man-o-... what? it's not? dreadwhat? are you f'n kidding me?

blood angel brother deino by laundryhamper

two years ago, gw rereleased it's standalone big box game space hulk. initally, i was rabidly opposed to the idea. my list of pros and cons were as follows:

pros:

• gorgeous models
• re-release of a great rules mechanic with only the slightest of tweeks to the system to make it even more playable.

cons:

• card components. with all the advances that gw has made to its plastic terrain i was hoping for some cool plastic modular hulk corridors as and rooms and the fact that it didn't seriously irked me
• cost
• splash release with no pre-release play or demo opportunities. 

while the cons didn't outweigh the pros significantly, i felt the lack of demos and pre-release game opportunity was gw simply assuming that they could produce any sort of drivel and sell it to the rabid masses. in fact, when i worked at the u.s. hq in glen burnie, there was a running joke that gw could put a pile of dogshit in a 40k or fantasy box and hobbyists would buy it. 

don't believe me? have you seen the original range of dark eldar? 

in the end, space hulk did pay off for gw and completely sold out. despite my initial protests I did, indeed, purchase a copy, and today an unopened copy of space hulk can sell for more than twice as much on ebay. 

all-in-all it was a good gamble for gw. so good they're gonna do it again...

image property of games workshop

only this time it's something different. according to rumor, this isn't a rerelease of man-o-war, but a completely new game, and like space hulk "this product has been produced in limited qualities and is only available while stocks last - make sure you get it quick..." 

from the gw press releases, i like the way the models look, but gw has consistently produced amazing models. my biggest question is: how does it play? there's a slickly produced video with phil kelly and his sideburns showing the contents and highlighting the play, but i can't justify dropping $115 on a game i can't play/demo first.

i could continue to rant about how i feel about dreadfleet, but duke's inferno does a much better job.