctant to say pre-heresy) space marine vehicles

kitch102 wrote:Ok, what a day, I am more than knackered! Hope you all appreciate me writing this up instead of going to bed!

So I garnered very little in the way of concrete information throughout the day, staff were being a lot more tight lipped than expected regarding forth coming releases - all I got was the whole "we're working on a lot of things, keep an eye on WD" yadda yadda yadda. Interestingly, in the sermon thing that I attended, their head of studio said the secretive marketing strategy was just an experiment and if enough people didn't like it, they'd drop it. Needless to say that I put a written feedback slip over to the WNT guys, saying pretty much what everyone on Dakka has said - hobbyists budget for their purchases and if you let them know in advance of what they can get, you'll see happier customers and an increase in sales on launch day. Here's hoping that they'll listen, though obviously if you feel the same way, we'll all benefit from you writing in to tell them to stop being so bloody stupid.

I have an audio recording of the whole seminar, I'll get it up tomorrow night once my phone's recharged.

Here's what information I could garner, where it's a fact, I'll say so, otherwise take it with a pinch of salt.

- Necrons are not far off, though no specific launch date stated, no information on models etc. Some of what was said in the seminar hinted at a launch style similar to that of the DE (wave 1, wave 1.5 mini release, wave 2, followed by fillers etc). One interesting point was as soon as you could finish saying "Nec..." the staff shut up like a threatened murder witness. Could this mean that something is nearing fruition? Pure speculation on my part, but there was a MASSIVE lack of necron items aside from those brought by the staffs gaming tables, that would say to me that they're getting ready for an announcement. I quizzed one of the 'eavy metal guys on why the 'cron 'dex was no longer on the site and was given the "we're working on many..." lines (again), I think you 'cron players will be happy very soon but have no facts to back this up, just my gut feeling.

- The SoB WD codex was released purely as a stop gap to bring them in line with the grey knights release, they haven't neglected you SoB players and wanted to give you something as quickly as they could that was playable and relevant to the current game.

- Dreadfleet confirmed to have no expansions, ever. Big surprise there. It was getting a hell of a lot of love on the 10 trial tables they had set out though, I heard a few saying they were off to preorder as soon as they finished gaming.

- The DE Tantalus transports 16 miniatures. It comes with flickerfield, aethersails & 1 or 2 other things as standard. The scythes cause an instant hit on vehicles at (iirc) 1d6 AP. Models with a toughness value take 2d6 s6 hits. The pulse disintegrators are S5 AP2 H6 with a 36" range. FACT

- The DE were planned to be a big part of imperial 12 but, due to the scale of what they have / had planned for them, have been put ON HOLD. They MAY appear in IA13, and would have potential to span 2 books, in the same vain that the Badab War series did. However, the writer has stated that they ARE DEFINITELY ON HOLD, they may come back to them in the future though have been shelved for now. Would not be drawn on what they're being replaced by. FACT

- IA Apocalypse v2 contains information on the Tantalus, chapter specific contemptors and chaos contemptors. Lots of nice information there, with some stuff for Tau though I didn't recognise any of this stuff being new (note: I don't know the Tau range well enough, so take from that what you will) FACT

- The Chaos Dwarfs are not planned to get a GW / studio style codex, though they have a full army list, including characters, back story, magic items in the tamurkand book. The story is basically a dwarf lord promises to turn to chaos if they help him take over the empire, but instead of going the usual route through kislev () he works his way south west and attempts to head north in the empire through their southern borders. Bad things happen to bad stunties along the way.FACT

- The'res a brilliant looking MMO PVP game called Wrath of Heroes coming out, it's PC only but apparently doesn't need a high spec gaming pc to run. The bloke I was speaking to said he uses his on a standard word processing machine and it works fine. Pictures / video to follow, though you'll probably get more information from www.wrathofheroes.com. I'll hopefully have beta access soon so will feedback on this as I can. The game is aimed at the Dark Age of Camelot audience, and doesn't really compare to WoW[color=red]FACT[color]

- Andrew Kenrick, our wonderful WD editor himself, and one of his colleagues (Phil I think? Not sure, will find his picture and confirm) hinted at a possible Tyranid release. This will not be the fabled 2 wave, but will fill a gap in the codex. However he also said "but then it may not be a gap filler, but an altogether different model with it's rule set to be released in white dwarf". Nid players... don't read too much in to this, there aren't enough facts to get excited about, but equally I don't think someone in the know such as Mr AK would say sometihng's coming when it's not. Again, no dates were hinted at.

Answers to the questions I could get:

Plans to release plastic titans - certainly one day, they'd love to do that and to make them a bit more mainstream, but for the moment no plans. (Side note, GW seems to plan it's next releases by the number of staff saying "wouldn't it be cool if...", so if enough start saying this, then it could happen sooner. Don't hold your breath though.

Revitalising any of the specialist games - No, not at all, ever. The reason being that their staff have enough to remember with the 3 biggies, and they politely take the stance that if the customers are willing to champion the SG's in their area to drum up interest and get games going, then brilliant, but GW will not be offering any support aside from providing the models and rules.

Squ.... NO SQUATS. DO NOT ASK ABOUT SQUATS. This was actually said before questions were allowed, which inspired more laughter than I expected! They were talking about how they went back to the picture of the donorian clawed fiend in the 1998 rulebook 13 years later (present day) and decided to make a model; my plan was to lead that on to the squats as they're in the same picture, but alas, I baeten to it by a bloody powerpoint slide.

Extra equipment included with characters - restricted due to the cost to manufacture these, when they'd really be as and when required. The way they see it is that they already have a million bits out there that we as hobbyists can use, leaving them free to work on 'whats next'. Fair play to that I'd say.

I mentioned the rumour of SoB and Necrons being included in the 6ed box set and was told "that's the first time I've heard that rumour" (by the 'eavy metal guy in the seminar). I'd kind of take it that that's a no, otherwise I'd have been given that "we're always working on..." line again.

Moving away from the Q&A side, I hope you're ready to battered by pictures of the miniatures painted by a guy called Angelo Dicampo (or something like that), he won 4 golden daemons, a bronze AND the slayer sword. What a legend! Pretty sure I saw GW's intellectual property manager offering him a job, like that's a bloody surprise lol.

I also managed to get my boarding captain & relic contemptor (with HB & PF), COPUY OF PROMETHEUM SUN (!!!!) number 2379, signed by the man himself (twice, I didn't realise he'd already signed it lol) & a copy of the anthology, which I got signed by Nick Kyme & Gav Thorpe. Both damned nice guys too.

Also learnt that some of the authors have lists of people that have written in to them asking to be included in their books, apparently Dan Abnetts a big one for this, so if you fancy being a guardsman that gets killed 2 paragraphs after being introduced to a story get writing! I reckon I might! Guardsman Si Kitchener doesn't have much of a ring to it though lol.

philbrad2 wrote:Well I've returned to chez Phil as there was nothing left to see. After the WS meet did one circuit of the design studio tables - to see if anything had 'emerged from stasis' and FW studio tables to see if the Wulfen of Bran Redmaw had emerged - it hadn't. Couple of things the Khorne Contemptor was on show and a side-by-side multi-melta for the Contemptor as well.

