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The only GW games that I still play:
Mordheim! (Huzzah! - best game that GW ever made!)
Necromunda (The second best game that GW ever made! I am in a campaign right now.)
Warhammer Quest. (A beer and pretzels game! That we play while drinking beer and eating pretzels! (The beer and pretzels started as a joke, and then became tradition.))

I love Mordheim - Coreheim is okay, but just not as much fun as the original.

Deadzone compared to Necromunda.... I'll gladly play either one. I think I prefer Necromunda, by maybe this much: -] [-

The Auld Grump

*pours one out for Necromunda*

To this day Necromunda remains my fav GW game. I've had more fun playing that game than any other game, GW or otherwise. It's a shame to see such a thing so callously killed off.

I also regret never getting into Battlefleet Gothic. It came about during a time when I wasn't playing 40K or any games for that matter, so I missed outn and never got around to it when I came back.

I have my Orc, Goblin, Lizardmen and Human teams for Blood Bowl, and a friend of mine has virtually every team ever made as well, so that's nice.

Never much cared for the rest, but it's sad to see such potential ignored and thrown away.




[EDIT]: Special mention goes to Warhammer Quest. It wasn't really a specialist game in the sense that by the time the concept of "Specialist Games" came about Warhammer Quest (plus Gorka Morka and Man'O'War) was basically forgotten. It was the first Warhammer Fantasy game I ever played, and I still love it. I own basically everything ever made for Quest (aside from the Brettonian Knight), and it's a hilarious fun and unfair game.

I got into Epic when it was called Space Marine and it *wasn't* a specialist game. Some of the most fun games I've ever had were with that system. To this day I remain certain that if I ever made my own gaming system it'd borrow heavily from Epic, especially the orders system.

I'd love to see someone try to play a game of 40k using the Epic rules.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

I own basically everything ever made for Quest (aside from the Brettonian Knight), and it's a hilarious fun and unfair game.

As a Wizard player I don't know what you're talking about....

I played epic before it was "epic" (Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus)

BFG, Necromunda and Blood Bowl and Inquisitor, had fun making warbands and the 54mm space marine is an awesome figure.

I tried Space Marine, but it was impossible to get enough of the specialist units for Eldar to make it worth playing.

I still have a giant pile of unpainted Chaos Warriors for Warmaster. I only ever got in two games, but I liked them well enough. The mass battle feel without casualty removal was what essentially got me into Kings of War.

Part way through a season at a local Bloodbowl league. All the block dice, pitch boards, throwing templates and 90%+ of the teams, not made by GW. The community has basically taken that game from GW and they aren't giving it back.

Blood Bowl and Epic are my favorite games.

The old Epic 'Space Marine' rules and army lists are now under the fan run,'NET EPIC' If any one wants to play Epic old school.

Been playing and still will be playing Epic for a very long time. Got into it just after 2nd edition came out in 1991 and have played every edition since. Titans, massed tanks, huge sweeping battles. I feel the Epic Armageddon ruleset is the finest ruleset put out by GW. Compared to that, 40k is a joke.

BFG deserves special mention as does Aeronautica Imperialis. Spaceships and planes. What's not to love?


Warhammer Quest and Spacehulk, though not technically SG, still get played and enjoyed.


Tis a crying shame that these have been discontinued in the pursuit of short term profits. They all, by themselves, enriched the background massively. Also nothing beats running a huge campaign that chronicles a planetary invasion that goes from BFG->Aeronautica Imperials->Epic->40K and back again to really bring scale to those conflicts. Now that is how you build a narrative!

Gorkamorka! I think that's probably my favourite specialist game. We still play a lot of bloodbowl and we ran a Mordheim and Necromunda campaign last year, but Gorkamorka is the epitomy of a non-competitive, narrative forging game in my eyes. It does have some issues, but with the right group of people it can be amazing. And the digga-shaman is one of the best citadel miniatures ever.

On a side note I believe the deffkopta in the ork range is one of the special characters from Gorkamorka, so it's legacy continues!

I loved the specialist games, for a while I was playing Epic and Warmaster more than 40K of Fantasy. If GW hadn’t sidelined them I may well have dumped the parent games indefinitely. Perhaps there where others likes me and that’s why they got rid of them?

The good thing is that even if you don't want to go on an Ebay hunt there are still lots of companies out there making 6mm sci-fi and 10mm Fantasy.

I own and will still play Battlefleet Gothic and Mordheim.

Luckily, Bloodbowl lives on with me on the XBox 360!

I always wished I could play BFG! And if my store does a bloodbowl league, I've been waiting to give that a try, too. Ah well... there are many other games out there and maybe one day we'll get into Firestorm Armada, instead.

Big P wrote:
The only GW games I still play are specialists.

Me too.

I still love to play Aeronautica Imperialis (probably not a true Specialist Game as it was from FW), but I typically provide everything for my opponent.
Play Gorkamorka with my daughter, and she usually beats me.
Still play Blood Bowl all the time and with the most other people.

Use to play Necromunda all the time, still have all the stuff.
Use to play a lot fo BFG too.

