Cordova

I suppose there's three things to consider: To take an action which disadvantages others is not a kind thing to do Is it in the financial interests of a company to exclude or disadvantage a section of it's possible clientele? (yes people with sight-loss or limited motor skills may not be able to paint well, but they may enjoy it none-the-less, and they can probably still play the games) Are there any potential compliance issues? (specifically "reasonable adjustment" under the Equality Act 2010) Not everyone has a mobile phone or tablet. Not everyone can use a mobile phone or tablet (sight loss, motor skills, etc). For some, a PC is far more disability-friendly device.

I can't comment on the veracity of the content, but this makes interesting reading: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/798855.page

I have a soft-spot for the old Orc Boyz kit - separate arms, legs, torso, and head made them quite poseable, and the ability to arm them with two hand weapons, hand weapon and shield, or spear and shield, gave the opportunity for a fair amount of variety. A similar thing was true of the old zombie kit, and the current Fellwater Troggoth/River Troll kit. Both of those are great kits. Can I add a vote for the new squig kits (herders & hoppers)? The squigs have alternate faces, which gives them a fair amount of variety, and the riders have alternate heads and armaments. I also think the Orruk Brutes kit is pretty customisable...

Speaking as someone who was lucky enough to get their hands on a copy, the general handling of the situation has left a very bitter taste in my mouth. It's very clear that the game was supposed to be a standard range item - the rulebook makes a veiled reference to expansions, there's an additional level to your heroes that you can't reach during the quest in the box, the effort put into the product web site and the extra locations on the Ulfenkarn map, and that White Dwarf was to have "loads of content" for it over the upcoming months. Obviously, the last year or so has presented a few problems - COVID, the UK-EU trade deal being finalised at the last minute, and ERP system issues to name a few - so I'm sure many would be understanding that plans can be scuppered. However, the complete lack of communication - pull the product listing, update the product site to remove the extra locations - doesn't feel good. I get that there are reasons why the may not be able to give details, but a simple, "due to circumstances beyond our control, we have had to suspend production of Cursed City for the foreseeable future. If we are able to resume production, we'll announce it on Warhammer Community, but in the meantime, please check your local stockist." would have helped. If I'm being honest, the continued "sell out on release day never to be seen again" issues GW has with items which aren't marketed as limited edition (e.g. the card sets and transfers for Necromunda) is infuriating, and not only has seen me seriously reduce what I'd consider buying, but also look to other companies (e.g. Flying Frog's Shadows of Brimstone/Forbidden Fortress, and CMON's Descent) - not only is it costing GW current sales, but also future sales (at least in my very limited case). Sadly, both market-based pricing, and export restrictions are pretty standard for large companies (trademark holders can control import and export of their products into/out of a region, and can/have take those who undertake "grey imports" to court to obtain an injunction and damages).

Given that the last year-and-a-bit has seen tough times and bad news for so many people - especially those in retail - it's great to see some finally getting good news!

I guess it depends on the internal decision-making process. They're already months behind on their release schedule, and given that they can't keep fairly significant chunks of their current range in stock, they might have decided that as a fairly niche product with a relatively large amount of content produced by third-parties for them (dice, boards, cards) was something they simply didn't have any spare production time for, as other items were more profitable? Sounds more like trademark than copyright, unless they cloned the game. Whatever the cause, it's fair to say it's a pretty unsatisfactory situation/outcome for those who were interested in the game.

For those wondering what that e-mail might have looked like ...

There have been a few theories that have reared their head: Copyright infringement Tariff issues due to the content coming from China (cardstock, etc) Lack of production capacity (they're already quite behind on new releases, and are having issues with things being out of stock on the web store) Issues as a result of their ERP system upgrade Obviously, any/all of the above could be complete nonsense

Well, I'm not sure what the current costs are, but the steel plastic moulds used to cost GW tens of thousands of pounds, each. The small Kickstarter projects don't have GW's other costs (hundreds/thousands of staff, store network, mandatory pensions, etc), do they? As I said, someone went through their accounts and worked out their overall profit margin. You can believe that, or not - the choice is yours.

They are shipping to Australia now (but only if you want the expansions too), so Europe may be a possibility in the future ... General speculation about the restricted availability seems to centre around rights (given that the original was a collaboration between GW and Milton Bradley [now owned by Hasbro via Avalon Hill]), although that could be nonsense!

The new giant models are lovely, but so expensive. Unfortunately, it seems the "models hobby" is expensive and seeing price increases everywhere (a Tamiya 1:35 tank used to be ~£25, they're now ~£40-75, and some of Privateer Press' models are more expensive than GW's are in the UK). On top of the suggestions made by others, would your group consider some of the older specialist game systems? The "living rulebook" version of the rules for Mordheim and (original) Necromunda are available online, are a good rulesets, and are low model count. If converting and personalising your models is your kind of thing, they also encourage that. (as a bonus, the new Necromunda models can be used with some thinking, and are cheaper after adjusting for inflation than the metal ones were in 1997, which is quite unbelievable!) I think I saw a fan-made skirmish system for Age of Sigmar on here a while ago, too ... Actually casting the models is cheap, but designing the models and making the moulds is less so. According to N1SB on the Bolter and Chainsword who's gone through their accounts, their profit margin is in line with Lego - about 75% (obviously, that includes logistics, store costs, pensions, etc), which is still seriously high.

Well, I voted for the Squig Hoppers, because they're squigs, so it's kinda mandatory

Shame. There's some great models in there (Magma Dragon and Carmine Dragon - both out of stock now) ... I would have loved a Carmine Dragon, but I really can't stand working with resin. Sigh.

It's probably done like this: http://studiogiraldez.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-make-snow-como-hacer-nieve.html (tutorial by the man himself) Sorry, it's in Spanish, but Google translate doesn't seem to mangle it ...

Really nice! I think that you can make something very close with a 1:1 mix of Vallejo White & Grey primers (Grey Seer), and ~3:1 mix of White and Desert Tan (Wraithbone). This is based on me using the images in this video as a base (local GW only got 6 cans of each colour, so the examples and play models all used white undercoats), and the bottles of primer I've got.