Overread

Also don't forget that GW has its factories and staff in the UK and they've still a healthy UK population of gamers. Even if the EU market contracts for a while after Brexit; GW still has fingers in the USA and other regions that are not part of that bracket. Also Brexit in itself is an unknown beast. It's likely that it will be a rough few years riding it out and then thing should settle down after. The hardest thing will be that the EU member states might want to "punish" the UK to discourage other countries pulling out; however there's a whole world outside of the EU to trade with. On the subject of IP and games I think there's two things to keep in mind: 1) GW clearly likes to retain control over their IP and what is created both lore and visually; I also like to think that they've more experience with this than some newer IP owners. As a result I think that they tend to end up with smaller game studios because the studio need the IP licence more than GW needs the studio. You then get some deals like with Relic and CA where its clear that the company and staff WANT to make the game specifically on the IP and are willing to put up with GW calling the shots on many design choices. This I think tends to leave out some bigger firms at times who want more creative control over their own project; but at the same time I think it helps ensure that GW's IP remains under control and not too heavily watered down. Also even if the video game is a flop it doesn't really hurt GW that much - they still get the licence fees and such. 2) I think the Old World games are a product of several elements a) Computer games take a long time to make. Even simplistic ones can take years (esp with small teams). So many of the contracts were likely agreed upon before AoS ended (it might even be that the arm of GW dealing with game licences wasn't even aware of AoS existing nor the nature of it). b) Like it or not Old World has more market than AoS; or at least had 5 years ago. So there's more to work with in game terms. I think that has steadily changed and I'd expect to see more AoS games start to appear in the near future. On the subject of "outdated"methods like books for rules and such I think many established fans miss the point of these products. The physical book is something that can be shown to an interested customer in a shop; that it contains lore, artwork, how to paint; painted photos and rules and stats I think is a fantastic thing. Sure the experienced gamer only wants the rules and points from the last part; but the whole rest is often what entices people into Warhammer games. Heck when talking to many the setting and lore and interaction with the game is often what brings them in and keeps them playing even when they admit that the rules could be better written and have scope for improvement when compared to many other games. I can't see them going away any time soon. Though I can see GW experimenting with things like they've done with AoS in putting stats and points online for free access along with the rules; I can see them perhaps one day giving access codes for their digital codex* if you buy the physical and suchlike. But as a product I can't see them going away. Heck ask yourself, if GW release a new army (like the Bonereapers) do you "just" want the book for the stats or is the background, stories, painting examples, artwork and such also something you want. In my experience putting it all together - optional an essential game stuff - encourages exposure to the lore. Otherwise it can be like Black Library - its there, you can buy it, but because its optional many people don't. Heck I was into GW for decades and never read a BL book Personally I think their biggest printing issue is using cards but only taking one order of them and running out of stock. I've heard some hints that they might be trying to get their own card printing machinery to do it in-house rather than ordering from overseas. If they could clean that whole area up that would be a great thing. *Interesting thing of note when it comes to Black Library at least - is that GW doesn't use any DRM software or tricks on their ebooks. The closest you get is if you buy through Amazon Kindle Store; otherwise if you buy from BL direct its just a file download. That's interesting in this modern age when many companies go mad for DRM stuff and in the video game world it took GOG making a big stand to push back.

One interesting line of thought is that when GW established itself "craft" hobbies were decently popular. You had Lego, Meccanno, Hornby, Airfix, Zoids, etc... - all of which had a really good time in the roughly same period. So GW grew up alongside many of them, however as time has passed many of those have fallen to the side and digital games have taken over in a big way. Hornby I think has survived with a niche population but an aged one where they aren't seeing the same number of younger people taking up the hobby. Airfix actually died though another one of the model firms bought them out and the models are still around, but I don't get the impression that they are anywhere near as healthy as they once were Meccanno is pretty much dead in the water far as I can tell from kids Lego has survived, partly by going the path of movie-tie-ins and also a very big older population of fans. Far as I can see GW is the only one REALLY pushing younger generations. To my mind, at the very least, this gives GW some suitability that many of the others don't have, which is that GW is working on building their next generation of adult gamers. I did a casual poll over on Dakka a while back and the results were that a huge percentage of gamers got into the hobby in the 8-15 age bracket; whilst beyond that the number who got into it at older generations fell off dramatically. Now granted its an internet poll and the net doesn't reflect all of reality, but I'd wager its a similar thing in many other fields. Hobbies people start when they are young they are far more likely to retain (off and on or all the time) into adulthood. So if GW can secure a fresh generation then its good for their future. They might even - in some countries, steal the position of "the physical creative toy" of the market. A side benefit of games going mainstream is that, in my view, many "geeky" things that once were very niche, are now far more openly accepted. Just look at comic book films and how they've exploded into one of the primary types of film from Hollywood and they don't appear to be easing off. With more general population acceptance of geeky things yes there's more potential to get more people into a geeky game. I've also casually noted that things like Larping and DnD and Magic are far more popular than ever. So on that line of thinking GW could continue to grow. Esp since they are still the whale in their market. Privateer Press was getting close but they've hit some rough waters and I really hope they pull their act back together. Meanwhile whilst Kickstarter has started a lot of new firms up and of those that make it to retail and survive some might start to make localised growth of their own gamer networks.

