State of Forge World

[sockwithaticket]

In response to sockwithaticket:

 

Right now there are 82 different infantry upgrade sets compatible with 40k miniatures lol

Which ignores what I stated about their origin and what FW has been doing for years.

 

 

[Ishagu]

Well it's a new direction they've invested in for their biggest selling property - Astartes. It's like their Stormcast line - they'll receive a LOT of focus in future.

And how many of them are for options that can't be got in plastic? Only ones off the top of my head would be things like the Volkites and Rotor Cannons, which don't have 40k rules. Shoulder Pads and alternate designs of existing weapons aren't really the same as saying 'give me completely new weapon options'.

There are indeed some weapon upgrades for infantry kits. Keep in mind they just culled loads of weapon options for old lines of models.

[SickSix]

Well, they'd better get on board with the program!

 

They've had a full year to release characters, upgrades, etc. The bare minimum isn't good enough.

Forgeworld have to change to remain relevant, or become completely irrelevant outside of the specialist games.

You seem to think FW has umlimited man power. FW took over specialists games, and has been driving the Heresy train for the past decade. 40K hasn't gotten squat from FW in a couple years. They arent just going to stomp the brakes are Heresy or Specialist games becuase of Primaris. Primaris doesn't even have a full line of minis yet.

 

Chill. Specialists games are the new cash cow right now for FW. Titanicus is probably going to make them quite a bit of money and we know they are already working/planning on a whole line of upgrades for those plastic kits.

 

FW is probably a bit sour about being blindsided by 8th and having to completely re-write the Fires of Cyraxus. So they probably are not in a real hurry to support 40k.

[Ishagu]

I don't believe they were blindside by 8th. At worst it simply came about sooner then they expected.

[Elzender]

Anyways, Ishagu, FW releasing new options for existing Primaris units or new ones would probably step a bit on GW toes, considering they still plan to release new units down the line. Plus, rigt now I don't see FW having enough time to release another IA book with Primaris units, unless they include them in Fires of Cyraxus.

[Wargamer]

They don't need a book with Primaris units - they can just put the rules in the box with the model and/or as a free pdf download on the store page.

[Ishagu]

I think the problem now is that the HH might be too much of a commitment for them - in terms of books, models, rules. Especially as they chose to stay with 7th. Heck, if they were an expansion to 8th they could even have had point adjustments in Chapter Approved! Horus Heresy feels like old Fantasy to me now - bloated rules, massive financial commitment, no one to play against.

 

They are writing these books, whilst having to focus on the various specialist games. Too divided, no focus, but worst of all they are missing obvious things; Supporting Primaris with conversion kits and weapons WOULD be good for them - there is a hunger for it. There are other armies that could benefit too. I can't believe it's taking so long to finalise the rules for 8th edition Custodes and Mechanicum units! Where are the chapter rules for the Badab chapters like Red Scorpions and Minotaurs? You guys are right, they probably don't have the resources.

 

If anything, they were stepping on GW's toes before when the Heresy was at peak popularity and 40k was rotting in 7th edition. They should be supporting 40k armies more, that's for sure. That's what FW has always been to most people - A way to get some cool unit that might fill a hole in your army, a way to customise your forces more, some extra variety here and there with great lore attached to it.

[Elzender]

True, but the Heresy changed that. As some others have said, it is possible that the project grew too much, but they really cared and were commited to it. Sincerely, the main studio at that time (and even now) could have learnt a couple things from the love the FW team showed for the Heresy setting.

 

However, it seems the higher-ups have decided for FW to scale back to its origins, and the Heresy is now suffering for it. If they really had to do it, I wish they had done it at least after all legions had been released, as it would have caused less unrest among the players and collectors.

[Ishagu]

I guess it's also a perception thing. Forgeworld had far greater support for 40k, and the HH which used it's rule set.

 

There's no real feeling of support now due to their side project focus.

[MARK0SIAN]

In my opinion FW should t be doing any 40k stuff whatsoever for a while, they’ve already put HH on the back burner for too long whilst they work on specialist games. HH should become a focus again way before Primaris stuff gets any upgrades.

 

Plus if you look at the ethos and the models in the Primaris range the only upgrades you could do for them would be chapter specific things and the chapter specific shoulder pads already fit the Primaris anyway. Primaris marines are not models with loads of wargear options, they’re designed that way. Each unit has these weapons and that’s it. It’s not like previous versions where you could equip them in a huge variety of ways.

[Ishagu]

I see your point of view, but right now 40k is hot, hot, hot.

 

This IS the time to support 40k, far ahead of HH which is falling behind. The tides shift, and businesses have to shift their focus from time to time.

[MARK0SIAN]

I see your point of view, but right now 40k is hot, hot, hot.

 

This IS the time to support 40k, far ahead of HH which is falling behind. The tides shift, and businesses have to shift their focus from time to time.

I get what you mean but I strongly believe that if they don’t pump a lot of life back into HH now, that will be it for it. It can’t survive another 2-3 years like it has done. It will be dead and they’ll never go back to it.

[Ishagu]

But you see the problem? FW became too ambitious with the Heresy. It's this massive, cumbersome and time consuming project that perhaps relied too heavily on one individual for direction. The next book is delayed time and again and that still won't cover the full set of Legions! They must not abandon it, however.

 

To pump life back in to the HH, I don't think they'll have the required resources for a long, long time. It's hurting them more to ignore the current momentum of 40k. It's been months since 40k Custodes released and they still aren't supporting them fully. Look at the Mechanicum range just wilting away without rules also - People would go mad for it when it transitions to 8th.

[SickSix]

I see your point of view, but right now 40k is hot, hot, hot.