I have an Inq28 warband, but have never played
Have the rules, but have never played Mordheim, Epic; Armageddon, Warmaster, or Man O' War.

Still play Warmaster but as Hail Ceasar now.

Another Epic fan here. My very first GW boxed game was Titan Legions back in 1995, and I think the only reason my group of friends didn't play it more often as teenagers was that parents would often buy us 28mm 40k stuff as presents. It would have been fantastic to have my current level of disposable income back then.

Despite being introduced with an early edition, I'm also convinced that the Epic Armageddon ruleset is the finest ruleset every made by GW. It's tight, well balanced and the games flow well. Not only that, but it's ten times better at representing the fluff that then current 'oversold' 40k meta. When my Tyranid armies can often be outnumbered by marines at 28mm scale, you know something has gone wrong.
Under E:A, each army reflects the fluff really well thanks to some incredibly simple special rules. Space Marines are always outnumbered, but strike fast and have a very elite 'feel'. IG are a lumbering behemoth, slow to react but hitting hard. Orks favour really getting stuck in, and can be tailored to reflect any of the main clans. Tyranids are finally the overwhelming force the background describes them as, with never-ending hordes being a viable way to play.

Epic also let you do all the cool stuff that was impractical at 28mm. Multiple titan duels, aircraft squadrons, long-range sieges. An earlier edition even had rules for infantry boarding actions on Titans and Gargants, potentially letting you sabotage them from inside.

It's nice to see 3rd-party producers starting to churn out 6mm products to keep things ticking over, if just a little. The first one to recreate modern style Nids in that scale will be getting so much of my money...

Specialist Games are only dead if you stop playing them. Sure, you can't buy direct from GW but buying games and models from GW -is not- nor ever has been a legal requirement to enjoyment (despite what GW mis-management would have you believe).

I recently got Advanced Heroquest and Blood Bowl 2nd edition on ebay and will be starting some campaigns with friends shortly.

So hunt these games down, pull them from your dusty attics and get playing.

Gorkamorka was the first step of our group into 40k. It was awesome.
Bloodbowl still is an incredibly exciting and fun game.
Never realy played Necromunda.

Epic and stuff always looked super amazing, but never really found the moneyz to play it... but there are so many great alternatives out there!

 Flashman wrote:
The thing with Epic is that the minis - particularly the small ones - were never that great, so while I enjoyed the game, I never really developed a strong attachment to it.

They could do great things nowadays with their digital plastic sculpting wotnots, especially if they increased the scale to a FoW type size.

I would play Flames of Warhammer so hard. I think it'd reach the comfortable middleground between the scale of Epic and the detail and character of regular 40k.

 Brother SRM wrote:

 Flashman wrote:
The thing with Epic is that the minis - particularly the small ones - were never that great, so while I enjoyed the game, I never really developed a strong attachment to it.

They could do great things nowadays with their digital plastic sculpting wotnots, especially if they increased the scale to a FoW type size.

I would play Flames of Warhammer so hard. I think it'd reach the comfortable middleground between the scale of Epic and the detail and character of regular 40k.

There are companies that produce alot of minis in 15mm that are rather close to 40k style

Proxie models makes not-imperial tanks, 15mm.uk and others make alot of infantry that are very similar to space marines, imperial guard and orks, Khurasan makes some great orks (mercs), Geiger'ish alens (tyranids anyone?) and vehicles, and there are others as well such as Rebel minis.

15mm in the 40k universe, using 40k, epic, or some other rulest is very doable. Additionally, in many cases new 15mm figs are cheaper than hunting down the used epic figs.

really a shame... GW could make a lot of money by supporting theplayers who want skirmish level 40k or fantasy themed universes...

necromunda could be changed into a low points 40k game with extra rules and campaing/experience progression for your small army/gang/rougetraders/ect

often the only thing keeping new players out is the sheer size/scop/cost associated with getting a full sized army.. heck I been painting 15+ years and it takes me a long time.

only having to buy 20 models or less would get far more people into the games, and they would naturally expand from there.

wouldnt need separate models, just throw up a rule book to buy and people will buy it...

as much as I love big games, I really wish smaller, more "hero hammer" type things were still around.

I have many many fond memories playing mordheim,

best one was me owning people time after time with my gane leader, he had two dueling pistols, and kep rolling +bs, got great skills, then two games in a row, lost both eyes!

oooo man, I had even sculpted on the eyepatch after the first one... then I was like... awww damn, old no eye's mcgee isnt going to be shooting so hot anymore.

*Raises a glass to the memory*

To be fair, this is more akin to pulling the plug to the life-support machine. The games have been officially dead for some time. Seem out of place that GW offered the rules for free download (and that they were available at all) in the modern age of wringing the customer of every single $ they can? That's because apparently officially the SG would have gone years ago, but for JJ offering to help keep the games maintained and support them off his own back. To be honest I am amazed they survived on the site for so long, although their departure now is most certainly the end of an era.

