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Okay so I jump onto the GW website today, click on new releases and notice several MASSIVE castles for sale. For about five seconds I was very VERY excited ....and then I saw the price

I almost choked on my tea at the price of these scenery sets.

Fortress of Grim Corruption $1900AU

Infernal Realmfort $1625AU

Octadic Dreadhold $1225AU

The sets are beautiful and spectacular but they are merely a tease for the average AoS player who can not possibly hope to afford such an item.

Anyone jumping on the AoS website for the first time will likely see the price tag of one of these castles - laugh - and then proceed to click on the 40k button and get on with their lives.

I showed my wife the Fortress on the GW website - she laughed, looked at me with one of those serious looks and said its time for me to start looking for a new hobby. I won´t of course.

In my mind these forts, big flashy books, etc etc... are just way over the top to the point of being ridiculous.

I was under the impression GW wanted to simplify AoS and make it more appealling to the average gamer (downloadble warscrolls, 4 page rules etc). These gargantuan terrain sets, not the mention the expensive selection of hard back books, seem to run counter to the ´keep it simple´ strategy.

Merely my thoughts on the matter so please apply a grain of salt to the consumption process

That was my original thought too. Their was no way I was going to pay 25$ for one wall section. But then somebody at my local Gw bought the Malefic Gate set that comes with two walls and a gate for 100 US dollars. The wall and gate sections are huge compared to what I originally thought. And you shouldnt by the massive super bundle anyway. That whole thing takes up 4 ft by 4 ft. You will probably never need that. You will only need a small fortress to play games. Buy a piece here and their and before long you will have a decent fortress.

 Mindstrike1 wrote:
That was my original thought too. Their was no way I was going to pay 25$ for one wall section. But then somebody at my local Gw bought the Malefic Gate set that comes with two walls and a gate for 100 US dollars. The wall and gate sections are huge compared to what I originally thought. And you shouldnt by the massive super bundle anyway. That whole thing takes up 4 ft by 4 ft. You will probably never need that. You will only need a small fortress to play games. Buy a piece here and their and before long you will have a decent fortress.

I see. So I can buy individual components slowly over time. That option is not immediately clear on the website. /bigsigh @ GW.

 Tinwhistle wrote:

 Mindstrike1 wrote:
That was my original thought too. Their was no way I was going to pay 25$ for one wall section. But then somebody at my local Gw bought the Malefic Gate set that comes with two walls and a gate for 100 US dollars. The wall and gate sections are huge compared to what I originally thought. And you shouldnt by the massive super bundle anyway. That whole thing takes up 4 ft by 4 ft. You will probably never need that. You will only need a small fortress to play games. Buy a piece here and their and before long you will have a decent fortress.

I see. So I can buy individual components slowly over time. That option is not immediately clear on the website. /bigsigh @ GW.

Yeah when does GW ever explain or talk to us eh?

I'm just glad I kept my mageknight castle pieces

I think the castles are to some extent prestige projects intended to create a Wow! factor for the game.

They probably are less expensive to make than you may think, as the moulds are relatively simple and not many are needed because the sections repeat.

The list price is high enough to make them very profitable on a relatively small production run.

Apparently you can buy them in sections so the cost is spread across the year.

You could spread them out, except that, unless GW has revised their policy since the last couple months, its a limited release item while supplies last.

 Tinwhistle wrote:

 Mindstrike1 wrote:
That was my original thought too. Their was no way I was going to pay 25$ for one wall section. But then somebody at my local Gw bought the Malefic Gate set that comes with two walls and a gate for 100 US dollars. The wall and gate sections are huge compared to what I originally thought. And you shouldnt by the massive super bundle anyway. That whole thing takes up 4 ft by 4 ft. You will probably never need that. You will only need a small fortress to play games. Buy a piece here and their and before long you will have a decent fortress.

I see. So I can buy individual components slowly over time. That option is not immediately clear on the website. /bigsigh @ GW.