 

This IS the time to support 40k, far ahead of HH which is falling behind. The tides shift, and businesses have to shift their focus from time to time.

Ishagu, this argument is strictly coming down to personal bias. You don't care about Heresy so you think it should be tertiary. Others are primarily Heresy gamers and that's what FW has become for them. Without FW support they have no game.

 

FW made a (massive) commitment when they fired up the boilers on the Heresy train. To not see that through to the end would really damage them. Think about them turning their backs on their biggest customer base.

 

40k is hot. But as we keep pointing out, and you keep sidestepping, there is virtually nothing for FW to do with Primaris yet. GW wrote them so tightly that there isn't a lot to work with. I agree with the idea that GW probably doesn't want FW messing with Primaris yet becuase GW isn't even done releasing a full line of models for them.

 

And its funny that you have just echoed GW's reasoning for letting previously beloved product lines die. They stop supporting something, then use the drop in sales as a reason to cut it out completely. That's how sisters and specialist games went away in the first place. If Heresy is falling behind its becuase FW support has slowed to a crawl. If they pick it back up, interest will grow again. The Blood Angels are probably going to be a HUGE hit (in non-price gouged markets). Support = sales.

[Ishagu]

I feel I should mention I have a full horus Heresy Ultras army that I have showcased on this forum AND a smaller force of Sons of Horus and traitor Mechanicum.

I'm angry at Forgeworld for separating the two systems fully, and I've not been able to use these models for a time.

 

GW decided to push 40k and AoS into total dominance of the mini wargaming scene and have been largely successful in doing so. FW could have followed their success.

[SickSix]

You can't use your Heresy armies in Heresy? Thats wierd.

[Ishagu]

You can't use your Heresy armies in Heresy? Thats wierd.

No one plays it and no one wants to, locally to me.

I'm not going to push it on people when 40k itself is thundering everywhere with an exciting and evolving scene.

[Ishagu]

I should add, I believe fully that FW need to complete the Heresy. If they don't they'll be done for in the eyes of the hobbyists. How they chose to complete it and the ruleset they use are up for criticism, however.

[sockwithaticket]

 

You can't use your Heresy armies in Heresy? Thats wierd.

No one plays it and no one wants to, locally to me.

I'm not going to push it on people when 40k itself is thundering everywhere with an exciting and evolving scene.

 

'No one plays it' and 'No one locally to me wants to play it' are two very different statements.

 

8th ed 40k is still very young with a few codices still not having been updated. Once it's more established, interest will wane. People with things like HH armies will pick them back up again for a different gaming experience if nothing else. This may well coincide with when FW drop the next Black Book.

 

On the recent event threads some posters have gleaned from staffers that FW are bringing in additional personnel, so they may be able to spin all their plates more effectively in future.

[Elzender]

But you see the problem? FW became too ambitious with the Heresy. It's this massive, cumbersome and time consuming project that perhaps relied too heavily on one individual for direction. The next book is delayed time and again and that still won't cover the full set of Legions! They must not abandon it, however.

 

To pump life back in to the HH, I don't think they'll have the required resources for a long, long time. It's hurting them more to ignore the current momentum of 40k. It's been months since 40k Custodes released and they still aren't supporting them fully. Look at the Mechanicum range just wilting away without rules also - People would go mad for it when it transitions to 8th.

To be fair, GW as the global company encouraged the growth of the Heresy setting through the BL books series, which became an absolute behemoth, and further down the line with BaC and BoP.

 

As for the over-reliance on Alan Bligh, it is most probably true, but then again it didn't seem like the GW higher-ups did much to support the continuity of the project. I have no idea of how the FW writing team worked, but unless Alan decided to take up all the writing by himself, they could have assigned more people to the writing team, considering the importance the Heresy line had, and it might have helped getting the black books and IAs a bit faster.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Tony Cotrell has some big shoes to fill now. :D

[MARK0SIAN]

 

 

 

You can't use your Heresy armies in Heresy? Thats wierd.

No one plays it and no one wants to, locally to me.

I'm not going to push it on people when 40k itself is thundering everywhere with an exciting and evolving scene.

'No one plays it' and 'No one locally to me wants to play it' are two very different statements.

 

8th ed 40k is still very young with a few codices still not having been updated. Once it's more established, interest will wane. People with things like HH armies will pick them back up again for a different gaming experience if nothing else. This may well coincide with when FW drop the next Black Book.

 

On the recent event threads some posters have gleaned from staffers that FW are bringing in additional personnel, so they may be able to spin all their plates more effectively in future.

I agree with you but they’ve been saying the same thing about bringing in new staff for a year now and we haven’t seen any speeding up of the process :(

 

They’ve got enough staff they just need to stop shipping them all off to necromunda, bloodbowl and Titanicus!

[Exilyth]

Back in the day, the hydra tank, some leman russ variants and the baneblade super heavy variants were forge world resin models.

Nowadays they're normal GW plastic kits.

 

Maybe we will see some of the dissappearing stuff resurface in some other kits eventually.

Maybe not.

Maybe some bits will get repurposed and used in other kits.

Maybe not.

 

Only time will tell.

[SickSix]

I think chapter conversion kits would go all plastic before the bigger stuff.

 

But it could turn out the total opposite. Maybe plastic Sicarans will be a thing.

[Elzender]

I think chapter conversion kits would go all plastic before the bigger stuff.

 

But it could turn out the total opposite. Maybe plastic Sicarans will be a thing.

Plastic shoulder pads with Legion iconography (as some change a bit from 30K to 40K chapters) would be really nice, and GW has already shown they are able to do that with the 40K chapters upgrade sets.