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It’s fair to say that 2020 has been a tempestuous year for all of us… and it’s still presenting challenges that are going to stretch into next year. The ongoing impact of Covid-19 around the world, and the UK’s changing relationship with the EU, mean that we’re making some adjustments in the short-term.

Covid-19
As with many other businesses, Covid-19 has had an impact on Games Workshop’s retail stores, factories, and the global shipping routes that we rely on to get shiny Warhammer stuff into your hands. It probably won’t come as a surprise that orders made throughout the remainder of December and January will take a little longer than normal to reach you.

Brexit
Good news – Warhammer fans in the EU won’t have to pay more for our products in-store or online as we head into the new year. While the details of the UK’s future relationship with the EU are still being worked out, Games Workshop will shoulder any customs and duties fees that apply to your order.


What does all this mean for new Warhammer releases?
2021 promises to be an amazing year, packed full of rad Warhammer releases – with something new and exciting arriving every month. That said, the global situation means Warhammer releases in January and February will be lighter than in recent years.

Rather than weekly, you’ll see new releases every fortnight, with the first pre-orders of 2021 on the 16th of January.
If you’re a Warhammer 40,000 fan, you’ll see a new codex or expansion every month in January, February, and March starting with the Death Guard – Nurgle, bless ’em, they have waited a long time…

For Warhammer Age of Sigmar fans, you’ll see the next new battletome (and a bunch of incredible minis) drop in February. Trust us, this one’s a doozy – we’ll even give you a sneak peek on Christmas day!*

Stay safe and have a Merry Christmas.

– The Warhammer Community Team

So there you go. Fortnightly releases are a thing in 2021.

Going be a long wait for DA and Drukhari

Ugh, this probably means I wont be able to get any new slaanesh stuff before Chinese New Year. :(

That's great news about Brexit anyway. It was a worry I had that we'd see a huge price jump. Postal and shipping services to Ireland have already announced big price increases in shipping costs, which coupled with import duties could make things more prohibitive.

This might impact third party stores though, who won't be able to offer the level of discount they use to.

Still, a nice move by GW and better than I could have hoped!

It's a nice gesture to cover customs and duty fees. Now if we could just get them to get the prices in North America to at least come close to the current currency exchange rates.

Totally seperate tangent, but that Sequitor is freak'n adorable.

 Sentineil wrote:
That's great news about Brexit anyway. It was a worry I had that we'd see a huge price jump. Postal and shipping services to Ireland have already announced big price increases in shipping costs, which coupled with import duties could make things more prohibitive.

This might impact third party stores though, who won't be able to offer the level of discount they use to.

Still, a nice move by GW and better than I could have hoped!

3rd party stores might not be able to sell to eu soon if uk changes law preventing gw from forbidding. It was eu law that stopped it. Gw likely wants to put eu to same category as us/australia etc. No currency value optimizing

 Sentineil wrote:
That's great news about Brexit anyway. It was a worry I had that we'd see a huge price jump. Postal and shipping services to Ireland have already announced big price increases in shipping costs, which coupled with import duties could make things more prohibitive.

This might impact third party stores though, who won't be able to offer the level of discount they use to.

Still, a nice move by GW and better than I could have hoped!

Keep in mind, this is temporary:
"While the details of the UK’s future relationship with the EU are still being worked out"

It also in no way precludes a price adjustment. (or that its not already baked in, see the $80 Gladiators and Necron and SM Codexes that are $50 rather than $40)
But I expect a sweeping price adjustment announcement around March, probably even worse than this year's.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Totally seperate tangent, but that Sequitor is freak'n adorable.

She is, but don't think too hard about what her right leg is doing

That being said, I'd be very surprised if they didn't eat the cost of brexit after this year's price rises.

That female Stormcast is waifu material :3

The slowdown of releases is a shame, but very sensible considering the trouble GW has had in this last half of the year. With shipping globally being in a mess and with production having a hard time keeping up, slowing things down should make it a lot easier for the staff to get us what we want when it goes up for sale rather than being left with gaps.

Also they seem to have one or two really big launches so I'd wager one or two would have been 2 week preorders anyway.



All in all we'll have to wait and see how the dust settles, but it seems GW is going into 2021 in a healthy sensible position

As a non native english speaker, what does this sentence mean?:

"If you’re a Warhammer 40,000 fan, you’ll see a new codex or expansion every month in January, February, and March starting with the Death Guard"

Are those "expansions" supplements? Can we expect DG on January, DA on February and DE in March? That "or" in the sentence could mean DG on January, the Necron Cryptek box in February and the Heavy Intercessors on March.

I don't kno if I understand that properly.

Best news we could have wished for, really

i'd imagine expansions would mean a codex supplement, or one of the campaign books

 Denegaar wrote:
As a non native english speaker, what does this sentence mean?:

"If you’re a Warhammer 40,000 fan, you’ll see a new codex or expansion every month in January, February, and March starting with the Death Guard"

Are those "expansions" supplements? Can we expect DG on January, DA on February and DE in March? That "or" in the sentence could mean DG on January, the Necron Cryptek box in February and the Heavy Intercessors on March.

I don't kno if I understand that properly.

My guess would be a new codex in two of those months, and the third will be some kind of campaign/expansion book ala Vigilus Defiant and such.

Or it's referring to Dark Angels, a known codex supplement that was slated to come out in January.

True. This probably means no drukhari codex till march.

Warhammer 9th edition: 9 months! 1 non-marine codex!

the_scotsman wrote:
True. This probably means no drukhari codex till march.

Warhammer 9th edition: 9 months! 1 non-marine codex!

Well it has been a Corona year and that 1 Non-Marine Codex is an epic reworking of necrons.

Voss wrote:

 Sentineil wrote:
That's great news about Brexit anyway. It was a worry I had that we'd see a huge price jump. Postal and shipping services to Ireland have already announced big price increases in shipping costs, which coupled with import duties could make things more prohibitive.

This might impact third party stores though, who won't be able to offer the level of discount they use to.

Still, a nice move by GW and better than I could have hoped!

