yeah,
Just found these on iTunes. Two New digital only battle missions for Chaos Space Marines and the Dark Angels.
These are the same format as Altars of War - Space Marines
Each digital book costs £4.99

update:
I I bought all three Altars of War.
The following is a quick review based on my initial thoughts.
I look forward to trying these missions out!

my review uses images and diagrams that are the Copyright of GW.
Used without permission with Sufficient acknowledgment for the purpose of review and critisim.
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-other/c-exception/c-exception-acknowledge.htm


+++
Altar of War - Space Marines
Published: 06 August 2012

Altar of War - Space Marines
- 26 pages containing 6 battle missions.

SM description wrote:Altar of War missions provide all the information required to play games inspired by the battlefield tactics of the different Warhammer 40,000 armies. This book contains six brand-new missions which you can use instead of the Eternal War missions in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook if you or your opponent has a Space Marine army, allowing you to fight the daring lightning assaults, surprise planetfall attacks and heroic last stands of the Emperor’s Space Marines.

Photos
Basic Mission break down:
1) Two objectives one in the middle and one in the enemy deployment zone. All Spacemarine infantry units counts as scoring.
2) Moddified VP game enemy group in the middle and Space Marines come in from all angles from reserves.
3) Single objective in the middle and Space Marines must hold it.
4) Moddified VP - HQs are more valuable.
5) Race for the Objectives game, only fast attack start on the board. vehicles (and squads in transports) can arrive from turn 1, everything else arrives from reserve as normal.
6) Objective game, Half the Space Marines must be held in reserve, but they all arrive together.

And a Wonderful spread of deployment Maps


A lovely little package of battle missions.
Exactly what your expecting when you pay your £5
5/5 Stars


+++
Altar of War - Dark Angels
Published: 02 February 2013

Altar of War - Dark Angels
- 26 pages containing 6 battle missions.

DA description wrote:Altar of War missions provide all the information required to play games inspired by the battlefield tactics of the
different Warhammer 40,000 armies. This book contains six brand-new missions which you can use instead of the
Eternal War missions in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook if you or your opponent has a Dark Angels army, allowing
you to hunt the Fallen – traitors of the Chapter’s ancient past – or unleash the elite Deathwing and Ravenwing on
your foes in all their devastating glory.

Photos
Basic Mission break down:
1) Objectives in the enemys deployment zone and the Dark Angels want them.
2) Objectives. The enemy sets up with hidden deployment rules. Only ravenwing and scouts start on the board.
3) Objectives. Ravenwing and Deathwing start in reserve, dark angels lose points for calling them early and gain points for calling them in late in the game.
4) Objectives. Enemy deploy in the middle. Dark angels all go into a modified stealthy reserve.
5) Objectives in the Dark Angel deployment zone. Dark angels only deploy troops plus D3 units at start of the game.
6) reroll mission 1-5 and play that - plus a random independant character is a member of the fallen or a agent of the fallen worth extra VP to both armies..

A batch of very similar deployment Maps...

They are all top to bottom with a varying ammounts of no-mans land in the middle... bland.

A repetitive package of standard objective based battle missions.
But the implementation of Ravenwing and Deathwing in missions are done very well.
I especially like mission 6 it's very flavourful as it depicts the dark angels discovering info on / a member of the fallen while engaged on another mission.
Not bad for your £5
4/5 Stars


+++
Altar of War - Chaos Space Marines
Published: 02 February 2013

Altar of War - Chaos Space Marines
- 28 pages containing 6 battle missions.

CSM description wrote:Altar of War missions provide all the information required to play games inspired by the battlefield tactics of the
different Warhammer 40,000 armies. This book contains six brand-new missions which you can use instead of the
Eternal War missions in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook if you or your opponent has a Chaos Space Marines army,
allowing you to wage wars of vengeance, launch a dreaded Black Crusade, or simply unleash indiscriminate
carnage on your unsuspecting foes.

Photos

Basic Mission break down:
1) Accumlitive Objective mission. Like Control modes in FPSs you score points for every turn your holding an objective.
2) Victory Points, all non vehicles are 'without number.' and return to play when dead and can be killed again.
3) Objectives. All terrain is either on fire or smoking so they block all LOS plus are either dangerous or proving +1 cover.
4) Relic varient.
5) Victory Points, 1 (or more) random unit is more valuable.
6) Modified objectives. Chaos player rolls three time on a table for his secondary objectives.

And a copy paste disappointment of deployment Maps

Map 1,3 and 5 are the same and 2,4 and 6 are the same... seems like GW put in no effort in here.

When I pay my £5 I expect a little bit more divergence in deployment zones. The maps are very dissapointing!
The Battle Missions are great.
4/5 Stars

Panic...

Sounds like the Space Marine iPad product that came out last year. It has some battle missions in it, too.

Interesting... are these "opponent permission" type things like the battle missions book from last edition? I didn't see anything mentioned in the pics you posted but maybe it's lurking somewhere inside.

They're optional battle missions.

Hmmm...this looks surprisingly good. May have to buy these during my lunch hour.

Interesting that we didn't hear anything about these in the rumor mill. Not surprising- they probably threw these together in a day. But interesting still.

"Hey loyal Warhammer fans! Remember the stuff that used to make WD interesting? Well, we thought you'd much prefer to pay for it separately. Enjoy!"

 Flashman wrote:
"Hey loyal Warhammer fans! Remember the stuff that used to make WD interesting? Well, we thought you'd much prefer to pay for it separately. Enjoy!"

On one hand, it's only $5, available in unlimited quantities, and online. On the other hand, iPad only? Seriously, that's just overdesigning it. I guess it lowers piracy, even though their potential market shrinks exponentially.

Oh well, since nobody I know bought into the Apple craze, I suppose I won't know any of the content herein. That's just too bad, GW might've gotten my money on this.

This is the sort of price I'd pay for their Army books. Heck, you could triple it and I'd still be interested, sort of.

For what it is, though. I agree with Flashman, this is just something they could have put in White Dwarf to have made it worth buying!

 Flashman wrote:
"Hey loyal Warhammer fans! Remember the stuff that used to make WD interesting? Well, we thought you'd much prefer to pay for it separately. Enjoy!"

This really... Every other miniature company in the known world would have thrown this as free content in their hobby magazine... seems like GW actually has to work to make WD just as bad as it currently is...

Yeah, this is really something meant for WD and then later on online free pdfs.....

But GW gunna GW.

yeah,
OP editted alot to fix content links and formatting...

uberjoras wrote:Interesting that we didn't hear anything about these in the rumor mill. Not surprising- they probably threw these together in a day. But interesting still.

I guess because they are less than 30pages they had a small development time and did't require going to the printers, so the development team was quite small.

