Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

And so it came to pass that after a 5 year hiatus I was badgered into attending Gamesday UK 2008 by tha ladz.. This is my story.

First impressions were that it was better organised than last time I went, less queueing etc and more staff on. After that it was just as I remembered... geeks of all shapes and sizes, the odd bad fancy dress outfit, and a couple of nutters dressed up as space marine scouts with poorly made wooden sniper rifles!

First up was the compulsory scrum to get to the forge world shop. I had £70 in gift vouchers from my local store, and I wasn’t afraid to use them... One winged tyrant and some winged rippers later (and about 50 minutes in the four-deep wall of nerds) and I emerged relatively unscathed.

After that there was just plenty of wandering, the fruits of which you can see in the photos, surfice it to say I had a blast, felt like it was good to be back....

The rest of this I’ll divide up by games starting with....

PHOTOS :

WoC Stuff : http://www.flickr.com/photos/30119658@N08/sets/72157607301619165/

Everything else (spot me disguised as the White Dwarf?!!??) : http://www.flickr.com/photos/30119658@N08/sets/72157607301632063/

Bloodbowl

Oh yes, I have played a half of the PC version of bloodbowl game and I can tell you now folks, it’s a work of genius.

They have managed to keep to the mechanics, the look, and the feel of the game - it’s awesome. It looks great, and it even has the commentators from the Bloodbowl articles in Citadel Journal. There’s just enough of the “dice rolling” brought into the game to let you know you are playing the board game, whilst still making it an immersive computer gaming experience.

If you have specific questions about it, just ask, but it was made entirely of pig skins, win and awesomeness. And yes, my lizardmen won the half 1-0 with a turn 7 TD play from deep in my own half. MUAAHAHAHAHAHAH, silly gobbos.. (which, by the way, come with pogo sticks, chainsaws and all the other toys....)

The publishers were there and they are confident of a Q1 2009 release. The PC game will be ready by christmas but they are going for a simultaneous launch.

The other game license being talked about a lot at the moment is DoW2, but the queue for the demo suite was about 2000000 km long, so I couldn’t be arsed!!

Warhammer Fantasy.

See photos for as many pics as I could get of the WoC plastics in the cabinets, and some shots of blow-ups that they had of the rules.

I didn’t get a look at the army book itself, but it was there, and my buddies did see it. The rumour list is largely confirmed, and in addition apparently the new magic spells are horrific - particularly Tzeench.

EDIT : Buddy remembered some details on Tzeentch...

Tzeentch magic
Lvl 1; d6+1 strength d6+1 magic missile
Can't remember 2 and 3
Lvl 4; All models in unit strike each other with caster choosing which weapon is used, take that great weaponed armed Dwarfs
Lvl5; Casting 12+, basically remove a friendly model and replace with an Exalted Champion
Lvl6; Casting 15+ 2d6 strength 2d6 magic missile. If a 11 or 12 is rolled then don't resolve hits, instead remove the targeted unit from the game as it is sucked into the realm of cahos

There is an army wide rule to re-roll panic tests and the eye of the gods table looks nasty, but I couldn’t get a good pic.

One tit-bit - the hell cannon is now 200 pts, only takes up a single rare-slot, runs 3d6 towards the enemy when it goes wrong, has more change of going wrong and is only Str 5 under the template (10 under the hole).

The new mini’s look amazing imho. (see photos.)


WH 40k

Had a flick through the new SM ‘dex. It’s a lovely book definately will be buying it.

I also got to talk to both Alessio and Jervis, and asked them directly about FAQs for the non-codex chapters. The bottom line is they won’t be getting 2-shot CMLs or 3+ storm shields in an FAQ.

Alessio is adamant that they want the rule books to be self sufficient. However he did say (again) that the FAQ section of the website is due to be revamped in a couple of months.

He did come up with an interesting fluff explanation though, which is that the likes of the DA run their own forges and therefore manufacture their own equipment, inferior to that of mars. He did admit to me that he would have preferred the kit in the C:SM to have been given a different name - Mars Pattern Cyclone Missile Launchers and so on. His point was that this is basically different gear, not all CMLs or storm shields are created equal and the price you pay for not being a codex chapter and wearing hippy robes or holding dark secrets is that you don’t get all the latest toys from his nibs... Irritating, but I wish they’d said something like that sooner.

