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Saw this from one of the local independent retailers FB pages:

Warhammer 40K players, *Disclaimer: this special announcement may cause drooling*. Games Workshop has decided to launch a beta test of an organized play system. This Organized Play system will be exclusive to dealers who deal direct with Games Workshop, so you know you're getting a quality event! This said, this play system is not yet set in stone, so by playing in the events and providing objective feedback, YOU will be able to help shape the final product! With exclusive promo items, (possibly even exclusive miniatures?) campaign badges and more, it's a very exciting time to be a Warhammer 40,000 fan indeed!

I'll wrap this rather lengthy announcement up for now, but more news will follow as the good times unfold! Thank you all once again for a great year!

Is this for real? Have any of you heard any of this coming down the pipeline? Two other retailers I spoke to haven't heard anything, and they are the two largest on the eastern seaboard.

This is great news!

Organized play sounds a bit like a creche/day care, but if they are likely to be properly supporting events with free swag and exclusive figure then it really is great news.

But being the jaded cynic I am, I'm wondering what the catch is :p

LOL, I'd like to see how long they keep that up before deciding that their rules sux.

I..
Huh?

But..

This actually sounds like it might be a good thing. Which makes me suspicious.

I want it to lead to a 'competitive' 40k ruleset but I'm guessing what it means is this 1 store will be inviting in people for 1 day a week where they will play a very slightly modified version of the game under strict GW staff supervision. We have something like this at my local store, games are played out with odd rules that the redshirt makes up, it's mostly for little kids so that he can get 10 of them to play 100 points each and call it an event. Campaign badges are fairly meaningless, the comment about possibly getting LE minis is something else though. Again though, this could mean the guy in the store gives you one of his kitbashes then calls it an exclusive mini.

Could be cool, but I have 0 faith left in GW :/

At this point i'm just trying to figure out if there's any truth to it or not. If they do, its a step in the right direction.

I just wonder if this would be in addition to the normal store support a retailer gets or something else entirely like the OP kits you need to get from retailers like Fantasy Flight season Nights or Wizkids etc...

It's not an inherently terrible idea. It just depends on how it's supported. I can see it ending in multiple ways:

1. Retailers embrace the idea and it works well.
2. Retailers figure out that it's more expensive to do it GW's way and just hold their own events.
3. GW gets distracted by some jangling keys or some shifting light and wanders off leaving the whole thing half finished and leaving all the retailers involved with nothing to show for it other than lost money.

Er.. might be something related to the campaign system I've heard GW beta testing.

 Warboss Gubbinz wrote:
Saw this from one of the local independent retailers FB pages:

Warhammer 40K players, *Disclaimer: this special announcement may cause drooling*. Games Workshop has decided to launch a beta test of an organized play system. This Organized Play system will be exclusive to dealers who deal direct with Games Workshop, so you know you're getting a quality event! This said, this play system is not yet set in stone, so by playing in the events and providing objective feedback, YOU will be able to help shape the final product! With exclusive promo items, (possibly even exclusive miniatures?) campaign badges and more, it's a very exciting time to be a Warhammer 40,000 fan indeed!

I'll wrap this rather lengthy announcement up for now, but more news will follow as the good times unfold! Thank you all once again for a great year!

Is this for real? Have any of you heard any of this coming down the pipeline? Two other retailers I spoke to haven't heard anything, and they are the two largest on the eastern seaboard.

Yes.

I heard about it last summer indirectly in conversation with a GW manager that I was modeling and painting with over the course of a conversation. They discussed how they were looking into a campagn system for thier particular store and asked if I knew anything about how I'd go about running a campaign. I discussed some of the older RT era events, and how there were several ways to do it. No, the new system is not my idea, only in that I heard of this going to happen over the end of the last summer when I took a trip into one of the "New style" stores.

I also discussed the issue of the singel boards in the stores, and they discussed temp boards, and a ranking ladder style of play. Gorkamorka issues from the past skirmush games and the system of increasing units came up, and there was a good discussion of prize support/ weekly modeling/ painting units won through the skirmish on up play.

It sounded like a pretty cool idea. Start out with one box of something, then add on as the weeks go by, get a few hundred points by the end of the month, and some of your pals get in on adding other units to the game. One might have some squad of troops, another guy might have a hero, some girl comes in, she might have an additional unit that your side allies with, against others..... with the same Idea.

then you have a smaller game, where whoever has something at the end still on the table might get a prize, or some bits or something to add into the next game, in the next week or so.

easier to manage, because you only run one unit of whatever. If you get boped out, you may get some prize support, or not. Depending on the group, and how you played, i guess.

we only discussed some bare bones ideas, but it sounded fun.

Herzlos wrote:
Organized play sounds a bit like a creche/day care, but if they are likely to be properly supporting events with free swag and exclusive figure then it really is great news.

