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I would hope that the specialty kit for the Mk.III would be breachers, it would fit best thematically. Mk.VI having assualt squad/despoilers fits well given the legions that were most indentified with use of the Mk.VI tended to be the ones that lean towards such units, like ravenguard.
That said, eventually they'll do a revised Mk.IV kit, and I'm not sure what sort of specialty variant they can do with it. Recon marines? You'd think Mk.VI would be recons and Mk.IV would get assualts
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2023/10/16 21:47:15
mithril2098 wrote: I would hope that the specialty kit for the Mk.III would be breachers, it would fit best thematically. Mk.VI having assualt squad/despoilers fits well given the legions that were most indentified with use of the Mk.VI tended to be the ones that lean towards such units, like ravenguard.
That said, eventually they'll do a revised Mk.IV kit, and I'm not sure what sort of specialty variant they can do with it. Recon marines? You'd think Mk.VI would be recons and Mk.IV would get assualts
Wasn't MkII and MkIII favoured by jump pack assault marines because it afforded more protection while bounding through gunfire to get up close? Or is that a piece of fluff I invented in my own head?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/10/16 22:34:05
mithril2098 wrote: That said, eventually they'll do a revised Mk.IV kit, and I'm not sure what sort of specialty variant they can do with it.
Destroyers. Sprue with 5 jump packs, 5 pairs of pistols, heads and destroyer pads, missile launcher with suspension and rad grenades. Maybe add an Irad flamer and disentigrator pistol option
Destroyers wpuld probable be an upgrade sprue for Assault marines in the same way special/heavy weapons are upgrades for standard marines. No sense putting jump packs on a separate upgrade sprue when you have an entire kit with them in it already.
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
chaos0xomega wrote: Destroyers wpuld probable be an upgrade sprue for Assault marines in the same way special/heavy weapons are upgrades for standard marines. No sense putting jump packs on a separate upgrade sprue when you have an entire kit with them in it already.
True. If they are focused on upgrade sprues, they ought to make a seeker weapon sprue like the special weapons sprue. Combi flamer, melta, grenade, plasma, volkite, nemesis bolter would take up the same amount of space.
Or drop the nemesis bolter and add one of each combi weapon with a one handed grip and keep it at 30 guns total
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/10/17 02:45:45
Wasn't MkII and MkIII favoured by jump pack assault marines because it afforded more protection while bounding through gunfire to get up close? Or is that a piece of fluff I invented in my own head?
There wasn't any real preference but IIRC Mk3 wasn't used often for Assault Marines because it was much heavier than the other patterns.
It was preferred for boarding or Zone Mortalis actions however.
Mk2 wasn't really preferred for anything. Some Legions used it because it was all they had, such as many of the White Scars, or because they just didn't really care, such as the Iron Warriors.
stahly wrote: For those asking, I made a comparison between stock MkIII helmets, MkIII helmets with the spike cut off, the MkIII variant helmet from the vehicle sprue, and the old plastic MkIII helmet:
any of those troop types would be welcome, but at the end of the day we still are waiting on plastic assault marines for this game, and that's a big feelsbad.
I do wonder if GW wanted to put out the jump pack intercessors for 40k BEFORE launching an assault marine for 30k to avoid a situation where people were making assault marines for 40k that would then be nixed from the codex shortly after...
The Traitor Champion, initially announced for release in October, will now go on Pre-order in November. Loyalist dogs can keep their heads for a few more precious weeks...
drbored wrote: any of those troop types would be welcome, but at the end of the day we still are waiting on plastic assault marines for this game, and that's a big feelsbad.
I wonder if there was a focus on a variety of popular vehicles in order to clear up a lot of skus from FW resin, to make room for new Old World resin kits?
I suspect it’s partially that, but also knowledge that plastic vehicles would sell super well to even established Heresy players, because it’s a better material for a drastically lower price.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
chaos0xomega wrote: My initial theory was that they realized the cross-marketability with 40k and that it would be an extra efficient range of kits.
Then they scrubbed those units from 40k.
A cynic would point out they did that only after they had been on sale for a while, and it is accepted wisdom that the majority of a kit's sales are in the months following release.