Keep in mind, this is temporary:
"While the details of the UK’s future relationship with the EU are still being worked out"

It also in no way precludes a price adjustment. (or that its not already baked in, see the $80 Gladiators and Necron and SM Codexes that are $50 rather than $40)
But I expect a sweeping price adjustment announcement around March, probably even worse than this year's.

Gw rising new sku's is no new things. New sku, higher prices compared to old comparatives is standard over decade　system that replaced yearly sweeping rises

Well, if we treat the article as written, maybe Drukhari is Q2. I was expecting DA and DE in late January :/ It's been a though year, thats true, but they have been pretty proficient releasing SM stuff.

Voss wrote:

 Sentineil wrote:
That's great news about Brexit anyway. It was a worry I had that we'd see a huge price jump. Postal and shipping services to Ireland have already announced big price increases in shipping costs, which coupled with import duties could make things more prohibitive.

This might impact third party stores though, who won't be able to offer the level of discount they use to.

Still, a nice move by GW and better than I could have hoped!

Keep in mind, this is temporary:
"While the details of the UK’s future relationship with the EU are still being worked out"

It also in no way precludes a price adjustment. (or that its not already baked in, see the $80 Gladiators and Necron and SM Codexes that are $50 rather than $40)
But I expect a sweeping price adjustment announcement around March, probably even worse than this year's.

No I’d take that in the same way as “while yes, it is still being worked out, that means..”

That is pretty cool that they are going to tank the customs fees for a bit anyway.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Totally seperate tangent, but that Sequitor is freak'n adorable.

Those two make a cute couple.

On topic, sad that Dark Eldar are delayed. Currently running them in a Crusade league and wanted to start using proper crusade stuff for them.

This is probably for the best, I know all my local FLGS have have a ton of issues getting enough stock of certain items from GW and are having issues with getting a lot of items restocked due to GW not being able to keep up with demand. Hopefully by spacing things out a bit, it will allow GW to get more product to the consumer and keep up with their current catalogue of minis.

Still hoping I can pick up the Chaos Warrior Underworld band in January, but if I have to wait until February it's not the end of the world.

 Da Boss wrote:
That is pretty cool that they are going to tank the customs fees for a bit anyway.

Don't worry I'm sure they'll increase prices to get it back. This will just be buying themselves some short-term "GW has changed!" good will.

 Da Boss wrote:
That is pretty cool that they are going to tank the customs fees for a bit anyway.

They're not "tanking" anything. They had already raised prices and shipping costs earlier this year in preparation for this, so they're not going to be losing any money over this.

They've raised prices continuously for as long as the hobby existed. I bought my first box of space marines for £5 in 1992.

Were all those price hikes just incredibly visionary decisions in anticipation of Brexit? Or is it maybe that the prices went up like they always do and there is no nefarious or cynical mastermind behind this in a ploy to charge us more to call it good will?

Either way, I just got a €20 voucher off them because something I ordered won't be here by Christmas due to the new lockdown restrictions. Another nice gesture that I appreciate, even if my order was for me and not a gift, and I had entirely forgotten I had even ordered it.

Yeah, we'll all be getting a Price Adjustment sometime in 2021.

Probably right around the time the whole would is vaccinated/relatively COVID-19 free...

I'm a tad confused about the AoS stuff. Is the Slaanesh stuff supposed to come in february? Why is it not stated then?

GW is just building hype about nothing, because they can't be sure about release dates.

I hope expansions are supplements and not expansions like vigilus ans psychic awakening.
They should do that when ALL codexes are released. And new expansions should involve all armies.
Not like vigilus boosting just a few.

They should just move everything to europe, to lake a point to those stupid british eggheads who voted for brexit because thoseleader where afraid to make a descision...

Krull wrote:
And new expansions should involve all armies.

So they have to contrive a reason why every faction is involved in every conflict?

I really wish they would sell packs of Christmas cards

Krull wrote:
I hope expansions are supplements and not expansions like vigilus ans psychic awakening.
They should do that when ALL codexes are released. And new expansions should involve all armies.
Not like vigilus boosting just a few.

They should just move everything to europe, to lake a point to those stupid british eggheads who voted for brexit because thoseleader where afraid to make a descision...

Things we know are coming that would qualify as Codex or expansions in my mind are:

Codex Death Guard
Codex Supplement Dark Angels
Codex Drukari
War Zone Charadon Act 1: The Book of Rust
Plague Purge Mission Pack

The cynic in me thinks that GW already adjusted their prices to post-brexit levels during the last price hike. This doesn't mean they are "fair"; it actually means they have been overcharging for a while and now they are just going to be having the same profit margins as before brexit.

All this is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, since the next price hike will be here sooner or later anyway..

But I like the decreased pace of product releases going forward. Once a week always felt like they were rushing things, maybe the books will benefit from extra proofreading time as a result (one an hope).

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Krull wrote:
And new expansions should involve all armies.

So they have to contrive a reason why every faction is involved in every conflict?

On this thought? Have they not already announced a new war zone expansion?

 Alpharius wrote:
Yeah, we'll all be getting a Price Adjustment sometime in 2021.

Probably right around the time the whole would is vaccinated/relatively COVID-19 free...

Or not. Every year price hikes　stopped long time ago in favour of upping prices of new sku's(which results ln box that's practically same as other but more pricey)

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Krull wrote:
And new expansions should involve all armies.

So they have to contrive a reason why every faction is involved in every conflict?

On this thought? Have they not already announced a Jew war zone expansion?

Erm, I hope that’s a typo Doc?!

Oh my god! It is it is it is.

 tauist wrote:
The cynic in me thinks that GW already adjusted their prices to post-brexit levels during the last price hike. This doesn't mean they are "fair"; it actually means they have been overcharging for a while and now they are just going to be having the same profit margins as before brexit.

All this is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, since the next price hike will be here sooner or later anyway..

But I like the decreased pace of product releases going forward. Once a week always felt like they were rushing things, maybe the books will benefit from extra proofreading time as a result (one an hope).

It seems to just be January and February that are once a fortnight rather than once a week, so nothing will get extra proofreading time really.

That said, the global situation means Warhammer releases in January and February will be lighter than in recent years.

Rather than weekly, you’ll see new releases every fortnight, with the first pre-orders of 2021 on the 16th of January.

