"The Year of 40K" - An Utter Dissapointment?

[DrLove42]

OR "Has GW forgotten 40K"

I don't know the exact numbers, but is suspect 40K is a bigger system than Fantasy (it is round here at least, sure it changes place to place). This year is the anniversary. Both WD and through them GW declared this as being a year of 40K. A year of awesome stuffs

Its now April. We know Aprils release. (I know thats only 33% through the year so far)

In my head the year so far;

Jan - Vampire Counts (WFB)
Feb - LotR stuff
Mar - 2nd wave for 2 3-4 year old 40K codexes
Apr - Empire (WFB)

Thanks to the back page of WD now showing what we get next month again, we know next month is more Fantasy SoM datasheets. Leaving the first 40K slot of the year in June at the earliest.

Books that were rumoured seemed to be pushed back. At this point we think Chaos are due soon, but again thanks to GW rumour control we just don't know. Tau were pencilled in on the rumour front for the March slot. Now talk is of them next year. Eldar? Next year. Dark Angels? The spine of WD and a new painting set seem to be all that points at them.

Last year wasn't much more balenced, with 4 WFB books (3 armies and one expansion) and 2 40K (i think - Just GK and Necs last year?)

In addition to this we saw a single collectors edition marine for 40K

We've just had the FW open day. I wasn't there so its hard to judge, but based on comments and photos seems that Warhammer Forge dominated there as well, likely mostly due to the release of their new Monster book

I've discussdt this with a few people. The response I get is "Oh but we get a new edition soon, then everything will be better". And my response to that is "Do We?". At this point people are pegging their hopes of this year being 40K high on a book that GW haven't even hinted at or announced. That is just hearsay and whispers right now. If you were a normal player, not connected to the forums you'd have no idea that it "might" be coming out. And you wouldn't have that hope there, and the year would seem even more bleak.

So how can people put their faith in the year recovering in a book thats not even announced?

So my original post stands. Has GW so far failed in its self-billed year of 40K?

[Denzark]

I think only into March is a bit early to write it off.

The endless speculation about what Q could have what against what gaming system, is at least as tedious as the silence from GW, so I won't indulge in it - but they still have time. Cos they do have form for slightly unexpected things.

[SotonShades]

Oh WFB didn't dominate at the FW open day. 2 or 3 cabinets and maybe 8' of tables, compared to 3 or 4 times that amount for 40k. A decent set of WFB info and rumours/plans, but that is more because Warhammer Forge are ramping up their output, where as Forge World are closing in on their limit (until they expand their design stable and manufacturing facilities again). I know the Zone Mortallis board almost always had 6-8 people arouns it. Don't think I ever saw more than 3 around the fantasy table.

I think in general, we have so far missed out a bit on 40k. Then again, the same was true when Fanstasy got their latest editiong. The 6 months or so leading up were very 40k heavy. Don't forget that the financial year starts in a couple of days (April 4th) so GW will most likely want to set out to make as much money from Fantasy to finish that off before giving us a big hit of 40k for the 2012-13 financial report.

[Kiarr]

Just because the back page of WD mentions Empire doesnt mean thats all there is going to be in the WD especially considering how hush hush people are keeping about stuff, I would imagine that we will get something 40k next month - question is what...

[Strangleweb]

Well - the release of 6th Edition is a pretty big thing - I for one see that as a fitting 25th Anniversary present!

[Wildeybeast]

Just because the back page of WD mentions Empire doesnt mean thats all there is going to be in the WD especially considering how hush hush people are keeping about stuff, I would imagine that we will get something 40k next month - question is what...

Took the words right out of my mouth. I would find it highly unusaul if all GW saw fit to release were some datasheets in WD, there will be a big model release as well.

As to the OP, I agree that the 40k anniversary celebrations were low key, especially compared to the fantasy ones a few years back. However, assuming that the big summer release is the new ed, there will be several months focused on that which will redress the balance. I hardly think it is reasonable to expect the whole year devoted to 40k especially when we know there will be a big Hobbit foucs at the end of the year. GW has to provide support for all its game systems, not just 40K and with the summer months likely to be dominated by 40k it is reasonable to get a coul of army books out before hand. I would wait until the end of the 'year of 40K' rather than the start of April before getting annoyed about it. Or did you honestly expect the entire year to be 40k focused?

[Psychosplodge]

Well next years WD will be all hobbit, so enjoy it while it lasts...

[woodenronin]

Our big release was paint! I asked an employee at the GW store in St. Louis and he told me he knows nothing of a new release and the paint change is the big thing for now.

