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 Accolade wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Interestingly, prices of AoS releases have been dropping, both from the inclusion of more bundled box sets and with newer books being outright cheaper than comparable previous releases.

Are any of the AOS-specific releases cheaper or is it mainly the repackaging of WHFB? Just curous

No they are not. That is why I think the repackaged Fantasy minis is to clear stock. Otherwise how come the new releases don't get bundled into a great deal as well?

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Interestingly, prices of AoS releases have been dropping, both from the inclusion of more bundled box sets and with newer books being outright cheaper than comparable previous releases.

I had noticed that too. I put it down to the first generation of kits and books having been priced too adventurously and not selling well enough due to the well-known price issue that affected WHFB and 40K over the past few years. A pricing policy enacted by Kirby and now being rapidly rolled back by Rountree.

THis is merely my speculation of course.

Roundtree did say move to offering more price point options so imo we've certainly seen that this year so far.

The bundles are a classic way of marketing stuff more cheaply without reducing prices on the individual items. AFAIK all the fantasy bundles have been legacy WHFB armies, but in 40K there are some good value bundles of new stuff like Tau so it's not impossible the same thing will happen with new generation AoS kits.

The book prices are definitely going down.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
AFAIK all the fantasy bundles have been legacy WHFB armies.

The Stormcast expansion bundle offers 20 or so quid discount. Maybe there are more, but I've not looked further.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Interestingly, prices of AoS releases have been dropping, both from the inclusion of more bundled box sets and with newer books being outright cheaper than comparable previous releases.

I had noticed that too. I put it down to the first generation of kits and books having been priced too adventurously and not selling well enough due to the well-known price issue that affected WHFB and 40K over the past few years. A pricing policy enacted by Kirby and now being rapidly rolled back by Rountree.

This is merely my speculation of course.

I think this is the case too.

As to the earlier question about AoS-specific releases dropping in price; while the models have not seen such, the books definitely have.

What books have dropped in price? I still see the books at $90 Canadian. The $20 and $40 books don't have hardly any fluff compared to those books, so I wouldn't be saying the books have gotten cheaper.

Now if they make another book like those $90 books (sorry forget what they are called, Real Gate books?) and it's cheaper, then yes I would say the books have gotten cheaper. Until then the "codex" books are reasonably priced for once. Then again, GW just did what Apple did. Got people to buy for something they actually got for free.

Davor wrote:
What books have dropped in price? I still see the books at $90 Canadian. The $20 and $40 books don't have hardly any fluff compared to those books, so I wouldn't be saying the books have gotten cheaper.

Now if they make another book like those $90 books (sorry forget what they are called, Real Gate books?) and it's cheaper, then yes I would say the books have gotten cheaper.

The last campaign book, Godbeasts, is $80.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Interestingly, prices of AoS releases have been dropping, both from the inclusion of more bundled box sets and with newer books being outright cheaper than comparable previous releases.

I had noticed that too. I put it down to the first generation of kits and books having been priced too adventurously and not selling well enough due to the well-known price issue that affected WHFB and 40K over the past few years. A pricing policy enacted by Kirby and now being rapidly rolled back by Rountree.

This is merely my speculation of course.

I think this is the case too.

As to the earlier question about AoS-specific releases dropping in price; while the models have not seen such, the books definitely have.

Me 3. Saw it even as wood elf boxes were $37 as opposed to the $50 I'd just payed for dwarfs. But I'll take any improvement on price.

coldgaming wrote:

Davor wrote:
What books have dropped in price? I still see the books at $90 Canadian. The $20 and $40 books don't have hardly any fluff compared to those books, so I wouldn't be saying the books have gotten cheaper.

Now if they make another book like those $90 books (sorry forget what they are called, Real Gate books?) and it's cheaper, then yes I would say the books have gotten cheaper.

The last campaign book, Godbeasts, is $80.

