Beasts of War 2014 Gaming Awards: Finals Night
January 4, 2015 by dignity
So it all comes down to this! Welcome to the Finals Night where we're going to be running through each of the categories and their finalists then announcing the true winners of the Beasts of War Awards 2014!
This has been an awesome project for us to work on at Beasts of War and it literally would not have been possible without the help of you as a community. You answered the survey, you gave us the nominations, you narrowed down the finalists!
These are your choices as a community and we hope that you've enjoyed each of these shows working up to tonight. Hopefully YOUR choice made it all the way to winning the big prize!
Tune in on the days below at 18:00/6pm GMT to watch each of our nomination shows to find out the finalists and then the results show on Sunday 4th of January 2015...
1st January - Sculpt, Painting & Sci-Fi
2nd January - Fantasy & Accessory
3rd January - Pulp, Punk, Horror Or Weird & Historical
4th January - Finals Night!
Talk about the awesome nominations below!
![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
Finals night!
dom-dom-dom….
dom-dom…
No Spoilers here please for a couple of hours so people can check out the show.
Congrats to all of the winners. Congrats to Warren, Lloyd, Justin, Sam, and John for a job well done.
Yep, definitely better than the Oscars!
Certainly more professional and entertaining. Well done all at BoW.
What was the piece of music you were using please?
It was “DUM-ta-te-ta-TA-te-tadeta… repeat etc” 😉
Most droll…………; )
Great show, great winners, great production. I get the feeling just by wearing tuxidos you guys aspired to another level professionalism. Don’t get me wrong I love all the shouting and banthering and giggling, which is normally around. Please don’t change that. But this showed how serious you guys can be and how dedicated you are to our hobby world.
Thank you and onward to an awesome 2015!
Only Fantasy did not really go as I called it
Superb.
Spoiler-laden comment, so be warned. Although why you would read comments before watching the show I’ll never understand…
Sculpting – Didn’t think this was much of a competition to be honest. That Horus piece is just too good.
Painting – Not to take anything away from Mr. Giraldez as he has more talent in his pinky than I do in my entire body but I can’t shake the feeling he won in part due to fanboyism. The Kum Riders are nice but there is just so much more love, care, and artistry in the Enchantress IMO. Maybe the scenic base proved to be too distracting for others. Would suggest creating a separate category for dioramas next year so people can vote for the painting piece strictly on the painting and another on the piece as a whole.
Sci-Fi – Never a doubt in my mind. Infinity was just on too much fire this year.
Fantasy – Was very surprised by this one. I know Warmahordes has a massive following but I really thought the excitement of 5ed would seal the win.
Accessory – Another big surprise. I thought Battlzones really hit all the right notes but I can see why people may prefer to have terrain pieces that they don’t have to paint.
PPHW – No surprises there. Malifaux FTW.
Historical – I was less sure about this category than any others. Figured it would be Bolt Action though given how many people have expressed love/interest in it.
All in all a great set of shows. That was very enjoyable. I think there is some room for a few more categories next time around. Thank you gentlemen!
excellent show guys.
Great show.
A great finish to a fantastic year for all of the companies, I can’t wait to see what the new year brings!
Big thanks to the Beasts of War team for putting this all together, you guys make our time in the hobby that bit more special so thank you guys & girls!
Awesome work guys. I’ve followed your progress this year with interest, while enjoying the great content at the same time.
I was tempted by the free 7 day trial you introduced and decided to stay on to give you guys something back in return.
Good luck in 2015, I hope you guys do just as well there as last, you have earned it in my book. So in the famous words of our hos.. “ROCK ON”. lol …. at least he didn’t say it was a ‘stunning’ year 😉
Good show. Be interesting to know how many votes there were.
Great series of videos, I think as a both a concept and level of production this is the best thing you have done so far.
Great show guys, Warren seems to be very happy about 40k not getting to finals.
Surprised yes
Happy no
Did leave me puzzled
I wasn’t surprised it was voted for by the community, GW don’t communicate with the community. In contrast the other finalists do. Most of them have been on the show at some point over the year.
Completely agree. Despite the insane release schedule and quite a lot of technically highly proficient kits, the rule sets aren’t all that well maintained and there is simply zero feedback or interaction with the community though.
