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From their email-

April Fools’

It is traditional on this day to tease and confuse people by having fictitious and spurious stories appear in the guise of having a bit of fun.

The creative team came up with a few ideas that would set tongues wagging but all of them seemed very obvious, so I decided to try something a little different. I am taking the opportunity today to tell you ten things that Battlefront Group has planned of which half are true and half are not. The ensuing discussion and speculation will hopefully be taken for what it is, fun, and at least let you know some things that until today you were not aware of.

1. We are making a 15mm Captain America figure with special rules so he can join US forces in Flames Of War.
2. We have the rights to produce the Star Wars tabletop miniatures game now that the Wizards of the Coast license have expired.
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June.
4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months.
5. Our next big thing is going to be a Pirate vs. Ninja skirmish game in 30mm.
6. To help improve morale in the Battlefront offices, all staff is being given a uniform consisting of a black shirt with silver skulls on the lapels and pink piping.
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on.
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war.
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world.
10. German forces will soon be able to add the Ark of the Covenant to their lists as a special occult unit.

Have fun with this and remember five things on this list are 100% true but five are not, so don’t hold me to everything the next time we meet.

~ John-Paul.

My thoughts on these possibilities are here on my blog.

Point 10 would have to come with the special rule that the allies gain a free "meddling archeologist" and if the Ark is lost, the German player has to melt all nearby units

Point 1 would be very cool, as long as they also produce Bucky, Skrulls and Fury's Screaming commandos

endtransmission wrote:Point 10 would have to come with the special rule that the allies gain a free "meddling archeologist" and if the Ark is lost, the German player has to melt all nearby units

Point 1 would be very cool, as long as they also produce Bucky, Skrulls and Fury's Screaming commandos

Sgt Rock can beat up Nick Fury and all the Howling Commandos with 1 hand tied behind his back

Cap and the Ark are exactly the sort of thing that would get me interested in a WW2 game.

My guess as to which is true (based on past comments and actions from BF) are:

4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months.
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June.
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on.
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war.
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world.

Leaving:
1. We are making a 15mm Captain America figure with special rules so he can join US forces in Flames Of War.
2. We have the rights to produce the Star Wars tabletop miniatures game now that the Wizards of the Coast license have expired.
5. Our next big thing is going to be a Pirate vs. Ninja skirmish game in 30mm.
6. To help improve morale in the Battlefront offices, all staff is being given a uniform consisting of a black shirt with silver skulls on the lapels and pink piping.
10. German forces will soon be able to add the Ark of the Covenant to their lists as a special occult unit.

However, the star wars item is verrrry interesting as it is extremely 'out there' and is quite possible as a result of it being so crazy, and also perhaps because it is item #2 - trying to make it as significant/noticeable as possible without giving it 100% prominence.

There could be some announcements on Marvel/Disney and Lucas' corporate sites if these rumours are true.

Wait and see what Battlefront have to say tomorrow.

Pretty cool if they did get the license.

I doubt the Captain America figure though.

Maybe the whole thing is actually a joke ? That'd be a nasty decoy...
So, 6 is obviously as a joke, who in his right mind would wear pink pipings ?
5 ? Ahahahahah. 'Nuff said.
1, 10 and 9 are remotely possible but seriously unlikely. 1 and 10 don't fit, and 9 might be a possibility if they had gotten a license, but why release that kind of accessories if you don't have a whole line dedicated to super heroes and stuff first ? It might be a GF9 only thing, though. Possible, but unlikely.
Which leaves us with 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8.

4 seems, unfortunately, very possible. Dissapointing, but understandable. And plausible.
3 somewhat less so, still, I can believe some kind of deal where you got Osprey bonus while buying WA. Ok.
8 is a bit of a surprise, but they have already released plane minis, and I doubt they're seeing much use given the current FoW balance, so it could be a good excuse to sell more planes. Definitely plausible.
7 is more involved. I'd love to see a decent casual WW2 fleet combat game that's better designed than Mongoose's Victory at Seas, but that would mean starting a whole new line from scratch, unless they'd partner with another mini maker (like the very decent GHQ). Believable, but I'd like to hear more about it.
2 is totally out of here, and yet if it's not true, that means something is true in the 1, 9, 10 set. "I'll believe it when I see it".

Of course, it could all be a hoax, and then BF gets the April's fool troll award.

15mm mass Star Wars battles like Hoth and the various Clone Wars battles? I'll take 5 please.

legoburner wrote:My guess as to which is true (based on past comments and actions from BF) are:

4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months.
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June.
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on.
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war.
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world.

You're probably right about those, though it sounds incredible boring to me. I want Cap!

1. We are making a 15mm Captain America figure with special rules so he can join US forces in Flames Of War.

HA! I guess JP noticed who was leading my army when he stopped by the shop last year.)

I heard there was going to be something to do with starwars and GW . Staff at my local Gw said something about it hmmm.

Well, 3, 7, and 8 seem to be no-brainers to me. I thought that Osprey Books were pretty big, so I've got my doubts about 4. But maybe I'm confusing them with Jane's. If 4 is true, then it's a toss-up to me of whether it's 2 or 9 that is true. (Although if 9 is true, there's no reason why 1 shouldn't be true, too.)

Death By Monkeys wrote:Well, 3, 7, and 8 seem to be no-brainers to me. I thought that Osprey Books were pretty big, so I've got my doubts about 4. But maybe I'm confusing them with Jane's. If 4 is true, then it's a toss-up to me of whether it's 2 or 9 that is true. (Although if 9 is true, there's no reason why 1 shouldn't be true, too.)

