So, there has been a lot of "discussion" on the interwebs and social media platforms recently about the supposed demise of the 30k game format. I will not pretend to have any inside knowledge about the rumours that have been circulating, their origins, or anything associated with that.
What I do want to say is that from my perspective, 30k is very much alive and kicking.
There are plentiful reasons to think this. Here are a few off the top of my head.
* Tournaments. A large array of tournaments feature 30k alongside 40k and Age of Sigmar. As well as Lord of the Rings. These tournaments are very well organised and attended on the whole. More than this, there remains exclusive 30k tournaments. Sure, Rogue Trader events still happen and Rogue Trader is not a recognised format much any longer. But the interest from the fan base is still there and very strong.
* Miniatures. There are plentiful new sculpts and miniatures that are coming along now and in the near future. Mark well for instance the Alpharius miniature that I hope will be up for pre-orders soon along with the other Alpha Legion goodies (terminators, new Preators, and so forth).
* Rules. The continuing publication of the Horus Heresy series remains impressive. The White Scars and Blood Angels should be getting the specialist treatment in the next book in the series that is due out later this year.
* Books. This is underpinned by the long running range of Horus Heresy novels from the Black Library that keep on coming out. Perhaps they will reach an end soon with the siege of Terra being hinted at. But after that, there is the Scouring to deal with. Plus the other Primarch books. It will keep going for as long as people read them.
* Blogs. The sheer amount of material on the 30k era is impressive. I'm not even talking about the reviews that Warpstone Flux seems to be famous for these days -- they sheer quantity of painting, conversions, and every other gram of hobby goodness out there shouts out loudly that 30k is still in business and going nowhere.
Overall, the fan base is strong, and very dedicated. I don't put too much stock in some specialist parts being withdrawn from sale -- every company does this. I'm certain that replacement stock will be forthcoming at some point in some form or other.
yeah but its clear that focus has shifted over at forge world. I think its the specialist games getting new stuff that is drawing away attention and money needed to repair old molds.
ReplyDeleteI'm no expert on resin casting, but you only get so many master casts from your original sculpts, and making a new set of masters is a real investment. FW not betting on making their money back with continuing the all the legion accessories is telling. They must not see alot of people in the future buying full new 50 marine squad armies and thus needed tones of new legion specific sculpts.
I expect HH to get to Tera, but I also expect the line reducing out infantry until its mostly just the plastic range and a reduced verity of add ons. We will get more dredds and tanks of increasing size, but I just don't think FW has the stomach to maintain complex infantry molds anymore, they deleted elysians completely! GW still sells us Catachans using those same old molds just fine, resin just is more expensive at these volumes. selling off bounty hunters and star players and Primarchs one at a time just makes more sense then 10 man squads.
I think this will hurt HH alot, half of this game is long term planning, and this will hurt getting new players. I'm not talking off the street noobies, but the verity of players and armies that play. I know like 5 people who have HH armies and half of them are Iron Warriors and Ad Mech. I personally just count as my HH stuff as 40k now because of the 8th edition and wanting to play something else besides marine vs marine.
Brand new fancy legion rules updated to 8th would be a real sign that they are invested into the long term future of the game. if they are not going to give us Xenos, then 8th ed rules could at least be our back door into playing with new people.
Warhammer 40k 8th edition has really killed off all interested in 'mainline' 40k for me. It's been a real boon that Horus Heresy remained with a refined version of 7th edition. While 8th edition has some good sides, it's way too simplified for me and many others. Not to mention the Primaris disaster and the finger it gives to established fluff.
ReplyDeleteHorus Heresy is not easy to get into, but once you get a good group going at your FLGS, it's there to stay. Of course FW has to divide its resources. And the loss of Alan Bligh has really put a dent into the creative capacity over at FW. It's not dead for as long as it people continue to play it.
However, now with 8th edition, a lot of focus has shifted over to 40k again. Horus Heresy remains a niche within a niche and that's fine. It's the Gentleman's Game of the hobby.