Flashman wrote:"Hey loyal Warhammer fans! Remember the stuff that used to make WD interesting? Well, we thought you'd much prefer to pay for it separately. Enjoy!"

Your comments would be more valid if you directed them at the Call to Arms series.
I don't remember ever getting 6 army specific missions in WD.

Samurai_Eduh wrote:Hmmm...this looks surprisingly good. May have to buy these during my lunch hour.

I'm stuck at work, when I get home I'm gonna buy the CSM one and if it's good buy the Dark angels one too.

kronk wrote:Sounds like the Space Marine iPad product that came out last year. It has some battle missions in it, too.

The space marine heros one. I don't think it had any battle missions in it? Altar of War - Space Marines!

Panic...

@ Panic - Perhaps not six all at once, but this sort of thing is certainly what you used to buy WD for. Each to their own anyway. Genuinely hope your purchase

PhantomViper wrote:
Every other miniature company in the known world would have thrown this as free content in their hobby magazine... seems like GW actually has to work to make WD just as bad as it currently is...

Not sure if you guys are following the trends at all, but print media like magazines and newspapers are getting their asses handed to them by digital media alternatives. Like the intarwebs. And tablet content. Not sure why GW and WD would be any less affected than other niche magazines.

I for one welcome our new digital overlords!

 AT wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:
Every other miniature company in the known world would have thrown this as free content in their hobby magazine... seems like GW actually has to work to make WD just as bad as it currently is...

Not sure if you guys are following the trends at all, but print media like magazines and newspapers are getting their asses handed to them by digital media alternatives. Like the intarwebs. And tablet content. Not sure why GW and WD would be any less affected than other niche magazines.

I for one welcome our new digital overlords!

Of course you do! Who wouldn't like this wonderful opportunity to pay for stuff that others get for free!

83p per mission? Ouch.

If GW 'shifts the market' by selling these sorts of thing rather than giving them away for free, why not enter that market? Why not self publish missions into the iBook store? Individuals could do it, or a "Dakka Dakka Collected Missions Book" could be made. Presumably you could include a lot of detail without treading on GW's IP toes, or if there was a risk of that you could aim to make them more generic so they could be used across a variety of gaming systems.

I'd do it myself, but I'm up to my eyeballs in projects already.

 Panic wrote:

kronk wrote:Sounds like the Space Marine iPad product that came out last year. It has some battle missions in it, too.

The space marine heros one.
I don't think it had any battle missions in it?

Altar of War: Space Marines was its name.

Edit: Altar, not alter...

Only Games Workshop could release DLC for a non-computer game!

yeah,

 kronk wrote:
Alter of War: Space Marines was its name.

cool found it and added it to the list up top!

Splog wrote:
... Why not self publish missions into the iBook store? Individuals could do it, or a "Dakka Dakka Collected Missions Book" could be made. Presumably you could include a lot of detail without treading on GW's IP toes, or if there was a risk of that you could aim to make them more generic so they could be used across a variety of gaming systems

Good idea!

Panic...

Oops. Altar, not alter. That would be silly!

yeah,
I can't help but think these would be more cool to have as thin paperbacks.

Panic...

Heck, all they need is 8-10 pages. It would be a waste to even print it like a book, when you could distribute it digitally... and put the printing costs onto the players...Dang, if only there was a convenient format to do this...

So obviously the content for the dark angel and chaos missions was ready before the codex release. So why not put them in the codex? Only reason not to is a lazy money grab, wow GWs hard work and innovation astounds me.

I don't remember missions being in the codex before. The question is, why weren't missions put into the White Dwarf. At least then the rag would have actually had useful content for once in a great long while.

Either way works for me but I personally think that putting army specific missions in the relevant codexes would help improve there value for money. Instead selling these separately just screams give us more money.

UNCLEBADTOUCH wrote:
Either way works for me but I personally think that putting army specific missions in the relevant codexes would help improve there value for money. Instead selling these separately just screams give us more money.

But people are apparently buying it. I mean, what's $5 to someone who can afford an ipad, and GW miniatures?

 Breotan wrote:
I don't remember missions being in the codex before.

The 3rd edition codexes usually included one mission.

uberjoras wrote:
But people are apparently buying it. I mean, what's $5 to someone who can afford an ipad, and GW miniatures?

A principle?

PhantomViper wrote:

 AT wrote:

PhantomViper wrote:
Every other miniature company in the known world would have thrown this as free content in their hobby magazine... seems like GW actually has to work to make WD just as bad as it currently is...

Not sure if you guys are following the trends at all, but print media like magazines and newspapers are getting their asses handed to them by digital media alternatives. Like the intarwebs. And tablet content. Not sure why GW and WD would be any less affected than other niche magazines.

I for one welcome our new digital overlords!

Of course you do! Who wouldn't like this wonderful opportunity to pay for stuff that others get for free!

I guess I missed something here, but we were talking about getting the stuff in WD, not getting that stuff for free...

So you're either paying 10$ to get the rules in WD and a bunch of pretty pictures, or 8$ to get just the rules?

+ Edit : Oups, 8$; thought I'd read 5$ but that was 5£

At this point, I'd rather pay the $5 to get the iPad battle missions than $9 for a WD that I have to carry around.

from a recent rumour thread on Dakka GW have decided to bow to internet presure not to have ANYTHING in white Dwarf which would lead to complaints if it sells out

so as well as new units (eg Dakkajet) this would include missions.....

uberjoras wrote:
On the other hand, iPad only? Seriously, that's just overdesigning it. I guess it lowers piracy, even though their potential market shrinks exponentially.

Oh well, since nobody I know bought into the Apple craze, I suppose I won't know any of the content herein. That's just too bad, GW might've gotten my money on this.

 kronk wrote:
They're optional battle missions.

I think what he meant to say was "are these the same as the one-sided pointless missions?"

The chaos one might be pretty cool, Ill probably pick it up Friday.

 kronk wrote:
At this point, I'd rather pay the $5 to get the iPad battle missions than $9 for a WD that I have to carry around.

Pretty much this.

This isn't a matter of principle for me, it's simple economics of money, space, and ease of use and access. If they ha my codex and the rulebook available digitally, I'd get those too.

GW doesn't release any new content like missions or special rules: "GW is bad, they should release those kind of things."

GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

GW releases special rules and missions as a separate supplement: "This is dumb. Why can't they just add that to a WD instead?"

I guess anything other that a free PDF is just GW being GW...

Would it be better if it was free? Of course, everything would be better if it was free.

Do I mind spending less than a issue of WD for something that I'd likely buy an entire issue of WD (and then have to carry it around)? No, I do not mind.

 Breotan wrote:

I'll admit, I laughed at that one.