Forgeworld had a nice Seige of Vraks diorama to go with the new book, which I really like, lots of cool imagery and more good stuff from Warwick Kinrade in there. As already mentioned they have a new Lord of Change in the works. It looks sick. Side note: The Chaos Lord in terminator armor apparently sold out within about 15 minutes of the doors opening..


Other shizzle & conclusion

The THQ Rhino was really cool, took some shots of that. There was also some dude with about 16k points of Space Wolves in a nice diorama, plus 5 titans. What a nutter! He reckoned each titan took about 2.5 hours to build and 2 to paint with a spray gun. It was, he said, an army meant to be played with, but I still think it looked cool.. pics here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/30119658@N08/sets/72157607301609805/


There is also a nice new modular gaming table on the way, apparently it’ll be £100 for a 6x4 table in 6 parts, which come with a carry bag. It looks really nice (see photos). Next to it was some absurd orky train thing with a big feth-off gun on it.

All in all, it was a good day out. The highlight for me was playing the BB game - it's going to rock. Low-light - £1.80 for a bottle of pop, oh and the M25 on the way home....

Good report, thanks.

Good write up and top pics.

The modular board looks surprisingly nice - not sure if I want to fork out £100, though.

[rant]
The 'army meant to be played with'. WTF? Half of it wasn't even painted! I don't object to anybody doing a basic job to get an army in the field, but this is Games Day! It should be top draw.
[/rant]

Bloodbowl sounds cool - any ideas what platforms its getting released on?

Interesting to hear Alessio's 'explanation'. Its a great idea, in theory. Problem is it doesn't explain why everyone can now get the (formerly DA only) Mortis Pattern Dreadnoughts, or why different armies pay different points for identical gear.
If they want to do the whole 'different chapters have their own forges and hence get different gear, thats great. A genuinely good idea. BUT only if they actually do it well and consistently.
This just smacks of a lame excuse...

just my $0.02

The fundamental flaw in Alessio's excuse is every other army, but especially CSM.

Thanks so much for the pics, the dwarf vs ork naval battle and the seige of Vracks looked amazing.

However looking at the rulebook entry for chaos chosen... eye of gods table. Don't tell me GW is still stupid enough to have units roll a d6 at the start of the game (after deployment) for abilities/ penalties. I thought that rubbish was confined to 40k.

Can't they just say something closer to the truth, like, "We really just can't be bothered to write up a proper FAQ"?

Actually, it would probably be easier to write the damn FAQ then come up with some half-assed excuse as to why different marine armies have different stats for the same things.

A lot less confusing, and a lot less energy spent answering the same question at every convention from now until 6th edition....

£100 for what amounts to 2 GW modular hills stuck to some plastic boards? I love GW terrain - buy almost everything they put out - but that's absurd.


Almost as absurd as Alessio's bs FAQ explanation.

BYE

Well, the modular terrain board looks interesting to me. I'd have to see it in the flesh or on high quality photographs, but it strikes me as something that could save me a lot of time and mess. Yeah, making basic terrain boards out of styrene foam and grass mat etc., isn't much hassle. But this takes the sculpting, carving and assembly out of the process. If I could get a hefty discount off an online retailer, I possibly could be persuaded.

The big thing for me is if they clip together. Having terrain boards that clip together and come apart easily is a big deal as I hate modular boards that shift and knock models and buildings over when some numpty leans too hard on the things.

Personally though what I'd really like is a rubber terrain mat from "Zuzzy", but postage from the States is ridunkulous. On the other hand US$93 including postage for a 6x4 mat delivered is a lot better than £100 (less discount, plus postage) for plastic stuff. Maybe. I'll probably be ordering one or the other for Chrimbo ... we'll see.

I thought the modular board had "puzzle piece" type of connection to keep them connected together?

My first games day yesterday. Some high quality ques , and a nice long walk from the car park ( with £8.00 parking fee ). They were the only down sides , the rest I enjoyed. I would do a few things differently next time , like shopping first then looking second, as some of the stuff I wanted was sold out ( no ork fighta bomber or drop pod for me , bah!). Some great photos fitzeh , I needn't botherd taking my camera , I think he captured most of the stuff going on. The life size ork v space marine cardbored cut outs battle should have been added and the big tank battle was also fun.

No Gonads the eye of the gods table doesn't work like that.

It's worse, and better. lol

vodski wrote:( no ork fighta bomber or drop pod for me , bah!)

Would you have seriously bought a FW Drop Pod, with the plastic one coming out around the corner?

