Saturday Salvo: Controversies and Sisters.

This weeks Saturday Salvo takes a look at two things... so lets get the biggy out of the way... Go here for more.

Beasts of War are parting from Wayland Games, due to Games Workshop being upset that they'd shown unreleased images and sketches of unreleased images on some of their shows. The Beasts of War boys are now a completely independant entity and I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours (wrestling reference there). They'll be relocating to Nottingham and a couple of other possible locations which means they'll be in the hub of British Wargaming. They will also continue to expand shows to cover the Games Workshop brands, so it will be interesting to see how this works out.

However, the internet has gone wild.

As per usual, people have been putting their hate-filled rants online. One of the comments called GW scum, and that they'll support Beasts of War. But wait a second, what exactly IS BOW's stance on Games Workshop? They're continuing to support the company and its games in videos, so how can others vent such rage when the people affected by it are continuing to do shows dedicated to its games? It could be argued that not showing anything based from GW would hit its audience... 

The problem is BOW had several letters sent to them warning about showing off unreleased GW images and material, yet they kept showing these despite GW's efforts to stop this. Why GW are so protective and secretive we may never know, but if you're a company and you want to release products in a certain way surely you're entitled to that right to do so? Natfka, man of Faeit212 had similar trouble after showing many images of unreleased Games Workshop material and was promptly shut down after failing to take heed of a number of warnings from GeeDub. They have both since reached an understanding and Faeit212 still thrives despite not showing so many rumours and by increasing its range of games.

I do not understand why GW have not created some sort of newsfeed to perhaps dispel rumours or create them via a video show. They're not high cost anymore since Youtube has become such a huge platform, and they even advertised for a 'video presenter' a number of months ago. In an interview I had with two members of the White Dwarf team they even stated about going into video with some sort of show that would appear online, but its seems as this idea has been shot down. The point is Beasts of War were told not to show material that GW hadn't released but continued to do so. Hopefully, like Natfka, the Beasts of War guys will continue to grow and use this as a positive step towards an even better range of shows. What are your thoughts on this subject?

Next up, along with a digital Blood Angels release, is this.

While not a full codex SOB fans won't be SOB'bing anymore as they finally get some sort of love. Even though its just another update from the White Dwarf list its still a good sign and fingers crossed if sells well, GeeDub will produce a full codex for fans of the army. 

Finally, some of you may have not just seen this but already given your money to Mantic for a copy.

Mars Attacks! the board game has reached its target in just 15 minutes, beating the record of Deadzone by around half. Thats pretty insane fair play! Personally, I don't think I like the look of it. I'd have a go but theres not enough there for me to want to drop money on it. The target was initially $50,000, but its now on $171,674. Thats incredible and a great feat! How do you guys feel about Kickstarter and how companies are using it to launch games? Do some companies even need to use it and hurt the smaller guys who are trying to get off the ground?

This weekend I'll hopefully be putting a post up with a battle report, my new almost finished Chapter Master and news on an event thats happening in the Valleys of South Wales.