On the whole armies on parade and GD were nicely laid out with much more space than previous years though to my eye entries were down on previous years. Gaming hall was frenzied noisy hot as you'd expect. Retail ... sorry this was a joke, to put GW, FW & BL retail in the smallest hall with limited in out access is simply insane! After about an hour of doors opening the PA system announced apologies for the retail layout and delays would be quite long, in fact queue for the retail hall was stretching back to the far side of the gaming hall at one point. GW really seriously need to address this. FW reservation pick up at the front of the venue excellent idea and seemed to work well. The rest... well we headed for retail first thing and were probably 30 people deep at the FW stand at 9.30AM spent a further 10 minutes trying to locate the single lane for people leaving the hall who weren't buying anything (or couldn't get near). The whole thing really was a complete farce and I saw a lot of angry people. Quite how GW address this I don't know, but this year the mayhem of the 2010 FW stand was bought to all. As ever BL's lane system worked well but they were tight for space.

This will be my last UK Gamesday. It's simply not worth the entrance fee for a model I don't want and nothing new to show me. Sure its not all those things to everyone there were some great models on show and the gaming halls were doing their bit but it left me and several others I spoke to disappointed.

There was a distinct lack of numbers to previous years and the event felt quite small. But hey I'm old and cranky

Sorting some photos out to post anyone with any link to the FW seminar notes/videos etc.. I for one would be happy yo see them. Think I'll go watch the F1 ...

Adieu

PhilB

philbrad2 wrote:So GW's total output for the remaining quarter of this year is Dreadfleet and nothing else? Not everyone a) plays WHFB or its sub games or b) is interested in the forthcoming 'Pirates of Nottinghamshire' game - sure there were people who gave a massive 'meh' to Space Hulk. To have nothing new for 40K to show at the biggest of all games days with the vast majority of the Design Studio present? There was nothing, literally, for 40Kers to look forward to from GW. Sure Forgeworld had some tasty pieces of kit, the WraithSeer/Lord/Guard Apoc formation in the rear of the new IA11 book is a fave of mine. So once again thanks FW for saving the day in some ways.

My theory is a big GW website/WD 'ta-dah! Here's the Necrons' at the end of October and not wanting us nasty internet people to steal their thunder. I think this strategy is wrong, sure don't reveal everything but at least give the public some tidbits to speculate on it gets interest in the product sparked. But to have nothing and not even give any hints

Yes GW are pimping Dreadfleet, and yes they were/are the Orge Kingdoms but also Storm of Magic still. I really can't get over the fact there was zero for GW design team on 40K. In my 17 previous UKGD's this is a first.

PhilB

Jokaero! wrote:RE: Space Wolves. Just before I had a chat with Jes another guy asked him whether he was working on them. Jes replied "I'm afraid I can't tell you that" with a big smile. Make of that what you will.

Can't remember if anyone discussed FW and the possibility of Adeptus Mechanicus. Tony would really like to do them but wouldn't want to do them half heartedly, like some skitarii and a robot or two, he'd want a whole range done with huge robot kits but doesn't know when they would fit in their schedule.

The questions about whether they would do Primarchs and Custodes got some very mysterious answers too.

Medium of Death wrote:So Necrons are looking very unlikely then?

*sulks*

lunarman wrote:Everyone thought the necrons would be released at Games Day.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Some Necronews on BoW



Not sure it is the sort of news you hoped for MoD

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Some Necronews on BoW



Not sure it is the sort of news you hoped for MoD

NAVARRO wrote:Please tell me thats not a GW miniature... because it looks like a cheap toysrus thing I would buy for my kid... Butt ugly.

SilverMK2 wrote:

NAVARRO wrote:Please tell me thats not a GW miniature... because it looks like a cheap toysrus thing I would buy for my kid... Butt ugly.

I think it i BOW trying to be funny again. Note the use of the word "trying"...

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Some Necronews on BoW



Not sure it is the sort of news you hoped for MoD

Sheep wrote:They might have discovered the elusive "scale"

1hadhq wrote:A necroshpinx/dreadknight?

Kroothawk wrote:New Cadians

lord_blackfang wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:New Cadians

WHYYYYYYYY

lord_blackfang wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:New Cadians

WHYYYYYYYY

tarnish wrote:

lord_blackfang wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:New Cadians

WHYYYYYYYY

we obviously need a lot more cadians. i see a codex for them in the future. with cadian tanks, buildings, fliers and giant hovering helmets that look amazing. their just the best...

Kurgash wrote:I spy with my little eye on those WiP weapons a defiler multi-melta arm.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Some Necronews on BoW



Not sure it is the sort of news you hoped for MoD

Kilkrazy wrote:There's no way that 10 nine-foot tall superhumans in power armour could fit into that drop pod.

Still, it is good that there are so many new Imperial models coming out.

Kroothawk wrote:

1hadhq wrote:A necroshpinx/dreadknight?

Just in case this remark was too cryptic:
The model is a Necrosphinx/Dreadknight conversion as featured on a display on GDUK.
So no new model. And the BoW twitter account doesn't pretend it to be anything else.

Sheep wrote:They might have discovered the elusive "scale"

Kanluwen wrote:It means that it's a green stuff sculpt, most likely a master being worked on.

CthuluIsSpy wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:It means that it's a green stuff sculpt, most likely a master being worked on.

So they get a normal model and put GS on it?

MajorTom11 wrote:Wow... Within hours of GD all we have to talk about is whether the Cadians are sculpted from scratch of not...

Wow.

If it wasn't for FW, would there have been anything shown today at all???

I can't help but wonder what the point was...

MajorTom11 wrote:If it wasn't for FW, would there have been anything shown today at all???

FalkorsRaiders wrote:

MajorTom11 wrote:Wow... Within hours of GD all we have to talk about is whether the Cadians are sculpted from scratch of not...

Wow.

If it wasn't for FW, would there have been anything shown today at all???

I can't help but wonder what the point was...

Um, if you haven't noticed, there is Dreadfleet. /sarcasm

MajorTom11 wrote:Wow... Within hours of GD all we have to talk about is whether the Cadians are sculpted from scratch of not...

Wow.

If it wasn't for FW, would there have been anything shown today at all???

I can't help but wonder what the point was...

Kanluwen wrote:Fantasy's stuff was heavier in presence this year. That's not a bad thing.

Kanluwen wrote:Dreadfleet's new.

Kanluwen wrote:Rapier coming back is "eh". It's fun, but it also has always felt silly to me.

NAVARRO wrote:... thats the only thing that could one day lure me to pay for such event...

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Dreadfleet's new.

Stop it Kan. You know what I mean by 'new'.

