1 minute ago, Mep said:

For those enjoying these new price increases, you can get a box of stromtrooper upgrade on Amazon for $50.

Uh, that has nothing to do with FFG, those are independent amazon sellers price gouging limited stock. MSRP for those is $19.95

7 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Uh, that has nothing to do with FFG, those are independent amazon sellers price gouging limited stock. MSRP for those is $19.95

yep, never said it did. Though shortages that lead to the price gouging can be placed on FFG. Still the comment was a joke, nothing more. No need to read more into it.

Jumping from $25 to $35 is huge. Upgrading to hard plastic doesn't explain it. It's "because they can". Same reason GW charges what they do.

Plenty of MUCH smaller companies with way less capital have nicely detailed hard plastic minis, or even metal minis, that cost far less per figure.

1 hour ago, TauntaunScout said:

Jumping from $25 to $35 is huge. Upgrading to hard plastic doesn't explain it. It's "because they can". Same reason GW charges what they do.

Plenty of MUCH smaller companies with way less capital have nicely detailed hard plastic minis, or even metal minis, that cost far less per figure.

Given the recent announcement of a bunch of price changes, I now agree the increase is unlikely to solely be explained by difference in material. I think there was a bit of a coincidence that Asmodee/FFG wanted to take advantage of, to give the perception of hard plastic being the sole reason for the change.

I could buy a $5 change being just due to new material a bit better than $10 given the new information of other price increases.

There’s a very real “fashionableness fee” for Star Wars, 40k, Warmachine, etc. How high that fee is, ultimately, is up to us the customers.

People come up with rationalizations and explanations. But it’s really just about paying more for the same brand of jeans as the kids at the cool table.

10 hours ago, Mokoshkana said:

There are more skus to produce Whether one factory or two, each would have to change out molds in between runs. This also means that more boxes of various varieties have to be produced, and the various products have to be packed together differently. A lot more goes into this than people realize.

None of that has anything to do with hard plastic. That wouldn’t be any different than if they were PVC. Except it would probably only be one factory. And with the way production runs are done, switching out molds means nothing. Neither does boxes. Switch to hard plastic has no effect on their cost to produce the old sets. The only thing that would actually affect their cost would be petroleum costs, plus the costs of packaging going up, and labor. Petroleum is cratering, and the rest of those costs shouldn’t have changed by up to 40%

Asmodee might figure that they have reached about as many customers with Legion as they are likely to get, so now is the time to get as much cash from those suckers fans whilst the going is good. The price is what they think the market will bear, so time will tell if they are right or not. I might pick up a few bits and bot for Legion but only if they are a character I want (Yoda and Old Ben).

19 hours ago, Caimheul1313 said:

The Bad Batch could be later released as the Republic unique unit, and I'm not as certain about CIS. I suppose Death Watch, but that might be too similar to Clan Wren in some ways/fit better in a potential future Shadow Collective faction.

The last time I remember seeing Death Watch on-screen, they were blasting apart Super Battle Droids and saving a young Din Djarin.

I highly doubt they'd be CIS after that.

As others have said, Asmodee/FFG is testing out the elasticity of demand. People buying less is just part of that process. It sucks as the consumer because we want more plasticky goodness, but hopefully we get a better overall product from it.

We also have to keep in mind the past 2 years has been entry level pricing. FFG entered an existing market and had to differentiate itself from established competitors. The Star Wars license helped but it opted to go for cheaper models to make it a low risk purchase for consumers if it failed, simpler assembly to draw in consumers new to the market, and an easier rule set for previous wargamers so they didn't have to learn quite as much. It worked and they've achieved a market share of the industry.

Since entering, they have expanded the rule set (while putting out Skirmish for newer players), expanded the complexity of their models, and increasing their prices. They are evolving their approach to see how much people are willing to pay for their product as they increase the value they believe they are offering. They also have increasing costs whether due to materials, more sculptors for more elaborate models, annual increase in costs, paying game designers for a job well done, etc.

As for the greed aspect, when was the last time any of us turned down a raise? And we usually didn't agree to do more work for it. We took what we could get for the level of work we were doing.

