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.

Ok, now that the December WD has hit the shelves, we've seen pretty much everything that GW has to offer this year. Time for a look back to see the highlights and lowlights of their 2011 output using the following rating system;

Truly Inspired
Mildly Perplexing
Utterly Awful

And of course, feel free to chip in with your own views

January - Skaven Wave 2

A generous slew of rat related minis saw the completion of the skaven miniature line. This is one of the rare occasions when GW has had a miniature available for every single entry in an army book (even if some of these minis are a little outdated).

Hell Pit Abomination - not for everyone perhaps, but for me, a spot on realisation of the concept as shown and described in the book
A new gutter runner / night runner set would have made this wave perfect
Ok, there's nothing in this release that I hate, but the use of the warpstone chunk from the Warp Lightning Cannon as the Plague Claw Catapult's counter weight doesn't really work

February - Blood Angels Wave 2

GW repeats the trick and fills the few remaining holes in the Blood Angel line (though this is not exactly hard for a Space Marine army... or shouldn't be anyway)

Furioso Dreadnought in plastic at last!
Nothing really puzzling here, although Tyranid players began scratching their heads
Ok, some people kind of like it, but the fact that the Storm Raven was nicknamed the Chibi-Hawk says it all

March - Orcs & Goblins

8th months after the release of Warhammer 8th Edition, GW decide to release an army book for it

Arachnarok - big arse spider, what's not to like?
Hang on, where did all the magic items go?
Again, nothing truly awful here, but the Savage Orc Boar Boyz looked somewhat precarious on their mounts

April - Grey Knights

After a one month gap, Space Marines return in the form of the 666th Chapter and lo, they too can make use of the Storm Raven. What a happy coincidence of spectacularly remarkable proportions

Grey Knights in plastic. Hooray, now you don't need to take out a mortgage to collect them. Oh... hang on a sec, they’re still over £20 for a box of five models
An army that completely cancels out the special abilities of another army? Daemon players cry.
The Dreadknight, the pilot of which looks uncannily like he's sitting in a baby carrier. Also a dumb idea...

May - Tomb Kings

GW whack out another Fantasy release – looks like there’s no stopping them now

The Tomb Guard just edge it over the Necrosphinx/War Sphinx...
...although the decision not to reduce the scale of the skeletons to bring them into line with VC is puzzling (or just laziness given that no new TK Skeleton Warror kit was released)
Nothing abysmal here so let’s move on to...

June - The Month Where All The Bad Things Happened

Whilst June should have been about Dark Eldar Wave 2, GW gamely distracted us with some bewilderingly antagonistic shenanigans instead

GW start to replace their metal miniature range with a resin product that they brand finecast. Unfortunately the process appears rushed and many people report instances of miscasts. There is also no price drop which is frustrating given that resin is a cheaper material. In a lot of instances the price of kits actually rocketed (take a bow Blood Knights) which brings us to...
...Another price rise. Laughing in the face of wage freezes the world over, GW decides now is a good time to hike prices above the rate of inflation yet again...
...next GW decided to block cheaper imports of their products to countries outside of Europe and USA forcing “rest of the world” customers to buy at inconceivably expensive prices set in the national GW stores...
...and finally the phasing out of one month in advance previews because apparently you’re more likely to buy something if there’s no hype whatsoever

July – Storm of Magic

This month saw an overwhelming (and not necessarily in a good way) array of monsters, wizards and wacky terrain to support the new Storm of Magic supplement

The Necromancer – beautifully simplistic design - a strong contender for miniature of the year
Monsters and magic are of course an integral part of any Fantasy wargaming experience, but you can go too far IMHO
Sorry Trish, the Cockatrice and Chimera was tolerable, but the Manticore was a misfire of epic proportions – daft pose and poorly conceived design – a strong contender for worst miniature of the year

August – Vampire Surprise Wave

As GWs marketing blackout began to kick in, some unexpected releases (though not completely unexpected thanks to the obligatory leaks) began to appear. The first of these curveballs was a vampire wave that nobody was really demanding.