[woodenronin]

He also told me that the Hobbit release is going to be big.

[Wildeybeast]

We know the Hobbit going to be big, LoTR made themega bucks while the films were out so they will obviously invest big in the Hobbit too. As for the paint thing, I don't know what your employee was talking about. It is a big hobby release, yes, but the Empire release will make GW more money in April than the paints, so they are not exactly a 'big' release by GW scale. There will be a proper big release in the summer, there always is, and the smart money is on it being next gen 40k

[Demonus]

Quite a few SW and Tyranid models were released, some much needed (TWC and Lords as well as the big Bugs). Its widely anticipated that the summer will be the release of 6th edition, which is supposed to include Dark Angels vs Chaos Marines (confimed to me by GW staffers but take that as how you wish).

That means 2 new codices as both need makeovers pretty bad, probably new units if Necrons/Gk/DE are the model for comparison, and then Necron 2nd wave at some point if they want to keep all the Necron players they just picked up happy.

Sounds like a pretty good 40k year to me.

[woodenronin]

I agree with you Beast. But I think that he said that as more of a "cover your arse" type thing , or they don't tell their staff squat.

[eldargal]

Well to be fair WFB needs the attention more than 40k, and as others have noted the year is far from over. If the rumours are accurate we will be seeing 6th edition released, then possibly a flyers supplement. Not to mention Necron wave in May and CSM later in the year. Rumoured.:rolleyes:

[isotope99]

WFB got fairly few other releases when the new edition first came out (IIRC two and a half second waves and Beastmen in the surrounding 12 months up to Orcs and Goblins).

If you were to assume speculatively for example:

Jan: VC
Feb: LotR
March: Tyrandis/Wolves double second wave
April: Empire
May: Necrons 2nd wave
June: Fantasy
July: 6th Edition
August: Chaos/Fantasy
September: 6th box set
October: Fantasy/Chaos
November/December: Hobbit

That would be 5 out of 12 months with 40K and 4 out of 12 as fantasy

For me everything will hinge on whether we get a Chaos dex this year and whether it meets at least half of the unrealistic expectations heaped upon it.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

I'll be happy as long as the necron second wave comes out this year, preferably within the next 2 months.

[Night System]

I am sure once 6th is out all the fantasy players will be moaning that there is to much 40k and not enough of their game.

[Archon]

OR "Has GW forgotten 40K"

Here - you gave the answer yourself:



Its now April. We know Aprils release. (I know thats only 33% through the year so far)

And ist the very start of april - the 2nd to be exact.




So my original post stands. Has GW so far failed in its self-billed year of 40K?

I think you come to early with that question - wait until summer greets autum.:cool:

[DrLove42]

Maybe I should have qualified this with "A dissappointment so far"

Firstly we knwo nothing else will come out in April. We now how GW release stuff. Up on advance order last saturday of the month, released the week after. So we know April is Empire and Paints and nothing else.

Additionally everyone saying "we'll get this soon. And then this will probably come out" obviously didn't read my first post properly. It boils down to complaining about the new GW news release system. How can we ge excited or look forward to stuff when we only get 48 hours notice to order it to recieve it on release?

And on a more personal point of view i find it hard to get enthused by the rumours at all;

6th edition? Not the leaked book (which was brilliant in my eyes)
CSM? Spiky Power armour
DA? Power Armour
Boxed set? Loyalists vs Chaos aka Black Power Armour vs Green Power Armour

[Wildeybeast]

Maybe I should have qualified this with "A dissappointment so far"

Firstly we knwo nothing else will come out in April. We now how GW release stuff. Up on advance order last saturday of the month, released the week after. So we know April is Empire and Paints and nothing else.

Additionally everyone saying "we'll get this soon. And then this will probably come out" obviously didn't read my first post properly. It boils down to complaining about the new GW news release system. How can we ge excited or look forward to stuff when we only get 48 hours notice to order it to recieve it on release?

And on a more personal point of view i find it hard to get enthused by the rumours at all;

6th edition? Not the leaked book (which was brilliant in my eyes)
CSM? Spiky Power armour
DA? Power Armour
Boxed set? Loyalists vs Chaos aka Black Power Armour vs Green Power Armour

I'm sorry but I don't see how the news system connects to the year of 40k being a disappointment. Are you saying the year is a disappointment because there might not be any 40k releases coming?

[DrLove42]

LOL not quite, but to a certain extent

People are saying "the first part of the year has been crap, but don't worry cos we'll be getting new stuff soon!"

We haven't had a 40k book in 6 months. Who knows when we'll actually get something. Can people agree that last year was a bit of a wipe for 40k. We got 2 armies and one or 2 second waves. And a lot of Fantasy.