 Jadenim wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Krull wrote:
And new expansions should involve all armies.

So they have to contrive a reason why every faction is involved in every conflict?

On this thought? Have they not already announced a Jew war zone expansion?

Erm, I hope that’s a typo Doc?!

Pre Great Crusade, perhaps Age of Strife era. With the Emperor stamping out all religions?

Brexit free trade deal apparently confirmed, meaning no tariffs / extra taxes etc on good going between EU and UK.

JWBS wrote:
Brexit free trade deal apparently confirmed, meaning no tariffs / extra taxes etc on good going between EU and UK.

Yeah I had to check. Hell is freezen over.

It does still mean customs though, doesn't it?

For a normal person or small trader, I expect it'll need one of those declarations that you get if you post from the US, China or the like.

I daresay an extra couple of minutes per parcel multiplied by a few hundred parcels a week for some companies represents an extra man-day per week in labour, but I daresay much of it will be automateable in short order much like address labels on eBay.

tneva82 wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
Yeah, we'll all be getting a Price Adjustment sometime in 2021.

Probably right around the time the whole would is vaccinated/relatively COVID-19 free...

Or not. Every year price hikes　stopped long time ago in favour of upping prices of new sku's(which results ln box that's practically same as other but more pricey)

They started up yearly price hikes again about 2 years ago. Last...May/June, and about 6 months ago.

 Azreal13 wrote:
For a normal person or small trader, I expect it'll need one of those declarations that you get if you post from the US, China or the like.

I daresay an extra couple of minutes per parcel multiplied by a few hundred parcels a week for some companies represents an extra man-day per week in labour, but I daresay much of it will be automateable in short order much like address labels on eBay.

Not quite so easy likely. Albeit easier for single item but process is multi stepped and for container(each) it's over inch thick paper pile. Expected cost for companies 7% of item value. So gw is looking at paying about 7% due to non-tarif red tape

My biggest fear with GW and brexit isn't increasing prices per se but rather that GW will try to prevent UK-stores from selling to european customers. Being unable to utilize the great service of the british online-discounters would be a MAYOR blow for my hobby budget!

this thing is guaranteed to happen and the only chance to get around it would be a small detail in the trade deal that UK still need to follow the free market rules

 kodos wrote:
this thing is guaranteed to happen and the only chance to get around it would be a small detail in the trade deal that UK still need to follow the free market rules

Well question is is uk gov interested in changing it. Iirc they voted for law that integrates existing eu laws to uk　law unless changed(saves time). So for now i think law is there. Is　it something uk　gov wants to change?

tneva82 wrote:

 kodos wrote:
this thing is guaranteed to happen and the only chance to get around it would be a small detail in the trade deal that UK still need to follow the free market rules

Well question is is uk gov interested in changing it. Iirc they voted for law that integrates existing eu laws to uk　law unless changed(saves time). So for now i think law is there. Is　it something uk　gov wants to change?

I think it's too soon to say for sure. I haven't seen the whole text of the trade-deal released yet but the UK is leaving the common market so it's entirely possible that GW are free to restrict indy-retailers in the UK to selling strictly to the UK in the future.

That would be a real tragedy so I'm really hoping that there is something in the agreement that prevents this. Really worried though...

Ohman wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

 kodos wrote:
this thing is guaranteed to happen and the only chance to get around it would be a small detail in the trade deal that UK still need to follow the free market rules

Well question is is uk gov interested in changing it. Iirc they voted for law that integrates existing eu laws to uk　law unless changed(saves time). So for now i think law is there. Is　it something uk　gov wants to change?

I think it's too soon to say for sure. I haven't seen the whole text of the trade-deal released yet but the UK is leaving the common market so it's entirely possible that GW are free to restrict indy-retailers in the UK to selling strictly to the UK in the future.

That would be a real tragedy so I'm really hoping that there is something in the agreement that prevents this. Really worried though...

Oh no doubt. My point was uk had already put existing eu laws to uk law as is with plan to change as fit. I doubt deal affects this so uk gov is free to change law if they want it but as default it should still be forbidden. Could be wrong though and misunderstood something or they have indeed already changed it.

Well we'll see. I would expect changes to system anyway though. Red tape uk store would need to fill adds up work ergo money. Might add to shipping fees

by default it is allowed as the UK is not part of the single market any more hence GW can forbid UK shops to sell things to the EU
(there are just no additional fees/taxes by default)

only if the new Trade Deal keeps UK as part of the single market, GW cannot do it

Yet UK not being part of the single market but on its own was one of the big points, so I don't think this would change with the Deal

 kurhanik wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
Yeah, we'll all be getting a Price Adjustment sometime in 2021.

Probably right around the time the whole would is vaccinated/relatively COVID-19 free...

Or not. Every year price hikes　stopped long time ago in favour of upping prices of new sku's(which results ln box that's practically same as other but more pricey)

They started up yearly price hikes again about 2 years ago. Last...May/June, and about 6 months ago.

I thought so!

That, combined with the usual 'the new thing costs more' + "repacks with less models for the same price" = well, pretty much business as usually for...quite some time now.

Still, I'm looking forward to shopping and gaming in person "SOON" in 2021!

Does anyone have an idea on when Primaris Heavy Intercessors, Bladeguard, Storm Speeder and Eradicators are due out?

Likely with Dark Angels, February at the earliest.

What's this rumor about the cargo container with Death Guard ending up at the bottom of the sea?

umm so now I'm confused. Originally when the deal was reached with EU, it was said that there wont be additional customs fees to EU customers of UK companies? And just yesterday I read that actually, there will be extra costs after all, you have to pay VAT and god knows what else.. making effectively UK as expensive for EU people to shop in than USA.

Can someone enlighten me please? How's it going to go for real? I'm too "entitled" to read the 1800-page contract, and even if I did read it, I'm not sure I'd be able to interpret all the implications of it correctly..

What's worse, my recent FW order still hasn't shipped, so according to my info I will have to pay
all these VATs etc unless FW starts shipping my order before 1st of Jan 2021.. That's 2 days from now

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
What's this rumor about the cargo container with Death Guard ending up at the bottom of the sea?

