So you know that thing when you were a kid.
That feeling of being sucked into a strange land.
The feeling of needing to delve and discover what it's all about.
It might have been triggered by a glimpse at an older cousins collection of miniatures, a flick through a strange magazine, stumbling into a shop full of weird books and little packs of toy soldiers or simply the older boys playing RPG's at school and wondering how Advanced the AD&D actually got.
Whatever it was, it led us all on the twisty path to gamerhood.
And whatever it was, I think GW have found it, lying forgotten at the bottom of a filing cabinet, and they have dusted it off and started using it's evil power again.
The thing is, I thought I'd outgrown GW. I thanked them for all they had given me but I'm happy with what I've got from them. The last couple of editions of 40K passed me by. The end of the Warhammer world was interesting but I didn't really know much of the characters that were being killed off so it remained just that, interesting. Age of Sigmar came out and I practically shrugged in a 'I suppose it's not really aimed at me' kind of way and looked elsewhere.
But lately Gw's releases have been turning my head.
I bought the General's Handbook and thought there were some interesting ideas in here. Interesting enough for me to base some Chaos Warriors on ROUND BASES. I even bought and painted some Blight kings and planned a AoS army.
I painted a Chaos Gladiator and played Gorechosen and found it very reminiscent of the old school GW boxed games.
I've got a copy of Death Watch overkill and I bought a set of the hybrid figures.
I watched in interest as people talked about Silver Tower and have convinced myself I want to give it a go.
I've bought a couple of White Dwarves for the first time in 23 years.
I played a game of Shadow Wars Armageddon and bought a box of Tau to make a killteam.
I bought a Dakkajet in order to give stormcloud attack a go.
I am just about managing to avoid buying a Bloodbowl team.
And now I'm planning to go out and by Age of Sigmar Skirmish on the day of release.
Individually you can kind of shrug each of these little things off but when you list them altogether they start to look like there is a problem.
If you combine this with watching of Duncan's painting videos and the moment I caught myself watching a live stream of an Age of Sigmar tournament (and enjoying it!) and the fact that you have GW stuff in your news stream in your FB feed.....then you have to start to admit to yourself.....GW have got you on the hook.
And now they are bringing out a new version of 40K. And I'm trying not to look it in the eye. Like seeing an ex in the street, i'm doing best to pretend it doesn't exist while still checking out what they look like. It doesn't help when you see guys on other blogs pricking up their ears.
So it would appear that GW have got their mojo back.
And from what I've heard they've hardly started!
All I need to do now is figure out how I feel about that......
With you 100% on this one!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to deny
DeleteSolid honest truth.
ReplyDeleteWhat else would you expect from me Mr Assless?
DeleteA manhug, definitely a manhug.
DeleteYou are fond of hugging
DeleteOver the last couple of years the GW mojo reservoir has filled back to the brim. Course, making things like adeptus mechanicus and genestealer cults as well as bloodbowl, it's understandable and old vet like me would be drawn in. However, I find I've just painted a slaughterpriest. I now know the difference between a bloodstoker and a bloodsecrator. So that excuse no longer covers me. Next thing I'll be buying a combat gauge.
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten i'd made myself one of those....
DeleteI have two acrylic, 3rd party combat gauges...
DeleteIts on.
It on like Donkey fucking Kong.
These are just baby steps by GW, but everyone acts like they they are suddenly giving away minis for free, their rules are the very best the land can offer and so on and so forth.
ReplyDeleteNo. I won't drink a GW kool-aid again. SW:A is a nice little game with a crap campaign system and bad editing, Blood Bowl was kept alive by fans for years, but now they saw THEY could make money from it as well, haven1t even heard of that plane game, won't touch AoS with a ten foot long pole, I got the original Warhammer Quest lately which has no Stormcast Aeternal Bloedchoesoen, and since it's practically a skirmish game already...
But yeah, that's what we get instead of Mordheim. And SW:A was instead of Necromunda. Glad the only fanatic game they re-released is the one I can't give a shit about.
Just you wait, they'll get you in the end.....
Deletenecromunda is coming....
DeleteHaha I'm with you on this, I just can't help myself! "New" GW just seem to be doing everything right these days, and kind of reminding us why we liked them so much in the first place!
ReplyDelete100%
Deletehehe, nice blog post, I sympathise with you entirely.
ReplyDeleteI have been drawn into to tinkering with an Undead army, buying a few odds and ends, and even played a couple of demo games of Age of Sigmar. Also, I have been planning building a 30k Emperor's Children army. The new 8th Edition 40k looks interesting, and I really like Kharadron Overlords, a project I will definitely be tackling.
