So part of the reason for the utter inactivity on this blog has been my new job and my upcoming move.
I am currently in the midst of packing (the movers show up tomorrow) and I won't have a DSL connection at the new place until Dec 11th.
So once I get unpacked and the tortoise driving installation people at Telus finally get to our new place I can start posting about the OGBM list and the upcoming changes to the Chaos Black Legion list.
I probably won't be posting on the Forums much until Dec1th either since I will only have net access at work and I imagine that they'll frown on excessive Epic Forum browsing on my part :-)
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Monday, November 08, 2004
OGBM "on hold"
Due toi the recent Fanatic "shake-up" the OGBM list is going to be in a bit of a holding pattern until we can get the status of the development of the new figures determined.
Word is that they are still going to be produced by until that is confirmed there seems little point in fine-tuning or modifying the list. If the new figures won't be created the list will probably need to be rewritten from scratch to use existing Ork figures.
Word is that they are still going to be produced by until that is confirmed there seems little point in fine-tuning or modifying the list. If the new figures won't be created the list will probably need to be rewritten from scratch to use existing Ork figures.
Fanatic changes a portent?
So by now you've probably read about the upcoming changes to Fanatic Games. The quick summary is that Fantic is being shut down and all games handled by Fanatic will be supported online and have future development handled "in-house" by the existing GW development teams.
Teams that are already quite busy with 40K and Warhammer Fantasy.
What is known for certain is that Fanatic Magazine will stop publication at around issue #10 and that new miniatures for games like Epic and Necromunda will slow to a "trickle". While this isn't that big an issue for systems such as Necromunda and BFG it does, to a large extent, probably spell the death of Epic. At least in terms of it increasing its audience and expanding the pool of Epic gamers.
One really has to wonder what the problem was and why GW has decided to take this step. I think an answer can, to a greater extent, be found in the Chairman's Preamble to the 2004 Financial Results where company chairman Tom Kirby states:
GW makes decisions based on what is good for the business and the shareholders of GW. And if those decisions are also good for gamers then that is an added bonus. But as long as the company continues to turn a profit it will do what it thinks will maximize profits and if those decisions turn out to be bad for gamers then... well too bad.
The sad fact is that despite the success of Specialist Games (and I can't see that it wasn't anything other than a success) GW can afford to alienate all of the Specialist Games customers because we are a small fraction of the people that buy 40K, Lord of the Rings and Warhammer Fantasy figures and accessories.
Someone at GW made a decision that Fanatic wasn't as profitable or that the resources spent there could be spend to better effect elsewhere. Perhaps on another MMPORG? Either way, Fanatic is now dead and while I am sure that while the games and figs that are currently in stock and in the pipeline will get support I can't really see new Epic figs or Necromunda warbands getting a lot of attention at GW.
All in all the decision has left a rather bad taste in my mouth and while I am willing to spend the next few months giving GW the benefit of the doubt its going to take a bit for me to believe that this is anything other than the consolidation of the company into a few larger more profitable game lines.
Ultimately as annoyed and saddened as I am for myself and my gaming compatriots I am truly saddened by the possible effect that this will have on Jervis who must be rather disappointed by the response all of his rather exceptional work has garnered from GW. Jervis and the team at Fanatic have put out a considerable amount of figs and new material (editing issues aside :-) and its disappointing to see that effort "rewarded" with such a shitty decision on the part of GW.
So a hearty "thank you" to Jervis and the crew at Fanatic. I hope that the future is bright for them and that they can continue to produce games they actually enjoy and feel proud of.
And now I'm off to find a few game companies that are operated for the benefit of their customers and not their shareholders.
Teams that are already quite busy with 40K and Warhammer Fantasy.
What is known for certain is that Fanatic Magazine will stop publication at around issue #10 and that new miniatures for games like Epic and Necromunda will slow to a "trickle". While this isn't that big an issue for systems such as Necromunda and BFG it does, to a large extent, probably spell the death of Epic. At least in terms of it increasing its audience and expanding the pool of Epic gamers.