Not sure that's really a fact.

Have not been able to find anything that really proves that happened.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
What's this rumor about the cargo container with Death Guard ending up at the bottom of the sea?

Well, a ship lost nearly 2000 containers at the beginning of December.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-shipping-container-accident-idUKKBN28E0T7

Whether or not any contained GW product is another matter.

if it contained GW products it would only be books or boxes, no models

 techsoldaten wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
What's this rumor about the cargo container with Death Guard ending up at the bottom of the sea?

Not sure that's really a fact.

Have not been able to find anything that really proves that happened.

Last month a container ship going from China to the US hit a storm and lost a load of containers, and since then every delay anywhere has been blamed on it. The video has been shared on dozens of Kickstarters (even those that aren't shipping from China).

EDIT: alphaecho ninja'd me with the link.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 kodos wrote:
if it contained GW products it would only be books or boxes, no models

Possibly terrain kits - a few of them are still made in China (Wargames Factory?).

don't know if they still do
but yes terrain is possible as well

 tauist wrote:
umm so now I'm confused. Originally when the deal was reached with EU, it was said that there wont be additional customs fees to EU customers of UK companies? And just yesterday I read that actually, there will be extra costs after all, you have to pay VAT and god knows what else.. making effectively UK as expensive for EU people to shop in than USA.

Can someone enlighten me please? How's it going to go for real? I'm too "entitled" to read the 1800-page contract, and even if I did read it, I'm not sure I'd be able to interpret all the implications of it correctly..

first of all the new trade deal just means that there are no Customs between UK and EU, but it is not a Customs Union and as the UK can have their own trade deals, the bureaucracy is steal there so US goods cannot be traded over UK into EU to avoid customs

VAT have to be paid anyway as the UK is not part of the Single Market any more, if you order as the end costumer from the UK (not via shops)

so yes, order for cheap in the UK to avoid original GW prices is gone one way or the order (if it is still cheaper to order from the UK, GW will just not allow it anymore) and a EU game store is the only possibility to get stuff on discount

Ah thanks. I'd head a few references to it and couldn't find real news anywhere.

If the ship was going to the US it should only have affected the US supply. I'm sure UK shipments go directly to the UK and EUR.

Heads up for everyone outside UK.
Restrictions in England are going up again and hospitals are under increased pressure.
So unlikely restrictions will go down any time soon (Could very well go more restrictive).
Just saying as this could very well cause even more delays to GW products

Doohicky wrote:
Heads up for everyone outside UK.
Restrictions in England are going up again and hospitals are under increased pressure.
So unlikely restrictions will go down any time soon (Could very well go more restrictive).
Just saying as this could very well cause even more delays to GW products

It's more likely to cause delays along with the mess over the channel and trade through the EU. That said it seems trade with China isn't hindered and GW itself should remain operational provided its staff don't go down with the disease prompting a 2 week shutdown (even then they might be able to rotate staff so that teams never meet each other so if one team goes down, they can just deep clean the worksite and resume operations with the other team). So in theory it shouldn't be as bad as the first lockdowns in March; just closer to the ones we had in November.

Doohicky wrote:
Heads up for everyone outside UK.
Restrictions in England are going up again and hospitals are under increased pressure.
So unlikely restrictions will go down any time soon (Could very well go more restrictive).
Just saying as this could very well cause even more delays to GW products

I believe I heard some people having a mutation of the virus as well, which might stop anything from leaving the UK in general

Most likely didn't originate here, but since the UK has done something like 50% of all the world's genetic sequencing of the virus if it was going to be discovered anywhere, it was here.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

Doohicky wrote:
Heads up for everyone outside UK.
Restrictions in England are going up again and hospitals are under increased pressure.
So unlikely restrictions will go down any time soon (Could very well go more restrictive).
Just saying as this could very well cause even more delays to GW products

I believe I heard some people having a mutation of the virus as well, which might stop anything from leaving the UK in general

If the bulk items are being shipped via sea, or well even going via air travel to the US... It's not that much of an issue that we have a variant (which is already in multiple countries, including the US now), because the virus dies on a surface after 72 hours providing it doesn't get touched in that time by hand (literally).

Nottingham itself is going into Tier 4 from tomorrow, which means (among other things) "you must work from home if possible". It absolutely is going to affect GW releases. Tier 4 is basically full lockdown again in most respects.

Billicus wrote:Most likely didn't originate here, but since the UK has done something like 50% of all the world's genetic sequencing of the virus if it was going to be discovered anywhere, it was here.

The faster spreading version of the disease isn't unique to the UK, but it has got a hold and is spreading very fast. It will likely appear in other nations as well, but as best as nations can its good to try and isolate it as much as possible. Vaccines are said to still work, what they need now is time to be produced and distributed.

Duskweaver wrote:Nottingham itself is going into Tier 4 from tomorrow, which means (among other things) "you must work from home if possible". It absolutely is going to affect GW releases. Tier 4 is basically full lockdown again in most respects.

It will affect GW staff who can work from home and its shut down Warhammer World Stores; but the actual production side will likely not be impacted. Like the November lockdown, "work from home if you can" means just that. Factory and production workers will still be able to work under the same covid guidelines they've been using thus far. So GW should be able to produce and ship products. Right now what will shut them down is if all non-essential work is shut down or if staff are found as infected and all site staff have to go into a 10-14 day isolation.

alphaecho wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
What's this rumor about the cargo container with Death Guard ending up at the bottom of the sea?

Well, a ship lost nearly 2000 containers at the beginning of December.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-shipping-container-accident-idUKKBN28E0T7

Whether or not any contained GW product is another matter.

Must have gone hunting Eldar, I mean Drukhari.

DUNK-hari

Am I the only one happy they are slowing down releases ? I don't care why they decide to do it but they needed to pump the breaks for awhile now. The constant burn and churn needs to relax a bit to at least make each new release " feel " important as opposed to once in a never ending cycle before yet another space marine refresh.

I agree completely, the pace is too high. I have a huge backlog of Orks, Necrons and Sisters waiting to be painted, and I've barely been able to have any games of 9th yet due to the pandemic.

