We don't even know what's in the codex yet and already the ranting and wailing and gnashing of teeth has begun. If people hate this hobby so much... there's always 30k!

 DarkStarSabre wrote:


That SM Assault Squad has an Eviscerator. OH MY.

Pretty sure it's a heavy chain sword lol.

I went and picked up this week's WD, and decided to preorder 2 of the Blood Angels upgrade bits and 1 ASM box (from my local store).

I bought the ASM boxes because:

1. It says, "highly-poseable two-part pairs of legs"! How cool does that sound?
2. I kind of like the basing options, and I've always been fond of Mk VI armor front. WIth the chest eagle underneath is a really nice touch.
3. Two-handed options for assault marines? That sounds nifty. Plus, there look to be some good 1H poses. I would love more 1H angled right arms.

I'll pop open the box when I'm at the store; depending on the right/left arm options, quantity and configuration (and compatibility with other kits), I may buy up to 3 more boxes of 'em. For instance, DC comes with 2 full frames of tons of parts for 5 models, meaning you get an awesome amount of spare parts for everything else. Since BA are my thing at the moment, the most important aspect is to be able to use them with BA parts (yeah, yeah, in 2 years I'll be saying "SW" instead, but oh well).

For the people that are decrying the big 4 not needing more bits... Well, let's face it: people are going to be more likely to buy upgrade parts for the factions they are building/collecting than to start up a new faction. I would love to see Iron Hands and some other factions get some love, too, but GW has never really done much for factions other than BA/SW/UM/DA (and GK, though they're not really a "normal" SM faction).

What are the hints for next week. Just the Devastators?

 Eldarain wrote:
What are the hints for next week. Just the Devastators?

- Big Guns
- Theatre of War
- Golden Demon

Thanks, Talys

 Lockark wrote:

 DarkStarSabre wrote:


That SM Assault Squad has an Eviscerator. OH MY.

Pretty sure it's a heavy chain sword lol.

If you look at the cut off caption for picture 10 of the AM page, there is one and a half words: Sergeant and "scerator". Given the picture and word fragment, I'm betting he's got an eviserator.

<grumble grumble>

Still hopeful for a deathwatch sprue and plastic heresy marines.....

Holy smokes. Just reading White Dwarf, guys:

"A last little thing to note is that there are 10 front torso and 10 rear torso pieces in the kit, half with jump pack harnesses and half without, so now you don't have to ..."

WOW!!!

When has GW ever done THAT in a box of 5?! 10 torso fronts would have been really unusual, but 10 torso backs too?

--

By the way, the upgrade frames are not a bad deal if you think of it in terms of the old 10x shoulder pads being $10, and the new upgrade frame, which includes 10 (better) shoulder pads, plus some other useful stuff, for $3.50 more.

Here are my thoughts on the Blood Angels sprue:

The sprue is actually has awesome value. There are TWO torso fronts. Since I have tons of old unbuilt command/devastator/tactical backs and other parts, this is effectively 2 models with spiffy armor. And those torso fronts are really nice, too. Definitely character or squad-leader quality!

The Iron Halo is a waste of plastic, because every BA player has them, and the regular heads are likewise not going to be helpful. The Sanguinary head is really nifty, but you already get them with Sanguinary guard. Other than Dante, who uses these? The Winged Skull is a waste of space too, because every BA player has these in excess. The chalice is cool if you still need a priest; it will save you $25 to buy a priest, haha. They even give you a second one (Why?!). And why did we get a ritual dagger? Give us a nice Thunderhammer or something, not that little pig sticker :(

 Talys wrote:
Holy smokes. Just reading White Dwarf, guys:

"A last little thing to note is that there are 10 front torso and 10 rear torso pieces in the kit, half with jump pack harnesses and half without, so now you don't have to ..."

Pretty sure that's been the case since the edition of assault marines that also came without jump packs.

That thing about 5 spare torsos is actually quite cool. I bought a bunch of 3rd party legs so I could use them and make a 10-man squad (well, one with jump packs and one with regular packs that is). Awesome!

 spiralingcadaver wrote:

 Talys wrote:
Holy smokes. Just reading White Dwarf, guys:

"A last little thing to note is that there are 10 front torso and 10 rear torso pieces in the kit, half with jump pack harnesses and half without, so now you don't have to ..."

Pretty sure that's been the case since the edition of assault marines that also came without jump packs.

Maybe it's just been so long since I've bought ASM :X

Yeah, they did that in the last Assault Marine box. It's nothing new. What is new is the price. +AUD$15 for no fething reason.

It seems GW has abandoned their "Let's increase the price on everything to make everyone the same as Australia!" in favour of "Feth it! Just raise the price on everything!".

$70 for 5 models? That's more than the Vanguard box!!! Give me a God-damned break...

Yay for more leg poses on assault marines... Boo for 'balancing on stuff' poses and all of the jump chestplates still being Mk7.

I'm salivating at those 3rd Company Ultramarine transfer banners... I was expecting to pay an arm or a leg to have someone freehand that when I finally got around to it.

Soooo, it seems that the upgrade sprees are more make a special character sprues.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
I'm salivating at those 3rd Company Ultramarine transfer banners... I was expecting to pay an arm or a leg to have someone freehand that when I finally got around to it.

Yeah, instead you can just pay an arm and a leg for the transfers...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah, they did that in the last Assault Marine box. It's nothing new. What is new is the price. +AUD$15 for no fething reason.

It seems GW has abandoned their "Let's increase the price on everything to make everyone the same as Australia!" in favour of "Feth it! Just raise the price on everything!".

$70 for 5 models? That's more than the Vanguard box!!! Give me a God-damned break...

I don't remember getting 10 full bodies in the last assault marine box. Also, that's weird on the price, vanguard are 50 here I thought compared to 41.5 for assault. O well, it's rough in the down under.

Loving these huge transfer sheets, can't wait till they come out with one for a army I want to play.

 Leth wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah, they did that in the last Assault Marine box. It's nothing new. What is new is the price. +AUD$15 for no fething reason.

It seems GW has abandoned their "Let's increase the price on everything to make everyone the same as Australia!" in favour of "Feth it! Just raise the price on everything!".

$70 for 5 models? That's more than the Vanguard box!!! Give me a God-damned break...

I don't remember getting 10 full bodies in the last assault marine box. Also, that's weird on the price, vanguard are 50 here I thought compared to 41.5 for assault. O well, it's rough in the down under.

Loving these huge transfer sheets, can't wait till they come out with one for a army I want to play.

The assault marine box came with part of the tactical marine sprue for regular bodies and power-packs.

 insaniak wrote:

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
I'm salivating at those 3rd Company Ultramarine transfer banners... I was expecting to pay an arm or a leg to have someone freehand that when I finally got around to it.

Yeah, instead you can just pay an arm and a leg for the transfers...

$20 for the transfers, $80 for professional painters (didn't do much searching). I'd say I'm only paying a finger. Like the pinky finger. No one NEEDS a pinky finger.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
$20 for the transfers, $80 for professional painters (didn't do much searching). I'd say I'm only paying a finger. Like the pinky finger. No one NEEDS a pinky finger.

I know someone who begs to differ with your opinion

Hilarious that they give you a robed dark angel head without a robed body. That example model is so derpy with his hoody only

New Assault Marines are 1 USD more than Vanguard. I was expecting them to be $40 USD, the $1 is just a bit of annoying markup.

Assault Marines have had 10 full bodies since they got the current kit in 4th edition. The old sprue was 5 bodies with running legs, plus an upgrade sprue (that replaced the individual jump packs) with 5 jump packs and 5 torsos with jump pack straps 9front and back)

The nice thing about extra torso backs is that gives us thins to use on the new upgrade kits if desired.

Legs are awesome- looking at the pics, and bits of text on the side, the basing bits are not attached to the legs, but separate, so you can leave them off at will, or use them on other kits.

 Leth wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah, they did that in the last Assault Marine box. It's nothing new. What is new is the price. +AUD$15 for no fething reason.

It seems GW has abandoned their "Let's increase the price on everything to make everyone the same as Australia!" in favour of "Feth it! Just raise the price on everything!".

$70 for 5 models? That's more than the Vanguard box!!! Give me a God-damned break...

I don't remember getting 10 full bodies in the last assault marine box. Also, that's weird on the price, vanguard are 50 here I thought compared to 41.5 for assault. O well, it's rough in the down under.

Loving these huge transfer sheets, can't wait till they come out with one for a army I want to play.

Yeah, me either. But it has been so many years since I bought ASM, and I've bought so much other stuff that I may misremember.

Here, I'm pretty sure the price went from $40 to $50 CAD, and in the US, $33 to $41. $8-$10 may sound like a lot, but the old sprues were really old. The new sprues will have a zillion times morearts. The old Dev squad was $35, so I can only guess it will go to about $43-44.

 Leth wrote:
I don't remember getting 10 full bodies in the last assault marine box.

 Talys wrote:
Yeah, me either.

That's great guys, but they did. Ehsteve even posted a picture of what came in the Assault Marine box. 10 full torsos. So y'all just gonna have'ta use your extensive powers of cognitive dissonance to find another reason why this new and improved price is justified.

 Young_Logan wrote:
As a space wolf player I don't really see the point in us getting an upgrade kit as pointed out by many others. Although it is nice to see that other than shoulder pads they don't seem to recycled sculpts which they could have so easily been

However that frost sword and all the bits that aren't shoulder pads will make me get it, just so I can convert up some 30k marines.

I agree with you, but from a modeling point of view it is great for using in own chapters or even to make chaos wolves, i really like that snarling head helmet.
Hope they will come with such sprues for other chapters, i think the white scars and the salamanders need some love

Yep, he posted it after our posts, we were mistaken

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So y'all just gonna have'ta use your extensive powers of cognitive dissonance to find another reason why this new and improved price is justified.

There is a difference between believing that a price increase is justified, and believing that it is consistent and expected.

That said, compared to the old kit, it comes with an eviscerator, a thunder hammer, a flamer, 5 good sized basing bits, and an extra plasma pistol over what we had before. Probably fewer pouches/grenades, and no idea yet if there is a power fist and/or power axe included.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
$20 for the transfers, $80 for professional painters (didn't do much searching). I'd say I'm only paying a finger. Like the pinky finger. No one NEEDS a pinky finger.

The banner and vehicle livery transfers are really neat, I'll admit, and the Ultramarine ones are generic enough that they'd make a good base for other chapters' iconogrophy. Having them be 'online only' stings a bit since I very rarely order GW direct.

 Talys wrote:
Hmm. I would like to know who plays their ultramarine command squad with:

1. A banner and a bolt gun
2. An apothecary
3. A dude with 2 swords!
4. A dude with 1 chainsword and... oh, that's it.
5. A dude with a bolter?

I mean... WIN!

Someone unfamiliar with the 40k rules, so Robin Cruddace.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah, they did that in the last Assault Marine box. It's nothing new. What is new is the price. +AUD$15 for no fething reason.

It seems GW has abandoned their "Let's increase the price on everything to make everyone the same as Australia!" in favour of "Feth it! Just raise the price on everything!".

$70 for 5 models? That's more than the Vanguard box!!! Give me a God-damned break...

Did somebody from GW get bitten by one of the bazillion poisonous things in Australia or something? They have gone from uncompetitive to full-on, seething hatred of you guys. A nasty spider bite on the privates seems the only rational explanation.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Leth wrote:
I don't remember getting 10 full bodies in the last assault marine box.

 Talys wrote:
Yeah, me either.

That's great guys, but they did. Ehsteve even posted a picture of what came in the Assault Marine box. 10 full torsos. So y'all just gonna have'ta use your extensive powers of cognitive dissonance to find another reason why this new and improved price is justified.

I was wrong about the old sprues; I hadn't seen it on the sprue since that box came out (what year was that? I can't even recall), and like Leth, I hadn't seen Estevez's pic. The oldest box I remember with extra torso parts (upper or lower) was command/devastation's shared sprue with the kneeling legs for the missile launcher.

This doesn't change that the new box is pretty decent value for a new, non-troop 5 man unit. And the extra upper torsos are still a bonus. It certainly isn't the norm, and they are useful.

Why anyone would buy the new ASM over the vanguard box is beyond my understanding.. Less cool models for the same price? Great deal!

Da Butcha wrote:
Did somebody from GW get bitten by one of the bazillion poisonous things in Australia or something? They have gone from uncompetitive to full-on, seething hatred of you guys. A nasty spider bite on the privates seems the only rational explanation.

You know, it's weird. Australia's dollar is about the same as Canada's (within 5%?). So, why is the price $50 vs $70?

Are taxes included in advertised prices in Australia?

Canada's prices and currency relative to USD seem about right.

AUD prices include all taxes.

It is pretty bad, but that is what resellers are for

 Kirasu wrote:
Why anyone would buy the new ASM over the vanguard box is beyond my understanding.. Less cool models for the same price? Great deal!

Ok well tell me if I'm wrong, since I got the upper torso one wrong, and my vanguard box has been desired for a while but....

- IIRC vanguard models only comes with jump packs, so maybe you want drop pod guys? Yeah, you can use tac parts.
- The new box comes with 2 part legs and scenic bases, which is way cool
- Not that many pistol parts, maybe the new ASM box comes with 5 grav pistols or something...
- Extra upper torsos?

 Talys wrote:
You know, it's weird. Australia's dollar is about the same as Canada's (within 5%?). So, why is the price $50 vs $70?.

They were starting to more or less equalise prices (by leaving ours where they were and raising everyone elses' with each new release) for a while there, so this is somewhat of a throwback to old ways.

I can only assume that now that they have all of their new trade terms in place, they think that they've successfully returned us to the staus quo from the early '90s, where Australian customers simply had no real choice but to pay whatever the asking price was.



That, or they've given up completely and are now just using GW Oz as a tax write-off.

 MajorWesJanson wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So y'all just gonna have'ta use your extensive powers of cognitive dissonance to find another reason why this new and improved price is justified.

There is a difference between believing that a price increase is justified, and believing that it is consistent and expected.

That said, compared to the old kit, it comes with an eviscerator, a thunder hammer, a flamer, 5 good sized basing bits, and an extra plasma pistol over what we had before. Probably fewer pouches/grenades, and no idea yet if there is a power fist and/or power axe included.

Let's trawl the old facts and figures.

What I do know is that back in 2006 a set of Assault Marines would set you back $25USD/£15GBP as per the catalogues.

They're now $33USD/£20.50GBP

So the RRP of the kit at inflation of 3% (a sensible figure) a year over the life of the kit (created in 2004 per the sprue stamp but not released until 2005 by memory, no price increase between 2005 and 2006. should bring the current kit value to $33.59USD/£20.16GBP.

So as far as I'm aware, the assault marine kit in its current form is at a fair price when weighed against the release cost.

Now I believe there were only about 3 price rises on the kit over that period, but they tended to be leaps and bounds (12.5%+) but only over the last 5-6 years (2010, 2012 and 2013 by memory) have they really become apparent.

That's assuming costs are constant.

They will now go to $41USD/£25GBP, keep in mind this is a new kit.

