Games Day UK: Forge World Stole The Show!

Games Day UK 2012. It must have been a decade since I last attended a Games Day in person. Maybe what I say is old news for most. Yet, having returned from Birmingham, my foremost (and surprising) realization is just how much Forge World stole the limelight from everyone else. Of course, their Horus Heresy line and the Angron miniature are the main reasons for this.

Forge World’s Stunning Horus Heresy World Eater Display

The Golden Daemon entries were stunning. As were the entries for Armies on Parade. The games-section was suitably busy. Yet the largest crowds were clearly in the side-section where Forge World displayed their Horus Heresy miniatures. There, on display, a massive World Eater army in pre-Heresy colours charged a bastion. Every square inch of this vast display was covered with World Eater attacking bastion defended by (very few) Death Guard and Emperor’s Children.

The only exception was a roughly circular spot of rubble – the main breach in the walls leading into the bastion. This was the place where Angron led the charge, axes soaked in blood, far ahead of the rest of his own Legion, to get to the enemies in front of him.

It was as perfect a diorama as I have ever seen one. Titans, superheavy tanks, a crashed Thunderhawk, a Legion worth of Space Marines miniatures. Yet all the extravaganza was only the stage for the Primarch miniatures. And it is a stunning miniatures. It truly is. The pictures on the internet do not do this fantastic miniature justice. My pictures even less so (give the fact that my camera isn’t anything to brag about and there were literally hundreds of people there).

Just take my word for it. The Red Angel’s charge was a masterful diorama!

Right there I was ready to shell out 50 quid for the Angron-mini. Perhaps I could have gotten Simon Egan, Angron’s sculptor, to sign to box. The only thing that stopped me was the friendly guy in the yellow shirt in the sales section telling me that the line to get Forge World stuff was a two-hour wait!

Mind you. This wasn’t the till to pay. This wasn’t the display section where you could gawk at the new miniatures. This was 10 counters staffed with five or six people each, doing nothing but handing over boxes and bags as fast as they humanly could. Madness!

The sales-teams offering the regular Games Workshop products seemed comparatively bored (though, to be fair, there wasn’t any “new” stuff they could sell. The new Chaos Space Marines were not available for purchase).

So I decided to not buy from Forge World this time. But the sheer number of people proudly carrying the massive Horus Heresy tome from Forge World (£ 70 each) was impressive. And yes, it has the rules for Angron (400 pts, if you’re wondering), as well as rules for Horus (500 pts), Fulgrim and Mortarion. Four Primarchs ready to hit the gaming table. I assume the miniatures for the other three will follow shortly.

The book also has stats for Black Library characters such as Gavriel Loken or Saul Tarvitz. One of the things Forge World previewed was a “Loken vs. Abaddon” diorama/duel, which will likely come in a luxury- box that will be similar to the one you get buying Angron.

What else was on display with Forge World?

So back to the Forge World display section, where I got to shoot some blurry pics. I am sure most of those have been posted already somewhere. Here are some of mine…

In other news, Black Library Exclusives

Forge World aside, I also picked up a copy of the new White Dwarf (quite like the clean layout) and the Games Day Anthology from Black Library.

I also had the chance to attend a Black Library Q & A with Nick Kyme and Aaron Dembski-Bowden. Two very nice guys. Unfortunately, it was rather obvious that they were not really at liberty to discuss truly interesting things.

ADB’s latest book – Betrayer – was on display (but, unfortunately, not for sale). The ties to the Forge World book in the title and in the emphasis on Angron are quite obvious (as is Forge World’s new fondness of BL-characters). Black Library and Forge World work together closely for the Horus Heresy series.

This latest series will (initially) be published as hard-cover “Games Workshop-Exclusives”. If I got it correctly, this means they will be available as hard-cover “collectors” books only through www.games-workshop.com and www.blacklibrary.com. So no buying them off Amazon.com or any other place you usually like for shopping books.

However, Nick Kyme and ADB said in the Q & A that these books wouldn’t get the same “extremely limited” treatment that Black Library is giving to their current Khan novel. Moreover, these “Games-Workshop-Exclusives” will, later, be available as regular paper-back books.

Let’s hope so.

All in all, a very fun day. Impressive work by Forge World. I am really stoked for this Angron miniature, even though I doubt I’d ever get to use him in a game.

Did you attend Games Day UK? Did I miss something crucial?

Leave a comment below!

Z.