It's a common enough term for what is generally either a 'entry level' tournament environment or just a scheduled night. Admittedly, some might say that CCG-nights at stores are crewch/day care events, but that's not inherent to the term.

Seems like ti would depend a lot on how long it's supported. Is this similar to the challenge-ladder thing GW did for a while?

If it's anything like the old hall of heroes or conflict systems its going to be bad. Those were so easily abused it was not even funny. If its just some store league things it usually means spending a crap ton of money (like requiring you to buy a tile for the realm of battle table for the display base).

Either way, there are independent tournaments that are better. Extreme cautious optimism.

Wouldn't this rely on retailers wanting to forget the fact that GW has done everything possible to hurt their business?

I have seen this at local GWs for a while. It is more of 'guided campaign' than 'tourney competitive'.

It goes something like this:

*Over the next 6 months, All 40k play will be 'the battle of planet z'

*Month 1: Buy an HQ and Troop from the store, get a UNIT CARD for those units. You get a special skill for buying it in store, you get a better skill for 'painting' it.
All games are 500 point battles which you must have your HQ and Troop with their special bonuses. Record experience for those units.

At the end of the month, whomever has the most 'points for their unit for the month, 'wins'. Wins what? who knows.

*Month 2: Buy a Fast Attack, get a unit card.

Rinse. Repeat.

Basically it is an escalation campaign designed around buying a unit 'IN STORE' and getting bonus rules like tankhunter or moves through cover for buying and painting it. At the end of the 'campaign' you have basically had people buy most of an army. If they want to play 6 months later... buy a new army.

People either enjoy it or hate it. I have seen some people at my store enjoy it, but I couldn't participate because I literally wasn't going to buy a 7th big mek or 4th Mega Armor warboss. I still played with others who used those units, and it was fun and an easy '40k in 40minutes' type thing.

nkelsch wrote:
I have seen this at local GWs for a while. It is more of 'guided campaign' than 'tourney competitive'.

It goes something like this:

*Over the next 6 months, All 40k play will be 'the battle of planet z'

*Month 1: Buy an HQ and Troop from the store, get a UNIT CARD for those units. You get a special skill for buying it in store, you get a better skill for 'painting' it.
All games are 500 point battles which you must have your HQ and Troop with their special bonuses. Record experience for those units.

At the end of the month, whomever has the most 'points for their unit for the month, 'wins'. Wins what? who knows.

*Month 2: Buy a Fast Attack, get a unit card.

Rinse. Repeat.

Basically it is an escalation campaign designed around buying a unit 'IN STORE' and getting bonus rules like tankhunter or moves through cover for buying and painting it. At the end of the 'campaign' you have basically had people buy most of an army. If they want to play 6 months later... buy a new army.

People either enjoy it or hate it. I have seen some people at my store enjoy it, but I couldn't participate because I literally wasn't going to buy a 7th big mek or 4th Mega Armor warboss. I still played with others who used those units, and it was fun and an easy '40k in 40minutes' type thing.

Same thing happened in my LFGS when it first opened, and rules were supplied from a GW in the nearest city. Unfortunately the store owners cancelled it early because there weren't enough people playing.

If they are handing out rewards (miniatures, badges) - wouldn't this require judges or referees? I don't see this happening at any organized level. GW doesn't strike me as particularly caring about supporting its playerbase. GW sanctioned play at retail stores is pretty far out of character. I'll be happy if they just continue producing content, don't expect anything more than that.

If the organised play is anything like nkelsch has described I can see it working for new players building an army, but I have already invested considerably in a 40k army and I don't fancy being told to buy more to play.
I would happily pay a nominal fee to play a game to cover their costs/ prizes etc, but with the suggested scheme in Aus a single mini for me to play will cost me $25, and that's if its a character or such.
I would rather support an independent with a game fee, and a drink and packet of chips bought at their store.
Really not worth it considering the GW stores are not that friendly anyway i.e. pushy sales people.

^^^ Agreed

On my own note here... I really think it would be a problem for people that do not live immediately in the UK. If I am correct in this, would not everyone else need to purchase from GW online? I live in California now, but Minnesota before. Overall America is just starting to develop GW stores, and places close to England, even parts of Ireland don't have supported stores. (Dublin and a couple others do, I will give you that.)

My point is organization (if at all) on the scale that we are talking about might only be good (for now) for the UK only market. I would love to hear how organized some of the other countries who love warhammer would be organized in any meaningful way.

Lastly, I do not know much about this fact and/or rumor. therefor I may well be the epitome of wrong.

It'd only apply to stores that supported it, and you'd probably need to buy from that store, so there'd be no requirement to buy from GW online.

wish they bring back the stat sheet in the last 2 40k campaigns they did.

it had your wins, loses, draws, and a lvling system(sort of) you had to fill out a small forum each time you registered a win/lose/draw. than that registered battle went to the person that you played against to make sure you played against them.