This. Also, to strictly compare battletomes of similar content (USD);

Battletome Everchosen: $60
Battletome Fyreslayers: $50
Battletome Pestilens: $35
Battletome Ironjawz: $40
Battletome Flesh-Eaters: $35

So we can see the price has dropped significantly. Even considering that they price stuff with new models higher than repacks we can see that Ironjawz saw a decent drop compared to Fyreslayers and both to Everchosen before them. I left out the Stormcast/Bloodbound/Seraphon books because they have notably more content in them while I left out Extremis since it is really an expansion to the Stormcast battletome, but including those only adds to the trend of decreasing price.

 godswildcard wrote:
So, with all that said, I want an honest assessment of the state of the game. The new Orruks have me interested in the game again, but they're expensive and I don't want to drop money on expensive models that will never get used

Power of Counts As, just stick them on square bases and call them something else

coldgaming wrote:

Davor wrote:
What books have dropped in price? I still see the books at $90 Canadian. The $20 and $40 books don't have hardly any fluff compared to those books, so I wouldn't be saying the books have gotten cheaper.

Now if they make another book like those $90 books (sorry forget what they are called, Real Gate books?) and it's cheaper, then yes I would say the books have gotten cheaper.

The last campaign book, Godbeasts, is $80.

Thanks, didn't know that.

NinthMusketeer wrote:
Battletome Everchosen: $60
Battletome Fyreslayers: $50
Battletome Pestilens: $35
Battletome Ironjawz: $40
Battletome Flesh-Eaters: $35

Are those American prices? Yup they are. Got me excited there for a second lol.

On the new Facehammer podcast today, Russ Veal (part of the SCGT group) said there had been a restructuring in the upper echelons of GW in January, which makes sense considering all the changes in approach starting then.

coldgaming wrote:
On the new Facehammer podcast today, Russ Veal (part of the SCGT group) said there had been a restructuring in the upper echelons of GW in January, which makes sense considering all the changes in approach starting then.

That does line up with what we've seen pretty well, and I'd bet money that it was done partly as a response to a terrible launch for AoS. At any rate, I'm all for these new guys if true as GW has made a lot of positive turns lately.

coldgaming wrote:
On the new Facehammer podcast today, Russ Veal (part of the SCGT group) said there had been a restructuring in the upper echelons of GW in January, which makes sense considering all the changes in approach starting then.

That would coincide with their underwhelming first half of the financial year and Christmas period. I haven't been following AoS releases close enough to know if it could logically be the cause of price changes.

The actual new release AoS kits don't really appear to be getting cheaper though? It's just books and some bundles, yeah?

dont know globally how its doing, but its dead here. the only GW in the region is denver, I go there often and AoS is not played, only 40k *with some 30k* no fantasy no AoS,..the local games stores do not stock GW in any real amount, it is not played it has not sold, but the owner is fine with having some of it because he can and does sell some 40k. I saw a person from Lakewood post earlier saying its going good there, I wont doubt him, but I certainly haven't seen it., granted thats a much nicer part of town than where I live. this side of town is PP, Xwing, and 40k territory.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

coldgaming wrote:
On the new Facehammer podcast today, Russ Veal (part of the SCGT group) said there had been a restructuring in the upper echelons of GW in January, which makes sense considering all the changes in approach starting then.

That does line up with what we've seen pretty well, and I'd bet money that it was done partly as a response to a terrible launch for AoS. At any rate, I'm all for these new guys if true as GW has made a lot of positive turns lately.

I agree, and on Facebook from Warhammer Fest, someone was talking with Jervis and said he mentioned that the company made some mistakes during the launch but he's really positive about where they're going now.

here's GW's problem they are set up for mass production but price their stuff as if it's a boutique item.

The inflated price is masking the shrinking sales.

They could cut prices on everything 50% and still make a profit on each sale but in the short term that would dramatically lower their overall profit which effects the dividends payout which panics shareholders and leads to their value tanking.

GW won't start growing again until they drop prices we all know that but they are rightly scared that even such a drastic move won't attract people back.

