ChildofFang

The email reply is out there and of course people can believe their answer or not. It's been posted on the 30k Space Wolves Players - Vlka Fenryka Page - I can't provide the picture directly. Again I am not saying that people shouldn't express their discontent. Emailing FW and explaining what you are unhappy with is constructive. Wailing into the wind on the internet is less so. The Varangyr had grip issues and they have been changed.

Replies from FW to the question, I forget which FB page I saw it on but probably a Space Wolf one, it's also something I heard through less official means - note I don't say whether it's a good idea or not just that it was intentional - potentially just a time saver. Marines don't really use sights anyway, it's all connected to their helmet view etc as pointed out.

Wow easy tiger. I have never said the community was playing vastly different games, I said the focus of the game is different. I also didn't state the Rules are updated 'multiple times a year', I said at regular intervals. That's pretty different. Essentially we could get more than one update inbetween 2 black books whether its required for 30K or not. Yes most updates are army specific issues but there are and will also be rules changes, those rules changes will be affected by the game state to try and keep it fit for purpose and there is the possibility that what is required for one game is not required for the other. Obviously mileage varies but as someone who is asked to shout out events and keeping an eye out around other podcasters doing the same I can honestly say that my experience is of about an 80/20 narrative to competitive mix. And most of those narrative events are specifically narrative events at venues that aren't games clubs. I can throw each of my events up here - The London GT which I think is up around 80 players with the previous year being 60, Blood and Glory which was a more modest 40, over 50 at Takaan-Reva, the Geno Five Two guys selling out all their events due to lack of more space, the aussies and canadians who aren't even running structured timetables but allowing weekends that play into the narrative. Maybe your feed is full of a 50/50 mix of people that like competitive to narrative - mine certainly isn't - I can only think of a couple of (independent) tournaments for 30K when I can name a dozen narrative off the top of my head. Having talked to Neil and Anuj I believe there is a desire to look at the rules going forward, they had dozens and dozens of post it notes in their red books which all referred to issues they were looking at and they spoke passionately about the game as a game. Now they may be very charismatic and playing me along but they also may care and wish to do what they said. It's a fair point to say that workload will probably affect how often they get to look at rules issues and it's probably not helped by many people asking questions that are already clearly answered within the rules themselves. They did state that they will probably wait till the legions are all out as they can go back and redo the army list books rather than release a patch which would have to be updated more than once before the new book. I actually would play the game whatever system they choose, I like the setting and the models. I thought it would be certain to switch to 8th at the start, the more I talk to staff the less convinced I am and the more I kinda look forward to a radically reviewed version 2 of the Age of Darkness ruleset.

There has been a few recently like missing grips and messed up bolters but can you think of _any_ in the past decade before that? Bolters were intentional by FW accounts, whether people like it or not. The grips is an error, one they have fixed pretty quickly and I am fine in letting a mistake that has been fixed that quickly slide. It's far less of a mistake than the photographic issue in Inferno. So lets say they made 2 actual errors in a year. Also bear in mind how many products they release over that period. Then lets remember that they are going through one of their biggest periods of change in years, some people have moved to other departments, many new people have been taken on and they are working in a space which needs expanding and by all accounts is (whether they move to the new site or others do in time). Overall, they are doing fine. A lot of internet discussion makes it sound like FW is falling apart, this spreads. If people spoke/wrote a little more reasonablly maybe others would as well and we could look at what is actually going on. That means we criticise but don't wail and gnash teeth.

The gas return tube is now on top, the sight in on bottom. It looks like they went into cad cut off the end reversed it and then put it back on. Yup and apparently they intended to do that. So some people really like it, some people really hate it. Doesn't mean someone F'd up.

Pistol grips were fixed, most of the other things are choices not mistakes. Just because a model is '2d' doesn't make it an error. The heads aren't an error, I was really impressed looking at them in resin. The fact the models are different than the artwork is a choice that people either like or don't (or don't overly care) again that is not an error. Again people can not like something without it being wrong.

40K and 30K work on very different time scales and want look to acheive different results while also dealing with different issues. We know 40K has been designed to work in a competitive environment, yes there are 3 ways to play but matched play is very much what drives the FAQ process as it is more required there than anywhere else. This is being done at regular intervals because there are so many releases for the game, HH just doesn't have that kind of need (they release <1 book a year) and the army selection and system design are seperate. HH is designed to make the armies we read about in the Heresy playable on the tabletop, they are much less versatile than 40k armies are and that means there is a much much greater chance of games becoming rock/paper/scissors which does not really make a better game. Taken that in mind a FAQ that handled 40K would have to bear in mind how it affects 30K but their primary role would be 40K and it's competitive balance. In the last FAQ for 7th ed this led to the Melta Bomb ruling that seemed fine for 40K but was ignored for most 30K groups and was quickly redacted in the Age of Darkness rulebook. This would potentially be much more common with a shared rules set where the tools they use are very different. I would also suggest that the approach of the new team feels different than it was a year ago. There was a focus on rules at the Weekender that there hasn't been before and they are fully aware that there are rules issues. If they move the rules forward as an Age of Darkness rules set then there is plenty of space for them to create something very cool and I have confidence in a game made that way by the people who are involved. The only concern would be how they go about promoting the game as the jump from 40K to 30K would require more investment than it did when both games were 7th and no matter what games need new blood. There is plenty they can do, I just wonder what they would choose to do.

Are there a lot though or are there a few that are highlighted and talked about constantly? I see a lot of people complaining about many things but the vast majority are personal preference, actual mistakes/errors/whatever is a very different thing.

Alas the responses he probably saw the most were about how terrible a sculptor he was and that everyone can do better rather than the more measured type response like, I am not a fan of the fur or I don't like the direction they have chosen to go down. Words have power, 'we' should remember that occasionally.

Having talked to someone who is and has been pretty close to the Heresy as a game from the outset I think the most likely outcome is to rebuild what we have while taking aspects of 40k. After a year or 2 40k will have settled a fair amount, the wrinkles being smoothed somewhat, it will be much easier for them to see what will work with Heresy. Now of course things can change, I’m not sure that GW will bother too much with what ruleset HH is using as long as the department can hit sales targets. They aren’t going to try and make HH a big game like AoS or 40K.

I feel like I read a very different Leman Russ book... On a note of them being ‘just novellas’ - I do struggle to see how that is an assessment of quality. If they struggle to contain the story and it feels cramped then yes but I don’t think any of these have so far. These are supposed to be stories that highlight an event or an aspect of character and the length of the stories so far has been fine. Stand By Me doesn’t become less of a film because it is under 90 minutes long.

It is that person,

The writers are fatigued with it? Must be different writers to the ones I see and speak to. There was plenty of enthusiasm from them at the BL Weekender.

‘The artist’ has everything he does checked and cleared before it’s finalised after creating an image that is detailed to him by editorial (maybe a little bit of author as well).

Sounds like the fellow. :)