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Yeah, after seeing all the BFG models that are out of stock at Forgeworld, I have totally decided to use Firestorm Armada ships as my new Tau fleet. They may not fit the FW/GW aesthetic, but I think many of them will still say "non-human tau ships" when placed against the Imperial fleet I have. Plus, they are up to half the price of GW ships, so a fleet costs much less overall. So at least there are options to keep the game going, even if GW would rather let it die with the others.

For example, here's a possible to use for Custodian-class cruisers:

The Terran Carrier. I think the flat profile, weapons that look like paired railguns, and large flat armor plates of the Terran ships will paint up well to give a "Tau" visual (and give a place for Tau decals, something that will set them apart from the other BFG races)


Tau "Protector" stand-ins:


Castellan Escorts:

Reminds me of the Galactica.... It just needs the outriggers. My memory might be a bit rusty, though, since I haven't watched that show in 30-something years.

If you want galactica figures I know a couple of email address' for you to get intouch with some guys that doe excellent models that I use as Chaos in BFG

I use FA ships as stand ins for Tau and my home-brew fleet for Full Thrust, the starter boxes can't really be beat, price-wise. Sorellian, I think.

I'm thinking of the Terran ships, because they have such a different profile (wide and flat) from my Imperial and Ork ships (my Orks use kitbashed Imperial and Chaos ships as a base, rather then the official ones- seemed more fitting for them).

I know GW doesn't care in the slightest, but it's my little protest of saying "fine, if you don't want to sell me actual ships, I will gladly keep playing using your IP- but just give many further money to other companies."

And come to think of it, I didn't realize the FW custodian-class ship was a battleship-class ship, so the FA Terran carrier would unfortunately be too small. Instead, however, I will be using an old Babylon 5 ship I just remembered that I have had (assembled but never painted) on a shelf for about 15 years, it's a Dreadnought for the Narn race, and I think it would work perfectly alongside the Terran counts-as ships, because it has similar armor plating and is the size of a BFG battleship. 'Bout time it got a purpose!

Reminds me of the Hell Blade chaos fighter.

Maybe one could use it as chaos battleships aswell?

Ah! The models are starting to disappear from the aus site as well! The adeptus mechanicum battleship was there yesterday, now gone.

The sad thing is that I wasn't even aware of the 2nd-Generation Redemptionists/Cawdor/Goliaths/Orlocks until I saw this thread..

Ordered a Escher gang. They sent pit slaves instead. Phoned up to get it exchanged. The mail order troll said it will either sent out ASAP, or if they are sold out, they will CAST up another unit. So hopefully they will be fulfilling all orders.

It's a shame to see it go but it was time to put it out of its misery after years of neglect. To commemorate its passing I went out and bought a Prussian fleet for distopian wars.

Zwan1One wrote:
Ordered a Escher gang. They sent pit slaves instead. Phoned up to get it exchanged. The mail order troll said it will either sent out ASAP, or if they are sold out, they will CAST up another unit. So hopefully they will be fulfilling all orders.

Yep, thought so, the whole "the moulds are wearing out" thing is nonsense; every single BFG model I got from GW and FW was crisp and flawless, definitely not the product of an aging mould that needs replacing. They just don't want to bother casting metal stuff any more, and if GW are nixing SG then by golly they're not going to let FW sell it either.

This just reinforces the idea that GW have yet again made a completely stupid business decision; if they'd announced this 1-3 months in advance and kept casting up models, rather than just deciding to delist everything as they ran out of existing stock, how many people who were limited by their finances when this news came out or who couldn't order what they wanted before it vanished would have spent double or triple what they did? I know I only managed to get about half the BFG models I wanted to buy, not to mention the Mordheim and Necromunda stuff I'd had my eye on.

Well I can hardly say I'm surprised. It's a shame, as I was planning on using some of the Necromunda models as Cultist stand-ins, but the things probably didn't exactly sell well, and what's the point of selling a product nobody buys?

Farewell, Specialist Games. Perhaps, one day, we shall see you return...

Of course, if this means that they're actually planning on transitioning the models to Finecast or (as unlikely as it is) completely rebooting the Specialist Games with new models and rules, then I will be one happy nerd.

