Warhammer World Open Day January 2017

Obligatory Death Roller photo

So, I pottered up to Warhammer World after the New Year for the Open Day. I wasn't particularly diligent with photo taking or anything like that, because Battle Bunnies just put so much effort into it, there'd just be duplication of effort!

So mostly, I just caught up with people I've met at events before and had a bit of a chat.

I did pick up a few bits of Blood Bowl news in the chatting, which I may as well share:

• Dwarf team should be out by the end of the month
• Plastic Dwarf team, resin Death Roller
• Plastic Ogre and Troll, resin Rat Ogre
• Re-do of the existing Skaven Star Player, and a couple of new ones coming
• Plastic goblin team coming
• Goblins will also have resin secret weapons (the ones we know, and maybe some new ones)
• Deathzone Season 2 will have goblins, Underworld and Chaos Renegade teams

I'm still faffing over Stormcast colour schemes for the few Stormcast I have, so took a photo of this in the miniatures hall to aid my thinking process.

I posted this on twitter and it's been favourited and retweeted no end...

One of the figures from the Pilgrym display. Absolutely stunning piece overall, but I get distracted by faded red, checker board and flame edging.

I was pretty restrained in purchases - a couple of limited figures, the Ironwarp Citadel exclusive book, the music of Warhammer World, and the Rogue Trader re-print.

WarhammerFest: Specialist Games - Blood Bowl, Lord of the Rings and Adeptus Titanicus

The news is all over the Internet, and the Blood Bowl Facebook page is definitely a thing. WarhammerFest (and later the Blood Bowl tournament at Warhammer World) had a load of information about what's coming for Blood Bowl.

There was tons of cool stuff on display. This was the beautifully modelled Orc board and dug out. They made up the full model, then took an image of that to use as the board - it wasn't computer generated!

These fancy templates should reassure old hands that not much is going to change rules wise. Questions asked of the guys working ont has also indicated that they're taking an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to much of the rules.

Here's a mock up of the final pitch - with an Orc board on one side and a human pitch on the other. There's a potential in the future for more themed boards if there appears to be interest.

Dice, cards, rulebook! The quality of all this stuff is already looking pretty amazing.

The stat cards will look pretty familiar to anyone who's played the game before.

Some people were freaking out a little at the first picture of the board and thought it didn't have squares - it does, but they're subtle - and obviously, the physical board they took the pictures from didn't have the markings. (This picture also shows the human board side.)

Again, the dug outs look familiar to those who played the last version of Blood Bowl. It's not going to be out a while yet, but it's pretty exciting already!

In other news, it looks like after Blood Bowl, we'll be getting Adeptus Titanicus. Going back to the original game set in the Horus Heresy, they've already taken the CAD for the Warlord and scaled it down - and the guy working on stuff like the Death Roller is also working on titans, I'm guessing the Reaver and Warhound, which pre-date Forge World doing CAD.

The scale is also likely to change slightly - probably to around 8mm. This is mostly on the grounds of looking at a few different scales and what titans look most awesome in...

This is a way out - it's after Blood Bowl, probably by at least a year - I'd say back end of 2017 is optimistic, possibly a 2018 release.

Also being shown at Warhammer Fest was some new Lord of the Rings stuff. That isn't really my thing, but I thought I'd show this "Fall of the Necromancer" table - I think it was actually borrowed from someone.

There's definitely a whole lot more coming for Lord of the Rings - there's various pictures of the new resin models doing the rounds, and there's also been a bunch of old metal models re-released as well.

WarhammerFest: Forge World Seminar - some thoughts

So, as promised, here's my thoughts on the Forge World seminar from WarhammerFest. This isn't my usual full write up - go to the Battle Bunnies for all that stuff.

I'm super pleased to see a Fimir model getting done - I'm a big fan of them, and I'm totally up for getting one.

The new Imperial Armour book is Tau attacking a Mechanicus world before the Red Scorpions and a Knight House rock up to save the day. It turns out Culln got himself a bit of a scratch, though... What I'm really excited about, though, is the possibility of some rules to allow 30K Mechanicum units in 40K games.

The updated Horus Heresy Space Marine army list is on the "to buy" list - I've been meaning to get into Heresy for a long while now.

As you might expect, there was a whole bunch of Mechanicum / Mechanicus units, like this flying automata that is clearly a Blight Drone precursor.

Conversion kits for the Skitarii! More awesome things I'd really quite like.

The archaic helmets are also pretty tempting here, too. I already love the Mechanicus look, and Forge World take awesome and turn it up a notch!

Oh, and something, something, Thousand Sons versus Space Wolves. Sisters of Silence, though...

So really, if we're being honest, Fimir, Mechanicus, and waiting on an updated book before starting a Horus Heresy Space Marine Legion...

Warhammer 40K Open Day, Forge World Seminar

Introduction and Context

I would normally do my account of a trip to an event in chronological order, but everyone is getting all excited about announcements from the Forge World seminar, so I'm going to knock this out first.