Kanluwen wrote:Rapier coming back is "eh". It's fun, but it also has always felt silly to me.

Goody for you. For me it's a link back to the old days, and perfect for my AdMech army.

Kanluwen wrote:Set your bar so low that a snail would have a hard time getting over it and you're always happy!

Kanluwen wrote:You can have your Rapiers, I'll take the Tarantulas and Sabres.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

NAVARRO wrote:... thats the only thing that could one day lure me to pay for such event...

Then save the money and go to GD France instead. It's not that far from the UK, and their GD makes everyone else look like rank amateurs.

Kanluwen wrote:Set your bar so low that a snail would have a hard time getting over it and you're always happy!

Medium of Death wrote:MDS - If you go to GWs 'what's new today' there was somebody from mythic/bioware at the GD.

Dreadfleet and nothing else? Not everyone ...plays WHFB or its sub games

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:25 internet slaps to Navarro for calling a spring chicken like that chap old

That makes me positively ancient and if I could catch you I would deal out those internet slaps with my walking stick

But yup calm down sonny it's only a commercial.
OMG now I'm turning into Michael Bloody Winner

Last year BoW where there doing the interviews. Now it is a GW employee who hasn't even started to shave bumfluff off his cherubic cheeks yet.

SilverMK2 wrote:Was Dreadfleet actually on display?

Young at heart 52 yo non smoking vegetarian seeks good time gal for sex and maybe long term sex

Kanluwen wrote:

lord_blackfang wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:New Cadians

WHYYYYYYYY

Because Forge World likes Cadians.
I'm kind of surprised that they're doing what looks to be 'new' bodies for generic riflemen though. They've avoided that for a long time.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Some Necronews on BoW



Not sure it is the sort of news you hoped for MoD

Sir Harry Flashman, VC wrote:Speaking of Necron rage, what's up with the Tomb Stalker rules? 10pts increase and still the same rules...

Kroothawk wrote:

1hadhq wrote:A necroshpinx/dreadknight?

Just in case this remark was too cryptic:
The model is a Necrosphinx/Dreadknight conversion as featured on a display on GDUK.
So no new model. And the BoW twitter account doesn't pretend it to be anything else.

BeefCakeSoup wrote:Very poor showing.

GW needs to step its game up. FW models were okay... but a pretty lackluster showing overall. New Cadian models only slightly removes the urge to yawn and the fleet ship mini game is about as exciting as watching pro wrestling sober.

Events like this are a perfect oppurtunity to do something exciting for fans like unveil new sister models, necron announcements, something... ANYTHING!

At least the Tantalus looks good. About the only thing that remotely makes me care.

Kanluwen wrote:I will be highly amused if Games Day Australia sees the Necrons announced.

Howard A Treesong wrote:GW is just weird. Surely you should reward people with something at your own tradeshow?

Sin Eater wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:I will be highly amused if Games Day Australia sees the Necrons announced.

Considering how GW have treated Austrailia over the past couple of years it might be a nice 'We're sorry.'

When is GWOZ?

jojo_monkey_boy wrote:

Howard A Treesong wrote:GW is just weird. Surely you should reward people with something at your own tradeshow?

They did reward people. Attendees were able to participate in all kinds of events on the floor, like model building, they had the opportunity to buy pre-release content (forgeworld, etc.), they could meet the designers, they could show off their armies to other hobbyists, they could compete to win a painting trophy, etc.

Games Day is not a trade show. It's a games convention.

Slipstream wrote:I'm not arguing the point here but if Gamesday was solely meant to play games there would not be a Gamesday. They were selling their products,right? To all intents and purposes the reason for there being a Gamesday is to sell their product. ALL wargames shows/conventions whatever you call them ARE tradeshows. How would they make money if all they had were games to display? It is the norm for all traders to sell their stuff but also to garner interest for future lines. From what I've read GW failed. Why promote a game that is limited edition if it is already nearly(their words) sold out? It is strange that Forgeworld seem to have taken the lead when it comes to showing new upcoming lines.

Games Day is first and foremost a celebration of the Games Workshop hobby; a day to meet up with old friends and shoot the breeze; a chance to bump into a few of the famous faces from the pages of White Dwarf; an opportunity to re-tell tales of past glories and join the fray upon the many fields of battle that await you.

Hobbyists travel from near and far in order to join the many people who help make Games Day & Golden Demon what it is. Each year's show features a multitude of participation games that you can dive into and take part in; from quick-play skirmishes to full-on grand battles. And all the miniatures are provided. All you have to do is turn up and play!

jojo_monkey_boy wrote:There's nothing about featuring coming releases in there. It's all about hobby activities. You are disappointed because something that was never promised was not delivered on.

Noisy_Marine wrote:So when are we going to see a book of monsters for 40k?

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:Once upon a time they spoke about releases months in advance to build interest. Now nothing.

Platuan4th wrote:

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:Once upon a time they spoke about releases months in advance to build interest. Now nothing.

Once upon a time, they SOLD releases a month or two ahead of time, too.

Kanluwen wrote:Was it fairly crudely drawn, with a lot of it looking like Halo's ODSTs mixed with the Spartans?

Alpharius wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Was it fairly crudely drawn, with a lot of it looking like Halo's ODSTs mixed with the Spartans?

Kan's loves him some HALO...

Kanluwen wrote:

Alpharius wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Was it fairly crudely drawn, with a lot of it looking like Halo's ODSTs mixed with the Spartans?

Kan's loves him some HALO...

I do. The ODSTs in Reach and Halo 3 are some of the best 'generic future drop troop' designs I've ever seen.

warboss wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

Alpharius wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Was it fairly crudely drawn, with a lot of it looking like Halo's ODSTs mixed with the Spartans?

Kan's loves him some HALO...

I do. The ODSTs in Reach and Halo 3 are some of the best 'generic future drop troop' designs I've ever seen.

On that we agree. If I could play as the heavy weapon trooper from ODST (with the teeth on his helmet) in Reach Multiplayer, I'd be a very happy camper indeed. Its unfortunate that both releases of Haloclix have featured the Halo 1&2 ODST looks instead.

Platuan4th wrote:
Interestingly, I'm the opposite. The Halo 2 ODST are my fave of the ODST designs.

kitch102 wrote:Ok, what a day, I am more than knackered! Hope you all appreciate me writing this up instead of going to bed!

So I garnered very little in the way of concrete information throughout the day, staff were being a lot more tight lipped than expected regarding forth coming releases - all I got was the whole "we're working on a lot of things, keep an eye on WD" yadda yadda yadda. Interestingly, in the sermon thing that I attended, their head of studio said the secretive marketing strategy was just an experiment and if enough people didn't like it, they'd drop it. Needless to say that I put a written feedback slip over to the WNT guys, saying pretty much what everyone on Dakka has said - hobbyists budget for their purchases and if you let them know in advance of what they can get, you'll see happier customers and an increase in sales on launch day. Here's hoping that they'll listen, though obviously if you feel the same way, we'll all benefit from you writing in to tell them to stop being so bloody stupid.

