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Honestly, the best approach GW could take for Necromunda would be to do at least two gangs as plastic boxes in a simailar way to the Neophyte Hybrid kit (with options for a leader, heavy, various weapons, etc). I reckon there's enough potential to justify a plastic kit for the 6 main gangs.

Players could either buy a second plastic box to expand their gang, or choose low production volume models from FW such as special characters, outlanders, and alternate models for the plastic gangs (such as a leader with a grenade launcher, heavy with a lascannon, etc). Cap it all off with a permanent Shadow War-like starter box of 2 plastic gangs, a rulebook and a bunch of sector mechanicus terrain, and you're set. Hell, people would buy that to get cheap terrain for 40k and get sucked into owning a Necromunda gang too.

I can see the current approach with the Blood Bowl range working even better for Necromunda thanks to the terrain crossover.

If done well the gang box could also by guard conscripts.

Vorian wrote:
I'm pretty certain they will give it at least the same support as BB, so some plastic and some resin.

Resin will probably even be a money saver over the eBay prices I've had to pay

Definitely. Even a 10-12 man resin gang wouldn't likely cost more than 45-50 pounds (based on a guard squad being 43 if I remember correctly), which wouldn't be much more than $60. Compared to how much it would cost to pick up some of the second hand Necro gangs that's a steal. If the minis are well sculpted and presuming you only need one box to field a decent gang (assuming there are decent options for weapons and what not) $60 isn't too unreasonable for a buy in if you have terrain or play at a local game store. If GW does 12 man plastic gangs for $35-40 like they did with Blood Bowl with a fair number of weapon options, I would buy at least two, and I image many others would go to town.

 Manchu wrote:
Where Specialist Games fits into the corproate org chart is not at issue. The issue is, there are two kinds of BB products: (1) all plastic, available from GW and retailers, reasonably priced, discounts available, and (2) all resin, available only via direct from overseas boutique, boutique pricing. While I have purchased 100% of product type (1) stuff for BB, I have purchased and intend to purchase 0% of product type (2). I really doubt I am unique in this regard. If GW wants a product line to struggle and eventually fail then by all means shift it from (1) to (2).

Except FW does fine. Having new stuff come out from FW isn't bringing BB down, nor would eventually shifting all of it over (other than the existing plastic kits). You making a personal choice not to buy it is in no way indicative of FW's success, and continued growing success. FW is so mainstream these days that the old concepts of the Adepticon 'Iron Man' tournament where people brought *gasp* Forge World models is just so quaint these days.

It's no ghetto. Not any more.

 Manchu wrote:
Separately, the idea that Necromunda would be a big hit is not the correct lesson to draw from Shadow War's success. The lesson is, support Shadow War.

You're quite right about that, but supporting Shadow War =/= not doing Necromunda. Now I realise you didn't say that, but your post seems to imply some sort of binary position, where they can only do one or the other. That said, I think we both know that they had no intention of supporting Shadow War, and only the overwhelming response from the community changed their mind. I mean they weren't even planning a digital release of the book, something they usually have for everything from novels to card pack releases. The lack of immediate or accompanying digital release is quite telling.

 Manchu wrote:
Making hiver gangs is not that, which is probably why GW via FB was fairly dismissive of comments asking about that (e.g., advising people to use the IG lists pr adapt their own rules).

Or that they don't make/sell kits, and GW has no interest in propping up a market where they don't sell their stuff. That's the far more likely reason.

 Manchu wrote:
That said, I would buy plastic Necromunda stuff just like I have been buying plastic BB stuff - I'd just avoid the overpriced, direct-only FW resin as I always have.

Seems like an arbitrary imposition you have placed on yourself. You make it sound like you'd only buy plastic Necro, almost as if the material its made out of matters more than what it is. Truth is GW made no plastic Necromunda outside of the 8 sculpts that came in the starter box (plus the bulk heads). Everything else was metal. Would you have not bought into Necromunda back then because GW chose to do virtually everything in metal? Would you buy GW's current metal BB teams (the made to order Chaos, Chaos Dwarfs and Dark Elves). They're not FW miniatures.

There is no difference between a Blood Bowl miniature made by FW or done via GW's plastic technology beyond the material it is made out of. Really this seems to be a hangup you've created for yourself.

As Yoda might put it:

"No! No different! Only different in your mind."

Promethius wrote:
If done well the gang box could also by guard conscripts.

or acolytes for the inquisition

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
There is no difference between a Blood Bowl miniature made by FW or done via GW's plastic technology beyond the material it is made out of. Really this seems to be a hangup you've created for yourself..

Well except for the 50%ish price increase, that is a difference as well.

And so the Resin vs Plastic Wars did rage. Meanwhile, over here I'm playing Necromunda perfectly happily with mashups of the many readily-available plastic kits. Oh, with free rules, on cheaper, superior-for-the-game terrain from a 3rd party. There is no barrier to playing Necromunda. The only barrier for most seems to be needing specific minis and a specific boxset from GW. Shame, as it's a fun fun fun game just sat there ready to play.

Shadow War is quite possibly just a low-risk way for GW to gauge the market.

