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Thanks judgedoug, updated the OP! Kept it grouped with your staff training quote which was at the end of it so people could see what you were referring to. This has all happened really fast! Although I know we won't see results from it too quickly, it is a very nice shift for GW.

Back OT.

What people really need is a release schedule, pictures of works in progress, a statement from Tom Kirby or some other high up confirming this etc etc etc

The GW website could announce this.

That's the way forward for GW.

Blood bowl, BFG, Necromunda et al are brilliant games. I have many a happy memory of playing them.

Younger dakka members deserve a chance to enjoy these games, and I hope for their sakes, this works out for them,

but until I see concrete evidence, similar to what I mentioned a few sentences ago, I would personally reserve judgement.

 infinite_array wrote:
As for what they will do, they (apparently, if the hearsay is to be believed) haven't even assembled the team that'll make this a reality. And we don't know what the format of any of these games will be.

Both of those statements are basically true.

It is just a recognition of the financial power of several dormant brands. The internal design team is still committed to 40k and AoS; this is an exploratory design team that will use these properties to make new games in new formats, not beholden to old rules or old miniatures.

Whoever has this job of starting up the specialist games again must have the best job in the world. Man, I would love to be in that position!

I really hope we get none "specialist games" GW small games coming back too. Like Warhammer Quest.

Warhammer Quest would be the best introduction to AoS as the ENTIRE Chaos, Death and Destruction ranges can be used as monsters and the Order heroes can all be used as heroes.

 infinite_array wrote:

 MLaw wrote:
I care about what they are doing and what they will do.

Which is alright, I guess. If you want to ignore the fact that they abandoned these games when they thought they could get away with it, and are only now coming back in times of apparent dire straights.

As for what they are doing, well, it's nothing apart from, again, a badly photo-shopped image and hearsay.

As for what they will do, they (apparently, if the hearsay is to be believed) haven't even assembled the team that'll make this a reality. And we don't know what the format of any of these games will be.

Exactly. We need concrete evidence. Something that'll stand up to the light of day.

Kinda curious...

Might this new division actually work on WHFB as one of their 'Specialist' titles?.....

 judgedoug wrote:

It is just a recognition of the financial power of several dormant brands. The internal design team is still committed to 40k and AoS; this is an exploratory design team that will use these properties to make new games in new formats, not beholden to old rules or old miniatures.

See! Right there! That's what's we need to watch out for.

Like I said, the only reason why Blood Bowl still has a worldwide tournament scene, an international community, and plenty of companies making miniatures for it is because of the strength of the rules. They're a fantastic blend of competitive simplicity and wacky humor. I can't see GW - either GW main or FW - improving on those rules with anything that they can do today. And I wonder how long the NAF will be allowed to exist if GW is bothering to resurrect Blood Bowl.

The same goes for the other Specialist Games, like Epic and Warmaster.

 Commander Cain wrote:
It's getting harder and harder to hate GW every day. We get a well priced HH game, two awesome looking video games, and now the promise of BFG and other stuff. Life is good...

It's pretty much this for me. I'm mad about 40k being wrecked and fantasy being blown up. But the HH stuff looks great. And you guys are getting specialist games back (I never got into them). I have KoW and older editions with friends for fantasy. So...I'm good.

From a logical point of view, we need to ask questions about the resources that could be committed to this project.

How many design team staff? Are they off the calibre of people like Rick Priestly or the other original designers?

Release schedule? I know that FW are separate, but AOS and 40k are the flagships, so when it comes to production, then it's likely specialist games will be low down the pecking order, just like last time.

Advertising: who's going to advertise it and where? Can you still buy WD anywhere?

Tournament scene/conventions: will these games make an appearance and be officially supported?

If I were going to be investing precious money in this, I would be looking for hard answers to these questions.

 infinite_array wrote:

 MLaw wrote:
I care about what they are doing and what they will do.

Which is alright, I guess. If you want to ignore the fact that they abandoned these games when they thought they could get away with it, and are only now coming back in times of apparent dire straights.

As for what they are doing, well, it's nothing apart from, again, a badly photo-shopped image and hearsay.

As for what they will do, they (apparently, if the hearsay is to be believed) haven't even assembled the team that'll make this a reality. And we don't know what the format of any of these games will be.

