Base Changes & Smaug Coming Soon For Games Workshop!
November 29, 2014 by brennon
Games Workshop may have taken another step to annoy those who still play their games with an update to the base sizes to the game if the latest cover of next week's White Dwarf is to be believed. Oh, and that Smaug model we talked about...it's coming too.
The new base size seems to be hitting with the coming of the Blood Angels and means that power armored miniatures are going to be sitting on larger bases and potentially invalidating a whole chunk of some peoples collections. A bit of a mean move when you think about it.
While apparently the rule of thumb is that a model MUST be based on the base it comes with meaning that past Space Marines are still ok this could shake up how tournaments are run in the future. There are going to be advantages and disadvantages to both sides of this basing coin.
What I'm both excited and indeed terrified about however is that Smaug is on the way from Games Workshop and I've heard the number $500 bandied around on forums and Facebook groups of late. Whether or not there is any truth to that price tag, we shall have to wait and see.
What do you think about the changes to the base size for Space Marines?
Let us know!
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As long as it doesn’t require existing minis to be re-based to make them tournament legal then I don’t see a big issue with it. It might lead to some uneven looking armies if there’s a mix of the two base sizes but that’s about it.
Of course, it will invalidate all those third-party bases, which is probably the point.
Thanks Ben
I was about to ask what is the reason for a change in base size.
It’s very definitely the point, since the new size they’ve chosen is 32mm. They couldn’t go for 30mm because third parties do bases in that size, too. They had to pick a unique size that nobody else produces (yet).
Might it be because they just didn’t think 30mm gives them as much freedom as the new size, in terms of modeling?
(Confusing as their BUILDINGS are designed for smaller bases… this is gonna cause their own unique models some problems).
Not at all. You have to buy the new buildings.
Ben tell me if I am being dumb but in 6 months time every indy in the planet will be selling the new size bases and gw will be like “oh we didn’t think of that.”
They will, but most of these suppliers are very small-time operations and making them switch to catch up will be a significant hassle for them. To move an entire range into a new size at once is a big investment.
It will obviously hurt companies with custom made terrain bases. I hadn’t realised actually that it is intended to damage mantic games because you can no longer use your mantic army as mantic/and.or GW. The thing is mantic are pretty smart about this type of stuff and will probably come up with a solution that will make GW look silly. I don’t mean to dismiss GW strategy completely but I feel their attempts to thwart smaller companies is similar to a record company trying to stop people from downloading music – it probably won’t work very much.
No different to when they made the bases bigger for terminators, no-one batted an eye back then, I just glued the smaller base to the new size and had the bonus of making my old metal terminators a similar height to the new ones.
That was a smaller adjustment to make. Most people have between 5 and 20 terminators you don’t have to adjust hundreds of them You will also have to change your miniature carry cases potentially.
Let me think on how to phrase my sentiments to the re-basing things for a moment.
Sorry, my 5 year old is around, so no can do.
I like the End Times for Fantasy, though. Does that count?
no
Well their miniatures have been creeping up in scale all along so it was inevitable they would have to start increasing base sizes. I can’t believe they still use 20mm for fantasy. I don’t think I have ANY fantasy regiments from the last few years that fit together on 20mm bases all ranked up.
But its 40k that gets new bases, and there is 100% no need to rank up.
They are increasing the pressure on their customers to buy their collections again.
A shitty and unnessecary move. Boooo !
Great move. It’s one way of ensuring the ever growing army of ex players will never return to the game.
Myself among them. Will they ever do anything to foster good will? Doubtful.
But on the bright side, companies with stockpiles of 30mm bases will now sell them for much less. Woo hoo!
Wonder how long before someone brings out a base you can just click your existing based model into.
I really hope that those don’t invalidate models on smaller bases but then again we are talking about GW. They don’t really care what we want.
How would it?
There never have been any rules for bases in the rulebooks and GW have sworn off all tournament play.
Of course there are quite a lot of tournament organizers who like to add their own rules, but that is the fault of the organizer not GW
@spacefrog has a point. This would have precisely zero effect on all non-tournament games, and even in a tournament setting it only becomes a problem if the tournament organisers have their own rules about basing and over ethusiastically apply them, and GW cannot be blamed for the excessive zeal of people who aren’t affiliated to the company.