That's about 7 years ahead of the trend at inflation or just a straight 24% increase. Now it is a new kit with its own outlays (mold, design etc) but those costs were already built into the original assault marine kit and the money for 'research new titles' as stated in the Ian Livingstone editorial back in 1980 (WD issue #17). Have expenses really risen 24% above inflation in that time? That's for consumers to decide.

Just take into account, generally speaking you would have been just impressed with the quality of assault marine kit then as you would be now (having moved them from the ancient space marine kit to the modern version). Adjust for expectations, it's still a 24% rise for no real reason or gain.

 insaniak wrote:

 Talys wrote:
You know, it's weird. Australia's dollar is about the same as Canada's (within 5%?). So, why is the price $50 vs $70?.

They were starting to more or less equalise prices (by leaving ours where they were and raising everyone elses' with each new release) for a while there, so this is somewhat of a throwback to old ways.

I can only assume that now that they have all of their new trade terms in place, they think that they've successfully returned us to the staus quo from the early '90s, where Australian customers simply had no real choice but to pay whatever the asking price was.



That, or they've given up completely and are now just using GW Oz as a tax write-off.

I think the former is more likely. Now that they're the only game in town (pun intended), they're predicting an increase in sales with a healthy price rise tacked on.

 Ehsteve wrote:

 MajorWesJanson wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So y'all just gonna have'ta use your extensive powers of cognitive dissonance to find another reason why this new and improved price is justified.

There is a difference between believing that a price increase is justified, and believing that it is consistent and expected.

That said, compared to the old kit, it comes with an eviscerator, a thunder hammer, a flamer, 5 good sized basing bits, and an extra plasma pistol over what we had before. Probably fewer pouches/grenades, and no idea yet if there is a power fist and/or power axe included.

Let's trawl the old facts and figures.

What I do know is that back in 2006 a set of Assault Marines would set you back $25USD/£15GBP as per the catalogues.

They're now $33USD/£20.50GBP

So the RRP of the kit at inflation of 3% (a sensible figure) a year over the life of the kit (created in 2004 per the sprue stamp but not released until 2005 by memory, no price increase between 2005 and 2006. should bring the current kit value to $33.59USD/£20.16GBP.

So as far as I'm aware, the assault marine kit in its current form is at a fair price when weighed against the release cost.

Now I believe there were only about 3 price rises on the kit over that period, but they tended to be leaps and bounds (12.5%+) but only over the last 5-6 years (2010, 2012 and 2013 by memory) have they really become apparent.

That's assuming costs are constant.

They will now go to $41USD/£25GBP, keep in mind this is a new kit.

That's about 7 years ahead of the trend at inflation or just a straight 24% increase. Now it is a new kit with its own outlays (mold, design etc) but those costs were already built into the original assault marine kit and the money for 'research new titles' as stated in the Ian Livingstone editorial back in 1980 (WD issue #17). Have expenses really risen 24% above inflation in that time? That's for consumers to decide.

Just take into account, generally speaking you would have been just impressed with the quality of assault marine kit then as you would be now (having moved them from the ancient space marine kit to the modern version). Adjust for expectations, it's still a 24% rise for no real reason or gain.

Average inflation per year hasn't been 3% for basically a decade now and especially not since the economic collapse. According to US inflation, our prices should have risen 17% since 2006 so that 25$ box of assault marines should cost approx. 27$. IE GW price increases based on inflation are fairly absurd.

 Kirasu wrote:

 Ehsteve wrote:

 MajorWesJanson wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So y'all just gonna have'ta use your extensive powers of cognitive dissonance to find another reason why this new and improved price is justified.

There is a difference between believing that a price increase is justified, and believing that it is consistent and expected.

That said, compared to the old kit, it comes with an eviscerator, a thunder hammer, a flamer, 5 good sized basing bits, and an extra plasma pistol over what we had before. Probably fewer pouches/grenades, and no idea yet if there is a power fist and/or power axe included.

Let's trawl the old facts and figures.

What I do know is that back in 2006 a set of Assault Marines would set you back $25USD/£15GBP as per the catalogues.

They're now $33USD/£20.50GBP

So the RRP of the kit at inflation of 3% (a sensible figure) a year over the life of the kit (created in 2004 per the sprue stamp but not released until 2005 by memory, no price increase between 2005 and 2006. should bring the current kit value to $33.59USD/£20.16GBP.

So as far as I'm aware, the assault marine kit in its current form is at a fair price when weighed against the release cost.

Now I believe there were only about 3 price rises on the kit over that period, but they tended to be leaps and bounds (12.5%+) but only over the last 5-6 years (2010, 2012 and 2013 by memory) have they really become apparent.

That's assuming costs are constant.

They will now go to $41USD/£25GBP, keep in mind this is a new kit.

That's about 7 years ahead of the trend at inflation or just a straight 24% increase. Now it is a new kit with its own outlays (mold, design etc) but those costs were already built into the original assault marine kit and the money for 'research new titles' as stated in the Ian Livingstone editorial back in 1980 (WD issue #17). Have expenses really risen 24% above inflation in that time? That's for consumers to decide.

Just take into account, generally speaking you would have been just impressed with the quality of assault marine kit then as you would be now (having moved them from the ancient space marine kit to the modern version). Adjust for expectations, it's still a 24% rise for no real reason or gain.

Average inflation per year hasn't been 3% for basically a decade now and especially not since the economic collapse. According to US inflation, our prices should have risen 17% since 2006 so that 25$ box of assault marines should cost approx. 27$. IE GW price increases based on inflation are fairly absurd.

I'm getting 21.1% which would bring it to $30.29 (so a 10% discrepancy), I'm pretty sure the UK inflation is bang on 3% average over the period.

So that would bring it to 35%(USD)/25%(GBP) for the new kit.

 Kirasu wrote:

Average inflation per year hasn't been 3% for basically a decade now and especially not since the economic collapse. According to US inflation, our prices should have risen 17% since 2006 so that 25$ box of assault marines should cost approx. 27$. IE GW price increases based on inflation are fairly absurd.

You are actually both right and wrong. The CPI rate of inflation in the US has been around 17% since 2006, yes. But this measures food, housing, apparel, and many things that are necessities, in addition to recreational goods and services. I think the average in the UK recently has been something really low like 1.2% per year (ever since the recessionary times).

The LUXURY rate of inflation has been much, much higher. I recall reading a WSJ article about a year ago to that effect, so looked it up:

http://www.thewire.com/business/2014/03/luxury-good-inflation-making-things-really-hard-rich-people/358754/

The inflation rate of luxury goods have grown anywhere from 7% - 11% per year. Now, obviously, some goods are highly price inelastic; to take an extreme example, if someone wants a Chanel bag, whether it's $3,000 or $6,000, they will probably find a way to buy it, and even the $25,000+ ones will sell. To take the extreme example to an extreme, I'm sure if Chanel put out a $100,000 handbag with a small, limited run, it would sell out almost immediately. Just as someone will buy that Warlord Titan for more than some people make in a month in salary. Jewelry, not so much, because it's more commoditized and there are more alternatives.

A better comparable is video games. Now, I don't have a number for you, but the price of video games + DLCs now, compared to video games + expansions of yesteryears is something pretty scary.

A reasonable person would conclude that GW considers its product a luxury good not geared towards people hit hardest by the recession; but rather a luxury/entertainment good for a niche market that to which at least a segment of its fans are fine with price increases that follow other entertainment spending (books, games, movies). Note that I'm not asserting that it's true, just that I hypothesize that this is GW's thinking and pricing strategy.

Back to the ASM -- it's not going to win GW any friends on price. But, in USD, Fire Dragons are $41, Ruststalkers are $46, Vanguard are $40, Skyclaws are $37... so I mean... whatever, they are in the right price range for GW product. If you find GW product expensive, this won't change your mind, and if you find GW product affordable, this won't change your mind either.

As to the specific kit, it is probably 10 years since I bought an ASM kit. I would much rather spend $42 USD on the new, useful ASM it, than $33 on the old, crappy ASM kit. Well, obviously, since there has been zero chance I'd buy more of the old ASMs for a long time

 Zewrath wrote:
This just goes to prove their horrible perception of their customer base. Making upgrade sprues for 3 of the most overdecorated chapters in the Imperium of Man, neither of which belong in the C:SM book, is not only absurdly redundant (considering the sheer amount of bits available for the respective chapters); it's also stupid and insulting beyond belief.

What's that? You wanted chapters other than Matt Ward's wet fantasy Smurfs to get attention and actual recognition? Well feth that; here's some ULTRAMARINES, lead by your chapter masters spiritual liege!
Also, we're going to rerelease 2 units, both of which are terrible units and rarely, if ever, gets off the shelf from which they collect dust from and raise the price a bit more for good measure.

Sorry for the rant but I was interested to see if the C:SM release could make an actual interesting codex and not just centurion/smashfucker star, sprinkled with even more bikes and grav weapons. A fools hope, of course, and now that I see that they've gone with, yet another, clueless head-in-a-bucket-throw-dart-in-random-direction-approach for their release, my excitement just plummeted.

This must be one of the most bitter posts I've ever seen... All this over a couple of upgrade sprues? This is why GW don't do social media.

 Talys wrote:

 Kirasu wrote:

Average inflation per year hasn't been 3% for basically a decade now and especially not since the economic collapse. According to US inflation, our prices should have risen 17% since 2006 so that 25$ box of assault marines should cost approx. 27$. IE GW price increases based on inflation are fairly absurd.

You are actually both right and wrong. The CPI rate of inflation in the US has been around 17% since 2006, yes. But this measures food, housing, apparel, and many things that are necessities, in addition to recreational goods and services. I think the average in the UK recently has been something really low like 1.2% per year (ever since the recessionary times).

The LUXURY rate of inflation has been much, much higher. I recall reading a WSJ article about a year ago to that effect, so looked it up:

http://www.thewire.com/business/2014/03/luxury-good-inflation-making-things-really-hard-rich-people/358754/

The inflation rate of luxury goods have grown anywhere from 7% - 11% per year. Now, obviously, some goods are highly price inelastic; to take an extreme example, if someone wants a Chanel bag, whether it's $3,000 or $6,000, they will probably find a way to buy it, and even the $25,000+ ones will sell. To take the extreme example to an extreme, I'm sure if Chanel put out a $100,000 handbag with a small, limited run, it would sell out almost immediately. Just as someone will buy that Warlord Titan for more than some people make in a month in salary. Jewelry, not so much, because it's more commoditized and there are more alternatives.

A better comparable is video games. Now, I don't have a number for you, but the price of video games + DLCs now, compared to video games + expansions of yesteryears is something pretty scary.

A reasonable person would conclude that GW considers its product a luxury good not geared towards people hit hardest by the recession; but rather a luxury/entertainment good for a niche market that to which at least a segment of its fans are fine with price increases that follow other entertainment spending (books, games, movies). Note that I'm not asserting that it's true, just that I hypothesize that this is GW's thinking and pricing strategy.

Back to the ASM -- it's not going to win GW any friends on price. But, in USD, Fire Dragons are $41, Ruststalkers are $46, Vanguard are $40, Skyclaws are $37... so I mean... whatever, they are in the right price range for GW product. If you find GW product expensive, this won't change your mind, and if you find GW product affordable, this won't change your mind either.

As to the specific kit, it is probably 10 years since I bought an ASM kit. I would much rather spend $42 USD on the new, useful ASM it, than $33 on the old, crappy ASM kit. Well, obviously, since there has been zero chance I'd buy more of the old ASMs for a long time

You're talking about the subjective value of luxury goods (mainly driven by consumer preference), whereas I'm talking about the straight value of money changing its value over time as it is introduced or removed from the economy.

So while you may be willing to say that your personal value of the product in question (depending on your preference) can tollerate that rise, that's one thing, I'm just talking about you throwing the same money at the same thing and for some reason getting less, or in this case, having to shill out an extra 24%-35% for what amounts to the same thing.

So the question is: given that the space marine assault squad released in 2005 was of comparible quality in relation to the market as it is now, is that rise in value wholly justified? I don't think so. I believe that to the average player, they would have been just as hyped to see these redone with more detail as much as the last set, and as far as I recall, there was no change in price between the pre and post 2005 set.

Thing is, those bits packs are useful for those nit wanting Forgeworld or the majority of hobbyists that don't use bits sites. I have no evidence the majority don't use them but those that do exist seem to be very small operations that rely in buying rare or soon to be OOP stuff and breaking them down , and/or selling via Facebook without mentioning they are actual companies.

Same with assault marines; there are people that play for fun whose idea of fun is not tournament play. Myself and friends generally have armies that are models we like, not what is ""FTW" .

2:1 scouts ratio would be daft, fluff wise there are 100 scouts maximum to 900+ marines. These guys are supposed to be the future of the chapter, not cannon fodder. Whilst GW often ignores it's own fluff I think even they'd balk at that one.

My main issue with this release is the new codex , the sheer cost of GW rules set is becoming their biggest barrier to entry than nearly every other game out there. Getting new players is increasingly hard because they are looking at £70+ just to get the rules in some form and then a codex. Isucks for anyone not wanting to play DA or CSM.

Mymearan wrote:

 Zewrath wrote:
This just goes to prove their horrible perception of their customer base. Making upgrade sprues for 3 of the most overdecorated chapters in the Imperium of Man, neither of which belong in the C:SM book, is not only absurdly redundant (considering the sheer amount of bits available for the respective chapters); it's also stupid and insulting beyond belief.

What's that? You wanted chapters other than Matt Ward's wet fantasy Smurfs to get attention and actual recognition? Well feth that; here's some ULTRAMARINES, lead by your chapter masters spiritual liege!
Also, we're going to rerelease 2 units, both of which are terrible units and rarely, if ever, gets off the shelf from which they collect dust from and raise the price a bit more for good measure.

Sorry for the rant but I was interested to see if the C:SM release could make an actual interesting codex and not just centurion/smashfucker star, sprinkled with even more bikes and grav weapons. A fools hope, of course, and now that I see that they've gone with, yet another, clueless head-in-a-bucket-throw-dart-in-random-direction-approach for their release, my excitement just plummeted.

This must be one of the most bitter posts I've ever seen... All this over a couple of upgrade sprues? This is why GW don't do social media.

It's almost like perfection in whine form!
You have the complaint about the aesthetics, choice of releases, diversity of marine books, and accusations that GW is intentionaly slightin the poster all in one line.
Next, you have the old run into the ground line about Mat Ward and the Ultramarines, involving a codex from two editions ago and a writer who has not worked for the company in over a year. And complaints about the use of the kits in question and pricing.
Finally, you have a false apology, complaints about tournament builds, and assumptions that the new codex is a rules failure having no information whatsoever about the new rules.

This is how it is done!

I don't necessarily agree with the kits they chose to update (Assault Marines needed it, but Devastators were in pretty good shape) and make uprade sprues for (Yes, BA and SW ones can make special characters in plastic if you like, but it would have been nice to see other chapters who don't have the same sort of attention (or in the RG case not even decals) get a single sprue.