 Darth Bob wrote:

 BaronIveagh wrote:

 Darth Bob wrote:
Dangit, upon further inspection it seems that my Battle Barge is missing a piece. Time to phone Games Workshop. I just hope they have the piece to replace it.

GW will not send bits for BFG, only full minis. You may be in trouble.

Yeah, they told me they were going to send another full model as a replacement if they had one after all other orders of it were fulfilled.

How's it going? People on other forum said that GW has been casting new BFG ships lately to fill existing orders - no more restockings, though. Once orders are filled and stock empty, then it's gone for good.

So if you keep ordering remaining stuff it'll never run out!

But maybe they are restocking some stuff? Earlier in the thread I posted an email I received from GW regarding my order listing various items that were marked obsolete, but also some that were listed as being unavailable until later in the month. Also, after losing an auction on Ebay for a nice Ork fleet, I ordered a bunch of Ork ships from GW, and later received an emails stating that my order was on hold because some of the models were expected to be in stock soon.

 Squigsquasher wrote:
Well I can hardly say I'm surprised. It's a shame, as I was planning on using some of the Necromunda models as Cultist stand-ins, but the things probably didn't exactly sell well, and what's the point of selling a product nobody buys?

Squigsquasher, it's easy to forget nowadays, but the Specialist games range (and by that I mean 'games other than 40k/WFB' - they didn't use to have that name) were massive at one point.

I used to work in a fairly small store, and this is going back more than 10 years now, but basically you had the 40k/WFB ranges out on the shelves, and then whatever other game was 'hot' at that time (i.e. had had the most recent big release). So, either Epic, BB, Necromunda, Mordheim etc. sometimes even the boardgames (such as Heroquest). In terms of numbers of people coming in playing, and the numbers you used to get in for the likes of Necro and BB especially, you used to get more at those events, and some of the in-store campaigns I ran, than at the either of the two warhammers.

So, it's easy to say that 'oh they aren't selling any more, lets drop them', but that's mostly down to GW doing their best not to publicise them. It's sad that so many youngsters coming into the game now have not heard of so many of GW's best wargames, cast aside simply because they were an engaging wargaming experience at too cheap a price, but it's completely understandable how this could be the case.

I agree with you that if GW were to put effort into a re-launch of the games (beyond a fire-and-forget ltd edition release), they would be a massive success again. However, as I've said this would be unlikely, simply because the buy-in price for most of those games would be so much lower than either 40k or WFB.

I simply still think that GW just doesn't want anything that could stop even one dollar from flowing into WHFB and 40K. A fleet for BFG stops more Space Marines from being bought.

I know I have spent as much on Specialist Games product over the years as I have on 40K. And while I barely ever get a game in, I still have played those games more than 40K, too, and they give me just as much of a feeling of nostalgia for days gone by as 40K does.

Mordheim is realy picked over at this point. Glade I ordered alot of the stuff I did, since it's sold out now. Wish I had the money to order more.

Necromunda is also getting picked over at this point too.

I love both thows games, and loved alot of the modles from thows ranges.

I understand the plug being pulled if GW decided to get out of metal entirely.

My irritation is that they could have shifted ranges over to Forgeworld. BFG and Epic would easily have moved over (given how much was only available with FW already). It would have been a big expansion on FW's ranges which is likely why the decision wasn't made (new molds, amount of sales etc.).

Apocryphal statements from GW staff suggest last weekend saw a lot of orders on BFG/Epic/Mord/Necro. Sure some of those are going to be ebay speculators but a good number would be people wanting to complete fleets/gangs/armies.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
I simply still think that GW just doesn't want anything that could stop even one dollar from flowing into WHFB and 40K. A fleet for BFG stops more Space Marines from being bought.

I suspect this is one of the reasons, too. Kirby & Company probably really believe that if people spend X amount of money on GW product, then they can axe the Specialist Games catalog and people will just buy 40K/WFB instead, which means GW still makes X amount of money. This not only saves them a bit of money since they no longer have to provide even the minimal support they were giving to the SG, but they think it will increase WFB/40K revenue, so they can keep thumping their chests for the stockholders about how the biggest selling games are selling even more.

