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Welcoming Sophie Williams and James Hewitt to Warcradle Studios — Warcradle Studios

TL;DR - James & Sophie (both ex-GW, Mantic, etc.) have joined Warcradle Studios (Wayland Games' publishing wing)

This is the best thing I've head all year

Best news of the year.

I could have sworn James had just joined Modiphius off the back of designing Fallout Factions but evidently I'm mistaken

Interest in Warcradle games just dramatically increased! I hope Hewitt is given the reins for Armored Clash, or Firestorm Armada!

Pipedream... he brings back Firestorm: Planetfall!

Well Armored Clash is pretty much done as it's already in production and they've been running demos. But this is good news. I'm hoping Armored Clash is as good as the new Dystopian Wars.

JimmyWolf87 wrote:
I could have sworn James had just joined Modiphius off the back of designing Fallout Factions but evidently I'm mistaken

Sophie and James have been with us over a year yes. We are sad to see them go.
James trained me as a keytimer on my first day with GW so its been fun working with him again.

Funnily enough I came from Warcradle to Mod back in the day, so I guess turnabout is fair.

My first thought was isn't James Hewitt Wolverine?

Congratulations to all involved!

 Hulksmash wrote:
Well Armored Clash is pretty much done as it's already in production and they've been running demos. But this is good news. I'm hoping Armored Clash is as good as the new Dystopian Wars.

True, but Warcradle games do evolve over time. Dystopian Wars is VERY different (and better) than the version of the game that launched. Hewitt's steady hand will likely only make its future even brighter.

Speaking of... weren't Armored Clash preorders supposed to go up this month?

Yes, I'm very very happy with how Dystopian Wars evolved from launch till present. It's why I didn't bother with Mantic 10mm skirmish and why I didn't bother with HH Legions either. If I'm going to have a 10mm game I think AC is going to be the best place to put that money

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
My first thought was isn't James Hewitt Wolverine?

Of course not.

James Hewitt is an ex-military, had an affair with the British princess and then worked as a game designer.

 Hulksmash wrote:
Well Armored Clash is pretty much done as it's already in production and they've been running demos. But this is good news. I'm hoping Armored Clash is as good as the new Dystopian Wars.

From the Warcradle Discord, both have been very actively involved with the devolopment of Armoured Clash already.

It's all part of a significant expansion of the Studio: https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/huge-new-gaming-warehouse-built-9156976

I've been playing WWX for a while now and Dystopian Wars since its revamp under Warcradle Studios. It's an absolute delight to play a game that is completely a "living rules set" withouth also trying to get extra cash out of their playerbase with (often expensive) rulebooks. There are updates all the time to make the game better, without it costing you an arm and a leg in books (that then need a crapton of FAQ/errata to be relevant).


Today's "one year later" core rules rewrite from GW just solidifies why I love Warcradle Studio's design philosophy... That big (impressive yet expensive) rulebook in my launch box is now already obsolete and 40k 10th isn't even a year old.

As a person who loves DW and is excited for AC and enjoys the way Warcradle has handled DW I will say that some of the changes in less than a year can easily rival what GW just did. I could say the two different rulebooks I have for DW are just about as useless with some of the changes. Also most of what GW just did was a shift or clarification for people who couldn't read the rules and for a company to large to have the owner pop in and tell people "No, it doesn't work that way" on Discord

All that said I'm very excited for what these two can bring to the table for AC. 40k is what I travel to events for because of friends and camaraderie. DW is what I actively try to get people to play with me because it's just a better (if different) game.

Fantastic news and wish them the very best.

 Hulksmash wrote:
As a person who loves DW and is excited for AC and enjoys the way Warcradle has handled DW I will say that some of the changes in less than a year can easily rival what GW just did.

Oh for sure... GW attempts to do a living rules set, but isn't quite ready to let go of that sweet codex/rulebook money flowing in... And that leaves you screwed as a customer.

And yeah, the very earliest rulebooks of DW are useless since rule revamp 3.05... But any rules tweaks suggested by playtesters are not an option if it requires rewriting the big rulebook (I know this first hand). In addition, all reprints of older startersets are updated with the latest rulebooks whenever possible by Warcradle. You'll only be left with an old one if you bought an (often discounted) old box off the shelves of a FLGS or online retailer.


That's the sort of difference you get with GW games. Tweaks to the core rules are definitely made, but they coincide with new 2-player startersets if it's mid-edition AND older boxes get updated alongside with it. That's a big difference.

 Elmir wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:
As a person who loves DW and is excited for AC and enjoys the way Warcradle has handled DW I will say that some of the changes in less than a year can easily rival what GW just did.

Oh for sure... GW attempts to do a living rules set, but isn't quite ready to let go of that sweet codex/rulebook money flowing in... And that leaves you screwed as a customer.

And yeah, the very earliest rulebooks of DW are useless since rule revamp 3.05... But any rules tweaks suggested by playtesters are not an option if it requires rewriting the big rulebook (I know this first hand). In addition, all reprints of older startersets are updated with the latest rulebooks whenever possible by Warcradle. You'll only be left with an old one if you bought an (often discounted) old box off the shelves of a FLGS or online retailer.


That's the sort of difference you get with GW games. Tweaks to the core rules are definitely made, but they coincide with new 2-player startersets if it's mid-edition AND older boxes get updated alongside with it. That's a big difference.

I mean, you can't say "they outdate the rulebook boo them" on one side of your mouth and be like "Warcradle releases updated rulebooks in their updated box sets". They do the same thing essentially if you don't want that nu-starter. GW does get ya for $50-60 a faction every 3 years. They're both living rule sets. One just requires buy in at a rate of $50-60 per faction every 3 years. Which isn't cheap but it's not insane. But the huge difference is that you can get fully functional tournament fleets for less than $300 vs. whatever a 2k point army from GW costs nowadays

Warcradle also provides the whole rulebook free online, as well as erratas to update any version of the physical rulebook to the latest rules. You haven't been forced to re-buy anything since 3.x started.

More Bill and Ted love!

Was the metal figures a reality, or were they just 3d print stls?

I guess this means James wont be developing Fallout Factions which he seemed very enthusiastic about in many interviews recently(?)

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Interest in Warcradle games just dramatically increased! I hope Hewitt is given the reins for Armored Clash, or Firestorm Armada!

Pipedream... he brings back Firestorm: Planetfall!

From what I can tell from the images in the army books for Planetfall, the models were all 3D sculpted. If Warcradle have access to those resources it would be nice if they took a page out of Mantic's book and started releasing them as STLs along side the rules.

I'd buy 'em.

I know it was a mess, but I loved that game. Hopefully in due time Warcradle will revisit the entire Firestorm corner of their acquisition.

Good news for both James and Sophie!

 mindrobber wrote:
I guess this means James wont be developing Fallout Factions which he seemed very enthusiastic about in many interviews recently(?)

He worked on it for about a year and likely has work he did for the game still releasing for another year easily.