In any other month, the Zombie Dragon / Terrorgheist kit would have gotten the nod here, but the Garden of Morr was a thing of undisputed beauty
Tyranid players scratch their heads ever more furiously
No awfulness here (the plastic wraiths and banshees were also nice), it was just oddly timed

September – Ogre Kingdoms

The third fantasy army release of the year and probably the best supported army book ever

Most of the ogre stuff was solid if unspectacular, but I did like the Firebelly and Bragg the Executioner
Did GW really make an entire model range available for a army book in one wave?! – even Space Marine players are still waiting for a Conversion Beamer
Those fugly Yhetees released in failcast

October – Dreadfleet

Whilst the rumours began to surface (ho ho) around July/August, few people were expecting anything like this prior to that point

The sea mat was pretty cool
There was some debate on about this game on Dakka, and I think it’s safe to say that a lot of people thought this was just a strange product to release. I want to respect GW for taking a chance, but without making judgements about the game itself, it was fairly obvious that it wouldn't have widespread appeal
The big turnoff for me was the scale of the game, I just couldn’t wrap my head around ships the size of castles - like Storm of Magic, this was too Michael Bay in concept and design

November - Necrons

In the wake of last year’s Dark Eldar spectacular, here was another long awaited xenos update (it was of course amusing to see the whole thing leaked two weeks in advance)

Nothing was as sexy as the Dark Eldar miniatures, but plastic Immortals were well realised with the Deathmarks as a nifty looking alternative to the kit
In reference to the fantasy scenery piece, the Skullvane Manse, could you please make the fething skulls optionl
Flayed Ones, by no means the worst GW miniatures ever produced, but still poorly realised and in failcast to boot

December - Beastmen Wave 2

Surprise! Just when you thought they were never coming, Beastmen finally got models for their rare choices

Meh, the Ghorgon/Cygor kit wasn’t “Minotaur” disastrous, but it wasn’t in the league of the HPA or Arachnarok either – still the best thing out this month though
Whilst this was evidence that GW are committed to completing the miniature ranges for their armies, it won’t stop Tyranid players from head scratching – so what has happened to the Tervigon/Harpie/Tyranofex?
I’m going to plump for the Jabberslythe – a very lazy design of a beastie that supposedly induces madness

Anyway, that's my thoughts Over to you!

You pretty much summed it up quite well, as I have been scratching my head all year, and yes, I am a Nid player.

The Dreadknight was probably the worse miniature that comes to mind, some of the GK fluff the worst published this year.

Forgeworld did some good work again this year, as usual.

Dreadfleet was a waste. Finecast awful. The price increase and the way they shafted those living in the outer territories. The way GW pressed ahead with litigation against CHS.

It's been a year of dumb.

A good, quick yet comprehensive review!

Having not bought a WD in 4 years, there is not much I can truly add, although I thought the Flayed Ones were more of a than a .....

They are not that bad, they kind of grow on you and even if you don't like them at all, there is always eBay. As for the rest of the GW shenanigans this year, is all I really have too say on that matter!

The Megaforces are worth mentioning. They seem to be very popular, I expect quite a few people will start new armies thanks to them.

I agree with most of the stuff being said. Im just a bit confussed on the whole how comes Warplock Jezzails for Skaven cost £30.00 for three.

As a nid player Im still scratching my head... Whos also betting Crons do not get their whole range because they are not a Marine army?

We need new Nid models, we would BUY more and not moan at price (well most of it) as long as we actually got a model!

lord_blackfang wrote:The Megaforces are worth mentioning. They seem to be very popular, I expect quite a few people will start new armies thanks to them.

Actually I'd at those because checking the prices, its £130 for either of them. That's ridiculous, considering before they pulled the Megaforces off the shelves, the only 2 in stock (Orks and SM's) was £100. I'm sorry where did the extra £30 demand materialise from? *EDIT* This in regards to 40k Megaforces, though I've noticed the WHFB Megaforces are also £130 each. That's not a great saving personally.