Pricing is pricing. GW charges more than we'd like. The Assault marine kit looks pretty good, and is consistent in quality with the newer marine kits. Upgrade sprues have some good and useful parts, and are pretty good value as far as contents- hopefully they are a precedent, not a one time thing for only a few chapters. Whining about rules though, can we at least wait until we get some sort of rules rumors first, for once?

Lets not let these new Marines distract us from the real problem facing 40K:

Codex Craftworlds.

:p

 Ehsteve wrote:
So while you may be willing to say that your personal value of the product in question (depending on your preference) can tollerate that rise, that's one thing...

Haven't you been paying attention? That's pretty much Talys' MO: "It's fine by me, therefore it should be fine for everyone!".

It's one thing to have a White Knight who defends every little thing GW does. It's another who just assumes that Everything is Fine/Nothing is Broken.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah, they did that in the last Assault Marine box. It's nothing new. What is new is the price. +AUD$15 for no fething reason.

It seems GW has abandoned their "Let's increase the price on everything to make everyone the same as Australia!" in favour of "Feth it! Just raise the price on everything!".

$70 for 5 models? That's more than the Vanguard box!!! Give me a God-damned break...

Wow. Talk about a kick to the nuts there! Crazy.

 Ehsteve wrote:

You're talking about the subjective value of luxury goods (mainly driven by consumer preference), whereas I'm talking about the straight value of money changing its value over time as it is introduced or removed from the economy.

So while you may be willing to say that your personal value of the product in question (depending on your preference) can tollerate that rise, that's one thing, I'm just talking about you throwing the same money at the same thing and for some reason getting less, or in this case, having to shill out an extra 24%-35% for what amounts to the same thing.

So the question is: given that the space marine assault squad released in 2005 was of comparible quality in relation to the market as it is now, is that rise in value wholly justified? I don't think so. I believe that to the average player, they would have been just as hyped to see these redone with more detail as much as the last set, and as far as I recall, there was no change in price between the pre and post 2005 set.

Well, I was actually categorizing GW products as luxury goods (I think they are), which "outperform" the CPI that we judge inflation by. Especially in recent years, luxury goods have shot up in price in comparison to the buying power of average people, meaning that average wage earners can buy fewer video games, go to less movies, eat less junk food at those theatres, and buy less miniatures than they could in 2005.

But you're right; that part is academic, and interesting only from a dispassionate, observational point of view, which obviously we're not in, or we wouldn't be on this forum

What I meant by the ASM being worth more is that I just look at it from a different perspective. Without any consideration of the price in 2005, because that's also academic, the old kit was USD$33. The new kit is USD $42. Depending on how you look at it, that's a difference of $9, which is not very much money, or 21%, which is a very large percentage. The latter is a better way to look the price in general, because it's reflective of the direction of prices in general, and you're not just buying 1 kit.

TLDR: Yes, big price hike.

Is it worth it?

Well, here's the thing, put the two kits side by side in a store, the old one for $33, the new one for $42. I guarantee you fifty of the new kit will sell, and the old kit will still be sitting there on the shelf. Now, practically, most stores will have the old kit for $25 (15% discount) or less. Come Christmas or Boxing day, the smart store will discount those to 50%, dropping it to $16 or so. There is a pretty good chance that even then, it won't sell! On the same day, the store may discount the new kit to 25%, or $32.

So, on Boxing Day, the new kit will probably cost TWICE as much as the old kit. Yet, the new ASM kits will be gone, bought by the first people to walk through the door, while the old kits will gather dust, next to the old ravenwing bikes and the old windriders.

My point -- not a whole lot of people in the whole world want the old Assault Marine box at even it's 2005 price. It's old and dingy. So the price jump of 20% is really irrelevant, because the new kit is something that *some* people want. They might represent the same unit in-game, but they are totally different products on the shelf.

Just like the old Windriders, marked down to 50% of MSRP at one of my FLGS just a few weeks ago (a sale) -- none of them sold.

Because of the nature of these upgrade kits, it won't be hard for GW to release Wave Two with the other C:SM Chapters, and they probably will. For all we know, they will come out on the other side of the Codex, so in a few weeks. And if they don't, that is pretty gakky of them, but it isn't the end of the world. I know I would be overjoyed if they came out with Imperial/Crimson Fists upgrade kits (with a Power Fist or Maul, damnit!), but I already have most of my Fists built and painted, this would just make me need to rip off arms and existing shoulder pads. I could see the Raven Guard one coming with a Lightning Claw. Salamanders could come with a blinged out flamer or meltagun.

Secondly, the BA kit is disappointing to me because all three of the other ones received two weapons, the BA one received none. The two sculpted torsos are cool, and I am going to reformulate my Assault Squads to make use of them and the shoulder pads, but I would rather have received a BA weapon or two, like a hand flamer or inferno pistol. Something iconic to BA. The Blood Chalice is cool, but it isn't exactly that useful without a narthecium to go with it for a custom Sanguinary Priest (I guess you could use an Apothecary from the Command Squad to make one). The Death Mask is worthless since the only models that can use them already come with them.

EDIT: You know, if I didn't suck royally at placing decals, I would be all over the BA decal sheet. I love that they even include wet transfer banners on them for putting on the Command Squad banner.

EDIT the Second: You know what is probably going to happen instead of them releasing upgrades for the other First Founding Chapters or Chaos Legions? They will probably release upgrade kits for Terminators with Terminator shoulder pads and whatnot.

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
Secondly, the BA kit is disappointing to me because all three of the other ones received two weapons, the BA one received none. The two sculpted torsos are cool, and I am going to reformulate my Assault Squads to make use of them and the shoulder pads, but I would rather have received a BA weapon or two, like a hand flamer or inferno pistol. Something iconic to BA. The Blood Chalice is cool, but it isn't exactly that useful without a narthecium to go with it for a custom Sanguinary Priest (I guess you could use an Apothecary from the Command Squad to make one). The Death Mask is worthless since the only models that can use them already come with them.

I'm in a "BA building phase" right now, after 15 years of neglect to that faction, so the BA stuff is particularly interesting to me.

We don't get a weapon, but we get two torso fronts. In actuality, that's two extra marines you can build, because for a lot (most?) space marine players, the limiting factor for more marines is nice front torsos. In addition, they are really nice ones, suitable for clearly identifying squad leaders. If you play squads of 5 (or sometimes do this), the BA tactical kit comes with only 1 fancy front for 10 marines.

Most people who play BA who own the command squad box, I think, will have a narthecium -- the cup really does let you get a free priest, I think. But the real priest is a pretty cool model.

I don't know why you'd want a second cup though, and frankly, all the heads are wasted. Between Death Company, BA Tactical, and Sanguinary Guard, we have way, way more heads than we can use. And it's not like EVERY head you ever build needs blood drops/cups, or have fangs.

The shoulder pads are really nice. having 2 of the raised lip ones is a win -- I really love these. And one is spikey lip, which is also cool. Frankly, I think that BA players are spoiled with shoulder pads; and really, that's the reason I'm modelling them now LOL.

 Talys wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
Secondly, the BA kit is disappointing to me because all three of the other ones received two weapons, the BA one received none. The two sculpted torsos are cool, and I am going to reformulate my Assault Squads to make use of them and the shoulder pads, but I would rather have received a BA weapon or two, like a hand flamer or inferno pistol. Something iconic to BA. The Blood Chalice is cool, but it isn't exactly that useful without a narthecium to go with it for a custom Sanguinary Priest (I guess you could use an Apothecary from the Command Squad to make one). The Death Mask is worthless since the only models that can use them already come with them.

I'm in a "BA building phase" right now, after 15 years of neglect to that faction, so the BA stuff is particularly interesting to me.

We don't get a weapon, but we get two torso fronts. In actuality, that's two extra marines you can build, because for a lot (most?) space marine players, the limiting factor for more marines is nice front torsos. In addition, they are really nice ones, suitable for clearly identifying squad leaders. If you play squads of 5 (or sometimes do this), the BA tactical kit comes with only 1 fancy front for 10 marines.

Most people who play BA who own the command squad box, I think, will have a narthecium -- the cup really does let you get a free priest, I think. But the real priest is a pretty cool model.

I don't know why you'd want a second cup though, and frankly, all the heads are wasted. Between Death Company, BA Tactical, and Sanguinary Guard, we have way, way more heads than we can use. And it's not like EVERY head you ever build needs blood drops/cups, or have fangs.

The shoulder pads are really nice. having 2 of the raised lip ones is a win -- I really love these. And one is spikey lip, which is also cool. Frankly, I think that BA players are spoiled with shoulder pads; and really, that's the reason I'm modelling them now LOL.

I am on the building phase of BA as well (my second army after Crimson Fists), but I will have to disassemble a few models to put this kit to use. Those torso fronts are nice, but the limiting factor for building marines is actually the legs. I have a good number of extra torso fronts as is (most kits come with one additional), but I only have exactly as many marines as I have legs. For the most part, outside of the two torso fronts and the shoulder pads, the rest of the kit is fairly worthless.

I'd buy the old ASM kit simply for the running legs and extra pistol and chainsword arms. It all really depends though on how much new stuff we get in the new box.

I know for a long time if I needed a rhino, I'd buy either a whirlwind or razorback, just for the extra bits.

 Talys wrote:
I don't know why you'd want a second cup though

They're probably just the two halves of a single cup, so it's hollow on the inside.

 Redemption wrote:

 Talys wrote:
I don't know why you'd want a second cup though

They're probably just the two halves of a single cup, so it's hollow on the inside.

Or maybe there is two incase a spontanious urge arises to play beer pong.

 Talys wrote:

 Ehsteve wrote:

You're talking about the subjective value of luxury goods (mainly driven by consumer preference), whereas I'm talking about the straight value of money changing its value over time as it is introduced or removed from the economy.

So while you may be willing to say that your personal value of the product in question (depending on your preference) can tollerate that rise, that's one thing, I'm just talking about you throwing the same money at the same thing and for some reason getting less, or in this case, having to shill out an extra 24%-35% for what amounts to the same thing.

So the question is: given that the space marine assault squad released in 2005 was of comparible quality in relation to the market as it is now, is that rise in value wholly justified? I don't think so. I believe that to the average player, they would have been just as hyped to see these redone with more detail as much as the last set, and as far as I recall, there was no change in price between the pre and post 2005 set.

Well, I was actually categorizing GW products as luxury goods (I think they are), which "outperform" the CPI that we judge inflation by. Especially in recent years, luxury goods have shot up in price in comparison to the buying power of average people, meaning that average wage earners can buy fewer video games, go to less movies, eat less junk food at those theatres, and buy less miniatures than they could in 2005.

But you're right; that part is academic, and interesting only from a dispassionate, observational point of view, which obviously we're not in, or we wouldn't be on this forum

What I meant by the ASM being worth more is that I just look at it from a different perspective. Without any consideration of the price in 2005, because that's also academic, the old kit was USD$33. The new kit is USD $42. Depending on how you look at it, that's a difference of $9, which is not very much money, or 21%, which is a very large percentage. The latter is a better way to look the price in general, because it's reflective of the direction of prices in general, and you're not just buying 1 kit.

TLDR: Yes, big price hike.

Is it worth it?

Well, here's the thing, put the two kits side by side in a store, the old one for $33, the new one for $42. I guarantee you fifty of the new kit will sell, and the old kit will still be sitting there on the shelf. Now, practically, most stores will have the old kit for $25 (15% discount) or less. Come Christmas or Boxing day, the smart store will discount those to 50%, dropping it to $16 or so. There is a pretty good chance that even then, it won't sell! On the same day, the store may discount the new kit to 25%, or $32.

So, on Boxing Day, the new kit will probably cost TWICE as much as the old kit. Yet, the new ASM kits will be gone, bought by the first people to walk through the door, while the old kits will gather dust, next to the old ravenwing bikes and the old windriders.

My point -- not a whole lot of people in the whole world want the old Assault Marine box at even it's 2005 price. It's old and dingy. So the price jump of 20% is really irrelevant, because the new kit is something that *some* people want. They might represent the same unit in-game, but they are totally different products on the shelf.

Just like the old Windriders, marked down to 50% of MSRP at one of my FLGS just a few weeks ago (a sale) -- none of them sold.

But the issue is that the products are essentially the exact same thing. The outlays (design, manufacturing, marketing and packaging) have not significantly gone up and there hasn't been a plastic crisis in the past 10 years, in fact by any measure they have gone down due to the efficiency-driven cutbacks (CAD-assisted design to save materials and space) they've had to deliver in order to maximize profits on sales or otherwise maintain the same level (unknown). If the old Assault Marine set was designed with the same philosophy (and has been for over 30 years) so the rise in cost beyond inflation is actually...unjustified unless there is some other hidden cost that has not been taken into account.

If a significant enough margin was made on the original to cover outlays and make a reasonable profit, then the only reason to drive up prices if outlays remain constant is that volume is not high enough to cover outlays and meet either that same or a higher expected level or profit. So either demand is rising, or they're having trouble paying the bills.

 Wilson wrote:

 Redemption wrote:

 Talys wrote:
I don't know why you'd want a second cup though

They're probably just the two halves of a single cup, so it's hollow on the inside.

Or maybe there is two incase a spontanious urge arises to play beerBLOOD pong.

Fixed that for you.

What is plastic made from?

General Hobbs wrote:



What is plastic made from?

Petrochemicals.

You mean Finepetrochemicals™?

Oh boy! I get to shell out for another $60 book soon?! Thanks, GW! What's that? It'll have a dumb-ass name like "Astra Militarium" did?! YAAAAAYYY!

It'll most likely have Adeptus Astartes in the name at the very least, like the BA codex did.

Lord Corellia wrote:
Oh boy! I get to shell out for another $60 book soon?! Thanks, GW! What's that? It'll have a dumb-ass name like "Astra Militarium" did?! YAAAAAYYY!

nothing dumbass about latin

and astra militarium is a great name...

 RedFox wrote:

Lord Corellia wrote:
Oh boy! I get to shell out for another $60 book soon?! Thanks, GW! What's that? It'll have a dumb-ass name like "Astra Militarium" did?! YAAAAAYYY!

nothing dumbass about latin

and astra militarium is a great name...

I don't think faux gibberish Latin counts as Latin. Might as well be calling them Acespay Arinesmay.

 RedFox wrote:

Lord Corellia wrote:
Oh boy! I get to shell out for another $60 book soon?! Thanks, GW! What's that? It'll have a dumb-ass name like "Astra Militarium" did?! YAAAAAYYY!

nothing dumbass about latin

and astra militarium is a great name...

Except that they were always called the Imperial Guard. At least Space Marines have been called Astartes for just as long.

 Kirasu wrote:
Except that they were always called the Imperial Guard. At least Space Marines have been called Astartes for just as long.

That's a fair point. I just miss the days when GW didn't take the game, or themselves, so seriously. It just seemed more like innocent fun then.

It will be interesting to see the sprue pics of the AMs to compare them to the vanguard. With the price being the same, what will differentiate them? The VV box is packed full of great stuff.

