Yes, that’s right folks, the MoD in all it’s trollish glory has pulled an April 1st prank on you all.
The “Gowk Hunting” Warhammer 40,000 Organised Play kit is a hoax.
There is no such kit.
Wizkids did not provide us with a “sneak peek”, no MoD exclusive, in fact the likelihood of us getting blocked by the good folk at Wizkids has increased after this epic jape.
We were not alone in this endeavour; it has been a brewing conspiracy for months and we deserve only a third of your ire. The fine esteemed gentlemen of ‘Dice Masters with James & Zack’ and our man Jourdo over at ‘DM-North’ were key contributors to this elaborate ruse. Copy them into your angry letters too. 😉
Once we realised that we had a podcast episode going out on April 1st we felt it was too good an opportunity to miss and set to the nefarious business of preparing our little act of mischief.
Convention dictates that we reveal at midday – but with our intended audience across the world we hung on a bit longer to ‘fess up in the hope that our readers/listeners worldwide had an opportunity to be a part of the merriment.
Tell me – did you spot the clues?
Let’s start with the OP Kit name…
GOWK HUNTING
“Dinnae Laugh. Dinnae smile. Hunt the Gowk another mile”
‘Gowk Hunting’ is a play on an old fashioned Scottish name for April Fools Day – “HuntiGowk Day”. The tradition in Scotland was somewhat like hazing the noob at the office – you would send them on a Fool’s errand, along with a sealed note containing the above message, and have them get sent aimlessly from one location to another on an endless, unfulfillable task.
Kind of like the FLGS owners who are now searching for this pack on their pre-order sheet at your request, or the number of you who searched the internet for further mention of the spoilers… 😳
LUKAS STRIFESON
Pretty straight forward one to start with – we gave him the subtitle “Trickster” in honour of the “Trick” getting pulled. (Although that is his legit nickname in 40K lore TBF)
Did you also notice his stats on lvl 3? whether you write April 1st in the North American style or British style we’ve got you covered…
And finally – his game text is a little bit on the barmy side, innit? A 2 cost character that makes your opponent lose 2 life when you buy it. AND you can get his dice returned to the card. I know we’ve had some loopy things from Wizkids in the past but this is just crackers. AND on a promo with a unique dice that will be a mission to get Mx 5 of.
Definitely a run around this one. Many of you caught on when you read this particular OP gem.
VENERABLE DREADNAUGHT
Now you’re in the loop have a closer look. Can you see the clue?
Yep – that’s right – the subtitle is another reference to the 1st April.
IMPRISONED
I mean… c’mon… a re-print of ‘Imprisoned’ with an image obscuring whether the long needed ‘continuous’ key word has finally been added or not. I’m sure you got the joke at that point.
Or did you? It’s true that y’all probably know I despise this card, so this may have been the one card that gave the hoax some legitimacy – if I was to be party to the creation of a fake OP kit surely I wouldn’t include this card, right?
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Andy, James, Zack, Matt and I all trust (hope?) you took the prank in the spirit it was intended and we’ve not angered or frustrated anyone too much.
Please help spread the word that the kit isn’t real before too many people pester their local store to get it in or the Wizkids Rules Forum gets too bombarded with game-text clarifications on the filth that is ‘Imprisoned’.
Thanks to Jourdo, James & Zack for their help in putting this piece of foolish fun together.
See you in two weeks folks 🙂