Minis I'd swap Tzeentch for Ogres. Ogres at least has had hints with the new leader on show; GW hasn't made a squark about Tzeenth

Yes but no but yes but no but yeah but still! Though I honestly can't complain too much - gives me a whole other week to try and sell some BFG Imperials and stuff!

Curses its not the reapers!! https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/10/13/coming-soon-salamanders-imperial-fists-and-more/ Though this does at least confirm that Bonereapers will be pre-ordering on the 26th (its the last weekend before the end of the month). Kinda feels odd for GW to say they are coming in October when they are going to appear in November Still they are coming and its so soon just just till next month!

What vile skaven sourcery is this! Gotrek's axe is infected with warpstone!!

Cause we get to be excited about it today not tomorrow. Also many times it can help gamers balance their budgeting. For example the Bonereaper leak helped cement my interest in the army which has led me to saving up for a bigger purchase of them than I might otherwise have done so at or near launch. Without the leak I'd be interested but likely to the level of "well perhaps a few and the battletome" whereas now I'm at the "maybe a hoard and a battletome". Yes you can argue that I'd have reached the same point eventually either way, but the extra weeks also gave me enough time to envision selling a load of models on to help save up so I've built up far more than I otherwise would have had to spend. Plus as its released hobby money chances are even if I end up changing my mind (lets say they price troops at £50 a box or something nuts or make it so that you need 100 just to field a basic squad) as its released hobby money chances are it would just go right back into GW on other things. At the same time surprises are not always nice. Eg GW recently put up 10 Inferno reprints for sale instead of the normal 5 that they've been doing. Now that's GREAT that they are increasing the speed of delivery and also still supporting the reprints; however it moved the price from £25 to £50 in one go and that's a 2 week window to purchase only. I'm still getting it, its not stopped me, but it will mess with finances somewhat. It might mean I get a box less Bonereapers as a result. So rumours and info leaks can be important for gamers. It's less critical now than in the past. In the distant past GW wasn't doing any online marketing besides teh release display on release day and they only hinted at a few things in the White Dwarf. So there was NO advanced warnings nor ideas of what was to come. This led to a rife growth of rumours and of people hungry for them because you'd really not know what the next 2 months or 4 would bring from the company.

