You can always go full on pirate and download PDFs from torrentsites. I'm not saying you should, mind you. In fact, illegal downloading is heresy On the other hand, those HH codex from forgeworld (with the unnecessary leather cover) clocked in at 70+ euros!

Drink up, me harties yoho!

They can't force you to buy new models but they can force you to buy their new rules if you want to use what you already own.

Only so long as the players are willing to accept it.

I guess if you're playing at a GW store, official competitions or if all your friends are using the latest edition of the rules then you haven't really got much of a choice. Casual crowds may agree to stick wth existing rulesets, though. Given the current state of limbo and wild, spurious rumours regarding the future of Fantasy (round bases? Skirmish game? Squatting?) a lot of people are talking about sticking with the old 8th Edition rules. Whether they actually do it is a different matter. Some might. Most will probably move on to 9th. Some might quit entirely.

But yeah, youre right - wholesale edition updates and codex changes every 12-18 months (it's usually one or the other within that time period at the moment; new army book or new ruleset) is VERY off putting. As is £30 for a codex and £50 for a rulebook in general.

I'm guessing that GW are using this to combat the secondary market on eBay - i.e. they can't stop people buying/selling second hand, but people need the rules to play! So let's update them as often as possible. And while we're at it, let's make people buy MULTIPLE codexes. Want one of our shiny new AdMech armies? You'll need the latest edition of the 40K rulebook, to start. And Codex: Cult Mechanicus. Oh, and probably Codex: Skitarri. You might want to pick up Codex: Imperial Knights while you're at it...

Wait, what? I've just spent £140 on rulebooks and I haven't bought a single model yet..

Yeah the admech codex is £20 yet half the book is just pictures of two studio armies it's really not worth the money and its not even an army in its own right.

If GW is a model company why do they charge so much for rules, used to be you buy a codex for £10-15 and get five years out of it, now your paying £60 for codex and supplement that lasts you a year.

40k does not give you good value for overpriced stuff you pay for, their whole model now is squeezing the remaining players as much as possible which is in turn driving more and more people away it's a death spiral they refuse to pull out of its really sad.

Even with 20% off on some sites it's not really reasonable anymore.

They released a five pack of Knight Titans with a special rule sheet to give them buffs. If you drop hundreds of bucks at once you get special rules!

They released a five pack of Knight Titans with a special rule sheet to give them buffs. If you drop hundreds of bucks at once you get special rules!

Yeah i saw that it's literally pay to win, or would be if torrent sites didn't exist.

the problem with pay to win is that you actualy stuill have to play, and if you waltz into your local gamestore with an all titan/ helldrake spam/ new OP eldar army then nobody will want to play with you.

the problem with pay to win is that you actualy stuill have to play, and if you waltz into your local gamestore with an all titan/ helldrake spam/ new OP eldar army then nobody will want to play with you.

And yet I know of stores where people have presented a reaver titan as their 1500 point army.

The allies system was bad enough but unbound is wide open for abuse it's there to sell models because they don't care about game balance.

It's all about padding their personal accounts before the company collapses.

Lol I'd almost be tempted to try that... especialy with the new eldar... (Eldar chicks love the D)

Yeah unbound is open for abuse, but on the other hand i can now finaly make an all aspect warriors army. (Oh if only i had teh time and inclination to paint models...)

I don't know a single person who plays unbound.

If GW is a model company why do they charge so much for rules, used to be you buy a codex for £10-15 and get five years out of it, now your paying £60 for codex and supplement that lasts you a year.

40k does not give you good value for overpriced stuff you pay for, their whole model now is squeezing the remaining players as much as possible which is in turn driving more and more people away it's a death spiral they refuse to pull out of its really sad.

Even with 20% off on some sites it's not really reasonable anymore.

Hell, by the time you've assembled and painted an army, it's already been obsoleted by a new edition. It doesn't help that they keep upping the amount of models you need in an army and the fact that less models cost you more money with every release. I got off the roller coaster and just decided to play my own house rules version of the game with friends using resin-casted models at a fraction of the price.

It took awhile for me to completely give up hope in GW, but their predatory business practices have just completely ruined it for me.

We know a dentist that uses his own stuff to make casts it's pretty cool actually.

He doesn't use Green Stuff to fill holes in theeth, does he?

He doesn't use Green Stuff to fill holes in theeth, does he?

It's okay he paints it white and then varnishes to protect the paint.

I've seen the new Imperial Knights codex (How long ago since the first one?) GW turned them into small reaver titans and now they also got some formation bonuses and stuff...JEEEZ

Models still look awesome tough...

I've seen the new Imperial Knights codex (How long ago since the first one?) GW turned them into small reaver titans and now they also got some formation bonuses and stuff...JEEEZ

Models still look awesome tough...

