Games Day in Baltimore

This past Friday and Saturday, June 20 and 21, Games Workshop held their annual Games Day in Baltimore, Maryland and Foray was there, though I did only manage to make Saturday. Tickets were only $11 at the door and even cheaper if you bought them ahead of time, and I must say that is a pretty fair price for a daylong extravaganza of fun. Of course, the predominant reason for the event is to showcase the new upcoming releases and so we all were treated to a good dose of teasing glimpses which I will reveal to you to the best of my ability.

The day opened with a screening of an action movie detailing the story of a squad of Dark Angels Space Marines and the horrors that befell them in service to the Inquisition and the Emperor. This was my first taste of an actual Warhammer 40,000 film and I was impressed. The costumes and characters were definitely the miniatures and setting, for which Games Workshop has earned their fame, sprung to life and cast upon the golden screen. Grisly close combat gave dark meaning to the initial scene of political bickering which opened up the Saturday segment. I was told by others that I had regretfully missed the first half of the movie as it was shown the day before. Games Workshop is to have a further film using the ferocious Space Wolves as the main protagonists. This is the sort of thing that makes you wish you could see their stuff turned into a really high tech film by somebody like George Lucas or Stephen Spielberg. See you at the movies next Games Day.

Imagine if you will an entire assembly hall filled with gaming tables, each table decorated with luxurious terrain and filled with well painted miniatures of futuristic Space Marines, medieval dragons, foul aliens, and brilliantly armored knights. That is the layout of Games Day, and you get to use these lovely pieces to play out your wargames. The only really unfortunate thing is that you generally have to share your table with about seven other players, and that you will be further crowded by gawking onlookers by the droves. But if you don't mind a crowd and like to get in a game against some players whom you've never faced before, this is the day for you.

Ah, yes, you are really waiting to hear what is coming for the future, though, aren't you? Well, Rick Priestly was there to discuss the new game Gorka Morka which features Orkish armies battling each other over rather vague religious fine points (my god is better than your god). It seemed to be a game with an eye towards raucous fun and indeed the demo table boasted the loudest bunch of players all day. You could easily hear their bellows across the crowded assembly hall. Gorka Morka is mostly based upon vehicular combat, with Orky buggies driving each other into the dirt and blasting one another with that special sense of glee which only an Ork could love. Rick Priestly told me that the plastic sprues for Gorka Morka would be available for sale independently at some point in the future, so Ork players can look forward to a new wave of buggies and bikes. 

The next thing that caught my attention was the new Lord of Change that is to be released. In honor of its release, the artist who created the piece, Trish Morrison, was at Games Day in person. If you are not already familiar with her work, just take a look at the new Daemon of Nurgle, the Great Unclean one at a local hobby-game store. The new daemon models are so enormous that Games Workshop is now putting them on 50 millimeter bases. Also, they far outshine the previous releases in terms of detail and sheer impressiveness. The new Lord of Change is no exception. It comes bearing a large arcane staff and is robed. It is tall and spindly, befitting a sorcerous daemon. The only real complaints I have heard from players is that the Great Unclean One's sword and the Lord of Change's staff are just for show--there are no rules allowing them to actually use them. But, hey, the look great!

Truly the stars of the day were the new Sisters of Battle. Representing the military arm of the Ecclesiarchy, a religious organization devoted to the godlike Emperor or mankind in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Sisters of Battle are essentially battle nuns. They are a religious order of militants who destroy the enemies of the Emperor, real and perceived. The new Codex for the Sisters of Battle is due to be released by Games Workshop on August 25th, but they had a copy at Games Day to be won. Virtually all of the Games Workshop stores seem to have a copy that you can probably talk the manager into letting you peruse. The new figures were also displayed at Games Day. The Sisters of Battle have jump pack equipped assault troops known as Seraphim. They are quite obviously female and their equipment is smaller but more high tech looking than their Space Marine counterparts. They will also have a new vehicle called the Immolator Tank, featuring a twin-linked heavy flamer capable of burning into cinders the enemies of the Imperium. The first of the Sisters of Battle figures will be released August 4th, which I found to be somewhat odd due to the fact that the Codex would not be released until three weeks later. But if you are a fan of Space Marines and the Imperium you will definitely want to check out the new army. For that matter if you were a fan of the Escher in Necromunda, you will probably like them too.