GW themselves have spoken of this in their biannual financial reports that they publicly publish (I forget where but googling might give you the link). Their own impression is that growth is not sustainable at its current (or at least at their peak) performance and that any continuation of their current growth rate is a boon. Basically when they adjusted AoS and how they approached the release of models and rules coupled to the return of many very popular specialist games and launched their massive marketing online and in person with pushing their schools systems and their tournament attending etc.... All of that was a huge investment for GW that paid off with massive sales. A big portion from many returning customers that had bled away from the company of the years. So part of their recent growth wasn't just new customers it was a return of many older ones. I think GW realised that they were having a huge profit boon from that market, but that at the same time they've got to invest into the future and grow new generations of gamers. From an investment perspective GW are the biggest in their market and have a very solid position. I think that they won't be wowing the stockmarket much if again in a big way like they did recently; but I'd say that they are likely a safe steady investment opportunity. Heck they paid something like £9 million for a new factory on site in Nottingham (I can't recall if its online yet but I don't think it is). I see growth in the future, GW is expanding armies in AoS; expanding the number of specialist games; expanding their licence reach (which generates return without very much cost ofr GW at all); plus they are marketing heavily and also doing a lot of outreach to grow their market. An important thing because in many regions (certainly in the UK) GW is the gateway product into the miniature hobby in general. That isn't to say that there are not other avenues, just that GW is by far and away (certainly in the UK) the biggest. Another few key thoughts are that GW has funded growth with profits not loans/investors, which means economic downturn doesn't hurt them as much since they don't have debts to pay off. As for the future of GW and AoS I see positive growth over the next few years, likely reaching a capping point. I think that getting AoS fully onto 2.0 and starting to release more models than removing them for all armies will be some big turning points away from the negative connections that were present at the start of AoS. Also the more time spent away from Old World the more that new gamers are being introduced positively to AoS rather than with the negative connection to the loss of the Old World content. New models, updating old lines, adding new armies. I see a lot of investment but also lots of uptake for new forces and for new approaches. I think that with GW trying to address internal balance and army support for all armies at once is also going to help. In the past many armies could go years without any update which would mean those players would have a higher chance of drifting away. Now with GW addressing rules and points more regularly and also trying new ways to release models and drip feeding them out not just in one big go; there is far more reason for more people to remain interested and trickle in those extra sales. There are still some oddities and pitfalls; the biggest apparent two to my eye are: 1) GW appears to have a lot of internal fragmentation within its departments. I think this is a legacy from the older management days when a lot of pressure was placed on GW to reduce leaks, whilst at the same time they were not active in advertising nor forecasting releases. I think that led to more internal pressure from staff keen to leak out info to gamers. We've seen that well dry up almost instantly now that GW is doing its own marketing. However I think that there's still internal division of departments and perhaps some lack of communication at best and some rivalries at worst. You can see this with some odd choices that can appear such as the recent removal of dwarf artillery models as part of the Cities of Sigmar update, however those dwarf models were specifically given mercenary rules within the 2019 Generals Handbook. My hope is that this will lessen over time 2) Forgeworld - once the boutique wing of GW is now floundering a bit in terms of what their focus is. At least that's the impression one gets looking in from the outside as you see them forming and then disbanding an "AoS team". It's complicated I think because they've also had a huge uptake from the Specialist Games selling so well and I think GW also wants to bring FW a bit more into the main running of things. Yet at the same time there also seems to be a bit of a push against FW. It's odd and I think there's both political and financial aspects playing a big part here in creating a confusing and unsure forecast. Again I hope and expect it to settle down eventually.

Wait I'm confused now - are the mods working for or against the dedicated and hard working boffins of the GW Leaks Department? Is there a covert war going on? Do we need to pick sides and arm ourselves with potatoes? ? ? Also the whole doing the rounds thing is where I find the rule a bit odd because honestly once a leak is found the phtoso do do the rounds on facebook, news sites and other forums. So part of me doesn't get why the TGA site kinda tries to resist it (esp considering we've got a whole and popular thread specifically for rumours and not news)

Wait are we talking about leaked model photos or those screenshots of the website that lists the stuff they've shipped for GW? Cause I think most of us have seen the latter but I'm not aware of any other leaks of photos besides the last Bonereaper leak ages ago.

Well no one knows for sure, but currently signs are strong that its "this year". If not then very early next.

I really hope if they are going to do a duel box that it appears first. the last thing I want is to spend a small fortune on Reapers and then a week later GW releases a discount box! (which is twice as bad as not only would I be spending "more" but also totally tapped out to buy more anyway)

I can't see a Chaos tome appearing before Christmas now. I can well imagine that the original plan was to have one out - maximising the gain on the Warcry warbands and also getting AoS all onto Battletomes for Christmas sales. GW might still surprise us of course, but I can't see it easily happening. Even getting Ogres to fit in is going to be tight.

Darn it, well they could go at the very end of the month!! This is the month for the REAPERS surely!! Just 24 hours or so now until we get to find out - gah where is a rumour when you need one!

Honestly its likely that the sculptors in GW are just like many in the west and used to creating certain styles of model and eastern just isn't in their skill or experience set. You likely get a similar, but reverse, effect in games made in the far east. Another aspect is that a LOT of traditional fantasy focuses on the medieval western world. Even if other nations are present they are often the enemy, under developed (in terms of within the narrative rather than as a nation); simply not present etc.... Basically they are often "oh yeah there's asians in far off lands we don't travel too ever" kind of things. Heck Ursula Le Guin wrote her famous Earthsea fantasy novels in reaction to the fact that there, at the time, was hardly a single fantasy story about any character who was't a white European. Even today we don't get all that many such stories. Personally I don't think its racism so much as just a lack of alternate culture inspiration. I also think that its changed a lot and we are generally seeing more influx and desire for different racial backgrounds and such within fantasy. Though like many things its slow to change.

Only if you're lucky on ebay. They are popular and tend to sell fast from any bits sale. Otherwise the only way is by buying Stormcast.