I don't expect to be first to press these days - I leave that to the enthusiastic people like the Battle Bunnies and The Imperial Truth. I like to think of myself as BBC Newsnight, talking it all over after those young bucks from the "breaking news" channels rush things out as they happen.

I also don't photograph the seminars because I work by hand-writing all my notes as I go and I don't have time to photograph and write at the same time. Also, you can find blurry pictures of a power point slide on the internet if you care to look.

I was in the second presentation on the Sunday. Presiding were Mark Bedford and Andy Hoare. I have also added other things told to me in person during questions at the stands over the two days.

Horus Heresy



Golden Demon Entry: Young Bloods

Horus Heresy Book 6 is called Retribution. Words have only just been finished to send it up for approval, then printers. While that might just mean it could scrape out just before Christmas, it's probably more likely to be put out for a Horus Heresy weekender. Look for that to be early February - I don't think hotel contracts have been signed just yet, but its probably going to be the Belfry again.

So, Book 6! This covers "Shadow Wars in the Age of Darkness", probably around about 010 of M31. These are the smaller battles away from the main campaigns and major fronts of the Horus Heresy. They cover smaller units separated from their chain of command. That's not to say these battles weren't full of hatred, betrayal and bitterness, but this is the effect of a galaxy descending into chaos (small c).

There will be five narrative chapters with lots of words about things happening. A "Retribution" campaign, six "Shadow Wars" missions and some legendary missions as well, which are the historical refights.

New forces are Blood Angels, Dark Angels, White Scars, Shattered Legions, Black Shields and Knight Errants.

Shattered Legions cover survivors of Istvaan, but also other ragged bands made up of cross Legion formations. There will be special Rites of War for the Shattered Legions.

Black Shields are Marines who've renounced their oaths to their legion and obscured their legion markings. There is a definite call back to the old Rogue Trader style multi-coloured armour and use of Xenos weaponry. They get a new Legion special rule, and also get to use one of four sub categories - such as being genetic abnormalities, seeking death in battle, or being space pirates. The models will have opportunities for ad hoc repairs, crazy hair and the Mark V rivets. Slit visors and alien rifles. They will be able to mix and match more than anything - including different legion specific troop types.

The Knights Errant are Malcador's people - HQ choices, with Garro and Rubio being named character, and a third "make your own" profile being available.

There will be new Rites of War, new special characters and new Consul types. There will be the introduction of some more Dark Mechanicum - not full on daemon engine types, but a few using forbidden weapons.

The new Consul types are the Delegatus and Praevian which are already up as PBFs, plus a banner bearer, with special rules for both loyalist and traitor versions.

The Mastodon Heavy Assault Transport is nearly done and will carry 40 Marines. When it's destroyed, it isn't removed but stays on the table as a building.

The Leviathan Siege Dreadnought had been being developed in secret on Terra, so is primarily loyalist, but a few found their way into traitor hands. A few examples were on sale at the show, but it should be on general release by mid November.

There's also rules for the Vindicator Laser Destroyer, the Rapier Quad Launcher Battery and the Knight Atropos. The Ordinatus rules will be included here too.

There will also be an Arlatax Class Battle Automata, which is an assault shock unit for the Mechanicum. It will be a jump monstrous creature.

 There will also be a new Contemptor class Dreadnought call the Cortus. It's a lighter version of the Contemptor which was used against the Orks at Ullanor - mass produced at the time, then mothballed afterwards - and then returned to service as weapons and parts became scarce through the Heresy.

A bunch of pictures were shown.

Golden Demon Entry: Staff Category

There was a print of the Disciplines of Flame, who are from the Salamanders. They're lead by someone who was thought to have died. (On Istvaan?) They have come back and said that while they walked the halls of the dead, Vulkan was not there, so he believes Vulkan lives.

There was a picture of a Dark Angels Lance Decurion.

There was a picture of a House Malinax Cerastus Knight Atropos. These were a bonded Knight House who declared for the Warmaster. The multi-tailed scorpion symbol is that of a Dark Mechanicum Magos who is coming soon.

The paint scheme Mark did for House Malinax is apparently quite popular. Mark is writing it up and will look to get it put up on the blog, or available from the FW e-mail address. He mentioned liking using darker metal colours for knights as it makes them look heavier. There will be a transfer sheet - the ones on the example model were quickly knocked out on a laser printer, the final ones will be a much higher quality.

There were pictures of a White Scars Tactical Legionary and an Alpha Legion Assault Sergeant. There was mention of one of the bits covered being a Battle for the Pale Stars, which is related to Badab, so this is a look at that area of space during the Heresy.

A picture was then shown of a Black Shield Chymeriae. These particular ones were Marines who didn't know what they are - they don't know who made them. Their armour is unpainted but marked with some sort of runes or markings (which might give a hint as to their origin).

Black Shields will likely be "By The Emperor's / Warmaster's Command" with non Black Shield Marines, due to the distrust and dislike of these strange orphans and oath breakers. But they will fight just fine alongside almost everyone else.