I really expect hybrid games and small-mid level skirmish games to take the lead in the future, not in the least as they’re generally so much easier to get into and to get 1-2 buddies along and at a reasonable expense.
yes there is a real hunger to game in a lot of different genres these days so small games will do well, communications are paramount it doesn’t take long for the word to get round when there is something good out there sadly bad news travels faster. I’m sure there are people who have strong opinions about GW and have never had anything do with them.
WFB performed well in the fantasy section, so it can’t just be because of a lack of communication from GW. I think Justin is probably right, 40K lost out because the competition is strong. Infinity and X-Wing in particular are very strong right now and I suspect a lot of people who bear no ill will to 40K and possibly even play it, decided another game was more worthy of the award. There isn’t quite the same competition in the fantasy category, so even though WFB is a less popular game than 40K, it was still able to place highly.
Agreed. I think it has become rather clear that, at least in the foreseeable future, skirmish games are where our hobby is heading. It is all time and money.
I think it is no coincidence that in both the sci-fi and fantasy genres GW lost to skirmish level games (even though Warmahordes is pushing the envelope with the term skirmish). GW’s business strategy still relies on people buying and collecting large armies, which worked 10 years ago when their dominance was virtually unopposed.
But as Justin points out there is such diversity in the community now. Mass battle is a hard sell to a new player when there are so many games that offer a lower bar of entry. And veteran games are just as likely, if not more likely, to invest and try out a new game system than they are to start a whole new 40k army.
could also be that Warhammer has a more cosier image than 40K . Agreed the competition is strong for 40k and from from in my opinion at the moment better games. I read and hear so much about what’s wrong with the game of 40K and it would appear to fall on deaf ears.
I think, in my humble opinion, that 40k didn’t get into the final 4 because, well, it didn’t really deserve to be there. That’s not a dig at 40k because I love 40k and I’m not ashamed to admit it. But what did 40k really achieve in 2014 compared to 4 finalilsts?
Dropzone Commander added a totally new faction, remade huge chunks of their existing range in hard plastic as well as starting to produce amazing artwork to really show off the game world. Lets also not forget the very strong hints of further expanding their universe with a sibling game in the future with their spaceship display at Salute! What a massive year for Dropzone Commander which has been reflected in huge growth in the game.
Infinity has undergone quite a major facelift and the guys at Corvus Belli have developed a very impressive and unique visual style to the game in terms of artwork, painting styles and the direction of the sculpts. On top of that they’ve released one of the best two player starter sets on the market as well as a new rules-set. Another thing that I think mayt have been overlooked is the way Corvus Belli have put Infinity out there by effectivey licensing 3rd parties to create compatible accessories and scenery using the Infinity Trademark. Just a quick look at their website shows you how many other companies are benefiting from this: Antenociti’s workshop, Microart Studio, PlastCraft, Warsenal, Bandua anc Customeeple all have “designed for infinity” ranges which have grown significantly over the last 12 months and which are directly endorsed by Corvus Belli via their website. Personally I think that this is a HUGE thing and is a very start contrast to the somewhat insular nature of 40k – it’s a very refreshing outlook for a company to have and it’s very good for the industry in general. Let’s also not forget the announcement of an Infinity RPG coming to kick starter this year, again licensed to a 3rd party.
Deadzone exploded on kickstarter and really I think it’s success blew everyone away. I haven’t played the game so I can’t really comment too much on it’s qualities as a game but some of the things it’s brought to the table are amazing. It’s got a fantastic “generic” scenery range that’s compatible with pretty much any sci-fi game you can imagine, it’s got a fairly low entry cost and it’s got a universe that’s rapidly expanding in terms of depth (background and lore) and width (model range and of course, other games)
X-Wing has been a runaway success and gone from strength to strength in 2014. It’s incredibly to pick up in terms of rules, cost and effort and it’s got some really unique and fun elements to the game such as the movement system.
So when you look at the achievements of those games in 2014, I think you can see why 2014 was their year, and not 40k’s which has, by and large, maintained an even keel which isn’t a bad thing but nor is it “award wortÿ”
We can also look at Warhammer Fantasy as a comparison. The End Times has completely changed the face of the game and introduced some new ways of fielding armies (combined Elves, combined Undead etc). There’s a new sense of excitement to a game that at the start of 2014 was really flagging so to me it’s no surprise that it did better in it’s category that 40k did. There is one other thing to consider here as well – the competition in Best Science Fiction Game was much fiercer than for Best Fantasy Game.
