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 Kilkrazy wrote:
In my view, GW should try for a lower rather than a higher price, especially for titles like Blood Bowl (confirmed for 2016 release with Humand and Orcs in the starter box) because a lower buy in price encourages a good network effect and more players to buy add-on teams.

I hope GW will also release one-off boxed games that don't need expansions.

I think GW underestimates or at least undervalues the network effect of gateway games. I don't have a problem with expansions, though, and they're a good way to get a marginally profitable board game into the realm of profitability, since they're usually not as good value (therefore more profitable) and are less risky.

- Age of Sigmar. Finally a way for me to get into Fantasy.
- Betrayal at Calth. This was a no-brainier but they sat on the idea for a long while and when they did it they did it right.
- more discounted bundles. With a focus on beginners as well, it seems GW are trying to bring in new blood.
- AdMech. They knocked it out of the park.
- Specialist Games returning. Hopefully these will be gateway games. Again with the new blood.
- Warhammer TV. So many great painting tutorials. Again... Great for new blood. See a pattern?
- Updated Ebooks. Now they look like the printed thing!
- Free rules. Rules in boxes, AoS rules are free... lowering the barrier to entry.

I think Age of Sigmar was the best. It got me excited about GW again.

AoS and even though it was stingy... re-releasing the knight with an extra sprue. Ethically, it made them jerks, financially, they had their cake and ate it too.

Love the models from the AoS box set. Painting them currently, will definitely be picking up more once I'm done.

Need more Sigmarines, need them now.

Specifically: Warscrolls, I hate looking up rules all over 2 books to play each unit, not to mention rules that I could miss entirely and/or forget.

In general: Making fantasy more accessible and versatile.

After 10 years of wargaming I finally got into Warhammer (ended up with daemons so 40k too), because I didn't have to spend R1000 on just the rules AND ~R700 for an army book (I have since spent more than this in ~6 months) before I buy a single mini AND pay the value of several ancients armies for one warhammer army. Not to mention having to buy models I don't really want (or at least more than I care for) for core tax .
Let's not forget the daunting task of learning how to play, which involves reading a tome and getting people to spend their time explaining and playing learning games with you, which is GW asking you to get yourself interested and maintain that interest through this process. From a marketing point of view this would lose a lot of people who were initially excited before they buy anything.

Now it's get cool stuff and have fun , no "but buy this first". Which makes the "cool factor" of all the models much easier for GW to monetize.

The way AoS is set up it is very easy to "add layers" making the game very versatile. This allows us to be creative (which is something everyone enjoys at some level in some way) and makes it possible to make many situations work (i.e. have a games with a variable number of players bringing a variable number of models).

The new setting allows much more creative space too, no need for shared borders (or other global systems like the colour of the sky or how magic (or gravity) works) means that each realm can be entirely different, with a different feel, aesthetic and scenery that can be very much more fantastical . Also portals/ realmgates make the very epic and cinematic "stand to keep the invader out" battle more plausible, I mean entire mountain rangeS with only ONE pass, really!? Just no.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Sad, isn't it, that bringing back something old (Specialist Games) is considered by many to be the best "new" idea from GW in 2015?

Anyway, for something actually new, I'll got with plastic Horus Heresy.

At the same time, a plastic version of something that already exists isn't really anything new either.

 Kenshinzo 7 wrote:
I think Age of Sigmar was the best. It got me excited about GW again.

This right here... I went from abandoning most forms of TT gaming with the end of 5th edition, to buying into AoS, jumping into a campaign at my store.... Buying 7th Ed. stuff for 40k and basically completely rejoining the hobby in a more substantial way than merely painting odd minis.

AoS was actually a quite good idea. But the implementation was lacking. No balancing mechanism and no proper missions to play. But I guess this was planned by GW. The community has step in and make the game playable since GW is only a miniature making company.

AoS for me too.

I like the free rules, I like warscrolls and I even like the abandonment of the points, it makes a nice change.

There was no need to totally scrap WHFB though.

Imperial Knights.
When I first saw mention of them in Mechanicum a few years back I liked the idea of how they operate and functioned. Then having seen the models I realised I liked the fact they almost filled the role of budget titans. I always wondered about building a Titan for larger games, but never felt I'd have the skills or the money to do so, but knights go some way towards scratching that itch both aesthetically and functionally

Edit: Not sure how I got my years mixed up... As people have pointed out I'm a year too late. My mistake

I'll change my answer to the Calth set. Old power armour marks certainly something to be happy about

 Storm Lord wrote:
Imperial Knights.
When I first saw mention of them in Mechanicum a few years back I liked the idea of how they operate and functioned. Then having seen the models I realised I liked the fact they almost filled the role of budget titans. I always wondered about building a Titan for larger games, but never felt I'd have the skills or the money to do so, but knights go some way towards scratching that itch both aesthetically and functionally

Didn't knights come out in 2014? They were just tweaked (model) and rehashed (codex) in 2015.

 warboss wrote:

 Storm Lord wrote:
Imperial Knights.
When I first saw mention of them in Mechanicum a few years back I liked the idea of how they operate and functioned. Then having seen the models I realised I liked the fact they almost filled the role of budget titans. I always wondered about building a Titan for larger games, but never felt I'd have the skills or the money to do so, but knights go some way towards scratching that itch both aesthetically and functionally

Didn't knights come out in 2014? They were just tweaked (model) and rehashed (codex) in 2015.

They came out in late February/early March 2014.

