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Sad times. Looks like the Specialist Games range is going to the great lead graveyard in the sky. A small but growing selection of Specialist Games minis are no longer available. Confirmed by several posts from Tactical Command, Warseer, Specialist Arms, Epic Addiction Blog and anyone that phones up GW Mail Order to ask. The general line is "They are gone permanently. Other stuff will disappear as stocks run out"

A quick look on GW UK show that some models are no longer available, such as:

Blood Bowl Atherlorn Avengers team
Soopa stompa
Reaver titan
Artillery company
Repulsive Grand Cruiser
Blood Bowl Chaos Booster

Also, some Warmaster, Mordheim and Inquisitor miniatures are unavailable. Could either mean they're switching them to Finecast (ugh) or they're wrapping up the range completely now.

If you want any SG models, probably best to grab them now...

Didn't buy some Epic terminators the other day because they went above the GW price, just checked and they're no longer available.

Terrible news, but I guess it was going to happen one day.

God dammit, I really hope this isn't true as I had really big plans for my Imperial fleet.... :(

Damn. Looks like it might be time to pick up the necromunda gangs I wanted.

If this is true through its about time to wipe my hands of GW.

Well, there's always hope that they'll bring back the games as limited edition released like they did Space Hulk. A boxed set and that's it.

However it's sad news. I love Mordheim and have played many a game.

Oh good. One more step towards GW's current management finally getting fired for sheer incompetence. Hopefully they don't trash the molds so that GW's new owners can get the stuff back into production quickly.

Oh FFS, I was planning to start an Imperial Fleet for BFG next month. Seriously, is Tom Kirby on a personal mission to piss on the fond memories of anyone over twelve years old or something? :/

EDIT: Righto, just rang up myself, according to the mail order chappie, they are discontinuing some models which are both A: in need of new moulds being made because the old ones are knackered, and B: don't sell particularly well. They are NOT axing the whole range, and they are NOT getting rid of the free rules on the website.

Also, if anyone was specifically after a Repulsive Grand Cruiser, they have two left in the warehouse as of 11am GMT that they'll let you order over the phone if you have a credit card.

So, it's still crappy news, but its slightly less crappy than it could be.

Ahh crap

That is a real rubbish move by GW. I can kind of see why they are doing it if it isn't making them any money, but I was planning on building both an Ork and Spacemarine fleet for BFG :(

Daston wrote:
Ahh crap

That is a real rubbish move by GW. I can kind of see why they are doing it if it isn't making them any money, but I was planning on building both an Ork and Spacemarine fleet for BFG :(

For what it's worth, the line isn't making GW money because they don't want to make money off of it.

Do we have a link to the post on Tactical Command, I have just had a browse and cannot see it.

Will be a shame to see the epic stuff go. I had plans for a Space Marine force in the future. At least there are plenty of proxies that can be used.

PEARSCW wrote:
Do we have a link to the post on Tactical Command, I have just had a browse and cannot see it.

Will be a shame to see the epic stuff go. I had plans for a Space Marine force in the future. At least there are plenty of proxies that can be used.

Here's the thread. Couple of them have e-mailed GW and have been told the same. specialist-arms.com also have similar responses as does a post on Warseer I've just read...

I'm always really confused as to why GW let the 40K tie in elements of Specialist Games die.

Why not just make it that results of games of Necromunda, Gothic or Epic could effect standard 40k games or vice versa. I know the rules aren't the same but surely some kind of Mission table could see this work. I don't think they should need to tie in to regular 40k, it's just something I thought GW would have done.

Real shame too, I've always wanted to try BFG. Just never the support for it.

 Fafnir wrote:

Daston wrote:
Ahh crap

That is a real rubbish move by GW. I can kind of see why they are doing it if it isn't making them any money, but I was planning on building both an Ork and Spacemarine fleet for BFG :(

For what it's worth, the line isn't making GW money because they don't want to make money off of it.

Or they can't afford to make money off it.

Yes, I mean that seriously. Look at the current state of the specialist games: no books in print, everything is metal, and most of their customers probably don't even know the games exist. To make money off them GW would have to re-launch the entire line with new rulebooks, set up new production for finecast/plastic, and do some marketing to get people interested. That's probably a fair bit of money being spent up front, at a time when GW is struggling to break even. Then of course since GW only knows how to market to existing customers and assumes that their customers fans will spend all of their available money on GW each sale of a specialist games product means less money spent on "core" products, and specialist games are a lot cheaper to play. So GW probably took a look at the situation, realized how much of a disaster their current financial state is, and decided that they can dump the whole line and increase "profits" for a quarter to keep the shareholders happy.

The only hope here is that they save the molds until the company is bought by someone less amazingly incompetent.

Very sad news indeed :(

Of course in theory, this COULD mean switch to Finecast - but they couldn't tell us about it because of their secrecy policy...

Just grabbed a Necromunda Redemptionist set while they're still available. No doubt we'll either get no explanation at all, or some juvenile doublespeak along the lines of "This is a spectacular development as it means we can dedicate more effort to the kits and service that you come to expect." To be fair, has anyone considered the idea that they're only temporarly unavailable, so people like me will panic buy before they apparently go out of production alltogether, when in fact they'll be back next week or something. Regardless we'll probably get an over-inflated box set of BFG or Necromunda that's so so so super-duper-limited-exclusive-edition that there's only 4 kits ever made.