Oh no! My green space marines won't be as good as your blue space marines!

The modular board does look good. Two flat sections and Four with low hills that diagonally cover half of them.

The hills on them are flat too and allow you to add the existing plastic hills right on top as they are the same shape. It comes with a carry bad with shoulder strap and clips to connect the sections together.

I'm gunna keep my eye on my favorite online retailer to see if they get them in.

Pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29909548@N07/2859138389/

I don't post round here much but I thought I'd just add some stuff.

It was my first GD. The queue in for me was ridiculous I arrived by car at half 9 and didnt get in until 20 to 11.. I did however manage to get the chap book for the GG series and a Valkyrie so it was fine.

Thought I'd just add I was in on the seminar, they showed us the new marine stuff, new captains etc went through details, Same for WHFB Chaos Knights new characters aswell.
They showed us a teaser CAD of the Iron Clad Dreadnought. Dreadnought with big killy fists, Front armour that represented the frag assault launchers off the Crusader and 2 Hunter Killer style missiles on its shoulders.

fitzeh wrote:I also got to talk to both Alessio and Jervis, and asked them directly about FAQs for the non-codex chapters. The bottom line is they won’t be getting 2-shot CMLs or 3+ storm shields in an FAQ.

Alessio is adamant that they want the rule books to be self sufficient. However he did say (again) that the FAQ section of the website is due to be revamped in a couple of months.

He did come up with an interesting fluff explanation though, which is that the likes of the DA run their own forges and therefore manufacture their own equipment, inferior to that of mars. He did admit to me that he would have preferred the kit in the C:SM to have been given a different name - Mars Pattern Cyclone Missile Launchers and so on. His point was that this is basically different gear, not all CMLs or storm shields are created equal and the price you pay for not being a codex chapter and wearing hippy robes or holding dark secrets is that you don’t get all the latest toys from his nibs... Irritating, but I wish they’d said something like that sooner.

Interesting fluff explanation? That is just as lame of an EXCUSE as what Phil Kelly gave earlier.

And it is just an excuse. Lets not candy coat it like it makes sense or anything. Rule mechanics are suffering from such 'rationale'.

[edit] and when they do get around to rewriting these codices, they will include these things.

Do you know what their 'interesting fluff explanation' will be then?

"Oh well, the DA/BA, etc suddenly got a consistent arms contract from mars suddenly.. Please ignore all idiocy we said about fluff in the past"

This could have been fixed for free via a FAQ errata, but now GW expects you to wait several years for a rewrite, and then PAY AGAIN to have this inclusion in new rules.

If people believe GW thinks of its customers as anything but idiots, then those very same people are idiots too.

About the table -

I recently built a 6x4 table for a friend's B-day. I did it with another friend and it took us about 2 days, working around 12 hours each day. It wasn't a ton of work, but if we could have just bought a table that frankly looks better and still packs away compactly, we would have.

The table is like all GW terrain, really. With a pile of foam and a hot wire cutter you can make more terrain more economically. However, if you've got the cash to burn and you like instant terrain right out of the box, this is for you.

BTW, the 24 hours of table building includes driving time between the DYI store, drying time...etc.

Zoned

Many thanks for the report!!

And I am with Zoned about the table.

Well, actually i am with GW for not doing updates for BA/DA and stuff. Why? This time it would really be hard to balance all the new toys in context of the special rules of the codizes. (Unlike other times, where GW just states it is too dificult to balance, because they are too lazy).
But that doesn't mean, that the decision GW was making was the best one. In fact i think they should have released BA/DA/SW/BT as a part of the new Space Marine codex, giving them the same status, Legions had in the old Chaos Codex. This would have worked much better and those players would have had access to all their toys, because their lists would have been reworked from the start, incorporating the new SM codex.
Probably we would have lost some of the detail of those lists in order to make them compatible for SM 5.0, but this is a price i'd pay gladly.

Zoned wrote:About the table -

I recently built a 6x4 table for a friend's B-day. I did it with another friend and it took us about 2 days, working around 12 hours each day. It wasn't a ton of work, but if we could have just bought a table that frankly looks better and still packs away compactly, we would have.

The table is like all GW terrain, really. With a pile of foam and a hot wire cutter you can make more terrain more economically. However, if you've got the cash to burn and you like instant terrain right out of the box, this is for you.

BTW, the 24 hours of table building includes driving time between the DYI store, drying time...etc.

