Endless Assets

Endless Assets

The shift from hand-sculpting to digital render has obviously meant many positive things for modern miniatures, it’s been a massive step forward in detail sculpting.

But as digital kills the Perry Twin stars, we see problems that pop up in other digital spaces like the lazy re-use of assets (something that video game critic Jim Sterling calls “asset flips”). As GW increases model output, it's become more and more visible, nowhere more so than with Endless Spells.

Endless Spells

It's not surprising that design laziness crops up with endless spells. Along with Terrain, these are kits use lower quality plastics that GW can manufacture outside of their coveted Nottingham factory space. This means that GW was able to release new models for factions as niche as Flesh-eater Courts or Fyreslayers. Spells 'n' terrain may be a consolation prize, but look at how GW treats its Xenos players in 40k. It's the difference between a shitty card from Tesco Express and the grim realization that mum forgot your birthday again.

Hold onto your assets?

Reusing assets isn’t inherently bad. The multitudes of dead Primaris that litter the bases of cooler models don’t need to be sculpted as bespoke corpses, which can only be a good thing. And if you’re sculpting a Slaaneshi portal with Keeper of Secrets looming out, why not just re-use a file from the Keeper of Secrets kit? Repetition gives the range a degree of consistency.

Red ghosts make project go fasta

However, repetition also dilutes the sense of scale and variation the lore tries to imply. And it’s downright lazy when you’ve got copy-pasted spell effects like the Nighthaunt and Flesh-Eater court spells below. The infinite variation of arcane chaos manifests in the same way each time? A NH vs FEC match risks players taking home each other's endless spell by mistake, like mini Lindsey Lohans in GW’s sick version of The Parent Trap.

Simplified Endless Spelling Board

It’s interesting to note how varied the amount of “original assets” in the endless spell packs is. In the Malign Sorcery or Sylvaneth endless spell packs, there are models quite unlike anything else in the range: Pac-Man designed by Todd MacFarlane and a tree designed by Georgia O'Keeffe.

Pac-Man designed by Todd MacFarlane & a tree designed by Georgia O'Keeffe

In others, there’s conspicuous asset re-use, like the Fyreslayers' spell MAGMIC INVOCATION^TM which is just the prismatic palisade with some runes stapled on. Other kits come off worse. The Tzeentch ones are a particularly wasted opportunity. Endless spells were a great opportunity to represent Tzeentch’s central theme on the tabletop.

The changer’s MAIN FOCUS is magic, so what beautifully horrific abstractions do his disciples cast? Lord of change heads, apparently. Each of the three Tzeentchian endless spells are just existing assets (LoC heads, a book from the Flaming Chariot kit and a Tzeentchian banner sigil) with some fire effects. You've seen more Lovecraftian No Fear apparel.

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The Slaanesh spells hardly come off better. While the Mesmirizing Mirror seems an original sculpt (though grasped by a re-used Keeper of Secrets claw), the Dreadful Vissage is a blown up Daemonette head (a size it was clearly never meant to look good at) with Hellstrider whip barbs for a tongue. Then, The Wheels of Excruciation are literally just the bladed wheels from the Hellflayer thrown together. At least those will successfully intimate anyone who has tried to put one of those fucking things together...

WHY THE FUCK IS THERE NO FOOT OF GORK

If you think back to the Cities of Sigmar and Orruk Warclans release, those were notable for being the only two Age of Sigmar second edition Battletomes to get neither new models nor a new terrain and/or endless spell kit. When you look at the amount of reused assets in some of those endless spell packs, you wonder if that was due to a lack of candidates for CAD cannibalism.

I mean, how else do you explain the fact that GW decided to physically represent spells on the tabletop... AND DIDN'T FUCKING MAKE A FUCKING FOOT OF FUCKING GORK?! Yeah, it's only the most iconic Warhammer spell of all time. I wonder if they tried slapping an orc foot on a base in 10x scale but decided that was a step too far.