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Sgt. Cortez wrote:
I feel like Imperial Guard players / collectors are a very special kind of people, because they're the only ones in threads like these (or show your army treads) to line up stupid amounts of Minis and tanks, like they want to invade a country or something. I've not seen that many Ork or Tyranid armies (or
... Space Marines) of that size you guys rock!

When a player is addicted to a 2nd Ed metal Imperial Guard army, they tend to laugh at discussions over plastic 'monopose' (or not) Imperial Guard armies looking a bit repetitive.

I have seven basic trooper variants!

Two sergeants!

One Officer!

The same problem applies. I try to mix the various poses between squads, because too many of one pose in the same unit looks weird.

No unopened kits for me, but I also don't purchase boxes I don't plan to assemble & paint within 6 months. That's my rule for keeping a clear backlog.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
I feel like Imperial Guard players / collectors are a very special kind of people, because they're the only ones in threads like these (or show your army treads) to line up stupid amounts of Minis and tanks, like they want to invade a country or something. I've not seen that many Ork or Tyranid armies (or
... Space Marines) of that size you guys rock!

I was thinking the same thing. Nobody excessively carpets a battlefield like guard players. They are reliable like that. The table will break before the guard will!

Not that other army’s players can’t do similar. I’ve got more marines then sense. But it’s not the same level.

 Nevelon wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
I feel like Imperial Guard players / collectors are a very special kind of people, because they're the only ones in threads like these (or show your army treads) to line up stupid amounts of Minis and tanks, like they want to invade a country or something. I've not seen that many Ork or Tyranid armies (or
... Space Marines) of that size you guys rock!

I was thinking the same thing. Nobody excessively carpets a battlefield like guard players. They are reliable like that. The table will break before the guard will!

Not that other army’s players can’t do similar. I’ve got more marines then sense. But it’s not the same level.

I can't explain it. I just kept collecting guard stuff, long past the point where I could even play it all at once. I also have space marines, and not only do I have more Guard models, but also more points of guard. I think at one point I decided having a complete infantry company was the goal, although of course in the fluff an infantry company ranges from under a hundred to over a thousand. I settled on the old 6 platoons of five squads each model. I still have more than 30 squads through!

I'd say that a deliberate choice to leave a box unopened (for the purpose of collecting) is a different thing from the just not bothering to open the box before stuffing it in the closet and moving on to something else talked about elsewhere in the thread

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
I'd say that a deliberate choice to leave a box unopened (for the purpose of collecting) is a different thing from the just not bothering to open the box before stuffing it in the closet and moving on to something else talked about elsewhere in the thread

Agreed.
Buying with the intent of using (even if at a latter time) and then just never getting around to it; is totally different from buying and intending never to use something.

Even if, functionally, you end up with the same unopened unmolested box in the cupboard.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
The same problem applies. I try to mix the various poses between squads, because too many of one pose in the same unit looks weird.

I'm the opposite, if there's anywhere that several people in the same pose make sense, it's a 19th C army.

10 guys shooting from shoulder, 10 guys kneeling, 10 guys charging, it all makes sense since the whole point of an army is to get people to act as one.

The problem is when you have a squad with one guy aiming, one guy jumping off a rock screaming, and one guy sort of shooting his weapon from the hip.

I certainly have some stuff unopened, but usually that is because I have an opened version right next to it, so I know what is in the box. No need to open that SM Rhino or its six stablemates when you know what a Rhino sprue looks like.

More unique stuff like DoW or something has been opened many times to gaze on the otherwise untouched glory. (and with old metal boxes there was often a certain degree of randomness about the specific figures included)

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
So this came in the Old World thread and should be moved elsewhere, what percentage of GW kits (or minis in general) are never opened

Note that what I wrote was:

Cyel wrote:
I usef to run a wargaming school club for GW target audience - boys in their early teens. They together* outpurchased any adult players I'd known in my 30y history of playing miniature wargames but a vast majority of them limited themselves to buying some boxes, being excited about buying them for a short period of time, assembling some, painting even less, pretending to play an actual game with them and then putting them at the bottom of their closet never to look at them again.

So yes, I think the majority of GW sold items rests at the bottom of teenage boys' closets, still in sprues


*- that's to say that for all the adult "whales" I knew over the years I had ten+ such boys in the club every year

So "still in sprues". Not exactly "never opened".

Also: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/gamers-only-20-percent-of-games-workshops-customers/

So I guess only a few people who own models are in a hurry to get them to the tabletop before their broken rules expire

Cyel wrote:
Also: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/gamers-only-20-percent-of-games-workshops-customers/

So I guess only a few people who own models are in a hurry to get them to the tabletop before their broken rules expire

Were those alleged statements from the company from the Kirby era? The era where they also admitted they did zero consumer feedback surveys and other stuff. Cause its got to be really hard to judge the breakdown of your customerbase when you don't actually harvest customer feedback in a big way.

Cyel wrote:
Also: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/gamers-only-20-percent-of-games-workshops-customers/

So I guess only a few people who own models are in a hurry to get them to the tabletop before their broken rules expire

Yeah, I didn't take those #s seriously when that article was new & I still don't.

It might be truer to say that of the customers that buy at GW stores, only 20% of them then play at those GW stores. That might be a more accurate block of data that could be harvested even if you weren't doing any direct customer surveys.


Which of course means that you're writing off every school, home, local club and game event.

> So I guess only a few people who own models are in a hurry to get them to the tabletop before their broken rules expire

If you've heard the boardgaming term, "Cult of the New" or have been on KS, it's pretty evident that there are a lot of boardgamers who buy quite a few games, but never play them, play them only once, or don't scratch the surface of the KS haul they've purchased. Of course, we're no longer talking about "never opened", so I'm just commenting on the article.

Then there are the Magic players. Sets are rotated out, so GW isn't alone in planned obsolescence. While tournament players will open their packs, the tournament deckbuilding model assumes some cards won't even be played. Meanwhile, collectors are buying Magic by the $100+ box.

And, as for roleplayers, it's not hard to find someone who has hardbacks of multiple systems, and deluxe coffee-table RPG hardbacks with non-gaming artwork are pretty common. The nature of RPG's was, at least originally, that you played one system as your character develops, suggesting that, if you did play the RPG's you bought, you couldn't own more than a handful of them.

Now, if only I could find storage for all these boardgames, Magic cards, roleplaying books, and miniatures and paint supplies I somehow acquired...