Saturday, July 18, 2015

More Games Workshop Fun

So, some time ago I wrote about changes to the way GW retails its products and what that did to the stock price. It really spoke to what their idea of customer service and loyalty was all about. I posted updates to the blog entry for a while and their stock never fully recovered. This week GW decided they had not done enough damage to their customer loyalty and reputation. This week they decided to kill off Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB).

GW pulled an end of days to their story. Chaos destroyed everything. The Lizard men left the planet. The Elves sunk their city and everyone else just died. Then the god of the world captured a spark of its essence and created a new game. A skirmish game. Similar to 40k called Age of Sigmar. The new game features no point values for army selection and advantages to any ranged unit.

This action has touched off a firestorm of negativity in the WHFB community. There are many folks out there who have invested a great deal of time and money creating armies for this game. All of the miniatures can be used for the new game but they must be re-based onto round bases to fit within the new rules.

Some have even take their displeasure to the extreme. There are videos on youtube of people burning their WHFB armies. I have watched a few of these and while I could not destroy hundreds of dollars worth of miniatures the videos are fun to watch.

It will be interesting to watch the stock price. On Friday 7/17 it dropped to around 504 before rebounding to 506 by the end of the day. We might even see a short term rise as people snatch up all of the models they had always wanted for WHFB but soon will not be available

If you have a large army or two for WHFB what do you do now? You can still play the game with your friends. GW cannot take away what is already out there. You could try the new game but skirmish is already out there in several other competitors games and if that was your thing you'd already be playing it. Really, the only thing your are losing here the GW certified play. if that is your thing then you are really hosed but f you've only played at your FLGS for fun you can continue to do that; GW cannot stop you.

Oh, and if you are curious about the game here is the link to the rules: http://www.games-workshop.com/en-NZ/age-of-sigmar-compendiums. GW also has stats for every miniature ever made for WHFB in the scrolls section. You can read these rules for yourself and decide if a four page pdf for a skirmish game can really replace 28 years of development and thick hardcover books.


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