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.

Another consideration would be the possibility of creating an entirely new game within an entirely new setting. WARHAMMER steampunk, WARHAMMER WW2.

I don't see Warhammer Historical making a return, as awesome as that would be.

I think GW could encourage more female gamers without changing the product if they focused on marketing and having more female members of staff in the lime light of their marketing and customer interaction.

Simple things like that can have a real impact on the population that adopts and takes part in a hobby. They need a few "Wargamergirl" style people up on youtube; facebook; their own website etc... Push the angle that women are taking part and highlight it.

Heck GW could even consider sponsoring a few 3rd parties that way to give them a kick-start into getting active and posting good quality content.


I'd rather that they increased the actual playing female gamer market and then looked at what products might serve their interests better than doing research now on women who are not gamers and trying to appeal to that market.

It's a shame a lot of folks outright shun social media like Twitter and Instagram, as quite a few members of the GW studio have their own hobby-focused accounts there, including a few of the ladies in their employ.

Quite fun to see Laura (girl responsible for the art found in a lot of the trailers) thoroughly trash Duncan's army during a game of AoS.

 JohnnyHell wrote:

 His Master's Voice wrote:

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Warhammer Fantasy Battle ain't coming back. You don't staff up for AoS then redo the previous game. It's gone, guys.

We're talking about the IP, not the rules set.

That's cool. It's still not gonna come back as a main GW product in any way though. The IP has morphed into Age of Signar and that's what they're pursuing. Expecting anything else leads to disappointment.

I wouldn't mind seeing an AoS supplement about playing in the Old World using AoS rules. Maybe add in a few restrictions on which factions or models could be played to fit the old fluff. They could call it "The World that Was" and play it off as AoS armies participating in "historical reenactments" or something hokey like that.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
If they're smart, they will start releasing models for ranges that people have been clamoring for. Regardless of the reason, the Sisters of Battle is basically an untapped goldmine they're just sitting on, and if the success of Shadow Wars and Bloodbowl is any indication, revisiting popular old IPs can and will work.

Sisters of battle are GW's own Daemon Hunters. People wanted to play as a Daemonhunters for years. It took Blizzard 12 years to make them playable, and only AFTER the literally, worst expansion of all of WoW with the lowest number of suscription the game ever had. You always need to keep some "panic button" ready for an emergency.

Sisters have to be coming at some point, though, after the amazing Celestine they included in the triumvirate...

I know I'll be all over a detachment the second Sisters get a revamp. I've come really close to starting one multiple times but I always stop myself at the last moment due to combined cost/material/outdated range concerns.

Plastic Sisters and a plastic Exorcist, though? Hell I might even go in on a whole army...

 Hollow wrote:
I wonder what they plan to do over the coming few years to maintain and build upon the wave they are currently surfing?

Primarius Astra Militarium infantry. Calling it now.

 His Master's Voice wrote:

willb2064 wrote:


Seems crazy to me that they would let an incredibly strong and popular IP stagnate. They are continuing digital releases with Total War 2 and WHQ 2, i’m Sure one day they will bring it back in some form.

I assume Legacy Warhammer is what FW will pick up when the 30k torrent slows down a little.

That is a nice thought.
Hope that you are right.

Chikout wrote:
A sisters army next year is practically guaranteed at this point

No.

Guys, Yakface specifically banned the discussion about female gamers!

Glad to see that the Horus Heresy train is rolling along again. Rulebook at the printers is good. Hopefully that means I can get it ordered and waiting for me before I get home in March.

All sounds pretty good, but I do wonder how many games people will actually buy. Obviously some people have a lot more time to spend gaming than others, but everyone has a limit. If they're releasing several specialist games a year, for how long will they see decent sales on them? I suppose most of them will be intended as sort of "temporary" or "disposable" games that you play through once or twice and never again (like Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, Deathwatch: Overkill, etc).

Shadespire sounds like it will be more permanent, but that's going after a different audience, or at least trying for a larger one that might draw some new people into the other games.

