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The Gav Thorpe Interview - Dysartes & Gav Thorpe | |||||||||||||||||
Dogs of War & KislevHave the Studio put any thought into releasing a list of non-Human Dogs of War Heroes and Lords? A DoW magic item list?Dogs of War are a really big grab-bag of ideas and opportunities at the moment, and we have no definite plans for them. They will remain a part of the Warhammer game (hard not to since they are part of the army lists in the books!). There's a series of conflicting ideas present in the Dogs of War at the moment, including DoW, Regiments of Renown and the Tilean aspects. These need to be separated and dealt with properly. We're not planning any DoW support at the moment, and I would rather deal with them properly with a specific supplement than nips and tucks here and there through WD. Have they put any thought into releasing expanded Hero level choices for Kislev (especially Ice Witches)? A limited Kislev magic item list? It was originally intended to accompany the Kislev Allies release with an army list later one, but development time became short and we never had the chance to write it. We may revisit Kislev again in the future, but there is nothing scheduled at the moment. What, if any, direction are the DoW being taken? One idea that I have, and it's only an idea, is to expand the mercenary aspects of armies in larger battles, perhaps using the format of the Allies contingents in a slightly different fashion. This would allow players to use individual units as they do now, but in larger battles to have a mix of their main army, allies, mercenaries and so on. The important point would be to make them feel more mercenary and not simply allies by a different names. Will they simply be a compilation of various Allied Contingents with some other characters added in? I would hope we would make something much more interesting than that. Will we see them (the DoW) within the next few years? I couldn't say for sure at the moment. In some of the army books, there are names of various mercenary units never before heard of. Of these, which would you most like to see released? I've got a soft spot for Ludwig's Wondrous Grenadiers, but that's probably because I came up with the name! Are we likely to see any more of the original Regiments of Renown making a comeback, ala Mengil Manflayer or Ruglud? If we were to do new Regiments of Renown I suspect there would be a mix of new ideas and old classics in there. Chaos DwarfsWhat are your plans for Chaos Dwarves?There is no plan at the moment, I have to say. However, they remain part of the Warhammer world, as evidenced by the Hell cannon release and the references in Ogre Kingdoms. If it fits in with our wider strategy we may well produce a Chaos Dwarfs army in the future. As a Dwarfs player, I certainly think there's a great army in the concept, but it's more than a matter of good ideas, there are all sorts of dull but essential real world and commercial factors involved in this sort of decision. If someone were to write a minor update to the RH Chaos Dwarf list and send it in to GW, what would the chances of that update being a) Looked at? b) Printed in White Dwarf? c) Used for kindling? c) Several of the codes in the Chaos Dwarf range are now out of production and cannot be supplied. Until we can provide a proper range of miniatures, it is poor customer service to promote the Chaos Dwarfs in any way. It seems harsh on existing players, I know, but it is the more honest route. We can't in all conscience encourage players to collect Chaos Dwarfs while their future as an army is uncertain; we'd rather players accept that there are no Chaos Dwarfs as an army at the moment, and then be overjoyed if we do get a chance to produce an army, rather than get their hopes up and be shattered that we cannot follow through later on. The Chaos Dwarf crew of the Hell cannon have been described as being used to test the water as to a new look for the range. Would you say this experiment has been successful, and were you happy with the look? In order to produce the Hell cannon, we had to conceptualise around the idea a little, and I'm certainly pleased with the direction. The core images of the Chaos Dwarfs are sound and remain solid, - the eastern, Babylonian, industry-gone-mad aspects - we simply need to find a less caricatured rendering that is more appropriate to the grim world of Warhammer. Elves, High & DarkCan we expect High Elves to be one of the earliest armies to be updated in 7th edition given the dissatisfaction of the current army?No. The driver for any revisit will primarily be the miniatures range, and there are certainly armies ahead of High Elves in that regard. The issues with High Elves, and Dark Elves, are nowhere near as severe as some people are trying to make out. There are lots of personal peccadillo’s being released into the wilds at the moment, and players have to retain their perspective. High Elves continue to be a popular and successful army, which contains competitive army options if players are inclined to play that way. Are they going to add a larger variety of magic items to the Dark Elves, especially lower point value items? Right now it seems like there is only 1-2 useful items a Beast Master can actually take, and Assassins only have a very few usable combinations of items they can get. I'm not sure how much of a problem for other armies this is, but I don't like having to take the same magic items all the time because I don't have any good alternatives. When we get back to Dark Elves, we'll certainly be looking at the Magic Items selection, as we would with any army. Without considering it in detail, which it is too early to do, I couldn't say what direction we might take. It may be the case that the designer intended the choices to be more limited for Beastmasters and Assassins because they have other attributes that warrant their selection without making ordinary heroes pointless... Are you going to release any more Dark Elf hero blisters? Right now the ONLY way to get a noble or highborn is by conversion (or to use Malus Darkblade).... we don't even have our own basic hero... We would like to revisit parts of ranges that are incomplete (as we did during Storm of Chaos), and the characters side of Dark Elves is a little thin. Luckily, there is a range of gorgeous champion models for the various elite regiments, which make great characters as well. Also some of the mounts, specifically the Dark Pegasus, for nobles or Beast Master to ride has to be converted, and its either a Bretonnian model for the base, which doesn't look very 'dark' or we have to get moritha (which is rather expensive just for conversion purposes) and cut and file her legs off just to stick another hero on (which we have to convert ALSO because we can't get any of them normally). Would it be possible to see more of the Dark Elf mounts available without this problem? Conversions have always been and will always be a part of collecting an army. It is important that we provide the right 'components', and the decision to include the legs on the Pegasus itself perhaps might have been taken differently if we were to remake the model now. Next: Chaos, Other Races, and more..... | |||||||||||||||||
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