As a 40k player, I enjoyed the game rules, cheaper prices, and easy assembly. And I also enjoy gaming against people in my area. We'll see how this change in direction impacts the overall gaming community.

1 hour ago, Subhntr said:

The last time I remember seeing Death Watch on-screen, they were blasting apart Super Battle Droids and saving a young Din Djarin.

I highly doubt they'd be CIS after that.

A large number of people keep claiming we'll see Darth Maul as part of CIS, despite similar appearances in media.

We also see them fighting against Obi Wan in the Clone Wars. But seeing that they are being released opposite Inferno Squad and we already have Sabine Wren, I'm thinking Rebels.

8 minutes ago, Sharkbelly said:

We also see them fighting against Obi Wan in the Clone Wars. But seeing that they are being released opposite Inferno Squad and we already have Sabine Wren, I'm thinking Rebels.

We already know that Clan Wren is a Rebel unit. Are you replying to people talking about Death Watch?

Oh, right. Is there talk of releasing them separately?

3 minutes ago, Sharkbelly said:

Oh, right. Is there talk of releasing them separately?

Not officially. People are merely speculating if, assuming we are correct that Inferno and Clan Wren will be unique, CIS and GAR will get unique special forces units in the future and what they might be.

Gotcha. To me, it would make sense for the Republic to have a squad of Jedi as their "special forces."

Well while the new pricing is annoying, it's buissness as usual. Not gonna stop buying expansions as I love the game. However buying 2-3 of each will probably be replaced by 1-2 of each

4 hours ago, Caimheul1313 said:

A large number of people keep claiming we'll see Darth Maul as part of CIS, despite similar appearances in media.

Well, the other option would be Savage Opress (however brief his training was), though from a marketing standpoint that'd be considerably worse than releasing Maul. To be fair, there's definitely precedent for Maul being in the CIS in other forms of Star Wars media (All the Battlefronts, FFG's own X-Wing, etc.). It doesn't make lore-sense, but neither does Padme fighting Luke or Leia.

As for Death Watch, they had a brief alliance with the Separatists, though they also had a brief alliance with Maul and his pirates, and then they had a definite hate for droids, so I don't know if FFG would go with them over, say, a squad of bounty hunters. I'd rather run a squad of Death Watch over bounty hunters, but that's merely personal preference.

@Kirjath08 No, the other option is Asajj Ventress.

Maul in X-Wing has more to do with a lack of named pilot options for the Sith Infiltrator. But this is well outside of the topic.

Personally, I'd rather see the Bounty Hunters for more variety than have two Mandalorian units in different factions.

@Caimheul1313 I meant in terms of the Zabrak Sith warrior type unit (and I really failed to articulate that), but your point still stands. If the CIS gets only one operative who's a force user, I would hope it'd be Asajj as well.

On 3/11/2020 at 9:12 AM, Caimheul1313 said:

@RyantheFett In the case of Clan Wren though, there are non-family Mandalorians who fight in the Wren armour, so presumably vassals or some other relationship, but they could be considered as part of the Clan, even if leadership is held by family members only.

Inferno I agree with you though, the squad is only 4 members, one of whom is Iden, so that leaves 3, unless like you said, they tack in some unknown individual(s).

I think iden will be an upgrade for the squad

I'll probably mop up my old "someday" purchases (like dewbacks) and stop buying new releases. I mean the money is getting to be a bad dollars-to-fun exchange rate.

Two dewbacks that I will use a maximum of once a week for around 3 years will cost me $50. Or, for $57, I can buy enough 2x4's to build a treehouse that my kids will play in several times a week for around 10 years.

So, when a new expansion gets to being $35 instead of $25 it's just not competing well with other aspects of my life. If those dewbacks cost me $70 instead of $50... No thanks.

For $35-$40 I can buy a Perry box of a few dozen historical guys instead of 7 legion guys. The price per figure was easier to ignore when the Legion box meant handing the clerk less actual cash. Now that I'm forking over two $20's and not getting any appreciable change either way, I may as well get the box of 36 to 42 infantry figures instead of the box with 7 infantry figures.