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With the introduction of the 3 new Chaos minis, does this make the Grand Alliance Chaos book out dated now? Couldn't have GW waited the extra few months of releasing the book so the new units could have been added in, or did I miss them in the new book?

Nothing is outdated since everything is available for free.

No, because everything in the book is still valid. Obviously they won't stop releasing miniatures just because they released a book.

Correct me if I'm wrong here (I don't play Bloodbound) but I though those three new minis were just alternative versions of characters they had already released, with different poses and weapons.

motski wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong here (I don't play Bloodbound) but I though those three new minis were just alternative versions of characters they had already released, with different poses and weapons.

Yeah, but the weapons have new rules that aren't in the big book. But yeah, everything in the book is valid still, and the rules for the new stuff are free.

Yeah, the grand alliance books are going to be more like annuals or compendiums, compiling all the current warscrolls of the alliance at the time of release. After that new models will come out from time to time, so I think we can expect these grand alliance books to be rereleased on a fairly regular basis (maybe yearly?).

Seconded; the GA books aren't "army books" in the way we're used to thinking about them, so they will become "outdated" quicker.
If you think of them more as a warscroll state-of-the-nation it's a little easier.
After all, the books are no longer going to be 'complete' for years at a time because you won't be waiting years for the next release of models for your alliance.

The whole idea is to keep making stuff outdated so the obsessive sort has to keep buying.

GW does not care about you they just want you're money, they've dug themselves into a whole and don't know how to get out now all they can do is keep pushing out stuff as fast as possible.

Anything you buy could be incomplete in a few months.

hobojebus wrote:
The whole idea is to keep making stuff outdated so the obsessive sort has to keep buying.

GW does not care about you they just want you're money, they've dug themselves into a whole and don't know how to get out now all they can do is keep pushing out stuff as fast as possible.

Anything you buy could be incomplete in a few months.

That's an incorrect conclusion. As you know, all the rules for Age of Sigmar are free. The only reason to buy the Grand Alliance books is to get them on paper instead of in a PDF. Thus, anyone who bought the book can simply download the warscrolls for the new models for free. If you were talking about 40k you might have a point, although even there they've started to update digital supplements for free when they release new versions.

Also worth note that the Grand Alliance books are very reasonably priced (unlike most of GWs offerings), such that the average player could easily afford to replace them if they were re-released. For the price of a start collecting box one could buy all three of the GA books released thus far.

I forgot to mention that I was hoping to just have one book instead of multiple sources for getting the army I would like.

I agree with NinthMusketeer the prices are really reasonable so I am buying all the $40 books even though I do not collect them. The $90 books I am not getting. (Just not liking the art work so I am hope I am not missing much there.)

I just hope this doesn't turn into another multiple sources to play just one army.

I was thinking the GA:Chaos came out what 3 months ago if not less? Couldn't they have waited to release it once ALL the Chaos minis were out? Or are more planned? Hmmm.... never thought of that.

I guess I have changed my mind. If GW is planning to release more GA:Chaos minis, that is only a great thing, that means no more waiting years for a release and something to buy.

Thanks again everyone for all your help. I guess the toxicity of GW and especially AoS got to me a bit and I was thinking negatively instead of positively. Love you guys, you are really making AoS interesting for me, and DAMN all you making me spend more money .

Davor wrote:
I was thinking the GA:Chaos came out what 3 months ago if not less? Couldn't they have waited to release it once ALL the Chaos minis were out? Or are more planned? Hmmm.... never thought of that.

I guess I have changed my mind. If GW is planning to release more GA:Chaos minis, that is only a great thing, that means no more waiting years for a release and something to buy.

There's a whole load of Chaos Tzeentch models coming this summer in the form of AoS's first boardgame and the return of Warhammer Quest. :-)

So yes, if you're collecting an army from multiple factions across a grand alliance, there will always be newer releases not yet in the Grand Alliance books unfortunately but the silver lining to that cloud is getting constant new releases for all 4 grand alliances rather than having to go through the codex/army-book cycle of old that saw many armies go years without an update.

The GA books are really sales catalogues, and I say that in a nice way. I'm always flipping through the Chaos one like yeah I want that, and that, and one of those...

What Bottle said. Bunch more models and warscroll coming for Chaos so yeah, it seems like the releases are more "open" than then used to be in Fantasy. We could have a few surprise models here and there for any army,

coldgaming wrote:
The GA books are really sales catalogues, and I say that in a nice way. I'm always flipping through the Chaos one like yeah I want that, and that, and one of those...

Yeah totally. Flipping through the order book I was the same.

They're also a great way to see the old minis in round bases (apart from the ap and the free warscrolls, of course)

Sorry, but these Battletomes are a scam.

The rules are free, no one denies that. But people say they want the books because they want all the rules in one place on a nicely printed book. Okay, that's fine.

But then a few weeks or months later more models get released with new rules and new weapons that aren't in the nicely printed book. Which means if you want to use them you need to carry around your new rules or bring them on a mobile device. Which defeats the purpose of getting the book in the first place.

That is until they release the next updated Warscroll book and the cycle begins anew. And then people willingly give up $33 or $58 to get scammed again. It's a joke.