This release isn't a bad idea, and it's pretty fairly priced, compared to what they'd charge for a WD in comparison. I like the concept, but GW is failing for me in the execution of this new "digital fad".

Well, Apple is like 60%+ of the tablet market so...

GW LOVES the microtransactions, this is nothing new.

These do nothing but highlight how wretched WD has become though.....

 d-usa wrote:
GW doesn't release any new content like missions or special rules: "GW is bad, they should release those kind of things."

GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

GW releases special rules and missions as a separate supplement: "This is dumb. Why can't they just add that to a WD instead?"

I guess anything other that a free PDF is just GW being GW...

How about as a mini-Ebook format, like the short stories Black Library puts out. Then anything with e-book reader software could use them, rather than iPad only.

Really, GW, really? I love battle missions, and try to collect both old and new scenarios, but you seem to not realize, I haven't got an iPad. Sell this to me using a generic e-reader or PDF and you can have some of my lunch money this week. Oh, when will you learn?

 Ozymandias wrote:
Well, Apple is like 60%+ of the tablet market so...

It's even worse than that... they might be 60% of the market by units, but they're 90% of the market by app and content sales.

I write software for my day job, and have put out apps on both iPad and Android... I am definitely not an Apple fanboy, but if you want to get your feet wet in digital content, there's no better entry point than to target iPad.

Edited for personal foot in mouth.

I guess the majority of people in here don't have an iPad to see how much these cost. They're NOT $5.00.

They're $7.99 EACH.

Plus sales tax. That's way too much IMO.

 AT wrote:

 Ozymandias wrote:
Well, Apple is like 60%+ of the tablet market so...

It's even worse than that... they might be 60% of the market by units, but they're 90% of the market by app and content sales.

I write software for my day job, and have put out apps on both iPad and Android... I am definitely not an Apple fanboy, but if you want to get your feet wet in digital content, there's no better entry point than to target iPad.

Hmm, that's funny because GW are only reaching 60% of users, I would think they would want to reach 100% of users, so a generic e-reader would make more sense, something that both Android and iPad hipsters can make use of. That takes us back to the good old PDF.

The first three chaos marine missions have the same names as the ones in battle missions book. So really three new missions and three recycled ones?

xraytango wrote:

 AT wrote:

 Ozymandias wrote:
Well, Apple is like 60%+ of the tablet market so...

It's even worse than that... they might be 60% of the market by units, but they're 90% of the market by app and content sales.

I write software for my day job, and have put out apps on both iPad and Android... I am definitely not an Apple fanboy, but if you want to get your feet wet in digital content, there's no better entry point than to target iPad.

Hmm, that's funny because GW are only reaching 60% of users, I would think they would want to reach 100% of users, so a generic e-reader would make more sense, something that both Android and iPad hipsters can make use of. That takes us back to the good old PDF.

PDSs can easily be pirated. That is one of the reasons GW is going with the iBook format.

Now don't get me wrong, I think most anti-piracy stuff is dumb and just makes things more difficult for honest users. But that is the reason for their actions.

 oni wrote:
I guess the majority of people in here don't have an iPad to see how much these cost. They're NOT $5.00.

They're $7.99 EACH.

Plus sales tax. That's way too much IMO.

Yes, I think some of us may have not noticed the British £ symbol in the price. Remember kids, it takes fewer pounds to make a dollar than it does dollars to make pounds!

The problem with pdf's are they are far too easy to post online

fancy smancy iPad stuff is a little harder (and a little harder to upload to your tablet if you find a pirate version)

so overall they sell more stuff by just going iPad

It's cool and all and I think its a good idea.

Would be even cooler if i could get iBooks on my mac and actually print out missions to take to the games club - easier to refer to them that way, you know?

Be cool to get these in Google Play Magazines (ugh, dumb name) for Android, as well. And heck, im sure Windows has some sort of equivalent too.

They do DRM too, after all.

I think DRM is just part of it. The standard iPad size helps designing books and I think the software to create them is fairly easy. The fragmentation that makes Android so great for users also makes it a pain for developers.

 Flashman wrote:
"Hey loyal Warhammer fans! Remember the stuff that used to make WD interesting? Well, we thought you'd much prefer to pay for it separately. Enjoy!"

I know if only GW had some sort of print platform that could make these widely available huh?

 d-usa wrote:
GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

No one would complain about content in WD.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 d-usa wrote:
PDSs can easily be pirated. That is one of the reasons GW is going with the iBook format.

Which explains why all those other game companies that regularly put out PDF's are all failing horribly... oh wait they're not.

 d-usa wrote:
The standard iPad size helps designing books and I think the software to create them is fairly easy.

Well yeah - they're just standard HTML web pages with special extra apple gubbins stuck on, put into a pretty container called an iBook.

 d-usa wrote:
GW doesn't release any new content like missions or special rules: "GW is bad, they should release those kind of things."

GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

GW releases special rules and missions as a separate supplement: "This is dumb. Why can't they just add that to a WD instead?"

I guess anything other that a free PDF is just GW being GW...

This. Sticky please.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

No one would complain about content in WD.

Yes they would. They have done so on a regular basis for the reasons I posted. Didn't get the WD with the flyer rules or the SoB mini-dex? Well, they are sold out, touch luck until we decide to publish them another way.

No one would complain about content in WD

Yea people raged about flyer rules in WD and now their raging about the new flyer supplement........Damned if you do, damned if you dont.

 d-usa wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

No one would complain about content in WD.

Yes they would. They have done so on a regular basis for the reasons I posted. Didn't get the WD with the flyer rules or the SoB mini-dex? Well, they are sold out, touch luck until we decide to publish them another way.

This.

I do believe that the spinning commissar himself has complained about these very subjects. I'd search through his posts for proof, but I'm lazy and he's prolific.

lonedrow02 wrote:

No one would complain about content in WD

Yea people raged about flyer rules in WD and now their raging about the new flyer supplement........Damned if you do, damned if you dont.

d-usa wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

No one would complain about content in WD.

Yes they would. They have done so on a regular basis for the reasons I posted. Didn't get the WD with the flyer rules or the SoB mini-dex? Well, they are sold out, touch luck until we decide to publish them another way.

Ozymandias wrote:

 d-usa wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

No one would complain about content in WD.

Yes they would. They have done so on a regular basis for the reasons I posted. Didn't get the WD with the flyer rules or the SoB mini-dex? Well, they are sold out, touch luck until we decide to publish them another way.

This.

I do believe that the spinning commissar himself has complained about these very subjects. I'd search through his posts for proof, but I'm lazy and he's prolific.