 Valkyrie wrote:
Just grabbed a Necromunda Redemptionist set while they're still available. No doubt we'll either get no explanation at all, or some juvenile doublespeak along the lines of "This is a spectacular development as it means we can dedicate more effort to the kits and service that you come to expect." To be fair, has anyone considered the idea that they're only temporarly unavailable, so people like me will panic buy before they apparently go out of production alltogether, when in fact they'll be back next week or something.

Since their customer service has apparently confirmed the news, that would equate flat out lying to customers about the products availability - GW would soon feel the heavy hand of UK consumer watchdog in their collar. As I said, in theory it could mean widespread switch to Finecast, but it seems unlikely.

And yeah, I'm actually rather surprised how no corporate yes-men have came out yet and spilled the awesome opportunity this presents to old SG fans to start a new 40k army or something!

Forgeworld is also stopping Specialist games support - confirmed by multiple Taccoms members, including me ringing them.

http://epicaddiction.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/fw-specialist-games-going-too/

novemberrain wrote:
Forgeworld is also stopping Specialist games support - confirmed by multiple Taccoms members, including me ringing them.

http://epicaddiction.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/fw-specialist-games-going-too/

Yeah, I was going to buy some Aquila landers the other day and they'd disappeared, so I bought Lightnings instead. Didn't realise the whole lot was going, time to get the other bits I was looking at I guess.

This may explain why the FW BFG Grey Knight strike cruiser is no longer listed.

Aye, didn't even realize a load of the books where gone, will treasure my mordheim books then, and regret selling the Necromunda ones. Although several of my fave figures in either setting have not been available for ages, and I'm not willing to pay ebay prices.

Looks like metal in general may be getting phased out as looking on a thread or two elsewhere it seems figs in the 40K and Fantasy sections are also gaining the dreaded 'not available' tag.

Good job I picked up those Wood Elves a few weeks back, might do a check over see if there is anything I seriously want later, but most of the Specialist range is sadly looking a bit outdated.

Backfire wrote:

 Valkyrie wrote:
Just grabbed a Necromunda Redemptionist set while they're still available. No doubt we'll either get no explanation at all, or some juvenile doublespeak along the lines of "This is a spectacular development as it means we can dedicate more effort to the kits and service that you come to expect." To be fair, has anyone considered the idea that they're only temporarly unavailable, so people like me will panic buy before they apparently go out of production alltogether, when in fact they'll be back next week or something.

Since their customer service has apparently confirmed the news, that would equate flat out lying to customers about the products availability - GW would soon feel the heavy hand of UK consumer watchdog in their collar. As I said, in theory it could mean widespread switch to Finecast, but it seems unlikely.

And yeah, I'm actually rather surprised how no corporate yes-men have came out yet and spilled the awesome opportunity this presents to old SG fans to start a new 40k army or something!

Exactly. I'd be less pissed off (still pissed off though nonetheless) if GW actually gave us a legit reason and treated us like adults when it came to their decisions. If they were just honest and said something like "It's not economically viable for us to continue the Specialist Games sector, therefore we regret that we will have to cease production" instead of just hoping people don't notice or giving us the usual doublespeak crap, then I'd a have quite a bit more respect for the company.

Shame

Arbites are 'No longer Available'.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat490065a&prodId=prod1120127

Probably just as well, saves me the temptation of buying a bunch, if I ever do my arbites armyit will have to be Void Minis.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Arbites are 'No longer Available'.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat490065a&prodId=prod1120127

Probably just as well, saves me the temptation of buying a bunch, if I ever do my arbites armyit will have to be Void Minis.

Man, I was gonna buy a few of those. Oh well.

Your sig is oddly appropriate right now

"Cue all the people saying "This is the last straw! Now I'm only going to buy a little bit every now and then!""

novemberrain wrote:
Forgeworld is also stopping Specialist games support - confirmed by multiple Taccoms members, including me ringing them.

http://epicaddiction.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/fw-specialist-games-going-too/

Well that sucks. Aeronautica Imperialis is a really under-appreciated game, it's sad to see them dumping it instead of doing anything to boost sales. I wonder if this was FW's own decision to stop as well, or if they've been ordered by GW management to end production.

I've been meaning to try Inquisitor and Gorkamorka for a while, better download the PDFs.

I wonder if this will extend beyond specialist games. I wouldn't be too surprised if older metal 40K/WHFB models that don't sell quite as well will be going the journey as well.

 Peregrine wrote:

novemberrain wrote:
Forgeworld is also stopping Specialist games support - confirmed by multiple Taccoms members, including me ringing them.

http://epicaddiction.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/fw-specialist-games-going-too/

Well that sucks. Aeronautica Imperialis is a really under-appreciated game, it's sad to see them dumping it instead of doing anything to boost sales. I wonder if this was FW's own decision to stop as well, or if they've been ordered by GW management to end production.

I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. So, get your Haven Class Spires and Ramilies Starforts for your pensions - they will go for a packet on ebay when they're sold out...