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 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Years ago they sold me on Cathay and Kislev, and now those factions are still not coming in the foreseeable future. Feels enough like vapor ware to me.

I donlt think they could have made anywhere enough models - they can't even keep up with the demand for old models - having a complete new range for Cathay and Kislev would mean us Whales would want large amounts.

It would def mean not releasing new Marines for a good few months

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
With the production limitations gw is having keeping up with demand as is, it probably makes sense to maximize profits by mostly reusing existing molds, with a few new centerpiece models for now. Then the investment in new molds that would just replace existing kits could be diverted, which would explain why LI and Solar Aux for heresy have so many unique sprues in a relatively limited time.

On the release cycle, it would be nice if it spread to a 4 year cycle, with 40k, Sigmar, Horus Heresy, and Old World all getting updates as a result. Not necessarily full new editions, but revisions would be nice to address balance and new introductions by various armies over the 4 year span.

I'm hoping for Old World and HH that it goes the way of middle earth: an updated starter every couple of years with really minor clarifications and revisions in the main rulebook. The 3 year cycle doesn't help 40K at all.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The 3 year cycle doesn't help 40K at all.

Isn't the popular theory that it's not supposed to help the game, it's supposed to help the bottom line?

Which lt certainly does.

However there's a point at which helping the bottom line and not the game results in hurting the bottomline.

I think GW has started to notice this with their campaign books which is why they are doing a lot more lore stuff in the AoS ones including marketing it that way more so online as well. Because they realise that rules wise they are a LOT for what amounts to a handful of rule updates

 Manfred von Drakken wrote:
Isn't the popular theory that it's not supposed to help the game, it's supposed to help the bottom line?

Everything is to help the bottom line, the question is always only do you wanna make steady long term profit or do you wanna cannibalize it for more money right this moment and then die. WotC went down the second path and I think it's gonna be a healthy lesson for everybody.

 Overread wrote:
However there's a point at which helping the bottom line and not the game results in hurting the bottomline.

I think GW has started to notice this with their campaign books which is why they are doing a lot more lore stuff in the AoS ones including marketing it that way more so online as well. Because they realise that rules wise they are a LOT for what amounts to a handful of rule updates

Hasn't so far. Their profits are high and they literally cant meet with demand aka they can't sell much more models as is.

 Manfred von Drakken wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The 3 year cycle doesn't help 40K at all.

Isn't the popular theory that it's not supposed to help the game, it's supposed to help the bottom line?

Does anyone actually play 40k any more? I just assumed they bought any army, bought the books, get half way through reading them and painting the army then the next edition came out?

I do really wonder these days how many people actually PLAY the current editions of games workshop games, I can barely get through reading the rulebooks they're so badly written.

For a while I've wondered if the reason GW does so well is that people are sold on the idea of playing a game more than they actually play the games

I saw a handful this last weekend, so they exist.

Though I do wonder how many are either playing older editions, other systems (such as OnePage Rules) or are just collecting/painting.

there is a "what you wish for 11th" topic already and there were a lot of posting on FB and reddit from people who started with 9th that they almost finished painting their first army and some more hateful posts that the 3 year cycle is not liked and they were not expecting that when starting

a new game has the advantage of having everyone at the same level again and also removes the option to compare with previous versions (as there is no direct equivalent of armies, balance and cost if everything is different), and this appeals more to those who play a lot were the bad rules get boring fast and who have a large enough collection of not care about changes
yet people who did not knew about that are disappointed and this can turn a bad reputation very fast despite white knights defending it (this is were "it helps the bottom line" comes from as the only one who benefits of releasing a new game under the same name every 3 years is GW, as this cuts cost by a lot, generate reliable new release sales and the expectation of quality is very low because if you don't like it just wait 3 years for the next one)


for TOW, the cycle must be much slower as the main goal of the game is to drag the "old guard" back in and prevent them from finally wandering off (the connection to the company is strong but won't last forever)

yet this does mean we won't see a Necromunda like burning the books, because that game was made for the same audience and it worked

Question to people owning Water Trolls. I read somewhere that there are problems with building them because some parts are not aligning well to each other. Is that true? If yes what surprises exactly should I expect?

 Shadow Walker wrote:
Question to people owning Water Trolls. I read somewhere that there are problems with building them because some parts are not aligning well to each other. Is that true? If yes what surprises exactly should I expect?

And do the new plastics fit on 40mms? Not sure if they were originally an old world release.

They are definitively an early kit as far as organic part cuts go, I think the ankles were particularly annoying to get to sit right.

I think they did come with 40mm bases originally but they overhang by a lot, so ranking up is a challenge.

Random reference from the internets

Here's the GW photo of them from release:

Thanks guys. I don't think we'll see them reboxed to include the square bases, so looks like it'll be AoS boxes and then get the bases separately then.

I remember my River Trolls being a little fiddly to assemble next to how fantastic the Rockgut kit is, but they are still nice and worth picking up!

AllSeeingSkink wrote:


For a while I've wondered if the reason GW does so well is that people are sold on the idea of playing a game more than they actually play the games

I reckon that's been true for a long time actually (even back in the 90s). People spend vastly more time dreaming about the armies they'll one day have, and the games they'll eventually play, than they do actually playing games.

But that's one of the reasons it works so well as a hobby. You can think about it all day long for weeks on end when you have no chance of getting in a game.

Boardgames, on the other hand, I find to be 'switch on / switch off'. You take a boardgame off the shelf, play it and have a great time... and then put it away and forget about it till next time. Unless you're making custom content for it or something. The hobby side of boardgaming mostly seems to consist of buying more boardgames. For any one boardgame, there's not much else to do between actual games.