The AMs will get spare torsos and regular backpacks, which the VVs don’t. Hopefully flamers as well. The evisorator on the sarge looks to be the new bit that you have to buy the box for.

But the VV box has TH/SS, 2xLC, and BP/CCW for everyone, plus more random extras. That’s a lot of choppy goodness.

Lord Corellia wrote:

 Kirasu wrote:
Except that they were always called the Imperial Guard. At least Space Marines have been called Astartes for just as long.

That's a fair point. I just miss the days when GW didn't take the game, or themselves, so seriously. It just seemed more like innocent fun then.

I think that's one of the prime reasons why much of the Grimdark fluff is mediocre to poor.

I mean, there're a lot of things in 40k that started off as a simple joke: catholic angelic vampires in space, mjöd-drunken viking werewolfs in space, an entire imperial guard army that started off as a stoned group telling themselves: "Yow duude.. what if... we made an entire RAMBO army??! Or chaos noise marines, that literally got released as marines with heavy metal instruments that killed people with their infernal music.
Once you take all those concepts and try to shoehorn them into a Grimdark world that takes itself waaaay to seriously, you end up with a wierd mixed bag of silly/edgy fluff, which mostly comes across as off-putting.
It's a shame, because it's not impossible if done right. Tyranids 3rd (or was it 4th??) edition codex was a book that was written almost entirely from IoM POV and the unit description and fluf sections of the book, was moslty filled with either diaries or conversations about humans, describing with great detail the horrors of the Tyranid bioforms and what a true terror they are to face. Compare that to the new Tyranid book, especially the unit section that describes a fat always-eating monster, with tentacles coming out its mouth and you're kindda wondering where they dropped the ball.

 Zewrath wrote:

Lord Corellia wrote:

 Kirasu wrote:
Except that they were always called the Imperial Guard. At least Space Marines have been called Astartes for just as long.

That's a fair point. I just miss the days when GW didn't take the game, or themselves, so seriously. It just seemed more like innocent fun then.

I think that's one of the prime reasons why much of the Grimdark fluff is mediocre to poor.

I mean, there're a lot of things in 40k that started off as a simple joke: catholic angelic vampires in space, mjöd-drunken viking werewolfs in space, an entire imperial guard army that started off as a stoned group telling themselves: "Yow duude.. what if... we made an entire RAMBO army??! Or chaos noise marines, that literally got released as marines with heavy metal instruments that killed people with their infernal music.
Once you take all those concepts and try to shoehorn them into a Grimdark world that takes itself waaaay to seriously, you end up with a wierd mixed bag of silly/edgy fluff, which mostly comes across as off-putting.
It's a shame, because it's not impossible if done right. Tyranids 3rd (or was it 4th??) edition codex was a book that was written almost entirely from IoM POV and the unit description and fluf sections of the book, was moslty filled with either diaries or conversations about humans, describing with great detail the horrors of the Tyranid bioforms and what a true terror they are to face. Compare that to the new Tyranid book, especially the unit section that describes a fat always-eating monster, with tentacles coming out its mouth and you're kindda wondering where they dropped the ball.

I don't think that's a function of the Grimdark; when you look at material from Inquisitor, Mordheim, like you mention the older codices, and the FFG RPGs you find a lot of stuff that's ludicrously Grimdark, but it's written well enough and with enough occasional knowing-winks that it works perfectly fine mixing humour and Lovecraftian dread. Hell even the older more humorous material is pretty Grimdark in a lot of cases; it's humour yes, but more Python or Brass Eye than Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

The problem is that GW isn't a studio of guys with similar pop culture landscapes working together collaboratively to build a universe and occasionally having those "hey dude, we should totally..." moments any more; it's a santisied, corporatised, management culture trying it's best to do an impression of the aforementioned but pitched at a Young Adult Fiction level. That kind of environment actively, if often unintentionally, crushes the more jokey, referential ideas because they're seen as risky legally or too risque for Wee Timmy's mum to endorse and buy for him.

I've made my peace with it tbh. I still don't like it, but these days I just look at everything GW produces as I would look at fanfic - if it's good, I include it in my "head canon", otherwise I discount it.

 insaniak wrote:

 Talys wrote:
You know, it's weird. Australia's dollar is about the same as Canada's (within 5%?). So, why is the price $50 vs $70?.

They were starting to more or less equalise prices (by leaving ours where they were and raising everyone elses' with each new release) for a while there, so this is somewhat of a throwback to old ways.

I can only assume that now that they have all of their new trade terms in place, they think that they've successfully returned us to the staus quo from the early '90s, where Australian customers simply had no real choice but to pay whatever the asking price was.



That, or they've given up completely and are now just using GW Oz as a tax write-off.

Sounds like Aus is GWs testpilot for hard price hikes. Its the perfect testing ground for "experimental prizing" because everybody knows about the taxes and whatnot throwing ordinary prices in a state of flux.
Now that they see how far they can push it -enter wave 2 of a faster, more intence price hike, with GW "restoftheworld" following closer behind (though still benefitting from the old "at least its not as bad as Aus/NZ" we are always reminded of ).
Tinfoil hat on, folks.

Honestly guys, is anyone really surprised that the Assault Marine box new release [update] would be MORE money than the previous one?

GW's new pricing strategy is easier to predict than my Steam boilers... *ahem* The only fun bit would be estimating if the new Assault Marine box would more than the cost of lets say "Skitarii Vanguard". Which it sadly is. :(

I do remember when I could get an ASM box for $25 CAD at 30% off...

Azreal13: LOL!™

 Yodhrin wrote:

I've made my peace with it tbh. I still don't like it, but these days I just look at everything GW produces as I would look at fanfic - if it's good, I include it in my "head canon", otherwise I discount it.

I'm in the same boat, you just put my thoughts and sincere regrets.. lol into words. OH, well the spilled milk that is GW of old doesn't have to all dried up, eh? And if it does, I'm sure it can be collected in re-hydrated.

 Zewrath wrote:

Lord Corellia wrote:

 Kirasu wrote:
Except that they were always called the Imperial Guard. At least Space Marines have been called Astartes for just as long.

That's a fair point. I just miss the days when GW didn't take the game, or themselves, so seriously. It just seemed more like innocent fun then.

I think that's one of the prime reasons why much of the Grimdark fluff is mediocre to poor.

I mean, there're a lot of things in 40k that started off as a simple joke: catholic angelic vampires in space, mjöd-drunken viking werewolfs in space, an entire imperial guard army that started off as a stoned group telling themselves: "Yow duude.. what if... we made an entire RAMBO army??! Or chaos noise marines, that literally got released as marines with heavy metal instruments that killed people with their infernal music.
Once you take all those concepts and try to shoehorn them into a Grimdark world that takes itself waaaay to seriously, you end up with a wierd mixed bag of silly/edgy fluff, which mostly comes across as off-putting.
It's a shame, because it's not impossible if done right. Tyranids 3rd (or was it 4th??) edition codex was a book that was written almost entirely from IoM POV and the unit description and fluf sections of the book, was moslty filled with either diaries or conversations about humans, describing with great detail the horrors of the Tyranid bioforms and what a true terror they are to face. Compare that to the new Tyranid book, especially the unit section that describes a fat always-eating monster, with tentacles coming out its mouth and you're kindda wondering where they dropped the ball.

I remember reading the second edition books as a kid. The Ork stuff was funny, but there was definitely a lot of what I could call "serious grimdark" stuff. I remember one particular bit of fluff coming from the perspective of a space marine- describing the failing conditions of his old power armor, witnessing the gruesome deaths of his battle-brothers...and another where a Chaos lord strangles a guardsman to death with his tentacle-arm, and then has to perform a kind of mental storage ritual because he wants to preserve the memory but his mostly-human brain can't cope with 10,000 years of experiences, so he lives his life in a sort of a half-amnesiac haze. It was scary and sad and weird, and that's why my 11 year old self liked it.

So at least in my opinion, 40k has always been the odd mix of gruesome and funny- and there's still plenty of funny stuff. But most of the models that I would say were supposed to be funny (Dreadknights, Skitarii Lancers, Electro Priests, Bullgryns, Logan "Santa Claus" Grimnar) are also the models that attract the most hate.

Ouch £8 for a few plastic bits that does not even allow you to build 1 miserable mini? Ridiculous.

It's bling for individual units not an actual mini on its own. They'd charge you 20 bucks otherwise

Was chatting in my FLGS today, and a random person mentioned that the new ASM are actually pretty good deal. Sure, they are $9 more, but you get 5 scenic bases, plus posable legs.

For those people who buy scenic bases, 10 32mm bases will set you back $12 - $15, so that's $7.50 already. Plus, these are plastic, and they look better than average for scenic bases. You should be able to sell the scenic base in your local store for $2 a pop easily (I'd buy 20 for $40 just like that).

Add the posable legs, and that's a big win.

Don't care about the models, and just want game pieces? You'll be able to buy the old ASM soon at 30%-50% discount off the old price.

 angelofvengeance wrote:
It's bling for individual units not an actual mini on its own. They'd charge you 20 bucks otherwise

You can buy more than one mini at GW for less than 20 at FRP, some even in metal... Looking at plastics a tactical box has more than enough bling to build you 10 minis... FOr example a Blood angels one will get you 1 full mini with loads of options for 2.6... I do not understand how they can get away with this price for LESS bits than a normal tactical.

If the argument is you just need to buy these to upgrade things to your chapter then I still fail to see the point since one tactical has enough bits leftovers that enable you to achieve the same thing. Its not like people dont have enough extra bits from the Boxes GW today sells.

These would only make sense if they allowed you to build 2 or 3 minis with those bits and extra bling for your other models...

@Navarro -- I just made a really cool deal: I'm trading 20 legs from existing tactical, assault, and devastator/command squads for 10 pairs of the new posable ones, and I'm buying his 10 scenic bases for $10.

So, he gets 20 assault Marines with new bits except legs, 10 with backpacks and 10 jump, for $72 (so $16 per 5) -- and I will end up with 20 posable legs and 20 bases (I'm buying 2 boxes). Using existing DC packs to augment the new purchases, I'll get 20 jump ASM -- the new ones -- for $92, or $23 per box.

Plus, I'll buy all 4 boxes with my 30% discount, dropping his to $12 / 5, and mine to $16 per 5. I am very happy!!

So, not all parts are worth the same to all people.

 Talys wrote:
So, not all parts are worth the same to all people.

Exalted for this


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 NAVARRO wrote:

 angelofvengeance wrote:
It's bling for individual units not an actual mini on its own. They'd charge you 20 bucks otherwise

You can buy more than one mini at GW for less than 20 at FRP, some even in metal... Looking at plastics a tactical box has more than enough bling to build you 10 minis... FOr example a Blood angels one will get you 1 full mini with loads of options for 2.6... I do not understand how they can get away with this price for LESS bits than a normal tactical.

If the argument is you just need to buy these to upgrade things to your chapter then I still fail to see the point since one tactical has enough bits leftovers that enable you to achieve the same thing. Its not like people dont have enough extra bits from the Boxes GW today sells.

These would only make sense if they allowed you to build 2 or 3 minis with those bits and extra bling for your other models...

I was on about the recent character models from GW but fair enough.

 Talys wrote:


So, not all parts are worth the same to all people.

Very good point and I agree with it.

Speaking from my personal perspective I would see more bang for my money if I invested those £8 on another tactical, but like you say some people may really love these bits enough to buy them.

Warmonger2757 wrote:
Hopefully they re-write the CSM Codex.

One can only hope that this is true

 NAVARRO wrote:

 Talys wrote:


So, not all parts are worth the same to all people.

Very good point and I agree with it.

Speaking from my personal perspective I would see more bang for my money if I invested those £8 on another tactical, but like you say some people may really love these bits enough to buy them.

If you consider what GW is charging for a HQ model ($20-$30) picking up the chapter sprue and adding spare legs/back from a tac squad (or elsewhere) is not a bad deal. Gets you a nice chapter-themed captain for about the same price, and still have enough bits left over to trick out some other guys.

@Nevelon - For sure. I think that with the BA Upgrade Sprue, your best bet are:

- Sanguinary Priest using the cup plus bits from Command Squad, plus possibly one of the upgrade torsos (unless you want to save that for a sergeant/veteran).

- Dante, using old (or new) Assault Marine or Death Company bits, plus the Upgrade mask, and the upgrade torso front that has the 6-pack showing

That's $40+ of HQs that you can scrape out of spare parts of bits you'll never use elsewhere, and a $13.50 upgrade frame. Not bad. Of course, not as interesting if you already have a Dante and Priest hahahahaha.

The Space Wolf one certainly does look like it was designed with Ragnar in mind, with the epic Frost Sword, more detailed cloak and the shoulder pads. Add in the fact that the SW sprue has a head that's a dead ringer for old Blackmane and there you go!

The Ultramarine torso, plume and sword would trick out a nice Sicarius as well.

I am just digging the two handed chainsword on the assault squad kit. Man that looks awesome.

I am less a fan of the upgrade sprues though. Or if they make an upgrade sprue they should make it to the same standard as the BT upgrade sprue, which has all sorts of stuff in it, included rhino and land raider doors.

 NAVARRO wrote:
Ouch £8 for a few plastic bits that does not even allow you to build 1 miserable mini? Ridiculous.

£8 for a few plastic bits that allow you to build a chapter-specific iconic character model with the addition of a pair of legs and a backpack, and have shoulderpads and a few bits left over to kit out a squad - I'd say that compares pretty damn favourably to the £18 SM clampack characters that have been coming out of late.

 Yodhrin wrote:

 NAVARRO wrote:
Ouch £8 for a few plastic bits that does not even allow you to build 1 miserable mini? Ridiculous.

£8 for a few plastic bits that allow you to build a chapter-specific iconic character model with the addition of a pair of legs and a backpack, and have shoulderpads and a few bits left over to kit out a squad - I'd say that compares pretty damn favourably to the £18 SM clampack characters that have been coming out of late.

Have an exalt Yodhrin

Huh, if you look at this as a way to make most of the iconic special characters it's actually a pretty good deal. I could see making an ulrik from the space wolves sprue as well.

Great way to keep special characters in without having to make a new sculpt

Two handed chainsaw and some other bits would make Gabriel Seth, I am sure with the new ranges we could kit bash almost any special character

 Paradigm wrote:


The Ultramarine torso, plume and sword would trick out a nice Sicarius as well.

I'm looking at using the torso and head with the clampack Captain, hoping it'll match up okay. I think those upgrades sprues look fantastic, I've been waiting for an Ultramarines upgrade kit ever since I first saw the Iron Hands kit (which is still available, and has aged well!), all those years ago...

I've just picked up a Scimitar jetbike to make my own Sammael, and that new DA power sword is just perfect.

And those extra shoulder pads would look great for Fallen Angels!

 Redemption wrote:
It'll most likely have Adeptus Astartes in the name at the very least, like the BA codex did.

Codex: Codex Astartes Adeptus Astartes.

Wasn't this out today? Should i stop refreshing the site?

Pre-orders officially go up tomorrow, but they generally appear somewhere around midnight GMT.

