Games Workshop Was Right to Dump Specialist Games

Yep, they did the right thing if the rumours are true and ye old Specialist Games are going the way of the Man O War / Space Hulk / Dark Future / Chainsaw Warrior and so on.

Let me tell you about my opinions.

Why do I say this?

Well GW is a miniatures company first and foremost - they've said as much and they take (mostly) deserved pride in the quality of their new releases. But Specialist Games were, for the most part, a bit of a blot on that record.

For example, saw you saw one of Forge World's beautiful Warhounds:

But thought "hey, 250 quid is a bit much, but I love Titans so maybe I'll give this Epic game a look..."

Not so much interest now, I'd wager. One of the best looking minis available (not so much anymore) for Epic is the Phantom Titan, who turns 25 this year. Yes, Games Workshop, the leading light of miniatures technology, is selling miniatures it first released over two decades ago. Whether that's a testament to Jes Goodwin's skill and vision, or a sign they've never really known how to move Specialist Games forward, or both, I'll leave up to you.
Similarly there have been more "fantasy football" teams put out by non-GW companies than by GW themselves in the last decade, and the old models do not compare in most cases:

The way I look at it this: Specialist Games figures are the Christmas jumpers of miniature lines. They're too ugly to actually use, but you know your granny will get really upset if you throw it out.

Gee thanks, Grandpa Jervis, it's just what I wanted!

So instead they hang around the joint and you hope when you're showing off your wardrobe to a new squeeze they don't see them and laugh their ass off at you (to clarify this metaphor: you're GW and the girl is a new customer).

Just be honest and chuck 'em out - you never wear it and it's taking up space. The argument is made that the Specialist Games range was still profitable, but barely. That's... not a good argument for a business, especially one that seems to be doing loads of cost cutting in the way GW is (and the whole global economic turbulence thing). Say that one out of every ten casting jobs was for a Specialist Games range - and I'm probably being generous here. If you get rid of that you would, in theory, get a greater than 10% increase in another area as you would have the casting time plus the time needed to change moulds and so on shifted over. That would mean increase in production of the lines that sell well, so you can get them stocked up for their new release and out the door, concentrating then on the next lot.

Some, like Lord Frontline, pictured to the right, have indicated that GW were simply sitting on their stock since the Finecast introduction, and this is merely the last dregs of stock disappearing. But regardless, time taken from the logistics workforce to deal with Specialist Games, as well as just physical space, can now go to stuff that sells.

"But, mighty Gotthammer," I hear you cry as you grovel before my dread throne, "Blood Bowl / Epic / Necromunda still has players! What will become of that once great community now that our support is gone?"

Erm, what support? I guess it was nice of GW to put up the PDF rulebooks, but I've seen in discussion threads about this very topic enquiries about rules directed to go to fan site to get the latest fan-updated editions. As Porky the Wise, that intrepid traveller of the expanse, would say "the game is now totally in our hands. But, of course, it always has been. Also, there is no game, there is only ourselves."
Nothing, short of a DMCA notice *cough*, can stop people playing Blood Bowl or Necromunda. Hell, the Blood Bowl PC game comes with the rules as a PDF.


BUT

What should GW do now? I think they have three main options, and I'll address them in what I consider order of least to most likely to happen:

1) Re-release. They'll totally redo all the ranges and re-launch the Specialist Games line with much fanfare and it will be 1995 all over again. I find this unlikely because of the sheer amount of capital required to resculpt / move to finecast and build up stock for what is a gamble that gamers will, in fact, put their money where their mouth is and buy Specialist Games in any volume.
It is more likely that one or two games may be moved, Blood Bowl has been rumoured for some time and has a bit more exposure with the PC game, and Necromunda's miniature line still holds up well (much thanks to Jes again, no doubt).
The success of Space Hulk has shown there is demand, but I understand GW's trepidation to invest so much capital on a risk at a time of economic uncertainty (double given what some of their more... unusual corporate moves of late may indicate).
Also, they may have missed the boat for other titles. In the skirmish stakes Mordheim is effectively superseded my Malifaux, Freebooter's Fate and more; Necromunda by Infinity and Relic Knights to a certain degree. While Epic has been nobbled by Drop Zone Commander and the currently Kickstarting Robotech Battles for small-scale sci-fantasy. And there is, of course, Firestorm Armada taking over BFG's slot.
Had they done this even five years ago when the indies were still in their infancy GW could have potentially cleaned up. Or, like many big corporations reacting to upstarts, it could have lost a boatload of money (see TSR vs Magic the Gathering).