I've always thought it was a little weird that 40k has a few female characters as it does. I understand it's a military game and in OUR world the military is 98% male; but this is the 41st millenium, people spend more time desperately batting, with bolter and bayonet, the slavering hordes of eldritch monstrosities both alien and daemon than they do sleeping. The Imperium doesn't have the luxury of being able to largely exclude ladies from the frontlines. They need more bodies to clog up enemy war machines with.

ERJAK wrote:
I've always thought it was a little weird that 40k has a few female characters as it does. I understand it's a military game and in OUR world the military is 98% male; but this is the 41st millenium, people spend more time desperately batting, with bolter and bayonet, the slavering hordes of eldritch monstrosities both alien and daemon than they do sleeping. The Imperium doesn't have the luxury of being able to largely exclude ladies from the frontlines. They need more bodies to clog up enemy war machines with.

Basically the Dark Eldar range gets this right.

Just need a few extra torso/head options on a revamped Guard sprue. I'm kind of skeptical we'll see this, though, given:
1- Tempestus Scions are a new range and no such opportunity was taken, there
2- The IG 'dex is dropping soon without any model support, it would seem

Which does make me wonder - when are some of the dated ranged (IG, Eldar, etc.) due to receive updates to some of their "core" units the way Tau and Space Marines did in recent years?

It would be nice if their marketing team gave us a liiittle more information to go off than we currently get. Still, they're new at this sort of thing and it's nice to see them trying at all.

I'm thrilled by a lot of this news. Everyone's been saying "Oh, GW's been shrinking, they're a failing company because their prices are too high! Hurrrr"

Clearly, that's not the case. Hiring extra design teams to keep the product flowing is a great sign. Sending surplus cash to shareholders as dividends is also a great sign (since it might also attract new shareholders which means more cash). I'm real glad to see GW taking the reigns on the community and trying to steer it in a more positive direction, getting new players hooked up with people that are all about the hype and the hobby, rather than grumbling about the old days, or price hikes, or bad rules or whatever people complain about these days.

I always chuckle when I hear about GW being surprised by the success of something. There's a lot that they can do that would be successful if they'd just put the effort into it. I'm sure Necromunda will be a hit for fans of that (I'm not into it at all), but more importantly, I hope this means they'll take some more risks with 40k and AoS and expand some of the races (or add new factions) that maybe they thought weren't so popular.

In fact, there's one faction that would be great to add, especially if they're hoping to draw in more female players...

The next range that has been hinted at but not revealed looks to be a fantasy range of either elves or vampires. That would be the next thing I expected.

Thanks.

I thought that was the case - and it's fair enough, as AoS needs love, too.

Though of the upcoming 40k armies I think Eldar could use a little TLC to their model range.

I have to admit (and this goes back to a point I raised somewhere on the first page) it's a little difficult at times to keep up with the rate of releases these days. Not speaking from a monetary perspective (though there is that) so much as just in terms of the continuous, expanding scope of the game(s).

 Crazyterran wrote:
I think ranges that are already mostly in Plastic (Tau, Tyranids, IG, Admech) are going to be single week codex releases, while armies that need massive overhauls from Metal/Finecast (Eldar, Sisters, Cult/God specific Chaos, Orks) are going to get month long releases.

Space Marine variants will probably get a few Primaris releases thrown in to bump up sales, but I expect this massive codex push is their reason for them to phase out older materials/models and bring in the new stuff. They can even take out units at this point, and just point people who have the old stuff to the index, allowing them to change the line up going into the future.

Lady Atia has said that the Tau are getting something next year and implied it was some sort of themed mini-army age of sigmar style. I would be expecting around 6 (minimum depending on what they are) kits honestly since it is implied to be an auxiliary race release or an FSE release. The last Tau update was around that size and took the month so I don't know. Seems like a bold prediction.

Edit
It all depends on if the new stuff is directly for the TE in the codex or if it's going to be its own stand alone mini-faction as well. So you may or may not be wrong. I just wouldn't be so sure about it.

 jeff white wrote:

Girls tend to care about different things.
Maybe gw needs genestealer dollies or the celestine makeover app.
That ought to bring them in..

