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GW recently released the "Spear of Sicarius" for nearly 1100 dollars. It is meant to be an attacking army for planetstrike.
As to be expected, they only released it for marines. There is no "Ulthwe's shadowy wall" or "Tau rapid-response force" this is going to get people complaining.
It is to be expected that GW favors space marines, they sell the best, so in order to stay in business, they have to keep them updated and advertised.
But how much work would it takes to at least PRETEND that they care about the other 10 armies?
They didn't make any new kits for this release, they just piled a bunch of already made stuff together and probably sliced 5 bucks off the price so they could claim it was a deal.
Couldn't they get a squad of dire avengers, 4-5 guardians, an autarch, and some dark reapers together in a box?

Secondly, who will buy this?
Anybody who is serious enough about the hobby to spend 1100 dollars on it is going to want to customize their army.
Anybody who wants an army pre-made for them is not going to have time to assemble and paint what I suspect to be around 2000 points of ultramarines. (you could get it cheaper pre-painted on ebay ffs)

Who thinks the Spear of Sicarius was a good idea for GW?

Oh you've got it all wrong. They didn't pile everything into a box and slice off 5 bucks -- at least not 5 bucks savings that you will see. They probably save some money on packaging.
The reason that there is only a Space Marine bundle like the Spear of Sicarius is that GW probably thinks that only SM players are dumb enough to buy $1100 of stuff with no discount at all and no flexibility. Honestly there is zero reason whatsoever for anybody to even consider buying this box.

This item is more of a gimmicky thing they can show off at tradeshows and the like. I doubt they will sell more than a couple.

A similar box set for other races would be nice, but none that I can think of have such set-in-stone organization as a space marine company. If they made an Uthwe Strike Force they'd mostly just have to make up its contents.

Not only that, there is no actual savings in the Spear, so if you want a large Eldar force it's cheaper to get it though your local store or the Warstore.

If I was building a huge marine army, I'd buy a huge box like that just for convinience. One big box > lots of small purchases.

I'm not a huge fan of the Spear of Sicarius, but it's largely a playstyle thing. They do this sort of stunt every once in awhile (like when you could buy a whole battle company of marines, and I think once they actually sold a whole chapter).

I think the wiser thing would have been to do as the OP suggested and perhaps market some alternative battle forces. They would mark them up to the new $95 price point, but some of the current ones need a revision. They don't really lose anything by marketing it this way, seeing as I'm sure it's direct only, so they just throw the sprues in. I do think they missed an opportunity, though. I still see people buying the Apoc special sets (namely the 3 Leman Russ set).

theres like no savings whatsoeva...and of course ONLY FOR SPACE MARINES!!!...don't buy that box, guys

Skorpion wrote:If I was building a huge marine army, I'd buy a huge box like that just for convinience. One big box > lots of small purchases.

"IF" you are half way through assembling the army "deal" and you suddenly realize the army isnt really what you wanted (majorly lack of variety)
you are stuck with it , you cannot return it or trade in.

Seperate NIB boxes can save alot of grief.

The sole point of this box is so that the kiddies will go "wow, I'd love to have an army like that".

They might sell a couple - doesn't make them any more or less money than selling the stuff normally so I doubt they really care. It's pure gimmick and it's been done at virtually zero cost.

What is wrong with people that this thing is getting so many panties in a twist?

Complaining about lack of variety is good for a laugh. It looks like you're getting full sets of sprue, so it has just as much variety as if you bought it all individually.

'Waah waah ultramarines' is also pretty sad. I'm not seeing anything in the description that mentions a contractual obligation to paint them blue. Aside from Sicarius himself, none of the models are UM specific, so again, it's no different than buying them normally.

For GW it's a piece of eye candy showing off what a SM Planetstrike army could be. It doesn't matter if they don't sell many of them, since it's not costing them much of anything to make it, and it certainly is drawing a lot of attention.

And it's not a bundle really either. It's nothing you couldn't buyh already for the exact same price... or cheaper.

Bookwrack wrote:What is wrong with people that this thing is getting so many panties in a twist?

Complaining about lack of variety is good for a laugh. It looks like you're getting full sets of sprue, so it has just as much variety as if you bought it all individually.
'Waah waah ultramarines' is also pretty sad. I'm not seeing anything in the description that mentions a contractual obligation to paint them blue. Aside from Sicarius himself, none of the models are UM specific, so again, it's no different than buying them normally.

For GW it's a piece of eye candy showing off what a SM Planetstrike army could be. It doesn't matter if they don't sell many of them, since it's not costing them much of anything to make it, and it certainly is drawing a lot of attention.

Im sorry that i wasnt specific , but i thought what i meant was obvious.

H.B.M.C. wrote:And it's not a bundle really either. It's nothing you couldn't buyh already for the exact same price... or cheaper.

Should have seen this coming.

H.B.M.C. wrote:And it's not a bundle really either. It's nothing you couldn't buyh already for the exact same price... or cheaper.

FFS give it a rest.