Some of my best wargaming memories come from those games; from 20,000pt a side Epic games, featuring a dozen titans and entire tank and infantry companies destroying each in battles lasting 2 days, to Blood Bowl tournaments in GW, the store massed with cheering players, Mordheim and Necromunda campaigns lasting months - with little newsletters and campaign maps. They were truly great games, from a time when the term 'Games Workshop' was actually appropriate.

I was running a campaign while working in a GW many years ago. A multiple-player campaign, culminating in a 4 player match trying to destroy a 'beast from the swamp' (a scenario printed in White Dwarf). The game ended with a juve being devoured by the creature, even as one of the guys desperately managed to blast the creature into the 'pit' (the only way of killing it) and saving his comrade. Afterwards, one of the guys came up to me and said it was the most fun he had ever had with miniatures. And that was the thing about those games - they provided the perfect outlet for community, for player improvisation, creating a fun environment and most importantly allowing the players to run riot with their imagination.

But most importantly perhaps, they were accessible to everyone and a great gateway to wargaming. Remember one kid who used to come into the store occasionally, had a really poor background - came from a bad part of town and had very little money. But, he saved enough to get a gang (which were about £13 at the time IIRC), and I threw in a few bits from the bits box so he could do some conversions. Was great to see someone get some interest and enjoyment in that way - I knew a lot of the people he hung around with were a bad lot, and I honestly don't think it's too extreme to say he would have been out smashing in car windows if it hadn't been for the chance to get involved and given a direction for his energy. Instead, he got the chance to mix with kids and older guys who were more straight laced, and it gave him some interests and direction. I will stop now before it starts sounding a bit cheesy! But, I think it's important to realise that with the passing of cheap, affordable and easily obtainable games (within the GW store at least) there will be that many less people now exposed to the wonderful hobby that is wargaming.

But, I think ultimately those games are too good and still too popular amongst gaming aficionados to disappear. Their playing will continue I'm sure, and fortunately a lot of the guys who made those games have gone on to make other great games with other companies - Jake Thornton at Mantic, Andy Chambers with Dust, Alessio Cavatore with more games than you can mention, and of course Rick Priestly (although sure I have missed a few!)

 Flashman wrote:
I have all the specialist games stuff downloaded onto a laptop.

For free.

Do you hear that GW? For free! Mmmwahahahaha!!!

Ahem. On topic - played Gorkamorka back in the day and still play Mordheim, mainly because the minis are so readily available via the Fantasy range.

Their website already had all the rules for free. Dunno if the new one does.

Feeling maudlin, so a song to say goodbye to the Specialist games -


(No, that ain'tn't me doing the singin' in the video.)

The Auld Grump

Specialist games still live on in our hearts.

 easysauce wrote:
necromunda could be changed into a low points 40k game with extra rules and campaing/experience progression for your small army/gang/rougetraders/ect

Well if Necromunda just became Skirmish 40K it wouldn't be Necromunda any more. That doesn't seem like a good idea.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 easysauce wrote:
necromunda could be changed into a low points 40k game with extra rules and campaing/experience progression for your small army/gang/rougetraders/ect

Well if Necromunda just became Skirmish 40K it wouldn't be Necromunda any more. That doesn't seem like a good idea.

In my heart Necromunda sums up the difference between the old GW and the new.

From when GW encouraged houserules, and even had small magazines dedicated to them.

GW puts a lot of spin on the 'narrative' experience - but Necromunda and Mordheim were all about the narrative.

When I was running Mordheim for a summer program one of the kids did a series of letters from one of the warriors in his warband to his mum - using the Mordheim campaign as fodder for his creative writing classwork.

That's narrative!

The Auld Grump, gods above and below... that was more than ten years ago, now....

Dark Future,
Adeptus Titanicus
Space Marine
Space Fleet
Epic 40k
Necromunda
BFG
Space Hulk

and even Space Crusade.....

Some of these were born and died before "Specialist Games" first saw the light of day. It will be missed...

I found all my old Fanatic issues whilst unpacking today. Made me realise how much I miss the GW setting, especially BFG. No other fleet game has had the same weight except the also mourned for Babylon 5.

I played a campaign game of necromunda back in the day, with my Van Saar Gang. Awesome fun, and really hit home about the state of the galaxy at large. But sadly, rules were very tedious at best, especially when you could essentially one-shot a gang, preparing and packing up could take longer than the gameplay.

Hell, I've now got a goliath, Orlock and Van Saar gang going and another friend wants to get in on a campaign.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Well if Necromunda just became Skirmish 40K it wouldn't be Necromunda any more. That doesn't seem like a good idea.

Well, Necromunda of course started as 2nd edition.

I don't think it's an inherently bad idea. Set up a core of rules suitable for skirmish play, then bring out setting based expansions - a not entirely different concept to what FFG did with the 40kRPGs, all of them (loosely) based on the same underlying rules, but all set in different areas of the fluff.

I still play bloodbowl every week, I occaisionally engage in a game of Necromunda and I know 4-5 people that play that on a regular basis too still.
Its not dead, and I dont blame GW for getting rid of them either, thats what businesses do if something is not selling or worth the outlay in terms of cost and space taken up.
Sad though all the same.