Its just another point on their "GTFO Vets!" Agenda.

Okay, so...how about if someone buys the rights to Specialist Games range? Alternatively, they could simply license it to FFG and the likes. There is precedence and an existing relationship already in how FFG is making the 40k RPG. I'm guessing it's a logical jump.

Failing that, one can hope...

aoxes wrote:
Okay, so...how about if someone buys the rights to Specialist Games range? Alternatively, they could simply license it to FFG and the likes. There is precedence and an existing relationship already in how FFG is making the 40k RPG. I'm guessing it's a logical jump.

Failing that, one can hope...

It's hard to be optimistic when GW cut ALL specialist games in one hit, including Aeronautica Imperialis which was Forge World. It doesn't give me hope of "restructuring" them, it screams "exterminatus" more than anything.

I just got my Warmaster Demon Hordes of Khorne and Lizard man units to round out my armies. It's a bit of a bummer, knowing I got the last Khorne Hordes they had. That kind of quashes the hope that GW would get these great games going again.
On the positive side, there are enough Warmaster armies and players here to keep things going fairly strong.

Picked up four teams and a few bits and pieces for Blood Bowl, should be here on Monday. Also bidding on a few pieces on ebay, if nothing else they got me back into Blood Bowl.

At least with Blood Bowl there's a huge community of 3rd party manufacturers that support it.

I'm still grumpy that I missed out on the AI Eldar models, keep checking to see if the "out of stock" label goes away, but it seems they are genuinely out of stock

Same thing with the Eldar BFG fleet I though would be cool to have to go with my 40K Eldar army. Now it'll definitely never happen, with the prices such a fleet would command now that they are "OOP".

 AegisGrimm wrote:
I simply still think that GW just doesn't want anything that could stop even one dollar from flowing into WHFB and 40K. A fleet for BFG stops more Space Marines from being bought.

See, this doesn't make sense. I'm not saying it's not how GW think, but it doesn't make sense. Same with the theory put forth that new plastic kits are given the best rules because GW need to pay off the mold for the model.

Any sale, of anything, is money in GW's pocket. That Battleship might not be a box of Marines sold, or the latest awesome plastic kit, but it's the same amount of money (Battleships were fething expensive) in their pocket. It's money that would go to paying off any money spent on tooling the latest plastic molds. They don't take, for example, the money made from Trygons and put it in a "Trygon mold" bank account until there's enough to pay off that mold. Specialist games sales don't go into a "Specialist games" bank account, only for use on Specialist games. Or at least I hope they don't.

 -Loki- wrote:
Specialist games sales don't go into a "Specialist games" bank account, only for use on Specialist games. Or at least I hope they don't.

You never know with GW. It could really be something that stupid.

-Loki- wrote:

 AegisGrimm wrote:
I simply still think that GW just doesn't want anything that could stop even one dollar from flowing into WHFB and 40K. A fleet for BFG stops more Space Marines from being bought.

See, this doesn't make sense. I'm not saying it's not how GW think, but it doesn't make sense. Same with the theory put forth that new plastic kits are given the best rules because GW need to pay off the mold for the model.

Any sale, of anything, is money in GW's pocket. That Battleship might not be a box of Marines sold, or the latest awesome plastic kit, but it's the same amount of money (Battleships were fething expensive) in their pocket. It's money that would go to paying off any money spent on tooling the latest plastic molds. They don't take, for example, the money made from Trygons and put it in a "Trygon mold" bank account until there's enough to pay off that mold. Specialist games sales don't go into a "Specialist games" bank account, only for use on Specialist games. Or at least I hope they don't.

I get the impression that the GW of nowadays is only concerned with people buying into their two flagship games. Even if they obviously make the same money off a 30 dollar purchase regardless of what it is, I would guess that they feel that every little iota of effort used to get even one person to buy a Specialist game product is one that isn't going into pushing 40K or Fantasy.

Basically, instead of any effort to explain why someone might want a certain BFG fleet, or why Warmaster might be a cool type game, they want to just be able to say "Buy a Tau/High Elf army, they have just been re-released for the latest edition, with all new stuff!"