Also costs around four times as much.

2) Licencing. Most likely to Fantasy Flight, but perhaps to a new player. GW has shown they can make a lot of money with their IP through the RPG books and various games. They've also shown savvy by getting paid to let others take the risk for stuff they don't want to do (movies). However none of those have been real miniature games. The closest are Fantasy Flight's board games, and I'm not sure GW would be willing to outsource it's core area, or it would likely be so restrictive / costly for the licensor they may find the going tough.

3) Nothing. Yep, I think GW's likely course of action in the near future will be nothing. They'll let the dust settle long enough for this to all be forgotten or just remembered with a roll of the eyes or a joke like the Squats, and then, when the time is right, maybe bring one or two titles back. Perhaps they're waiting out the expiry of the LotR agreement, and we'll see Specialst Games, or maybe just a singular game, back with a vengeance in three or four years.

So I do think the loss of Specialist Games is sad, and certainly and end of an era, but it is also a positive in that it will no longer be confined to a hellish semi-death for decades on end with no reprieve, and that any activity within GW will now solely be on new products, be they re-imaginings of the forgotten games or simply faster updates of the current generation.

Koronus Gazetter #4: Destiny? Also 200th post apparently

New issue of everyone's favourite 40k newspaper!

As you can see they've been a busy bunch, making big names for themselves, which brings up an interesting thought - what sort of destinies are they cooking up?

This is something I've touched on previously, but it's an interesting challenge for a GM in both running and world-building. With an open 'sandbox' world players can go and do whatever they want, but need a suitably 'free' background. For game with an overarching plot players are tied to the rails to a certain degree (not always a bad thing BTW).

Blending the two can be a tricky proposition when trying to mesh a destiny with player's desire to be free and take control.

Rogue Trader provides a perfect avenue to have the two exist simultaneously in blocking off star systems but giving players a bunch of 'free' hooks to explore on them own. Of course in a more terrestrial game this is much more of an issue, but does not avoid the issue of keeping the plot straight.
In my game I'm using the Warpstorm Trilogy as the basis for overarching plotline of the game, so the plan is to tie one of the character's backstory to the main plot. Should that player go and do something stupid like get themselves killed I do have a contingency plan in place - there is the chance that a player could otherwise 'wreck' the plot.

Obvioulsy it's not that a player should ever be said to wreck a game (at least not unintentionally) so it is of course entirely possible that they somehow finangle a way to make the plot come to an early grave.


If this due to an epic TPK, then oh well... I can recycle the plots later ;)

Should they cut a big section out of the plot then also oh well... dealing with those sort of things is the fun of GMing and good on them for clever thinking.


Having a destiny for a character, or characters, needs always to be in mind for a GM - I'm no fan of PCs knowing they're destined or the chosen ones (past examples may have soured me, see earlier link), so though the player knows they have some secret in their past that will be revealed - it was their idea in the first place - but I've only given vague hints thus far.
When players start making their own destinies it can be most entertaining, because they aren't always good. The Drakes have made a number of powerful friends, but have racked up quite a number of enemies. Enemies who are prepared to wait...

In some cases I'll speak out of game to the players in both vague and direct terms about the consequences of their choices, but mostly I prefer to leave things nice a vague. The PCs actions in the world will affect how NPCs act and their plans (and so they should), and they will sometimes change their plans to thwart or aid the PCs.

It does mean a fair amount of record keeping, but I find that having the main plot driver seperate from both what the PC and NPC's actions means that should they throw a spanner in the works through some side quest things are more recoverable by not being tied too tightly.


Listening to player speculation on the plot is also important for gauging how interested they are in plot points. For instance my players were very interested and somewhat unnerved by recovering information about the Gaunt Triumph, so hopefully they'll be enticed by what's in store.

If they're not, I'm sure I'll think of something.


Edit: Apparently this is my 200th post. Go me, and thanks to all my loyal minions!

The Adventures of House Drake

My game of Rogue Trader has been going rather well so far, with the PCs getting up to all sorts of hijinks in the last adventure, and the players getting a good handle on their personalities.

They've played through Forsaken Bounty merged with the intro adventure in the main rulebook, Vaults of the Forgotten and have just startedthe somewhat longer Lure of the Expanse.
During this time they've created a bitter rivalry with House Fel, set about a salvage operation of the Emperor's Bounty, fought off a Rak'Gol attack and destroyed four enemy vessels. Not too shabby I think.

