GW bringing back specialist games

[Vroomer 73]

+1 for Mordheim, Blood Bowl, and Epic.

 

played Necromunda once or twice when it came out, but I'm more of a Fantasy > 40K now kinda guy.

[Chaoswolf 112667]

Work has begun on Blood Bowl:

http://www.beastsofwar.com/blood-bowl/previews-blood-bowl-returning-tabletop/

[Orlando_the_Technicoloured 3102]

Rumours are beginning to suggest the first release from them may well be some variant of Aeronautica Imperialis (air combat game originally released as a forgeworld book if I remember right) with elder, chaos, orks and space marines as the forces involved

[Heisler 10629]

All those titles to choose from and they pick out something pretty obscure. We will have to see if the rumor mill is true on that one or not.

[Sivrel 6]

Oh yes, is anyone here familiar with how Mordheim got it's own video game adaptation? Considering it's a thread for GW's re-emerging support of the specialist games then likely yes.

[Chaoswolf 112667]

I have heard of it; it's still going through beta testing, isn't it?

[Reaperbryan 21]

All those titles to choose from and they pick out something pretty obscure. We will have to see if the rumor mill is true on that one or not.

Obscure, but thematically similar to the Star Wars Armada game that's all the rage with the kids. I think it's a deliberate attempt to piggy back off the popularity of dogfight combat.

[DocPiske 3736]

On a related note, there's a rumor that ForgeWorld is being reorganized into three divisions, one of which will focus on Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Count me pleasantly gobsmacked.

[MrNutt 37]

The only reason they are rereleasing Blood Bowl is due to the popularity of the pc version they released 3-4 months ago. The thing is that, while it sold well....it is losing steam at the moment due to slow updates. It is a surprisingly fun/frustrating game though, even if you aren't a football fan.

 

There was also the previous Cyanide Blood Bowl game that is (I believe) still more popular than the sequel is now. There are quite a few online leagues for the first game. It is worth bearing in mind because the rules for the Cyanide video games are very similar (or identical) to the current rules being used in tabletop (and of course the tabletop Blood Bowl scene is still surprisingly big, if more than a little resentful of GW). When they re-release Blood Bowl there will be many people who already know the rules from playing the video game, or who may just want to paint a physical version of their digital team. It should even be possible to do a "hybrid" league, where some games take place online (maybe qualifiers) and others (maybe the finals) occur on the tabletop.

 

I am excited for the Blood Bowl release, if a bit wary. I looked into getting some miniatures recently but the current choice is either: a) hugely expensive old miniatures on eBay, or b) third party miniatures. Some of the third party ones are great, but a lot of them are placed to fill gaps in the original GW release so you cannot find many "standard" teams, only quirky twists on them (Scotlings, Crocodile Lizardmen, Sexy... Anything).

 

From what I can gather from rumours, the likelihood is that they will put out an Orcs vs. Humans box set (zzz) and then make the other teams available by mail order. It is possible (no idea if this is true) that the fact that it is a new division producing this might mean that its release is not restricted by normal GW rules about who can stock and how they can sell it. I do hope they price it aggressively, though I am not holding my breath. Board games and other "geeky" hobbies are becoming more popular (in my estimation). A lot of the costs that GW justifies their prices with (design, expensive steel molds for plastic casting, etc) do not increase in direct proportion to the number of units sold, but I feel like they place the product at the top of the Price vs. Demand curve (and it is still climbing up there). I am confident that if they dropped their prices by 25% they would see an increase in demand that more than compensated the lost profits on individual items (would current customers be furious though?), but they famously believe that market research is pointless for a niche product so this is unlikely to happen. My hope is that they will look at the recent failure of Dreadfleet and price lower than that was (Bloodbowl is also a simpler game with fewer complex parts).

[Dai-Mongar 16591]

Blood Bowl has always had a strong community, and it's something that fans have wanted a rerelease of for years. I'll be interested to see how the boxes set looks.

[Erifnogard 58596]

On a related note, there's a rumor that ForgeWorld is being reorganized into three divisions, one of which will focus on Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Count me pleasantly gobsmacked.

Wow, I didn't see that coming.  Could be awesome.

[BadgersinMeadows 2152]

On a related note, there's a rumor that ForgeWorld is being reorganized into three divisions, one of which will focus on Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Count me pleasantly gobsmacked.

 

I read somewhere on Warseer that there were two new people working on LOTR. It'll be interesting to see how that works out.

[Mr Melons 7583]

I always hear Blood Bowl has a strong following but many of the stores I've been to have never even heard of it (sans the current game store we go to because he is a GW enthusiast)...I usually have to explain it to ppl.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Mr Melons

[Glitterwolf 195258]

I want 10mm Warmaster to return so I can finally build another army, just for the fun, I will never play with it thought.

[Dr.Bedlam 36091]

I must know fifty guys who'd cheerfully shank their mothers to see Blood Bowl come back, and they pick a dogfighting game.

Typical.