Depends on what the book is about. If you look at the campaign or tactic books--they're the size of the White Dwarf anniversary issues or a Codex.

The actual force books that look at specific units or vehicles are about the size of a normal White Dwarf issue.
So I could see it, either way.

Hasn't Battlefront stated before that they were pretty much staying away from the Pacific theatre? Besides, I can see the jump from infantry/tanks to airplanes, if only because they've already dabbled with aircraft minis. WWII Naval combat, however, is a whole other animal and incredibly difficult to do on a scale that doesn't require using the floor. Unless of course you abstract it down to the point that is Axis & Allies: War at Sea.

5, 6, 7, & 10 seem very unlikely. Which just leaves 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, & 9.

4 kind of throws me though. I'm not sure why Early War would cause delays. Maybe because there were more tiny factions that Hitler rolled over before they really had much of a chance? Or maybe the difficulty is trying to make balanced forces out of armies that were pretty one-sided in favor of the Germans?

1 & 9 sound cool but doing super heroes seems more like a leap for Battlefront than doing Star Wars, which could slip right into the FoW rules pretty easily.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

HudsonD wrote:Of course, it could all be a hoax, and then BF gets the April's fool troll award.

Now that would just be cruel

Too many of the things on this list are cool. They can't all be April Fools gags. (I hope)

Please God let number 2 be true. Please please please.

I'd be down for a Star Wars miniatures game. If they just modified the FoW rules a little bit it would actually be pretty plausible. I would prefer 28mm to 15mm though.

Star Wars?

Does anyone still care about it after the beatings it (and we!) took from Movie #'s 1, 2 and 3?

MAYBE if they only concentrated on #'s 4, 5 and 6...

Alpharius wrote:Star Wars?

Does anyone still care about it after the beatings it (and we!) took from Movie #'s 1, 2 and 3?

MAYBE if they only concentrated on #'s 4, 5 and 6...

I still care...

A 15mm army of clone troopers, a 4 man team base of jedi knights, a legion of easy to paint droids with all their cool features led by a lightsaber wielding droid general?

That would look very nice on the table top and in my display cabinet. The amount of source lighting techniques I would have to learn are encouragement enough.

Safe to say, I will be buying it if it is 15mm scale and if it does exist.

Platuan4th wrote:

Alpharius wrote:Star Wars?

Does anyone still care about it after the beatings it (and we!) took from Movie #'s 1, 2 and 3?

MAYBE if they only concentrated on #'s 4, 5 and 6...

I still care...

I cared until they turned the Mandalorians into pacifists.

Then you don't know enough about Mandalorians
A lot of the Mandalorians who were involved in training the clone army were very upset by the treatment of the clones proper, and wanted to establish a sort of "refuge" for them.

They'd fight to protect it, but would you really go about advertising that you're basically forming a giant nation of deserters who might be okay with doing mercenary work?

That's frankly why I liked the "Republic Commando" novels. Mandos aren't thugs or murderers. They've got their own codes of honor and their own culture.

Kanluwen wrote:Then you don't know enough about Mandalorians
A lot of the Mandalorians who were involved in training the clone army were very upset by the treatment of the clones proper, and wanted to establish a sort of "refuge" for them.

They'd fight to protect it, but would you really go about advertising that you're basically forming a giant nation of deserters who might be okay with doing mercenary work?

That's frankly why I liked the "Republic Commando" novels. Mandos aren't thugs or murderers. They've got their own codes of honor and their own culture.

He's talking about Duchess Satine and her followers, not the Republic commando novels - which are awesome.

I've not seen that specific episode of "Clone Wars" I gotta admit.
Did they do something radically different or was it an attempt at a "peacekeeping force"?

Kanluwen wrote:Then you don't know enough about Mandalorians
A lot of the Mandalorians who were involved in training the clone army were very upset by the treatment of the clones proper, and wanted to establish a sort of "refuge" for them.

They'd fight to protect it, but would you really go about advertising that you're basically forming a giant nation of deserters who might be okay with doing mercenary work?

That's frankly why I liked the "Republic Commando" novels. Mandos aren't thugs or murderers. They've got their own codes of honor and their own culture.

No, no I like the RC books, I like them alot and I like that aspect of the Mandalorians and how Death Watch were the thugs and murderers

Kanluwen wrote:I've not seen that specific episode of "Clone Wars" I gotta admit.
Did they do something radically different or was it an attempt at a "peacekeeping force"?

They literally make them Pacifists, they despise war, call Jango Fett an average Bounty Hunter (he was Mand'alor) and claim they have no idea how he got the Armor. They make Death Watch the only group of Mandos that resemble how they were. Oh did I mention they claim the Mandos gave up on war and their warrior ways 300 years prior to the Clone Wars. Which would mean the Mandalorian Civil War never happened which means Jango's family is never killed, which means he never became Mand'alor (or Mando'ade in that matter), which means Dooku never leaves the Jedi Order and a Clone Army is never created.

Weird.

But Jango was on the whole a very "meh" Bounty Hunter, and a fething terrible Mandalore

They may have fixed most of that whole, undoing continuity thing, but maybe not.

Yeah Jango was pretty terrible.

i care if they stay with 25/28mm so i can use my existing SWM. if they change the scale to 15mm or any bigger, i'll pass.

Would drool for Republic Commando models.

15mm Star Wars by Battlefront? Please be true. /swoon