I understand they need to keep continually increasing sales to please the share holders, but maybe, for the sake of the sanity of everyone, they could ease down a bit of the releases? I know that some people would probably moan and complain if they are left without the weekly dose, but I remember the time of monthly releases that you read about in WD (no daily online updates) - some months there wasn't even a 40K release at all, only WHFB or some of the other games. Maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy.

No I remember those days but they would most likely sell more with some time to breathe between releases. As it is I think only some keep up with it and others just burn out and step away as really it can be a bit daunting to even try and keep up with.

 AngryAngel80 wrote:
Am I the only one happy they are slowing down releases ? I don't care why they decide to do it but they needed to pump the breaks for awhile now. The constant burn and churn needs to relax a bit to at least make each new release " feel " important as opposed to once in a never ending cycle before yet another space marine refresh.

I am actually quite relieved by the slowed down pace. Early this year I realized I had been keeping up with the GWses a bit too much with a basement and closets full of backlogs that wasn't getting smaller due to the endless amount of releases even if I was painting nonstop during various lockdowns.

The main problem I have with GW is that they have this furious release schedule in separate games that still have some overlaps between each other.

 AngryAngel80 wrote:
No I remember those days but they would most likely sell more with some time to breathe between releases. As it is I think only some keep up with it and others just burn out and step away as really it can be a bit daunting to even try and keep up with.

Depends a bit what it is that's being released. Model releases for armies you don't collect don't have any impact. If anything, faster is better as it means your own things may happen sooner rather than later. I mean, I don't think Tyranid, Eldar, Skaven or Seraphon players are feeling overwhelmed by all the new releases. If your army just had a bunch of stuff, it doesn't matter anymore as it may be years before you see anything new anyway (unless your army is Space Marines of course). Maybe a big release like the Necrons or Sister of Battle got can be overwhelming, but it's not like you have to buy everything at once - and I'd rather see the models released around the same time, than spread out too much. When everything is released or at least previewed, you know what's (going to be) available and you can start making choices of what to get first, or what kits you may want to kitbash or so. (Always annoying when you've just assembled some things, then see great new bits in a new set that would have been perfect to have earlier.) Not to mention that spread out releases just lead to incomplete codices.

The main problem in terms of a fast release schedule is the churn and burn of books/rules. Mentally and financially draining to keep up with if you even bother to try, and especially bad in a year in which few games are being played - there is no need to keep the meta fresh or whatever, and keeping up when not playing is even more difficult. Then again, releasing books and new editions at the rate GW does is hardly justifiable to begin with, regardless of the pandemic. And for those, yes, a slower release schedule is very welcome indeed.

To the people hoping the release schedule would slow down, I'm curious, why can you not just... stop buying? The limited edition/short print run stuff I understand, but the rest of it's not going anywhere.

 Arbitrator wrote:
To the people hoping the release schedule would slow down, I'm curious, why can you not just... stop buying? The limited edition/short print run stuff I understand, but the rest of it's not going anywhere.

For me, release speed isn’t an issue.
I tend to pass on nearly everything they throw out at the moment.

The limited release runs badly need a tweak though.
Either need to be started at the end of a month or last for a month.

Generally speaking, most people that are paid monthly are paid on the last day/Friday of the month.
A lot of their made to order has run from the 2nd-3rd weeks of a month.
Means that unless you saw it coming or have a hobby stash, most will skip it.

The Diaz daemonettes killed me as they did it with them.
If I’d just been paid then I would have happily spent on them.
The poor timing though meant bills etc came first.

Still pissed off about that one now as scalpers have hiked the prices back up almost instantly.

I wish GW would change how they release stuff rather than slow it down. 40k is right now in a rather good state except for a few of the factions that desperately need new rules. Those factions will have to endure for a few months extra and all of them were already unlikely to get fixed in 2021 with some having to wait until 2022. That is now all but a guarantee.

It is not like Eldar, Dark Eldar, Guard, Tyranids and Tau are overflowing with new releases. They all need updated models and rules. Some of those armies are almost unplayable due to rules and others due to old and bad models.

Middle Earth doesnt need new rules but getting new and updated plastics would help a lot for the games health. There are quite a few models that are OOP but still have rules. Like Cirdan that I just ordered from china for 3,5$ because I didnt want to buy a metal one on ebay for over 10x that price. Entire factions that are metal/finecast/FW and some units are out of stock for months.

I am guessing that some factions in AoS or some of the other specialist games could need new models as well without anyone feeling overwhelmed.

It is mainly just marines that have been getting lots of stuff. Not just in models but books as well. 2 codex and 10 supplements in about 14 months and in the same time period only Necrons got a new book. Sure, there were some PA in there as well but half of those were marine content as well. If GW had lowered the marine releases by half and spread out those 50% of releases to the factions that most needed them I dont think anyone but the largest whales would complain. There are some that buy every kit GW releases and just put it in a closet but most normal people dont. For them it only matters if the few armies they play are getting swamped by new kits and books. With a more even distribution that wouldnt happen even if they increased the amount of stuff they released.

Klickor wrote:


Middle Earth doesnt need new rules but getting new and updated plastics would help a lot for the games health. There are quite a few models that are OOP but still have rules. Like Cirdan that I just ordered from china for 3,5$ because I didnt want to buy a metal one on ebay for over 10x that price. Entire factions that are metal/finecast/FW and some units are out of stock for months.

This. I'd love to see some more middle earth stuff. The things they released this year have generally been great!

 Arbitrator wrote:
To the people hoping the release schedule would slow down, I'm curious, why can you not just... stop buying? The limited edition/short print run stuff I understand, but the rest of it's not going anywhere.

The problem is a) the amount of stuff that is limited, even stuff that should be core products like tactics cards, etc. and b) a lot of the time it isn't actually clear whether things will stay in stock or be "one and done". I, and a lot of friends, have all had instances when the first you know of something being limited release is the "No longer available online" banner appearing on the website.

Models are rarely limited and typically well signed when they are. I do agree things like boxed set games (eg Blackstone) and cards are often limited even if GW never mentions it and its VERY annoying.

