Octopus Overlords

Figured some people might like to know:

In 2008, Fantasy Flight Games first began publishing great games set in the amazing Games Workshop universes. From the earliest days of the partnership, Games Workshop played a key role in the Fantasy Flight Games library, helping us further develop roleplaying games like Dark Heresy and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, while creating and establishing new board games like Chaos in the Old World and Forbidden Stars, and Living Card Games® such as Warhammer 40,000: Conquest and Warhammer: Invasion.

...

What does this mean for Fantasy Flight Games products created from Games Workshop properties?

As stated above, after February 28th, 2017, product lines dealing with Games Workshop properties will end and will no longer be offered for sale by Fantasy Flight Games.

All upcoming products for these product lines have already been announced—there will be no new announcements of additional Games Workshop-licensed products. All announced, currently unreleased products will be released before the conclusion of the business relationship between Fantasy Flight Games and Games Workshop.

The link above has all the products impacted. If I may be so bold as to suggest picking up a copy of Death Angel at your earliest convenience and before supplies (and prices) skyrocket. It's a great game.

Yeah I just read this elsewhere. A disappointment for me since FF has been handling Games Workshops licenses better than they do.

Forbidden Stars and the new Fury of Dracula are both worth picking up before they vanish.

I think this also ends Talisman. Time to pick up the last few expansions to complete it for nostalgia.

Zarathud wrote:I think this also ends Talisman.

Yes. All the affected games:

• Black Crusade
• Blood Bowl: Team Manager
• Chaos in the Old World
• Chaos Marauders
• Dark Heresy
• Dark Heresy Second Edition
• Deathwatch
• Forbidden Stars
• Fury of Dracula
• Only War
• Relic
• Rogue Trader
• Space Hulk: Death Angel
• Talisman
• Warhammer: Diskwars
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
• Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game
• Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game
• Warhammer 40,000: Conquest

The expansions for Death Angel are already skyrocketing. I saw Warhammer Adventure Quest on Amazon Deep discount earlier this week and almost picked it up, but most of the complaints suggested it was in dire need of expansion content. Clearly that's not happening now.

I just put in orders for the rest of the GW stuff I'd been eyeing. I've already got Death Angel, but no expansions, and they've been hard to find for a while. I'd love to get the Chaos in the Old World expansion, but that's also been scarce for over a year. I did wind up grabbing:

- both Relic expansions
- Fury of Dracula
- Warhammer Quest card game and both expansions

All the rest of the GW stuff they put out that I want, I've already got. I suspect Forbidden Stars will wind up jacking way up in price down the line, much like Starcraft did. It's really too bad they never released the expansion that was supposedly finished.

Fury of Dracula is the only thing I own or have been interested in on the list... and that is still sealed. I guess no impact for me... except possibly an increase in value for my copy of Fury.

I'm now kind of annoyed that I didn't order Fury with that Barnes & Noble coupon last weekend. Stupid Chaz.

Chaz wrote: I suspect Forbidden Stars will wind up jacking way up in price down the line, much like Starcraft did. It's really too bad they never released the expansion that was supposedly finished.

I find the loss of Forbidden Stars the greatest tragedy here. It is such a good game, the only fault being that it plays a bit long. Like most people who bought it, I would have jumped on an expansion.

This is the kind of stuff that drives my collector compulsion and makes me hoard games, fearing they'll disappear from the market. I have 2 of the 4 expansions for Death Angel and just never got around to getting the last two. I mean, why on earth would I think they'd suddenly go out of print? When Asmodee purchased FFG I should have guessed this was a likely outcome.

Damn, I just sold off Relic and Forbidden Stars a few months ago. I wish I had held on to them!

The end of Warhammer Quest the Card Game is sad news. I'd still grab it if you can. The story driven 5-quest campaign and more random "Delve quest" is a lot of content. I think most of the complaints were that it's a great system that warrants more content, not that the game was lacking.

This announcement does explain the out-of-the-blue, print on demand mini expansions they put out a few months ago. Glad to see they tried to get more product out before the end.

I wonder what the status is for these products. Are GW free to pursue publishing/expanding these titles going forward?

I suspect that FFG retains the rights to the products themselves, but GW has the rights to the IP. Which basically means that neither can publish the games as they exist now without making a deal with the other, which is unlikely to happen for a while. So basically, they're gone.

Talisman is another big blow. FFG's done a really good job and put out a lot of solid content for their version. That's all about to go back to becoming a grail game again. If I didn't think that Relic is a better version of that system, I might be hunting down some Talisman stuff.

This is probably a mini-preview of what's going to go down when FFG eventually loses the Star Wars license. Not that that's likely to happen any time soon, but nothing lasts forever with licensing deals.

GW has gone off the deep end with its licensing lately. I almost wonder if they're finally realizing that their 90s business model isn't working anymore and are starting to panic.

Waited too long to get the character expansions for the Warhammer Card Game and now they're no longer available.

Blackhawk wrote:I almost wonder if they're finally realizing that their 90s business model isn't working anymore and are starting to panic.

I was thinking maybe they were seeing success with their own board game publishing (Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower; Assassinorum: Execution Force) that they were wondering why they're licensing IP instead of just doing it themselves. Total speculation, of course.

$iljanus wrote:Waited too long to get the character expansions for the Warhammer Card Game and now they're no longer available.