I don’t want to take anything away from 40k, it’s a great game, it’s got an amazing setting and some stunning miniatures, but I don’t think it did anything particularly outstanding in 2014 compared to previous years. The finalists certainly did that, especially DZC and Infinity. The interesting thing for me will be to see how these games continue to grow and improve and to see how (or even if) Games Workshop and 40k respond to the competition.
It’s a bit sad but I’m not surprised as a few weeks back I went into my local GW and noticed a lack of players from the last time I came by. The staff was rather blunt and straightforward with his response. “Well 40k has had a falling out with the gamers.” I asked please explain what you mean? “Ever since they came out with the new edition of the rules it smacked of money grab and bad rulemaking. That was the final straw for most player.”
So Warren there you have it. GW killed the cow that fed them, so I’m not surprised one bit that 40k rated so low as the makers of it did an ass of a job making it unpopular. Much like 4th edition almost killed D&D.
I think that many 40k players consider other games superior in rules and balance and plays 40k because the availability in opponents and events is much better in many areas. So people play and love 40k but as a game the players find other games better in many ways. It is better to play a “poorer” game that still give you lots of fun but when you want and with people you like than play a “better” game more seldom but with greater joy.
Did that even make sense?
I see a lot of this ’40k as a seecong game, they still love it…’ etc. Also Warren talked about this. I’m sure there are some people who think like this but generalising this is wishful thinking. Some people hate 40k with passion as another edition of bad, money grabbing rules and new boring codices without balance put them off from a world they used to love.
My whole 40k community just dropped it together at once, no slow death just ‘f*** this crap’. We enjoy some good games now and don’t lack of events or anything.
I’m happy to see the winners, I’m sure they are happt with achieving this and hope that this motivates them to be even better!
If I had been in Vegas I would have bet a ton of money 40K would have won. Thankfully I wasn’t, big shocker.
Really enjoyed that guys well done, all the best for the new year.
I think the real winners are all of us, as we get to play with all this shiny goodness.
On that note also a big thank you to you guys at Beasts of War for a great show, a great year and for making my painting times a little more awesome with your content! I wish you a great 2015.
great show, great winners, great hosts time well spent roll on next? this years nominee’s
Long post. I promise no spoilers …
I guess the big headline is the lack of Wh40k.
I think this is tremendous news. Not from a GW-bashing sense, but from a health of the competition sense. I’m so not GW-bashing that I’m even thinking of getting into 40k for the first time in ages. Since getting more 40k info from Youtube and less from the US-based rumour sites, it’s looked a lot more fun.
40k aside …
I’ve no quarrel with any of the winners – I’m surprised at how many were actually my choices. After checking what I’d painted this year (way over 2/3 historical) and my plans for next year, I’m particularly delighted with the winner in the historical category.
The voting was very difficult in 2014 and I predict it’ll be even more difficult in 2015. Time’s are a-changing and this hobby is just getting better!
Great show, fellas. Goodonyers for surviving a tough year. Hoping this year’s a bit easier on youse all.
Great show guys. Great content all year. Very emotional ending to the show. Blame the drink.
Thank you BOW for a great 2014 and this excellent Award Show!!!
Great shows guys.
It was hard to pick just one thing for each cartegorie. Sci-fi was and fantasy was a very hard choice, because i love all of the games 😉
Paintjobs and sculpt… That was a very hard, to only choose one.
Great show, hands down better than the Oscars( as I didn’t bother to watch them). I for one like to see the shift towards historical gaming as I have been doing that myself. I for one loved seeing a Sci Fi category without 40K as a finalist. It shows just how robust the industry has become. It was a good year for gaming. Not only did we get some great new games but the peripherals went crazy(terrain,paint,materials,tools,etc). I really like the way your show focus on aspects of the hobby.
@warzan you really going to do some Saga ? Any particular faction take your fancy ?
I got the impression it might be Vikings lol
possibly but I kind of got the impression any half naked lunatic with a big Axe would do 🙂
Lol
A proffessional show gents, very proffessional. Thank you for a great 2014 and good luck in 2015. I’ll happily be following this channel!
