Rules gone from GW's Site?

So, I just noticed that Games Workshop has removed all the Mordheim downloads (including the rules) from their site. What gives?

There are only 2 options really... Either they have finally completely given up on it and won't offer any support OR they are going to be doing a re-release (probably limited quantity like Space Hulk or something).

COME ON RE-RELEASE!

I can wish, can't I?

Just noticed that. They've done it for all the specialist games Maybe they're planning on some one-off games that are similar to Mordheim, like they did with Man O' War -> Dreadfleet? Not holding my breath, though.

I'm just lucky I printed off the errata/FAQs last week.

rerelease !!!!!

with more warbands :p

Odd.

I googled for any rumors in the net regarding a release of Mordheim second edition, but i did not found anything. Nevertheless i think they are preparing something.

But i also believe if they really release a second edition, that most probably i won't be happy with it. Mostly because of the fantastic fan based works and the fact that GW won't do anything without earning a lot of money ( this is ok they have to live from it). But if they do a rework the rules will change extremly in my opinion, but maybe the will also release some fantastic plastic buildings.

Fingers crossed, but I would guess they just think it's out-dated stuff wich doesn't earn them any money and takes up page space. :/ We have to wait and see, if there was a re-release GW would probably bring the game in line with 8th edition Warhammer, get a lot of people interested and make millions of monies. I'd certainly buy a rulebook if they released one, and things like plastic Warbands, conversion kits and bitz etc. would be very welcome.

Or, the most likely explaination, they're re-arranging the "specialist games" part of the site somehow and it's just a web thing.

Theo

sad thing is the free rules has done more good to their competitors then to them, because the community buys a lot of minis from other manufacturers for Mordheim.

so they probably figured they might as well delete the rules to prevent new players from beeing attracted to this part of the community ...

i'm just beeing dark but I would not be surprised if it was the truth. They did delete all the painting guides because they were *cough* outdated, when the only real reason is that they want us to buy the book which is coming out soon with the updated references to the new paints ...

if they were doing it FOR us they would ask us first

Response from GW over on Warseer:

Quote :

Hello there!



Thank you for writing in to us regarding the Specialist Games Resource Articles. Unfortunately, those articles are temporarily unavailable but will be back on the website early next week. We apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused.



Thanks!



Andrew Hall

Games Workshop Customer Service

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?336136-GW-removed-Mordheim-resources-from-main-website

Oh, good.

Theo

Theo wins!

Panic over...can I come out of my bunker now? (it's stocked with nothing but the rulebooks/fanatics/Town Cryers etc etc) ^^'

i have this strange feeling that they REALLY wanted to remove them but must have received INSANE amounts of e-mail within the day of taking them off and decided that they would loose too much not to put them back ...

I think It was just a site reorganization issue. It doesn't take up that much spece, keeps fans happy, and helps them sell models (a lot of the original Mordheim models are available, and a ton of the WHFB models work for Mordheim).

I don't think they have any immediate plans to do a second edition. They seem to be on an every-other-year schedule for releasing special box games (Space Hulk, Dread Fleet), so even if Mordheim is next (unlikely) than we are 18 months out at the earliest, if they hold to that schedule (I may of course be reading too much into a schedule for these releases based on only two of them...).

Hmmm, I think it's wishful thinking to hope for a Mord re-release under the current business plan GW roll with.

Sure they re-printed spacehulk and made dreadfleet, but they are self contained games, something they can put on a shelf in any game store right next to monopoly or whatever, Mordheim, Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic etc etc are whole game systems that require multiple warband rules sets, models and (most importantly) post launch support, which is something GW really doesn't like providing outside of the power three WHFB, 40k and LoTR to a lesser extent.

I think the failed re-release of Necromunda a few years back was the death kneel of the specialist range, they tried to launch it as a new system with all the bells and whistles...and nobody bought it :S I unfortunately doubt that Mordheim would be any different from a business standpoint.

While I am excited that the resources are coming back to the website... that sort of ruins my dreams of a re-release/new edition.

TheEnemyWithin wrote:

Hmmm, I think it's wishful thinking to hope for a Mord re-release under the current business plan GW roll with.

Sure they re-printed spacehulk and made dreadfleet, but they are self contained games, something they can put on a shelf in any game store right next to monopoly or whatever, Mordheim, Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic etc etc are whole game systems that require multiple warband rules sets, models and (most importantly) post launch support, which is something GW really doesn't like providing outside of the power three WHFB, 40k and LoTR to a lesser extent.

I think the failed re-release of Necromunda a few years back was the death kneel of the specialist range, they tried to launch it as a new system with all the bells and whistles...and nobody bought it :S I unfortunately doubt that Mordheim would be any different from a business standpoint.

I largely agree with this, but I still think with financial times being what they are, there is a good market for trying to do a re-release on these "games in a box" that don't require as many models. I wouldn't call Necromunda a "failed re-release." All they did was combine the rulebook into one (which they later changed again in PDF format) and put the gangs into different color boxes. I don't remember there being any advertisement leading up to it, much info provided on the GW site or really any mention in White Dwarf. I think they only mentioned it at all in "Fanatic," but maybe I wasn't paying that much attention, but for both Space Hulk and Dreadfleet they had quite a bit of "teaser" info leading up to the release.