 Pojko wrote:
Sorry, but these Battletomes are a scam.

The rules are free, no one denies that. But people say they want the books because they want all the rules in one place on a nicely printed book. Okay, that's fine.

But then a few weeks or months later more models get released with new rules and new weapons that aren't in the nicely printed book. Which means if you want to use them you need to carry around your new rules or bring them on a mobile device. Which defeats the purpose of getting the book in the first place.

That is until they release the next updated Warscroll book and the cycle begins anew. And then people willingly give up $33 or $58 to get scammed again. It's a joke.

So don't buy them then.

I for one am happy to buy these on a semi regular basis (every one or two years) - to me they are almost like the 'citadel annuals' of old - but in full colour with game rules and fluff too.

If there was a new army that I wanted to buy into, then they do have the faction battletomes too, which would raise the book count from 1 to 2. Not that bad. If it's just a few new models for an existing faction then I can print out the warscrolls on paper and tuck them in the back of the book. Not the end of the world really lol.

We are talking about the Grand Alliance books, which are $33 or half that for the death book. The battletomes are a different story since they are more expensive and contain different content. And honestly, the three models in question aren't actually new warscrolls, they are new weapon options for warscrolls that already existed and are in the Grand Alliance book. Further, unless someone wants to use one of those specific options they still have everything they need. Just because it isn't worth the price to you does not make it a scam to people who buy it; that isn't how reality works.

I buy those books for the fluff. I like having all my warscrolls on Ipad.

Oh no! Bringing your mobile device with you just for some free rules? The horror!

Don't they know that I keep my cellphone locked away in the basement for fear of people calling me all day? So inconvenient! They should just send everyone free magazines with all the updates on them instead. Sure they'll stack up into a mountain of books that's bothersome to sort through and several forests will get wiped out but at least my cellphone won't have to be used.

Trolling aside, the books are perfectly reasonable for what they give you and the essentials for an actual game are free.

Do they really need to include the punch hole marks on the pages as they did in the late 80's? Those who want a book could, y'know, use a ring binder... though technology has come on somewhat since then

RoperPG wrote:
Seconded; the GA books aren't "army books" in the way we're used to thinking about them, so they will become "outdated" quicker.
If you think of them more as a warscroll state-of-the-nation it's a little easier.
After all, the books are no longer going to be 'complete' for years at a time because you won't be waiting years for the next release of models for your alliance.

Not being funny but that makes GA books sound like army books or 40K codexes that go out of date every so often. A difference that makes no difference, basically.

I don't think this is a problem unless you actually paid for the product, and resent the fact that it is out of date once GW decide to release something new a few months later.

Of course, if you play GW games you have to accept that their business model is to make things go out of date fairly often, to encourage you to buy a new copy.

As long as the war scrolls are available free, it doesn't matter, unless you wanted the fluff components too and therefore had to buy the book, but it's only £20, which isn't too bad if you are a fan. (Army books used to be £15, of course, and got outdated about every two or three years.)

Maybe the best approach is to buy the book and have it remade into a ring binder to you can add extra units when they are released.

I think 'out of date' is different here though - when speaking of army books / a codex the reference is to the rules and entries actually changing from book to book. With the Grand Alliance books that isn't the case; they have become incomplete rather than outdated, since the content within them is very much valid and up to date.

That seems to me like a rather academic distinction.

If you want a Grand Alliance book that contains all the info regarding Chaos, this one is no longer complete. Assuming GW continue to release more Chaos units, this edition will gradually become less and less complete.

At some point, GW will release an updated edition that contains everything. At that point, is this one still not outdated?

It'd be out of date if they changed rules and so forth. If its incomplete its incomplete. Like in the days of yore when Army Books didn't have all the White Dwarf content.

 Col. Tartleton wrote:
It'd be out of date if they changed rules and so forth. If its incomplete its incomplete. Like in the days of yore when Army Books didn't have all the White Dwarf content.

Which is a really good point, because it's not like White Dwarf doesn't include the rules for the new models.

Or in many cases, the models themselves include the rules in their instruction booklets for AoS.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
That seems to me like a rather academic distinction.

If you want a Grand Alliance book that contains all the info regarding Chaos, this one is no longer complete. Assuming GW continue to release more Chaos units, this edition will gradually become less and less complete.

At some point, GW will release an updated edition that contains everything. At that point, is this one still not outdated?

It's a pretty important distniction since, setting aside the fact that all the rules are free anyway, it means you won't have to buy a new book to use your old models. You can use the old one, unless of course they start doing updates to the warscrolls between books.

I'm guessing that people bought the Grand Alliance book because they wanted the free rules in dribs and drabs, not because they wanted all the rules for their faction in one book.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Col. Tartleton wrote:
It'd be out of date if they changed rules and so forth. If its incomplete its incomplete. Like in the days of yore when Army Books didn't have all the White Dwarf content.

Which is a really good point, because it's not like White Dwarf doesn't include the rules for the new models.

Or in many cases, the models themselves include the rules in their instruction booklets for AoS.

And this is just it. You *had* to buy army books every few years to keep 'up to date'. AoS, if all you want is the rules for your models - download or keep the rules from the box or use the app.

World of difference between a book that lasted five years and one that's out of date in under 12 months.