Yeah though Marines is only a few books and one model.

Yeah but they also teased an article at the start of the week for the Reapers. That kinda suggests to me that its sooner rather than later.

It's impossible to tell. But if they are going to release all the models they've shown off then I'd wager its a 2 week release to get it all out and that, to me, suggests that they won't want to have it pushing that far into November when there's already Sisters of Battle in there and potentially Ogres as well. So all that makes me think that we will see the preview for Bonereapers pre-order tomorrow.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Classic-Inferno-Print-on-Demand-Collection-3-2019 A new reprint wave of Inferno books! Only this time instead of 5 there's 10 in the set! This, has had the downside of doubling the price up to £50 for the whole lot (yes each book is still the same price as before £5). Bit of a pain for GW to double the amount without warning, but at the same time this takes us over half way and if they keep going it means only two more reprint runs to get the whole set completed (46 issues). Great books too, short stories, cartoons, artwork, cutaways, lore - everything from the early days of 40K, Mordhiem, Gorkamorka, Necromunda, Old World fantasy and more. Heck some of the biggest and longest running series of books started life here in the Inferno. Great reads even if there's no AoS stuff in them. The reprints are also really well done https://warminiatures.wordpress.com/2018/11/03/inferno-the-classic-era/

That's a change. Their original stance was if it had points or not. Also the White Dwarf article might veto that answer. It wouldn't be the first time that GW gets its ultimate statments in a twist. Even so the lore and story will be good to read, Slaanesh has need of more named characters within the story! Khorne and Nurgle have loads and Tzeentch gets a strong following too, Slaanesh needs a good few heroes of its own! Heck thus far we've only got 2 in this edition and one of them is a Keeper.

Nice bit of work there! Though for the Daughters of Khaine I think you've got caught a bit too much in the bloodlust. Whilst they are indeed bloody their connection is more toward the honour and glory of battle for the average witch aelf where the battlefield is more a place of the art of war and worship to them. It's more the upper levels of the priesthood who are more into their sacrifices and bloodfuelled magic. The Witch Aelf who travels with Gotrek even shows some revulsion toward some bloody situations even though she's a highly trained Witch Aelf. Also I didn't think the Lizardmen (seraphon) were "Dead" on their arkships but in a kind of stasis. I think there's also been a slow move toward them settling on the Realms and raising natural born new members of their race; however I think we won't see a full revelation of them until their Battletome with a nice chunk of lore comes out (which hopefully should be early next year). In the Chaos section I think you're underplaying Beasts of Chaos and Slaves to Darkness as factions, they are fully fledged factions so I think they deserve the same kind of treatment as the others (art and short description). Right now they almost feel like sub-armies. Also note that the way you've done Destruction might be confusing. You've listed Ironjaws and Bonesplitterz as separate armies, however they are now in a single army of Orruks. Meanwhile you left Gloomspite Gitz as a single army even though - rather like the Orruk Batteltome; there's three (if memory serves me right) sub-army groupings within. I think it best to pick one approach and stick with it

Really nice work there @Feinar Looks like you've had a lot of fun putting your army together and presenting them! Also with the model designs and the choice of music I got a great "Warcraft 1/2" vibe from the video (yes I'm aware that there weren't really Khorne demons in the game)

This might be one of those "the design team made it go give it a name and rules." Situations where no one in the design team has made a BL character because those who can/do sculpt stormcast either don't like the novels or haven't even read them; whilst management hasn't made the character a focus (like, say, Gotrek) and thus there's no management push. It might also be that GW designed up more basic troops and troop types and is now re-using that material as a small line of hero characters; having realised that the stormcast listings are pretty chock full. Heck on that line of thinking I really hope that stormcast being as full as they are starts GW down the path of breaking up the AoS army structure a bit. I feel that with leaders, troops, monstrous creatures and artillery there's not enough breakup. Troops is a nasty mish mash of infantry, cavalry, support, elites, ranged, close combat, air, ground etc.. all mashed in together. I think if it were divided up a bit and things were moves around a little it would encourage more niche development a but similar to what 40K has - which in turn helps encourage diversity and varied functionality - which in turn leaves more room for more types of troop. Of course it can make small armies at a disadventage till they get an update. Forces like Fyrelsyaers or Flesheaters could suffer under such a system due to their inherent lack of unit variety.

Lets not forget most of the stormcast heroes in the lore are pretty new and most only have a few stories to their name. That said it is seeming that more and more knights for stormcast are the way GW is going for unique/character models. A shame as they've such a host of other factions that they could pick from