The party even managed to get one over on the Kasballica Mission! Having discovered the mysterious (and dangerous) crystals at Egaria Omega they didn't want them falling into the hands of the Kasballica.Fortunately the only people who knew about them were the PCs, the archaeologists (who wanted them hidden too), and the Kasballica agent Leerus... who the PCs flushed out of an airlock, blaming his death on the Rak'Gol.
Using the Rak'Gol attack as a cover they moved the dig site far away, taking the crystals with them and keeping the Kasballica well in the dark.

They also earned the respect of the Crow Spirits, saving Badb Ra's life (albeit by chanswording off her leg to pull her free of the maze city, but still...)

The Liege's Ball on Footfall had some particularly hilarious roleplaying:

- all the PCs who ate the disgusting food on offer (for bonuses to social tests) failed to digest properly and suffered some penalties.

- Tian, the party's psyker, has a particular hatred for Lady Ash, Fel's psyker consort. Whilst trying to talk to her he got in to an argument with Fel and Djanko Scourge, resulting in a challenge to eat the more disgusting foods. After some macho talk Tian realised eating the deep warp eel would be a bad idea, and George (the Explorator) created a distraction - by punching a nearby partygoer across the room.
Tian took the opportunity to hurl his appetiser across the room as neither Fel nor Scourge would dare call him a liar.

- Willow, the Sister Hospitaller, flirted shamelessly with Jeremiah Blitz (deducing he may be the man Murderin' Dave is after) and got a lot of useful information out of him. She then got rather charmed by Abel Gerrit in return.

- George managed to win over Aoife Armengarde through their shared love of Eldar weapons and duelling, a valuable contact for the group at this early stage.

- James, the ex-Navy Captain, has been having plenty of.. success (ahem) with his relationship with Mademoiselle Charlabelle, and has successfully established a line between personal and business matters.

Things look like they should be very interesting in the near future: They're going to try and ally with Charlabelle and Gerrit in pursuit of the Dread Pearl - a wise move given the calibre of their competition - and possibly even rope Blitz into things.
They've earned the ire of Fel and Scourge, and Feckward (and his brothers) are old foes of the family.

The plan is that Bastille will die off camera in the final space battle (his cruiser plunging to earth as a final apocalyptic set piece), leaving his now defunct holdings up for grabs. I'm also changing the location of the planet linked by the webway to Rain, so if the PCs escape the Dread Pearl they'll be 'nearby' and can hopefully find and repair the abandoned colony and its communications gear. That will also provide a base of opperations for them and an initial holding as well.

Koronus Gazetter #3

So here is issue #3, and possiably the last issue for a while as the PCs will be shortly embarking on the quest for the Dread Pearl detailed in Lure of the Expanse.

That is assuming they escape the Egarian maze-city they're currently stuck in and get past the swarms of Rak'Gol waiting outside.

The quest for the Dread Pearl will take them far from the civilised (and not-so-civilised) ports of the Coreward stars to the very edges of the galaxy, where it is hard to get one's newspaper delivered. It'll also be pitting them against nine other Rogue Traders in a race so they'll be sure to be motivated and will be completely unable to turtle (or if they do they'll surely fail).

Lure of the Expanse (and many Rogue Trader whatits) was written by the blogospere's own Andy Hoare, who is currently working on a rather fun sword 'n' sprcery ruleset called Get the Girl, Kill the Baddies. You can read more about it, download the beta rules and give any feedback at his blog.

Koronus Gazetter Issue #1

This is a handout I'm producing for the players of my upcoming Rogue Trader RPG game to give them plot hooks, rumours and background texture. It's designed to be printed double sided and folded in half, so "Rogue Tradin'" is on the back.

Click to embiggen:

I think you can guess what the first adventure will be about ;) But there are seeds for future endevours and encounters layed down here. It'll be fun seeing the player's actions move from the back pages to bigger and bigger stories. Or seeing their screw-ups on the front page for all to see, ha ha!

Higher quality PDF available here.

Some not so light reading

22 kilos worth to be exact:

Next challenge - where to put them...

Horus Heresy Boardgame - Second Impressions

I played a full game of the Horus Heresy boardgame today, and like my initial impression I am still very impressed.

The game didn't take overly long, about 4 hours, considering it was the first time my opponent (Vash) and I had played fully. We only made a couple of errors (that we noticed) and those mostly related to mixing up the wording of how actions or orders were performed.
We only had to go to the rulebook a couple of times, and then for fairly obscure rules - the 40k equivelant of looking up firing a template weapon at an occupied building.