How is it not immediately clear?

This incredible bundle gives you fourteen ­ fourteen! ­ awesome scenery pieces with which to build your very own ultimate bastion of Chaos! Two Malefic Gates, four Overlord Bastions, four Skull Keeps and four Fortress Walls, to configure in any way you see fit. Pay tribute to the Blood God in style!

A cursory glance at the product description gives you that for the "Fortress of Grim Corruption".
Hitting "New Releases" would have shown you not just the various scenery bundles, but also the individual products.

Don't forget Celestant prime for $80 for a single pose model

 Chute82 wrote:
Don't forget Celestant prime for $80 for a single pose model

Which large, monster sized creature released in recent times has had more than a single pose? I'm not talking about different weapon options. I'm talking poses. The Celestant Prime DOES come with different weapon pose options.

Feels a little like you're being dramatic. Generally, only the rank and file are poseable. Giant named critters generally aren't. Remember, he's not A Celestant Prime. He's THE Celestant Prime. There is only one. He's kind of like Nagash. Nagash also didn't have multiple poses.

 Tinwhistle wrote:
Okay so I jump onto the GW website today, click on new releases and notice several MASSIVE castles for sale. For about five seconds I was very VERY excited ....and then I saw the price

Actually, I started a thread on just this topic:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/661420.page

Basically, I had the same response when I saw them, then realized they're modular you can collect them bit by bit, then realized even bit by bit it was darned pricey... But, if you have a 20% off supplier type, online or local, it helps a lot - you could, I believe, cover a four foot distance with one gate and four walls, for $160 at 20% off. That's super expensive, but it'll make for very impressive scenarios, and can be rearranged in a number of ways.

Alternatively, there's loads of competitors and OOP GW terrain that work well for this kind of thing, and even that most glorious of craft supplies, Foamcore, to make your own.

Yes.

It's not even that good looking, while much of the inside is bare or lacks detail, except for skulls. It's like a parody of GW models.

Yes, I think they're taking the piss with the number of skulls on the thing! The price is just typical GW lunacy.

My response.

I have waited over 20 years for a chaos castle. I can build one myself but in the end, my time is also worth something.

I look at other companies that produce these types of games and I can't really find any that produce this type of terrain.

Is it expensive? Yeah its very expensive.

Do I wish it were cheaper? Yeah I wish it were cheaper.

Do I want every company to stop making nice things and just create bare pieces for gameplay just so they are super cheap? No, I would be done with this hobby if that were the case.

You can build up the fortress over time. The fortress book has different scenarios where you only need a single gate. There are many different configurations you can build. You don't need the entire thing. You can aspire to build up to it but you don't need to drop that kind of money all at once.

I'm actually thankful that such things exist that can be bought over time because they make the table look phenomenal and the aesthetic to me is vital to keeping my interest.

When I started we used books for hills and coke cans for trees and I absolutely hated the cheapest route possible for terrain and armies being wooden pogs. Thats the other extreme end of course.

 Lord Corellia wrote:
Yes, I think they're taking the piss with the number of skulls on the thing! The price is just typical GW lunacy.

Indeed, however would anyone but such a model unless it was detailed in someway?

Plain walls or even just stone effect is easily done with plasticard or some other embossed sheet.

I'm not buying one though, still have my Mighty Fortress from 20 years ago - Expanded Polystyrene for the win!

The model is cool though, Wish they had released a chaos fortress earlier. could have had fun playing mordheim in it. Same goes for a dwarf fortress, skaven fortress etc.

There's nothing to stop you playing Mordheim in the Dreadhold.

Price is very high, true. The model is of high quality, though. And you will most likely never field it as a whole, so you really don't need it. It'll take up 2/3 of your regular table. The biggest bundle is just for those who really, really want a huge Chaos fortress for their huge table for huge battles.

If they really, really want a huge Chaos fortress for their huge table for huge battles you can clearly imagine that they've already spent far more on toy soldiers than a casual would think they should, so spending some more on the fort (again, if they really, really want it) is not a huge difference.