There was a picture of a Blood Angels Tactical Legionary, and also one of their vehicles. There was very ornate artwork on the Land Raider. It was mentioned that for many Legions, that might be a commander's vehicle, but that pretty much every Blood Angels transport had that level of artwork and detailing. There will be transfer sheets to help you out with this.

They looked carefully through the background and realised that while all Blood Angels were ordered to go to the muster at Mataba and then on to Signus Prime, some companies will not have made it - so the Blood Angels in this blook will be a few companies who did not make the muster, and still see Sanguinius and the rest of their Legion as missing, and don't know if Sanguinius is still alive or not.

There will be a campaign of Iron Hands attacking World Eaters, which will show the unusual situation of the World Eaters fighting a defensive battle.

40K News

Staff Army Display (not Corsairs!)

 There is a re-worked Doom of Mymeara book. A proof copy was at the event. It includes Corsair Jetbikes and Skathach Wraithknights (they have jump capacity). There is an all new Corsair list which stands in its own right and is heavily customisable. They are their own faction and very different to the other Eldar factions. There's been a full rules revision.

There is also a new "Craftworld Creator" for minor craftworlds which is effectively a formation builder.

Already mentioned elsewhere is the Mars Beta Warhammer World Exclusive Warlord Titan Head, consisting of a variant head and two shields.

They get distracted back into Horus Heresy again!

Horus Heresy Model Masterclass Volume One is coming.

There were a few "Mor Dreythan" Raven Guard kits on sale - and another Raven Guard unit was just back from the casters but was not yet approved in time to be shown or go on sale.

The Solar Auxilia got their Power Axe Storm Section.

The Medical unit shown in White Dwarf is held up because they wanted to add another piece of equipment to the unit.

The next Primarch is Dead Sanguinius in a box. Honest.

Israel Gonzales sculpted the Nathaniel Garro figure.

The Knight Errants have a special "Oath of Moment" rule - a secret objective to complete that's worth between 1 and 5 Victory Points. However, if you don't complete it, you can do no better than draw the game. The troops are there to support the Knight Errant in their quest!

Questions from the floor

Warhammer World Display

I've not typed out any questions, but simply framed the answers in such a way as to make it clear what was being asked. I skipped a couple of non-questions.

More red books will still be done in future - maybe even a revised Crusade army list with the additional units added since it was released.

Loken will not be getting new rules as a Knight Errant just yet.

Alan Bligh does have a plan for a new 'core' Legion list post Crusade and on into Heresy. This isn't planned for a book yet, but is something being considered and thought about.

An FAQ for the Master of the Forge requirement for Relics in Imperial Armour 2 is on it's way - expect it to be simply a Techmarine requirement.

There is a changing relationship between Forge World and Black Library regarding the Heresy. It originally came from the IP approved by Alan Merrett for Sabtertooth's Heresy card game - this was then passed on to Black Library. Forge World started off as a junior partner, but it's now moving to be a more "back and forth" equal relationship as ideas pass both ways. Perhaps an author needs an assault tank and Forge World have a model coming. In the early days, a writer would just make up military equipment - as there weren't plans for models then!

The writers haven't told people to port Skitarii armies straight into 30K yet, because they haven't finished thinking through how Skitarii work in 30K. They don't want to officially say "just use them" just yet in case they want how they work to be very different! Still, in the meantime, the unofficial advice is to use them if you have them 'cause they're pretty awesome and it will look cool.

Black Shield forces are small - perhaps only 1,000 troops or so. But that's bigger than "most" people's collections, so you can still make a sizeable tabletop force if you want. They shouldn't have Primarchs (obviously), but they also don't have the resources to maintain disposable weapons. So they won't have drop pods, relying more on fliers.

The Black Shields won't have Tactical Squads - they are an iconic Legion unit. Instead, they'll have a smaller, more customisable unit with more varied weapons, Xenotech, and other weapons you've not previously seen Marines using.

No decision has been made as to how to portray the Emperor on the battlefield when they get that far. Should he be unkillable? Should you defeat him by working around him and destroying  the rest of the army? Or should he bounce back like Celestine?

The Shattered Legions can't take Primarchs, due to their nature. Most other things will be fine.

Mark Bedford is up for running another painting day if someone can make it happen.

There will totally be multiple versions of at least some Primarchs eventually.

The Ordinatus will likely come to 40K eventually. The original write up for Epic had an Ordinatus at Armageddon. There's an Ordinatus in the new Mechanicus / Tau display at Warhammer World. However, this may be for a future weapon variant as they've tried to keep Volkite and similar primarily in 30K in the Forge World kits. There was a new weapon variant design (in plan form only) on view in the Forge World studio area.

Forge World are now capable of using CAD to add magnet guide holes into larger kits. They will do this when the rest of the kit design supports it, because they acknowledge people use them. They may advise on magnet use in, say, the modelling books or help sheets, but won't sell magnets themselves.