See, the Primarchs were all super quick growing, but obviously not maturing - the Emperor knew this and figured this whole 'heresy' thing was just Horus' angsty teen rebellion phase. I can see him sitting on his throne, telling Malcador they'll grow out of it - finally he gets sick of it all and does the whole 'don't make me come up there!' thing.

So I didn't take any photos, but here's a pic of the board from BGG I 'borrowed':


For reference the four spaceports are the circular areas marked with white outlines, the palace in the middle, the kidney shaped bits are factories and the grey circles are fortresses. Also in lieu of pics I've supplied some art to break up the text (much of it by David Hudnut).

Arbites defend the palace from all manner of threats, so long as they're no tougher than a puny cultist rabble.

The game is very fun, very tense and long term plans pay off - however long term plans also get scuppered when your foe moves you initiative marker forward four spaces in one combat (grrrr).
This game went as a loss for the Imperials due to Spaceport Victory by the Traitors with a well executed drop pod on the eastern fields. This is partly my fault as I hesitated too long to dislodge the Traitors (including Angron and Mortarion) in the western spaceports. I had done this in the first game and didn't want to be too predictable, but took too long and allowed the Traitors to build up.

Why aren't we in the game? Just pretend you're Custodes, ok.

After the loss we kept playing as had I held just one spaceport I was about to launch two boarding actions against Horus - we played it out and I stomped Horus dead in one turn without loosing anyone (ok, a Custodes and Blood Angel unit, but nobody important).

Like me!

The tricky part of a manoeuvre like that is it takes some space on the initiative track to get some breathing room, but Vash wouldn't give me any as he knew I'd make him pay for it (quite rightly). What I should have done is before my planned attack is to assault Angron's troops, who had been bloodily rebuffed by the White Scars dug in to their west, and force the issue down at the south western landing field.
In all honest I prettymuch wavered in the face of which western field to take on - partly because I forgot I could draw cards from my recyle pile not just the new stack! I foolishly forgot that I could play an Assault order, then pull it back as it isn't discarded and I don't need to wait for the orders phase to retrieve it.
D'oh!

Why hello, we're gigantic jerks!

I only narrowly lost the North Eastern field, as I had a largish contingent of army and armoured troops there, but unfortunately they were assaulted by the Emperor's Children + Fulgrim, and Vash got a lucky combat card that tunred one of my guys over to him.
But that is the nature of the game, and it was very well played by my opponent, so don't take all my maybes as a discredit to his skill.

For Ultramar and Rowboat Girlyma- wait, we're not here yet...

The only criticisms I have (perhaps a bit of 'you failed me' here) is that I think the Spaceport Victory is too early in the game - halfway infact. It does make it an easier tactic to attempt for either side than going for the big kill, and doesn't feel very heroic to me...
The other is that in some ways there needs to be more units on the board. By that I mean there are some great cards for the Arbites or Adeptus Mechanicus, but you only have three of each and they start isolated.
Getting the AdMech to a battle, in the first scenario at least, is pretty much impossible most of the time.

But, the other five scenarios all have more flexible setups so we'll be trying the second, 'HeresyUnheralded', next time we play.


I still rate the game very highly, I'd say 8.5 / 10.

Horus Heresy by Fantasy Flight - First Impressions

As I mentioned previously I played a game of Fantasy Flight's Horus Heresy boardgame today, and I have to say I'm mighty impressed.

The gameplay reminds me of Nintendo's Advance Wars series of games in its diceless state and somewhat slow gameplay at times. Also the way every unit can be fairly evenly weighed up against another makes them similar in my mind.
Bell of Lost Souls described it as 'stately', and I think that's a fair description of the play. It really does require planning well in advance and keeping an eye on the initiative track for taking the different phases and such into account.

Fulgrim and his troops land at the uncontested Space Port Damoclese.

The system is fairly easy to learn, but not quick, as everything is so intertwined that you need to know everything and how it all interacts before starting. My mate Vash and I were both playing for the first time today (I had read the rulebook through thoroughly though) and it took quite some time to set up as I hadn't plugged anyone into bases or the like.
The rulebook is very thorough, often going over something a couple of times to explain it thoroughly. While this is very good when reading the rules it can be a bit much trying to look something up quickly.
Fortunately Board Game Geek has come to the rescue and the members there have made some nice summary sheets.

However, once we got into the swing of things we covered quite a bit of ground before we had to finish early.