 Redemption wrote:
Pre-orders officially go up tomorrow, but they generally appear somewhere around midnight GMT.

You have to switch your location to New Zealand on the site to get them early mind. Otherwise it's 10am local time I think.

 RedFox wrote:

Lord Corellia wrote:
Oh boy! I get to shell out for another $60 book soon?! Thanks, GW! What's that? It'll have a dumb-ass name like "Astra Militarium" did?! YAAAAAYYY!

nothing dumbass about latin

and astra militarium is a great name...

For a local defense force.

ALL of my FLGS that sold Warhammer stuff have closed down, so this release is probably going to suck for me. My brother has a store he goes to a lot that gives a 20% discount, but I don't like being dependent on someone else for the game. While GW does ship stuff fast, I won't pay GW prices directly to them.

I need to get to work rebasing all of my Crimson Fists. Performed some surgery to give my Command Squad Plasmaguns instead of Combi-Plasma. Hopefully they will be able to be used with Pedro Kantor instead of my Captain.

Are you rebasing them for visual effect or for the inevitable 32mm bases?

 warboss wrote:
Are you rebasing them for visual effect or for the inevitable 32mm bases?

Visual effect. They were on blank black bases before. They are staying on 25mm or whatever bases.

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Are you rebasing them for visual effect or for the inevitable 32mm bases?

Visual effect. They were on blank black bases before. They are staying on 25mm or whatever bases.

Ah, ok. I was just curious. I have no plan to rebase my 7,000pts of Blood Angels and didn't know how common the rebasing would be amongst the playerbase so asked. The army is pretty old though with 25mm old metal terminators and vehicles (nothing newer than 3rd edition).

 Insurgency Walker wrote:

 RedFox wrote:

Lord Corellia wrote:
Oh boy! I get to shell out for another $60 book soon?! Thanks, GW! What's that? It'll have a dumb-ass name like "Astra Militarium" did?! YAAAAAYYY!

nothing dumbass about latin

and astra militarium is a great name...

For a local defense force.

Yeah, except the guard aren't a "local defense force", they're raised from different worlds and shipped all over the place to fight, this is very well established fluff. I hate the new name but it isn't inaccurate since it roughly translates as "star military".

 Bull0 wrote:

 Insurgency Walker wrote:

 RedFox wrote:

Lord Corellia wrote:
Oh boy! I get to shell out for another $60 book soon?! Thanks, GW! What's that? It'll have a dumb-ass name like "Astra Militarium" did?! YAAAAAYYY!

nothing dumbass about latin

and astra militarium is a great name...

For a local defense force.

Yeah, except the guard aren't a "local defense force", they're raised from different worlds and shipped all over the place to fight, this is very well established fluff. I hate the new name but it isn't inaccurate since it roughly translates as "star military".

StArmy for short.

 warboss wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Are you rebasing them for visual effect or for the inevitable 32mm bases?

Visual effect. They were on blank black bases before. They are staying on 25mm or whatever bases.

Ah, ok. I was just curious. I have no plan to rebase my 7,000pts of Blood Angels and didn't know how common the rebasing would be amongst the playerbase so asked. The army is pretty old though with 25mm old metal terminators and vehicles (nothing newer than 3rd edition).

Yeah, I am going to rebase about 7000 pts worth of stuff by the time I am all said and done, between my 3000+ pts of Crimson Fists and 3500 pts of Blood Angels. So far I have been have good luck separating them from their base with my hobby knife (only one marine has had a little too much Podiatry).

Now, if they come out with a Imperial Fists Upgrade Kit, that is a different story. I will have to rip a bunch of shoulder pads off since I suck at placing wet decals(there HAS to be a better way!). Knowing GW, they will invalidate half of my army anyway, though. But, if the other upgrade kits are any indication, if there is an Imperial Fists Upgrade kit, it will probably allow us to make one of the special characters. I do wonder if I should leave the Relic Blade on my captain or switch it out for a Power Fist. Since the Relic Blade will inevitably be damaged when I rip his shoulder pad off for a molded piece, this is may need to happen. Luckily, I do have a spare Relic Blade from my Blood Angels Captain.

 Yodhrin wrote:

 NAVARRO wrote:
Ouch £8 for a few plastic bits that does not even allow you to build 1 miserable mini? Ridiculous.

£8 for a few plastic bits that allow you to build a chapter-specific iconic character model with the addition of a pair of legs and a backpack, and have shoulderpads and a few bits left over to kit out a squad - I'd say that compares pretty damn favourably to the £18 SM clampack characters that have been coming out of late.

Thing is you do not need this sprue to do that because all bits are already on your bitsbox spares from your other purchases. You may say you prefer these ones and that I can agree with you.

Unfortunately, we are all bits fiends and therefore, it is necessary that we get more shiny things to adorn our little plastic soldiers with :-P

 Zewrath wrote:


I think that's one of the prime reasons why much of the Grimdark fluff is mediocre to poor.

I mean, there're a lot of things in 40k that started off as a simple joke: catholic angelic vampires in space, mjöd-drunken viking werewolfs in space, an entire imperial guard army that started off as a stoned group telling themselves: "Yow duude.. what if... we made an entire RAMBO army??! Or chaos noise marines, that literally got released as marines with heavy metal instruments that killed people with their infernal music.
Once you take all those concepts and try to shoehorn them into a Grimdark world that takes itself waaaay to seriously, you end up with a wierd mixed bag of silly/edgy fluff, which mostly comes across as off-putting.
It's a shame, because it's not impossible if done right. Tyranids 3rd (or was it 4th??) edition codex was a book that was written almost entirely from IoM POV and the unit description and fluf sections of the book, was moslty filled with either diaries or conversations about humans, describing with great detail the horrors of the Tyranid bioforms and what a true terror they are to face. Compare that to the new Tyranid book, especially the unit section that describes a fat always-eating monster, with tentacles coming out its mouth and you're kindda wondering where they dropped the ball.

The reverse may also be true - that the game is not taking itself seriously enough. It scarcely has any appeal of its own anymore aside form simply being a table-top wargame. What used to set 40k apart from the all the other games (Flames of War, Warmachine, etc) is that it genuinely had the most unique setting. Without that setting, it's 'just another' wargame. The heavy application of both grim and dark thematic elements persisting throughout the game's early years are what coined the term 'grimdark'. It was genuinely true of the setting ... back then.

Most of the codices were written from the perspective of the IoM, which really helped that. Additionally the writing was just 'better'.

I'll credit C.S. Lewis with most accurately describing the phenomenon - It was either in his book titled Miracles, or The Abolition of Man (I can't remember which offhand since it has been some time since I read them). In any case, he was writing about the difference between explaining, and explaining away. Explaining something is the mark of a talented writer, and explaining away is the pitfall of many poor ones.

The most reachable example I can give would be Star Wars. In episodes IV, V, & VI, the Force was not really explained in the strictest sense. It was basically just Space Magic, that became a sort of knightly order / cult. "An invisible force that guides us" sort of scenario. For the most part, people liked this - it gave people enough information on the fiction to understand, our imaginations filled in the gaps in whatever way was most entertaining to us. Now, I'm not calling Star Wars the most elegant example of literature, but no one can argue that it wasn't impacting - a great deal of people found it very entertaining.

On the flip side, you can see that in Episodes I, II, & III, the 'explaining away' was done by adding too much information that did not need to be there. Midichlorians are a prime example. 'the Force' was more appealing in the setting when it was just space mysticism that it ever was as a chemical organism.

The same thing is happening to 40k. Things are being explained away and it robs the players of the ability to 'forge narratives' that fit in the narrow confines of the setting. The Ultramarines are the sole greatest contributors to the problem as they represent the homogenization of the Adeptus Astartes or Angels of Death into 'just; Space Marines. They are far more appealling as warrior monks in the Cult of the Emperor than they are as Call of Duty soldiers in sci-fi space armor. For me, that has always been central to the character of the IoM, and to the setting at large.

via B&C via 4chan
>New assault marines can take 2 special weapons (even melta) or two melee weapons for unit. The veteran sergent can take an eviscerator for 10 points.


>Assault marines have a rule that allow them to contest even against units with objective secured.


>Tactical marines have objective secured as a base rule.


>Devastators can take free heavy bolters and every other weapons is 5 points less. They can take Grav cannons for 10 points each.
>Signum now gives split fire and night vision.


>Anti-air missiles are now free with each missile launcher, even those on land speeder or terminators


>Missile launchers on Land speeder storms and drop pod now have pinning.


>All sergeants can take auspex now


>Centurions don't have twin-linked weapons anymore. They instead have two heavy bolters or two lascannons each. Grav is the same. They can shoot with all weapons.


>A lot of generic formations are for "Dark Angels, Adeptus Astartes, Blood Angels and Space Wolves faction".

Obviously apply salt.

Devastators can take free heavy bolters and every other weapons is 5 points less. They can take Grav cannons for 10 points each.
>Signum now gives split fire and night vision.


>Anti-air missiles are now free with each missile launcher, even those on land speeder or terminators

Ouch.

Obviously, 4chan isn't one person, but still, we have only gotten ever 2 correct rumors out of that place. (And 63 false).

 uk_crow wrote:

via 4chan via B&C
>New assault marines can take 2 special weapons (even melta) or two melee weapons for unit. The veteran sergent can take an eviscerator for 10 points.


>Assault marines have a rule that allow them to contest even against units with objective secured.


>Tactical marines have objective secured as a base rule.


>Devastators can take free heavy bolters and every other weapons is 5 points less. They can take Grav cannons for 10 points each.
>Signum now gives split fire and night vision.


>Anti-air missiles are now free with each missile launcher, even those on land speeder or terminators


>Missile launchers on Land speeder storms and drop pod now have pinning.


>All sergeants can take auspex now


>Centurions don't have twin-linked weapons anymore. They instead have two heavy bolters or two lascannons each. Grav is the same. They can shoot with all weapons.


>A lot of generic formations are for "Dark Angels, Adeptus Astartes, Blood Angels and Space Wolves faction".

Obviously apply salt.

If the missile launchers thing is true, my anti-air in my Crimson Fists just took a huge bump. I wonder if the rule regarding CML and TML will carry through to other codices, since that would help BA and DA out a lot in the AA department. The Signum change is brutal, if true.

But, I am going to go ahead and call BS on much or all of this. Too good to be true.

 pretre wrote:
Obviously, 4chan isn't one person, but still, we have only gotten ever 2 correct rumors out of that place. (And 63 false).

Yeah just been on there and some people are saying it didn't even come from 4chan originally. Some of the rules would be awesome though!

The only thing that strikes me as a little off is the 10 points for the evicsorator. It’s like a chainfist, that’s two handed, rather then specialist. I would expect to pay 20-25 points for one.

Everything else seems well within expected parameters.

Can't assault squads take two specials anyway at the moment?

I know they can take two flamers.

If that Missile Launcher stuff ends up being true, my 2nd Edition Devastator Squad is coming back. Right after I remove the 'paint job' that my 13 year old self punished them with...

 uk_crow wrote:

 pretre wrote:
Obviously, 4chan isn't one person, but still, we have only gotten ever 2 correct rumors out of that place. (And 63 false).

Yeah just been on there and some people are saying it didn't even come from 4chan originally. Some of the rules would be awesome though!

I'd be interested to find out where they did come from.

 General Kroll wrote:
Can't assault squads take two specials anyway at the moment?

I know they can take two flamers.

Only flamers or plasma pistols currently. Would love melta assault marines for my RG army I want to build when the codex drops.

@pretre - doubt we'll ever find out.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
If that Missile Launcher stuff ends up being true, my 2nd Edition Devastator Squad is coming back. Right after I remove the 'paint job' that my 13 year old self punished them with...

If it ends up being true, I will be running a squad of LC Devs and a squad of ML Devs. If IF keep their chapter tactics, Tank Hunters and Split Fire is going to ruin flyers day. I hope that if it is true they errata Blood Angels into having the same abilities. Not counting on it, though.

Yeah this would suck if blood Angels and space wolves got left out in the cold. Particularly those assault squad rules - which would be so cool for blood Angels.

rollawaythestone wrote:
Yeah this would suck if blood Angels and space wolves got left out in the cold. Particularly those assault squad rules - which would be so cool for blood Angels.

It's like you want them to release another Blood Angels codex already!

That last one I dunno about. I mean, maybe they would create formations that could be used for multiple codices... but that seems really awkward.

I would be fine with a new SW codex.

Requizen wrote:
That last one I dunno about. I mean, maybe they would create formations that could be used for multiple codices... but that seems really awkward.

It's possible the formations are coming from White Dwarf.

Auspexes on sergeants is cool. And devastators getting free Heavy Bolters and splitfire is cool. We'll see how these rumours turn out tho.

I think devastaters next week maybe codex week after?

If anyone wants some more pics of sprues or models from this weeks wd just ask and I'll pop more up!

I wouldn't put any significant stock in these rumors beyond them naming things that have already been named.

I for one welcome the anti-air on rocket launchers - that is, if the change is expanded to havocs as well. Since CSM don't get hunters/stalkers and rocket launchers being allready expensive without the flakk missile upgrade, that would actually bump their usefullnes quite a lot.

That one I can believe since Eldar got it, I think?

Tk103 wrote:
If anyone wants some more pics of sprues or models from this weeks wd just ask and I'll pop more up!

Any pics of the assault squad sprue or hints on rules?

 uk_crow wrote:


Anti-air missiles are now free with each missile launcher, even those on land speeder or terminators

Free may be a little too gracious a term. This change already took place in Codex: Craftworlds and while all missile launchers do in fact include Flak, there was a global point cost increase from 15 to 30.

Nothing about rules, no pics of sprues but pics of weapon options on models, sprue comes with 10 bodies, 5 with jetpacks and 5 without! Scenic base options look great and different mark armour.

wow... yeah I wouldnt call the flakk missle upgrade free,

IIRC its 15pts +10 pts to get that already, so a 30 pt ML with them inlcuded is more expensive, and clunky as you dont have the option to not have flakk

What weapons are they pictured with? Particularly the non-sarge models? If melta guns or power swords on regular troops are being showcased, that might hint on the rules.

Try this

This says what's included roughly, the models look great!

Still no artillery besides plasma pistols and flamers, with the option of a grav pistol or plasma pistol on the sergeant, then.

Yup. I’m guessing no changes to gear options then. Hopefully we will get some point reductions, at least on the plasma pistols.

 Bull0 wrote:

 Insurgency Walker wrote:

 RedFox wrote:

Lord Corellia wrote:
Oh boy! I get to shell out for another $60 book soon?! Thanks, GW! What's that? It'll have a dumb-ass name like "Astra Militarium" did?! YAAAAAYYY!

nothing dumbass about latin

and astra militarium is a great name...

For a local defense force.

Yeah, except the guard aren't a "local defense force", they're raised from different worlds and shipped all over the place to fight, this is very well established fluff. I hate the new name but it isn't inaccurate since it roughly translates as "star military".