For all intents and purposes, it's a 'spit and polish' version of Necromunda - and an experiment in what sort of price point they can set.

For those of a certain age, one of the main reasons bandied around at the demise of Specialist Games was that income wise, they just weren't pulling their weight - so GW chose to focus on the games that did.

Of course, whether that's just speculation or not is difficult to say for certain - but it does seem at least plausible.

Shadow War? Relatively minimal production costs compared to say, Space Hulk. Pre-existing models, terrain they were going to sell anyway, and most of the rules also pre-existing. Bit of playtesting, tweak here, simplification there - page setting, off to the printers and get it boxed up.

That it sold out in minutes, and GW have acted on feedback and moved to produce the rulebook as quickly as possible does suggest there's a market for it.

Now, as a long time Necromunda player, you and I might be thinking 'well.....duh', but let's consider GW's perspective.

Necromunda and Shadow War share the same rules set, one that's now over 20 years old - a genuine relic in the terms of modern wargaming, where the shift has typically been to more straight forward rules.

So one can easily imagine GW wondering 'is that market really still there? Will people play that rules set?'. And that's not a bad question. The rules are fairly clunky. It took me a couple of attempts reading the scatter rules, and choosing a target rules to get them - especially 'it'll scatter, but no more than half the distance the round was fired'. That's....that's a level of rules I've not played with in a long, long time.

And it was a riskier release than we might appreciate. For instance, other than the £80 box, I'm not feeling any particular compunction to rush out and buy new models specifically for a Kill Team - I'll just draft them from my existing Skitarii collection. With the not unfair assumption that many other owners will be doing the same, GW isn't looking at a great many additional sales beyond the boxed set or rules.

And even now, I suspect they'll be keeping a close eye on how well the rulebook sells separately. After all, at least part of the boxed game's draw was lots of brand cheap scenery at a decent discount (buying from Darksphere, I think I got a 50% discount over buying the scenery separately from GW direct) - and the further opportunity to reduce your outlay even further by flogging on the rules and templates etc for those only in it for the new scenery.

It's my fervent hope that the game is a genuine, ongoing success, and not a 'flash in the pan' success which quickly peters out amongst gamers. Because if it's the former, I can quite imagine Necromunda getting a full resurrection.

Unless this is really what 8th ed 40k will look like anyway, we'll be playing Necromunda/SWA for a while yet. The club here was playing Necromunda recently, and SWA will probably replace that.
We usually play smaller games of 40k, and Kill Team has been a regular since the recent reprints.

So, SWA is here to stay, at least for where I play.

As for the wider market:
Existing gamers have the models already, and can dive straight in. GW will get a few more sales, beyond the half-price box.
New games get to get started with a single squad box, and can expand into bigger games from there, just like Kill Team. They'll probably tinker with other 'armies', as they work out how the game plays, and settle on one or two to build up.
Both of these will make more sales than GW would have got anyway, just not by a huge amount more.
If they fully merge Necromunda with SWA, and release updated gang lists, they can put the ganger models back on sale. If that blows up, Finecast might see a new lease of droopy models getting sold.

There's always the argument that £20 is better than £0

But whether that proves enough of a pay off for GW, who knows? We're in uncharted territory with them at the moment after all.

 JohnnyHell wrote:

zanzibarthefirst wrote:
Not sure how significant this is but on the box my shadow war was delivered in it states produced January 2017 and carton number 3834 of 4002

Probably not very. 4000 boxes would only be 10 per GW store, ignoring all internet and FLGS orders. Doubt they only made 4000.

The box also says quantity in carton "3" so that would take game production up to 12k.

 Skinnereal wrote:


As for the wider market:
Existing gamers have the models already, and can dive straight in. GW will get a few more sales, beyond the half-price box.
New games get to get started with a single squad box, and can expand into bigger games from there, just like Kill Team. They'll probably tinker with other 'armies', as they work out how the game plays, and settle on one or two to build up.
Both of these will make more sales than GW would have got anyway, just not by a huge amount more.
If they fully merge Necromunda with SWA, and release updated gang lists, they can put the ganger models back on sale. If that blows up, Finecast might see a new lease of droopy models getting sold.

How about people buying forces they had no intention of collecting a full army of, but would have liked to do a small skirmish force of? Those £50-60 forces will all add up if people decide to go for more than one. All those whim ideas can be indulged on a smaller scale as I've lost count of the amount of times I've fancied doing a theme, then realised that I don't want 1500 points worth and it died.

Further thoughts....

There may be more sales at stake here than I initially gave credit.

Consider Imperial Guard Veterans. One of their Specialist choices is an Ogryn. And said Ogryns can be armed in one of three ways....and there's three Ogryns to a box. They seem pretty damned hard in Shadow War - so could be an attractive purchase?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Further thoughts....
There may be more sales at stake here than I initially gave credit.
Consider Imperial Guard Veterans. One of their Specialist choices is an Ogryn. And said Ogryns can be armed in one of three ways....and there's three Ogryns to a box. They seem pretty damned hard in Shadow War - so could be an attractive purchase?