I know you are being facetious, but that's specifically what I'm saying GW should NOT do. Those people will never be the audience of GW, just like GW would be mistaken in targeting frat boys or guys below the poverty line. There might be some potential fans there, but as an audience, it would be a mistake to go after them and to change their game to do so.

In the same way, going after "girls" as a group would be a mistake. Instead, GW should go after "girls who would play wargames" or "girls who would paint miniatures" - in other words, rather than treating them as a singular group, GW should focus on the subset of the greater group which already has something in common with the material they produce. GW needs to go after after the female audience they at least have some inroads to already. Rather than trying to change the game, GW needs to find the people who could potentially like the game as it is without changes. It's only really after that approach has reached a saturation point (and GW can grow a lot more before that it is hit) that GW needs to worry about about specifically appealing a new audience - but honestly, I don't think GW ever really needs to specifically target an audience outside their core. They seem content being the big fish in a small pond.

Though honestly, I wouldn't say no to a plush genestealer.

I'm not expecting any new model ranges or major range updates for either AoS or 40k until after the first of the year. We may get a few new models, most likely heroes, but the biggest releases between now and Christmas will be Necromunda and Shadespire plus the terrain bundles that were previewed earlier this year, and maybe some new Battleforce/SC bundles.

STILL nothing new on titancius. </3>

 xSoulgrinderx wrote:
STILL nothing new on titancius. </3>

The fact we know it's coming at all is pretty crazy, though.

Hard to believe it was just a few years ago when GW was saying things like they had "no idea" why people buy their products while also claiming that they knew the "games" part in Games Workshop didn't matter.

 Gamgee wrote:

This is your only warning before you get this topic locked. SHUT THE feth UP!!! The last discussion was closed for a reason about the woman thing. It stared small and "on topic" with these dumb little jabs of posts before detailing into gak. So stop it. Stop trying to test it. It's just going to get the thread locked again when I'm quite enjoying it. Two people are already getting pissed off its being brought up again. It's a dead shark from last thread stop it.

I apologize. I meant no offense. I thought the last thread was locked because it became overly heated and off topic (which I admit I contributed to). Since I quite enjoy this discussion myself, I decided to be completely on topic and specifically discuss things that were mentioned in the OP as relevant to GW's interests (that would be GW liking to get women involved without alienating existing fanbase, new player recruitment, no intention of mass-marketing, and specialist games), so I don't think I've derailed the thread. I also wasn't the one who brought it up first, so it is a reasonable assumption to believe that it is a topic that others wish to discuss. But if this is a subject that Dakka is not mature enough to discuss without it become an issue for some of the posters, which I'll defer to your judgment on, then que sera sera, I guess.

Personally, I think GW has been making all the right moves for the past two years or so and I think Shadespire could potentially be one of the best moves they've made yet. Even with all the good will they've been building up, they are just one bad move away from "old GW is back" taking it all away. They are doing well and using their profit to grow their business well, but their audience is still largely made up of people who were GW fans that were burned before. Without gaining a new audience to replace their aging and bitter audience, GW needs to be careful about growing too quickly. "Old GW" is an albatross around their neck that I think will end up sabotaging them at the wrong moment. But stuff like Blood Bowl, Necromunda, and Shadespire may be GW's saving grace and I'm happy to see them get the support that they deserve.

Honestly, if they want to branch into new markets, they need to find a way to push their products for people more interested in the hobby side.

I mean, I'm not sure about most of you, but my first exposure to 40k was as a child in the local comic/gaming store. That's where a big part of 40k's base comes from, people who already play MTG, or other card games, or rpgs, or even just gerneric board games. In short, people who would be interested in the game side more than the hobby side.

The same is true for people slowly learning about the hobby via video games, I know dawn of war introduced the universe to a couple people in my group. These are people more into the game than the hobby portion.

I can't really think of any avenue for people who might be less into the game and more into converting and painting the models. It's not like you'll see warhammer at an arts and crafts fair, or being sold in hobby lobby, but I know a few people who do enjoy converting and painting models far more than they ever will enjoy playing them. Drawing more people like that in seems a decent goal.