GW is the EA of wargaming but unlike EA they are struggling to make a product people will buy even though they hate the company making it.

If ever GW wants it's top spot back it's going to involve alot of painful choices and I doubt rountree can make the board agree to it.

As for the St Louis area, I only seen a few games played since its release. Most are demo games or games pushed by the shop owner to help move the wall of fantasy miniatures.
Personally most of the people I know that played have moved on to other games and when I visited the local Games Workshop here, they had two and a half games of 40k and a half table with
Sigmarites and a Archaon on display.

40k is still strong here but there was a kind of crater effect that slowed the games down after the release of Age of Sigmar, with fear that GW would do the same to 40k as they did Warhammer fantasy.

If they truly wanted a game 40k players would like, just make one rules set.. where players could cross over 40k and warhammer.. like what Privateer press does.

hobojebus wrote:
here's GW's problem they are set up for mass production but price their stuff as if it's a boutique item.

GW doesn't mass produce anymore. With all their "limited editions" GW just through out their answer of a lot of their products being expensive is paying for molds. So if they can only sell 1000 minis and never again, I guess molds don't cost as much as GW claims. GW have been releasing a lot of "limited" minis as of late. Also if GW was doing mass production, a lot of their minis would not be "selling out". GW makes artificial hype by on purpose not making as much as they could so they can be "sold out".

The inflated price is masking the shrinking sales.

They could cut prices on everything 50% and still make a profit on each sale but in the short term that would dramatically lower their overall profit which effects the dividends payout which panics shareholders and leads to their value tanking.

GW won't start growing again until they drop prices we all know that but they are rightly scared that even such a drastic move won't attract people back.

No. GW does know what their sales are. They know they are having less sales but still making profit. I guess when Kirby was in charge, it was ok for him and his team (cronies? ) was fine with making less but getting more out of it. I guess the new team wants more sales instead of less and less sales each year. The new team wants to see growth instead of declining sales. So maybe having growth but less increased profit is what GW is trying to do. As long as each year is growing is what they want. We don't have a clue what they want.

What boggles me is GW can go the Walmart way. Mass produce, sell cheap, and sell in volume. For what ever reason, GW wants to be "premium" and not Walmart for what ever reason. I guess being "premium" is not making enough profit or growth for them now. Let's see where GW is heading now.

GW is the EA of wargaming but unlike EA they are struggling to make a product people will buy even though they hate the company making it.

If we really hated the company we would have left. If you hate something that much and still stay, that only proves what kind of person they are and their character. Hypocrite?

If ever GW wants it's top spot back it's going to involve alot of painful choices and I doubt rountree can make the board agree to it.

Seeing all the changes I thought and I am sure most of us here, would never see, are actually happening, I am sure we can say you are wrong here. It looks like Mr Rountree is doing a lot of changes now we would never see and in time we will see if they are working. It will take a few years to fix, this can't be done in seeing next years financial reports. In 2 years we will see if Mr Rountree was successful or not.

So in Louisville we are doing Azyr Empires this summer and fall at our local GW and we have about 12 people signed up.

Prize to the winner is a replica of the LOTR sword "Sting".

So 12 AOS players currently playing events here, and the tournament store in town is doing one in JULY (an AOS tournament) that also has about 12 people playing (9 are different from our 12) - so based solely on event signups we have 21 AOS players playing events in the city.

The last fantasy campaign we did for WHFB had 24 active players so our community is still smaller than it was last year but is catching back up with new players.

AOS at my GW (as we are currently running Escalation, but no prize) doesn't have enough tables to play on weekends. There's always 3 games going (we split 2 full tables into thirds). So... quite a bit of people playing.

It is played around here every now and then. I myself am slowly warming up to it. Despite my hate for GW killing the WHFB setting (and getting rid of some of the stuff I had wanted to buy) I am now seriously considering getting into AoS. I just really need my sword&sorcery fix, and LotR alone isn't cutting it for some reason. I am now looking at either AoS or Darklands, but both have their share of problems... Though choices. I guess I just have to see and wait how everything develops before jumping in.

