Last week Forge World put three new Blood Bowl items up for pre-order. These items included the Orcland Raiders Orc team (which was really just the boxed set Orcs with some resin pieces added to change their visual style slightly), the Goblin Secret Weapons pack (woohoo!), and the Gouged Eye neoprene pitch. I am a sucker for anything Blood Bowl related, so I made sure to get my order in early so as not be disappointed.

Now, it bears mentioning that I was keenly aware of the fact that this was not the first team themed neoprene pitch that Games Workshop announced. The March 2017 issue of White Dwarf displayed the following image in the corner of a page in their new releases section.

If you cannot read the small text, it says “Pre-order: Now.” Well… when I saw that, I immediately went to the Games Workshop site to pre-order it… but I did not see it. So then I went to the Forge World site to pre-order it… but I did not see it there either. Then I got online and started doing some searching. Reports started popping up that the advert had even been removed from the digital edition of that issue of White Dwarf. No explanation (at none that I ever saw) was given on why the pitch never materialized. We were all just left scratching our heads.

Well, with the start of the pre-order for the Gouged Eye neoprene pitch, I assumed that whatever issue they had run into with the Reavers pitch had been sorted out and we would finally get some team specific pitches. Sure enough, the Forge World site let me put the pitch into my shopping cart and complete my order.

That was one week ago, and today is the official release day for those three products. When my email chimed a few hours ago and the sender said, “Forge World,” I thought, “Woohoo! My shipping confirmation email. Goodies are on their way!” Then I noticed the subject line, which said,”An update for your Gouged Eye Orc Blood Bowl Neoprene Pitch order.” When I saw that, I had one of those, “No… no, no, no, no,” kind of moments. I opened the email and sure enough…

For those that might have issues with the image, the email reads:

“Hey there Michael,

We’re afraid we have some bad news about your recent pre-order for the Gouged Eye Orc Blood Bowl Pitch.

Quality is important to us and we think you deserve the best. We’re sorry to say that this product has not met with these high standards, so we’ve decided to remove it from sale.

We know you were likely looking forward to scoring some touchdowns on your new gridiron over the next few weeks, and we understand that this is frustrating.

So here’s what we’re going to do.

We’re going to fully refund you the cost of this product and any shipping you’ve paid on it. Then, we’re going to give you £25 to spend on whatever you like on the Forge World web store, in the form of a virtual gift voucher and you will find your voucher code below.”

The order page for the pitch now shows it “Sold Out” with the added “No Longer Available” tag, as well…

Now, I am not going to bash Games Workshop. If the product did not live up to their quality standards, I understand them not wanting to send the pitches out, and honestly, the refund PLUS an extra £25 voucher is a nice gesture of apology. I think they tried to do the right thing here, and I cannot fault them for that. I will, however, say that I am just bummed… I mean, I really did not NEED another pitch for Blood Bowl as I currently have six official pitches and a couple more unofficial pitches, but still like to get my hands on anything new that I can find for the game. Especially official products. The email states that the other items I ordered are shipping as normal, so it is not like I lost an entire order, but again… it is just a bummer.

At least I now have a free £25 to spend on whatever the next Forge World release for Blood Bowl is, whenever it is. I just seriously hope that if they put a neoprene pitch up for pre-order again, that they will actually deliver it. I am not mad this time, but I MIGHT be next time…