Games Day UK 2002


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Date: Sunday 29th September 2002
Location: Birmingham, England
Description: The UK's biggest Games Workshop only event.
Role Call: On hand for www.epic40k.co.uk was Blacksnotling. He ran around for the sake of the site, and even managed to get into the Fanatic seminar, to bring you this report and pictures.

Discuss these pictures, and anything Epic and Gothic, in the EpiComms Forum.

Battlefleet Gothic
  • The next few issues of BFG magizene will feature the Armageddon War. It will give famous ships of the conflict and scenarios to play.
  • Three new Imperial ships are in production.
  • A large Capital ship (un-named but similer to the Retribution).
  • A Dauntless sized ship, the Endevour (photos on the photo page), and a escort sized ship (un-named).
  • Orks are getting 2 new ships, Da 'Ammer and another type of ship that will be modular.
  • The Tau are being made out-of-house (only 1 has been made so far).
  • The Tau are due about Winter 2003.
  • Mantas are also being planned for BFG scale as large bombers/assault craft.
  • Space staions for the Navy, Space Marines and Eldar.
  • Plans for Tau Space stations.
  • Orbital bombardment platforms.
Epic
  • Vampire Raider and Vampire Hunter are getting re-designed to match their 40K counterparts.
  • Nightwing and Pheonix also having similar treatment.
  • Stormsword and Stormblade for Epic scale.
  • The Multi-part Marines will only be avialabe at forge-world shows.
  • They will form the base for the up-coming Space Marine Commander set.
  • Diffrent multi-parts such as different chestplates and helmets!
  • The boltguns have Imperial Eagles on them!
  • The Tau Skyray (the missile launcher variant) will be released soon.
  • Release date has been pused back to Winter 2003.
  • Only the plastics are being replaced, the metal minitures are still being made and sold.
  • All current armies will be fully compatable with the new edition.
Warmaster
  • New armies coming out very soon are the Skaven and Vampire counts.
  • After this only 1 army a year will be produced.
  • Existing races will get "variant" units. (eg, Goblins will get some forest goblins and night goblins).
  • These variant units will count as the normal troop type to save on the amount of rules (eg night goblins count as normal goblins).
  • There will be a seige suppliment.
  • Man 'O' War will kind of be making a comeback.
  • Fleets will be made but they will be sticking to the background, ie, no skaven fleets.
  • It will be a suppliment to Warmaster (think of it as Warmaster with ships rather then a full game by itself).
Inquisitor
  • Annual 2002 (Due december 2002) will be a "best of" collection rather then a rules review because Inquisitor is still a "new" game.
  • Helmet for the space marine has been made by Jes Goodwin. Also made were Chaos Marine helmets (with Wings and Horns coming out the side).
  • Full scale Genestealer model has been made, due Dec 2002.
  • Feamale Daemonhuntress with her Familier looks amazing.
  • Lots of Chaos stuff is planned.
  • An Un-bound Daemon host has been made.
  • Fanatic are planning to produce campaign suppliments for the core game which will contain information about a specific sector of space.
  • Alian races (ie Ork, Tau etc) will only be produced if needed and only if appropriate.
Blood Bowl
  • New Nurgle Rotters team.
  • New High Elf team complete with jumping catcher and cheerleaders!
  • New Ogres, one of which (out at a later date) will have a Goblin in his hands, about to be thrown.
  • The Blood Bowl 2003 Annual is being worked on now. Any rules still in use from the previous annual will be indexed in the back of the latest one, to save reprinting the rules.
Mordheim
  • 2002 Annual is coming out Very soon (they had several copies on hand).
  • Amazons are coming out, sculpted by Brian Morley (these minitures are very nice).
  • There will be a MAJOR SUPPLIENT for Mordheim!
  • It will be set in the Empire around the time of Mordheim.
  • It will include the rules for horses, stage coaches, highway robbermen, woodland rules, beastmen packs etc etc.
  • Plans for a "Carnival of Chaos".
  • It will be serialised in Town Cryer magazine and them compiled into a book.
  • This will form the "Official" setting of Mordheim. Variants such as the Amazons are not official settings but still valid.
Necromunda
  • Necromunda is now Out of Print.
  • Necromunda: Redux is due for release Spring 2003.
  • The rules will NOT change.
  • New metal Orlock and Goliath gangs to replace the plastics.
  • The Necromunda scenery will be released seperatly.
  • Art work will be done similar to Inquisitor, ie very dark and atmospheric.
  • The old gangs will remain available but will slowly be replaced with the new-style minitures (guns separate from the hands).
40K - Imperial Guard
  • Another new Leman Russ hull! (Ryza pattern).
  • More Chimera variants (autocannon turrets, missile launcher turrets etc)
  • Attack skimmer.
    • Will carry about 10 troops.
    • Will be a skimmer, not a flyer.
    • Working name is "Pegasus". They are not to keen on the name, they are open to suggestions.
    • Working name for gunship variant is "Spectre".
    • Tony said they imagined it acting like a supporting helicopter rather then a mainline fighing craft such as the Chimera.
  • Mole and Termite are in the planning stages.
  • Expect to see some more old Epic vehicles, such as the Bombard.
  • Thunderbolt Fighter
    • The cgi-mockup of the Thunderbolt Fighter was seen for the very first time!! (Loads of cameras went off, I am sure the pictures are on the net).
    • Overall, the craft looked like the old Epic version but the front of the plane had its guns mounted similer to the Marauder Bomber (ie. 3 on either side).