Many years ago in a seminar, a book of Penal Legion vs Tzeentch was announced - but it never happened. It was still in the ideas stage but got over-run by Horus Heresy. It may or may not get revisited - penal legions are problematic as Forge World don't really do well at kits for cheap massed infantry!

Imperial Armour 14. Tau. Mechanicus. Red Scorpions. Probably some other stuff.

Warhammerfest: Conjecture, Speculation and Vile Rumour

Now I've gotten all the pesky facts out of the way, I can go into the shakier side of things - stuff gleaned from talking to staff around Warhammerfest over the two days.

I haven't done a post like this before, so I'd like to start by putting this in context. I went and talked to a lot of people at the weekend who work for Games Workshop and Forge World. They have to be very careful about what they say, because they are working on things two to three years in advance, and run a pretty tight ship about it. I would consider quite a few of them friends, and I would never want to get any of them in trouble.

However, the Internet is wrong a lot of the time, and I am going to make a single naive attempt to try and correct this. I'm already regretting it and I haven't even finished typing the post. This is a somewhat foolish attempt to put down what little I've learned as an outsider about how Games Workshop operates, what's changing, and what that means in terms of models and rules.

Every time I write something like this I am terrified that people I like and respect will be angry at me about it. It comes from friendly conversations, although I try and be as open as possible about being a blogger and drawing a line between chatting about things of personal interest and Stuff For The Internet - but I worry that one day I will get it wrong.

Please also understand I may be horribly wrong. Games Workshop employees don't have a hive mind, and some of the people I've talked to may not have known the full story about something, or have been adding their own opinion to things. I've also taken a large number of conversations and tried to (forgive me for this) forge them into a narrative of some kind. This adds my own interpretation as another filter onto things, and that interpretation may be completely wrong.

Also: I would not put it past some of these people to make stuff up for the purposes of winding me and / or the Internet up. You're all kind of mean to them a lot of the time, so I wouldn't blame them!

On why Games Workshop don't show things in advance

Games Workshop staff cannot and will not talk about anything that hasn't been officially announced yet. Forge World are slightly different, as they run previews and similar.

Why is it different? Quite frankly, it's because the two companies run very different business models. The plastic production has a minimum of a two year lead time, but some releases have waited three or more years before finding an appropriate slot in the schedule. If you want to understand why Games Workshop don't preview things, take a look at how quickly some of the resin accessory companies got alternative grav guns onto the market after the release of the Space Marine Codex. The benefit gained by early previews is outweighed by the cost of lost sales to small companies producing cheap alternatives.

Forge World don't give a monkeys about the alternative parts companies, because they have a reputation as a prestige / collector's item. They already 'compete' with Games Workshop having cheaper alternatives (at least in the UK - we're really sorry Australia) for a lot of what they do, and it's entirely possible for people to kit bash the Forge World units from GW kits if they wanted. But generally, they don't.

(That is, of course, different to the recasters. They are thieves and scumbags of the lowest order, and I have absolutely no time for them or anyone who advocates their use. It's taking money away from the company who makes these wonderful toys, reduces available budgets for designing new ones, and is taking money away from the designers who put them together. I find little moral difference between buying from a recaster and stealing Simon Egan's wallet. Don't do it.)

So, that covers one of the main reasons why Forge World tease stuff and Games Workshop don't. There is money to be made in firing out knock-offs of GW stuff. There is much less money to be made in firing out quick knock offs of Forge World stuff. It is simply a fact of life that Games Workshop cannot afford to 'tease' things months in advance as it would cost them a significant amount of money for practically no benefit. The companies have different business models and different economics about how they make their money - what is profitable behaviour for Forge World would be ruinously expensive for Games Workshop.

Reorganisation at Games Workshop

I have mentioned this before, but the implications of it weren't necessarily understood. A while ago, Games Workshop had a big reorganisation. It got mentioned and everyone ignored it. We're now seeing the results of some parts of that reorganisation.

We had already heard last year about how the company had moved to a "model led", erm, model. In other words - sculptors make beautiful models, and then writers put together rules for them. The other refinement we've seen is that the people who write the rules have separated from those who write the background.

Previously, small teams would break off and work in isolation on a group of releases. The last set of releases to be written in that way were the 40K codices for the Tau, the Eldar and the Chaos Daemons. They were written together, and play-tested against each other.

The three codices listed are a demonstration about why the old method didn't work. Those of you who either play competitively, read tactics blogs or listen to the podcasts of people who do will recognise the theme in the three codices listed. They are the "power codices", the powerful, competitive armies against which the other armies are measured.

No Games Workshop employee can directly say it, but those three codices are a mistake. Because they were primarily tested against each other in isolation, they are on a different power curve to the rest of the game. This leads on to the question of how Games Workshop fix mistakes and issues with the game, but I'll come to that in a while.

Another part of the reorganisation has meant that some other artistic influences may start to come through in the models. Given when the reorganisation took place, I thought it would be seen this year, but from comments made I'm guessing it will be some point in the first half of 2015. That isn't really something that competitive players will find interesting, but a lot of the painters and kit-bashers might find some interesting new things around then.