Well done BoW, thank you for this wonderful award production.
I was surprised by a couple of the results, but I am mainly a historical gamer and have not the exposure or experience to comment ( planning to do the opposite to Warren and look into Syfi or steam punk!).
As BoW is showing the community though the excellent airbrush guides and tutorials on how to achieve greatness with such tools, I did not think the voting volume would be there to get air color into the finalists ( was I wrong! Yep!).
The other was the paint final, there will possibly be many comments on this but, my view is maybe to have another category for painted figure/ unit, to use on the wargame table or board as well as the delectable, exquisite figures that will only grace a display cabinet?
Again, thank you BoW team, and Happy 2015.
Without further adoo…….. I’d just like to thank you all for your hard work on this and for all you do for us as a community cheers lads!
Really enjoyed this. The awards were very exciting to watch. I would be interested to see if any of the nominees/winners have anything to say (sorta lie an acceptance speech). I would like to see the companies/individual’s reactions.
Angel was so happy he posted on Facebook…
I’m sure that is all to come soon. I cant imagine any of the fantastic winning companies not wanting to express their gratitude to the community.
who got the text at 49 minutes in? come on boys own up :p
The 4ground win isn’t a a surprise when when, upon first viewing the Inn, your wallet goes straight to “here you go mate” instead even trying to pretend to complain.
“By Fire and Sword” is an interesting win, in a good way. Strikes me as a product produced by folks in Poland and other Eastern European locales invoking a DIY aesthetic and saying “If the Western Europeans are going to skip our historical gaming potential, we’ll do it ourselves.” And it looks well done and triggers my historical ear worm…
Whoops, I meant By Fire and Sword nomination.
A fantastic show to finish off the series, and a fantastic recap and celebration of developments in gaming in 2014.
Over the last 10 years I’ve branched out from GW into many other games – fantasy, SF, historical, weird/punk/horror, etc. as well as become far more interested in terrain and painting and modelling accessories. And it seems many others have gone on a similar journey.
It’s been really fun to be a part of the BoW community (I joined Backstage shortly after rediscovering BoW in 2014) which has really brought all these different aspects together.
Keep up the good work. I can’t wait to see what 2015 brings us!
Great show guys!!!!!
Really not surprised about 40K; though disappointed. They have no communication with community and attack some people that were actually giving them publicity and community exposure. All the other companies are going to the people who buy their product for info and reaping the benefits!
I think its simpler than that. 40K just isnt a very good game. Don’t get me wrong, I love 40K, play it (not always the latest version, we like 2nd a lot) quite a lot too, but as a set of game rules it does not stand up to comparison with others. Its too vague, poorly written and relies too much on ‘roll a d6’ to overcome bad design.
Its been far too reliant on the setting and the models for a long time, and I think when compared to the other nominees, they are just better designed games.
Happy New Year!!! Great show guys, so glad to have you back! We have missed you all 🙂
One more nomination to be made: The best awards show of 2014 goes to [pause to open the envelope] . . . the Beasts of War team for this fantastic production! [play the theme music!]
Seriously, everyone. Great job. Congratulations on all your success and growth in 2014 and best wishes for more of the same in 2015 and beyond. 🙂
Great show! thank you Beast of war guy’s for all your hard work and I’m gad to see Bolt action and infinity won, two games I love playing
That was brilliant, nice one guys!
I really like the Oscars tone that you went for; to be honest, I thought that it was going to be the usual Weekender mucking about (which is great!), but with suits. Instead, we got something pretty darn close to the wargames version of the Oscars – mission successful!
I was surprisingly excited every time Warren opened a golden envelope (so glad that wasn’t hammed up X-Factor stylee), genuinely pleased for some well deserved wins for people. Angel seemed to be rather pleased on Facebook!
Personally I only play 40k, so as a result I didn’t feel justified in voting for it since I didn’t really know what the other games were like, so I abstained in the sci-fi section, and I think a lot of other 40k only players may have felt the same, and abstained as well. Meaning most of the voters in best sci-fi where people who had played a lot of games, and that 40k didn’t stand out amongst the ones they had played.
Interesting perspective!