There is a HUGE difference between putting rules needed to play your shiny new unit or even an entire army in a limited format like WD and putting some cool extra rules in there for different missions. One is needed and now unavailable, the other is a cool little bonus that would add some much needed content to white dwarf.

Each of these books is 6 missions, you could throw 1 fantasy and 1 40k (hell, probably even throw in 1 hobbit too) in each white dwarf and you'd have 6 months worth of good content to help fill out what is now little more than an advisement but instead they are asking $9 (aud) for it and hoping people buy white dwarf anyway.


*Edit* wow I just noticed they are selling a 'Tactica: Space Marine Heroes' for $8.. really?

And people aren't complaining that the content is in WD anyway, they are complaining that they can't get that content legally after WD sells out, there is a bit of a difference there!

But hey, white knights are white knighting, what else is new?

 d-usa wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

No one would complain about content in WD.

Yes they would. They have done so on a regular basis for the reasons I posted. Didn't get the WD with the flyer rules or the SoB mini-dex? Well, they are sold out, touch luck until we decide to publish them another way.

I think you are being rather facetious here d-usa?

No-one objected to the rules being available in WD - it was the fact that they were not available in any other format, other than to pirate them, after the mag had sold out.
Surely the sensible option would have been to put them in the magazine, give it a couple of weeks grace period or so, then just have a simple download PDF from the website in the way that the Specialist Games rules are handled? Instead, they have taken the option of reducing WD content still further and charging extra for these.

Although, to be fair it is a long time since GW gave anything away for free - you could say that this new development is entirely in line with the past few year's releases, and in some ways a lot more acceptable than some of the stuff BL is doing (charging for wallpaper, or for a 6-page story!)

And now that they are publishing things apart from WD, people are complaining that they should be in WD instead.

That is the "no matter what they do, people will complain about it" I'm talking about.

Of course I haven't played a game of GW anything in almost a year. They priced me out of the game and I am enjoying other games at the moment, but it is still interesting to watch.

 lonedrow02 wrote:

No one would complain about content in WD

Yea people raged about flyer rules in WD and now their raging about the new flyer supplement........Damned if you do, damned if you dont.

they are making the fliers available in every format they sell and people are still complaining because it isn't "free".

Some People will refuse to pay regardless of format and pirate it no matter what and their answer is "make it free and I won't pirate it". This is also why there is no reason to spend 10 times the effort to support android devices with their fragmented OS to support android customers who are notoriously bad for not purchasing apps anyways.

Let's bend to the whims of non-customers? That is always a good business model.

 d-usa wrote:
Yes they would. They have done so on a regular basis for the reasons I posted. Didn't get the WD with the flyer rules or the SoB mini-dex? Well, they are sold out, touch luck until we decide to publish them another way.

That's not complaining about content, that's complaining about not being able to get the content. Massive difference.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 d-usa wrote:
And now that they are publishing things apart from WD, people are complaining that they should be in WD instead.

It's like you're intentionally trying to miss the point.

nkelsch - I'm not sure that is what people are saying at all, quite honestly. The main complaint with WD is that it is content-lite; one way to improve upon that is to put rules and scenarios back into WD, you know, like they used to. Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with making the issue freely available and not selling out within seconds, again, like they used to. Most of the complaints over the Sisters rules and the Flyer rules were not that they were crap or that they were printed in WD, but rather that it is near enough impossible to get hold of a copy of the mag after the fact - not like it used to be when you could order back issues.

Of course, for those people who didn't want to buy WD or hack up their copies, GW used to release content in handy annuals or compendiums so you had the best of both worlds; content and interesting material printed in WD so that it remained a relevant resource and content printed in book form and not made direct only or limited edition or some other nonsense so that it was freely available for those without the magazine.

I have no issue with GW charging for this stuff (I'm not going to buy it but I don't have a problem with it) but rather that it is only available to a small portion of the player base. If they really are concerned with making WD relevant again (and one can only suppose that it is a goal given the resources they have thrown at 'revamping' it) then why undo most of that work by releasing content via app store or some other equally obscure method? Here is a 'quick win' to make WD relevant in the eyes of gamers; print content in it!

If you want to guarantee you get a WD, get a subscription. That is what they are for. Allows companies to know how much to make without making a ton more which rot and lose them money. If you don't want a subscription, don't complain when you don't get one.

Now making every issue valuable so people want subscriptions is a different issue, but even if every issue was gold, people would complain as they only want some of it and want it for free. They only want the 4 pages of rules and think they should only pay for 4 pages of content. If only porno mags worked that way too?

And not just handy annuals - they put up PDF's. Think of how many Apoc formations they put up? I think they even eventually put of the Spearhead rules. And the Blood Angel WD Codex for that matter.

nkelsch wrote:
If you want to guarantee you get a WD, get a subscription.

*head desk*

Now you're missing the point. Read what filbert wrote again. Really read it this time.

nkelsch wrote:
If you want to guarantee you get a WD, get a subscription. That is what they are for. Allows companies to know how much to make without making a ton more which rot and lose them money. If you don't want a subscription, don't complain when you don't get one.

Now making every issue valuable so people want subscriptions is a different issue, but even if every issue was gold, people would complain as they only want some of it and want it for free. They only want the 4 pages of rules and think they should only pay for 4 pages of content. If only porno mags worked that way too?

To reiterate, I think most people *aren't* complaining that they want stuff for free (apart from a small minority anyway) and even so, there will always be a section of an audience in any environment that refuses to pay for supplemental content. That isn't the point I am making; rather than instead of making and disseminating the content to the widest possible audience (ie. via WD, back issues, supplemental books/codexes, app store), GW seem intent on restricting this only to those few that can get hold of a WD when they release new rules/scenarios (the fact that you get no prior warning of it coming up in WD notwithstanding) or those who own an ipad. Again, the issue is not that you have to pay for it but rather that GW seem intent on promoting a rather bizarre business plan that seems to focus on selling this stuff to the smallest amount of people.

I'm one of the people that bitched about the rules for the Dakka Jet not being readily available. I don't have an iPad and the WD issue is sold out, so it isn't readily available. I'm buying the flier book that comes out in 2 weeks so that I can have the legal rules for the model instead of pirated pdfs from the internet or copies of another friend's copies of another friend's WD.

Most of the rest of that book isn't going to be useful to me, unless we play some one-off games.

I've been considering getting an iPad with my tax refund this year, but not for GW gak. I'll probably buy GW gak for it, but mostly I want to play Angry Birds and read kindle books.

I'm very interested in all of these battle mission pdfs or iPad files or whatever the hell you call them. Our group played the hell out of the Battle missions book that came out 2 years ago. It's a shame that these missions aren't going to be in a book, as my group would probably buy 3 or 4. As it is, we'll be getting 2 copies max.

nkelsch wrote:
If you want to guarantee you get a WD, get a subscription.