I wanna say just over a year I remember getting a knight for last year's birthday which is March.

Honestly if I still played I'd be hacked off my codex became obsolete in such a small period, and what about people that bought five to make a full army only to find their army weakened in the face of these new knights.

I've seen the new Imperial Knights codex (How long ago since the first one?) GW turned them into small reaver titans and now they also got some formation bonuses and stuff...JEEEZ

Models still look awesome tough...

I wanna say just over a year I remember getting a knight for last year's birthday which is March.

Honestly if I still played I'd be hacked off my codex became obsolete in such a small period, and what about people that bought five to make a full army only to find their army weakened in the face of these new knights.

I got a better example. In 4th edition Anti-Imperial and Chaos players could customize their forces in just about anyway they wanted. I had elite forces, all with no mark, two lightning claws, metla bombs, furious charge, daemon strength, daemon attack, jump pack or daemon flight, tank hunter... A bunch of stuff. As elite as they were they needed to have really awesome custom minis. 5th or 6th edition made them unusable for what they were built for.

I seem to recall their market share was part of one of their recent annual reports.

If its not 95 per cent still its still massively larger than its nearest competitor.

Nobody operates in the wargames industry on the scale GW do.

I dont particularly like it either, but it is actually the way it is.

Its why mainstream toyshops sell GW but don't sell 'malifeux'. A few stores sell FFG products but on the whole GW has an overwhelming highstreet presence.

I remember seeing X-Wing at my local Target (national big box chain) not long after it came out. Last time I was there, I checked again, and now they have Dungeons & Dragons (admittedly not a tabletop wargame or even especially a miniatures game). I've never seen anything GW outside of a hobby store - except for things like Dawn of War .

I've seen the new Imperial Knights codex (How long ago since the first one?) GW turned them into small reaver titans and now they also got some formation bonuses and stuff...JEEEZ

Models still look awesome tough...

I used to play Warhammer 40k moons and moons ago - third or fourth edition, I think. Every now and again, I'll pick up a Codex and look at building a bare bones little army. Even still have a bunch of Space Marine/Chaos/Space Wolves/Blood Angels/Grey Knights stuff from the last time I tried.

But, now, if I buy anything, I'll mostly buy just a model. The Imperial Knights are sorely tempting for me, as I think I could just about build an army with just the one model. And only have just the one model to have fun with putting together and painting. (And I'd probably end up putting Chaos spikey bits, &c. on it.)

Right now, I'm seriously contemplating a 50-point "flight" for X-Wing consisting of a single Firespray . Not that I think that anyone would play a 50-point game against me... Plus the fact that the Raider -class Corvette looks to be 100 points, I'd even seriously give that a go all by its lonesome (if someone would play me).

They brought them back? I remember when they killed the old thread system forum that they had back in 2005.

They brought them back? I remember when they killed the old thread system forum that they had back in 2005.

No these are forums like warseer and dakkadakka, GW has shown they have zero interest in what their customers think or want even saying as much in last year's financial statement.

GW CEO: "This would be a great job without the customers."

It is very easy to have a job that serviced zero customers. That's called "being unemployed".

It is very easy to have a job that serviced zero customers. That's called "being unemployed".

Yeah, but the pay sucks.

GW CEO: "This would be a great job without the customers."

I think it's more like 'Won't these guys give up already and start wanting what we tell them to want?'

As he stated, GW CEO knows exactly what his customers want. If reality disagrees, then reality needs to change or go away.

He's half right- I want a few imperial Knights... I just don't want to pay 125 euros for a model kit.

Lol, reality needs to change. Reality is heresy!

Look into the dream forge leviathan.

http://dreamforge-games.com/products/leviathan-crusader

Got one for £50 a year or so ago it's bigger than an imperial knight way more articulation and fun to build and they make a variety of weapons separate including chain fists.

I was told an interesting annecdote the other day from a mate who works there in a fairly senior position.

Back when specialist games were shelved quite a few of the guys who worked at GW HQ said 'why have you stopped making/selling epic models'

And the head of mail order at the time asked them to name a single 40k blister pack at random. The guy said 'dark eldar heavy weapons' or whatever... they looked on the sales sheet and found that that blister pack sold more in a year and made more money than the entire epic range did.

The point being that making a million in sales off a range is brilliant when your annual turnover is £10 million.

When your turnovers £100 million that range making £1million a year is a lot of time and money invested that could other wise be spent on products which made you a lot more money.

The sad fact is that all the specialist games stuff we love did make money, just not on the scale that the core games did

The inevitable problem here though (and what we can sort of already see happening to a degree) is that if you trim off the least well selling ranges to bolster up the best selling ranges then you'll end up with a game with two factions as they have better profit margins even though its not good for the game.