I have an audio recording of the whole seminar, I'll get it up tomorrow night once my phone's recharged.

Here's what information I could garner, where it's a fact, I'll say so, otherwise take it with a pinch of salt.

- Necrons are not far off, though no specific launch date stated, no information on models etc. Some of what was said in the seminar hinted at a launch style similar to that of the DE (wave 1, wave 1.5 mini release, wave 2, followed by fillers etc). One interesting point was as soon as you could finish saying "Nec..." the staff shut up like a threatened murder witness. Could this mean that something is nearing fruition? Pure speculation on my part, but there was a MASSIVE lack of necron items aside from those brought by the staffs gaming tables, that would say to me that they're getting ready for an announcement. I quizzed one of the 'eavy metal guys on why the 'cron 'dex was no longer on the site and was given the "we're working on many..." lines (again), I think you 'cron players will be happy very soon but have no facts to back this up, just my gut feeling.

- The SoB WD codex was released purely as a stop gap to bring them in line with the grey knights release, they haven't neglected you SoB players and wanted to give you something as quickly as they could that was playable and relevant to the current game.

- Dreadfleet confirmed to have no expansions, ever. Big surprise there. It was getting a hell of a lot of love on the 10 trial tables they had set out though, I heard a few saying they were off to preorder as soon as they finished gaming.

- The DE Tantalus transports 16 miniatures. It comes with flickerfield, aethersails & 1 or 2 other things as standard. The scythes cause an instant hit on vehicles at (iirc) 1d6 AP. Models with a toughness value take 2d6 s6 hits. The pulse disintegrators are S5 AP2 H6 with a 36" range. FACT

- The DE were planned to be a big part of imperial 12 but, due to the scale of what they have / had planned for them, have been put ON HOLD. They MAY appear in IA13, and would have potential to span 2 books, in the same vain that the Badab War series did. However, the writer has stated that they ARE DEFINITELY ON HOLD, they may come back to them in the future though have been shelved for now. Would not be drawn on what they're being replaced by. FACT

- IA Apocalypse v2 contains information on the Tantalus, chapter specific contemptors and chaos contemptors. Lots of nice information there, with some stuff for Tau though I didn't recognise any of this stuff being new (note: I don't know the Tau range well enough, so take from that what you will) FACT

- The Chaos Dwarfs are not planned to get a GW / studio style codex, though they have a full army list, including characters, back story, magic items in the tamurkand book. The story is basically a dwarf lord promises to turn to chaos if they help him take over the empire, but instead of going the usual route through kislev () he works his way south west and attempts to head north in the empire through their southern borders. Bad things happen to bad stunties along the way.FACT

- The'res a brilliant looking MMO PVP game called Wrath of Heroes coming out, it's PC only but apparently doesn't need a high spec gaming pc to run. The bloke I was speaking to said he uses his on a standard word processing machine and it works fine. Pictures / video to follow, though you'll probably get more information from www.wrathofheroes.com. I'll hopefully have beta access soon so will feedback on this as I can. The game is aimed at the Dark Age of Camelot audience, and doesn't really compare to WoW[color=red]FACT[color]

- Andrew Kenrick, our wonderful WD editor himself, and one of his colleagues (Phil I think? Not sure, will find his picture and confirm) hinted at a possible Tyranid release. This will not be the fabled 2 wave, but will fill a gap in the codex. However he also said "but then it may not be a gap filler, but an altogether different model with it's rule set to be released in white dwarf". Nid players... don't read too much in to this, there aren't enough facts to get excited about, but equally I don't think someone in the know such as Mr AK would say sometihng's coming when it's not. Again, no dates were hinted at.

Answers to the questions I could get:

Plans to release plastic titans - certainly one day, they'd love to do that and to make them a bit more mainstream, but for the moment no plans. (Side note, GW seems to plan it's next releases by the number of staff saying "wouldn't it be cool if...", so if enough start saying this, then it could happen sooner. Don't hold your breath though.

Revitalising any of the specialist games - No, not at all, ever. The reason being that their staff have enough to remember with the 3 biggies, and they politely take the stance that if the customers are willing to champion the SG's in their area to drum up interest and get games going, then brilliant, but GW will not be offering any support aside from providing the models and rules.

Squ.... NO SQUATS. DO NOT ASK ABOUT SQUATS. This was actually said before questions were allowed, which inspired more laughter than I expected! They were talking about how they went back to the picture of the donorian clawed fiend in the 1998 rulebook 13 years later (present day) and decided to make a model; my plan was to lead that on to the squats as they're in the same picture, but alas, I baeten to it by a bloody powerpoint slide.

Extra equipment included with characters - restricted due to the cost to manufacture these, when they'd really be as and when required. The way they see it is that they already have a million bits out there that we as hobbyists can use, leaving them free to work on 'whats next'. Fair play to that I'd say.

I mentioned the rumour of SoB and Necrons being included in the 6ed box set and was told "that's the first time I've heard that rumour" (by the 'eavy metal guy in the seminar). I'd kind of take it that that's a no, otherwise I'd have been given that "we're always working on..." line again.

Moving away from the Q&A side, I hope you're ready to battered by pictures of the miniatures painted by a guy called Angelo Dicampo (or something like that), he won 4 golden daemons, a bronze AND the slayer sword. What a legend! Pretty sure I saw GW's intellectual property manager offering him a job, like that's a bloody surprise lol.

I also managed to get my boarding captain & relic contemptor (with HB & PF), COPUY OF PROMETHEUM SUN (!!!!) number 2379, signed by the man himself (twice, I didn't realise he'd already signed it lol) & a copy of the anthology, which I got signed by Nick Kyme & Gav Thorpe. Both damned nice guys too.

Also learnt that some of the authors have lists of people that have written in to them asking to be included in their books, apparently Dan Abnetts a big one for this, so if you fancy being a guardsman that gets killed 2 paragraphs after being introduced to a story get writing! I reckon I might! Guardsman Si Kitchener doesn't have much of a ring to it though lol.

So I garnered very little in the way of concrete information throughout the day, staff were being a lot more tight lipped than expected regarding forth coming releases - all I got was the whole "we're working on a lot of things, keep an eye on WD" yadda yadda yadda. Interestingly, in the sermon thing that I attended, their head of studio said the secretive marketing strategy was just an experiment and if enough people didn't like it, they'd drop it. Needless to say that I put a written feedback slip over to the WNT guys, saying pretty much what everyone on Dakka has said - hobbyists budget for their purchases and if you let them know in advance of what they can get, you'll see happier customers and an increase in sales on launch day. Here's hoping that they'll listen, though obviously if you feel the same way, we'll all benefit from you writing in to tell them to stop being so bloody stupid.

Pacific wrote:To be honest I think the only people complaining about there not being new stuff, or any kind of grand roll out, are those who didn't attend some of the Games Days in the past.
Really, from the comments I have read, it looks like GW have spent the minimum amount of money and effort possible. Certainly, it looks like it has come down to FW and BL to prop up the event.

