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I was at an RTT yesterday, and one of the folks there was the senior GW promotions manager from California visiting our area. We talked for a few minutes, and I mentioned that I was starting a Dark Eldar army. He advised me against it because a new codex and models were coming out, and I said, "Yeah...but that's been rumored for a decade and nothing has happened."

He responded that Dark Eldar were scheduled for release, but the Dark Angels (or Space Wolves? I don't follow marines) models were done first, so they switched the two armies release dates. He said that Dark Eldar are now where Dark Angels used to be, scheduled for a 2010 release. I asked why they won't release them sooner if they stuff is done, and he said its because every time a new Codex and army comes out, another army must come off the shelves, and since LOTR has done so well, 40k has less room than every before. He said that they don't want to have to take multiple armies off the shelves at once, which is why they slowly phase in a new army at a time.
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Now, I'm not a GW employee, and I've only been involved in 40k for a year now, so I don't know anything about anything. Any thoughts on this? The reason I ask is because I'm currently trying to start a Dark Eldar army. I went to the RTT yesterday to win prizes adequate to purchase Asdrubael Vect, and my current aspirations of starting a Dark Eldar army would rightfully be influenced by knowledge of new Dark Eldar stuff. If its really only a year away, then I should probably wait before getting crazy and investing heavily in Dark Eldar stuff.

I personally would ignore him. Why? Because GW managers have been blowing smoke about a DE release for a good ten years now. Why should this one be any different?

I thought that was the thinking for a while.

They had to completely redesign the Dark Eldar minis from the ground up and it took Jess Godwin longer than they thought so they switch their release with the Space Wolves.

It also had to do with Rick Priestly rejecting a lot of the previous redesign concepts time and again.

And JohnHwangDD kept sneaking into the studio with a huge magnet in order to delete all the CAD files they'd made.

I don't buy this for no other reason than his explanation about having to take an army off the shelves for every army added. 40k hasn't had a new army since Daemonhunters (sort of) or the Tau (in actuality). Yes, Daeomnos are a new playable army, but the models have always been there. That whole thing sounds bogus.

i think what he meant was, when new stuff comes out, eg all the new DE models, they need to remove the old ones

@HBMC

I also wanna believe

The whole one army in, another one out doesn't make a lot of sense. Aside from the reduction of blisters I can't think of an army that's been taken off the shelves. We even still have DE on shelves here in Oz. And if this really was the case, what was taken off the shelves when Daemons came out? When Orks? Marines? Dark Angels? 'Chaos'?

statu wrote:i think what he meant was, when new stuff comes out, eg all the new DE models, they need to remove the old ones

That's an interesting interpretation. Don't exactly know how you read this:

"...every time a new Codex and army comes out, another army must come off the shelves."

... as meaning that one when one army comes out the old models from same army must leave the shelves.

Part of the reasons seems to be the new box format, the other being that new kits mostly replace older ones. It does make me wonder how the Amsterdam store does it. LotR dominates the most of the store, possibly due to a bias of the manager towards the game. 40k has the smallest wall section and a lot of the "lesser" armies are in short supply.

Guys,

This exact question was asked during the Q-A part of the slide showing. Jervis actually did not politicly answer the question and said that they are working to redo all the armies one day. He said that they hope to have all the ranges 5th addition ready in the next few years. He never said anything about Dark Eldar getting any love right now. He did say that they had other projects ahead of Dark Eldar that people would really like.

That to me sounds like 2011 at the earliest. Sorry to burst your bubble or that GW managers bubble.

Romeo
Battle Foam

Yay! A year before the world's supposed to end.

Everyone knows CE is being released Dec. 21, 2012.

Is LotR really doing well? My FLGS doesn't even carry it. I don't think the other store I go to in Boston carries it either.

I don't think I'd trust what this guy is saying.

Polonius wrote:I don't buy this for no other reason than his explanation about having to take an army off the shelves for every army added. 40k hasn't had a new army since Daemonhunters (sort of) or the Tau (in actuality). Yes, Daeomnos are a new playable army, but the models have always been there. That whole thing sounds bogus.

Well, to be fair, shelf space is a limited commodity. For example, notice how there are no more "Black Templar" or "Dark Angels" command squads anymore. It's because they are essentially the same thing with a different sprue. With GW's decision to do everything in plastic, and have a squad box for each unit type, you have to clean out some of the SKU's so you have room to put everything on the shelf.

List of things that have a box that used to not have a box. (Note the top three are the oldest on the list)
- Tau Army
- Demonhunters
- Witchhunters
- Eldar Aspect Warriors
- Eldar Autarch
- Nurgle Demon Prince (who is now gone)
- Soul Grinder
- Space Marine Vindicator
- Ork Battlewagon
- Space Marine Venerable Dreadnought
- Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought
- Space Marine Drop Pod
- Space Marine Assault Terminators

And lets not forget all the new terrain

So just looking at the list above, there are alot of things that are on the shelf now that didn't use to be on the shelf. Even taking note that some of the boxsets are the smaller boxes, they still used to not be in a box at all. Then look at the range and see what things are still taking up extra space that can be consolidated.

- Space Wolf Grey Hunters
- Space Wolf Blood Claws
- Space Wolf Venerable Dreadnought

These are essentially just Marine boxes with an extra sprue, and the Space Wolf dread is still metal. Consolidate all those into one box of "Space Wolves" with a vehicle upgrade sprue like Dark Angels and Blood Angels, and you just gave yourself two more boxes worth of room. Also, you can more reliably sell a generic box of 10 marines with a wolf sprue than knowing how many "Grey Hunters" or "Blood Claws" boxes you need to produce and stock.