It could even lead to a more gender diverse market, if only because focusing on the artistic side might make it seem slightly more socially acceptable for women. Just like a few guys probably feel way more comfortable being artistic when they can fall back on the excuse that it's all for a war game.

 Gamgee wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
I think ranges that are already mostly in Plastic (Tau, Tyranids, IG, Admech) are going to be single week codex releases, while armies that need massive overhauls from Metal/Finecast (Eldar, Sisters, Cult/God specific Chaos, Orks) are going to get month long releases.

Space Marine variants will probably get a few Primaris releases thrown in to bump up sales, but I expect this massive codex push is their reason for them to phase out older materials/models and bring in the new stuff. They can even take out units at this point, and just point people who have the old stuff to the index, allowing them to change the line up going into the future.

Lady Atia has said that the Tau are getting something next year and implied it was some sort of themed mini-army age of sigmar style. I would be expecting around 6 (minimum depending on what they are) kits honestly since it is implied to be an auxiliary race release or an FSE release. The last Tau update was around that size and took the month so I don't know. Seems like a bold prediction.

Edit
It all depends on if the new stuff is directly for the TE in the codex or if it's going to be its own stand alone mini-faction as well. So you may or may not be wrong. I just wouldn't be so sure about it.

Kroot Mercenaries is a long clamored for army like the Mechanicus was. Shaper, Krootox, Hounds, Mercenaries, two new units (a monster and a something else?) would make a lot of sense, and its something that could be reasonably given some special rules to allow them to be taken alongside any army (except Nids, of course).

Even if they made it Tau Empire wouldnt be bad, but it would be an easy way to make some allies for some of the Xenos races out there.

 Crazyterran wrote:

 Gamgee wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
I think ranges that are already mostly in Plastic (Tau, Tyranids, IG, Admech) are going to be single week codex releases, while armies that need massive overhauls from Metal/Finecast (Eldar, Sisters, Cult/God specific Chaos, Orks) are going to get month long releases.

Space Marine variants will probably get a few Primaris releases thrown in to bump up sales, but I expect this massive codex push is their reason for them to phase out older materials/models and bring in the new stuff. They can even take out units at this point, and just point people who have the old stuff to the index, allowing them to change the line up going into the future.

Lady Atia has said that the Tau are getting something next year and implied it was some sort of themed mini-army age of sigmar style. I would be expecting around 6 (minimum depending on what they are) kits honestly since it is implied to be an auxiliary race release or an FSE release. The last Tau update was around that size and took the month so I don't know. Seems like a bold prediction.

Edit
It all depends on if the new stuff is directly for the TE in the codex or if it's going to be its own stand alone mini-faction as well. So you may or may not be wrong. I just wouldn't be so sure about it.

Kroot Mercenaries is a long clamored for army like the Mechanicus was. Shaper, Krootox, Hounds, Mercenaries, two new units (a monster and a something else?) would make a lot of sense, and its something that could be reasonably given some special rules to allow them to be taken alongside any army (except Nids, of course).

Even if they made it Tau Empire wouldnt be bad, but it would be an easy way to make some allies for some of the Xenos races out there.

Except for the fact that she specified it would be a Tau Empire specific release. It makes it sound rather exclusive. So if by some miracle Kroot show up as their own sub-faction it would probably be Tau only. There are other rumors that I can't confirm speaking of a new xenos race. I can't help but feel someone on the internet misconstrued Atia's words about this Tau release as the hinted "new xenos faction" that everyone has been discussing so much. Of course this is all circular at this point because we simply don't know enough.

there are no more HH plastics planned at the moment.

Boo. No more normal sized marines in plastic I guess...

 Abadabadoobaddon wrote:

there are no more HH plastics planned at the moment.

Boo. No more normal sized marines in plastic I guess...

Music to my ears. Too much marine releases. I think even GW realised they can't release that much. That or their sales were lacklustre. Either way more support for 40k and AoS and specialist games is the way to go in my book.

 Gamgee wrote:
Music to my ears. Too much marine releases. I think even GW realised they can't release that much.

Yeah... I think you missed Doobie's point. GW's going to continue to release Marines, they'll just be the new scale Marines that don't really fit with the current ones.