So I garnered very little in the way of concrete information throughout the day, staff were being a lot more tight lipped than expected regarding forth coming releases - all I got was the whole "we're working on a lot of things, keep an eye on WD" yadda yadda yadda. Interestingly, in the sermon thing that I attended, their head of studio said the secretive marketing strategy was just an experiment and if enough people didn't like it, they'd drop it. Needless to say that I put a written feedback slip over to the WNT guys, saying pretty much what everyone on Dakka has said - hobbyists budget for their purchases and if you let them know in advance of what they can get, you'll see happier customers and an increase in sales on launch day. Here's hoping that they'll listen, though obviously if you feel the same way, we'll all benefit from you writing in to tell them to stop being so bloody stupid.

This is interesting. It seems like that policy is for the most part unpopular, wonder if it might be worthwhile putting together some kind of standard letter for people to print off, sign and then send to GW? Interesting from Jes Goodwin's comments that GW is more aware of the likes of Dakka now and the internet in general, I wonder how much of that is the case with the suits at the top though?

Sidstyler wrote:Last year we had Dark Eldar, this year...a couple of old Eldar/Cadian greens that'll never get released? lol...

Ascalam wrote:If they want a proper WAAAAGGGH! they should release a bit more ork stuff.
..

jojo_monkey_boy wrote:

Howard A Treesong wrote:GW is just weird. Surely you should reward people with something at your own tradeshow?

They did reward people. Attendees were able to participate in all kinds of events on the floor, like model building, they had the opportunity to buy pre-release content (forgeworld, etc.), they could meet the designers, they could show off their armies to other hobbyists, they could compete to win a painting trophy, etc.

Games Day is not a trade show. It's a games convention.

Ascalam wrote:Otherwise we'll keep on waiting, fuming and tapping our fingers, like we have for the last decade

Let's face it, if you've played Necrons for more than a year of two, and haven't given them up, you're stubborn enough to keep hanging on

army310 wrote:They mite be waiting to make some big release for the Australia games day.

Padre wrote:

army310 wrote:They mite be waiting to make some big release for the Australia games day.

You are joking, right?

Or did my sarcasm detector fail to activate on reading your post?

Australia gets one thing from GW... SHAFTED.

Padre^.

No dude they mite try to do this one right by you guys.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:

No dude they mite try to do this one right by you guys.

Sounds more like rubbing salt in the wound.

It would be very patronising and rather tactless imho so expect to see it happen

Ascalam wrote:IOM players are often too uptight to waagh....beneath their dignity or something like that.. Eldar too

Sidstyler wrote:
I think it's less to do with being "uptight" and more to do with not being 12 years old like GW seems to think. Playing the game is bad enough, I'd rather not start acting like the stereotypical fat, odorous manchild on top of that.

MajorTom11 wrote:Games Day may not be a trade show, but our expectations were/are based on decades of precedent! 10 years ago, hell, even 2-3 years ago, GW would have def shown new army/upcoming codex material. That is how they used to roll.

So, I politely object to the idea that there is no reason we should have expected something a bit more substantial today...

jojo_monkey_boy wrote:Why do you guys even bother?

Firstly, you didn't even pay to attend the convention. You are sitting on the internet complaining about something that you didn't even participate in.

Secondly, the common sentiment here seems to be that expectations of showcasing future releases weren't met by the event. This is what GW had to say about Games Day:

Games Day is first and foremost a celebration of the Games Workshop hobby; a day to meet up with old friends and shoot the breeze; a chance to bump into a few of the famous faces from the pages of White Dwarf; an opportunity to re-tell tales of past glories and join the fray upon the many fields of battle that await you.

Hobbyists travel from near and far in order to join the many people who help make Games Day & Golden Demon what it is. Each year's show features a multitude of participation games that you can dive into and take part in; from quick-play skirmishes to full-on grand battles. And all the miniatures are provided. All you have to do is turn up and play!

There's nothing about featuring coming releases in there. It's all about hobby activities. You are disappointed because something that was never promised was not delivered on.

You can call it a trade show and define that however you want, but it seems like it was pretty clear what was definitely going to be offered by the event.

Maybe next year you should put your money where your mouth is and just save the admissions fee...

Still kudos to the staff there who kept things motoring along, even when the child, frustrated by the performance of his Fire Warriors decided to headbutt the display knocking a chunk out of it and, seemingly himself.

IA12 is not DE. Its a prison asteroid, penal guard, minotaur marines and Tzeentch chaos

jojo_monkey_boy wrote:

Firstly, you didn't even pay to attend the convention. You are sitting on the internet complaining about something that you didn't even participate in.

reds8n wrote:.. might be time to look at some Dakka Dakka d10 next time perhaps...

Manchu wrote:@Samus: I think the USA is a bit of an anomaly as far as 40k being more popular (among adults, at least) than Fantasy. Anyone feel free to jump in and correct me on this score.

Sadly, its looking like Gamesdays are becoming the "White Dwarf" of events - oversized, glossy, and ultimately empty and uninspiring.

Platuan4th wrote:

reds8n wrote:.. might be time to look at some Dakka Dakka d10 next time perhaps...

I'd re-up my DCM for that.

Not just D10's(which I have an unhealthy love for), I'd be on board for at least 3 sets of everything(D20, D4, D8, D12, etc.). I love my Dakka D6's and they're feared by my group.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Manchu wrote:@Samus: I think the USA is a bit of an anomaly as far as 40k being more popular (among adults, at least) than Fantasy. Anyone feel free to jump in and correct me on this score.

I've heard there are more Fantasy player by percentage in Europe and other parts of the world, but even there, 40K is more popular(or so I hear), even among adults.

But I agree in spirit with you, Manchu. Samus, if GW is spending time on it, a significant portion of people are playing it(Fantasy).

Medium of Death wrote:Some interesting reading from a Dakka Discussions thread.

Courtesy of kitch102

From his thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/398983.page

kitch102 wrote:
- Andrew Kenrick, our wonderful WD editor himself, and one of his colleagues (Phil I think? Not sure, will find his picture and confirm) hinted at a possible Tyranid release. This will not be the fabled 2 wave, but will fill a gap in the codex. However he also said "but then it may not be a gap filler, but an altogether different model with it's rule set to be released in white dwarf". Nid players... don't read too much in to this, there aren't enough facts to get excited about, but equally I don't think someone in the know such as Mr AK would say sometihng's coming when it's not. Again, no dates were hinted at.

whoadirty wrote:No one else notice this little bit? I hope it is wrong because it makes no sense for GW to be producing an entirely new Tyranid unit when there are a bunch of much needed Tyranids models from the codex not even in production.

aka_mythos wrote:I heard one person interpret it as a model for a unit in the codex that possibly includes a new variant. I think of a hypothetical Tervigon or Harpy model and both would be big enough undertakings that they'd warrant having more than one variant in a single kit... yet both are pretty stand alone. Consider if GW said "we'd like to do a harpy but its only worth it if we we produce this "harpivore*" concept as well"... would you fault them then?-I don't think so. Given the number of flyers I'm leaning towards a flyer.