I could call my sidearm an 11.27mm, it would be an accurate description. Feth it even says 11.27 on the slide.
I could have called the engine in my 1970 mustang a 4.9liter.
Point is accuracy does not equal soul.
I don't care if it translates to sexual tyrannosaurus, it has no soul!
I play Imperial Guard son. I've got a feth pile of tanks to prove it.
Wait, I'm getting off topic! I welcome the chapter upgrade kits. I'm surprised they don't have the depth of upgrades that the BT kit has. I purchased terminators just because of the extra bits on the spru and they were a cool kit.
Welcome to my new Black Templar crusade. Crusade of the the Tyrannosaurus Connubailis

Apparently the new Assault Kit costs more than the Vanguard Veterans, if New Zealand is any indication - over there it's available for preorder now at 83$ (VV are 75$) - includes pictures
http://www.games-workshop.com/en-NZ/Warhammer-40-000?N=102331+4294967184+4294966940&Nu=product.repositoryId&qty=12&sorting=plh&view=table&categoryId=cat440130a-flat

*edit* and a new bundle as well:

This bundle gives you everything necessary to field the 1st Company Task Force formation from Codex: Space Marines, with two Terminator Squads, one Terminator Close Combat Squad, two sets of Sternguard Veterans and two sets of Vanguard veterans - thirty-five miniatures in total.

So with the sprue leaked over at Bolter & Chainsword

I like them, a good update.

But for a moment, let's see how wrong first rumors from Mr. Warboss was.

Assault Marine Box
-5 Miniatures - Correct.
-Hands and Arms seperate like Tactical Marine Box - Wrong.
-5x Bolt pistols & Chainswords - Correct.
-2x Plasma and Grav Pistols - Wrong.
-Same CCW like Tactical Marine Box - Chainsword? Correct?
-Many Head and Breastplate options - Yeah, correct in some way.
-Most Bitz are Mk6 - 2/5, so no.
-no Power Axe - Wrong.
-no Shield - Wrong.
-no special Weapons - Wrong, there are flamers (finally)

Ouch, yeah, pretty off on this one!

WindsOfFury wrote:
So with the sprue leaked over at Bolter & Chainsword

I like them, a good update.

But for a moment, let's see how wrong first rumors from Mr. Warboss was.

Assault Marine Box
-5 Miniatures - Correct.
-Hands and Arms seperate like Tactical Marine Box - Wrong.
-5x Bolt pistols & Chainswords - Correct.
-2x Plasma and Grav Pistols - Wrong.
-Same CCW like Tactical Marine Box - Chainsword? Correct?
-Many Head and Breastplate options - Yeah, correct in some way.
-Most Bitz are Mk6 - 2/5, so no.
-no Power Axe - Wrong.
-no Shield - Wrong.
-no special Weapons - Wrong, there are flamers (finally)

The Assault Marines are up on GW's New Zealand page:

WindsOfFury wrote:
So with the sprue leaked over at Bolter & Chainsword

I like them, a good update.

But for a moment, let's see how wrong first rumors from Mr. Warboss was.

Assault Marine Box
-5 Miniatures - Correct.
-Hands and Arms seperate like Tactical Marine Box - Wrong.
-5x Bolt pistols & Chainswords - Correct.
-2x Plasma and Grav Pistols - Wrong.
-Same CCW like Tactical Marine Box - Chainsword? Correct?
-Many Head and Breastplate options - Yeah, correct in some way.
-Most Bitz are Mk6 - 2/5, so no.
-no Power Axe - Wrong.
-no Shield - Wrong.
-no special Weapons - Wrong, there are flamers (finally)

lol i think that was a steve the warboss rumor, that guy is full of it

Space Marine 7th Edition Formations

> Terminator Strike Assault
> 1 HQ in Terminator Armour, 2-10 Terminator Units
> Fearless
> Terminator Assault: Up to half of the units in this formation can Deep Strike in the controlling player's first turn. All ranged weapons are twin-linked on the turn that they arrive from Deep Strike.
> Chapter Armoury: Any model can swap their Power Fist & Storm Bolter for a pair of Lightning Claws, Thunder Hammer & Stormshield, or Power Mace & Stormshield at no extra cost.

> Mounted Recon Strike Force
> 1 HQ on a Bike/Jetbike, 2-10 Bike squads, 0-5 Land Speeder Squadrons, 0-3 fliers
> Hit & Run, Scout
> Strike co-ordination: All units in this formation carry a Teleport Homer.

> Chapter Tactics: Dark Angels
> Fearless
> Preferred Enemy: Chaos Space Marines

> Belial & Sammael added to Codex Space Marines.

This may be the end of the dark angels codex. Though i think its probably just rumors made up.

 Orock wrote:
Space Marine 7th Edition Formations

> Terminator Strike Assault
> 1 HQ in Terminator Armour, 2-10 Terminator Units
> Fearless
> Terminator Assault: Up to half of the units in this formation can Deep Strike in the controlling player's first turn. All ranged weapons are twin-linked on the turn that they arrive from Deep Strike.
> Chapter Armoury: Any model can swap their Power Fist & Storm Bolter for a pair of Lightning Claws, Thunder Hammer & Stormshield, or Power Mace & Stormshield at no extra cost.

> Mounted Recon Strike Force
> 1 HQ on a Bike/Jetbike, 2-10 Bike squads, 0-5 Land Speeder Squadrons, 0-3 fliers
> Hit & Run, Scout
> Strike co-ordination: All units in this formation carry a Teleport Homer.

> Chapter Tactics: Dark Angels
> Fearless
> Preferred Enemy: Chaos Space Marines

> Belial & Sammael added to Codex Space Marines.

This may be the end of the dark angels codex. Though i think its probably just rumors made up.

That wasn't even a rumor, just someone thinking "aloud". Disregard.

That is a very nice kit for assault squads. Kinda too bad I don't need any more ASM any time soon. Hopefully the Dev kit will be just as full of options.

WindsOfFury wrote:
So with the sprue leaked over at Bolter & Chainsword

I like them, a good update.

But for a moment, let's see how wrong first rumors from Mr. Warboss was.

Assault Marine Box
-5 Miniatures - Correct.
-Hands and Arms seperate like Tactical Marine Box - Wrong.
-5x Bolt pistols & Chainswords - Correct.
-2x Plasma and Grav Pistols - Wrong.
-Same CCW like Tactical Marine Box - Chainsword? Correct?
-Many Head and Breastplate options - Yeah, correct in some way.
-Most Bitz are Mk6 - 2/5, so no.
-no Power Axe - Wrong.
-no Shield - Wrong.
-no special Weapons - Wrong, there are flamers (finally)

Actually --

- The 2H rifles have a hand attached to them -- look at the flamers; there's also a 90 degree right arm (no hand) on the right side of the bottom sprue, third row, and another one in the center of the bottom half of the first sprue. I see at least one extended right arm with no hand, too (bottom frame, just under the two flamers). It's actually kind of curious, as there are only 2 special weapons, to have 3 arm bots to hold them

- I see one grav pistol on the bottom half of the top sprue, and 3 plasma pistols on the top half of the second sprue. So the grav/plasma isn't exactly right, but it's on the right track

- You can easily mistake Mk 6 upper torso (exposed cabling) for jump harness at a glance. Of course, now that we've seen the colored pics from WD, we know the jump harneses cover an aquilla on four of the uppers. The sprue pics are too fuzzy for me to tell, but I see, to see a bunch of eagles. We can also see now that for the legs, you get 3x Mk 7 and 2x Mk 6 from the knee pads vs greaves. Since the hlemets are facing the wrong way, you can't actually tell how many beakies there are. But I would have been shocked if ASM came mostly with beaks instead of the stormtrooper style.

Overall, I am really liking the 2 frames. It reminds me of the Death Company box, with no bolters (good) and extra upper torsos (good), and scenic base bits (great). The jumpacks look quite bland (cries), as do the backpacks.

I am quite disappointed that there aren't any specials other than flamers :( I would have loved to see grav, plasma, melta.. sigh. I wonder what the rules will be like.

On the bright side, the bolt pistol hand looks quite easy to cut off the hand/gun to make an angled arm to hold a special weapon with an attached hand.

 Ghaz wrote:
The Assault Marines are up on GW's New Zealand page:

Man i really love that shield. and the extra base bits.

Dont reallllly need more marines though so il have to watch out on bitsbay

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
That is a very nice kit for assault squads. Kinda too bad I don't need any more ASM any time soon. Hopefully the Dev kit will be just as full of options.

I need more ASM like I need more tacticals or a root canal :( I think all together, I have 7 or 8 Death Company sets (4 of them from Deathstorm) and a few Sanguinary Guard. But, I'm getting 2 boxes, and trading for 10 more leg pairs, lol. It was those posable legs that got me :X

The last assault marines I painted was maybe10 years ago, though, so I guess it's time to do up some new ones

AS a Raven Guard player, I am disappointed in the lack of MKVI options that were promised.

Have I whined lately about how much I wish the heresy marines in plastic rumor had been true?

I'm hoping the devs have some great options......

General Hobbs wrote:


AS a Raven Guard player, I am disappointed in the lack of MKVI options that were promised.

Have I whined lately about how much I wish the heresy marines in plastic rumor had been true?

I'm hoping the devs have some great options......

no mkvi were ever promised...

you should just pick-up forgeworld raven guard stuff

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/The_Horus_Heresy/Legiones_Astartes/RAVEN_GUARD

 RedFox wrote:

General Hobbs wrote:


AS a Raven Guard player, I am disappointed in the lack of MKVI options that were promised.

Have I whined lately about how much I wish the heresy marines in plastic rumor had been true?

I'm hoping the devs have some great options......

no mkvi were ever promised...

you should just pick-up forgeworld raven guard stuff

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/The_Horus_Heresy/Legiones_Astartes/RAVEN_GUARD

One of the rumors was that there would be a majority of MKVI armors on the sprues.

I have some of the FW ones. I like variety and the plain ones let me green stuff feathers etc.

The dev rumors sound wish-listy as hell, but then, so did scatter-bikes...

Free heavy bolters sounds totally fair though. From a purely intuitive PoV, I never understood the design decision to allow devastators armed with just bolters to exist.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
The dev rumors sound wish-listy as hell, but then, so did scatter-bikes...

Free heavy bolters sounds totally fair though. From a purely intuitive PoV, I never understood the design decision to allow devastators armed with just bolters to exist.

Yea honestly I can't recall a single codex leak I've read in these forums being false since 7th edition. All bets are off.

General Hobbs wrote:

 RedFox wrote:

General Hobbs wrote:


AS a Raven Guard player, I am disappointed in the lack of MKVI options that were promised.

Have I whined lately about how much I wish the heresy marines in plastic rumor had been true?

I'm hoping the devs have some great options......

no mkvi were ever promised...

you should just pick-up forgeworld raven guard stuff

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/The_Horus_Heresy/Legiones_Astartes/RAVEN_GUARD

One of the rumors was that there would be a majority of MKVI armors on the sprues.

I have some of the FW ones. I like variety and the plain ones let me green stuff feathers etc.

remember to always disregard steve the warboss rumors next time

and forgeworld needs to make a corax sculpt !

via Games Workshop Webstore
This bundle gives you everything necessary to field the 1st Company Task Force formation from Codex: Space Marines, with two Terminator Squads, one Terminator Close Combat Squad, two sets of Sternguard Veterans and two sets of Vanguard veterans - thirty-five miniatures in total.

So first formation confirmed. Though no rules yet...

 Timotheus wrote:

via Games Workshop Webstore
This bundle gives you everything necessary to field the 1st Company Task Force formation from Codex: Space Marines, with two Terminator Squads, one Terminator Close Combat Squad, two sets of Sternguard Veterans and two sets of Vanguard veterans - thirty-five miniatures in total.

So first formation confirmed. Though no rules yet...

Well that's cool. Finally a First Company force for someone beside the DA!

 SickSix wrote:

 Timotheus wrote:

via Games Workshop Webstore
This bundle gives you everything necessary to field the 1st Company Task Force formation from Codex: Space Marines, with two Terminator Squads, one Terminator Close Combat Squad, two sets of Sternguard Veterans and two sets of Vanguard veterans - thirty-five miniatures in total.

So first formation confirmed. Though no rules yet...

Well that's cool. Finally a First Company force for someone beside the DA!

Other than the Formations and entire Detachment option that Blood Angels have? And other than Strike Force Ultra that gives an all Terminator Force? And I'm sure it will get just as much use. But they are fun on a Zone Mortalis board with some custom restrictions on units.

Oh look! Another kit with only one Lightning Claw.

Geeze, these assault marines come with a hefty price rise. I believe it used to be $41AUD for 5 models (that's what the SW Skyclaws are currently) and now it's $70AUD for 5.

A 70% price rise per model

Yeah I dunno why each Assault Marine is worth $14, but I'm pretty sure they aren't.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah I dunno why each Assault Marine is worth $14, but I'm pretty sure they aren't.

You think you Australians have it bad. According to exchange rates, it should cost $75NZD, instead it costs $83NZD up from $64NZD.

WindsOfFury wrote:
So with the sprue leaked over at Bolter & Chainsword

I like them, a good update.

But for a moment, let's see how wrong first rumors from Mr. Warboss was.

Assault Marine Box
-5 Miniatures - Correct.
-Hands and Arms seperate like Tactical Marine Box - Wrong.
-5x Bolt pistols & Chainswords - Correct.
-2x Plasma and Grav Pistols - Wrong.
-Same CCW like Tactical Marine Box - Chainsword? Correct?
-Many Head and Breastplate options - Yeah, correct in some way.
-Most Bitz are Mk6 - 2/5, so no.
-no Power Axe - Wrong.
-no Shield - Wrong.
-no special Weapons - Wrong, there are flamers (finally)

Thanks for saving me some work Monday!

Looked at the new price for assault marines. Died. Wow, how can GW keep charging these ridicules prices in Australia?

I wonder if codex space marines are going to get eviscerators now as a war gear option. Obviously the assault sergeant will be able to buy one, at least.

I'm not seeing anything on that sprue that screams "need".

Sire122 wrote:
Looked at the new price for assault marines. Died. Wow, how can GW keep charging these ridicules prices in Australia?

Do we know what the US and UK prices are? This is not just a case of "keep charging", they've raised it massively. I wonder if the US and UK have had similar massive price hikes.

I also wonder if they'll drop the current Skyclaw box with the idea of people buying the Assault Marine box + SW upgrade sprue.

Interested in seeing what kind of rules and detachments show up. Tax marines getting OS base would be huge. It would be cool if assault could contest OS but not claim as OS.

All in all very excited to see what comes down the pipe line. Interesting to see how chapter tactics will interact with detachment rules and the like.

Looking closely at the bit sprues you can definitely see that they could be used to make a bunch of the fine cast characters.

Telion, sicarius, Ragnar, ulrik, Dante, sang priest(corbulo), azrael, cypher,.

Sure there are more but that is in the first pass.

Sprue pics





Pretty nice kit overall

But the vangaurd kit is cheaper and comes with more weapons? I dont get it

Upgrade sprues

That Space Wolf head is exactly what superhuman space vikings should look like. Puts most of the existing heads with their bizarre, 1980's post-apocalyptic hair to shame. That whole upgrade pack, is clearly the best of the 4.