Otherwise, a decent review. Kind of an oddball year in retrospect - good releases on the whole but questionable/terrible/soul-crushing business decisions. Next year is going to be a right mess

It's nearly two years since the Tyranid codex was released. I suspect if GW were going to release the four missing monstrous creatures they would have done so by now.

Kilkrazy wrote:It's nearly two years since the Tyranid codex was released. I suspect if GW were going to release the four missing monstrous creatures they would have done so by now.

Probably, but Beastmen came out one month later IIRC, so maybe there's some hope

Kilkrazy wrote:It's nearly two years since the Tyranid codex was released. I suspect if GW were going to release the four missing monstrous creatures they would have done so by now.

A week ago you could've said the same about the 3 missing monsters from the Beastmen army. And still missing about 2/3 of their special characters and no razorgor chariot. Not sure what that proves other then it takes them a long time to make big multi purpose monster kits.a

Excellent post, EXAULT!

Howard A Treesong wrote:The Dreadknight was probably the worse miniature that comes to mind, some of the GK fluff the worst published this year.

Come now, worse than the monkey? Worse than the chibi hawk?

I think you're overstating it.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Come now, worse than the monkey? Worse than the chibi hawk?

I think you're overstating it.

i liked the monkey but had blotted the chibi hawk out of my memory.

The CHS part improve it a good bit though.

Howard A Treesong wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Come now, worse than the monkey? Worse than the chibi hawk?

I think you're overstating it.

i liked the monkey but had blotted the chibi hawk out of my memory.

The CHS part improve it a good bit though.

That's the good part about the Chibi-hawk - if GW hadn't screwed up, then CHS wouldn't have had the opportunity to fix it!

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Come now, worse than the monkey? Worse than the chibi hawk?

I'm not going to comment on the SM flyer, but I quite like the pictures I've seen of the Jokaero - haven't seen it in person yet, mind you.

The most telling thing from this was that the "June" made me completely forget that "January" and "February" were still in the same year.

Could you elaborate how the Necromancer would be the miniature of the year? Seems pretty boring to me.

GWs Model of the year.

FWs Model of the year.

Mangler Squigs? Putting one together right now, awesome in detail and size.

Liquid Green Stuff - best thing since Devlan Mud.)

Tamurkhan, The Throne of Chaos. Brilliant book, and very high quality production.

2011 was a bogus year IMO for GW IMO.

Business wise, they made some odd decisions such as the embargo, lack of QA with finecast, various pricing shenanigans and various legal shenanigans.

Release wise, 2011 was very Warhammer Fantasy heavy which is not inheritably bad IMO but it was a little biased IMO (probably as a counter to 2010 being a 40k year). As a standalone release, Dreadfleet was a wasted opportunity IMO in terms of price and design. The GK codex was low quality and badly designed IMO (in terms of rules and fluff). The necron book was too much of a retcon to existing fluff.

I was pretty happy with this year.

The move to finecast got me to finally buy the Tyranid elites rather than hunt for resin alternatives.

The vampire second wave and monster focus in Storm of Magic got me to give the system another look, and subsequently start an army for it for the first time in about 15 years.

Liquid green stuff was a really good release, at least for me, since I never even knew about the other products. being able to simply buy a pot for $5 from my LGS rather than hunt around obscure hobby shops in back alleys for alternatives is nice.

I was a bit unhappy with the embargo. Not because it hugely affected me - I can still get what I want from at practically the same discount from the US. But it made a lot of Australian players move to other systems or away from the hobby entirely, which thinned the crowds. This mostly makes me sad for my FLGS, since I see less people in there since the embargo, not more.

candy.man wrote:2011 was a bogus year IMO for GW IMO.

Business wise, they made some odd decisions such as the embargo, lack of QA with finecast, various pricing shenanigans and various legal shenanigans.

Release wise, 2011 was very Warhammer Fantasy heavy which is not inheritably bad IMO but it was a little biased IMO (probably as a counter to 2010 being a 40k year). As a standalone release, Dreadfleet was a wasted opportunity IMO in terms of price and design. The GK codex was low quality and badly designed IMO (in terms of rules and fluff). The necron book was too much of a retcon to existing fluff.