People say "6th ed is coming! That'll improve the year". A new rulebook is a force unto itself. We know we'll get new codexes at some point this year. Thats a known. However we DON'T know about the rulebook. All we have is rumours. And placing faith in the year being redeemed by a book that GW haven't confirmed we'll even get is not very convincing.

[Denzark]

Back in 1997 BI (Before Internet) we didn't know exactly what was coming out. There wasn't endless interminable rumour leaking etc.

Is the element of surprise not a nice thing? I don't believe anyone in this hobby is obsessive enough to budget ahead based purely on the new release schedule. There is always that bright idea for a new conversion, or that cheap deal on ebay. Or maybe people should just be disciplined and once their budget is spent - thats it. So put some aside for new releases.

Anyway if you let it all be known 6 months in advance then your competitors, blood sucking leaches like CHS, can get ahead of the drag curve and force the pace of release creating models you may not have wanted to release until 2nd wave.

Too many people having their cake and eating it has led us to this point.

[DrLove42]

AmI incorrect in saying that back then stores used "Incoming!" articles as posters, had adverts in WD, managers were allowed to talk about upcoming releases?

Theres a fine line to walk between giving 48 hours notice of a launch and showing it in advance. The only "incoming" articles used to let us know something was coming. They didn't show models, they didn't show rules or anything other than notice you'd be getting some new stuff soon.

[Wildeybeast]

LOL not quite, but to a certain extent

People are saying "the first part of the year has been crap, but don't worry cos we'll be getting new stuff soon!"

We haven't had a 40k book in 6 months. Who knows when we'll actually get something. Can people agree that last year was a bit of a wipe for 40k. We got 2 armies and one or 2 second waves. And a lot of Fantasy.

People say "6th ed is coming! That'll improve the year". A new rulebook is a force unto itself. We know we'll get new codexes at some point this year. Thats a known. However we DON'T know about the rulebook. All we have is rumours. And placing faith in the year being redeemed by a book that GW haven't confirmed we'll even get is not very convincing.

We may not have had a book, but we had two long awaited and much needed 2nd waves that genertaed quite a lto of excitement (at least amongst Nid and SW players). I agree that the new rulebook may not be a good thing, but you could say the same about a Codex, it depends entirely on what you want fro mti as to whether it is good or bad. I'm curious as to what exactly you think would make it a good year for 40k.

As for the news black out, as has been discussed previously, this was not really GW's choice, it was part of the contract with New Line for the Hobbit. At the start of last year we knew several months in advance what the next few releases would be and then they suddenly stopped making announcements when they signed up to the deal. Once the Hobbit is done and dusted they may well go back to long term announcements. I don't really mind either way, I find I get more excited by the rumours, but then they lead to disappointment when they don't always pan out.

[eldargal]

Something can be said for only having to wait a week from when pre-orders go up to receiving them. I think DE was the last time I had to wait three or four weeks to get my order, and it was agonising. In contrast the wait of a week between Lhamaeans and VC going up was much more easily endured.

[westside]

Of course last year and this year to date have been pretty disappointing for 40k. It is even more disappointing when the focus for two to three years will be Hobbit, Hobbit, and more Hobbit.

GW corporate said last year they wanted to focus on WFB since they felt that IP was neglected (this still should be available in their investor section on the site). And that is exactly what they have been doing.

Depending on ones tastes, if we consider the 'over the top' sculpts coming out for fantasy and last years 'Dreadknight', and drinking the SoB blood Grey Knight codex, I'm not really sure the lack of attention from the current 'creative' elements is all bad.

At least Forge World still has interesting 40k releases.

[Tamwulf]

The OP has struck a resonating chord with me. It's April, and we have seen no real announcements about 6th edition. Has GW even officially announced 6th Ed will be coming this year?

We've seen "closing wave" models released for Space Wolves and Bugs that may/may not have been done for sometime, and there is no ETA on Dark Elder offerings to fill that range. Are there any models left/unreleased?

We've received the Crimson Fist anniversary miniature... and that's it. It's all been Fantasy.

A ray of hope- the Hobbit isn't coming out until December, so maybe the game in November/December? We know the releases through April and a good idea of May, so that gives us June-October (five months!) for GW to blast us away with the 25th Anniversary of 40K and 6th Edition with a couple new Codex books. Please GW! Don't let us down!

