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ironlord

Black Knight
Oct 11, 2008
397
Bo'ness
well i can officially reveal that i am just off of the bus from Gamesday UK 2009
and i decree it to be meh
not as good as last year
to be fair in order to beat 2008, 2009 would have to drop in some kinky dark elf wenches
now i was praying for 2009 to be good in any way, i really was, you see the last 2 years I have been tasked with being guardian to my younger brother, however this year my parents decided that my youngest brother would be able to join us, so long as I was his guardian, at the last minute however my young cousin also wants to join us and I volunteer to be his guardian as well. So naturally I want this year to be as good as it can be to leave fond memories in the hearts and minds of my relatives...

*sucks in huge amount of air to begin the rant that will prevent his brain from exploding*

2009 started badly for me because our bus was overheating 20 mins into the journey
so fail there but not GW's fault
second fail was the layout of the floor, again 2008 had it nailed to a tee, but 2009 was simply pushing you through the selling stuff bit to get too the hobby bit
last year they had almost enough seats by using 3 MASSIVE stands in a MASSIVE hall, this year it was a smaller area with only 1 small stand so almost 90% of the people were forced to sit or stand elsewhere, this may seem like a gripe but when you have been acting as guardians for two children who have never been to anything like this in their lives and are shattered from a day walking from one point to another, it is a problem
also they messed up the accoustics in the hall, i understood MAYBE 1 out of 20 words said by the golden deamon announcer, thankfully it was normally someone's name so i knew when to applaud the person who just beat me (congrats too them by the way)

now the shining gem in the rather regal crown of 2008 was the massive battle boards covered with ranks upon ranks of soldiers blasting, chopping or zapping each other into tiny pieces, i walked around that day with my jaw almost permanently cranked open and my hand slapping me in the face in order to get over the shock of just how EPIC everything was...
unfortunatly this year wasnt quite as brilliant, dont get me wrong there were still epic tables including a 40k stompa/baneblade battle board where the commanding people stood within the walls of a beseiged city and gave orders for a turn before being swapped out for someone else. There were also two interesting warhammer seiges being played out where the creators had gone too the trouble of constucting both the city walls, seige equipment and even the rubble to show that they had been destroyed. I also spotted a rather beautiful wood elf board for lord of the rings with full tree houses and all the trimmings.
But for every one of those boards there was maybe 2 more made primarily from GW's realm of battle boards, personally i dont really care for these boards, i know that they help people without alot of time to snap together a quick board to get a quick game on but i just dont like them (where are all of the skulls coming from?).
My favourite board of last year was a nagash vs tomb kings board that featured so many special units and personalised terrain i almost wet myself on seeing it.
There was really no board that matched that standard this year. No offence to anyone who made a table this year if they read this, but no tables quite held my attention and awe this year. However the flip side of this is that more time has been spent on the armies fighting on the boards, including a frankly terrifying 6ft tall Emperor Class titan that will be in my nightmares for years to come...

Definatly a pick up this year was the arrival of the space wolves, great looking models that had me drooling at the design studio stalls for an hour at least (But in all honesty most of the stuff in those cabinates makes me drool). However GW flipped this around by simply bombarding the sales area with every space marine model they could find. Granted that alot of it was the brand new shiney space wolves, but alot of it wasnt.
The sales area is always a square maybe thirty by thirty feet and covered in models ready to buy there and then, tpyically each gaming system will get a side of the square and the fourth will be devoted to hobby supplies. The most noticable thing is that the 40k area seems to spill out into the other areas because it is the most marketable thing.
But for those of us looking for something without a 3+ armour save the pickings weren't slim, just hard to find.
My cousin asked me to help him find a box of stealth suits and a commander for his tau army, being a helpful fellow I obliged and we set off looking for any tau boxes, hoping to zero in on some stealth suits once we had found the tau area of the selling square.
However I walked up and down the side for 40k and couldn't see anything, I kept catching glimpses of marines and the occasional orky box (stompas mostly). I then discovered that I couldn't see the xenos boxes because they were being simply blocked by people, not a big problem as it could happen to anyone really, but the fact that an entire range of models can be blocked by one person (and they dont have to be a BIG person) at the right angle is a little worrying...

However Grabbit and Scarper remains a firm favourite, boasting the same quality goods as usual for the same low prices. However the mystery boxes sold like they had crack cocaine in them and I never got to enjoy that part of the day...

Dont get me wrong I had a good day at games day and im thankful that GW still put on this show every year in the UK when they seem to be pulling out of such events in other places in the world. Maybe my view was greyed by the fact my brother had the flu, which spread to everyone I went with except me by the end of the day or the fact that the bus for falkirk wasnt going to pick us up until an hour and a half after the final procedings. But nothing really seemed to sparkle with that same magic as it did last year or the year before that...

Were you at UK gamesday 2009?
What did you think?
Have you been to a previous Gamesday?
How did they compare?
 

Necrosys

Zombie
Sep 24, 2009
15
York, UK
I have to agree. GD 09 really wasn't up to the hype!

WD and GW.com both claimed is was the biggest and best GD ever. Yes the halls were huge, but it was still the same sized stalls/table as the last few years, but with more space around them!

The Black Library area was a pain - we had just cued for an hour to get in to GD, then to get into the sectioned off Black Library area, I cued for another 45 mins, looked around got what I wanted, then cued for 25 mins just to pay for the sodding things! oh and if wanted them signing, there was a guess what... that's right a 1 1/2 hour cue!

Anyway....

The new Blood Bowl game was there (PC version only). Had a good half hour stomping wood elves into the pitch. Am definately getting it once it's out on the PS3.

Also the Studio area was good - a chance to speak to some of the designers and painters was good. There were a few sneek peeks! A few of the new Skaven models were there alaong with some 3 ups of the new Tau Fire Warriors and the new FW Greater Deamon of Tzeentch.

The White Dwarf subscription forum was a waste ot time. They just kept telling us how great GW is and what value for money it is! When the Q&A time came everytime a question was asked, the answer was one of two replies. It was either "We'll never say never" or even more annoying "Sorry, I can't answer that".... The only thing he would say is that the new WD subscription model is out in December and its.....

A SQUAT!!!!!!!

A Squat Engineer with Servo Arm!

So when the next question was "So are you bringing back the Squats" and Jervis Johnsons reply was... "Sorry, I can't answer that, but we'll never say never".

That was the time I started pulling out my hair and went to fight the 3000 other people looking for that one remaining seat in the main hall!

But, all said, I know I'll be back next year.
 

Necrosys

Zombie
Sep 24, 2009
15
York, UK
Sorry for the double post. But I found a picture of the Squat!

m500058a_WDSubModel.jpg


xD
 

ironlord

Black Knight
Oct 11, 2008
397
Bo'ness
actually thats a damn fine double post, ive been looking for that model's picture for a while now
shame that im so unimpressed
space dwarves? im sure that classic gamers have probably spent the time since games day saying "oooooh" and reminising about squats of years past
but i really dont care and im a dwarf player!
the only cool thing about this is the goblin in a grey stealth suit type thingie
 

Bug16

Vampire Count
True Blood
Aug 30, 2007
1,166
He's the new White Dwarf model and not a Squat.

I seriously doubt that we'll ever see Squats again in 40k as it costs GW too much to launch an entire new army from scratch.
 

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