"Hi! I'm new to 40k and I think the Sisters of Battle have amazing fluff! Where can I legally buy the rules to play them?"

This right here is the fething problem with WD updates to codecies and other must-have rules like the Dakka Jet and Daemon Flamers and so on...

Battle Missions aren't must-haves. If you miss out, that's not the end of the world.

 d-usa wrote:
GW doesn't release any new content like missions or special rules: "GW is bad, they should release those kind of things."

GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

GW releases special rules and missions as a separate supplement: "This is dumb. Why can't they just add that to a WD instead?"

I guess anything other that a free PDF is just GW being GW...

GW releases special rules and missions in WD, then a few months later puts them online for free: "Thanks GW"

 Ravenous D wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
GW doesn't release any new content like missions or special rules: "GW is bad, they should release those kind of things."

GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

GW releases special rules and missions as a separate supplement: "This is dumb. Why can't they just add that to a WD instead?"

I guess anything other that a free PDF is just GW being GW...

GW releases special rules and missions in WD, then a few months later puts them online for free: "Thanks GW"

This is what they used to do, and why people are understandably upset that they've switched their business model to:

GW releases rules to some fliers and Codex: Daemon Models and the entire Codex: Sisters of Battle in WD, but only releases the first 2 in iPad format and doesn't release Codex:Sister of Battle in ANY other format, because feth you, potential Sisters of Battle players!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:


It's like you're intentionally trying to miss the point.

Its a pro GW thing, ignore all evidence and call everyone a whiner.

GW has in the past released free PDFs on their "gaming resource" section of their website after an issue has sold out or is no longer available. Evidence? Blood angels, apocalypse stuff, kroot mercs etc, and for a good 3 years they were releasing the chapter approved books.

In fact, I just dug out the 2003 annual right now, it has the feral ork list, Tanith first and only list, Armageddon ork hunters, death korps of krieg, the savlar chem dogs, elysian drop troops, city fight guard, kroot mercs, seeding swarm tyranids, the trial assault rules, minor pychic powers, an entire listing of fire points and access points for every single transport that was previously assumed, deathwatch kill team, the emperors champion, an entire FAQ and errata, updated dark eldar vehicle upgrades, and a dark angels update. Holy that was all in one year! This book is bigger then the hardback dexes and sold for $35. And people were happy to buy it despite most of it also being online for free. The last 10 years have been cruel to GW apparently.

I'm not pro-GW, just look at my non-caring cat!

Best thing that DakkaDakka has done for me has been to introduce me to other systems. I hobby, I don't HHHobby.

This is madness.

Rules in WD get slated as WD sells out and the rules are no longer available.

Now they provide additional missions and sell them only to those who have bought into apple.

My mind boggles at this it really does.

Digital products are a solution to the issues received from the WD rules and in a sense I support this. These rules releases were something that made sense to me as it got sales of the mag up, But failing to ever release the rules later as PDF's or cheap ebooks is an oversight of massive proportions.

Now they move to the digital side of things but it's Apple only. Not available to those without an apple product. Another oversight of massive proportions. I would be happy to get these but I did not cash into the cult of Apple and thus do not own a device capable of displaying the information I need.

How this is any different to WD selling out I dont know. At the end of the day some people who want the product cannot get it.

They have replaced one problem with the same problem. Sheesh.

 lonedrow02 wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
GW doesn't release any new content like missions or special rules: "GW is bad, they should release those kind of things."

GW releases special rules and missions in WD: "I have to pay $x for a magazine full of advertisements for GW to get the rules/missions? And once it is sold out I don't get it anymore? This is stupid, they should release it separately!"

GW releases special rules and missions as a separate supplement: "This is dumb. Why can't they just add that to a WD instead?"

I guess anything other that a free PDF is just GW being GW...

This. Sticky please.

It does deserve the face palm but not for the reason you likely support. Its incredibly simplistic to just assume that all the above options are mutually exclusive. There is no reason that precludes GW from using all of the above in a staggered fashion including the free PDF option. Publish everything in WD... when that sells out, make a purchasable ebook with fancy art and 360* pics... then finally release 6 months to a year later less convienent free pdfs PDF individually for each model without any art (like forge world does with experimental rules).

yeah,
I I bought all three Altars of War last night with the intention of both giving a review and trying them out.
The following is my initial thoughts, having just looked through what I've just bought.

I also copied this review/info to the threads first post.


+++
Altar of War - Space Marines
Published: 06 August 2012

Altar of War - Space Marines
- 26 pages containing 6 battle missions.

SM description wrote:Altar of War missions provide all the information required to play games inspired by the battlefield tactics of the different Warhammer 40,000 armies. This book contains six brand-new missions which you can use instead of the Eternal War missions in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook if you or your opponent has a Space Marine army, allowing you to fight the daring lightning assaults, surprise planetfall attacks and heroic last stands of the Emperor’s Space Marines.

Photos
Basic Mission break down:
1) Two objectives one in the middle and one in the enemy deployment zone. All Spacemarine infantry units counts as scoring.
2) Moddified VP game enemy group in the middle and Space Marines come in from all angles from reserves.
3) Single objective in the middle and Space Marines must hold it.
4) Moddified VP - HQs are more valuable.
5) Race for the Objectives game, only fast attack start on the board. vehicles (and squads in transports) can arrive from turn 1, everything else arrives from reserve as normal.
6) Objective game, Half the Space Marines must be held in reserve, but they all arrive together.

And a Wonderful spread of deployment Maps


A lovely little package of battle missions.
Exactly what your expecting when you pay your £5
5/5 Stars


+++
Altar of War - Dark Angels
Published: 02 February 2013

Altar of War - Dark Angels
- 26 pages containing 6 battle missions.

DA description wrote:Altar of War missions provide all the information required to play games inspired by the battlefield tactics of the
different Warhammer 40,000 armies. This book contains six brand-new missions which you can use instead of the
Eternal War missions in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook if you or your opponent has a Dark Angels army, allowing
you to hunt the Fallen – traitors of the Chapter’s ancient past – or unleash the elite Deathwing and Ravenwing on
your foes in all their devastating glory.

Photos
Basic Mission break down:
1) Objectives in the enemys deployment zone and the Dark Angels want them.
2) Objectives. The enemy sets up with hidden deployment rules. Only ravenwing and scouts start on the board.
3) Objectives. Ravenwing and Deathwing start in reserve, dark angels lose points for calling them early and gain points for calling them in late in the game.
4) Objectives. Enemy deploy in the middle. Dark angels all go into a modified stealthy reserve.
5) Objectives in the Dark Angel deployment zone. Dark angels only deploy troops plus D3 units at start of the game.
6) reroll mission 1-5 and play that - plus a random independant character is a member of the fallen or a agent of the fallen worth extra VP to both armies..

