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An Interview With.....Gav Thorpe - Dysartes & Gav Thorpe | |||||||||||||||||
For those of you who might not be aware, Gav Thorpe is the Warhammer Loremaster. In effect, he is in charge of the development of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Prior to this post, he has also developed supplements and systems for other parts of the Games Workshop rage, including Codex: Blood angels and Codex: Eldar for Warhammer 40,000, as well as Inquisitor, the 54mm roleplaying game. For those of you who can remember this far back, Gav also used to work for White Dwarf back in the day, though his run in battle reports can be said to be likened to Jervis'.
Ogre KingdomsHow happy are you with the latest addition to the stable of Warhammer armies?Very happy. In particular Brian Nelson has done an amazing job on the plastics, and Phil Kelly has produced a fantastic book, rich in Warhammer flavour and humour. Do you have an Ogre army yourself? I don't, I've been sticking to my Dwarfs lately, though I might branch out into some Lizardmen this year. The "Dogs of War" rule for Bulls, Ironguts, Leadbelchers and Maneaters is unusual. Do you see this as a way of allowing people to choose from a wider variety of Dogs of War units, or merely as an upgrade for the current Dogs of War Ogre entry? It was a straightforward way to demonstrate the mercenary nature of the Ogre race, something that has been long established in their character. We're still trying to resolve the best way to incorporate Dogs of War and Regiments of Renown, and here was an opportunity to keep the idea alive in the game system. If you had to have one of the Ogre Big Names, which would you choose? Some might say I should be a Mawseeker (+1T but suffer from Stupidity). Were there any unit ideas that didn't make it through the design process? As Phil mentioned in his WD article, there was another variant of Rhinox-pulled war machine based upon a bolt thrower. Most of the imagery ended up being used in one place or another, which is the benefit of having a pretty blank sheet to start with. In most of the army books, there is a selection of special characters, some old, some new. With regards to the Ogres, are these special character concepts that didn't seem as strong as Skrag and Greasus, or were they created specifically for that page? No, we felt they were all pretty strong, but decided that Greasus and Skrag were the 'Big Two' that needed to be included. We had a similar situation with Tomb Kings - the army was new and so didn't have the established canon of characters that most other races have. They serve as inspiration to players and maybe ideas that we revisit with miniatures and rules in the future. Warhammer 7th EdAnything you can tell us about the next edition of WHFB, specifically in regards to the magic system? Are you planning or hoping to release "trial rule systems" like what was done in 3rd ed. 40k with the trial assault rules and trial vehicle rules?The use of the website in relation to Games Development is something that is currently the subject of ongoing discussions. In particular, Jervis Johnson has had much experience of this with the Fanatic Vaults and when he's got some free time, we'll certainly be picking his brains regarding ways that we might be able to open up ideas to wider scrutiny. However, we want to avoid the situation that arose with the 40K trial rules, which caused some confusion and were adopted in many areas as official. Any preview material we publish will definitely be for feedback only and won't be in any way official until we produce a new rulebook. Magic on the whole works well, and needs to remain a viable tactic for players that wish to invest points in a magical aspect to their army. Generally speaking, we're looking at the number of dice generated and who can use them, and the variance between wizards of different power levels. We'll also get an opportunity to look at the spell lores. Are you actively gathering material for 7th edition yet and if so can you give any hints as to how it is being approached? We've been actively gathering material since the release of 6th edition. On the whole, the brief is to clarify and contextualise, rather than change. All of the published army books must remain consistent with any rules changes. The main aim is to present the rules as clearly as possible and, where changes may be made, to remove elements that feel counter-intuitive. The emphasis is on the gameplay aspects that cause the most confusion, such as charging, fleeing and combat resolution. There's likely to be less changes than many people might be expecting. How far down the road are we looking to see 7th Edition? Past the traffic lights, right at the roundabout, fourth door on the left... Put another way, 6th edition remains the definitive Warhammer and will be for some time to come. What areas of the rules are likely to receive attention when 7th edition is written... and why? See my earlier answer. Obviously it's too early to talk about specifics. Bearing in mind that many of the areas we'll be looking at are those highlighted by players as being problematic, a lot of the discussion around possible changes focuses on the same areas that players are talking about. Wood ElvesAt this point, can you give an estimated release quarter for the Wood Elves?That's not my job; you'll have to keep an eye on the website and WD. However, astute net observers will be able to piece together a rough idea from several sources already! Will Scarlocs Archers return in some form? There are no plans to return them to the game at the moment, although they remain a part of the Wood Elf background. Will there be different Treeman types e.g. ash or oak? No. As this is the third 'Elf' book do you think you have learned anything from the other two that can be applied to wood elves? We certainly want to retain the flavour and style of the other two Elf books. The army, on the other hand, is quite different because of the Forests Spirits elements, and so the Wood Elves work in quite a different way. Can you say (yet) how many plastic Wood Elf boxes there will be? Again, I can't give out specific release information. Given the level of plastics commitment to other recent Warhammer projects, I think players can formulate a good idea of what to expect from the Wood Elves. There is lots of talk of tree/forest spirits (formally known as dryads) being a large part of the army, and even being able to take these a pure force (ala Daemonic armies from Hordes of Chaos). Are there plans for multiple types of spirit (combat, shooting, big scary ones - tree men) or will there be a singular entry that can fulfil different roles (as the Dryads were able to in a sense with their aspects). Finally, will the Spirits suffer from some for of Instability like Daemons or will they operate as a regular 'mortal' unit. Without getting into details, I can confirm that the Forests Spirits side of the army has been expanded. Athel Loren and the Wood Elves are one and the same and we want players to be able to represent this in their armies. Suffice to say, the playtesters have been hard at work trying out the various permutations of this flexibility! Will the Wood Elf plastics (and all other) be designed in the same way as the new Chaos Warriors? Each plastic set is planned and designed on its own merits and requirements. Elves with bows are very different from hulking great warriors with armour and cloaks. As with everything, each plastic set that we produce adds to our thinking for the future, and we hope to keep best practices and evolve the quality and functionality of regiment sets each time we make a new one. Next: Dogs of War, Chaos Dwarfs, and more..... |
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