How it all works now

The design of models is primarily done on computers now. A designer receives a brief, designs a model on computer, and sends it up for approval. A rapid prototyping machine is then used to make the model. When they say "rapid prototyping", they almost certainly mean a 3D printer, and a top end one. This does still leave faint 3D print lines which need to be sanded down. At least some, if not all, of the 'Eavy Metal models on the boxes come from this rapid prototyping technique.

The approval process is really important, and goes to quite senior people. Alan Merritt, who I have seen previously described as one of the key "IP" guys, is likely one of the approval points - I'd also suspect that people like Jes Goodwin, John Blanche and Ali Morrison all get an opportunity to pitch in and give an opinion, because they have been doing this stuff long enough to know what works and what doesn't.

This one is definitely a vile and unsubstantiated rumour - it may be that the Void Shield Generator was an example of something not fully passing the approval process, so only a small short run was approved, on the grounds that the model was thought unlikely to sell due to its looks. Someone senior probably has a teensiest bit of egg on their face over that if it is true! I do love that model to bits and would have happily bought three if I'd had the chance - but then again, I also love the Taurox, so my judgement in such things is clearly seriously flawed! ;-)

Interestingly, the Grey Knight Codex was a bit of an exception to the model led approach. A two week gap in the planned schedule gave an opportunity for a book overhaul without any new models. There were perceived to be balance issues with the book, and also some fundamental design issues - such as 'invisible upgrades' such as psybolt ammunition, the various grenade craziness, and perhaps a feeling that with the move towards 7th, it would become rather awkward to run. If it really is the exception, that would mean its likely that the remaining 5th edition Codices which need redoing for 7th will see some new models - although given the Dark Eldar had no "new" models, just new takes on existing concepts, it might not be as exciting as all that.

Models coming up?

Some of you may have noticed that there were something like four designers given credits on the Putrid Blightkings. These models do look amazing in the diseased flesh! It seems that the Blightkings were the result of a lot of experimentation with the things you can do in model design now. They have taken what they've learnt from that unit and applied it to the stuff coming down the pipeline.

What is in that pipeline is pure wishlisting and speculation, nothing more. No-one who actually knows what's going on is going to tell you anything concrete or provable more than about a week out. It may be possible to make guesses and piece things together, but it is impossible to tell who has heard or seen something, or if someone is just making stuff up for their own amusement.

So there is no way to know whether or not those "lessons" learned when designing and making the Blightkings will be applied to Fantasy models for other Chaos Gods, the Greater Daemons moving to plastic, or Nurgle Chaos Space Marines. I am some folk whose websites are paid for by their advertising revenues will use the above sentence out of context for glorious clickbait, but it illustrates a valid point, so I'm leaving it in.

Fixing what's "broken"

Games Workshop has tried many different approaches to fixing things over the years. The broad approach now is to try and change as little as possible from the books. If something simply doesn't make sense, or is different in different places, it will definitely get fixed. However, beyond that, they generally won't try and fix other, less fundamental issues, such as balance or edge cases.

There was some discussion of the old Chapter Approved articles and the practice of giving out rules tweaks for people to try out and playtest. Unfortunately, it seems that these generated more questions than they answered, with people asking which rules they should be using.

The worry with clarifications is if too many are given out, then people will end up with sheafs of paper as well as the books. As such, problems which are seen as 'edge cases' will be left to players to sort out. The example I used was targeting a unit with a blast weapon on one level of a ruin when a unit on another level of the same ruin was under Invisibility. These sort of things don't happen often, and the feeling is that if GW legislate for every eventuality, then the game will grow too convoluted, with too many FAQs and other documents.

Balance issues are now broadly being fixed 'as they go' with Codices - with the historical issue of Tau, Eldar and Chaos Daemons being on a higher curve apparently being more or less left until the next pass. Some units will end up more powerful, and some less powerful, but the focus now is on a centralised rules design team working on all the rulebooks and testing with each army.

There is definitely an understanding that it is difficult to get the exact points right for units which have a lot of offensive capability but are fragile, or units which are very robust but not much offensive capability. Grey Knight Strike Squads, for example, were a unit which were given a definite "discount" for all their heavy wargear as ultimately they are still as survivable as any other Space Marine.

This then led on to a discussion of alliances - there is not much focus given to playtesting combinations across Codices. Forces of the Imperium was mentioned as being intended to give people an opportunity to theme armies and match backgrounds, not come up with ultimate power combinations.

The game isn't designed for tournaments. It was never the intention to do so. It's about telling stories with a wargame - I very much got the impression that people are still keen on its role-playing roots. People are welcome to work to try and make a modified 'tournament' game or setting, but that's for them to do. Don't expect Games Workshop to come and do that!

