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Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2003 4:26 pm
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Location: Southfields, London, England
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Post from Nate Montes (you will have seen his stuff in Fanatic) on the BFG yahoo group.
OK Folks, I know there is lots of talk about what is happening with the ecent big changes announced for Fanatic by Jervis Johnson. Jervis Johnson and Matt Keefe sent me a detailed letter explaining what's going on with Fanatic in general and Battlefleet Gothic in particular. First of all DO'NT PANIC!! Did I mention don't panic? Okay, 'ere we go.
- Fanatic magazine will be printed for now. However, to make sure everyone has access to the magazine articles, new rules and pertinent information, Fanatic is considering making Fanatic Magazine free and web-based. As the magazines move on, pertinent articles will become permanent and integral parts of their respective websites. The current published resources such as
Armada will be available for the foreseeable future.
- Each website will have a living rulebook as part of the website. This way, hiccups, oversights and other such hate-inducing problems can be corrected through periodic reviews, making a long-term FAQ and constant updates to the FAQ unnecessary. What this ALSO does is allow new players to purchase a pack of Games Workshop dice and a fleet tailored to their desires without having to purchase an entire box set of ships they may not want just to get the rules. Just as important, this allows players to look at the rules and storyline and make an informed decision what fleet they would like to get into before making any purchase at all. Battlefleet Gothic's newly refurbished website is on-line and will receive tons of new material in the next few days. Check it out at the following link:
http://www.specialist-games.com/battlef ... efault.asp
- New miniatures will still be coming out for Battlefleet Gothic and the other Specialist Game ranges for the foreseeable future. However, what has happened is that Specialist has released so many new miniatures for their games (more than GW did for WH40k, Warhammer and LOTR combined!), that support by Specialist and it's small staff in the form of rules and resources such as the magazine have suffered greatly. For example, in just 2004 for JUST Battlefleet Gothic, we have seen the new Tau fleet (four kits,
three blisters), Craftworld Eldar (one kit, three blisters), and Rogue Traders (one kit, one blister). This does not take into account the Dark Eldar fleet, Space Marine escorts, Armageddon battleship and escorts, and new Tyranid fleet that came out late in 2003. This also doesn't account for the Armada publication, which I can personally attest too a LOT of work all by itself! Keep in mind that a large range of new miniatures and published material ALSO came out for Inquisitor, Blood Bowl, WFB and Epic as well. All
this from only eight guys.
- New miniature production is slowing down, not stopping. For 2005, BFG still has the Kroot Warsphere, Ork Grunt escort as well as Battlefleet Mars, which will include yet another new battleship, cruiser and light cruiser models. The Epic model range is not yet complete, and some of the other ranges still have kits in the pipe as well. While this is happening, Fanatic will be shifting its focus from commissioning new kits to tightening its support for the current model ranges in all the games they are responsible
for. We all have complained about how lousy rules support is for Battlefleet Gothic. Well, they are fixing it with one fell swoop. GW is NOT a multimillion-dollar company Citibank or Dow Corning- they do NOT have the manpower to keep churning new models while at the same time fixing the support issues they are currently facing. When Fanatic's restructuring as well as all the rules and resources are ironed out, it is planned for now that model production will spool back up. GW loves the game folks; it is not going away.
- The entire current range of Battlefleet Gothic models for all the fleets will remain available for the foreseeable future. This includes the "specialty" BFG models such as the Rogue Trader ships, planetary defenses, transports and ordnance. Yes, we ALL know that to stay fresh, new models have to occasionally be released. However, look at where are now. There are many dozens of different types of official ship classes currently available spread among ten official fleets. This is an absolutely spectacular range of models for ANY game, even if it should never get another model, which is of course not the case as I explained above.
- With Fanatic being web-based, I believe there is a LOT of room for growth, as the writers will no longer be limited to publication and size deadlines to get new material out there for the game. Tyranids, Pirate rules and Rogue Traders leave LOTS of room to expand the game with the current model range as well as opportunities to expand the game with scratch-builds and home-brew ideas. The opportunities are endless, and the future is bright.
This really does look like a painful growing process, but it will result in future support for the game that is more flexible, versatile, and in the long term make it even easier to get new models out since rules for them can be posted for everyone at the speed of the Internet.
Finally, remember that it is a GAME folks! Have fun and ENJOY!!!
V/r
ATC (AW/SW) Nate Montes, VFA-105 Gunslingers
NAS Oceana, VA (757) 433-9338/9411 DSN 433-9338/9411
CVN-75 USS Harry S. Truman J-Dial 4785/4777
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but it is still going to hurt a lot,
...and if you aren't having fun, you're not doing it right!!!
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From the SG Epic forum.
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). < "wait and see mode" >
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