With a tabletop wargame you can collect, convert, paint, list-build, read up on the fluff, come up with your own fluff, and when you're truly desperate, clean mould lines.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Manfred von Drakken wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The 3 year cycle doesn't help 40K at all.

Isn't the popular theory that it's not supposed to help the game, it's supposed to help the bottom line?

Does anyone actually play 40k any more? I just assumed they bought any army, bought the books, get half way through reading them and painting the army then the next edition came out?

I do really wonder these days how many people actually PLAY the current editions of games workshop games, I can barely get through reading the rulebooks they're so badly written.

For a while I've wondered if the reason GW does so well is that people are sold on the idea of playing a game more than they actually play the games

My local Warhammer store is literally packed with a dozen people playing 40k and kill team basically any day of the week. My FLGS which has 9 tables is busy 4/7 nights a week with Warhammer guys

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Manfred von Drakken wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The 3 year cycle doesn't help 40K at all.

Isn't the popular theory that it's not supposed to help the game, it's supposed to help the bottom line?

Does anyone actually play 40k any more? I just assumed they bought any army, bought the books, get half way through reading them and painting the army then the next edition came out?

I do really wonder these days how many people actually PLAY the current editions of games workshop games, I can barely get through reading the rulebooks they're so badly written.

For a while I've wondered if the reason GW does so well is that people are sold on the idea of playing a game more than they actually play the games

Plenty when you look out of dakkadakka where primary hobby is complain.

Outside dakka? Games aplenty. When you don't waste time complaining plenty of time to play

Those river trolls look really good. I love the guy holding the fish.
I should dig mine out and paint the last one.

I've got 6 river trolls and don't remember them being overly difficult to put together. But it is over 10 years ago now. They are meant to look a bit malformed so I didn't feel there were any problems.

I don't think the 3 year lifespan of 40k overly hurts things. Mainly because I think Peachy or someone said said the standard lifespan of a GW customer is only about 18 months to 2 years.

I feel there's this real divide between people who are worried their stuff won't be valid by 2030 or 2035 (mainly online tbh) - and people who've bought stuff literally today, are going to assemble and undercoat it tomorrow, splash some paint on it over the week, and get a game with it next Saturday. By next Christmas they however may well have got bored of the whole hobby and moved on to something else.

My MTO stuff showed up today. Kinda shocked at the turnaround. I was expecting to wait at least two or three months.

Yeah mine also arrived this week, same with everyone else I know that bought them.

Meanwhile I'm still waiting on the stuff I preordered that first Saturday to even ship

Was pondering the axe wielding knight, but couldn’t justify the cost. Already have the lance guy and figure I can kitbash others as I have a few extra plastic knights above what I need.

CaptainKlang wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Manfred von Drakken wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The 3 year cycle doesn't help 40K at all.

Isn't the popular theory that it's not supposed to help the game, it's supposed to help the bottom line?

Does anyone actually play 40k any more? I just assumed they bought any army, bought the books, get half way through reading them and painting the army then the next edition came out?

I do really wonder these days how many people actually PLAY the current editions of games workshop games, I can barely get through reading the rulebooks they're so badly written.

For a while I've wondered if the reason GW does so well is that people are sold on the idea of playing a game more than they actually play the games

My local Warhammer store is literally packed with a dozen people playing 40k and kill team basically any day of the week. My FLGS which has 9 tables is busy 4/7 nights a week with Warhammer guys

I was being kind of sarcastic when I said does "anyone" play, I know some people do, it's pretty busy down at the local gaming store here as well.

I just wonder how much of GW's success is people playing versus people collecting, there are other games that I see people playing but they don't have the financial success of GW's products so clearly they aren't played as broadly or maybe GW has more collectors contributing to their success.

Can confirm that I've been collecting space marines since 1993 and still haven't painted enough to fill 2000 points. Last actual 40K game I played was 8th edition (though I've been playing lots of Kill Team).

I suspect about 3/4 of the product sold doesn't even get unwrapped.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I just wonder how much of GW's success is people playing versus people collecting, there are other games that I see people playing but they don't have the financial success of GW's products so clearly they aren't played as broadly or maybe GW has more collectors contributing to their success.

GW themselves once said that the majority of people are collectors/painters (hence why they focus more on the collectors style of models) and from surveys running on the larger online communities it was like 50% who play only 1-2 games per year (or not at all)

that reddit has a dedicated sub for people who play GW games that is just a fraction of the size of the general sub for each game and even half the size of the sub about 40k lore also tells us what people prefer

 Matt.Kingsley wrote:
Yeah mine also arrived this week, same with everyone else I know that bought them.

Meanwhile I'm still waiting on the stuff I preordered that first Saturday to even ship

This prompted me to actually check the tracking link I got sent on the 5th, and I gotta say I wasn't expecting to see "Current Status: Damaged (05/02/2024)"

However that's just what it says on the GW tracking page, following through to both Royal Mail and Australia Post shows no suggestion of damage

I'll find out in the next few days, I guess, but that's one hell of an addition to the list of things wrong with Warhammer dot com if it's not true

Tyel wrote:

I don't think the 3 year lifespan of 40k overly hurts things. Mainly because I think Peachy or someone said said the standard lifespan of a GW customer is only about 18 months to 2 years.

Given that I've been doing this for 20 years, and most of the other players I know have 5-30+ years in the hobby, I've always found that stat hard to believe.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
I suspect about 3/4 of the product sold doesn't even get unwrapped.

If that were true I'd expect gw to have gone out of business due to an excess of second hand product being resold