This just doesn’t strike me as being all that big of a deal.
is it???
So GW build the largest dragon ever costing $500 ( who knows what in Aussies dollars) and they put a tactical squad on the cover – pure genius.
It seems like an insight into how they view their products. This is year has seen a very definite shift towards IPs they 100% control.
“Hey you OK with my marines being on the old size based?”
“Yeah sure, mine are as well”
Problem solved.
I have a feeling smug is going to be resin. They mentioned it’s for experienced modellers.
Most companies for experienced modelers would mean a complicated build with pinning required, and a lot of steps.
GW’s recent use of experienced modelers seems to mean must have the skills to clean up, unwarp and fill bubbles, and patch in large gaps in a product that should never made it past the QA department. I hope I am wrong.
If indeed Smaug is released by games workshop and not Forge World it will without doubt be the biggest FINECRAP ever!
j/k
I recall by in the 90s, ‘for experienced modellers’ is reserved for that metal 2 head chaos dragon from fantasy. I can only guess todays meaning would be ‘no refunds nor exchanges for that tiny air bubble becuase the model was intended for experience moddelers only.
As a Tolkien fan for over 40 years, I despair at the pricing. £118 for 14 28mm minis? But hey it gets worse! Rank and file troops now £5 per head… when the rest of the gaming world goes for quality AND affordability, GW seem to think the hard core fans will always pay out, no matter what. IMHO this is unrealistic. You have to look at what else someone can get with that amount of cash. They may like the films, but could decide Kings of War or something else is a far more affordable mass battle system. As… Read more »
They will always pay the price, regardless. As someone pointed out recently, they’re paying for the fluff that comes with the model… over and over again. Hard to fathom that kind of blind loyalty.
I think WWX is on 32 mm bases so they arent the first
Not only are your minis not tournament legal for WWX if they’re not on the right base size, they have to be the ones Outlaw Miniatures sell. If you use bases from another company, even if they’re the right size, you can’t use the mini in a tournament. Given this is the precedent I don’t think it undermines the suggestion that this is a commercial move on GW’s part rather than a modelling one.
Not true. From the WWX tournament rules document:
“Any non-official Wild West Exodus base must be equivalent in size to the official bases.”
Source: http://www.outlawminiatures.com/WWX_Gunslinger_Tournament_Aug_2014.pdf
They said this at the start of the year – “WWX bases are the only bases allowed in WWX tournaments. Once your models are mounted on other bases they no longer can be used in our events. A travel board for WWX models will be released at some point in the near future. We are not every other miniature company so we do not use every other base type. We have our own bases because we are Wild West Exodus. A new game doing things with fresh and exciting ideas.” Even if they didn’t go through with it, it’s very… Read more »
If they think I’m going to be rebasing an entire battle company they know where they can put that idea! 🙂
I don’t see why the base changes didn’t coincide with the latest Edition change. Why do it only 6 months after a new edition when the base changes could have been incorporated into the rules?
My space marines fit on their current bases perfectly fine and I wont be changing them.
Also it seems the new Blood Angels codex is out before Christmas. My local GW store manager was sure they wouldn’t release that this year. I’ve no need for more tactical marines but it looks like my squads can take heavy flamers.
As far as I know there are no rules for basing in the rulebook (or at least, there wasn’t in 3rd-6th editions) so what would they need to include?
I guess my point is that I think it would be “neater” for the base size change to coincide with the new edition. I also forgot 40k doesn’t mention base size much in the rules. A lot of wargames these days have it as an integral part of the mechanics (e.g. Warmahordes) and I was thinking in that mindset.
Tacticals wouldnt be my force choice for new BA, but with some jetpacks I think the parts are a great base for 10 man assault squads, so I’ll probably be making my first GW purchases of the year. Codex, tac squad and priest.
Still hoping for a new Mephiston as the weeks go on though.
Finally, a £300 smaug better be big enough to fill my garage.
guess this IS the right time to wax lyrical about bases…
Time for a Darrell return to BoW
He was all about that base
about that base? no trouble.