Models and books

We've all been focusing on the key negative reason for why new books have only had supported models - the legal case. However, this weekend, I also heard people pointing out that while it was very sad for people who'd made their own conversions, it was a lot more restrictive for new players or less experienced hobbyists who end up disappointed when they walk into a Games Workshop store and get told that there is no Vect or Baron model, and you have to make your own.

Feel free to be cynical about that if you like - I don't think I'm likely to change any minds here. I don't really expect to. I expect it's six of one and half a dozen of the other. With a risk from one side and problems being caused by models missing, it seems reasonable to decide on a policy of removing rules for unsupported models.

The book authors aren't the people who get to make the decisions on this - nor do the sculptors, who receive briefs from management as to what should happen where. I haven't yet worked out how exactly the decisions are made prior to the sculptors getting their briefs - the generation of those briefs are the one part of the process I don't have any visibility of so far. How the decision came to be made "include the Voidraven Bomber, and drop Vect" rather than the other way around, I don't know.

What's going on

The employees who work at Games Workshop are a group of really passionate people who really care about the game their company produces. It's a big company now - I spoke to one writer who regularly still plays using Rogue Trader rules, while a sculptor had no idea people played old editions. There are still some old hands around who remember what it was like when you couldn't actually swing a cat in the office, to enthusiastic new starts who've not been around more than a few weeks.

Most people involved in the game and miniature design do not read the internet for stuff about the hobby. With several areas having become massive negative echo chambers, it becomes incredibly demoralising for people who genuinely care about the hobby. If you are constantly negative and down on a company (and in some areas it almost seems to be a competition who can be the most anti-GW because it's a 'big company'), then its unlikely the people who work for and care about the company are going to trawl through the bile and hatred to get to any genuine feedback you might have.

In addition, you may have noticed that Games Workshop employees don't engage openly on forums, or have much in the way of painting blogs, or do media interviews. This is not necessarily just because "the company tells them not to". Something that sounded like the internal rumour mill talked about instances of lawyers trawling the internet for Things Employees Have Said in order to use it to back up legal cases against Games Workshop. If you have the patience to dig through online legal case files, you'll probably find examples of it, but I'll admit to not having a citation for this.

These guys do really love their company and the idea of being dragged into a court room and being talked at in ever decreasing circles by a lawyer trying to get precedent set that other companies can use sections of GW IP which have been thirty years in the making is pretty horrifying for them. Innocent comments can easily be taken out of context and weaponised against their employer. It is safer and less stressful for them to avoid discussion of a hobby that they love in a recorded public forum. I find that kind of horrible.

The focus of Warhammerfest was engagement. You could go and see how to do particular aspects of the hobby, or talk design with any one of a number of games designers, miniature designers or artists. Several people actively encouraged me to keep talking about feedback, whether it was my perception of the scenery kits they've put out, or how particular Codices are being received.

The thing is that Games Workshop is a big ship to turn around. It has a pipeline of at minimum two years, and some items which are at least three years from concept to release. Feedback about models and ideas and concepts now may take a long while to get through - but sometimes they've already picked up on it.

For example: There was a definite design decision in the recent books to simplify some of the rules. Some forums and podcasts have taken to complaining that this has taken away unique flavour from a particular list or other. There was a bit of a hint that this has already been spotted and the coming books might see a little more swing away from homogenisation - although I would care to wager a small sum that the format and standardisation will remain to a significant extent. The standardisation does help new players, and helping them engage is something they're still keen to do.

Games Workshop do make mistakes - Codex Eldar almost certainly ran out of time with some pretty big issues still left with both its internal and external balance - I suspect a troubled birth with problems still coming to light late in playtesting. Moving into the rampant speculation now - did the lessons learnt from this lead to the reorganisation of games design in the first place? Were GW trying to fix the problem before the book had even left the warehouse? The power curve since has been very consistent, and several of those books will have been in progress well before Eldar released.

In summary

I think things are looking relatively positive for the near future. With the Blightkings, the model designers are putting out models with an awful lot of potential and developing new technical skills which are going to be applied to new kits coming down the line.

The game design team is not going to cater to tournament and competitive play, but are aware of balance issues and were possibly working on avoiding issues in future releases even before the "problem children" had been formally released.

There are no clear rumours for upcoming Codices or Warhammer Fantasy 9th edition or even Warhammer 40,000 8th edition. Until you see a book, you can't really know what's happening. Most rumour sites achieve nothing but generating internet traffic and a little amusement in the small subsection of the 'in the know' sections of Games Workshop who haven't yet been put off looking at the wargaming sections of the internet.

Warhammer Fest, Day 1: Afternoon Forge World Seminar

I'm currently in rainy Coventry, recovering in my secret lair near the Ricoh Arena, where Warhammerfest is being held. Before I go for dinner, I thought I'd fire out my notes on the Forge World afternoon presentation. Other people have already fired pictures all over the internet, so I'm mostly going to be doing the written down thing.

This is what mine would have looked like.
There are better ones elsewhere on the internet.
Go find them.

