aving sat down to watch the Warhammer broadcast from Adepticon last night at 1AM (I'm in the UK), I have to say that I did feel that the show was OK but plagued with so many problems.
Firstly the technical side was the key thing with broken mic's, inability to show the trailers and a few cuts as either technical issues caused problems or in one case, the stream ended abruptly because connection was lost to their server.
Adam Troke, picked up the MVP last night as he kept it going despite all the issues, engaging the audience and also keeping the talk flowing with his immense knowledge whilst problems were worked out. Definitely a superstar for GW and man who probably deserves a pay rise after that effort.
Then they revealed some new box sets for the Armageddon Battalions, which felt that if you weren't buying Imperial Guard would mainly be mini's you already own. When they had the opportunity to really bring the speed to the table for the future edition by allowing players to try it out prior to the full 11th Edition release in June.
Now to finish off the 40K thread, the reveal at the end was pretty much a damp squib in my opinion. We got to see one new mini for the Blood Angels and one new mini for the Orks. Both were the basic troopers and lets be honest whilst I can understand that, its not anything to get excited about with them also announcing some rules changes that weren't explained very well and finally doing away with the objective circles whilst announcing that they will be replaced with scenic objectives (although personally I think rather than buy the GW ones, you'd be best to make your own as they can be themed to your board and army.)
All in, 40K was a real let down and as a guy who was super excited for the Orks and the rumours of new mini's. This was an opportunity sadly missed. I do suspect that with it releasing in June, that there will be another show about the end of April, beginning of May where they will reveal more.
Whilst I really didn't care for Horus Heresy there were some new miniatures announced including weapons as well as transports and Warhammer Underworlds was also represented with a set that really didn't do anything for me either, but at least Age of Sigmar delivered with so many goodies that I was pretty much goggle=eyed for this presentation. Tons of stuff for the Cities of Sigmar with new units announced, including mages, Gate Gargants, a monument for the lost soldiers that is transported to a new city as well as Free Guild Gallants and the Free Guild Grenadiers. All rounded up with a Regiment of RenownL Ven Densts Hounds and a new box set coming called Spearhead: Cities of Ash which bring the new minis alongside the long await Clan Eshin assassins to the battlefield.
Yet whilst we were all trying to catch our breaths from this monumental reveal, they hit us hard with what I think will be that cream of the crop from this years announcements, the Cogforts which come with Cities of Sigmar troops but can be utilised by any other army for their own forces. They delightful thing here will be to see how these get modded by players for painting competitions as well as for their own battles. (My personal favourite is going to be a Skaven themed one which I already have idea's for myself.)
To say that it wasn't worth staying up so late last night is something that I think a fair few people would have agreed with, and I do know that a lot switched off due to the broadcast quality deciding to wait until today to watch the releases through their official trailers and to be fair, I can't say I blame them. But when GW does another live show, I really hope that either they pay their dues to the Machine God or that they at least invest some more money into it to avoid a lot of these problems. They are not a small streamer with only a few bits, this is a multi-billion pound company. To fail this badly when last years show also had huge problems again, really feels that lessons are not being learned and that whilst a lot of things are getting heavy price increases it feels more profit driven than improving certain qualities that they need to do to keep relevant when so many other game companies are snapping at their heels with products that are not only cheaper but are grabbing peoples attention with simpler rules and more story driven aspects which they're finally looking to bring to the table.
If you wish to watch the stream yourself, you can do here at Twitch
All the best,
ThunderMouser