Zoned

It's not totally instant as you have to paint it.

Does anyone know what kind of plastic it is made of?

£100 is quite a lot.

Good report, thanks.

On the whole DA/BA faq issue, I'll be honest I said to my self what Alesso said. As happy as I would be if they did update those two books, it is by no means necessary. The FAQ's are meant to be erratas and not an addendum to the book. It seemed like Alesso was upfront that they don't want to require players to have to have multiple rulebooks, that they intend the books to be self sufficient. That his fluff explanation was just something thrown out there as a possible explanation and not the end all be all of the situation.

As nice as it would be for BA and DA to have all or even some of the new toys the demand that they be granted the update in the form of an FAQ is silly because it flies in the face of GW's normal operating procedure. Both should demand a revisit and update to bring them inline with the new codex, but going through FAQ isn't the way to go.

I mean the quick fix would be to just re-write as a chapter approved the DA and BA special characters to go with the Codex SM so that they modify that list and provide chapter traits, and just toss out the BA and DA codex.

I gotta say I was sceptical about the table - someone told me about it - until I went to take a look.

It's really solid, and it's transportable. If you don't have a FLGS (and in the UK they aren't that common) then you have to play at your buddies houses. Humping board sections around is fine if you have a nice big car, but I think the 2x2 sections fit together well and it looked nice all painted / flocked up.

On the FAQ front, I'm as disappointed as the rest of you tbh, but I did have a really good 20 minute chat with Alessio about all kinds of random stuff, I wasn't really out to interview him, that's my day job....

Chimera Calvin : I think you are mistaken. The whole army was painted, not exactly G.Demon standard but the whole diorama looked excellent imho.

WAaagh_Gonads : The Eye of Chaos table is a 2d6 roll, which you get to roll when you acheive certain things : Win a challenge, and some other gak. I didn't get the details but a double 1 means the character becomes stupid... It gets better from there.

EDIT 1: Alessio also said that they would do the BA / DA codices again - I asked him point blank if they would just phase them out, and he was adamant they wouldn't. I think we'll just be at the back of a long queue for 5ed books.

EDIT 2: The Dwarf port diaorama was shown at GD Germany i beleive (i saw some pics floating around the net) but it looks awesome in the flesh. The back of it is about 5ft high!

At first I thought the terrain boards sounded like a rip off but having looked at them and held them I'm starting to think they are a good idea. As they work out to around £16.66 per board thats not to bad.
The only drawbacks I can see to them are-
1) guess range weapons will be a lot more deadly (hmmm, this boards 2'x2' I'm at the base edge your on the join line...)
2) do you really need areas full of skulls for every game you play?
3) transporting them once they are painted and flocked, as they are hard plastic it will be easy to chip all your hard work off...
Overall the show was ok but no big releases unless you were a Marine player, mind you I went through about £200...
Mick

I just want to re-iterate how much win the BB computer game was....

I played a half, and almost joined the back of the queue again...

Chimera : Bloodbowl is due on PC and XBOX 360.

The modular board looks cool but how many different ones are there? one thing that always bugged me about modeled boards that folks make is even if they're super cool looking, you're still always playing on the same stretch of land. I like the variety of a plain flat board with hills and things you can put anywhere. But, the modular pieces might make for a good display board for tournaments, etc.

Lormax wrote:

vodski wrote:( no ork fighta bomber or drop pod for me , bah!)

Would you have seriously bought a FW Drop Pod, with the plastic one coming out around the corner?

Sorry , was I misleading ? I ment the new plastic ones , which had all sold out by the time I went to get one at about 13.30. It was bad enough parting with £85 for a valkyrie , when you can get a plastic plane model for three times the size , more complex and half the price. Oh no! shopaholic guilt! must spend more money to cheer myself up.

"Let the Alessio-hate flow freely, my young apprentices"

Necros- all six boards are different so you can have hills in the middle, at the ends or on the sides.
Mick

That life size Rhino needs some highlights.

The FW Khorne Lord must have sold out quicker than 15 minutes, I got there before that, still couldn't get one. It was a bit mental. Don't have much in the ways of news I'm afraid- although from the way Jervis was talking about Dark Eldar, it sounded like they haven't even started work on them yet. LatD won't even be considered until the existing armies are all redone, alas.

Must have been depressing for all the Black Library authors who weren't Dan Abnett, not everyone who wanted to see him got to before the end, while most of them had nothing to do later in the afternoon.