I'm not understanding your point. Are you saying that I should mope about what used to be? Ignore what might be? Burn GW to the ground for bad business decisions?
By comparison.. Apple made a LOT of poor business decisions, particularly in the 90s. They've presumably turned around (I'm not an Apple guy myself but it looks like they're doing alright).
Personally, in my perfect world, GW has to be given room to make amends. That does not start with the things you've mentioned or anyone else has. It starts with them turning their back on the game side of their namesake. I wasn't introduced to GW through 40k or WHFB. I was a bright-eyed little boy who played a board game against crazy enemies I'd never imagined. That came with a copy of White Dwarf 0, which was full of all of these wild miniatures with outlandish paintjobs and articles about grown men getting together and having a blast playing these games. When I was a teen, I picked up a brand new copy of Mordheim. It was chock full of awesomeness. By that time, I had bought a Space Marine Sgt from a card shop that had a few GW models. I didn't even look at a 40k rulebook for another couple of years. So, for me.. GW has always been personified as those things that captured the imagination of a wayward youth. The demise of those things was in a way like the death of a childish notion. The illusion was broken and I have to say.. when they took the specialist range off the GW site.. that really is about the time I stopped buying. It wasn't a conscious decision, but it lines up now that I think about it. If they want to make amends.. they start there. Then, they make amends with the FLGS. Then, they bring back their events and sponsorships. If they want to drive down the prices somehow along the way fine. For me though, the demise of SG was the first and most unforgivable slight.

EDIT: For clarity - I mean Heroquest.. We got a copy when it was still new on the shelves and came with White Dwarf 0. I then, later bought Mordheim. People who weren't around through all of that might not have known the difference.

Pretty happy with this news. I don't have any interest in Epic or BFG (neither have ever appealed to me for some reason) but I've always fancied having a go at blood bowl plus I know at least one potential opponent for that, and Necromunda and Mordheim too. The fact that it's under FW control is good news too.

 MLaw wrote:
The demise of those things was in a way like the death of a childish notion. The illusion was broken and I have to say.. when they took the specialist range off the GW site.. that really is about the time I stopped buying. It wasn't a conscious decision, but it lines up now that I think about it. If they want to make amends.. they start there. Then, they make amends with the FLGS. Then, they bring back their events and sponsorships. If they want to drive down the prices somehow along the way fine. For me though, the demise of SG was the first and most unforgivable slight.

So, you don't care about what they've done... but you care about what they've done?

Also, holy crap, you're making some pretty generous leaps to conclusions. Specialist Games means support for independent retailers means the return of even and sponsorship?

 ImAGeek wrote:
Pretty happy with this news. I don't have any interest in Epic or BFG (neither have ever appealed to me for some reason) but I've always fancied having a go at blood bowl plus I know at least one potential opponent for that, and Necromunda and Mordheim too. The fact that it's under FW control is good news too.

And why aren't you playing those games now if you've always wanted to?

 infinite_array wrote:

 MLaw wrote:
The demise of those things was in a way like the death of a childish notion. The illusion was broken and I have to say.. when they took the specialist range off the GW site.. that really is about the time I stopped buying. It wasn't a conscious decision, but it lines up now that I think about it. If they want to make amends.. they start there. Then, they make amends with the FLGS. Then, they bring back their events and sponsorships. If they want to drive down the prices somehow along the way fine. For me though, the demise of SG was the first and most unforgivable slight.

So, you don't care about what they've done... but you care about what they've done?

Also, holy crap, you're making some pretty generous leaps to conclusions. Specialist Games means support for independent retailers means the return of even and sponsorship?

 ImAGeek wrote:
Pretty happy with this news. I don't have any interest in Epic or BFG (neither have ever appealed to me for some reason) but I've always fancied having a go at blood bowl plus I know at least one potential opponent for that, and Necromunda and Mordheim too. The fact that it's under FW control is good news too.

And why aren't you playing those games now if you've always wanted to?

Not to be picky but it looks to me like he actually was stating that'd be the order in which he'd hope they make amends. Not that they are doing it. And that he considers the resurrection of Specialist Games to be the first step on the road to amends.

Hulksmash nailed it. That was the order I'd see them extend their collective olive branches.

EDIT: Also.. My decision making is not based on what they have done. That is separate from my feelings about GW. I am capable of stepping back and allowing them to move forward. I do feel like they have some fence-mending to do. However, I do not let that feeling prevent me from enjoying a game or product from a company. Especially when they're mid-stride on what I would consider the first step of said amends.

Ah, right. Apologies for the misconstruing, then!

 infinite_array wrote:

 MLaw wrote:
The demise of those things was in a way like the death of a childish notion. The illusion was broken and I have to say.. when they took the specialist range off the GW site.. that really is about the time I stopped buying. It wasn't a conscious decision, but it lines up now that I think about it. If they want to make amends.. they start there. Then, they make amends with the FLGS. Then, they bring back their events and sponsorships. If they want to drive down the prices somehow along the way fine. For me though, the demise of SG was the first and most unforgivable slight.

So, you don't care about what they've done... but you care about what they've done?

