Warhammer Fantasy Battle / Age of Sigmar

[knightkrawler]

GW are taking a huge dump on their customer base for Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
They literally don't give two shits. Just one, the one steaming around the customer base. But that's a humongous one.
As WFB only brought in 15% of the money WH40k earned them, they replaced it with WAoS, which means the new customer base is replacing the old.

But guess what: the wussy fanboys GW has won't take that. They are buying into AoS, too, because - and this is real, judging from many whiny youtube videos - they think they have to buy into AoS to be able to play a GW game. Imagine that! They think that WFB is dead just because no new models or rulebooks are being made! So these people support AoS although they are not in GW's calculation having complained for months about the changes rumors implied and now complaining about the changes implemented worse than the rumors.

For me, the last 8 months of rumor-and-rant-based WFB youtube videos was so funny I sometimes shat my pants and sometimes was in a proper rage about those fanboys.
Now the risk GW took with AoS is paying off - and then some. Prices are not gonna change, because they are figuring out they can make 62 bucks (62 EUROS !!) with one plastic figure JUST BECAUSE it has to stand on miles worth of stole and spell effects that fanboys are supposed to be incapable of making themselves if they want something like this.

Now, you see, I am quite a fanboy myself. A fanboy of ranting.

[Goblin-King]

All in all I guess I'm just a little sad to see how GW has turned so much worse over the years...
Back in the 90's I thought they were a great company. Oh how the giant has fallen from grace...

[alyndavies]

From my point of view, I got into Heroquest aged 10 and started painting the figures, from there probably like most people I started collecting Space Orks and Terminators, before Space crusade was released. I always wanted to get into Warhammer but never quite got around to it.

Recently I discovered Heroquest in my parents attic and brought it home for the partner and kids to play and they love it. Slowly I have started buying White Dwarf again and catching up on everything. The thing that strikes me the most about Games Workshop was back in the early 90's it seemed like a few blokes who were just grateful to have a job doing something they loved and had a lot of enthusiasm for it, jumping forward to 2015, it seems to have grown into a corporate monster that an expensive hobby and all all about fleecing people and profit. A lot of the passion, love and effort seems to have gone. MY biggest gripe is they no longer use metal figures and it's now all complicated small plastic assembly.

We have a Games Workshop in Carmarthern and I'm amazed by the prices when I go in there to be honest, I looked at Warhammer but at £75 or whatever it was there was no way I was going to pay that. Truth be told I have been simply buying stuff I like off eBay though I'm still stuck in the early 90's and tend to buy stuff from around that era.

[Goblin-King]

Yeah, their style has certainly evolved ALOT - and in several phases.
I can't even recognize it anymore...

[knightkrawler]

The only thing they have been really good in since the late 1990s was the multi-part regiment-sized plastic kits.
There they are the best of all manufacturers, possibly even when price is considered. But that is not what they wanna sell you anymore. They wanna sell you big-ass honkin' models that cost a month's wage each.
It's funny how lazy they are. The new Skaven Plague Monks are... well, the old Skaven Plague Monks in new layout packaging, endorsed like a novelty on the GW homepage when the new boxes were printed. Sad. Sad ol' company.

I have been buying Warhammer stuff off ebay when I liked something. I've been carrying my qualms about these corporate loveless whitesmile edge-highlighters since I#ve got into the hobby.

Funny how their edge highlighting stands as an allegory for the company. Put a little effort in the edges and people will buy it.

[Goblin-King]

ONE thing I'll give them credit for though...
The new Bloodthirster model has a head option to add HQ-style gargoyle horns.
It's not a helmet though, but still a nice homage to the original old miniatures.

[whitebeard]

The only thing they have been really good in since the late 1990s was the multi-part regiment-sized plastic kits.
There they are the best of all manufacturers, possibly even when price is considered.

This is the most frustrating part. Some of these sets are just awesome. Even the dwarf warriors which lack some detail (like my avatar). The level of customization is fantastic. And then you have left over parts to do other things with (furniture, weapon swaps with other groups, etc.)

Why is there no business plan outside of Warhammer? Imagine if they just tried to appeal to everyone... In this case you would have:

A barbarian regiment... Ampersand's extended quest for his perfect barbarian, over with one $35 dollar purchase and minor green stuff work.

A dungeon explorer (human warrior) group: male and female of each of human, elf, dwarf, wizard, gnome, cleric, priest, etc.

Evil wizard group, etc.

Many of us would buy these at $35 each to make just 3 or 4 minis. Larger D&D / gaming groups would buy and share, basically everyone would have 2 or 3 of everything. That market has to be MUCH larger than Warhammer Fantasy ever could have been.

[Baylor_OgreBane]

they went down hill in the 2000's when they stopped being a limited company and became a public limited company. Selling out for bigger profits. I know I worked there when it happened.

[slev]

GW became a PLC in the 90's actually.

I find that they had a step-down in the mid-90's when the management tried to over-sanitise everything. The creative types re-gained conrol and started recovering the "dark & gritty" nature and more intricate rules in the early 2000's. Then, over the last 6-7 years, the corporate types have gained control again and once more it's all going to pot.

[cornixt]

The only thing they have been really good in since the late 1990s was the multi-part regiment-sized plastic kits.
There they are the best of all manufacturers, possibly even when price is considered.

This is the most frustrating part. Some of these sets are just awesome. Even the dwarf warriors which lack some detail (like my avatar). The level of customization is fantastic. And then you have left over parts to do other things with (furniture, weapon swaps with other groups, etc.)

Was awesome. But the new sets have zero extra bits for customisation beyond bits for musician, standard bearer and champion rather than a regular rank and file model. So depressing. Got a recent Wood Elf set. Even worse is that despite the models having very little variation, they are split up to reduce the sprue depth, which adds lots of extra steps of gluing without any benefit to the user. It's just frustrating. The models look fantastic, but are are harder to put together for zero player benefit. Plus the prices are just absurd now. When you are a modeller who would prefer single piece metals, there is something wrong.