My prediction is that there will be a brand new plastic Knight for 2016

Assuming GW ever gets around to a Chaos Codex, I can even guess what it might be...

Anyone else amused at how often AOS appears in both the best and worst of GW 2015 threads?

I think it wouldn't have if GW hadn't canned WHFB.

As much as I lament GWs current state I have to admit that the AdMech stuff was 10/10.

If specialist games indeed return I will be very interested.

Double sized nuln oil paint pot. "I put that [MOD EDIT - Do NOT circumvent the expletive filter - thanks! Alpharius] on everything."

Didn't mean to circumvent . It's a copy/paste of a company's copyrighted slogan: https://m.facebook.com/Franks-Red-Hot-I-put-that-sht-on-everything-146264141270/

If I had to say GW did one thing right this year it was the admech models they released. They are some of the only models I would even consider at that price, and they pulled them off in plastic, which is incredible as well. Literally the only complaint is that they're split between two books. If GW combines them this year then they'll fix the only other mistake.

When they've been releasing so many terrible models lately (the new dwarves, everything new the space wolves got, etc. Etc.) The admech stuff was dead on the money. Every model looks exactly how it should, a mix of technology and stagnated traditionalism. The cables, the bionics, the ornately crafted weapons, the nightmarish looking dominus, rust stalkers, and walkers, everything just hit the nail on the head.

Which confuses me as everyone freaks out over Calth. Yeah, they're not bad, but they're literally a recut of the current tac box with older mark armors. No real creativity or anything there, and the quality doesn't hit near as high as the admech stuff did. It's like an 8/10 compared to admech where it was as close as I can give to 10/10.

Only GW screwed up because they've proved that they could easily pull off plastic sisters now. With all the crazy stuff I've been seeing on the admech sprues I've been building, there's no excuses left

The beginning of 30k Marines in plastic as opposed to really expensive FW resin was easily my highlight of the year, not that's saying much considering what other ideas they had this year though.

In order?

1: Specialist Games return announcement
2: Forgeworld's direction (including, BaC, Warlord Titan, etc etc)
3: AdMech

The return of Specialist Games. How can that be a bad idea...wait, never mind.

Also, now before I say this I say hear me out...WHFB reboot.

The end result itself, AoS, was not great. But the idea of giving WHFB a new start was good. They had a seemingly great campaign with End Times and even as someone who doesn't play WHFB, I followed it. I was really curious to see how things would turn out and how things would grow from the ashes. Hell, I was even tempted to start up a Lizardmen/Dwarves/Tomb Kings army and partake in the campaign as it was developing because it was so exciting.

I have always been a fan of GWs big campaigns that do result in a direct effect on the games. To me, the WHFB was a good idea that never was used to its best potential.

 ProtoClone wrote:
I have always been a fan of GWs big campaigns that do result in a direct effect on the games.

The problem is that every single one of GW's previous campaigns had no impact. Global Storm of Chaos campaign? Nothing. And people were mad that there was no result after the claimed stakes and so on.

With End Times, GW actually did the end times, and then (some) people were mad that GW actually followed through.

Can't win.

That's not true.

Good ideas poorly executed is the hallmark of modern GW. There was great enthusiasm for End Times, that could have been parlayed into renewed enthusiasm for WHFB in a refreshed setting.

Instead we get the nuclear option of AOS and are left with something barely recognisable as what came before it.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:


With End Times, GW actually did the end times, and then (some) people were mad that GW actually followed through.

Can't win.

Nice try but that's not how it went. The could have stopped after End Times — with the consolidated armies — and then explored stories from from there. That way End Times would actually have had an impact on the game but instead they made in irrelevant again. The result just don't matter anymore if you jump thousands of years into the bubble-verse future. Replacing WHFB with the actual 40k would have had the same effect of not really progressing the story in an useful way.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 ProtoClone wrote:
I have always been a fan of GWs big campaigns that do result in a direct effect on the games.

The problem is that every single one of GW's previous campaigns had no impact. Global Storm of Chaos campaign? Nothing. And people were mad that there was no result after the claimed stakes and so on.

With End Times, GW actually did the end times, and then (some) people were mad that GW actually followed through.

Can't win.

It's almost as if when people asked for the story to be advanced they meant continue the same story, not blow it all up and create a new one.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 ProtoClone wrote:
I have always been a fan of GWs big campaigns that do result in a direct effect on the games.

The problem is that every single one of GW's previous campaigns had no impact. Global Storm of Chaos campaign? Nothing. And people were mad that there was no result after the claimed stakes and so on.

With End Times, GW actually did the end times, and then (some) people were mad that GW actually followed through.

Can't win.

If your football team ended the season up or down you can be pleased or disappointed. If none of the league places ever changed, whatever the results, you probably would get bored. If your team was simply disbanded, how do you think you would feel?

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 ProtoClone wrote:
I have always been a fan of GWs big campaigns that do result in a direct effect on the games.

The problem is that every single one of GW's previous campaigns had no impact. Global Storm of Chaos campaign? Nothing. And people were mad that there was no result after the claimed stakes and so on.

With End Times, GW actually did the end times, and then (some) people were mad that GW actually followed through.

Can't win.

If your football team ended the season up or down you can be pleased or disappointed. If none of the league places ever changed, whatever the results, you probably would get bored. If your team was simply disbanded, how do you think you would feel?

Like I needed to move on with my life.

Do you feel like you need to move on with your life from complaining about people not moving on with their lives that you think ought to?