One really has to wonder what the problem was and why GW has decided to take this step. I think an answer can, to a greater extent, be found in the Chairman's Preamble to the 2004 Financial Results where company chairman Tom Kirby states:
"I believe the culture of the business is founded on these things... Management
who put the business first".
who put the business first".
GW makes decisions based on what is good for the business and the shareholders of GW. And if those decisions are also good for gamers then that is an added bonus. But as long as the company continues to turn a profit it will do what it thinks will maximize profits and if those decisions turn out to be bad for gamers then... well too bad.
The sad fact is that despite the success of Specialist Games (and I can't see that it wasn't anything other than a success) GW can afford to alienate all of the Specialist Games customers because we are a small fraction of the people that buy 40K, Lord of the Rings and Warhammer Fantasy figures and accessories.
Someone at GW made a decision that Fanatic wasn't as profitable or that the resources spent there could be spend to better effect elsewhere. Perhaps on another MMPORG? Either way, Fanatic is now dead and while I am sure that while the games and figs that are currently in stock and in the pipeline will get support I can't really see new Epic figs or Necromunda warbands getting a lot of attention at GW.
All in all the decision has left a rather bad taste in my mouth and while I am willing to spend the next few months giving GW the benefit of the doubt its going to take a bit for me to believe that this is anything other than the consolidation of the company into a few larger more profitable game lines.
Ultimately as annoyed and saddened as I am for myself and my gaming compatriots I am truly saddened by the possible effect that this will have on Jervis who must be rather disappointed by the response all of his rather exceptional work has garnered from GW. Jervis and the team at Fanatic have put out a considerable amount of figs and new material (editing issues aside :-) and its disappointing to see that effort "rewarded" with such a shitty decision on the part of GW.
So a hearty "thank you" to Jervis and the crew at Fanatic. I hope that the future is bright for them and that they can continue to produce games they actually enjoy and feel proud of.
And now I'm off to find a few game companies that are operated for the benefit of their customers and not their shareholders.
Monday, November 01, 2004
Black Legion Recommendations
So the last week or so has been taken up with some discussions about the current state of the Chaos Black Legion army list and just what should be done about it. There are some suggestions posted now and hopefully some of them will be added to the next version of the army list.
One of the concepts that I am hoping will get added to the list is the idea of balancing out abilities in the list by tieing them to the availibility of Chaos factions.
For instance the Chaos army list will most likely be changing to a fixed Stategy rating instead of the random rating it currently has. While its a great idea the random rating causes too many problems with issues like placing teleporters that is done before that roll is typically made. One recomendation I am making is that the bonus Sacrifice that used to be a result of the player rolling doubles now be replaced by a rule stating that if the players rolls the "magic number" for the faction of their Warlord that they get the bonus sacrifice. Since this won't be available to Undivided factions it adds an incentive to give the Warlord's formation a faction.
In addition I've recommended that Daemon Princes be limited to one per faction (not Undivided) in the army.
The net effect is to hopefully not only limit Daemon Princes but give Chaos players an added incentive to add more formations with differing Chaos faction affiliations. Since this will probably result in activation modifiers it means that the Chaos player gets a benefit at the expense of making their army less responsive due to factional in-fighting.
One of the concepts that I am hoping will get added to the list is the idea of balancing out abilities in the list by tieing them to the availibility of Chaos factions.
For instance the Chaos army list will most likely be changing to a fixed Stategy rating instead of the random rating it currently has. While its a great idea the random rating causes too many problems with issues like placing teleporters that is done before that roll is typically made. One recomendation I am making is that the bonus Sacrifice that used to be a result of the player rolling doubles now be replaced by a rule stating that if the players rolls the "magic number" for the faction of their Warlord that they get the bonus sacrifice. Since this won't be available to Undivided factions it adds an incentive to give the Warlord's formation a faction.
In addition I've recommended that Daemon Princes be limited to one per faction (not Undivided) in the army.
The net effect is to hopefully not only limit Daemon Princes but give Chaos players an added incentive to add more formations with differing Chaos faction affiliations. Since this will probably result in activation modifiers it means that the Chaos player gets a benefit at the expense of making their army less responsive due to factional in-fighting.
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