IMO you say "IMO" a lot. I think in terms of releases this was a great year, though Dreadfleet was a bit of a head scratcher. The GK fluff is a bit questionable, and the Necron fluff a bit jarring, but the rules themselves were great. It was nice to see Fantasy get some attention after languishing for practically a year. However, I feel many of the business decisions were very wrong headed; whether this will hurt GW remains to be seen. I think their annual report comes out in January or Feb. Not sure. Either way, that's when we'll see the impact of the embargo/finecast/price "adjustments"/etc.

There are 2 models missing from this list - there was a Nurgle Lord and something else released the same month as that, but I forget what.

Ouze wrote:There are 2 models missing from this list - there was a Nurgle Lord and something else released the same month as that, but I forget what.

Saurus Lord.

This year was meh for me. The VC models are cool, but nothing else tickled my fancy amidst all the bad business decisions.

FW had a decent year.

2012 should be a better year for me as I intend to do VC when they come out next month.

having to buy 2 WD just to get the sisters rules. To add insult to injury the sister lists were the only 40k it seemed in those 2 issues.

Sister rules. Not as bad as everybody initially thought but for the most part cost went up with effectiveness going down. When SC are the default choice over the normal HQ you know you have a problem. Still a very low tier army.

Hidden failcast price increase. Many of the failcast stuff used the same mold as before but hey lets tack on an extra couple of bucks.

GW direct sales. I bought an immolator from them which was shipped in a bag as loose spures with no instructions and missing the clear glass canopy. You know those instruction sheets are costing GW millions I call up GW direct to get instructions and the guy argues with me about needing instructions. I finally argue with him enough that he so graciously emails me a copy.

Liquid greenstuff. Love it. I thought it was going to be like $12 a pot but for $4.45 I thought it was the only decently priced item in all of GW's inventory.

To be honest I'm phasing myself out of GW products. I'm just buying a few things now and I'm only buying second hand or at my LGS which offers a quantity discount (don't want to take all my business away from my LGS it's in my best interest for them to be profitable) I'm getting ready to jump into Battletech. I lobbied successfully for my LGS to carry it (Thank you facebook!) GW has priced me out pretty much plus I see the writing on the wall on where GW is going business wise and I want out before then.

MrFlutterPie wrote: Hidden failcast price increase. Many of the failcast stuff used the same mold as before but hey lets tack on an extra couple of bucks.

None of them used the same mold. None.

You notice the sprue they were attached to? They didn't clip those off the metals for fun. They weren't in the metal mold. Every single metal model that goes finecast needs its mold redone.

afaik resin can't be spin cast. And from what I've heard, failcost has at least improved in quality since its release. I have yet to buy any as I just haven't needed to.

It's hard to get a good measure of what the quality is like now, because you still get the 'I went into a store and every single finecrap model was miscast/I went into a store and every single finecast model was perfect' posts which are both complete crap.

I think I would only buy finecost at a GW store(heresy I know) just so that if it was defective I could exchange it or get my money back right away. As such that limits my options to characters only as I will spend as little as possible at a GW store. If my LGS has a good return/exchange policy then I'll just stick with them.

-Loki- wrote:

MrFlutterPie wrote: Hidden failcast price increase. Many of the failcast stuff used the same mold as before but hey lets tack on an extra couple of bucks.

None of them used the same mold. None.

You notice the sprue they were attached to? They didn't clip those off the metals for fun. They weren't in the metal mold. Every single metal model that goes finecast needs its mold redone.

I know they do not use the same actual physical mold. I was merely saying that the sculpts were the same as the metal ones in many cases. There has been some new sculpts but most of the those were all sculpted to be in finecast from the get go.

My my personal experience: The finecast Casket of the souls was the same sculpt as the metal one but it costs more. The new liche priest was only released in finecast and does not have a metal equivalent.

My compliant was that many finecast minis sculpts are the same as their previous metal versions but are priced higher then the old metal minis.