So while I wouldn't take everything the guy said at face value, I'd definetely disagree that shelf space/SKU reconciliation doesn't play any influence into GW's thinking.

Shelf space is a commodity, but the 1 to 1 army exchange is overly simplistic. First off, LotR is eating more and more shelf space, while specialist games now get nothing. So the situation is pretty fluid.

I suspect that the Wolves will get a spash release like Templars and the Dull Angels did, then it will go back to one box. Two actually, as I think the Wolf Guard will be a separate box, but the 'Space Wolf Conversion kit' will have enough for 5 or 10 guys, and you would combine it with Devs or Tacs or Assault Marines to get your Lonfang/Grey Hunter/Blood Claw squads.

I don't know about vehicles though.

But I don't think they'll swap 1-for-1. The new PS stuff fits on my local GW's shelves with only a slight reduction of CoD stuff - not a wholesale removal of CoD stuff.

Polonius wrote:Shelf space is a commodity, but the 1 to 1 army exchange is overly simplistic. First off, LotR is eating more and more shelf space, while specialist games now get nothing. So the situation is pretty fluid.

Yea, but it's been an awful long time since Specialist Games got anything. I would bet that all the new terrain (CoD and Planetstrike) fit right where Specialist stuff may have been. Also, I forgot the Valkyrie, Baneblade and Stompa!

And I think we should stop calling it "Shelf Space" and talk about SKU's instead. A store can very easily find more room to put stuff, but additional SKU's represent Inventory Control problems that tie in with production/shipping/sales, etc.

Shelf space is a huge issue and a lot of changes at GW over the past few years have been made because of it, such as making many products Direct Only, reducing the number of items in their product range where possible, reducing box sizes where possible, etc. These things cut costs and shelf space, two important issues for any retailer.

This rumor sounds more like an unfounded logical deduction. Not improbable, mind you, just unfounded. Though I think DE swapping release with SWs had less to do with whose models were finished first and more to do with the fact that SWs are a space marine army. Probably no coincidence that Jervis loves them.

Sgt Diablo wrote:Jervis never said anything about Dark Eldar getting any love right now. He did say that they had other projects ahead of Dark Eldar that people would really like.

Translation: "We're gonna keep ramming space marines down your throats no matter how desperately you all want to see something else! How dare you speak of something other than space marines!"

hehehe
There is no GW promotions manager in California
wrong side of the country! (They're in Maryland)

So to release dark eldar they have to take tau off the shelves? That ... doesn't ... make ... sense ... *head asplodes*

Sgt Diablo wrote:Guys,

This exact question was asked during the Q-A part of the slide showing. Jervis actually did not politicly answer the question and said that they are working to redo all the armies one day. He said that they hope to have all the ranges 5th addition ready in the next few years. He never said anything about Dark Eldar getting any love right now. He did say that they had other projects ahead of Dark Eldar that people would really like.

That to me sounds like 2011 at the earliest. Sorry to burst your bubble or that GW managers bubble.

Romeo
Battle Foam

Space sharks? Another dark angel's book? Eldar? What? What could possibly be better than spiky eldar with rock n roll hair!

Answer: NOTHING.

I think the DE are going to the same place as the Squats...
Mick

Mick A wrote:I think the DE are going to the same place as the Squats...
Mick

I too chuckle slightly at the thought of DE actually being re-worked.

Sgt Diablo wrote:Guys,

This exact question was asked during the Q-A part of the slide showing. Jervis actually did not politicly answer the question and said that they are working to redo all the armies one day. He said that they hope to have all the ranges 5th addition ready in the next few years. He never said anything about Dark Eldar getting any love right now. He did say that they had other projects ahead of Dark Eldar that people would really like.

That to me sounds like 2011 at the earliest. Sorry to burst your bubble or that GW managers bubble.

Romeo
Battle Foam

Yeah, but Jervis said that
Grey DE that always lose in their battle report time?
Redo all the armies? GW? Doesn't really make sense, but it would be great

Sgt Diablo wrote:
He did say that they had other projects ahead of Dark Eldar that people would really like.

=
SPASE MARIENZ HUURRRR!!!!!

Manchu wrote:

This

Noisy_Marine wrote:So to release dark eldar they have to take tau off the shelves? That ... doesn't ... make ... sense ... *head asplodes*

If that were to ever actually happen, I'll end up in the news. They don't call it "homicidal rage" for nothing!

I need to send GW this message:

Dear GW,

I am getting old. I would like more Army Books to come out before I die. At your current rate of army books, I might see a DE release sometime before I'm 33 or so. I started playing DE when I was 21.

Seriously. Update the fething codex.

Shelf space is a real issue for any retailer, most definately. The last time I walked into a GW store (around the Shadowsword/Stompa release) the boxes were literally stacked in a corner of the shop.

Going back to the "should I wait until the DE actually get released?" thing, I'd say do something at least to keep you interested. I heard that the IG were going to get new plastic regiments, but no one can guarantee that for sure (although it's more certain than the DE being released). So, instead of waiting for this day, I might in fact have a mess around with the IG for a while. If the day ever arrives when new regiments hit the shelves, I could then change my game a bit, without feeling guilty of doing so.

strange_eric wrote:I need to send GW this message:

Dear GW,

I am getting old. I would like more Army Books to come out before I die. At your current rate of army books, I might see a DE release sometime before I'm 33 or so. I started playing DE when I was 21.

Seriously. Update the fething codex.

It's alright for you. I am 33!