A batch of very similar deployment Maps...

They are all top to bottom with a varying ammounts of no-mans land in the middle... bland.

A repetitive package of standard objective based battle missions.
But the implementation of Ravenwing and Deathwing in missions are done very well.
I especially like mission 6 it's very flavourful as it depicts the dark angels discovering info on / a member of the fallen while engaged on another mission.
Not bad for your £5
4/5 Stars


+++
Altar of War - Chaos Space Marines
Published: 02 February 2013

Altar of War - Chaos Space Marines
- 28 pages containing 6 battle missions.

CSM description wrote:Altar of War missions provide all the information required to play games inspired by the battlefield tactics of the
different Warhammer 40,000 armies. This book contains six brand-new missions which you can use instead of the
Eternal War missions in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook if you or your opponent has a Chaos Space Marines army,
allowing you to wage wars of vengeance, launch a dreaded Black Crusade, or simply unleash indiscriminate
carnage on your unsuspecting foes.

Photos

Basic Mission break down:
1) Accumlitive Objective mission. Like Control modes in FPSs you score points for every turn your holding an objective.
2) Victory Points, all non vehicles are 'without number.' and return to play when dead and can be killed again.
3) Objectives. All terrain is either on fire or smoking so they block all LOS plus are either dangerous or proving +1 cover.
4) Relic varient.
5) Victory Points, 1 (or more) random unit is more valuable.
6) Modified objectives. Chaos player rolls three time on a table for his secondary objectives.

And a copy paste disappointment of deployment Maps

Map 1,3 and 5 are the same and 2,4 and 6 are the same... seems like GW put in no effort in here.

When I pay my £5 I expect a little bit more divergence in deployment zones. The maps are very dissapointing!
The Battle Missions are great.
4/5 Stars

Panic...

Thanks for the reviews!

Cool, thanks for the reviews. Looks like they updated a lot of the content from Battle Missions for 6th.

Thank you for the review. The Space Marines one seems worth it to me, but the others seem a little bland.

I'm of the opinion that they should have done another Battle Missions book. I suppose they may still compile all of these plus future ones. I'm rather old school and like to have a physical book in my hand and wont bother with these digital products unless they're dirt cheap and/or I just can't resist.

I'm good with iPad releases. Also the price Point is decent. A bit higher per mission than the battle missions book but low enough to make it a "why not?" kind of buy.

I grabbed the chaos one. Good stuff can't Wait to try them out.

The only thing better would be a "book" on different environments. Like the daemon worlds in crusade of fire. Maybe 5 or 10 of those would be awesome.which I'd happily pay another $15 or so on.

Oh well, these seem interesting, and I'd probably buy a Tau equivalent one, except, I have a Kindle Fire, and that doesn't support iBook format

 warboss wrote:

It does deserve the face palm but not for the reason you likely support. Its incredibly simplistic to just assume that all the above options are mutually exclusive. There is no reason that precludes GW from using all of the above in a staggered fashion including the free PDF option. Publish everything in WD... when that sells out, make a purchasable ebook with fancy art and 360* pics... then finally release 6 months to a year later less convienent free pdfs PDF individually for each model without any art (like forge world does with experimental rules).

Would have to ask why would you deliberately give a digital product a shelf life of only 6 - 12 months for a system with a shelf life of 4-6 years? The extra shiny bits in an ebook version may be nice, but people will always go for the lower end product if it is free. Worse you reduce sales because people will not buy the ebook knowing a free version is several months away.

Curious as to where Ozymandias got the 90% of sales are on the iPad? If that is true, it makes sense to only pursue iPad releases. Why waste more resources to only get a couple more percentage points of market? Especially given Android isn't a single system and has unique versions among multiple manufacturers. I would like to see a Kindle version of these products so I can use it, but understand there is no point in wasting money on diminishing returns. Of course I grew up in the 80's and my computer was a Mac. It wasn't fun.

I've got a both a brother and a friend in software development and the 90% number seems slightly high as they've both said about 75-80%

but as it varies depending on what sort of apps you're talking about 90% for this sort of thing does not seem unreasonable

The first thing to consider is apple devices are much more expensive, so tend to sell to the reletivly weathly

another aspect is you can generally charge a bit extra for the equivalent on apple as their apps have a higher quality perception

silent25 wrote:

Curious as to where Ozymandias got the 90% of sales are on the iPad? If that is true, it makes sense to only pursue iPad releases. Why waste more resources to only get a couple more percentage points of market? Especially given Android isn't a single system and has unique versions among multiple manufacturers. I would like to see a Kindle version of these products so I can use it, but understand there is no point in wasting money on diminishing returns. Of course I grew up in the 80's and my computer was a Mac. It wasn't fun.

If you ask anyone who works in the mobile software/games business, they'll have similar numbers. iOS sales are miles ahead and are causing quite a few managers I know to consider dropping support for Android/WinOS support altogether, especially when you add in the fact that those platforms don't have fixed resolutions like iOS does (on which they only have to support a maximum of 4 or 5 screen sizes, iirc?).

Note that this might not translate into iBooks sales, of which I have no knowledge... But yeah, that 90% is pretty accurate in terms of mobile platforms app sales.

GW has in the past released free PDFs on their "gaming resource" section of their website after an issue has sold out or is no longer available. Evidence? Blood angels, apocalypse stuff, kroot mercs etc, and for a good 3 years they were releasing the chapter approved books.

In fact, I just dug out the 2003 annual right now, it has the feral ork list, Tanith first and only list, Armageddon ork hunters, death korps of krieg, the savlar chem dogs, elysian drop troops, city fight guard, kroot mercs, seeding swarm tyranids, the trial assault rules, minor pychic powers, an entire listing of fire points and access points for every single transport that was previously assumed, deathwatch kill team, the emperors champion, an entire FAQ and errata, updated dark eldar vehicle upgrades, and a dark angels update. Holy that was all in one year! This book is bigger then the hardback dexes and sold for $35. And people were happy to buy it despite most of it also being online for free. The last 10 years have been cruel to GW apparently.

Point taken.
____________________________________________________

The SM AOW deployments are similar to the SM battle mission deployments...looks like it? .The others are really boring.
Edit:Quote nightmare...

silent25 wrote:

Would have to ask why would you deliberately give a digital product a shelf life of only 6 - 12 months for a system with a shelf life of 4-6 years? The extra shiny bits in an ebook version may be nice, but SOME people will always go for the lower end product if it is free.