The BA one is cool, though there's a couple of bits I could really have done without (the bare head and right hand torso immediately spring to mind). The way the Iron halo is attached to the MK. VII helm is dumb, really dumb and I wish that the Iron halo sat atop a chalice came separate from it so you'd have two cool icons rather than one awkward looking one. The winged skull icon , though, looks like an awesome bit and I want hundreds of it. A few of the pads are really, really well designed.

Ultras are decent, a few slight missteps on pad design and the torso's underwhelming. Otherwise solid stuff.

Dark Angels stuff is pretty good apart from that stupid feather head. I'm not sold on the look of the plasma pistol either.


As it's confirmed that Vanilla Marines now have access to Eviscerators (at least for assault marine sergeants) I feel the Black Rage falling upon me as Blood Angels, for whom it would have been far fluffier, do not get it. I'd hope for an FAQ to remedy this, but then remembered it's GW we're talking about. Pose-able legs on the assault marines is interesting, but I think it remains to be seen just how poseable they are (ie how many sensible, realistic poses can you get our of them. Quite disappointed that the pistols and chainswords are attached to arms, would happily have forgone the regular torsos and back packs in order to create the sprue room to have them separate.

That's weird - in New Zealand the Assault Marines are more expensive than the Vanguard Veterans, $83 vs $75, but in the Netherlands the reverse is true, €33 vs €35. And in the UK they're both £25. Way to price consistently.

 Wilson wrote:
But the vangaurd kit is cheaper and comes with more weapons? I dont get it

Vanguards come only with jump pack bodies. ASM give you two sets of torsos, plus 2 sets of backpacks.

With extra legs, you can come away with 10 marines instead of 5. Legs are cheap to get on the net.

 Talys wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
That is a very nice kit for assault squads. Kinda too bad I don't need any more ASM any time soon. Hopefully the Dev kit will be just as full of options.

I need more ASM like I need more tacticals or a root canal :( I think all together, I have 7 or 8 Death Company sets (4 of them from Deathstorm) and a few Sanguinary Guard. But, I'm getting 2 boxes, and trading for 10 more leg pairs, lol. It was those posable legs that got me :X

The last assault marines I painted was maybe10 years ago, though, so I guess it's time to do up some new ones

Are the legs actually poseable? I'm pretty sure they're one pose, just in two parts. Looks like they pair up as opposed to being interchangeable.

I actually really like the upgrade sprues now I've seen the parts better, but BA, SW and even DA didn't really need them, I'd rather have seen RG, IH, WS etc.

Seeing that ultramarine upgrade pack, I find the desire to buy 5 or so growing. You know, just in case I need more sergeant heads. Or power swords. Or the convenience of having 10 shoulder pads with chapter symbol on it.

General Hobbs wrote:

 Wilson wrote:
But the vangaurd kit is cheaper and comes with more weapons? I dont get it

Vanguards come only with jump pack bodies. ASM give you two sets of torsos, plus 2 sets of backpacks.

With extra legs, you can come away with 10 marines instead of 5. Legs are cheap to get on the net.

Are there enough weapons to make 10 marines? All the special weapons will be for the sergeant only (the power weapons and that). And legs are a pain to get because they're always the limiting factor in SM boxes, so they're often out of stock on bits sites. So again, you're paying more money for loads of bits that you can't actually use without buying either another kit, or legs off a bits seller if you can find them in stock.

 Crazyterran wrote:
. Or the convenience of having 10 shoulder pads with chapter symbol on it.

Forgeworld escaped your notice?

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
. Or the convenience of having 10 shoulder pads with chapter symbol on it.

Forgeworld escaped your notice?

The upgrade sprue is cheaper than 10 shoulder pads from FW and you get more bits too, in fairness.

Devastator squad is gone from GW webstore on US, UK, Au and SWE. Getting 404 errors.

Hope they don't f*** it up, I really like all the weapons you get. But seeing the Assault Marine, the theme isn't really cutback but adding stuff I'm hopeful.

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
. Or the convenience of having 10 shoulder pads with chapter symbol on it.

Forgeworld escaped your notice?

Jolly ol Britain costs about double to buy directly from, and I'd only ever feel the urge to pick up the forge world pads if I ever decide to commit to making a legion era force.

Would have been more smarmy to point at the fine cast ultramarine pads that gw used to make. Nice try, though. Better luck next time.

Also, these pads are better looking than the plain legion ones, the ultramarines symbol looks better on these plastic ones, and have more decorations. More characterful overall, as well. And they come with three helmets, a chest plate, and two swords.

 sockwithaticket wrote:
That Space Wolf head is exactly what superhuman space vikings should look like.

A Viking with no beard?! HERESY!!

ImAGeek wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
. Or the convenience of having 10 shoulder pads with chapter symbol on it.

Forgeworld escaped your notice?

The upgrade sprue is cheaper than 10 shoulder pads from FW and you get more bits too, in fairness.

True, but how many duplicate helmets/heads and torsos are you going to want? I know that sort of thing drives me nuts with my own army and I'm always trying to make the generic bits slightly unique for each marine. The Mk VII ones, fair enough (you can snip the crest off one of them to keep it generic I guess), but the bearded head and the crusader helm? They're pretty distinct and I can't envision using more than one in an army.

Crazyterran wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
. Or the convenience of having 10 shoulder pads with chapter symbol on it.

Forgeworld escaped your notice?

Jolly ol Britain costs about double to buy directly from, and I'd only ever feel the urge to pick up the forge world pads if I ever decide to commit to making a legion era force.

Would have been more smarmy to point at the fine cast ultramarine pads that gw used to make. Nice try, though. Better luck next time.

Also, these pads are better looking than the plain legion ones, the ultramarines symbol looks better on these plastic ones, and have more decorations. More characterful overall, as well. And they come with three helmets, a chest plate, and two swords.

Middle line a totally unnecessary response to a genuine question; lots of people don't always remember the full extent of Forgeworld's lines or miss a release here and there so I was merely asking if it had escaped your attention that FW do Ultra pads. The rest of it's fair enough and explains why these area better option for you. Ike I said above, though, duplication of some of the more unique bits by buying mulitple sprues would drive me nuts.

 Crazyterran wrote:
I wonder if codex space marines are going to get eviscerators now as a war gear option. Obviously the assault sergeant will be able to buy one, at least.

Which I honestly find infuriating.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
I wonder if codex space marines are going to get eviscerators now as a war gear option. Obviously the assault sergeant will be able to buy one, at least.

Which I honestly find infuriating.

Why?

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Upgrade sprues

That head....


This is, ART ATTACK


Please don't attach non wargaming pictures to Dakka. If you wish to share any such image/s you need to use an offsite host and link to it with image tags.
Reds8n

I wonder now, if we'll be seeing new vanilla terminators? God knows they need a bit of TLC (as well as the Command Squad and Devastators.)

@Wilson: Funny, though I'm not seeing it myself.

The Space Marine Codex is also gone from the EU site, along with the Devastators

I'm guessing the Devs are getting a scenic base as well as some bling'd up heavy weapons and a Signum.

 ImAGeek wrote:

 Talys wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
That is a very nice kit for assault squads. Kinda too bad I don't need any more ASM any time soon. Hopefully the Dev kit will be just as full of options.

I need more ASM like I need more tacticals or a root canal :( I think all together, I have 7 or 8 Death Company sets (4 of them from Deathstorm) and a few Sanguinary Guard. But, I'm getting 2 boxes, and trading for 10 more leg pairs, lol. It was those posable legs that got me :X

The last assault marines I painted was maybe10 years ago, though, so I guess it's time to do up some new ones

Are the legs actually poseable? I'm pretty sure they're one pose, just in two parts. Looks like they pair up as opposed to being interchangeable.

I actually really like the upgrade sprues now I've seen the parts better, but BA, SW and even DA didn't really need them, I'd rather have seen RG, IH, WS etc.

It says in WD, "Highly posable" so I think so

 Talys wrote:

 ImAGeek wrote:

 Talys wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
That is a very nice kit for assault squads. Kinda too bad I don't need any more ASM any time soon. Hopefully the Dev kit will be just as full of options.

I need more ASM like I need more tacticals or a root canal :( I think all together, I have 7 or 8 Death Company sets (4 of them from Deathstorm) and a few Sanguinary Guard. But, I'm getting 2 boxes, and trading for 10 more leg pairs, lol. It was those posable legs that got me :X

The last assault marines I painted was maybe10 years ago, though, so I guess it's time to do up some new ones

Are the legs actually poseable? I'm pretty sure they're one pose, just in two parts. Looks like they pair up as opposed to being interchangeable.

I actually really like the upgrade sprues now I've seen the parts better, but BA, SW and even DA didn't really need them, I'd rather have seen RG, IH, WS etc.

It says in WD, "Highly posable" so I think so

Specifically about the legs?

 sockwithaticket wrote:
That Space Wolf head is exactly what superhuman space vikings should look like. Puts most of the existing heads with their bizarre, 1980's post-apocalyptic hair to shame. That whole upgrade pack, is clearly the best of the 4.

I guess it's better than most existing SW heads (which is hardly saying much since they are all more or less hideous IMO) but i think this one looks rather silly as well.

My first though seeing it was Joe Dirt:


Anyways, while I understand that the historically well-supplied chapters get more stuff since there is a bigger market for them (although that's a self fullfilling prophesy). I'm not sure it even makes financial sense to put out even more uppgrade sprues for the chapters that already have their own kits for everything, or most of everything.

What SW or BA player doesn't already have piles of extra shoulderpads and torso-fronts lying around? I guess they might buy a sprue for extra variety but mor than that?

Meanwhile, starting a RavenGuard or Iron hand army would be substantially easier if they had gotten upgrade sprues. I wonder it they wouldn't sell better despite a smaller initial market.

@Zywus: Iron Hands already have an upgrade kit-it's in resin, but not bad for £11 IMO.

Zywus wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:
That Space Wolf head is exactly what superhuman space vikings should look like. Puts most of the existing heads with their bizarre, 1980's post-apocalyptic hair to shame. That whole upgrade pack, is clearly the best of the 4.

I guess it's better than most existing SW heads (which is hardly saying much since they are all more or less hideous IMO) but i think this one looks rather silly as well.

My first though seeing it was Joe Dirt:


Anyways, while I understand that the historically well-supplied chapters get more stuff since there is a bigger market for them (although that's a self fullfilling prophesy). I'm not sure it even makes financial sense to put out even more uppgrade sprues for the chapters that already have their own kits for everything, or most of everything.

What SW or BA player doesn't already have piles of extra shoulderpads and torso-fronts lying around? I guess they might buy a sprue for extra variety but mor than that?

Meanwhile, starting a RavenGuard or Iron hand army would be substantially easier if they had gotten upgrade sprues. I wonder it they wouldn't sell better despite a smaller initial market.

Yeah, in fairness it is a bit mullet-y; maybe my praise is a touch over the top, but the difference between that and what currently exists is phenomenal imo.

Re: your last point, I think GW have filed most of the other first founding chapters under 'niche' and are happy to allow FW to cater to those players with their HH line (disregarding completely, of course, things like the exhorbitant costs if you place an order from outside the EU that isn't sufficiently large to warrant free shipping and/or customs charges, the varying degrees of awareness in the player-base about the extent of FW's product lines, players' strong preference for plastic over resin, etc.),

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
I wonder if codex space marines are going to get eviscerators now as a war gear option. Obviously the assault sergeant will be able to buy one, at least.

Which I honestly find infuriating.

Why?

Because it is yet one more thing that is taken from Sisters to be given to marines, when the imbalance is already that big!

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Sire122 wrote:
Looked at the new price for assault marines. Died. Wow, how can GW keep charging these ridicules prices in Australia?

Do we know what the US and UK prices are? This is not just a case of "keep charging", they've raised it massively. I wonder if the US and UK have had similar massive price hikes.

$40 USD/25GBP.

I also wonder if they'll drop the current Skyclaw box with the idea of people buying the Assault Marine box + SW upgrade sprue.

Skyclaw box is still up, as of now.

My understanding is that it's a Space Wolves Pack box with Space Marine Jump Packs thrown in.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
I wonder if codex space marines are going to get eviscerators now as a war gear option. Obviously the assault sergeant will be able to buy one, at least.

Which I honestly find infuriating.

Why?

Because it is yet one more thing that is taken from Sisters to be given to marines, when the imbalance is already that big!

Because only Sisters would ever use a whomping huge chainsword, right?

 Kanluwen wrote:
My understanding is that it's a Space Wolves Pack box with Space Marine Jump Packs thrown in.

The old Assault Marine kit was broken in to 3 sprues, one of which had the torsos and jump packs (all the arms, shoulder pads, legs, etc were on the other 2 sprues.

The Skyclaws are 1 sprue from the regular SW kit (enough to make 5 regular Space Wolves) with that torso and jump pack sprue thrown in. That's why I wonder if they'll go away soon, as I don't imagine GW want to be producing an extra jump pack/torso sprue if they don't have to.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kanluwen wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Sire122 wrote:
Looked at the new price for assault marines. Died. Wow, how can GW keep charging these ridicules prices in Australia?

Do we know what the US and UK prices are? This is not just a case of "keep charging", they've raised it massively. I wonder if the US and UK have had similar massive price hikes.

$40 USD/25GBP.

How does that compare to the old pricing?

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
My understanding is that it's a Space Wolves Pack box with Space Marine Jump Packs thrown in.

The old Assault Marine kit was broken in to 3 sprues, one of which had the torsos and jump packs (all the arms, shoulder pads, legs, etc were on the other 2 sprues.

The Skyclaws are 1 sprue from the regular SW kit (enough to make 5 regular Space Wolves) with that torso and jump pack sprue thrown in. That's why I wonder if they'll go away soon, as I don't imagine GW want to be producing an extra jump pack/torso sprue if they don't have to.

Gotcha.

Not a Space Wolves player and they give no sprue breakdowns; hence why I said "my understanding".

 Kanluwen wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Sire122 wrote:
Looked at the new price for assault marines. Died. Wow, how can GW keep charging these ridicules prices in Australia?

Do we know what the US and UK prices are? This is not just a case of "keep charging", they've raised it massively. I wonder if the US and UK have had similar massive price hikes.

$40 USD/25GBP.

How does that compare to the old pricing?

Not actually sure.

I think the old was $35 USD; so that would be a $5 increase.

 sockwithaticket wrote:
That Space Wolf head is exactly what superhuman space vikings should look like. Puts most of the existing heads with their bizarre, 1980's post-apocalyptic hair to shame. That whole upgrade pack, is clearly the best of the 4.

I think the head looks pretty terrible actually. The only plastic SW heads GW have produced that I think look half decent are a few (but not all) of the Thunderwolf Cavalry ones and only 1 of the heads from the regular GH/BC sprue (the pack leader in this image: http://www.games-workshop.com/resources/catalog/product/600x620/99120101078_GreyHuntersNEW01.jpg).