However, aside from the Sicaran / Kratos / Spartan the majority of the space marine ones are still usable just not all the weapon options. A Rhino is still a Rhino etc. I'm doing up a leviathan dreadnought as a Brutalis.
Even with the Spartan, I've got an unbuilt one I'm contemplating using as a primaris scale Land Raider, just need to source some suitable sponsons (as I want a Redeemer rather than a Godhammer).
chaos0xomega wrote: My initial theory was that they realized the cross-marketability with 40k and that it would be an extra efficient range of kits.
Then they scrubbed those units from 40k.
With how toxic GW office culture is rumoured to be, could also be that the group that did A had no idea a different group would do B.
Or a result of different goals- FW specialist games are a lot more narrative, option heavy. 40K and AoS are cutting back options to make it less likely that oddball options wreck their attempts at balance.
by how GW works it is either those 2 departments not talking to each other, or a manager had the brilliant idea that if they remove the vehicles from 40k they will double the sales as people are going to buy the 40k and the 30k version
Harry, bring this ring to Narnia or the Sith will take the Enterprise
Getting rid of chunky, pricey kits that can sometimes be a big pain would have been the priority.
Sure a Spartan nets GW a pretty penny but it was widely known to be a real pain of a kit and shutting that avenue of complaints down would have been satisfying to say the least.
Or a result of different goals- FW specialist games are a lot more narrative, option heavy. 40K and AoS are cutting back options to make it less likely that oddball options wreck their attempts at balance.
I think this is part of the issue, and it's also due to managing the rules support for different product ranges. For example the 40k team know what order various codexes will be released, and what new models will support those. They're happy to keep churning out that new rules content on a predictable schedule while also reviewing tournament stats & unit points values every 3 months. It's all nice and simple for them.
However the 40k studio clearly don't want the HH guys unexpectedly dropping by their office at 4pm on a Friday to say "Hey we're about to release this new marine kit or solar auxillia tank next month, you should probably write some 40k rules for it!". Then those rules have to get written, laid out, translated, etc on top of being interestingly and reasonably balanced. I suspect that cutting back the supported ranges is a way to avoid unexpected or unplanned work.
Edit: A secondary issue is that allowing HH units also disproportionately benefits certain 40k factions over others - especially marines - by massively bloating the roster they can select from. Meanwhile factions that didn't exist in the 30k era get stuck with whatever kits the 40k range supports.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/10/20 15:24:41
Xirix wrote: Oh nice, they actually added magnet holes for the main weapons on the Deredeo? Excellent.
So far all the dreads and vehicles have been fairly easy to magnetise.
It's one of the best things in HH model design.
the only bad thing imo in the HH plastic units entry is the spartan split bottom plate for what ever reason.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/766717.page A Mostly Renegades and Heretics blog.
GW:"Space marines got too many options to balance, therefore we decided to legends HH units." Players: "why?!? Now we finally got decent plastic kits and you cut them?" Chaos marines players: "Since when are Daemonengines 30k models and why do i have NO droppods now?" GW" MONEY.... erm i meant TOO MANY OPTIONS (to resell your army to you again by disalowing former units)! Do you want specific tyranid fighiting Primaris? Even a new sabotage lieutnant!" Chaos players: Guess i stop playing or go to HH.
Thats part of it for sure I think, but personally my theory is that they are using the longer 2 week window to try to front-load more sales through their website rather than through other retailers. Idea is that they reserve a smaller lot of product for retailers and allocate the majority of their stock to their online direct sales as it carries better margins (but also because the usual gauge of inventory "health" is whether or not its still available on the GW site, its when it sells out on the GW site that people start making a "run on the banks" in a mad scramble to try to snatch up whatever they can - this also kinda helps cut back on scalpers as these items look less attractive to scalp if the stuff is selling slowly.
Anyway, if the product sells out early on the GW site in the preorder period then they make necessary cuts to their retailer demand and allocate it like they would usually, if they don't then after the first week of the 2 week window they release the unsold stuff from the website inventory to fulfill retail demand, limiting or eliminating the allocation cuts that they have had to make in the past. Retailers are none the wiser about whats going on behind the scenes and can't tell if they are ordering excess qty of product that they are unlikely to be able to sell or if they are getting a good healthy allocation of the latest hot thing that they think all their customers are going to want.