I do agree that the fact they can put the game on the shelf next to monopoly is a good selling feature, but that isn't part of their business/marketing plan either, otherwise they wouldn't do a limited release. What retail chain can you walk into now and buy either one of those games?

As you said though, as part of their current business model, a re-release of any of the specialist games is not in the cards. For one I don't think their "corporate" people like the idea, and two, it would require some game designers and sculptors to possibly put in a little effort in a part of the hobby that there is no guaranteed return like there is in the big 3.

They would not need much in the sculpting department considering that many of the minis now are multi part plastics.
To produce a warband box set they could sell spurs that are a mixed bag of the stuff you would get from the army. Some sculpting would be needed for some of the guys (like brotheren for possessed) but most could be just what they already have.

as to balancing/game play, they have most of that done with the game. Just rework some of the final rules they probably already know are issues (like duel wielding that they know is broken just is not done yet) and consolidate the rules into 1 book.
They could even in all future releases of there Army books have the warbands in there... that would help promote the new Mordheim to the regular WHFB players and it would sell more of there army books.
of course the core book would have to have some basic warbands in it.

Quote :

Some sculpting would be needed for some of the guys (like brotheren for possessed) but most could be just what they already have.

And that's exactly why they WON'T do it. Their first principle is making money on whatever they could - and when buying (let's say) militia box, players effectively get 2 in 1 - minis for mordheim AND warhammer. That means that they purchase ONE product instead of TWO...
I think that mordheim will never be rereleased - and nor do I care. I am not a tournament player, and looking at current warhammer rules/armies I would expect new mordhiem full of weird monsters, overpowered magic or items. Also Mordheim would take attention from WH and 40K and I believe it's a main reason why they want it dead (as it is).

"Their first principle is making money on whatever they could - and when buying (let's say) militia box, players effectively get 2 in 1 - minis for mordheim AND warhammer. That means that they purchase ONE product instead of TWO..."

Not sure I follow the logic here, since w/o rereleasing Mordheim, in your example, the person is still buying the one box...

catachanfrog wrote:

Quote :

Some sculpting would be needed for some of the guys (like brotheren for possessed) but most could be just what they already have.

And that's exactly why they WON'T do it. Their first principle is making money on whatever they could - and when buying (let's say) militia box, players effectively get 2 in 1 - minis for mordheim AND warhammer. That means that they purchase ONE product instead of TWO...
I think that mordheim will never be rereleased - and nor do I care. I am not a tournament player, and looking at current warhammer rules/armies I would expect new mordhiem full of weird monsters, overpowered magic or items. Also Mordheim would take attention from WH and 40K and I believe it's a main reason why they want it dead (as it is).

I am not sure about their concern of effectively getting 2 in 1. There are a lot of chaos miniatures produced by GW that can be used in either WHFB or W40K. However, I *do* agree with the rest of what you said.

Like you I also do not care if GW re-release Mordheim. My fear is that they do re-release then they will end up trying to tie it more closely with WHFB (which in itself would not necessarily be bad) and then end up with some dumbed down game that is closer to Warhammer Skirmish than Mordheim. Also, a re-release would likely break all existing fan based material as already pointed out by SerialMoM and that would suck. New miniatures might be nice but I already have more than enough miniatures that are still waiting to be made to last me a long time before I will need to go looking for more and I have largely been happy with what I can get from other GW WHFB sets (some things like Ogre Half-growns are trickier for me but not for others willing to spend some money or do heavy conversions).

I also agree with you in that Mordheim would definitely take away some attention from WHFB, W40K and LotR within GW bricks-and-mortar stores. I think that it is within the stores where Mordheim is the main problem. Outside of stores Mordheim simply fills a niche not filled by WHFB and W40K and LotR and can make GW money. Stores though have limited room and limited staff and limited time in which to include Mordheim alongside WHFB, W40K and LotR. While physical GW stores remain a big part of the GW strategy I think that it is unlikely that Mordheim will make a come back.

http://tabletopgeeks.com/downloads/

so, they have forced other sites to remove the content too. they are not just bringing it down for technical reasons, they are removing it. it it is to completely destroy the game, or to do a re-release we can only guess. If any one has the resources in PDF format it would be great if you wanted to share it with the community.

fight the power!

ah indeed, it would seem there's no plan on putting it back ... which makes this quote from warseer posted earlier in this thread a total lie:

Quote :

Hello there!



Thank you for writing in to us regarding the Specialist Games Resource Articles. Unfortunately, those articles are temporarily unavailable but will be back on the website early next week. We apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused.



Thanks!



Andrew Hall

Games Workshop Customer Service

They sometimes ignore the community but openly lying as a responce to a customer's e-mail would be very bad , unless it happens to be true and i've missed something?

I thought Tabletop Geeks got slapped with a cease ages ago, I didn't think it had anything at all to do with this.

Yep, the shutting down of the Tabletop Geeks resources has been ordered quite some time ago and is unrelated to the current disappearance of rules from the GW site.

Also, just having Mordheim there for download does not hurt them in any way, as offering some more rules without any cost involved (I suppose the cost for hosting them on their website are negligible) only helps them sell more of their miniatures to players who would otherwise not play Warhammer. And even if people buy some stuff from other companies, it's no real loss to GW, because if they sell some minis for Mordheim and other do, too, it is still more money than not selling anything at all.

So.m.they would be back "next week" eh? A couple of months later...and nothing. *sigh*