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Joined: Fri Feb 14, 2003 11:01 pm Posts: 3495 Location: Wessex
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SPECIALIST GAMES NEWS News For Fans Of The Specialist Games Range By Jervis Johnson
Psssst. No, no, don't look round. Keep looking at your screen and pretend nothing strange is happening. Keep this to yourself, but have you noticed anything mysterious going on recently? Or have you had an unpleasant feeling that you are being watched all the time? I only mention this because it is clearly the time for secret conspiracies, at least judging by what we have coming out for the specialist games range this month. Just judge for yourself:
Andy Hall, Fanatic senior editor on Inquisitor Magazine has been working away on the very first 'Inquisitor: Conspiricies' book. Andy came up with the cunning plan of producing a series of supplements for Inquisitor that provided all of the information to run a campaign. The first book in this series is Cirian Legacy. Within its 32 pages you'll find over 17 unique scenarios, a detailed background and history section, a character section listing the enemies and possible allies of the Inquisition that can be found in the Cirian Sector, and details of the dreadful secret conspiracy that the Inquistors must uncover.
Meanwhile Warmaster Senior Editor Steve Hambrook has been leading his Warmaster Skaven army out from their secret tunnels below the Old World to taste both the sweet fruit of glorious victory and the bitter dregs of abject defeat. Top Citadel designer Colin Grayson has designed the Skaven models that Steve has been using, and I have to say that they represent some of his very best work yet, which is really saying something! Amongst the skittering horde can be found Clan Rats, Plague Monks, Rat Ogres and Rat Swarms, among many others. Colin has also produced a Screaming Bell and Doom Wheel, both of which will be out in a couple of month's time. Rules and background for the Skaven can be found in Warmaster Magazine 17
Finally, Battlefleet Gothic players with Chaos fleets will be elated to find out that horrific spaceships possessed by Chaos have started to arrive from deep, deep within the Eye of Terror. Full details of the new Daemon Ships that are arriving to bolster the forces of Chaos can be found in Battlefleet Gothic Magazine 15, along with a Chaos Black Crusade fleet list by 40K guru Pete Haines. By a stroke of great good fortune this is just in time to allow BFG players to take part in the worldwide Eye Of Terror campaign being run by Games Workshop. Chance? Or perhaps something far more sinister...
Best regards,
Jervis Johnson Head Fanatic
NEW RELEASES This section lists all of the latest releases for the Specialist Games Range. To find out about prices and availability you can visit your local Games Workshop store, or contact your Games Workshop Mail Order department or visit the on-line store at www.games-workshop.com.
Item Game Release Date Town Cryer 25 Mordheim May Skaven Rat Ogre Mordheim May Human Warlock Mordheim May Blood Bowl Magazine 7 Blood Bowl May Blood Bowl Major Trophies Blood Bowl May Necromunda Magazine 13 Necromunda May Necromunda: Underhive Necromunda May Goliath Gang Boxed Set Necromunda May Goliath Champion Booster Set Necromunda May Goliath Gang Booster Set Necromunda May Orlock Gang Boxed Set Necromunda May Orlock Champion Booster Set Necromunda May Orlock Gang Booster Set Necromunda May Hive World Battlezone Terrain Set Necromunda May Secret Wars: Cirian Legacy Inquisitor June Warmaster Magazine 17 Warmaster June Skaven Clanrats Warmaster June Skaven Jezzails Warmaster June Skaven Plague Monks Warmaster June Skaven Rat Swarms Warmaster June Skaven Gutter Runners Warmaster June Skaven Rat Ogres Warmaster June Skaven Characters Warmaster June Battlefleet Gothic Magazine 15 BFG June Daemon Cruiser BFG June
SURFING THE WEB All the specialist games have great websites full of free downloads, resources and up-to-date news. Here are their URLS:
www.BloodBowl.com www.Mordheim.com www.Epic40000.com www.Necromunda.com www.Warmaster.co.uk www.BattlefleetGothic.com www.Exterminatus.com www.Specialist-Games.com
The websites now contain an article archive. This will tell you rules are experimental, official or House rules. Some can be downloaded as free PDFs. Check out the website for more details.