I've a sneaking suspicion too that to some extent they are using the window to enable a sort of made to order period of their products on preorders through their site. As I've noted elsewhere depending on the product they may be looking a few thousand more sets of sprues produced per additional hour of the molds being on the press. The printed materials (assembly guides, boxes, rulebooks, etc.) are pretty cheap and can be turned around within a couple weeks if you're already set up for it. With good production planning and management they can look at their queue and forecast how much "flex" they have in their production line and how many additional hours of production they can absorb for a product before it bottlenecks against the limits of their available assembly labor or their ability to get corresponding print materials in hand. When an item goes up for preorder in a 2 week window, they can conceivably open up an "overflow" inventory of additional copies they will have to produce to fill the demand for those orders within the first couple days of that preorder period (but only the first couple days, otherwise you won't have enough time to fill the excess demand). This is easy to do in the UK (and where I noticed over the past few weeks that things are not selling out nearly as fast as they used to, as I monitor several regions of the GW store to gauge inventory health on things), harder to do in the overseas markets, but printed materials can be printed locally (in the US, EU, AUS/NZ, etc.), and air-freighting pallets of sprues and doing the final product assembly in a just-in-time fashion at their warehouses is feasible (and actually something they already kind of do in some cases).
Thats my theory anyway.
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
I dont mind two week preorders in the least if it means GW preorders will finally behave more like how we are used to preorders working from other manufacturers. Should have been this way a long time ago!
I mean, I preordered my Nemesis The Warlock deluxe book over a month ago and it wont release until december. I don't mind waiting if it guarantees me a copy
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/10/23 08:49:20
Thats part of it for sure I think, but personally my theory is that they are using the longer 2 week window to try to front-load more sales through their website rather than through other retailers. Idea is that they reserve a smaller lot of product for retailers and allocate the majority of their stock to their online direct sales as it carries better margins (but also because the usual gauge of inventory "health" is whether or not its still available on the GW site, its when it sells out on the GW site that people start making a "run on the banks" in a mad scramble to try to snatch up whatever they can - this also kinda helps cut back on scalpers as these items look less attractive to scalp if the stuff is selling slowly.
Anyway, if the product sells out early on the GW site in the preorder period then they make necessary cuts to their retailer demand and allocate it like they would usually, if they don't then after the first week of the 2 week window they release the unsold stuff from the website inventory to fulfill retail demand, limiting or eliminating the allocation cuts that they have had to make in the past. Retailers are none the wiser about whats going on behind the scenes and can't tell if they are ordering excess qty of product that they are unlikely to be able to sell or if they are getting a good healthy allocation of the latest hot thing that they think all their customers are going to want.
I've a sneaking suspicion too that to some extent they are using the window to enable a sort of made to order period of their products on preorders through their site. As I've noted elsewhere depending on the product they may be looking a few thousand more sets of sprues produced per additional hour of the molds being on the press. The printed materials (assembly guides, boxes, rulebooks, etc.) are pretty cheap and can be turned around within a couple weeks if you're already set up for it. With good production planning and management they can look at their queue and forecast how much "flex" they have in their production line and how many additional hours of production they can absorb for a product before it bottlenecks against the limits of their available assembly labor or their ability to get corresponding print materials in hand. When an item goes up for preorder in a 2 week window, they can conceivably open up an "overflow" inventory of additional copies they will have to produce to fill the demand for those orders within the first couple days of that preorder period (but only the first couple days, otherwise you won't have enough time to fill the excess demand). This is easy to do in the UK (and where I noticed over the past few weeks that things are not selling out nearly as fast as they used to, as I monitor several regions of the GW store to gauge inventory health on things), harder to do in the overseas markets, but printed materials can be printed locally (in the US, EU, AUS/NZ, etc.), and air-freighting pallets of sprues and doing the final product assembly in a just-in-time fashion at their warehouses is feasible (and actually something they already kind of do in some cases).
Thats my theory anyway.
So conspiracy "GW screwing flgs" combined with flat out wrong. They don't produce sprues for sales during preorder period. The sprues have been cast long time ago.
Years and years people have been taught what leadtimes mean yet still people who haven't learnt it...
Would be unbelievable except never underestimate how little lessons are learned is humanity's motto.
