So I logged onto Bell of Lost Souls today to see the latest news and BOOM!
Now price hikes from GW are no great surprise and it shouldn't be a big deal but this one is getting to me. I've got a completed marine army (~2500-3000 points) and a half done (~1000 points) Tau army.
My issue is that I need a goodly investment into my Tau to make it to a standard 1850 point army and I'm getting less and less interested in GW in many ways. The fluff is rich and thick, but stagnant in that nothing changes. Being on the back end of the cool models and rules is annoying as a Tau player and I just don't get the same excitement that I used to. Instead I'm finding myself excited by warmachine and it's dynamic pacing, great models and moving fluff line.
So my question is whether I should take the time and effort to invest in my Tau army. My current list is:
- 2 Helios (plasma/Fusion) crisis suits
- 3 Stealth suits + Marker Drone
- 12 Fire Warriors
- 12 Kroot
- 2 Piranhas
- Hammerhead
- Skyray
And to this I'd like to add:
- 3 Deathrains
- 3 Stealth suits
- 12 Fire warriors (6 converted into Pathfinders)
- 12 Kroot
- 2 Piranhas
- Hammerhead.
This neatly corresponds to 1 battleforce, 2 Crisis suits, 2 piranhas and 1 hammerhead boxed sets. Using prices from The Warstore which are pretty solidly at 20% less than retail I will be spending: $72 on a battleforce, $48 (3x$16) on crisis suits, $40 (2x$20) on Piranhas and $33 on a skyray kit (for the hammerhead) for a total of $193 plus $6 postage, so we'll call it $200 even. Please note that this already $40 odd under retail so it's a good deal right there.
Adding 10-15% (the general tone of the price hike from GW) pushes it up so that I would have to buy one fewer crisis suit to hit the same price level. It's not a huge increase but it's got me thinking about my 40k gaming and what I'm willing to spend.
Also my wife and I are talking about getting dogs, a house and kids in the not too distant future so I really have to think about what I can afford to spend. I think that my enthusiasm for 40k has really waned in the last few months so I'll see where I go from here. Thankfully I have Warmachine and Nuclear Renaissance to keep me excited for new models, and I can still play 40k with my existing armies.
Perhaps I'll come back to 40k in a collecting mindset in the future but I'm not sure right now. It's a shame but at least I have a solid army core to work from for now.
I think the new players coming into the hobby will be hit hardest though. I can't imagine how difficult it will be for an excited young player (like I was) to get an army going when it will involve dropping $200-300 or more. The basic boxed set games are fun but they run out of variety pretty fast in my experience.
Any thoughts or grumbles from other 40k players?
EDIT: I've found a local gaming club in Frederick, Md and somebody there is selling a whole bunch of Tau models so I might be able to get my army finished on the cheap. Perhaps that will be the way to do it and then I can set 40k collecting aside for now.
Since I already have an army or two this doesn't affect me as much but I think its probably not going to affect the game much. or at least thats what Gw thinks. My solution is to simply not buy kits i think are over-priced. Like the new Baal Predator kit. what a rip off. nearly 50 bucks. I can take a normal predator and convert it to a Baal Pred for 35 bucks.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm in a similar boat to you. I won't spend a great deal more on my armies, especially with the cost of some of the new kits. The models are looking really nice in many cases but just not worth it in my view.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see how it turns out in the longer run for GW and for getting players to keep going with the game. At least I'm not competitive enough of a player to have to keep buying new models so I can stay with the power curve.
Pete
Same thoughts here. I have enough models to keep me occupied for years and years. I don't really need to keep buying things, especially at these prices.
ReplyDeleteAll the increases do is increase my interest in other companies. I really wonder how GW sees this working :-\.
I'm really not sure. I was a bit uncertain about trying out Warmachine or Malifaux etc. but the more I consider the money 40k requires with the increasingly large armies, the more I'm turned off.
ReplyDeleteAlso the fluff is really starting to bug me. I understand that it has to retain a certain feel and so on but what's to stop them from actually making some big changes to freshen things up? It's been done with Warmachine and we get excuses for new battles, characters and storylines without necessarily killing off the old ones.
Oh well, it's no great loss to me as I already have plenty of models to work with and it will be easier, quite frankly, not to be worrying about trying to keep up with 40k.
40k is furiously expensive compared with more other miniature games, and once you add pets and - eek - kids to the mix, you find your bank account disappearing as fast as the thin veneer of humanity on David Cameron.
ReplyDeleteI haven't bought 40k models since December last year, and I have certainly noticed the extra money available for other hobby activities. If you have armies ready to play then you can always get a game whenever you like, so spend your money on what you enjoy.
Sholto