Gamers, Doin’ it for themselves!

So an interesting topic came up the other night during our club’s weekly painting session and I thought it’d be interesting to get everyone else’s opinion on it too.  The topic of discussion was:  ‘Is Forgeworld Legal and should it be allowed in Tournaments?’  I strongly believe that it should and the reasons why are as follows.

1. For: ‘It’s our hobby’ – We’ve been told time and time again by Games Workshop that this is our hobby and we should do what we want to with it.  I can appreciate the security in knowing that List X or Unit Y have been vetted by the GW team and they have deemed it worthy of the rubber stamp of officialdom but seriously, do you really think that all these army books / codices are play tested to death to ensure that everything is fair and even?  If you do, I’ve got three things to say to you:

                                                               i.      Army Book: Daemons of Chaos

                                                             ii.      Codex: Blood Angels

                                                            iii.      Codex: Grey Knights

The fact is Forgeworld consistently releases test rules that players can download for free (FREE!), test out in their own games of 40K and Fantasy at home and provide feedback to the designers for moderation. Forgeworld is not above changing the rules for something if there is sufficient reason to. Just ask Carl and Geoff at the Independent Characters.

2. For: ‘Warhammer is not designed to be a Tournament game’.  This should be no surprise to anyone as GW has been making this statement for as long as I can remember (and probably longer as many Warhammer Veterans can most likely attest to).  The fact of the matter is gamers themselves have been making alterations to rules and army composition for years so making a decision on whether to allow Forgeworld units (with or  without certain exceptions to the rules) should be no great leap in all honesty.  There are many tournaments in the US that allow Forgeworld units so long as they don’t possess Mass/ Structure Points.  

3. Against: ‘If GW made Forgeworld official, people would be able to buy FW Armies without fear of not being able to use them in Tournaments’.  My counterpoint to that is this:  There’s nothing that Forgeworld makes that you can’t field as a ‘counts-as’ army using those miniatures.  Hell, I've seen entire other races being used as a ‘counts as’ army using the so-called “Official” GW model range.  The 40K ‘Orkquisition’ army comes to mind here.  At least with FW, you’re facing guardsmen that look like actual guardsmen, not Armoured Orks that are supposed to be a Space Marine.  

That being said, if you’re buying a Forgeworld army, then you’re probably not a power gamer who’s after the most powerful, killy-death army that can wipe your opponent off the table in 0.5 turns.  Forgeworld’s design concepts are heavily fluff-driven and their products are usually purchased by those people to whom this fluff appeals to, not WAAC (Win At All Costs) Gamers.  Honestly can you actually picture facing off against a player with his FW Death Korps of Krieg army with no heavy weapons bar Mortars yelling ‘WAAC! WAAC!’ at you as you smash him off the board with your own IG Mech Guard Army or your Draigowing Grey Knights?

4. Against: ‘If we allow FW units, then where do we draw the line?  Do we allow Fandexes?’  My answer to this is simple:  It’s up to the Tournament Organiser to make that decision.  There’s no all-seeing all-knowing organisation that is going to make you allow Army Books / Codices you don’t want to allow.  This comes back to point 1:  IF YOU DON’T WANT TO DO IT, YOU DON’T HAVE TO.  IT’S YOUR HOBBY!!  If you decide you want to allow FW Chaos Dwarves to be used in Warriors of Chaos Armies, or even allow the use of the Chaos Dwarf Fandex, then you’re well within your rights to do so.  So long as the Tournament Pack makes it clear that the army is allowed (and being used) and they TO doesn't have a problem with it, then why not?  I can think of two groups off hand - The Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forum and the Codex Project that work tirelessly to produce well designed, Fandexes that undergo rigorous play-testing and review by the 40K and Fantasy communities alike before they are posted as a finished product.  If I were a betting man, I’d make the wager that these Fan works are probably more thoroughly play tested than many of GW’s own works.  If such a thing was true (and the potential for it to be is there), it would be very disappointing to say the least.

Now I leave you all to have your own discussions on the topic.  I hope that my contributons on this area have provoked some new thoughts regarding Forgeworld and possibly Fandexes, and I hope that you have a look at the two sites I mentioned above. 

Catch you all Later

Trev