That’s an interesting point, although I’m sure some people voted on the only game that they played in each category – which would by default be the best I suppose! 🙂
Great show, an absolute pleasure to watch. I wasn’t too surprised at any of the winners either. My only criticism (and I hope its a constructive one) is that the categories run the risk of having exactly the same nominees next year if you do this again.
First time through, best sci fi game, best fantasy game etc was really interesting to see what people were voting for, but a year from now I’d be more interested to see categories for the best products released in 2015.
How about best game supplement/expansion for example? I would have liked to have nominated Forgeworld’s Horus heresy books, but there wasn’t an obvious category for them. They’re not games but it feels wrong to lump them in with the paints and terrain in the accessories section.
So brilliant job guys and I’d love to see more categories next time.
We decided to down our beers every time Warren described something as ‘fabulous’. I am now in hospital.
Great show and as others have comments looks real professional with all the gold and tuxes. 🙂
Speaking for myself thanks to BoW I’ve been looking at a lot of other games than the traditional GW ones in 2014. I think you guys play a large role in the growth of the industrie. So thanks.
Just one thing; What is Justin doing in the still? That thing he is doing with his mouth is giving me the creeps, reminds me of a zombie. Or maybe I’ve been watching too much the walking dead. 😀
I was thinking post dental appointment with plenty of Novocaine.
Great show. A couple of surprises for me.
Will there be a bloopers/outtakes show for the backwaters?
Awesome stuff guys loved every minute, goooo Bolt Action 🙂
As always, amazing work everyone! I eagerly look forward to what BoW will do in 2015!
I think 2015 will be a bigger year.
Spangled tuxedos required 🙂
Great show guys, really enjoyed it!
If I could make one suggestion for next year, why not take another page out of the award show book, and have some kind of very brief ‘thankyou’ message from the winner in each category, perhaps a vid of them holding that horrible troll-head trophy thing?
Would be really nice for the best sculptor/painter etc and for loads of hobbyists to put a face to the name, but even for the rules writers for the best-voted game perhaps?
Otherwise a great idea for the show – think the industry, which has now grown so much, needs this kind of thing!
Good Show guys
I have a couple of thoughts
1. Painting cat. ..think this should be more based on community paint jobs… I don’t follow the international painting competitions so had no clue who these guys were. I have seen some brilliant paint jobs from guys on here.
2. Not surprised on the historical win for Bolt Action… none of the others stood a chance…lol
Well done, Guys! I’m really happy to see Malifaux get the PPH&W title. Now I just have to get my Rasputina set together!
Glad Vallejo didn’t pick up the award, they’ve been having real problems with their quality control as of late. Seems every other bottle I’ve bought in the past 2-3 months (from different stores) has been congealed. Ordered a half dozen bottles of their brand new Game Air, just got them today… 4 of the 6 bottles were unusable, and I’m scared to try the other 2 for fear of it clogging my air brush.
Out of interest, does anyone at BoW know what kind of volume the shows received in terms of voting numbers?
Great shows…great production….great nominees…..great way to start the year….thank you Beasties.
Thoroughly enjoyed watching this show, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with some of the decisions (for me the best paint jobs were the Contemptor Dread and the Enchantress, but hey ho, it’s a public vote fairly won). I think the only thing left to say is that the award for Best Gaming News site for 2014 goes too… Beasts Of War. You were good in 2013 but to have suffered the setback that you did at the end of 2013 and go from there to where you are now is nothing short of outstanding. Well done, keep up the good work and I can’t wait to see what 2015 brings.
Some points on the “Best Accessory” category, I felt it was possibly a little to broad. Given the quality and volume of new terrain that is coming out and the fact that there are companies who are specialising purely in wargaming terrain, it would seem much more sensible to give them a category all of their own. Terrain isn’t an accessory for wargaming, it’s almost a necessity and in the same way as trying to list scuplts by sculptor in 2015, I think it would definitely be worth giving credit where it’s due to the terrain makers who, in 2014, have seem some phenominal advances.
As for Best Accessory, I might further split it into best Gaming accessory and best Hobby accessory, so things like Technical Paints, Airbrush Paints and the flock box would appear in their own category and things like BattleFoam, laser guided tape measures (how awesome does that sound?) etc would be in their own category. I found it hard to really compare things like the 4ground inn to the vallejo game air because their function is so vastly different.