Games Workshop’s chance to bring the Galaxy back together!

The last week has been amazing for Games Workshop, not only did we see the release of Betrayal at Calth, but also the shocking Specialist Games announcement. The creation of the Specialist Games Design Studio sent waves through the community as some of the most beloved GW games will be returning. I personally couldn’t believe it myself; as someone who has always enjoyed those smaller games, I am even more overjoyed for those folks who worshiped those games. One thing though, people shouldn’t do, is get ahead of themselves, there is no mention of any Old World Specialist games (beyond Blood Bowl) coming back, nor any mention of Inquisitor. The new Specialist Design Studio is combining with Forge World as well, making me wonder if most of the current Forge World products will show up on the main GW website shortly.

By having a dedicated studio just for specialist games means those designers won’t be splitting time with the other studios, so any fear of divided attention should be non-existent. The studio is being head up by Tony Cottrel the head of Forge World, and it looks like GW wants a flexible division able to produce products in months not years. If the new studio is given the same freedom Forge World received we can expect great products to come.

Now lets get to my personal fantasy concerning this stupendous news, by getting ahead of ourselves. I want an interconnected system between all the Specialists Games and Warhammer 40k proper. What I mean by this isn’t universal rules for every game, but in keeping with GW hobby over competitive bent, this is the best opportunity to create a campaign system using as many Specialist Games as possible.

Imagine for a second, playing Battlefleet Gothic as the start to some planetary invasion, followed by Epic to play out the large scale battles, then normal 40k for specialized missions having specific effects on the larger engagements, you could even throw in Adeptus Titanicus. If you want to stretch things even further, Necromunda and Inquisitor could play out some critical side story to the larger drama. All GW has to do is take the format of the existing campaign books like Shield of Baal or the Badab War and expand it to include the other games.

Ultimately, I just want a generic rules system to create such a campaign, a Planetary Empires on crack you could say. If we are wishing, let us throw in a global campaign like times of yore, but with mobile app tech to bring it to the present.

As always, a boy can dream and I am sure GW will find some way to crush expectations, but for the moment the new CEO is doing a lot right at least when it comes to the Grim Dark Future. We won’t know anything though until we see the old/new games start coming out, but I never think it is too early to think about the possibilities. At least Forge World seems to be taking the lead in this endeavor, and with any luck they will be up to the task, as long as everything is in plastic… fingers crossed!