Still, I have been focusing on 'Oldhammer' things, but it is'nt easy! ;)
A Kharadron Overlord force for Age of Sigmar Skirmish will consist of less than ten models I think. The rulebook is £6.
DeleteIts difficult to argue with that if metal-top-hat wearing ballonists with machine gun moustaches are your thing... and if one cant see the appeal in that concept, well, y'know, then one is to be pitied :)
ReplyDeleteMy wife noticed before I did.
"Its weird to see you coming home with GW bags again" she said, after years of playing other games and systems.
Im not sold on every aspect of the changes, but its all moving in the right direction for now I think.
Silver Tower > 90s Warhammer Quest by a *very* big margin. Original WHQ generates a lot of fondness, but zero evidence for. Its a terrible game.
Silver Tower > 90s Warhammer Quest? What are you smoking?
DeleteI dunno, I'm sort of over new games. I've been around the block a few times now and I think/hope I've got enough stored in my head to make or modify a game to suit my needs. I don't feel the need to buy a new variant of an older game. RT, ROC, WFB and all the other older releases have got so much to explore that I'll not only be playing them, but trying to get through my backlog of minis from that time as well!
ReplyDeleteNewer games just don't appeal to me anymore, unless they're radically different from their predecessor.
No I must resist, must resist, mus..... WP nice post to be honest I haven,'to gotten the itch to try any of the new games as of yet but the figures they are producing nowadays are simply stunning. I have so much old lead to paint that new plastic is a bit down the road. Glad to hear that there is some good content to their newer releases.
ReplyDeleteGreat write-up!
ReplyDeleteI'm with some of your other commentators - I'm glad that GW has upped their game, but my game-playing time and miniature painting time is so limited, I'm not sure if I can clear the decks in order to give the new stuff much of a try. My current painting queue takes me into 2078.
I'm very much in two minds about this. While I like the sound of a lot of rule changes I've heard about, until I hear that the new 40k has balanced army lists, and is something other than bigmarines hitting one another, I'm reserving judgment.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, GW has improved greatly over the last year or two. It had simply got left behind, and was cultivating a very bad image for itself.
I am excited about the new edition of 40k... there are the return of some Rogue Trader era rules (vehicles abd dreadnoughts with T and W for example). One of things I really liked about AoS was that all of the rules for a unit and their gear were on the data sheet and that carries over into 40k... no more having to look up the exact wording for fleet or relentless or whatever - the rules for your terminators will be on their sheet.
ReplyDeleteThe sense of humor I used to love about GW has also returned, at least in many of their videos and other online offerings.
Anyway, yeah, I like almost everything I've seen about the new rules and hey, the core rules are free. For those of used to making due With houseruled or homebrewed sets for Rogue Trader games, the streamlined core might be a great vehicle for Oldhammer 40k games...
Yup. GW have had.more money out of me in the last six months than in the previous 20 years. Bloodbowl, silver tower, scenery, Lord of the rings...
ReplyDeleteYup. GW have had.more money out of me in the last six months than in the previous 20 years. Bloodbowl, silver tower, scenery, Lord of the rings...
ReplyDeleteGosh!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it's not just me that's been finding myself wandering into GW several times a month and leaving with some purchases!
The Age of Sigmar skirmish game book is rather good, if a bit simple and with possibly too many full page photos which could have added more gribbly depth to the game but at first glance, it looks like an entire skirmish campaign can be played out over the course of an evening or two.
Interesting times! Especially the new 40k...
Although financial constraints mean I'm not putting much money their way at the moment, I'm certainly enjoying reading about their output. They've been going in a decent direction for the last few years, and although I'm not overly fond of the direction AoS has taken my beloved Old World, I'll be picking up a copy of the Skirmish rules, and also SW:A when I can afford it.
ReplyDeleteStill waiting for reworked versions of Necromunda and Mordheim though.
I hope they rerelease Necromunda but I wonder if they will do a full blown rerelease now Shadow Wars is out as the rules would not be significantly. Maybe they'll do an expansion for specifically Necromunda gangers but it doesn't have the gateway into 40k that SW does which I think is why they put existing 40k factions into SW. Here's hoping - I'd love to see what their new take on Goliaths or Escher would be!
DeleteI played Blood Bowl now and again before GW released it but only upon the it's rerelease did I see a wave of new local players which has cultivated my liking of this game into a full time addiction. AoS is fun as a casual game but it's unlikely it will become my go-to game and I've purchased Silver Tower for the miniatures as well having my sights on the Shadow Wars and AoS skirmish game. In truth there's little new about GW's recent releases that has me engaged but it's more a case of rediscovering what I did love about GW and having more players to enjoy this with.
ReplyDelete