Never say never.

$iljanus wrote:Waited too long to get the character expansions for the Warhammer Card Game and now they're no longer available.

Is that the witch hunter and trollslayer? Check Miniature Market. They're showing 20+ each.

Well crap, I didn't think about the Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game going away. I fortunately grabbed the trollslayer and witchhunter packs, but I was hoping for further expansions for this excellent little game.

I'm pretty bummed, I hadn't pulled the trigger on Forbidden Stars and it's right up my alley. Went to grab it after the news and nobody has it. Can't afford the prices it will soon hit

Worst case, I imagine there are scans or photos of the expansion cards out there. The action cards are simply for player reference (and tapping to show you used them). Each hero came with 4 legendary gear cards but they're only shuffled with themselves. Pretty easy content to reproduce for your own use.

Harkonis wrote:I'm pretty bummed, I hadn't pulled the trigger on Forbidden Stars and it's right up my alley. Went to grab it after the news and nobody has it. Can't afford the prices it will soon hit

Seppe has it and I'm sure we'll be playing it at the next Ocotocon. It's a pretty neat little game.

I'm super glad I had that one already.

Smoove_B wrote:This is the kind of stuff that drives my collector compulsion and makes me hoard games, fearing they'll disappear from the market. I have 2 of the 4 expansions for Death Angel and just never got around to getting the last two. I mean, why on earth would I think they'd suddenly go out of print? When Asmodee purchased FFG I should have guessed this was a likely outcome.

Generally speaking, I think Vasel's Law helps counter such compulsions:

BoardGameGeek.com wrote:What is Vasel's law?

Vasel's law says

"If a game is truly a great game, and is out of print - it will eventually (usually within 10-15 years) be reprinted."

also

"If a game isn't reprinted, and no one is interested in reprinting it - it wasn't that great of a game."

Exceptions: Legalities and IP problems can prevent this from happening. Also, a different version of the game may prevent the original from being reprinted (and usually most people will agree that the newer version is better, with a loud minority saying otherwise.)


Practically: If someone tells you a game is AMAZING and it's out of print, don't spend a ton of money getting it. Wait for the reprint. And if it's never reprinted, you really aren't missing anything.

While these particular FFG/GW games are unlikely to be reprinted anytime soon, there's still going to be plenty of other worthwhile and highly entertaining and enjoyable titles that are, regardless of whether they have much, or anything, to do with GW or FFG. It's best not to fret over acquiring or collecting such rarities, as they're almost never worth the inflated and exorbitant asking prices anyway.

Thanks to a timely PM I have now bought the character expansions from Miniature Market. The board game addiction is fed! Now to look for the Space Hulk expansions...

Now people are trying to convince me to get in on Blood Bowl Team Manager. I'm resisting just due to the size of the order I just placed, but the FOMO is strong.

Chaz wrote:but the FOMO is strong.

I would imagine resale/trade values will be high if it doesn't work out for you. I've recovered quite a bit of money at my local gaming convention auctions...which I think promptly spend on more games because I'm an idiot. It really is hard to resist when you know (1) it's disappearing and (2) people will be hoarding retail copies now and shelving them to resell unopened next year when all stock is gone.

I think at this point, I'm just going to wait and grab it if I see it on cheap sale down the line, and otherwise feel good that I didn't add another game to my overflowing shelves.

Good heads up. Just ordered Fury 3rd edition before it vanishes. 2nd edition was one of my favs. Heard great things about the revamp.

malchior wrote:Heard great things about the revamp.

Daveman wrote:

malchior wrote:Heard great things about the revamp.

I really hope that was unintentional.

hentzau wrote:

Daveman wrote:

malchior wrote:Heard great things about the revamp.

I really hope that was unintentional.

It was intentional and I should have said before he vanishes for more bite.

Was running around this weekend looking for stuff on this list and came up basically empty. Except for "Fury", it was... everywhere. Took that to mean it wasn't all that popular but also noted that it wasn't obviously associated with GW as well. I'll have to go see if I can find these great things of which you speak.

There are $5 expansion decks for Death Angel listed for $60-85 on eBay right now. That's absurd. Even the base game is being listed for $35+ online, though Amazon seemingly has it for close to retail. It would be nice if FF was holding on to stock on their site store for a big holiday liquidation, but who knows. It's a damn shame overall.

There's one store I know that has three of the four Death Angel expansions, along with Blood Bowl Team Manager and both expansions. I'm tempted, but I've never played Blood Bowl TM. And I don't know if I should really afford another $100 in games. Hmm.

I got my copy at a Borders store closing years ago. I bought a couple of copies for like 5 bucks each and gave one to a friend.

So you may want to check at a Barnes and Nobles too.

I hit several B&N stores around me last weekend and... Fury. No clue what edition, however.

Does the cover feature an imposing looking Dracula looming over the hunters, or a goofy as hell Dracula grinning at you? Those would be second and third editions, respectfully. If it was in a store, it's probably third. Third does not have good cover art.

Liberace Dracula is the latest edition, right?

Chaz wrote:or a goofy as hell Dracula grinning at you?

That's actually an improvement over the third edition art.

I bought both of the expansions for Blood Bowl Team Manager.
I'm kind of having buyers remorse though. I like the game, but I don't know if I like the game $50 more.