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I am working towards running the second Animosity narrative campaign weekend at the end of the month.

I have chosen to theme the event on The Ullanor Crusade.

Over the course of time, since our first event, it seems I may have jumped the gun a little and committed to a pre-heresy event too early in our little event groups lifetime. Choosing Ullanor, which effectively only allows Imperial and Ork players to attend has definitely affected our player ratio so far.

Despite the success of our first event it seems players are not as keen to participate in pre-heresy weekends as standard 40k weekends. Is this due to the expense of pre-heresy forces and the expansions associated, or is it simply the gaming community is not as willing to play those expansions at organised weekends?

Certain gaming groups, that I will not name, have a dedicated fan base that has been built over a number of years. As we are a new gaming group I can understand that people may be unwilling to try their hand until they have heard good things about it and I anticipate it would likewise take a number of years to reach the attendance levels of established gaming groups.

What I'm really trying to find out is whether people think the pre-heresy thing is all that and a bag of chips? I have began work on a second pre-heresy force but my first sits on a shelf as there are fewer opportunities to play with pre-heresy World Eaters than my Imperial Fists. Obviously it is a great marketing project for FW, but is there enough interest outside of the GW fanboys (who stick to the WHW events) to support events like the one we are running?

Pre-heresy armies appear to be collected by the more dedicated hobbyist. Is the pre-heresy army simply a badge to indicate this sort of thing? I'm not suggesting that a Necron or Tyranid player is not as committed, far from it... I'm suggesting that the pre-heresy astartes collectors are however another branch of committed hobbyist that may take their collections to another level.

The Horus Heresy novels are extremely successful and therefore there is a vast knowledge of the era that keeps expanding, expanding faster than that of 40k it seems. Does anybody think that the FW range and their expensive expansions (despite the ability to use many third parties) keeps the miniature collecting well below that level of success?

I hope that in the coming weeks we will see a late surge for the Ullanor Crusade. I had hoped that we would see a greater number of the astartes legions represented at our event and anticipated that ticket sales would be determined by the number of Ork players we could attract but it seems that the era may be holding us back rather than our relative inexperience as a gaming group.

I'd like to know what people think as it will determine whether we go forward with the Great Crusade after Ullanor!

You can check out our event dakka thread here if you wish...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/440020.page

We are also on Facebook now too... http://www.facebook.com/animositycampaigns

Well, first of all I'm a massive fan of Pre-Heresy and I'm building an army for it, but considering the large number of games and minis I need to collect I'm still building my army, which does limit my ability to play some what. I imagine there might be a few people in a similar situation to me.

As for why you arn't getting the gamers you want to get - it could be down to the how many people you are advertising to - have you advertised just on this forum or other forums too? Or where you are based. Games in the Midlands tend to do best as they have a large catchment area. Being based in Yorkshire a short 1/2 hour drive to play in Nottingham isn't a problem, a 5/6 hour drive to play in Sussex is - incidentally, I just looked at the first forum post on the link you gave and can see nothing about where the event is, this would put me off big time.

But keep them coming and eventually I might be in a position to come along to a few.

Mansfield, I thought it was in there I'll change that tonight!

I think, since betrayal, there are a great deal of players in the same position as you. Maybe in a few months to a year as peoples force develop there will be a greater demand.

We have already considered focussing on the scouring era next time round as it will allow a level of flexibility as we can include chaos codex players in the mix!

I loves me some Pre-Heresy! Of particular interest to me are the Thousand Sons with their quest for knowledge and Egyptian theme.

While it's true there isn't a large demand for Pre-Heresy products, I think people in the hobby will come around soon since it's a bit different than most 40k battles...if for no other reason than the fact they'd get to play with another variant of the Space Marines. I, for one, would love to have the monies to get me a small (around 1000 points) force of Thousand Sons to play with.

However, and it's a big one, GW's pricing is just short of robbery. I refuse to pay what they want for a rulebook, codex(es), and armys so I guess my Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons are going to be just a dream...

I know quite a few people that are waiting for their particular legion to be covered in print by FW before they take the plunge.

I think you'll always end up with limited people when you go for something more 'specialist'

Most 40K players will start an army and likely build it up to apoc sized levels, that takes time and money.

They'll also likely do a 2nd or 3rd, but will have the opportunity to play these against 'everyone'

Once you start having a more specialist setting which requires not only more investment of time and money, but also requires other people to do the same to make it worthwhile investing time and money, the numbers who want to be involved dwindle

Rayvon wrote:I know quite a few people that are waiting for their particular legion to be covered in print by FW before they take the plunge.

This is very true... one of the greater problems is that they release slowly and piece meal. Over the course of the year they need to spread releases in order to spread their financial income evenly across that year. One of my frustrations with this and many other folks too I guess, is that so far we have had one Primarch for four legions released and two characters from the Sons of Horus. If releases are staggered in such a way the last Primarch may be 18 years away (I know, I surmising) and tough they released four legions in Betrayal, non of them were legions that are still loyalist in the canon, eliminating initial investment in the system by players who collect Imp fists, Salamanders, Raven Guard etc

Reaver83 wrote:I think you'll always end up with limited people when you go for something more 'specialist'

Most 40K players will start an army and likely build it up to apoc sized levels, that takes time and money.

They'll also likely do a 2nd or 3rd, but will have the opportunity to play these against 'everyone'

Once you start having a more specialist setting which requires not only more investment of time and money, but also requires other people to do the same to make it worthwhile investing time and money, the numbers who want to be involved dwindle

I'm feeling that strain now with this event. Not only have I made an error of judgement regarding the era, I've narrowed the field even further by focussing on Ullanor... which would be great if a new Ork codex had just been released and they were back vogue!

Well if you need orks, I'm in someways surprised

Lots of people have them, and the majority who own them know they are always a bit of a gamble.

And you don't need to do anything to make orks per heresy.

That was certainly my thinking too, and I am playing as them myself. A number of the dedicated Ork players I know are out of the country with work, which has set me back a few as they would have been sure attenders otherwise...