Also, holy crap, you're making some pretty generous leaps to conclusions. Specialist Games means support for independent retailers means the return of even and sponsorship?

 ImAGeek wrote:
Pretty happy with this news. I don't have any interest in Epic or BFG (neither have ever appealed to me for some reason) but I've always fancied having a go at blood bowl plus I know at least one potential opponent for that, and Necromunda and Mordheim too. The fact that it's under FW control is good news too.

And why aren't you playing those games now if you've always wanted to?

Because it's hard enough to find games near me that are actively supported sometimes let alone ones that aren't. Well I could probably find them but a bit far afield seeing as I don't drive and don't really have time to get the train everywhere. In the easily accessible area to me I haven't found really found anyone.

If the rumours are true and we're at least six months away from seeing any product then this really is a huge shift in direction for GW.

And it's one that will work. In less than a day I'm reconsidering some planned purchases from other companies to make sure I have some surplus cash around for when this stuff see's the light of day. If it does turn out to be a bust I can always just buy the stuff I had originally planned instead. But GW now have a good chance of getting hold of some of my money when they didn't yesterday.

In fact the only money I have spent on GW products in the last year has all been OP stuff from Ebay.

Saw this on FB

Wow! Just wow!

Incredible news! I can't wait to see what they come up with! AoS isn't for me but this really is intriguing, it will be interesting to see what sort of release schedule they can achieve with so many products needing attention.

Necromunda? Epic Armageddon? Before my time... That said.Yes! Please!

I'm giddy with excitement at the possibility, if anybody can pull this off in a big way it's gonna be Forgeworld.

Warhammer Forge might have been worth the sacrifice if this comes to pass!

So.. think AoS will end up a specialist game, and they'll pull an oops and bring back regular Warhammer?

 Necros wrote:
So.. think AoS will end up a specialist game, and they'll pull an oops and bring back regular Warhammer?

Can they really do that after replacing the Space Marine with a giant golden Sigmarine and plastered that Sigmar symbol under the Aquila?

I mean, it's one thing to try and resurrect a bunch of games that got swept under the rug years ago. It's another to try and reverse a publicly hung franchise.

But the big questions are these:

1) Are they going to do a Dreadfleet on us? i.e here today gone tomorrow.

2) Are these games going to be ridiculous, limited edition runs?

A lot of people have had their fingers burnt and I don't blame their scepticism.

When hard evidence, and not half-ass FB posts turn up, then we'll see.

 infinite_array wrote:

 Necros wrote:
So.. think AoS will end up a specialist game, and they'll pull an oops and bring back regular Warhammer?

Can they really do that after replacing the Space Marine with a giant golden Sigmarine and plastered that Sigmar symbol under the Aquila?

They're bringing specialist games back after making it practically illegal to acknowledge their existence for years...

I just found this on Facebook

nekooni wrote:


Torpedoes are (...) designed to be capital ship killers and are massive, building sized ordnance. - From Update #8 on the DfC KS

DfC is VERY similar, maybe you should just take a look at it before dismissing it. DfC goes from fighter/bomber squadrons up to battleships.
IIRC the Scale of DfC is 1:15,000 and the largest ships are roughly up to 3km long, so they're not that much smaller than BFG Battleships (up to 4.5km). Considering 40ks "slight tendency" to oversize the everliving gak out of everything it's quite impressive that DfC comes that close in size.

BFG has been reconned in the FFG role playing books to 1:56,000 scale. Imperial cruisers are now 5km and battleships up to 7-8km and the big Heresy era ships up to 16km

Scale discussion: http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=5742.msg48572#msg48572

Ships in scale form all Sci-fi universes. Much fun: http://www.merzo.net/

T

 Fango wrote:
I just found this on Facebook

Spoiler:

 ImAGeek wrote:
Saw this on FB

This screen shot is from the Warhammer App, go check it out for your selves. This is getting very officle very fast.


Necromunda comeing back is the most exciting thing I've heard is a LONG time.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
But the big questions are these:

1) Are they going to do a Dreadfleet on us? i.e here today gone tomorrow.

2) Are these games going to be ridiculous, limited edition runs?

A lot of people have had their fingers burnt and I don't blame their scepticism.

When hard evidence, and not half-ass FB posts turn up, then we'll see.

Meaning: Please don't drop dreadfleet on us!!

Yep, it's in the app, ITS OFFICIAL PEOPLE

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
But the big questions are these:

1) Are they going to do a Dreadfleet on us? i.e here today gone tomorrow.

2) Are these games going to be ridiculous, limited edition runs?

A lot of people have had their fingers burnt and I don't blame their scepticism.

When hard evidence, and not half-ass FB posts turn up, then we'll see.

How about the announcement via the Warhammer app as posted above? Is that half-assed enough?