[eldargal]

Dark Eldar need the voidraven and half a dozen characters. I'm still not sure why people are expecting a year of 40k just because it is the anniversary. We're getting a new edition, a new starter box and two new codices yet if the rumours are accurate. Not having much more than a decent sized wave release by April doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

[Kiarr]

Personally I wouldnt be supprised if I codex isnt released in the next month or 2 before 6th edition followed up by a second codex release towards the trailing side of the year after UK games day (about the same time as starter set)

As for the its the "year of 40k" they arent going to have a complete year with no fantasy or LOTR stuff or that would put other systems players off entirely I would suspect that most stuff thats not a codex release will be concentrated around the 6th edition release

And no GW havent confirmed the 6th edition release however theres enough evidence that it will be this year - the latest being that the new starter paint set has dark angels with molded details on the sholderpads on them which would indicate a change in starter set sometime this year and certain rules in the necron codex make little sence as their 5th edition rules :) (destroyers (ranged) with Prefered enemy (CC) for example)

[kargie]

I wouldn't call doom and gloom yet. The 6rh edition schedule seems reminiscent of Fantasy's 8th--Beastmen came in Jan (Necrons were Nov) 8th in the Summer (6th coming then). The next fantasy book was Orcs in Jan--a year of no armies. I don't think they'll go that long for 40k--8th had the new book format, and lots of changes to deal with. The experience there should hasten 40k's transition. But I'm not surprised at all that they aren't releasing any more books before 6th. The probable shift to hardcover, and making sure everything they are working on works together is time well spent. I'd rather have a book come after 6th than just before it, since the changes are going to be bigger than that between 4th/5th (or fantasy's 6/7th).

So yes, the first half of the year will lack much 40k. But I'd wager that 2-3 books are out by this time next year.

[the jeske]

Back in 1997 BI (Before Internet) we didn't know exactly what was coming out. There wasn't endless interminable rumour leaking etc.

Is the element of surprise not a nice thing? I don't believe anyone in this hobby is obsessive enough to budget ahead based purely on the new release schedule. There is always that bright idea for a new conversion, or that cheap deal on ebay. Or maybe people should just be disciplined and once their budget is spent - thats it. So put some aside for new releases.

Anyway if you let it all be known 6 months in advance then your competitors, blood sucking leaches like CHS, can get ahead of the drag curve and force the pace of release creating models you may not have wanted to release until 2nd wave.

Too many people having their cake and eating it has led us to this point.

and strangly enough countless firms around the world advert their products months in advance including model making ones and it only makes it better and rises the sales.

[inquisitorsog]

I think the question is a fair one. If GW is saying "this is the year" of 40k, yet first quarter only shows 1 release of 40k kits and those were only long overdue , I fail to see how the hype = reality. We also know the tail end of the year is likely to be dominated by Hobbit releases.

However, April supposedly sees release of additional waterslide transfers (decals) for additional SM chapters. That may be a bit of harbinger of things to come. Maybe it indeed is more like "Summer and Autumn of 40k".

Or maybe we got the announcement wrong and its "the LAST year of 40k".

[inquisitorsog]

B
Anyway if you let it all be known 6 months in advance then your competitors, blood sucking leaches like CHS, can get ahead of the drag curve and force the pace of release creating models you may not have wanted to release until 2nd wave.

Too many people having their cake and eating it has led us to this point.

The reason GW is not announcing releases has little to do with CHS. In fact the uncertainty created by unknown release schedules and the fact units are in the dex adds to the potential market for CHS etc. If you know the model you're waiting for releases in June, then you know you can wait for it. If you've no idea who releases what when, then you're going to buy from whoever currently has a release. GW feeds the "blood sucking leaches" with the secrecy around releases.

It looks to me that what they are doing is borrowing the Apple model of not announcing releases earlier than needed.It's now widely believed in many industries that advertising your future releases too far in advance drags down today's sales.

[Wildeybeast]

I think the question is a fair one. If GW is saying "this is the year" of 40k, yet first quarter only shows 1 release of 40k kits and those were only long overdue , I fail to see how the hype = reality. We also know the tail end of the year is likely to be dominated by Hobbit releases.

However, April supposedly sees release of additional waterslide transfers (decals) for additional SM chapters. That may be a bit of harbinger of things to come. Maybe it indeed is more like "Summer and Autumn of 40k".

Or maybe we got the announcement wrong and its "the LAST year of 40k".

And again I come back to the point of who, when GW said 'the year of 40K' (btw, could someone quote where and when they said that for me) actually expected an entire year of 40K. Of the three full months we have had so far, one of them had the 40K anniversary celebrations (disappointing thought they were) and the other had 2nd waves for 2 different armies. That seems like a reasonable effort to me.