Some of the downsides of the game are that the plastic forts are quite crowded at times. I've kept the cardboard punch-outs as they will no-doubt come in handy for messier combats.
Another minor problem was that I recieved an extra Arbites mini but was shorted a Custodes. Not a huge issue as I can simply paint them up as the right unit (or convert some Sisters of Silence maybe), but it provided a bit of confusion.

Kahn, Sanguinius and a bunch of Marines destroy the Nurgle forces at the Eternity Wall Spaceport, wounding Mortarion badly in the process.

The combat, as I mentioned is completely diceless and provides a bit of cat and mouse tactical tension compared to the otherwise strategic gameplay. Each card has a special effect dependant on the (ie Space Marines must be present), their status (attacking or defending) or affiliation (Nurgle, Khorne etc).
Also the number of cards used goes up as each hand is played giving the choice to either save cards to dish out more damage later or save units by discarding the cards to block incoming hits.

For example in the combat above I used a Space Marine ability to remove the Nurgle Marines, which then negated Mortarion's (quite powerful) special ability as he needed them there for it to work. Vash had the option of using two-three cards in his hand of five to negate that, but had already planned a combo attack of summoning Daemons to his cultists then using a special card with them to rout my guys.
That late in the game I wouldn't be able to counter it, and my assault would be thrown into disarray.
Fortunately for me I was hitting him hard and had a luck draw, wiping out the remainder of his forces and wounding Mortation four times in one go!

So yeah, a good sytem in place there. The only downside is the cards need a really good shuffle. I mean really good. We'd both shuffled the decks multiple times and cut them and all sorts, but it was still common for us to be drawing pairs of the same card over and over. A downside of the hard wearing construction of the cards, I suspect, but nothing critical. I think I'll be playing a controlled game of 52 pickup with the decks before the next game.

It is a very non-40k player friendly game, and no real knowledge is required, though it will help to be at least passingly familiar with the units. Someone who's played Dawn of War would do just fine. My friend Matt seemed intrigued by it, but it being only a two player game is a bit of a pain for the more social gamers among us.

Overall I'd rate the game 8/10 - the lost points are due to the tight confines of some of the regions, and the minor problems I've already mentioned.

Horus Heresy Boardgame Minis

Titan of the Legio Ignatium (Fire Wasps ). The shin badge is 2mm tall x 2.5mm across. Only two more to do.

He's Adeptus Battlegrey for the body, Red Gore for the armour (with Golden Yellow trim on teh hips), Bubonic Brown and Orkhide Shade for the carapace, and Boltgun Metal for the weapons.
The eyes were detailed with Regal Blue, then the whole model washed with Badab Black.

The logo is Skull White, Ultramarines Blue, Chaos Black and Golden Yellow.



Tiny Baneblade! These and the Army dudes (below) will be getting a variety of colour schemes on them since there's so many of them.

Gretchin Green, Orkhide Shade, Boltgun Metal and Chaos Black washed black.



Mechanicus and Army stands.

Mechanicus are Red Gore and Boltgun metal washed Badab Black.
Army are Gretchin Green, Adeptus Battlegrey and Chaos Black. Washed Badab Black.



The Custodes are Burnished Gold with Blood red robes, plumes and left shoulder eagles. Their spears have Boltgun Metal hafts, Adeptus Battlegrey guns, Mithril Silver blades.
The Arbites are Adeptus Battlegrey Armour, Ultramarines Blue robes, Badab Black guns, and Boltgun Metal for the shield icon and headcrest. The Judge's maul is in Mithril Silver.
Both units washed Badab Black.


Bases for everyone are Fortress Grey washed in black to match the unit stands (visible in the first picture).


One important thing to consider is to make each unit very distinct in its colouration - they're only 10mm tall and fairly similar at a distance, so it is important, as these are primarily gaming pieces so need to be easily recognisable, to make them distinct from one another.

For instance when I paint the Khorne affiliated cultists they can't just be red dudes in robes as they will be far to similar to the Mechanicus units. My thought is to make them a more reddish-brown colour accented with a bright red to stand out.
Similarly some Marines have to be in their iconic colours but easily seperated from one another - Blood Angels will have black trim, while the World Eaters will have brass.



The new member of the Fire Wasps with one of my rather ancient Adeptus Titanicus titans. The camouflaged carapace scheme is from the original box art of said game. I changed the blue body to 'black' (the Deaths Heads will be true black cuz they're evil) as I'm not a fan of the blue-red combo.