Games Workshop hits the panic button, temporarily shuts down Warhammer site after scalpers descend upon it with 'abominable intelligence' and bots

Scalpers are a menace in a lot of hobbies, not just in the realm of gaming hardware and paraphernalia. Still, they've been especially bad here in recent years. Flipping phantom graphics cards, snapping up special editions, and ruining cute exhibits meant for children. Games Workshop, the company behind Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, are certainly no exception to this rule: If you want to release a thing, scalpers'll probably ruin it.

The thing in question this time is the special edition of Siege of Terra: Era of Ruin, which is the latest instalment in the Horus Heresy (now the Siege of Terra) books. Games Workshop opened up pre-orders via a queue system on its website, designed to stop scalpers armed with armies of bots spoiling the whole thing.

Then scalpers armed with armies of bots spoiled the whole thing. On the same day, Games Workshop hit the panic button and took its entire website down to stem the tide (thanks, Wargamer). As an official post on the company's Facebook reads:

"You might have noticed that we've paused Warhammer.com for a short period—here's why:

"Today we launched our pre-order for the much-anticipated special edition of Siege of Terra: Era of Ruin anthology. Unfortunately, scalpers attempted to use bots to bypass our normal safeguards."

The bots, which the post later calls an "abominable intelligence if there ever was one"—comparing these bots to the Silica Animus which is, and I mean this lovingly, a dunk that only people whose bedrooms smell of mini paint will get—forced Games Workshop to pull the plug.

"We're pausing the launch of Era of Ruin and have removed it from Warhammer.com for the time being. Don't worry, it's still coming—we're just absolutely determined that real fans get it. All erroneous orders are being purged. This is our number one priority."

Fans looking to get a leather-bound anthology can instead sign up for an emailing list to find out when "the re-launch happens".

The Horus Heresy is one of Games Workshop's most prolific series, with over 60(!) books comprising the entire saga. This one in particular's an anthology, with tales from a whole regiment of prior authors featured in the Horus Heresy—and it's slated to come out in July. Whether anyone'll be able to get their hands on a special edition, though, only the Omnissiah knows.