Corrected that for you. The people that are willing to wait 1-2 years for an article to go from a White Dwarf to an ebook to a free no-frills relatively inconvienent download as I suggested are not generally people who will actually buy any of the former more convientent items if there will never be a free pdf.

I wish they would sell these as PDF's for a few dollars, like Paizo does for Pathfinder campaigns.

Because once a .PDF is "in the wild", it's basically free to all at that point?

And yet, Paizo remains in business.

And DriveThruRPG. And FFG. And Catalyst. And all the other companies that regularly release paid PDF copies of their works.

And yet I can get all those free should I desire.

Indeeed.

And yet, they remain in business. I mean, are you intentionally not getting it? You're saying since you could pirate their stuff, this can't be a sustainable business plan in the evidence of other companies actually doing so. It's like that guy in Baghdad saying Americans will never enter the city while the tanks can be seen in the background.

Every single TV show that HBO has aired in the last 5 years is readily available on a torrent, right now, and yet HBO still sells DVDs, and makes a profit doing so.

Kids every day walk into Walmart and shoplift, and yet Walmart endures.

Pointing the finger at piracy is frankly less a reason and more an excuse.

 Ouze wrote:
And yet, they remain in business. <snip> Pointing the finger at piracy is frankly less a reason and more an excuse.

That's a strawman argument used to rationalize internet theft. Regardless of what they did in the past, today's GW makes stuff with the intent to sell it. Anything not sold (i.e., distributed freely) is viewed as money lost to the company. You may not like it but taking the route they did (distributing through iTunes) basically ensures that every digital copy of their stuff floating around out there is a legit one and they've received their share of money for it.

Do you honestly think anyone at GW gives a that those companies are still in business after giving away rules? Well, possible they do with FFG. Sometimes I secretly think GW wishes FFG would fail, but that's just me being cynical.

 Breotan wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
And yet, they remain in business.

That's a strawman argument used to rationalize internet theft.

lolwut? No, I posted that i wished they would sell PDF's on their website for a few dollars because - I know this is going to sound crazy, but hear me out - I'd like to buy them, but not an ipad. I buy campaigns from Paizo all the time, and don't see what it can't work for them.

I didn't ask them to "give away rules". I want to buy them, with money, in a format that doesn't require me to spend $500 on a device I don't desire to own. I don't think that's an unreasonable thing.

You repeatedly saying "well, you can pirate them if they did that, so it's a nonviable business plan" is reality-immune.

Here's an equally banal analogy for your position- Games Workshop shouldn't sell paper books, because you can scan them and then they're on the internet for free.

 Ouze wrote:
I buy campaigns from Paizo all the time, and don't see what it can't work for them.

So what? GW doesn't care about who's buying their stuff. They care about getting a cut of everything they produced. They don't get a cut of internet piracy so they don't produce stuff that can be easily pirated.

 Ouze wrote:
I didn't ask them to "give away rules". I want to buy them, with money, in a format that doesn't require me to spend $500 on a device I don't desire to own. I don't think that's an unreasonable thing.

As far as GW is concerned, asking for .PDFs is asking them to give away rules and to them that is asking too much.

 Ouze wrote:
You repeatedly saying "well, you can pirate them if they did that, so it's a nonviable business plan" is reality-immune.

I said no such thing. I said GW won't do that because piracy means that they don't get the money. GW is all about the money in case you haven't noticed.

Here's an equally banal analogy for your position- Games Workshop shouldn't sell paper books, because you can scan them and then they're on the internet for free.

Same strawman as before. You want .PDFs? Go to a company that produces them and steal... er, "buy" their stuff. You want GW? Pony up for an iPad or wait for them to come up with something for the Kindle Fire. Don't hold your breath hoping for a .PDF though. You'll notice that even the old painting articles they used to have on their web site are long gone and apparently never to return.

You know what, you're right. Good points. You win. No way to sell PDF's, those other companies are totally going to go under, and I'm a thief, as you say.

 warboss wrote:

silent25 wrote:

Would have to ask why would you deliberately give a digital product a shelf life of only 6 - 12 months for a system with a shelf life of 4-6 years? The extra shiny bits in an ebook version may be nice, but SOME people will always go for the lower end product if it is free.

Corrected that for you. The people that are willing to wait 1-2 years for an article to go from a White Dwarf to an ebook to a free no-frills relatively inconvienent download as I suggested are not generally people who will actually buy any of the former more convientent items if there will never be a free pdf.

First 1 - 2 years is far different from " 6 months to a year later". Don't change what you said. Plus once it free on the web, it will migrate to places with easier access. Links to the file and separate hosting of files would pop up making the "inconvenience" moot.

Second, there are a number of studies that people will go far out of their way and throw quality to the wind because a piece of crap is free. Will have to get a link, but a friend likes to quote a study where a research group set up a booth a busy mall selling chocolate. They were selling cheap chocolate candies for $0.10 and high quality chocolate for $0.25 which was a bargain. Did this for a week and almost everyone would get the high end chocolate. The following week they charged $0.10 for the high end chocolate, and made the cheap chocolate free. No one bought the high end chocolate and would wait in lines for the free chocolate. People act irrational when things are free.

Again, why waste resources producing a product that has a shelf life shorter than the edition of the game.

Back on topic, to Panic for his review.

silent25 wrote:

 warboss wrote:

silent25 wrote:

Would have to ask why would you deliberately give a digital product a shelf life of only 6 - 12 months for a system with a shelf life of 4-6 years? The extra shiny bits in an ebook version may be nice, but SOME people will always go for the lower end product if it is free.

Corrected that for you. The people that are willing to wait 1-2 years for an article to go from a White Dwarf to an ebook to a free no-frills relatively inconvienent download as I suggested are not generally people who will actually buy any of the former more convientent items if there will never be a free pdf.

First 1 - 2 years is far different from " 6 months to a year later". Don't change what you said. Plus once it free on the web, it will migrate to places with easier access. Links to the file and separate hosting of files would pop up making the "inconvenience" moot.

I'm not changing anything but rather you're failing to grasp what I wrote. The 6 months to a year later was only for the step from ebook/ibook to free PDF, not the whole process. As for convienence, there are people willing to pay for a nice product that offers all the flyers in one file with fancy features like bookmarks and notes as opposed to individual naked text pdfs that must be opened for each unit separately. You may not be one of them but they do exist and other companies base their online business on that model.

 Ouze wrote:
You know what, you're right. Good points. You win. No way to sell PDF's, those other companies are totally going to go under, and I'm a thief, as you say.

I'm not entirely sure he knows what a strawman fallacy is...

I heard they were working on it for android, if so all of this is going to be awesome. Good review and thanks for the low down. Even more faith in what is being released.