The first one up to the plate was Imperial Armour Volume 13: The Lost and the Damned. This is out in limited numbers at the weekend - there's a run of 2,000 with a slip case and poster. It contains:

• All the Chaos Vehicle and Daemon Engine rules
• Updated rules for older Chaos models
• Renegades and Heretics army list
• A few selected relics of the Heresy

Daemon possessed Fellblades were mentioned, as well as the Decimator being included. The army list is a single army list with many options - it expands on the army lists from Vraks, allowing you to field any of those armies, but also adds in options for Slaanesh and Tzeentch Renegades as well.

I also managed to get a quick chat in with Andy Hoare and a look at the book on one of the desks. The army list includes a lot of HQs which unlock options, and also purchasable upgrades for Warlords to unlock yet more options still. Renegades and Mutants are all in there, with a particular combination of traits intended to allow you to give models Hellguns to allow for Chaos Storm Troopers. There are also some references to Chaos Hereteks. The Kharybdis Assault Claw makes an appearance for Chaos as well.

Horus Heresy Book 4: Conquest is due at the end of November, so people can order it in time for Christmas. It is currently at the printers. It is the biggest book so far. There is a Forge World Knight on the cover, which gives a bit of an indication as to the book's focus and content. It covers:

• The Battles of the Cyclops Cluster
• Siege of Mezoa
• Conquest of Manachea
• Defence of Agathon

These are battles that aren't in the Horus Heresy Novels, but is about what Horus and friends did "in between the gaps". It covers the conquest of a significant portion of the Northern Imperium, as Horus takes control of a sector of space cut off from the rest of the Imperium by warp storms so he has a base of operations. For example, Manachea is a big Agri-World, and a bit of a bread basket for that sector of the Imperium.

Forces in the book are:

• Sons of Horus
• Death Guard
• Iron Hands
• Salamanders
• Imperial Fists
• Dark Mechanicum
• Mechanicum
• Solar Auxilia
• Knights
• Titans

There was a mention that some of the Loyalist forces have gone mad, others are engaging in revenge attacks to worlds that have allied or even capitulated to Horus, and others are waging a guerrilla war.

The world of Cyclotrathe was mentioned - a Dark Mechanicum world which isn't in the 40K background, because someone has (rightly) turned it to ash by the time 40K happens. This is where some of the worst of the Dark Mechanicum are, licensed by Horus to forge their own mini empire as long as they keep his armies supplied. Their forces are now carving out their own client empire, harvesting humans for their experiments.

There's a mention of the Knight Houses of the area, and their interlinked backgrounds. It covers why their histories and existing allegiances determine the side they end up on. One example given was a House which had only been a part of the Imperium for five years at the outbreak of the Heresy, so sided with the only faction they'd ever met - Horus. (Apparently, that didn't go so well for them!)

The Solar Auxilia are an elite branch of the Imperial Army. There was a Latin name for the Imperial Army, but someone mumbled, so I missed it.

The book will include a history of the battles, background for the Solar Auxilia, background for the Knight Houses, the background to 4 new Knight Houses of the 31st Millenium, a campaign system, a Solar Auxilia list, and a 30K only Knight list.

There will be a special edition of Conquest. That will include a slipcase, a post and QR sheets for each unit to save people lugging the whole book around.

There was then a big display of models. Go look at the Battle Bunnies blog to see pictures - I just have a list!

(Alpha Legion Contemptor, Word Bearer Contemptor, Imperial Fist Contemptor, Imperial Fist Templar Brethren, Imperial Fist Phalanx Warder Squad, Solar Auxilia Lasrifle section, Veletoris Storm Section with Volkites, Flamer Section, Leman Russ Incinerator with Volkite weapon, and a Chainfist and Volcano cannon for the Reaver Titan.)

There will be a Horus Heresy Model Masterclass Volume 1. It includes how they put the Istvaan III display board together. It will have the usual mix of display and more army standard tips and tricks.

Horus Heresy Book V: Tempest - work is just starting on this. It will be the Assault on Calth. It will show the Word Bearers getting more Chaos-y. We were shown some concept art for Word Bearers, Ultramarines and the Fire Masters Titan Legion.

There is a distinct desire to make the Ultramarines less dull. They are looking at white, gold, and marble as well as the usual blue, in a very Roman style. There was mention of Praetorian pattern armour and Invictarus special troops - who were very ornate with shields.

There was talk of future models with no pictures - two new Space Marine flyers, a new dreadnought (not a Contemptor, something new!), Solar Auxilia Storm Hammer, Solar Auxilia Ogryns (very different from the ones in 40K), more character series models - with pictures shown of parts of Sevatar and Konrad Curze. They will not be "too long".

Q&As

Any Iron Warriors? Some bits and pieces are on the way.

Warhammer Forge models going away? Some models will come back once they've looked again at sales and profitability. They will then likely add a few models next year.

Dark Angels? After Ultramarines but not too long. They want to do Thramas plus the Blood Angels at Signus Prime relatively soon.

Chaos Dwarves? No plans right now, but maybe.

Sigismund model? Will get around to him - it will take a year or two to get all the characters they want to do done.