Here in Montreal it seems deader than dead. Went to a couple of stores and they told me it wasn't selling, and myself put some stormcast on Kijiji for a ridiculously low price and haven't even received an offer.

Guess that the release of points could help the game locally, but I doubt it, as even with point, it is a very shallow ruleset.


In GW defense, I must say that WQ seems like the perfect way too build interest toward AOS. Though I think that there is some major flaws that will hold it back from being as succesfull as it could have been, it is a great initiative.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
It is played around here every now and then. I myself am slowly warming up to it. Despite my hate for GW killing the WHFB setting (and getting rid of some of the stuff I had wanted to buy) I am now seriously considering getting into AoS. I just really need my sword&sorcery fix, and LotR alone isn't cutting it for some reason. I am now looking at either AoS or Darklands, but both have their share of problems... Though choices. I guess I just have to see and wait how everything develops before jumping in.

Have you had a look at:

Frostgrave
Songs of Blades and Heroes
Of Gods and Mortals
Hordes of the Things
Dragon Rampant
Kings of War

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
It is played around here every now and then. I myself am slowly warming up to it. Despite my hate for GW killing the WHFB setting (and getting rid of some of the stuff I had wanted to buy) I am now seriously considering getting into AoS. I just really need my sword&sorcery fix, and LotR alone isn't cutting it for some reason. I am now looking at either AoS or Darklands, but both have their share of problems... Though choices. I guess I just have to see and wait how everything develops before jumping in.

Have you had a look at:

Frostgrave
Songs of Blades and Heroes
Of Gods and Mortals
Hordes of the Things
Dragon Rampant
Kings of War

I second the SoB&H suggestion if you are looking for a generic fantasy fix - it is quick, rules-light and fun (or atleast it was in 2007 when it was selling for 5 golden, american dollars...)

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
It is played around here every now and then. I myself am slowly warming up to it. Despite my hate for GW killing the WHFB setting (and getting rid of some of the stuff I had wanted to buy) I am now seriously considering getting into AoS. I just really need my sword&sorcery fix, and LotR alone isn't cutting it for some reason. I am now looking at either AoS or Darklands, but both have their share of problems... Though choices. I guess I just have to see and wait how everything develops before jumping in.

Have you had a look at:

Frostgrave
Songs of Blades and Heroes
Of Gods and Mortals
Hordes of the Things
Dragon Rampant
Kings of War

I just got frostgrave the other day I'm reading through it, I'm looking forward to playing it once I'm confident on the rules.

hobojebus wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
It is played around here every now and then. I myself am slowly warming up to it. Despite my hate for GW killing the WHFB setting (and getting rid of some of the stuff I had wanted to buy) I am now seriously considering getting into AoS. I just really need my sword&sorcery fix, and LotR alone isn't cutting it for some reason. I am now looking at either AoS or Darklands, but both have their share of problems... Though choices. I guess I just have to see and wait how everything develops before jumping in.

Have you had a look at:

Frostgrave
Songs of Blades and Heroes
Of Gods and Mortals
Hordes of the Things
Dragon Rampant
Kings of War

I just got frostgrave the other day I'm reading through it, I'm looking forward to playing it once I'm confident on the rules.

Would love to hear more about it after you get through reading it, likely in its own thread area. I was wondering if it is a good successor to mordheim. thanks.

My local GW I see much more AOS than 40k. they had an active spring league with 12+ players. Summer league is looking to have more. Running other events like grand alliance battles and other big battles. Some of the 40k players have been switching over. Battle plans and other comps help balance. Match play will also be nice.

Just based on the response here on dakka, I'm betting AoS will see a boost once the points book(s) drops this summer.
That book and the new WHQ Silver Tower seem to be getting at least more positive interest than before.

Even some of the staunchest detractors went from:
"AoS sucks! GW jammed us over! They're so unhoopy! I'll burn my models..."
to
"Points? Tell me more about how I can use my shelved minis in this new format."