Especially for something like Warcry where GW makes cards a core part of the games structure and design and then makes them limited production runs. For some reason GW still hasn't quite got a knack for allowing themselves to order more cardstock at least for the online market (its often as not that cardstock sells out online but is around physically in stores for a while after).

I can't think of a model that was limited production which wasn't expressly marketed as such. Even things like the unique sculpt intro-box Sisters of Battle were marked as limited to that boxed set only (and I honestly expect to see those push fit designs return for sale at some stage - start collecting set - beginner set - heck the new Hatchett Partworks)

I would say the only reasons GW needs to slowdown their release schedule is to get their production of existing kits sorted out along with producing enough copies of new kits to give reasonable allocations to stores. Beyond that, I say keep releasing as quickly as possible.

That being said, it would be nice if they did a better job balancing their releases across factions for 40K. They are doing fine for the other games. At this point, GW could easily rotate releases as Space Marine, Xenos, Imperial, then Chaos if that is what is needed to keep the money rolling in.

I don't know if the idea of releasing loads as soon as possible is a good thing. Bloated catalogues, rulesets, minis etc will eventually have the opposite effect. I mean 3 books and errata faqs yada yada yada etc just to play a beer and pretzels game is bad as it is.

 Overread wrote:

Duskweaver wrote:Nottingham itself is going into Tier 4 from tomorrow, which means (among other things) "you must work from home if possible". It absolutely is going to affect GW releases. Tier 4 is basically full lockdown again in most respects.

It will affect GW staff who can work from home and its shut down Warhammer World Stores; but the actual production side will likely not be impacted. Like the November lockdown, "work from home if you can" means just that. Factory and production workers will still be able to work under the same covid guidelines they've been using thus far. So GW should be able to produce and ship products. Right now what will shut them down is if all non-essential work is shut down or if staff are found as infected and all site staff have to go into a 10-14 day isolation.

“Somewhat like” lockdown. But as Overread says about these differences. This is nowhere near the same as full lockdown.

Slowing down releases and such may be due to limited capacity to produce space wise depending on their set up etc, or giving themselves a buffer in case full lockdown or something did happen (I.e. they produce at the normal rate but then have a huge advance of releases they can work through slower for a few months - either to keep it if they need it, or maybe to make up for increased releases in 2020 that they may have done to keep profits as good as they turned out to be.)
Also potentially they are using some machines to get a stock built up of other stuff (non new releases) just to make up for all that time they weren’t producing for a good half the year etc..

There's also hints that there's a new Hatchett Partworks magazine this year which would put further pressure on GW to produce.


Also lets not forget, they are slowing down but it might be they have fewer release events, but each one is bigger. Giving them room to produce on a slower scale, but at the same time also hopefully overcoming some of the issues overseas with delayed shipments. A week or two out isn't a problem if you've built yourself a longer release window buffer.

New lockdown from now through to mid February apparently. Looking at my usual online retailer for the past few weeks most of the stuff I planned to buy in the upcoming weeks has been out of stock. I expect there to be a period over the next three months identical to March - Summer of last year, where pretty much everything was OOS everywhere and people were selling pots of Abaddon black on ebay for £9.

JWBS wrote:
New lockdown from now through to mid February apparently. Looking at my usual online retailer for the past few weeks most of the stuff I planned to buy in the upcoming weeks has been out of stock. I expect there to be a period over the next three months identical to March - Summer of last year, where pretty much everything was OOS everywhere and people were selling pots of Abaddon black on ebay for £9.

Far as I can gather it will be similar to the full lockdowns we had in November; so GW's factory should be able to remain open. The March lockdowns were the first ones and happened far too fast for factories and companies to really be ready for implementing covid safe practices. The november did lower infection rates and yet factories and such could remain open. So GW's main factory should remain viable. Of course lockdown means potentially more buying online which means we might not see stocks go back up and international shipping is in a total and utter mess even before Brexit threw even more spanners into it so it might be that UK stocks remain "okish" but overseas could end up lagging or suffering in some regions.

Indeed, we shouldn’t see a lockdown like that again.
Too much of the countries infastructure shut down as well, making it difficult financially to recover etc.
They want to close as little as possible, and have said per second lockdown, that you must work from home where possible.
I’d say as factory workers cannot work from home, then production could continue.
But we shall see I guess

It's already happening. As I say, I've been monitoring the shops I use and the products in my basket have been steadily flipping from "In stock" to "available on back order", and just like last time, they remain in the latter category. This also applies to the shops I don't use, I checked a lot of them this evening.

https://www.firestormgames.co.uk/space-marines---primaris-inceptors
https://store.ontabletop.com/product/space-marines-primaris-inceptors/
https://alchemistsworkshops.com/product/space-marine-primaris-inceptors/
https://www.goblingaming.co.uk/products/space-marines-primaris-inceptors
https://elementgames.co.uk/games-workshop/warhammer-40k/blood-angels/space-marines-primaris-inceptors
https://thelootroom.com/product/space-marines-primaris-inceptors/

There's more, but you get the idea. It's safe to ignore the due by date in these situations too btw, that's what I found last time anyway, so where it says "Here next week", nah, almost definitely not. I mean, I suppose there could be a worldwide shortage of Inceptors hitting precisely now (the guy that turns the Inceptor printing machine is off sick or something), but that doesn't explain all the other products. This is undeniably due to the current restrictions, and they're about to get worse. Yes, not technically full lockdown, but the effect will be the same, mark my words, there's going to be a shortage of everything soon, you'll see doubters, you'll see

I’m not talking about what they’ll produce and when etc though.
Just pointing out it isn’t the same as March.

Though to the point, it won’t be *as bad* because there won’t be a point where ‘nothing’ is getting made like last time.
But that doesn’t mean they are at full production capacity of course.
(In that, If last time 60% of stuff went out of stock, this time it might only be 30-40%.)

So I'm saying it'll be effectively the same, and you're saying it will be different, but with the same effects, only you think a bit less. I find the evidence you've presented less than compelling tbh Danny (I can present more to support my argument if you want, eg I can add a load retailers to the list of shops that don't have that sku, or just do the same with one of the many other products I planned on buying this month but now expect to wait 3-4 months for, due to those products also being OOS everywhere). Anyway. Same as March, imo.