  • Eldar will be getting the Firestorm Anti-Aircraft tank.
  • Dark Eldar will be getting a Heavy Skimmer type.
  • Tryanids will get more large creatures.
Chaos
  • Finish all the Rhino and Landraider doors.
  • Chaos Dreadnaught variations.
  • Some vehicle upgrades will be made by FW.
  • Chaos WILL get a figher plane. It will be undivided rather than a specific God.
  • Large Chaos Spawn models will be made.
  • Daemon Engines are also being planned!
Orks
  • Smaller Squiggoth.
  • Kit to loot the Landraider similar to the Rhino Kit.
  • Kit to loot any Imperial Vehicle.
  • The Flak Wagon is being made.
Tau
  • New Barracuda variant being planned.
  • New Tigershark variant being planned.
  • New Kroot monsters being made, the one in production now looks like a shaved budgie with a kroot head!
Sisters of Battle
  • New Rhino for them (with added room for the Shopping :-) ). (Nothing to do with me, send all complaints to... - Ed.)
Space Marines
  • Chaper specific Dreadnought armour is being made.
  • Predator armour is being produced.
  • New Whirlwind variant is being planned, it will probably be a Anti-Aircraft gun. (Hunter? - Ed.)
  • New Razorback variant
  • New Thunderhawk gunship variant.
Titans
  • Pre-Hersy Warhound is next, it will have curved armour and be more ornate.
  • They will use the "skeleton" of the Warhound as much as possible because it works.
  • Chaos Warhound is after that (about Sep 2003).
  • Then the Eldar Revenant Titan (Jan 04).
Books
  • The new 300+ page book will feature cutaway drawings, technial drawings plus loads more fluff/background.
  • It will feature some of the vehicles already done in current Imperial Armour books.
  • FW are looking at the possibility of a modeling book, it will contain ideas and painting guides for all their terrain.
Warhammer Online
  • Due spring 2004
  • Specs: Pentium 4 1000mhz +, 256mb Ram, G-Force 4 graphics card or better, Internet connection!
  • Lighting is done pixel by pixel.
  • Non-skinable player-characters but many many options to chose from.
  • One hour our time is 1 day and 3 quarters in the Warhammer world.
  • "Quests" to do such as assassination and hunting, which help define your character.
Fire-Warrior
  • Ps2 and PC.
  • Due 2003.
  • 22 Levels featuring an Imperial planet and Imperial battleship!
  • Features boarding actions.
  • Online playability for the PC.
  • Not realy part of the game but intresting, the Tau boarding torpedos look like modified hammerheads with a huge rocket attached to the ship, which burns out and drops off (like the old USA space rockets).
And on a Final note, it is unlikly that GW will ever produce a full board game again (such as Talisman and Space-Hulk). The sales were dissapointing and none are planned. However they might look into going into partnerships with boardgame makers like they did in the 80's and 90's with MB games (Space Crusade, Hero Quest etc).

OK, so now you have the report, on to the pictures!

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Date: 30/09/2002
Roving Reporter: Blacksnotling