Manchu wrote:@Samus: I think the USA is a bit of an anomaly as far as 40k being more popular (among adults, at least) than Fantasy. Anyone feel free to jump in and correct me on this score.

Samus_aran115 wrote:What a boring Games Day. At least for 40k players. Literally none of this even mildly excited me.

Don't 40k players make up like. Over half of GW's customers? You'd think they stop fooling around with all this fantasy garbage no one has any time for. Dreadfleet is doomed to fail. Instead of creating new specialist games, they should support older ones that people actually have product for :/

Ulthwé Guardian from BoLS wrote:I also saw the rules for the Eldar Phoenix Lord, it seemed to be a she and carries a S7 ranged weapon called the Spear of Sunlight I believe. She had an extensive background that looked like a very interesting read.
(...)
1 photo I took at Games Day UK.

They look like possible Dark Eldar prototypes.

In addition I did take a glimpse at the Imperial Armour 11 and noticed the rules for a Mymeara Farseer that allows you to use additional Heavy support choice.

Also the squad size of Shadow Spectre squad had been increased to 6. No longer will you have to discard that loose squad member if you buy an Exarch! Also, Shadow Spectres I believe are now a fast attack choice.

Fantomex from BoLS wrote:Having had a chat to a few FW designers and gone to a couple of design seminars, I asked many questions, and the following is what I remember:

GW are ok with the FW team doing a proper Pre-Heresy set of books, and apparently the more positive feedback given about the current armours and dreadnoughts, the more likely this would come out sooner rather than later.

It was spoken of by the FW guys as more of a foregone conclusion than an uncertainty. I figure they know what a huge seller it would be..

Primarchs were mentioned (and brought up by the designers, not me..), but not necessarily to be modeled, more likely books would deal with Astartes and the varied Crusade Fleets.

FW will end up making more Pre-Heresy items, including more vehicles & Terminator Armours.
Custodes and jetbikes not mentioned, but I'd assume it wouldn't be much of a stretch..

As much as they intend to get it all out, apparently their schedule is very fluid, and even on current projects there is a great amount of flexibility and change between sculpts and tasks.
Lots of different design team members have worked on different versions of the Contemptor since the "blank" sculpt, so I was told.


I also asked whether they would be doing any whole FW armies for 40k, in the way that Warhammer Forge now has the Chaos Dwarfs.

As the rumour mill has occasionally bubbled up, Adeptus Mechanicus, I queried? Both designers present raised an eyebrow and grinned, and said it is certainly a point of interest in the studio..
Again, they said such a thing would arrive at a free point in their schedule, and that it remains quite full at the moment.

The good thing I suppose is that they are interested, and would like to create full 40k supplementary armies along those ideas. I dare say they seem very committed to making more stuff on a regular basis.

To satisfy my own personal interests I asked if there would be anything more for Iron Hands players..
My answer? Same as everything else, in time! Apparently they'd be a big choice for Pre-Heresy stuff, and they'd look at doing Iron Hands dreadnoughts, including a Contemptor.
They'd likely get the shoulderpads and other parts, like bionics.

The way to get what you want? Email, drop suggestions on Facebook, the usual kinda ways. They look interested in taking suggestions, apparently some of their big things have come from single sentences and off-the-cuff ideas.

Also, the Squats really are very dead.
They may get killed by the Tyranids, but during the Great Crusade, they're all on holiday.
Yep.

So, yeah, I got a good few bits that may mean nothing for ages! Woo!

eldargal wrote:FW is making Thousand Sons kits but they won't be with IA12 apparently, they're making a new Tzeentch warband for the book.

BFeeder wrote:Whilst it's nothing major I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the Minotaur Land Raider and Rhino doors FW had on display yesterday (may have had something to do with them sharing the same cabinet as Bran Redmaw).

t-tauri wrote:As far as I'm aware nothing was ruled out and Tony explicitly said that they hadn't completely finished the plotline so what's listed as in the book could change. If you want the Thousand Sons then start emailing and putting it on the "What would you like next?" bit of the order form. Certainly what he mentioned was a Tzeentch cult but I think Thousand Sons pulling the strings wouldn't be too much of a stretch.

BrassScorpion wrote:...the company itself and the way they are behaving toward their customers the past couple years is really dampening my enthusiasm and excitement level. Needless to say, this not only negatively impacts what I'm doing with the hobby these days, but what and how much I buy as well.

catharsix wrote:

Samus_aran115 wrote:What a boring Games Day. At least for 40k players. Literally none of this even mildly excited me.

Don't 40k players make up like. Over half of GW's customers? You'd think they stop fooling around with all this fantasy garbage no one has any time for. Dreadfleet is doomed to fail. Instead of creating new specialist games, they should support older ones that people actually have product for :/

Right on! Or, how about re-releasing a Specialist Game that people have been wanting to actually play! I have never, not one single time EVER, seen anyone agitating for a return to Man o' War (the precursor to Dreadfleet. You've probably never heard of it, because no one ever talks about it, laments its loss, is looking to buy its minis, etc. I have seen plenty of people, on the other hand, repeatedly and persistently ask for GW to produce Battlefleet Gothic again, as well as Epic 40K and Necromunda (and even occasionally Gorkamorka).

Cerebrium wrote:Games Day 2011: Buy Dreadfleet! Please. Please buy Dreadfleet.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:

Still kudos to the staff there who kept things motoring along, even when the child, frustrated by the performance of his Fire Warriors decided to headbutt the display knocking a chunk out of it and, seemingly himself.

Now seeing that had to be worth the entrance fee!

Flashman wrote:

Cerebrium wrote:Games Day 2011: Buy Dreadfleet! Please. Please buy Dreadfleet.

"Oh wait, you already have bought Dreadfleet. Erm... well thanks for coming. Why not pick up last month's White Dwarf to read on the way home?"

Mr Mystery wrote:

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:

Still kudos to the staff there who kept things motoring along, even when the child, frustrated by the performance of his Fire Warriors decided to headbutt the display knocking a chunk out of it and, seemingly himself.

Now seeing that had to be worth the entrance fee!

I helped build that one!

Well, I held a bit of wood whilst the guy I shared a room with on the management course secured it with a screw. Then I wandered off up the pub. But it counts!

Definitely going in for Armies On Parade next year. If for no other reason than it's a good excuse to flex my hobby muscles and make things pretty!

To all Games Day 2011 customers,

It was great to see you all on Sunday at what proved to be our busiest Golden Demon and Games Day in quite a few years. The gaming tables, hobby areas and displays were packed all day, paricularly the Dreadfleet demo games and our staff have fed back how much they enjoyed talking with you throughout the day. We hope you enjoyed it too.

