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so I've been thinking....

Most Army boxes / battalion boxes (if not all?- I haven't done my research), don't include an HQ unit, is there a reason for this?
Does including a particular HQ unit potentially create a too specific 'character profile' for the army?

Thoughts?

Battle boxes are great for folks beginning an army, but they're also great for folks who are trying to rapidly bolster their forces. Including an HQ choice will give those players tons of extra HQ models they won't need. I do agree that including one might shoehorn new players into one HQ type, and not explore the other options.

Also, I think the idea is to make Battle Boxes all plastic. Some armies have all metal HQs, I think.

That said, I personally wish the SM Battle Box had included the SM Commander Kit.

Yup, the fact that most armies' HQ models are still metal is what keeps them out of battleforce/battalion boxes.

They're also not really intended as a premade 'army in a box'... they're really just a 'booster'

The army boxes that GW used to do with each codex release did include HQ's.

good and bad to hear;

I was hoping the cynic in me wasn't correct in thinking it was all about the $ potential; but then I guess we'll never see a plastic HQ anyway?

@Insaniak
Why did GW stop with the HQ's?

They didn't stop with the HQ's... they stopped the army boxes.

To clarify a little, there are three different bundle boxes that GW have been selling in recent years:

Battalion / Battleforce boxes are all-plastic sets with (usually) 4-6 units. These are intended as an easy way of filling out an army.

For those armies with enough plastic kits to fill them, they released Megaforce boxes for 40K and Army boxes for Warhammer Fantasy that were likewise all plastic, and had about 3 times the content of a Battleforce or Battalion. Some of these included HQ models, some didn't... they were still aimed more as fillers rather than complete armies in their own right.

For a few years for both games, with the release of each codex they released a limited edition army box that contained a mix of metal and plastic models, including a limited edition metal model that was only available in that box. These sets were intended to be complete armies.

The megaforces still come and go, but the ltd ed army boxes are gone. Probably because, due to the savings compared to buying the models separately and the lure of the limited edition model (that wasn't enough of a lure for normal gamers to actually buy the box) they were selling most of them to eBay sellers who were just splitting them up and selling on the components

thanks!

The space wolf battle force comes with the space wolf sprews (DUH) and you can make sw heros with it!

I would love to see GW sell a viable army in a box. I wonder how people would react at seeing almost every army retail for about $600.

The old Empire battalion included a commander model, but only because the old command sprue had enough parts for 4 models, 1 of which was mounted.

What there needs to be is a plastic HQ/character set for EVERY army. Lizardmen get the shaft on this and I know alot of other armies do as well. Hell alot of armies these days are released with damn near half the units not having a model made for them. Daemons of chaos requires conversion for almost all non special characters.

BTW,Imperial Guard and Tyranid battleforce include HQ.
2 troop and 1 HQ so you can start army. yay!!

aerethan wrote:I would love to see GW sell a viable army in a box. I wonder how people would react at seeing almost every army retail for about $600.

The old Empire battalion included a commander model, but only because the old command sprue had enough parts for 4 models, 1 of which was mounted.

What there needs to be is a plastic HQ/character set for EVERY army. Lizardmen get the shaft on this and I know alot of other armies do as well. Hell alot of armies these days are released with damn near half the units not having a model made for them. Daemons of chaos requires conversion for almost all non special characters.

They did it, as mentioned, for when the armies first released.

Despite many people preordering them, most often they ended up rotting on store shelves unless the store decided to eat the loss and mark them down or split the contents.
I know my first FLGS(Hobby Masters) when it shut down in late 2008 STILL had a pair of Lizardmen army boxes, an Orcs & Goblin one, and a Codex Space Marines one.

The only reason they sold was when Hobby Masters had its going out of business sale and marked everything down 75%(25% discount was 'standard' for most regulars when you were making an over $150 purchase, and the out of business sale was 50% off). I missed snagging the Space Marines box by half an hour.

Sir Motor wrote:BTW,Imperial Guard and Tyranid battleforce include HQ.
2 troop and 1 HQ so you can start army. yay!!

The Tyranids Battleforce does not contain an HQ. In fact, it really contains all-troops now.
In the previous codex, Warriors were HQ/Elites which also circumvents the problem of getting too many HQs.

Personally, I bought three Tyranid Battleforces, and it would have been not so good of a buy if I ended up getting three of the same HQ unit in each one.

Isn't there an Alpha Warriors HQ choice?

Tyranid Prime, for which there is technically no model available, but can be modelled fairly easily from Tyranid Warrior parts with a few add on spikes and so forth.

The tau army box also has an HQ choice, the crisis suit. Other than the ones mentioned I believe nothing else comes with anything that can be used as an HQ choice without major alterations.

Let me clarify that Spearheads in no way count as being armies, as they are simply the newest metal models all crammed into an expensive box of random nonsense. That is why they still sit on shelves collecting dust.

6th edition did in fact have army boxes, and those didn't sell well either, mostly due to price and size.

A battalion sized box with something like 2 or 3 core(troops) and 1 character(hq) should be the standard and would likely sell well.