Seriously though, if you want what's in that bundle, you'll pay $1156 (that includes shipping) to get it from GWUS, or you can pay $850-ish from Maelstrom (no shipping costs, worldwide). There's no contest there.

While that is true why would you buy it in the first place?

H.B.M.C. wrote:Seriously though, if you want what's in that bundle, you'll pay $1156 (that includes shipping) to get it from GWUS, or you can pay $850-ish from Maelstrom (no shipping costs, worldwide). There's no contest there.

.... Do I even need to note that you save 10% at mael? mor like 1000-ish but still cheaper although I know MANY other online stores that give a 15% discount from retail price.

To anticipate the counter argument.

They still rail you with Shipping and Handling costs, where as mael doesn't.

Oops forgot original topic =P I would NEVER buy that. I would rather buy in small pieces or trade the eldar stuff i got from some one for that stuff. What was GW thinking? Only little kids will buy that and they won't have the Patience to save up for it. It was a waste of plastic.


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BrotherStynier wrote:To anticipate the counter argument.

They still rail you with Shipping and Handling costs, where as mael doesn't.

not over 100$

Well then it all depends on where you buy it. I have better luck getting my stuff from the UK than the US...

And yeah, waste of money that box is. Unless you have a hard on for Drop Pods.

not to mention you can get 20X more GS that GW for 10$ more at http://store.miniwargaming.com/product/warhammer-green-stuff-modelling-putty


Automatically Appended Next Post:

BrotherStynier wrote:Well then it all depends on where you buy it. I have better luck getting my stuff from the UK than the US...

And yeah, waste of money that box is. Unless you have a hard on for Drop Pods.

wait, it comes with DrUp PADS?!!!! lol

I'd buy it if I was starting an SM army. At least it's conveniently packaged and I won't have to make multiple orders, and it's even cheaper thanks to discounts and free shipping from certain online retailers.

if they keep the set up for long enough they might snag a few sales over christmas to those kids who think a one purchase army would rock, and break thier parents backs until they had it in thier hands.
Then build some of it, get bored and let it gather dust.
an army built around deep strike is cool in itself (daemons) But it wouldnt work in regular games, and liek peopel have said above, theres next to no ability to vary the army without buying more.
But we know this stratgey by now and have come to expect GW building narrow use box sets.

BoW- John

Haven't we discussed this at least two different times?

Spear of Sicarius is, in my opinion, a really stupid box set.

Why?

It offers no savings, therefore I feel there is no incentive to drop that much cash on the product. Had there been a discount, similar to what GW does with all their pricier box sets such as the Battle Forces and the Apocalypse Box Sets then this potentially would have been a good deal.

Granted, it still would have been a rather large sum of money - but still the savings would have been there, and those savings drive customers to spend larger amounts of money on a single product because the customers know they're getting each item inside the Box Set for less money than buying it individually.

And then we could have bought it at Maelstrom Games at an even further reduced price

Of course, you really aren't saving money by spending money, but hey - if you were going to spend the money you might as well try to get the best deal you can.

Please, no "but I only have to click 'add item' to my shopping cart once" arguments. Those are absurd. Completely, and totally absurd and the degree of laziness in which that argument appears to perpetuate is maddening.

I guess you could potentially save some money on shipping [do you - i don't know?] But since GW is offering free shipping for all of July that point is moot.

Well I am Space Marine player...but I must agree the price is off the roofff

And I would want some boxes for the other races-nu just Battle force boxes... THOuGH battle forces are very usefull an we all have them

So...yes...I don't Think it is a great deal-but still there is an apocalypse size army,and I defenitly think that GW should put up more boxes for the other races-not just Battleforce

BrotherStynier wrote:To anticipate the counter argument.

They still rail you with Shipping and Handling costs, where as mael doesn't.

I do wish people would extract their heads from their posteriors. or in this thread are we going to see people try and argue that the Spear set costs less than £10?

And one of the problems here is that Maelstrom is always going to be cheaper than straight from GW, no matter what sort of deal they offer, unless GW made it direct order only (which would inspire a completely different series of whines).

Maelstrom isn't the only company that offers GW stuff at prices that embarrass GW.

orkishlyorkish wrote:not to mention you can get 20X more GS that GW for 10$ more at http://store.miniwargaming.com/product/warhammer-green-stuff-modelling-putty

Let's not forget the points! 149 of 'em!

Canonness Rory wrote:Maelstrom isn't the only company that offers GW stuff at prices that embarrass GW.

I guess you didn't see the point go merrily flying over your head.

LunaHound wrote:

Skorpion wrote:If I was building a huge marine army, I'd buy a huge box like that just for convinience. One big box > lots of small purchases.

"IF" you are half way through assembling the army "deal" and you suddenly realize the army isnt really what you wanted (majorly lack of variety)
you are stuck with it , you cannot return it or trade in.

Seperate NIB boxes can save alot of grief.

I concur.

Orks should get a box that includes a 1000 boys. That'd be fun.