It was good to see how popular some of the new activities were, such as the Masterclass demonstrations and Armies on Parade, both of which we will run again next year. We will also continue to show more of the Golden Demon entries on the big screens, which again proved popular. As always the reviews are already under way to build on what worked well and look at what we can do better.

On the latter, I'd like to apologise to those customers who had to queue for the sales stands in the morning. I'm afraid we were unable to cope with the sheer volume of people wanting the new Warhammer Forge, Forgeworld and Black Library releases. Lessons have been learnt and we will ensure that next year we are better prepared in the sales area so that any queuing is kept to a minimum. I'd like to thank you all for your patience while we sorted this out and I cannot speak highly enough of the behaviour of those in the queue during this time. You were amazing. Thank you.

Anyway I hope you all returned home safely and enjoyed sharing your purchases and stories with your friends and families. Keep your eyes posted on the Games Workshop website and your local Hobby Centre Facebook site for more pictures and videos from the day.

Until next year.

Mark Wells
CEO

Mr Mystery wrote:Oh yeah, and if you manage to get into a Seminar, please please please don't squander the limited Q&A time by asking about prices etc. You're talking to the Design Studio. The guys who make the models and write the rules. Not those responsible for the pricing

reds8n wrote:Message on Facebook a wee while ago

...
On the latter, I'd like to apologise to those customers who had to queue for the sales stands in the morning. I'm afraid we were unable to cope with the sheer volume of people wanting the new Warhammer Forge, Forgeworld and Black Library releases. Lessons have been learnt and we will ensure that next year we are better prepared in the sales area so that any queuing is kept to a minimum....

On the latter, I'd like to apologise to those customers who had to queue for the sales stands in the morning. I'm afraid we were unable to cope with the sheer volume of people wanting the new Warhammer Forge, Forgeworld and Black Library releases. Lessons have been learnt and we will ensure that next year we are better prepared in the sales area so that any queuing is kept to a minimum. I'd like to thank you all for your patience while we sorted this out and I cannot speak highly enough of the behaviour of those in the queue during this time. You were amazing. Thank you.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:This may be a silly question but is it absolutely necessary to get stuff from FW on Games Day?

Only advantage I can see, given the hassle of standing in a queue when you could be doing something better at a show, is to save on postage.

Kroothawk wrote:

Mr Mystery wrote:Oh yeah, and if you manage to get into a Seminar, please please please don't squander the limited Q&A time by asking about prices etc. You're talking to the Design Studio. The guys who make the models and write the rules. Not those responsible for the pricing

Oh, and if you manage to get into a Seminar, please don't squander the limited Q&A time by asking about future releases. GW seminars are to celebrate the past, not to get a glimpse of the future

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Thanks
Wasn't aware of the discount nor GD only models

Still I would rather be doing something else myself
I hope no one finally got to get served only to find that everything on their shopping list had already sold out!
Cheese shop sketch would no longer be funny

notprop wrote:Sorry I was unclear in my post, they usually charge 10% p&p which you obviously don't that to pay to collect there or buy from the stand, rather than a discount.

I was expecting some people to pick up at least some of this, but as no-one has, I thought I'd throw it out there. I didn't post straight away due to having persuaded the wife into going to Games Day by taking her to the Hilton across the way, and meandering home pretty slowly over a course of days afterwards! First time posting, so if I've just missed an old thread that meant it was old news, apologies...

Where things are in quotes, some paraphrasing may be happening - its been a few days since this was all said and I wasn't transcribing everything!

Second Forgeworld Seminar:

- I got the impression that while they would be doing more work on bits of Heresy era stuff, they wouldn't necessarily do anything Heresy _specific_ (IE: Anything that dates from the Heresy that hasn't survived to the 41st Millennium). This is just an impression, as I don't recall the exact wording - there was a lot of banter around things.

- The vote on the Macharius Omega was held in the second seminar as well, and most people didn't like the name either.

- When asked why Forgeworld didn't do more Necron stuff, Tony said that given the age of the Codex, it was probably better for them to wait until after a new codex was released...

- They will be revisiting old scenery products, possibly including the Fortress Walls, with the new hollow resin technique they are using, and intend to do more battle board sections as well as smaller pieces. These pieces should be significantly cheaper as the new technique uses less resin.

- Mark 1 Thunder Armour. Its really weird looking, and Tony wasn't sure it would able to be compatible with the other marks of power armour. Possibly something for the future, but nothing definite.

- Would they do books of tanks and background without the supporting miniatures? Probably not - because everyone would then be upset they couldn't have the miniatures.

- Monstrous Arcana would have rules to use the monsters for both Storm of Magic and normal games of Warhammer.

The definite impression I got was that Tony was being pretty up front about how Forgeworld operates. They have a limited number of person hours available to make stuff, and there is a vast ton of stuff they would love to do - from Ad Mech to scenery to Titans... Almost everything he was asked about making got a pretty clear answer - not in terms of _when_ but of how they would make the decision about when to do it, based on resourcing, demand and time constraints.

There was also some interesting commentary on how Games Workshop / Forgeworld make liaise about what Forge World is working on. Tony was pretty adamant he wasn't dictated to by the Design Studio, and that his office was only a door or so away from the chap on the GW end he needed to liaise with, so they communicated pretty regularly about stuff.

Design Studio Seminar (4):

Wade Pryce, the Studio Communications Manager, did most of the talking. Jervis, the WD Editor, and one of the hobby chaps were the three people on the panel.

I was desperately disappointed with the quality of the questions. With Wade making it absolutely clear that the seminar was not about upcoming releases and questions about upcoming stuff would not be answered . . . about half the questions were about upcoming releases. Of the rest of the questions, most were confrontational "Is GW about to mess us about?" type questions, when there was a really good opportunity to try and understand _why_ GW is making the decisions they are.

So, what was said that hasn't been reported elsewhere?

- The "reason" why Stormraven Gunships are Blood Angels and Grey Knights only is because . . . that's what the background GW have written says. I suspect most people tuned out at this point, but what was said next was interesting. More or less: "That's not to say that other Chapters don't have other gunships. I can tell you now that they do. We just haven't written about them yet."
(So, in short: we didn't want to backdate Stormravens into other Chapters, but given everyone is screaming for gunships, we aren't averse to putting new types of gunships into other Chapters...)

- Wade Pryce got as close to an apology about Finecast as I've heard without saying "sorry". He said that he (and GW) accepted that the quality of the Finecast models at the start had not been great, but that he was pretty confident it was now sorted. He also was very clear that if you were not happy about something you should contact GW directly about it, as they do listen to feedback. This was repeated on quite a few controversial things throughout the seminar, so I'm willing to see if his money is where his mouth is on that one and will be dropping him a line in the near future.

- Release schedules and advanced information: You've heard this spiel by now. But he did say up front "This is an experiment. If everyone hates it, we'll change back. Tell us if you don't like it." But effectively: "We want everyone to find out at the same time, either through White Dwarf, or through the Advanced Order section of our website."