Also on that study, it was hard to bypass free stuff for a long time. Then i watched horders, now i don't even grab free samples at the store usually. Findout nothing is truly free. It will cost you space, calories, whatever.

I've no problem with GW selling content like this, it's good to see them at least embracing this new-fangled technology beyond their miniature production - finally

Again it's just a little too exclusive and is (I believe) indicative of the market they are seeking to capture - "If people can afford an iPad they can afford our "

I still believe they could have published this kind of thing in WD. They could have easily published a scenario from one of the releases and said "btw its available now" - that way giving them sales and adding some meaningful gaming content into WD, thus, potentially, creating more sales. They could publish extracts from anything they printed, such as unit releases and codex/army book entries as a way to possibly make more money.

As for PDF's they could mark them like the many products at RPGNow etc do, making them at least a bit harder to pirate. Hell they could probably sell anything from their past book catalogue for a fee. If they saw (or rather cared) how much their orignal books (such as Slaves to Darkness etc) sell for online they'd realise there's money to be made in what they have done previously as well. Many car manufacturer's still produce or cater parts for classic cars, because they recognise the market exists and wish to maintain a strong identity/relationship with their customer's or at least with the brand. GW seems like it couldn't care less about its past, apart from the odd anniversary mini. This is self defeating as they could have made a nice cash injection from releasing a "re-mastered" Rogue Trader book or the like, similarly to what WOTC did with D&D.

From a fantasy/sci-fi, roleplaying wargame hobby aspect this is fine, as every bit of business they have dropped has made way for another company to pick up the pieces. Yet for GW it's simply money lost by a refusal to do the right thing for its customers/former customers

The point is it's not what GW does that's a problem for many hobbyists, or former GW "HHHobby" hobbyists, its more, in many ways, what it doesn't do.

I remember the blood angels one that was released with WD a year or two ago, It was only 3 scenarios with a page of fluff so about 3-5 pages worth of stuff. I can't imagine there is a lot more within this pack in terms of the mission content that could have been fitted onto 6 pages of WD. This leads me to believe there is a load of filler, now don't get me wrong I love fluff probably more than the next guy however, I don't really wanna pay 2/3rds the price of a BL book to get it.

Edit: I get why the painting articles are gone, that's a straight up marketing decision, all the paints referred to in them are unavailable as they slightly changed em all when they renamed the range. This would land hobby noobs in confusion when they tried to recreate them not being familiar with the old colours. They want to sell their new range so they need to name drop them. I expect to see painting articles return when they have a suitable number built up using the new range.

yeah,
I think you could buy these to use for other armies.

Although some missions suit the Space Marines high Toughness and Armour's enhanced survivability.
The Chaos Space Marine And Spacemarine Altars could be used for any other army with minimal effort.
And Dark Angel one refers to ravenwing and deathwing alot so some missions would require players to agree on adjustment to non- Dark Angel units.

I see no reason why we could not play Altar of war Space Marine mission 4 'Here I shall Die'
(the one with the Spacemarines defending a objective in the middle of the table) with guard defending off a Ork Attack.


Regarding Piracy.
Every Codex exist right now as a PDFs, yet we all ( /almost all! ) buy Codexs.
Some people only buy codexs for the armies they play.
Some people buy every codex for the fluff and to 'know thy enemy'...

I honestly believe that they could sell PDFs and the majority of customers would buy not pirate the material.
Regardless you'll never stop theft totally... some people want free codexs and they will want free Altars of war too!
Hell if I wanted I could screen grab every page of these altars of war and make a PDF containing all 3 Altars within 10mins.
So iBooks only isn't that safe.

I never understood online pirates, what do they have had to gain if they are giving stolen IP away for free...
They're just hurting someone else's business, for no financial gain.
At least pirate VHS/DVD pedlars were in it to make a buck.

Ugly Green Trog wrote:
Edit: I get why the painting articles are gone, that's a straight up marketing decision, all the paints referred to in them are unavailable as they slightly changed em all when they renamed the range. This would land hobby noobs in confusion when they tried to recreate them not being familiar with the old colours. They want to sell their new range so they need to name drop them. I expect to see painting articles return when they have a suitable number built up using the new range.

Nope they sell a Paint guide now and have Paint splatter in WD
Both are paid for experiences, GW dont give away much for free these days... Accept!

Panic...

Id like to see an IG one released....with missions like
Wave assault(infantry mission)
Line breaker(tank mission)
Airborne assault(flyer mission)
The emperors might( combined assault)
Rescue dawn(behind enemy lines "rescue" mission)

Of coarse i dont own an ipad.... so.. bollocks...

warboss wrote:
I'm not changing anything but rather you're failing to grasp what I wrote. The 6 months to a year later was only for the step from ebook/ibook to free PDF, not the whole process. As for convienence, there are people willing to pay for a nice product that offers all the flyers in one file with fancy features like bookmarks and notes as opposed to individual naked text pdfs that must be opened for each unit separately. You may not be one of them but they do exist and other companies base their online business on that model.

Well since people are complaining about missing WD the week it comes out, "when that sells out, make a purchasable ebook", would indicate you think the ebook should be available within the month. Probably the reason I'm failing to grasp what you are saying is because you keep changing or modifying the details of what you are saying.

Panic wrote:yeah,
I never understood online pirates, what do they have had to gain if they are giving stolen IP away for free...
They're just hurting someone else's business, for no financial gain.
At least pirate VHS/DVD pedlars were in it to make a buck.r free these days... Accept!

Panic...

Information Anarchists. Was a term I heard nearly a decade ago about people with the belief that all information should be free. Others who do it with the belief that they are "sticking it to the MAN". Idealists and misguided basically.

On Paizo, didn't they go after pirates a while back. I recall they checked to see which identifier number was on the different copies floating around on the pirate sites and then went after the person who had bought those copies originally?

There was an NPR article a while back talking about app designers frustration with Android. Google seems indifferent to manufacturer's concerns about piracy. Was pointed out that web searches for Android apps frequently had the tops links going to pirate sites. That would explain the 90% number. I don't remember them quoting sales percentages in the article.

Splog wrote:
83p per mission? Ouch.

If GW 'shifts the market' by selling these sorts of thing rather than giving them away for free, why not enter that market? Why not self publish missions into the iBook store? Individuals could do it, or a "Dakka Dakka Collected Missions Book" could be made. Presumably you could include a lot of detail without treading on GW's IP toes, or if there was a risk of that you could aim to make them more generic so they could be used across a variety of gaming systems.

I'd do it myself, but I'm up to my eyeballs in projects already.

A group collected battle missions book would be awesome!

My own random mission generator is better and free: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/397204.page

Please, please, PLEASE don't revive threads that are more than one month dormant, particularly in N&R.