Nobody is forcing you to buy it, you don't need it, not even in gaming sense - you would rarely use it and if you think that GW would charge less than a lot for a table-sized piece of scenery then you're being silly. What if they made a twice as big castle and price was two times higher? You still wouldn't have to buy it.

You can, though, get the pieces separately over time. Get the gate and two wall sections or two towers and you'll see how much space it already takes up on your table. Seriously, GW could just as well put a Glottkin model made out of diamond on their store and, guess what, you still wouldn't have to buy it!

As simple as that - want it enough to buy it? Buy it. Don't want it enough to pay the price? Don't buy it.

And you get to buy parts of it if you want too. I really see no problem here - GW can ask any price for their products and you can decide not to pay for it.

 notprop wrote:
There's nothing to stop you playing Mordheim in the Dreadhold.

I was speaking about them releasing a chaos castle 15 years ago would have been cool. "Treasures of the Chaos Norska" or something as a spin off to Mordheim would have been cool.

That being said; Lack of players, lack of gaming environment and lack of models available and supported rules stops me from playing it.

GW sure has a strange way of supporting their videogame franchises. by the way.

 Tinwhistle wrote:
Okay so I jump onto the GW website today, click on new releases and notice several MASSIVE castles for sale. For about five seconds I was very VERY excited ....and then I saw the price

I almost choked on my tea at the price of these scenery sets.

Fortress of Grim Corruption $1900AU

Infernal Realmfort $1625AU

Octadic Dreadhold $1225AU

The sets are beautiful and spectacular but they are merely a tease for the average AoS player who can not possibly hope to afford such an item.

Anyone jumping on the AoS website for the first time will likely see the price tag of one of these castles - laugh - and then proceed to click on the 40k button and get on with their lives.

I showed my wife the Fortress on the GW website - she laughed, looked at me with one of those serious looks and said its time for me to start looking for a new hobby. I won´t of course.

In my mind these forts, big flashy books, etc etc... are just way over the top to the point of being ridiculous.

I was under the impression GW wanted to simplify AoS and make it more appealling to the average gamer (downloadble warscrolls, 4 page rules etc). These gargantuan terrain sets, not the mention the expensive selection of hard back books, seem to run counter to the ´keep it simple´ strategy.

Merely my thoughts on the matter so please apply a grain of salt to the consumption process

No, In my opinion real comedy was the Smaug release, $490 dollar online only LE release. Why they didn't think that many people wanted one. Not to mention made in 42 pieces of resin which is where the ridiculous cost came from. The big huge diaroma base was Unnecessary. UGGGH it still makes me so angry becuase I (and 1 million other people) wanted a really cool plastic Smaug model and thats the BS they came up with.

I can imagine the very expensive full kits might also be aimed at FLGS who want a centre piece terrain kit.
I know I would.

 triplegrim wrote:

 notprop wrote:
There's nothing to stop you playing Mordheim in the Dreadhold.

I was speaking about them releasing a chaos castle 15 years ago would have been cool. "Treasures of the Chaos Norska" or something as a spin off to Mordheim would have been cool.

That being said; Lack of players, lack of gaming environment and lack of models available and supported rules stops me from playing it.

GW sure has a strange way of supporting their videogame franchises. by the way.

There are quite a lot of people still playing Mordheim/Necromunda, and getting models is perhaps easier and cheaper than any other game out there. One WHFB box of, say, Empire or Skaven can give you an entire warband. And if there's no local scene for you, start it up, I'm sure you'll have no trouble recruiting other GW players. I did and now we're around 10 people playing Necromunda.

I see no problem with the fortress. One doesn't need it to play chaos. Now if the only way to get a viable chaos army was to buy a larger part of a 1500$ fortification, then there would be a problem. Only very large clubs will buy it and maybe someone who has too much money.

For everyone else there is always the print version of it, although I doubt one can use it in a store game.