The rest of the plastic SW heads all look awful IMO and this one isn't much of an improvement. It's why almost all my Space Wolves are wearing helmets... not because I don't like beards, but because GW rarely ever do good plastic heads for SW's.

 sockwithaticket wrote:

ImAGeek wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
. Or the convenience of having 10 shoulder pads with chapter symbol on it.

Forgeworld escaped your notice?

The upgrade sprue is cheaper than 10 shoulder pads from FW and you get more bits too, in fairness.

True, but how many duplicate helmets/heads and torsos are you going to want? I know that sort of thing drives me nuts with my own army and I'm always trying to make the generic bits slightly unique for each marine. The Mk VII ones, fair enough (you can snip the crest off one of them to keep it generic I guess), but the bearded head and the crusader helm? They're pretty distinct and I can't envision using more than one in an army.

Crazyterran wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
. Or the convenience of having 10 shoulder pads with chapter symbol on it.

Forgeworld escaped your notice?

Jolly ol Britain costs about double to buy directly from, and I'd only ever feel the urge to pick up the forge world pads if I ever decide to commit to making a legion era force.

Would have been more smarmy to point at the fine cast ultramarine pads that gw used to make. Nice try, though. Better luck next time.

Also, these pads are better looking than the plain legion ones, the ultramarines symbol looks better on these plastic ones, and have more decorations. More characterful overall, as well. And they come with three helmets, a chest plate, and two swords.

Middle line a totally unnecessary response to a genuine question; lots of people don't always remember the full extent of Forgeworld's lines or miss a release here and there so I was merely asking if it had escaped your attention that FW do Ultra pads. The rest of it's fair enough and explains why these area better option for you. Ike I said above, though, duplication of some of the more unique bits by buying mulitple sprues would drive me nuts.

Yes, the captain helmet might get traded away, or used for captains of other companies. The bare head will be traded away, as all of my ultramarines wear helmets (except maybe special characters, because it's easier to tell them apart that way).

The rest of it, though, is all good for duplication, especially spread throughout a few squads.

 Kanluwen wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
My understanding is that it's a Space Wolves Pack box with Space Marine Jump Packs thrown in.

The old Assault Marine kit was broken in to 3 sprues, one of which had the torsos and jump packs (all the arms, shoulder pads, legs, etc were on the other 2 sprues.

The Skyclaws are 1 sprue from the regular SW kit (enough to make 5 regular Space Wolves) with that torso and jump pack sprue thrown in. That's why I wonder if they'll go away soon, as I don't imagine GW want to be producing an extra jump pack/torso sprue if they don't have to.

Gotcha.

Not a Space Wolves player and they give no sprue breakdowns; hence why I said "my understanding".

 Kanluwen wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Sire122 wrote:
Looked at the new price for assault marines. Died. Wow, how can GW keep charging these ridicules prices in Australia?

Do we know what the US and UK prices are? This is not just a case of "keep charging", they've raised it massively. I wonder if the US and UK have had similar massive price hikes.

$40 USD/25GBP.

How does that compare to the old pricing?

Not actually sure.

I think the old was $35 USD; so that would be a $5 increase.

Old one was $55, new one is $70 here in Aus. I don't understand..

The Ultramarine sprue is ok, but that's my Ultramarine bias coming out. The Dark Angel sprue is laughable. The Wolf one is... well, the weapons are nice, but its unnecessary given how good the existing Wolf kit is. The Blood Angel one is really pretty, and the hand-held chalice is ace (I'll want a couple of them for my Deathwatch). Still, like the DA and SW one, it doesn't need to exist.

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
I wonder if codex space marines are going to get eviscerators now as a war gear option. Obviously the assault sergeant will be able to buy one, at least.

Which I honestly find infuriating.

Why?

Hybrid is a Sisters player.

Sisters players don't like it when



I left the end of that sentence blank for a reason. You can finish it with literally anything and it'll be true.

I am thrilled the jump marines are being updated, I use that term loosely.

 angelofvengeance wrote:
@Zywus: Iron Hands already have an upgrade kit-it's in resin, but not bad for £11 IMO.

Oh, I didn't think they still sold that one. Still, replace Iron hands with Salamanders and the point still stands.

I really wonder if BA, DA, and SW players will really buy many of these as they already get chapter specific pads and bits by the bucket in their excisting kits. (Especially BA and SW).

Uppgrade kits for the minor 1st founding chapters would have presumably sold lots to the (admittedly fewer) collectors of those chapters and more importantly would lower the inertia of starting them in the first place.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
The Ultramarine sprue is ok, but that's my Ultramarine bias coming out. The Dark Angel sprue is laughable. The Wolf one is... well, the weapons are nice, but its unnecessary given how good the existing Wolf kit is. The Blood Angel one is really pretty, and the hand-held chalice is ace (I'll want a couple of them for my Deathwatch). Still, like the DA and SW one, it doesn't need to exist.

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Crazyterran wrote:
I wonder if codex space marines are going to get eviscerators now as a war gear option. Obviously the assault sergeant will be able to buy one, at least.

Which I honestly find infuriating.

Why?

Hybrid is a Sisters player.

Sisters players don't like it when



I left the end of that sentence blank for a reason. You can finish it with literally anything and it'll be true.

Not to put words in Hybrid's mouth, but its just one more unique aspect of the codex that they lost to another group. If GW is ver expects Sisters to sell or ever want them to sell well maybe they can leave them their unique identity.

Zywus wrote:

 angelofvengeance wrote:
@Zywus: Iron Hands already have an upgrade kit-it's in resin, but not bad for £11 IMO.

Oh, I didn't think they still sold that one. Still, replace Iron hands with Salamanders and the point still stands.

I really wonder if BA, DA, and SW players will really buy many of these as they already get chapter specific pads and bits by the bucket in their excisting kits. (Especially BA and SW).

Uppgrade kits for the minor 1st founding chapters would have presumably sold lots to the (admittedly fewer) collectors of those chapters and more importantly would lower the inertia of starting them in the first place.

What's interesting is that the shoulderpads aren't just "generic Chapter" shoulderpads in the case of Space Wolves. It's specific to Ragnar Blackmane's Great Company.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 andrewm9 wrote:

Not to put words in Hybrid's mouth, but its just one more unique aspect of the codex that they lost to another group. If GW is ver expects Sisters to sell or ever want them to sell well maybe they can leave them their unique identity.

The issue from that is Eviscerators were never "Sisters exclusive". Priests in the Guard books had access to them and Henchmen in the Daemon/Witch Hunter books had access to them. Not to mention Gabriel Seth of the Flesh Tearers having been mentioned for a long time as wielding an Eviscerator.

To pretend that they were somehow integrally tied to the "Holy Trinity"(Bolter, Flamer, Melta) of the Adepta Sororitas is silly. It's a mountain out of a molehill.

I didn't see anything about this in the thread already(so if this is repeat just ignore), but on the GW site Vanguard Vets are now under fast attack.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 andrewm9 wrote:

Not to put words in Hybrid's mouth, but its just one more unique aspect of the codex that they lost to another group. If GW is ver expects Sisters to sell or ever want them to sell well maybe they can leave them their unique identity.

The issue from that is Eviscerators were never "Sisters exclusive". Priests in the Guard books had access to them and Henchmen in the Daemon/Witch Hunter books had access to them. Not to mention Gabriel Seth of the Flesh Tearers having been mentioned for a long time as wielding an Eviscerator.

To pretend that they were somehow integrally tied to the "Holy Trinity"(Bolter, Flamer, Melta) of the Adepta Sororitas is silly. It's a mountain out of a molehill.

 andrewm9 wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

 andrewm9 wrote:

Not to put words in Hybrid's mouth, but its just one more unique aspect of the codex that they lost to another group. If GW is ver expects Sisters to sell or ever want them to sell well maybe they can leave them their unique identity.

The issue from that is Eviscerators were never "Sisters exclusive". Priests in the Guard books had access to them and Henchmen in the Daemon/Witch Hunter books had access to them. Not to mention Gabriel Seth of the Flesh Tearers having been mentioned for a long time as wielding an Eviscerator.

To pretend that they were somehow integrally tied to the "Holy Trinity"(Bolter, Flamer, Melta) of the Adepta Sororitas is silly. It's a mountain out of a molehill.

You are right, but at least with the priests they are Ecclesiarchy. Seth is just crazy . Seriously characters can be exceptions just like Dante used to have the only inferno pistol.

Henchmen weren't necessarily Priests with the Ecclesiarchy.

Honestly, I can't see the hubbub as to Eviscerators being "Sisters Only No Boys Allowed!". There's no complaints about the Striking Scorpion Exarch having an Eviscerator in all but name, but other Imperial factions having them results in sour grapes?

 andrewm9 wrote:



Automatically Appended Next Post:

ADrunknPirate wrote:
I didn't see anything about this in the thread already(so if this is repeat just ignore), but on the GW site Vanguard Vets are now under fast attack.

I notice ced that too and its not isolated to one nation. Could be a mistake or it could be deliberate. I guess a new codex would settle that.

And the "Choose your Chapter" under the featured products on the right side of the page. Apparently buying tactical marines is the only way to choose a chapter.

The GW app is updated. Next WD will feature the new assault marines.

ADrunknPirate wrote:
I didn't see anything about this in the thread already(so if this is repeat just ignore), but on the GW site Vanguard Vets are now under fast attack.

Been like that way before first rumors of 7th ed. SM.

Also, don't think GW have changed that due to eventual changes in codex because the Land Speeder Storm is still in Fast Attack and it got moved to Dedicated transport when 6th ed. SM came out...

Will these upgrade packs be web only or also available in store? Can't really see the difference anymore on the gw website.

I don't know if someone noticed before, but the terminator squad have two heavy weapon per squad (one AC and one cyclone missiles launcher here),while being 5 per squad:

http://www.games-workshop.com/fr-FR/1st-Company-Task-Force

Oh man, if Terminators are getting 2/5...then Deathwing might have just gotten a huge boost.

I'm not sure. If you look at the individual squad pic, there's only 1 heavy weapon shown.

yes, I truly hope this is indeed the case. I could see it being 1 PC, AC or HF per sqd of 5 with a Cyclone being an additional add-on since it doesn't replace the SB.

 Kanluwen wrote:
What's interesting is that the shoulderpads aren't just "generic Chapter" shoulderpads in the case of Space Wolves. It's specific to Ragnar Blackmane's Great Company.

Ragnar's icon is as close as you get to a "generic Space Wolves" icon. Firstly because SW wear the company symbol rather than the chapter symbol and GW has used Ragnar's company as the "generic" company since 2nd edition. Also because the chapter symbol basically is just Ragnar's symbol, a standard Wolf's head. I think Leman Russ's symbol was the blackmaned wolf as well?

 godardc wrote:
I don't know if someone noticed before, but the terminator squad have two heavy weapon per squad (one AC and one typhoon missiles launcher here),while being 5 per squad:

http://www.games-workshop.com/fr-FR/1st-Company-Task-Force

Or they just built the squads not according to rules but according to what is possible to make with the kit...

 Kanluwen wrote:
Oh man, if Terminators are getting 2/5...then Deathwing might have just gotten a huge boost.

You never know. They could get the Jetbike treatment (any unit can take...).

Then I could do something with my five bazillionteen painted terminators. and eleven bazillionteen terminators still on the sprue.

If tactical terminators could take a CML and and Assault Cannon and somehow get split fire, they would be actually worth their points. Especially if they get flank missiles for free.

And the pre-orders are up on the US site. It all looks pretty reasonable to me. Plenty of things to pick up soon.

 Kosake wrote:

 godardc wrote:
I don't know if someone noticed before, but the terminator squad have two heavy weapon per squad (one AC and one typhoon missiles launcher here),while being 5 per squad:

http://www.games-workshop.com/fr-FR/1st-Company-Task-Force

Or they just built the squads not according to rules but according to what is possible to make with the kit...

I never noticed GW's pictures showing "illegal" squad/models (according to the rules), but I can be wrong, and if you look the old terminator squad's picture, only one of them has an heavy weapon.
The picture of the 1st Company Task Force is new, and all the other squad have a "legal" gear.

 godardc wrote:

 Kosake wrote:

 godardc wrote:
I don't know if someone noticed before, but the terminator squad have two heavy weapon per squad (one AC and one typhoon missiles launcher here),while being 5 per squad:

http://www.games-workshop.com/fr-FR/1st-Company-Task-Force

Or they just built the squads not according to rules but according to what is possible to make with the kit...

I never noticed GW's pictures showing "illegal" squad/models (according to the rules), but I can be wrong, and if you look the old terminator squad's picture, only one of them has an heavy weapon.
The picture of the 1st Company Task Force is new, and all the other squad have a "legal" gear.

When Harlequins came out GW offered a web bundle that had 2 Solitaries which are Unique. It would be like offering a web bundle with Marneus Calgars.

So GW does sometimes put up illegal (rulewise) combos.

On the subject of eviscerators, I am very pleased. They're one of my favourite weapons in the background.

The Sisters models that have them are so old as to be from roughly the same time as when Kroot had them, so I don't think there's ever been a time when they were unique to Sisters.

Lets see, third edition... I had two assault cannons per squad of dw terminators. I also had a terminators chaplain with tllc. That ended with me breaking my finely painted minis because they changed their armament in fourth.

I would live to see two heavies, but don't think it would last with the boost it gives (esp. with split fire). Be prepared to break your models, update them, and break them again in two years if you didn't magnetized them! ( happily I learned that art and have been doing so ever since!)

 MrFlutterPie wrote:

 godardc wrote:

 Kosake wrote:

 godardc wrote:
I don't know if someone noticed before, but the terminator squad have two heavy weapon per squad (one AC and one typhoon missiles launcher here),while being 5 per squad:

http://www.games-workshop.com/fr-FR/1st-Company-Task-Force

Or they just built the squads not according to rules but according to what is possible to make with the kit...

I never noticed GW's pictures showing "illegal" squad/models (according to the rules), but I can be wrong, and if you look the old terminator squad's picture, only one of them has an heavy weapon.
The picture of the 1st Company Task Force is new, and all the other squad have a "legal" gear.

When Harlequins came out GW offered a web bundle that had 2 Solitaries which are Unique. It would be like offering a web bundle with Marneus Calgars.

So GW does sometimes put up illegal (rulewise) combos.

My bad ! I hope they won't do it this way^^

If they allow BA Assault Sergents to take an Evicerator, I will get a kit. Of only C:SM can, I don't think I will get them as my CF have plenty of other FA. I hope that if the rumors are true regarding CML, TML, and ML Devs that it retroactively affects Blood Angels. The fact that C:SM apparently has formations for all Space Marine chapters gives me hope.

IronBars wrote:
Will these upgrade packs be web only or also available in store? Can't really see the difference anymore on the gw website.

Online only I think?

B&C's got Devastator and Codex images:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/308447-new-space-marine-releases-wd-leaks-devastator-more/

£50 for a 10 man Assault Squad???

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Ten-Man-Assault-Squad

Here you go folks





Very nice!!