I didn’t think it was an evidence giving debate to be honest.
Just pointing out that production will continue which is a big difference. Compared to 4 months of no production or however long it was on the first one.
I wasn’t trying to change your mind, just stating my thoughts.

Yeah I know you aren't trying to change my mind and I'm not trying to portray this little chat to something grander. Still though, I have to shrug a bit when I say "This thing going to happen", you say "No not rly though" and I say "Look, here it is happening" and you repeat "Still no".

I gotta say, from here it looks like a near total lock down going into action. Unless I'm missing a meaningful distinction this time, there was a soft lock down for a few weeks this seems like a more serious one, will be nice when this crap is gone for at least awhile.

Danny76 wrote:
I didn’t think it was an evidence giving debate to be honest.
Just pointing out that production will continue which is a big difference. Compared to 4 months of no production or however long it was on the first one.
I wasn’t trying to change your mind, just stating my thoughts.

Last time it was bit short of 2 month. Started early april, production　kicked in end of may.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

JWBS wrote:
It's already happening. As I say, I've been monitoring the shops I use and the products in my basket have been steadily flipping from "In stock" to "available on back order", and just like last time, they remain in the latter category. This also applies to the shops I don't use, I checked a lot of them this evening.

https://www.firestormgames.co.uk/space-marines---primaris-inceptors
https://store.ontabletop.com/product/space-marines-primaris-inceptors/
https://alchemistsworkshops.com/product/space-marine-primaris-inceptors/
https://www.goblingaming.co.uk/products/space-marines-primaris-inceptors
https://elementgames.co.uk/games-workshop/warhammer-40k/blood-angels/space-marines-primaris-inceptors
https://thelootroom.com/product/space-marines-primaris-inceptors/

There's more, but you get the idea. It's safe to ignore the due by date in these situations too btw, that's what I found last time anyway, so where it says "Here next week", nah, almost definitely not. I mean, I suppose there could be a worldwide shortage of Inceptors hitting precisely now (the guy that turns the Inceptor printing machine is off sick or something), but that doesn't explain all the other products. This is undeniably due to the current restrictions, and they're about to get worse. Yes, not technically full lockdown, but the effect will be the same, mark my words, there's going to be a shortage of everything soon, you'll see doubters, you'll see

Guess you have missed all the "out of stock" through　last year. Items being out of stock for long period was what marked whole 2020. Archaon been out of stock for a month now for example(as bare minimum. Don't know when it went. Just when　i first　looked).

Some items being out of stock doesn't mean it's due　to lockdown. Actually lockdown that started yesterday logically wouldn't affect past now would it?

Gw orders have soared up making already strugling stock situation bad. Nor do they switch fast what cast and do small print runs. Casting order is changed in order and lots of castings done at once(which takes time)

They should have started 9 with index codexes like they did with 8th. This way all armies started on the same page. Now we have a few new codexes with a lot of old codexes who still use supplements of 2+ years ago...
Which bothers me.

Well we did just have Christmas - I'd honestly be more surprised if stuff wasn't out of stock right now even if GW was running fully with no lockdowns.

Stuff out of stock now isn't due to the lockdown that went into force recently, its due to the massive shopping spree we do every year around Christmas.

 Overread wrote:
Well we did just have Christmas - I'd honestly be more surprised if stuff wasn't out of stock right now even if GW was running fully with no lockdowns.

Stuff out of stock now isn't due to the lockdown that went into force recently, its due to the massive shopping spree we do every year around Christmas.

Indeed. Happens this every January. That massive dearth of GW product, every January, without fail. The old "No stock January" that GW is known for. Just look back on this very forum. Every January, the newbies asking "Why can't I buy GW stuff" and us Grogs gruffly explaining that ole GW "Dry Jan". Don't believe me? Go look - Jan 2019, 2018, 2017. Always the same!

Krull wrote:
They should have started 9 with index codexes like they did with 8th. This way all armies started on the same page. Now we have a few new codexes with a lot of old codexes who still use supplements of 2+ years ago...
Which bothers me.

That would increase gap between new codexes and indexes. No stratagems, traits etc until codex comes. Xenos/chaos would be screwed atm vs marines and necrons.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

JWBS wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Well we did just have Christmas - I'd honestly be more surprised if stuff wasn't out of stock right now even if GW was running fully with no lockdowns.

Stuff out of stock now isn't due to the lockdown that went into force recently, its due to the massive shopping spree we do every year around Christmas.

Indeed. Happens this every January. That massive dearth of GW product, every January, without fail. The old "No stock January" that GW is known for. Just look back on this very forum. Every January, the newbies asking "Why can't I buy GW stuff" and us Grogs gruffly explaining that ole GW "Dry Jan". Don't believe me? Go look - Jan 2019, 2018, 2017. Always the same!

It's been "why can't i buy x" all 2020.

tneva82 wrote:


It's been "why can't i buy x" all 2020.

Do you honestly need this explained to you again? I've seen it spelled out for you on several occasions, most recently in the xmas bundle thread, the reasons for the stock shortages and product release delays in this particular year, I'm really having difficulty understanding what's so difficult for you to understand about it.

tneva82 wrote:

Krull wrote:
They should have started 9 with index codexes like they did with 8th. This way all armies started on the same page. Now we have a few new codexes with a lot of old codexes who still use supplements of 2+ years ago...
Which bothers me.

That would increase gap between new codexes and indexes. No stratagems, traits etc until codex comes. Xenos/chaos would be screwed atm vs marines and necrons.

why should the Index be without those?

just because GW failed with the Index once does not mean they do it again

I mean this is Nu-GW, they now learn from mistakes

Krull wrote:
They should have started 9 with index codexes like they did with 8th. This way all armies started on the same page. Now we have a few new codexes with a lot of old codexes who still use supplements of 2+ years ago...
Which bothers me.

Force everyone to replace their Codices with a temp get-you-by book, and then buy a new Codex anyway?

The change from 8th to 9th wasn't a paradigm shift like 2nd to 3rd, or 7th to 8th. It did not require Indices.

 kodos wrote:
I mean this is Nu-GW, they now learn from mistakes

I have to assume you're being facetious.

