LumpinCroop:
Is GW going to be doing a Summer Campaign for Fantasy Battle?
The Nemisis Crown and Storm of Chaos were the last two I remember and these go back several years.
furrie:
There are rumours about a summer campaign. And that there will come out some calvelery models around the same time.
Grimstonefire:
From what I heard, no there will not be.
LumpinCroop:
That’s too bad. Fantasy Battle needs soemthing to generate a little excitement and interest.
Servius:
Everything i have heard is that there will not be a campaign at all this or in future summers…
due mainly to the dwindling participation in the events and the perceived waste of effort…
Storm of Chaos and Albion were very popular… Albion as it was known that the army that met the top bill of the campaign would receive cool magic items for used in the army from then on… I.E. Gauntlets of Power, Armour of the Gods, etc. SoC was awesome as it presented people with alternative campaign lists to give some more fluffy flavorful armies (sure they could be abused but so could any list really). One reason that the following campaign Lustria flopped on its head. was the fact that the SoC Lists were basically deemed illegal in tournaments and people didnt want to invest in the lustria variant lists to find their army get thrown in the same bin. (which they did). Also the lustria campaign while cool and being as it had 2 manners of playing it over all the scenarios shown required masses of terrain that most game stores cant provide much less a personal table or group terrain collection… i mean 70% or more jungle on a board… also the rules were not well liked as far as how some armies had HUGE advantages simply due to the way the rules for Lustria were written.
Then we come to Nemesis Crown… It was a cool idea… 1000 point lists allowed even new players to jump in with relatively low investment. also it was the presentation of the splash release of 20 in a box black orcs and flagellants. so you could make a large army pretty cheap if you wanted to go those routes. The main problem with this one was that you were held to the weekly scenario, also that it was designed to be a multiple player game. i.e. 3 vs 3 or more per table… which most smaller groups cant organize and that stores have trouble with hosting due to the time involved with the tables being occupied. (this is for stores with a pay per hour type system). also it was relatively unclear as to the rules for such games and you pretty much had to make house rules. And its participation was next to nothing… At our local store we had a GW Rep bring down special terrain and such to set up a mega battle for nemesis… I and one other person were the only ones interested in playing it… and we both brought 40k that day but happened to live close enough to get an army quickly… sufficed to say GW was disappointed in Nemesis.
Grimstonefire:
Personally I think the should have ‘summer campaigns’, but not in the format they have in the past.
The big problem (as you describe Servius) is that GW is judging the success of them a lot on how many people turn up and play. This requires special terrain etc, which reduces the space available for using the boards for other systems over the period.
I think what they should do is say; every alternating year we will release a campaign booklet free with WD, with some fluff and rules for playing a series of linked battles between armies. The thing that makes this different to previous things is that they never collect the results, but the ongoing war is what is important.
They use the ongoing story of the unfolding campaign to drive the actual warhammer/ 40k games. They could even bring in things into the army books specifically to help people, but they would spend a fair bit of time describing what that race was doing in the campaign. Use them to introduce the race, but use the campaign to set the context of what they are actually doing.
So effectively they are refreshing the WH fluff every other year (which conviniently falls half way between editions).
People would say ‘what’s the point of playing a campaign where there are no winners!?!’ But they would be missing the point, it’s just a supplement with a story and some scenarios, and the actual campaign story written at the time is what is the important thing.
The only thing GW would need to worry about then is whether they sell more models than usual or not, but considering the time/money involved in producing the booklet it would easily pay for itself if sales went up 1%.
Willmark:
It’s not suprising as GW seems to have s special talent for alienating it’s customers.
fauthsie:
Well despite the lack of a GW summer campaign Warhammer-Empire is hosting a online campaign this summer called Treachery and Greed which is scheduled to launch this June/July.
And of Course Animosity Campaigns will have a campaign this fall as well 