SPECIALIST GAMES MAGAZINES Most of the specialist games have their own bi-monthly magazine, jam-packed full of new rules, articles, letters and other cool stuff. Here's a list of the magazines that are currently available:
Blood Bowl Magazine Town Cryer Magazine (for Mordheim) Necromunda Magazine Warmaster Magazine Battlefleet Gothic Magazine Exterminatus Magazine (for Inquisitor)
Fanatic magazines are extremely popular and are always highly sought after. The only way to guarantee your copy is to have it delivered to your door by subscription! Subscriptions run for the next 6 issues, plus you get the following benefits:
* Your copy delivered direct to your door * You'll never miss an issue * You'll save money on the postage
To find out about prices and availability you can visit your local Games Workshop stockist, or contact your local Games Workshop Mail Order or visit the Games Workshop on-line store at www.games-workshop.com.
LIFE IN THE BUNKER Some highlights of life down in the Fanatic bunker over the last month:
* The Blood Bowl website now has a video of what happened at the Blood Bowl tournament. Almost 200 Blood Bowl coaches and their teams arrived at Warhammer World in Nottingham to vie for the chance of becoming the 2003 Blood Bowl champion. We had participants from all over the world - over fifteen different countries were represented - and the final was won by Marcos Tarrasso Ocana from Spain, with his team the Flatlined Annihilators. Check out the video report at www.bloodbowl.com.
* The Epic: Armageddon rulebook is finally be finished and going into it's production stage (that's when a team of highly paid editors and graphic designers try to turn my badly spelled and incomprehensible text into something that you guys can understand). If you want to find out more about the Epic: Armageddon project than you can do so on the Epic website at www.epic40,000.com.
* We've been having a lot of fun playtesting the Warmaster 'Mighty Empires' campaign system. Veteran readers may well remember the first version of Mighty Empires from waaay back when. In those days Mighty Empires was a supplement for Warhammer that contained lots of hex tiles that could be used to create a map, and then players fought games of Warhammer to decide who controlled which bit of territory. The updated version remains very true to the original, the main difference being that its for Warmaster (well duh!), and that the tiles needed to play can be downloaded for free from the Warmaster website and then printed out, rather than bought in a box. You can find out more about Mighty Empires on the Warmaster website at www.warmaster.co.uk.
QUESTIONS OF THE MONTH Every month a message is plucked from the dozens sent to us to be answered in the newsletter. This month I've decided to answer to commonly asked questions.
"Most of the specialist magazines include experimental or trail rules. What exactly are these? Are they official?"
We print experimental or trail rules to give players a chance to see what we're working on in the Fanatic Studio and to have a chance to comment on the rules, thus helping us with the development process. Fanatic is and always has been a small team, and because of this we try to draw on the experience of the players of our games to help speed up the amount of time it takes us to play-test and refine the new rules we are working on. It also has the added benefit of allowing us to bring out the models that go with the rules slightly earlier, rather than having to wait for the finished version of the rules to be ready, as players can made do with the experimental rules until the finished rules are ready.
What the experimental rules do not represent is the final, polished version of the rules - often they are very far from this stage when published. Because of this they are not 'official' additions to the game. Instead they should be seen more as a snap-shot into the rules as they stand at the stage when the magazine comes out. Give them a try, and then send your comments to us at the address below. Some of our websites now include 'play-testers vaults' that have a forum where experimental rules are discussed and where updated versions are posted that can be down-loaded for free. At present we have vaults for Epic and Blood Bowl, but more are planned soon. You can find the URLs for the specialist games websites in the 'Surfing The Web' section of the this news page.
CONCLUSION At that is all for this issue of Fanatic News. Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us at fanatic@games-workshop.co.uk or write to us at Fanatic, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Lenton, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK if you have any comments, questions or suggestions about anything you've read.
Best regards,
Jervis Johnson Head Fanatic
_________________ Jimbo
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