Another Imperial Agents product is soon to be released as well. The Imperial Codex of Assassins is on its way. At Games Day they had a preprint full color photocopy of the proposed layout of the new book. It will be a mere twenty-four pages, which certainly could have been incorporated into some larger Imperial Agent book, but Games Workshop editors said that they wanted to go ahead and get it out instead of waiting for future Imperial Agents developments. It will cover the three assassin types whose temples have already been covered by White Dwarf: the Callidus, the Vindicare, and the Eversor. It appeared that their wargear cards had been subsumed into standard equipment for them, which has an interesting effect of removing all assassin equipment from the possibility of being stolen by armies luck enough to get the "Special Issue" strategy card. Furthermore, they developed a new assassin, only previously briefly mentioned by name in the original article about the Vindicare, the Culexus assassin. Boasting the fact that he is an antipsyker assassin, the Culexus rules make them a vicious opponent for any psychic, even such dreaded masters as the Hive Tyrants. The Culexus is essentially described as being immune to the influences of the warp, and therefore incredibly resistant to psychic powers, vortex weapons, distortion weapons, and even force weapons. Furthermore, their very presence causes a disruption in the regular flow of the warp possibly severing the link of a Hive Tyrant with his fleet or an Eldar Farseer with his spirit stones. This means he literally causes great fear even in the normally fearless. Unfortunately, the copy showed no picture of the upcoming Culexus figure, so we have no real idea what he looks like. Also, the copy was shorter than twenty-four pages, so there may be more interesting information to be found within it, although I was assured that there would be only the four assassin types.

Another supplemental product that was showcased was the new Necromunda release. The newest book all about the Underhives should be on your game store's shelves this week, but in case it is not, I can give you some ideas of what it contained. It primarily consisted of reprints of White Dwarf and Citadel Journal articles about the game, including such gems as the Spyrer Home Defense. However it did contain some new stuff that was pretty neat. Rules for the Adeptus Arbites Necromunda-style were included. There were also Event Cards, a pack of cards kind of like a cross between the Emperor's tarot for Epic and Strategy cards for Warhammer 40,000. Split into Before, during, and After cards, they described different little happenstances of good luck you could call upon your own gang, or ill luck with which to plague your foes. They are certain to enliven your game and they do add a level of complexity to it. A new type of terrain could also be gained as part of te scenario "Toll Bridge" and I thought the rules for the Toll Bridge were well done. Perhaps I need to take another glance at a copy of the book, because I distinctly remember seeing an armed behicle of some sort on the cover with the Adeptus Arbites and I do not recall seeing vehicle rules inside, but then again there was so much to see and do. 

Other releases also were shown at the Games Day. The new chaos shields made an appearance. Also seen were new bigger and nastier Minotaur figures. The missile launcher twin-lascannon dreadnought arm combination has also been released in a blister pack allowing you to increase the firepower of your favorite Dread. 

Another important discovery I made at Games Day, was that Games Workshop will finally be opening their bits boxes to the public via mail order. Starting August 4th, you will be able to order single metal pieces of anything that is still current and is manufactured stateside. If you want Nagash's sword arm, or Abaddon's claw, or giant eagle wings, you will be able to call them and order just that piece. At this time, this is an honor which will only be bestowed upon mail order customers, but to the diehard Warhammer fan, this is the best thing Games Workshop has done for a while. You will be able to call them as early as August 4th to get the bits pieces price catalog; it was not yet available at the time of Games Day. 

Another pleasure of Games Day is seeing what others have done with their miniatures and art. The first impact along these lines that struck me was actually Games Workshop created, but it was great to see. Two banners so large that they hung from the second floor balcony railing of the Baltimore Convention center town to the first floor were decorated with enormously rendered Ultramarines iconography and tremendous larger than unlife Undead images. But the real art is hidden away in glass cases. Competitors from all across the country brought their best painted models and vehicles and dioramas to be judged in the annual Golden Demon Contest. There are many categories to judge, and you will probably be lucky enough to see most of the best entries in a future issue of White Dwarf, but you will also probably miss a few really good ones. My favorite entry of the day, a diorama displaying a strange alien landscape which would make Escher proud being battled upon by Space Wolves and their hated Thousand Sons foes, did not even get honorable mention as far as I could tell--perhaps it stunned the judges. Some of the really good winning entries were a Kislevite panorama of Khornate daemons attacking a patrol in the snowbound forest. Another was the Emperor and a good chunk of his Primarchs standing upon a great stone stairway. The Dark Eldar took the best squad award, and it seemed that daemonic tanks possessed the vehicle category. If you want to bring your painting skills to bear in your quest to become famous or at least well known in certain circles, then gather your best work and bring it to the next Games Day. 

If you go to a future Games Day, I have a few pieces of advice. Firstly, try to get a hotel room and go for both days. I had driven up Saturday morning, and thus had already had a long day before I even got into the doors. Plus, as I mentioned before, I discovered that I had missed the first half of the movie. Secondly, bring enough figures to play some of the bring and battle events. While it is possible that this will get better in the future, this year you were only allowed to sign up for one event as far as playing games. Bring and battle players pretty much got to play all day if they wanted. Besides, you can always find other players out in the lobby, and believe me it happened. That reminds me, take time to talk to some people out in the lobby taking a break from the crowd, you never know what you might learn. And bring some money, some of the new releases are always on sale.