- White Dwarf subscription deliveries. They said that it was not intended for people to get their White Dwarf a week after everyone else - but that no-one should be getting it early. The reason for this was to match the desire to control information about releases. This meant that as the vagaries of the postal service can't be relied on, it was likely that for the near future at least, people were not going to be getting their White Dwarf on the day...
However: He did say that he didn't like that, and wanted to change it, but while they were using outsourced distributors (can back this up, my letter about delayed release of White Dwarf this month had writing on it saying that it was by some big magazine distribution company), they weren't able to do that - but that was something they were looking at fixing.

- When discussing the hard backed Warhammer Armies books, he mentioned that he'd been asked when that would be done for 40K. His response? "Well, if I were you, I'd notice that we started doing full colour, hard backed army books after we'd done a full colour Warhammer core rulebook. So I'd be looking out for hardbacked codexes after we published a new, full colour 40K rulebook..."
(Seriously, why has no-one picked up on this comment before? Have I just missed someone posting on this?)

- Jervis, on why they developed Dreadfleet: "Because I don't _just_ want to be doing old stuff all the time. I want to do new, cool, and exciting things. I want to do stuff that means in five or ten years time, people are bugging me about 'Why don't you redo Dreadfleet?' in the same way that you do about Blood Bowl, Necromunda or Man o war."

- The Squats are a running joke at these seminars, it seems. They're dead, live with it.
;-)

- On specialist games: "Its not fair on our staff to expect them to be experts in every game they do. Particularly with the one man stores, we expect them to be experts in Warhammer, 40K and Lord of the Rings. That's a lot of stuff for them to know. These games have a strong following in gaming clubs and similar, and we support them by making most of the rules available as free downloads, and keeping the old models available."
(Honestly, if he'd just said "Shelf space", I'd have been OK with it.)

- When asked about whether or not any old models would no longer be available when GW moved over entirely to Finecast, they stated that they intended to keep on making the classic models they are doing, and they even sometimes brought old models back into production, such as with the Hall of Fame miniatures. In particular, if they were to have another old Hall of Fame miniature voted in that wasn't currently available, it would almost certainly be made available in Finecast. Things drop off the production map if no-one ever buys them, rather than because of a move over to Finecast.

That is now pretty much all I can recall on Games Day, but I recall anything else, I will post it up!

"Well, if I were you, I'd notice that we started doing full colour, hard backed army books after we'd done a full colour Warhammer core rulebook. So I'd be looking out for hardbacked codexes after we published a new, full colour 40K rulebook..."

notprop wrote:Sorry I was unclear in my post, they usually charge 10% p&p which you obviously don't that to pay to collect there or buy from the stand, rather than a discount.

"Well, if I were you, I'd notice that we started doing full colour, hard backed army books after we'd done a full colour Warhammer core rulebook. So I'd be looking out for hardbacked codexes after we published a new, full colour 40K rulebook..."

Sidstyler wrote:

"Well, if I were you, I'd notice that we started doing full colour, hard backed army books after we'd done a full colour Warhammer core rulebook. So I'd be looking out for hardbacked codexes after we published a new, full colour 40K rulebook..."

So in other words, the new 40k rulebook will also be $80 and every codex will be over $40, just like I suspected. Being charged extra for a stupid little bonus we should have been getting anyway at the prices we were paying.

nosferatu1001 wrote:I can g'tee you that the profit margins on any product sold in GW stores is far less than you expect it to be.

Retail is expensive.

BarBoBot wrote:

nosferatu1001 wrote:I can g'tee you that the profit margins on any product sold in GW stores is far less than you expect it to be.

Retail is expensive.

At the end of the day, a codex is just 50 sheets of 11x17 paper, a cover and some ink. There is no hidden costs involved in making a 100 page book.

Like I said before, the cost of a codex is mainly in the rules we are buying, not the actual materials used to make it. GW is a large company, so of course they have costs in other areas ( designers, mold costs etc.) that they recoup with sales from the books and models, but lets be real... they ARE making money, and plenty of profit.

- On specialist games: "Its not fair on our staff to expect them to be experts in every game they do.

MajorTom11 wrote:Is there seriously absolutely nothing new from GD Aus???

MajorTom11 wrote:I thought that they may have actually shown Necrons to the Aussies to make up for years of woeful treatment... wishful thinking...

Uktabi wrote: Are they ever gunna get smart and give digital copies with these books.

Another thing that was answered by me is that FW have updated all they can from "thier" books (IA)

The FW models in the Apoc books (including Reload) are in GW's hands. So even though they know the Heirphant needs updating they can't do anything.

They also mentioned one day just comining Apoc 1, 2 and most of reloaded into one massive book

MajorTom11 wrote:Is there seriously absolutely nothing new from GD Aus???

BarBoBot wrote:

nosferatu1001 wrote:I can g'tee you that the profit margins on any product sold in GW stores is far less than you expect it to be.

Retail is expensive.

At the end of the day, a codex is just 50 sheets of 11x17 paper, a cover and some ink. There is no hidden costs involved in making a 100 page book.

Like I said before, the cost of a codex is mainly in the rules we are buying, not the actual materials used to make it. GW is a large company, so of course they have costs in other areas ( designers, mold costs etc.) that they recoup with sales from the books and models, but lets be real... they ARE making money, and plenty of profit.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Of course it has margins, it's a BOOK

nosferatu1001 wrote:

BarBoBot wrote:

nosferatu1001 wrote:I can g'tee you that the profit margins on any product sold in GW stores is far less than you expect it to be.

Retail is expensive.

At the end of the day, a codex is just 50 sheets of 11x17 paper, a cover and some ink. There is no hidden costs involved in making a 100 page book.

Like I said before, the cost of a codex is mainly in the rules we are buying, not the actual materials used to make it. GW is a large company, so of course they have costs in other areas ( designers, mold costs etc.) that they recoup with sales from the books and models, but lets be real... they ARE making money, and plenty of profit.

Did I say there were hidden costs in making it? No

I said that the profit MARGINS on any product sold in GW STORES is less than you expect it to be. CoS /= production costs alone.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Of course it has margins, it's a BOOK

GD UK wasn't good enough for Necron news, what did you expect knowing GW's appreciation for the ROW?

Kroothawk wrote:Small tidbit on the FW Apocalypse book, by Dr. Love over at BoLS:

Another thing that was answered by me is that FW have updated all they can from "thier" books (IA)

The FW models in the Apoc books (including Reload) are in GW's hands. So even though they know the Heirphant needs updating they can't do anything.

H.B.M.C. wrote:If Necrons are due in November (and they always release things on Saturday) then the earliest we'll see something is the 22nd of this month.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Keep in mind though, they could be releasing them for the last week of October, which means we'll find out on Saturday the 15th. Or even the 22nd, in which case we'll find out this Saturday.

We just don't know.

H.B.M.C. wrote:You should've done the GW thing and not gone to the doctor before 2 weeks before the due date. Makes things more exciting.