Any Tau non flyer super heavies? There was an answer. Tony told us not to share it on forums or blogs. You may ask me in person if you have interest, or find someone who doesn't do what Tony asks.

What will be the breakdown of the Calth book? The final decisions on this aren't really made yet - they're still in early stages and playtesting the Ultramarines Legion rules. It's likely there will be more than one book and the first book will be the first 24 hours and the turnaround.

Any plans to do basics for the legions such as Blood Angels early so people can get started? Not really. They're resourced just about perfectly for books and models at the same pace right now - early Blood Angels models would mean more Ultramarines rules in the Calth books without models, and that wouldn't be fair. There are sometimes opportunities when they do books where fewer models are needed to sneak in a few extra models, but that's not often.

Will they do every character they've written rules for as a model? Nope. Some are better suited to conversion from a Praetor or Captain model. They won't necessarily do every one, but will where there is demand and a different enough model to merit it.

Will there be Heresy era Xenos? Not very likely at all. Horus Heresy is about a battle of man against man, and becomes a story about man versus Chaos. They will probably avoid Xenos outright as that's 40K's thing - but if they reach the Scouring, that's the time of the revenge of the Xenos. They won't cover pre-Davin Xenos as they'd have too limited a scope.

Dark Eldar? Don't expect more Dark Eldar models from FW until there is a dedicated Dark Eldar book.

Genos something something (from Legion)? Very unlikely. It was a small group. The Imperial Army is very broad, and they will generally do things that have a wider application. Solar Auxilia have many regiments but are also more elite, so more worthwhile doing as FW units.

Any book for Fantasy? No decided.

Chaos Knights? On the list to do conversion bits for.

Weekly progress: Completed models, cool wallpapers and tinkering around with Kanban

Some of you may remember the ridiculous exclusive I achieved about Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon. (Beasts of War did manage to get some footage up the following month, but I broke the game-play picture scoop!) Well, while following back a referral from a lovely German forum over the weekend, I spotted some thumbnails of some more pictures. A quick search of the Slitherine website found a forum post with some pretty Armageddon Wallpapers. Get them while they're hot!

How did people find my "Infinity Week"? It was a bit of an experiment for me. Daily posting isn't something I'm going to be able to do that often, but I had enough material and blitzed everything over the weekend and scheduled it out. So, what have I been doing over the course of the week?

My darling wife had a bit of a word about my Kanban Board. I showed her the layout I'd been using and as an impartial observer, she prodded some holes in it. I'd upped my "Work in Progress" in the painting column to 6, with the intention of every two things moved out of it, I'd reduce the limit by one until it was back down at 3, which would keep things moving. She pointed out that would just slow down me dealing with the underlying problem. I also have two completed items in the assembly column waiting to move into painting, so it wouldn't really help move much along, just maintain an already too high work in progress limit. She also rightfully pointed out that preparation and assembly should probably be combined, which I did, causing yet another over limit column.

(I've also added a limit on my "to do" column, which is items I've bought, of the current items I've purchased but not started. I want to get this down from 136 to about 100, though I'm not sure how long this is going to take. That one I _am_ going to keep at the higher limit, and work a "2 out, 1 in" policy, otherwise I will be Very Sad. However, any new items should now be going right on the top of the column so I pick them up as my next thing to do, which should cut down my ridiculous habit of buying something to paint up at some point in the future.)

Anyway, on to things I've actually done!

There's now five of the corpse tokens finished, and I've decided to go with the method on the bottom left - a layer of water effect, washing over that layer, then once that's dried, another layer of water effect. So I have another five of those to complete.

The disk for my friend's Herald of Tzeentch is now done - just the Herald to get done now! I can see some pink in my future...

Three of the Marionettes are getting much closer to being done - just some last details to pick up, and they should be ready for basing.

However, Collodi himself and the other Marionette are both ready for basing! I'm incredibly pleased about this as they've been something I've been working on FOREVER.

Now, this leads on to an interesting observation. On my Kanban board, all that's happened is this:

Collodi has moved into the basing column - because the Marionettes aren't all painted, and the disk is done, but the Herald is not. There's a ton of work which isn't showing, because it isn't finished in the stage it's at.

Now, I'd show my normal spreadsheet at this point, but quite frankly, it looks like a flat line - that massive pile of incomplete work means that any day's work just doesn't have an opportunity to show up. So, I stripped down a copy of the sheet to only include items that I've started on the Kanban board.

So, each of the two systems has its own advantages. The spreadsheet shows that I've done something, but gives a false sense of progress in terms of getting things finished.

The spreadsheet also shows something else interesting - until last week, I tried to focus on doing a massive blitz each weekend - notice the complete and total lack of progress . . . I then changed to trying to do a little bit each day - for much better results. It broke down the barrier of me wanting to sit down at the painting desk, and even on days when I wasn't really in the mood for painting, some little bits and bobs got done. Given the success of "paint a little each day", I intend to continue with it wherever possible.