I’d take an accelerated Codex release schedule over Get You By rules any day. Especially when the existing Codex range is now, by extension, already Get You By.

Though that does remind me, I need to Chuck out my older books. Barring the Necron one, as the new Codex doesn’t really do unit background (I’m kinda upset about that. Terribly 3rd Ed, when baby was thrown out with the bath water)

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 kodos wrote:
I mean this is Nu-GW, they now learn from mistakes

I have to assume you're being facetious.

well, GW missed the chance to update the profiles for the armies to 8th and now we have to wait for the 9th edi Codex to get them
a 9th edi Index with 2 Wounds for all Marines and similar changes would have been the best way to run the game

At this point it doesn't really matter. There is no serious gaming going on pretty much anywhere, and this looks to be the case all over. 9th is basically in a holding pattern with people mostly just building/painting/hypothesizing, a slow codex release means nothing. The big return from this is that we may at least have a delay on 10th edition by a year.
9th has been out since what? July? and yet all we have are marines and necrons, and the marines are only half released (slightly more) with more kits to come. And we still have more marines coming (although one is dirty marines), before we hit that next Xenos book. So it's safe to say that 9th is just going to hang out as a non game until at least March. That's fine with me.
GW may alter there release schedule accordingly, who knows, but they will need to release a codex for Chaos sooner rather than later or the community will be seriously pissed.

a slow Codex release/rules update now means very much

as this the point were people have time building up their armies, painting, getting stuff done to be ready to play as soon as the situation changes

but people putting now their half done armies on the shelf because they don't know what to do with them until the new rules are out and search for motivation to paint anything at all (instead of trying to be ready to play)

this was the big change to get digital rules updates out, bring stuff on the same level or release free updates for armies to give a hint what is goind to happen with them

"it will take years until you are going to enjoy your army, but why don't you buy some Space Marines now to play" does not work if there is no possibility to play

I'm not sure what constitutes "serious gaming", but a lot of people play at home rather than at a store or convention, and can still do plenty of gaming.

In the UK at least household mixing is more or less completely banned, so the only people playing at home are those of us lucky enough to have spouses and/or kids to bully into playing with us. I don't think people in that situation are really crying out for new codex books are they?

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
I'm not sure what constitutes "serious gaming", but a lot of people play at home rather than at a store or convention, and can still do plenty of gaming.

there are better games to be played at home with family members than 40k

and meeting people from other households is restricted/banned in most of Europe at the moment

Huh, I guess I forgot that some people live in places where you can be banned from going to someone else's house. How are they enforcing that?

And there have always been better games to play anywhere than 40k. But people evidently want to play it anyway.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
Huh, I guess I forgot that some people live in places where you can be banned from going to someone else's house. How are they enforcing that?

They said “That horrible virus is still around and a lot of people are dying from it, please don’t go to other households as you may endanger yourself or others” and we said “fair enough.”

Despite the slow(er) codex release, people are obviously still buying, building and painting in their droves. People are using lockdowns to spend time on their hobby, that doesn’t have to be (And pretty much isn’t) gaming.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:

And there have always been better games to play anywhere than 40k. But people evidently want to play it anyway.

the onme big reason why people are playing 40k and not something else is that everyone else plays it and you can get pick up games very easily

but if you cannot get pick up games at all, why should people play with old-Codex Tau VS new-Codex Marines bother with house rules, or try to get their wife/kids into the game etc.
if the main reason to play 40k does not exist any more, and GW does not care to update rules for the stuff you have, there is no reason not to play other games or use other rules for your models (I have seen more people using OPR rules in hte last 2 months than in the last years)

Totally. There's even other GW games I'd play more readily than more 9th ed 40k. If I do want my 40k itch scratched it's Grimdark Future (formerly one-page 40k) all the way now.

Besides lock down gets you stuck at home with your toys so yes people will potentially paint more not less.
Tackling the legendary pile of precious things is now a possibility.

Gaming is secondary or even irrelevant to many and so are new rules.
Although I would think that now is the prime time for companies to flood us with single payer games, adventures etc.

The 2021 lock down is not going away anytime soon by the looks of it, so yeah delays or outofstock is normality.
Kudos to GW for branching out to twitch and other virtual platforms to engage with community.

Hobbies are awesome helping with the mental stability so they are vital today more than ever.

HOW they enforce household lockdown?... they shouldn't need to enforce anything if you are a responsible person.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
I'm not sure what constitutes "serious gaming", but a lot of people play at home rather than at a store or convention, and can still do plenty of gaming.

We're in the middle of a pandemic, and realistically you shouldn't be gaming with anyone unless they live with you, or you happen to live in New Zealand.

 Mr. Grey wrote:

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
I'm not sure what constitutes "serious gaming", but a lot of people play at home rather than at a store or convention, and can still do plenty of gaming.

We're in the middle of a pandemic, and realistically you shouldn't be gaming with anyone unless they live with you, or you happen to live in New Zealand.

Well, a lot of people probably don't care what you think they should or shouldn't do.

In any case, even if people aren't playing games, and are just building and painting armies, they still probably wouldn't mind updated rules, so they they can plan what to build toward, and possibly be motivated by the exciting new background.

Well, a lot of people probably don't care what you think they should or shouldn't do.

Yes, that's clear from the 20M cases and the 354,000+ deaths so far here in the US. But by all means, feel free to keep playing games of toy soldiers with people if it makes you feel better.

IFF you believe this story.
Many people - perhaps most - do not.

As for lockdowns and production and Brexit and so on, this would and should be prime time for GW to develop decent rules and update codices, design model range updates, and get the community behind upcoming initiatives. I would welcome this, supporting hobbyists during lockdown by opening their inner workings and intentions so that we have something more to which to look forward. Digital texts require no shipping, no paper, no production requiring people to be together.

 jeff white wrote:
IFF you believe this story.
Many people - perhaps most - do not.

Truly, said like someone who so far has managed not to lost someone due to this "hoax".

Keep being lucky. Some (perhaps many) of us aren't.

 jeff white wrote:
IFF you believe this story.
Many people - perhaps most - do not..

Grade A Moron.

And we're done here, people can't remain polite or on topic anyway.