Wow
I didn’t realise it was taboo to talk about Darrell.
Did he do something horrid? I thought he was a good egg and a lot of fun tbh
Except for that nappy.
Man! I still have nightmares!
Is it going to be bigger than the emperor dragon that you had to make the wings for yourself?
Jokes Workshop at it again
Thats odd I thought they were called Games Porkchop.
Porkys Gameshop actually, but dont let that fool you … theres more than one pig running the show 😛
Zing 😉
So how difficult is it to make a black 1mm thick band in a circle 30mm across (allowing for bevel – something similar to this?
http://www.firebucketgames.com/25mm-t-30mm-Resin-Miniature-Base-Adapter-Converter-p/fbg1301.htm
Neat idea but don’t think it would be tournament legal and if you have a large army and don’t play tournaments not sure why would one would bother for GW?
Does the rulebook say anything about bases?
If not you should be blaming the tournament organizers not GW if it is deemed illegal in a tournament.
It does –
“The rules in this book assume that models are mounted on the base they are
supplied with.”
It “assumes”, it doesn’t insist.
I never said it did, @erastus. The question asked was does the rulebook say anything about bases. It does and I quoted from it without any editorial comment. Had the question said “does the rulebook insist that the bases that come with the minis must be used?”, I’d have said no, only that the rules have been written on the assumption they will be used. This gives both complete freedom to people to do what they want, whilst signposting to anyone wanting to play competitively that if they change the bases the rules might not work as intended. Consequently most… Read more »
I never said you did say it did @redben 😉
My point still stands though 🙂
Any ban from tournaments because of base sizes will be the fault of the organizer, not GW
“Fault” is a bad choice of words. There’s too much scope for abuse if a tournament doesn’t enforce bases sizes. I’m aware of one example in which it wasn’t enforced and the winner took advantage of it to put his monstrous cavalry and infantry on smaller bases to maximise their attacks. People don’t have to play competitively, but those that do, and there are many, need this enforced if it’s to work.
If I was a company that makes bases I would be happy 🙂 The reason why you might ask. Because I would make plastic rings that fit over or under the models base to make the smaller bases to size and they don’t need to rebase them at all. It be a cunning act that would make GW regret their action.
Do they have “the biggest dragon we have ever made!!” Coming out, and they put a box of red space marines with a few extra goodies on the cover instead???
That just doesn’t make sense to me. You would figure if they put the effort into producing something that large and expensive they would try to give it as much exposure as possible to show it off. They make do little sense to me…
GW is just sad
i don’t get the bases thing…
Personally I am or the idea
I already have all my assault marines on 30 or 40mm bases since they are so top heavy that they had a tendency to topple if based on the supplied base
It generally gives them an additional size to work with for more larger models or more dynamic poses
There are pros to it certainly. For me i am a bit ocd when it comes to the visual of things… i am wondering if i will be able to just put a 25mm base on to a 32mm base or whatever it is and texture paint up to cover the fact its a base on a base. For jump pack and ‘bulky’ models it really makes sense. For carry cases, movement trays, and people with older models on scenic bases its a bit harsh. All of my Forgeworld Sons of Horus for example are on the old bases so… Read more »
Hmm… On the one hand, I think larger bases look better, all things considered. As miniatures have got larger over the years, more room on the base makes them look less top heavy. I already mount all character models and virtually all 2 Wound models on 40mm terminator style bases. But I don’t believe this is why GW has decided to switch for a second. And I certainly won’t be doing _any_ rebasing to suit GW’s interests. I’m already moving away from using their rules to play 40K with, so they can go somewhere else if they think this will… Read more »
To be fair their rulebooks always state about using the bases that the model came with or if it didn’t come with one compare to similar models… I think the only potential concern is tournament type play.
Started a couple of posts in reply then remembered that I don’t buy or play current GW stuff so why should I care lol 🙂
I understand why folks who still play GW might be annoyed. But, they have been using the same base sizes for 30 years now. When I started playing WHFB and RT back in the 80’s, the miniatures fit onto the bases but with scale creep, they no longer do. This was needed 15+ years ago.