I would say that what GW has done is sucked people like me even further into the 40k universe: I want pretty much everything.
I want the Tyranid Warriors.
I want Harlequin warriors.
I want some Genestealer cult guys.
I just got a Doc and Gretchin to add to the Orks.
I want Tau Pathfinders.
I want Ogryns for the very reason written above.
This is just stuff off the top of my head and not including what I already have (which is a fair amount of stuff).
What I listed is over $300 above the two SWA boxes I got (just bought another yesterday, they STILL have some!).
This is the most excited I have been with GW product in a while (new faction model releases excluded).

BTW thanks to anyone who shows pictures of their terrain setups: I am toying with a few configurations until I make them permanent and glue them down so the ideas are great!
I have 12"x12" hardboard I use as a base and setup terrain on them like a mini-diorama.
I figure with the two kits I can get a well populated 4 tiles done with the walkways and another 2 with the odds and sods of bits.
I have been laying them out so when you push the tiles together the walkways "should" line-up and give a few options as you rotate the tile.
I have to look at the rules more to figure out why anyone would hazard going up on a walkway to potentially die if they fall off, but at least it looks VERY impressive.
Blocking sight lines and giving at least partial cover in many areas is looking very doable.

For "loose" joining walkways I agree that the various train bridges work great.
Any of them that mold-in the train tracks I would line with some tubing and lay down some "diamond plate" with various cut-outs in it to view the piping / wiring and bits.

I have a few old WW2 temporary bridge models (with the little pontoon / boat bottoms) that have nice low cross-members that look very close to a hand-rail.
Ah, I think it is this one:

I get two walkways out of it (I have the bridge only, not these extra troops).
Slap a couple "I" beam plastic bits on the underside and I will be doing OK.
BUT yes, not near enough rivets and skulls, maybe buy a "Dreadhold" and I will have enough skulls to shave off to last me a lifetime.

I am looking at my TON of old Necromunda terrain and think I will make a card version of the printed stuff, it may be easier to integrate with the new product.
I can look at this as more warehousing/logistics/munitions end of things than the chemical industry of the SWA kit.
I just had a thought: what the heck would an Imperial machine that makes say tank treads look like? There may be a theme here.

I am long overdue for making terrain and I am pretty good at it (comparatively to others is my area...) so I am in my happy place.
I think I have two of my tiles finalized for layout so when I start gluing (thinking of screwing down as well) I will get a picture out.

I am unsure if I want to buy this new book, but I know I will want to download all the team pdf's I can before they disappear some day.

Just confirmed on twitch that the crane from the top of the battle report board will be part of a future kit.
A few more tidbits from the warhammer live interview. This is by no means all of the scenery they are doing in this series. They talked about the crane, about connecting pipes and in the future containers to the sets. All the recent kits have been measured to fit together smoothly.
The big board from white dwarf had no converted or scratch built components except the water.
It will be interesting to see the kits that are coming down the pipe.
They also mentioned that they will be doing modular Aos scenery, maybe with the rumoured 'not mordheim' coming next year.

 Talizvar wrote:


I have a few old WW2 temporary bridge models (with the little pontoon / boat bottoms) that have nice low cross-members that look very close to a hand-rail.
Ah, I think it is this one:

I get two walkways out of it (I have the bridge only, not these extra troops).
Slap a couple "I" beam plastic bits on the underside and I will be doing OK.
BUT yes, not near enough rivets and skulls, maybe buy a "Dreadhold" and I will have enough skulls to shave off to last me a lifetime.

As much as I love my old Airfix kits (fond childhood memories), it could be worth your while looking for cheap toy soldier kits from bargain stores.

I have three bridges of this type kicking around that I picked up from such sets:

Prior to Shadow War, I bought NOTHING from the 40k line. Absolutely nothing. Upon purchasing Shadow War, that has quickly changed.
So before even playing I've now acquired-

Kabalites (to run as a mashup of Wyches/Craftworlders I guess, at least til they get their own list)
Genestealer Cult boxes
Enough Harlequins to run a kill team (couldn't complain at the price of 15 for 6 unbuilt ones)
Two sets of chaos marine squads
Necron Immortals
And will more than likely end up with a Grey Knights squad this weekend

...all of which I wouldn't have even bothered with prior to having a low model game that I can mess around with so much, and who knows what I'll end up with in the future.

There's definitely a lot of money (and not just mine) on the table if GW really wants to pursue this further.

I luck out there's a model train store a block from my house. i've picked up dozens for a $1 or $2 each . I usually use the central track for towers.

this one i made into a dice tower for the board

I concur!

I know GW is all about selling you as many models as possible, but not everyone has the time and money to invest in huge armies (I know I don't anymore, I wish I did, but I don't). At the same time, the 40K universe has so much to it, and so many armies, and due to the price most people can really just focus on 1 or 2 armies and don't buy stuff for other armies when they're released.

A game like this encourages you to to collect a lot more and check out some other releases you might have missed out on because it just wasn't for the army you played.

I've just about finished painting my Commissar Colonel Ibram Gaunt miniature. He's sat with the rest of my Gaunt's Ghosts on my desk for years gathering dust, but the prospect that I might actually use him in a game one day prompted me to actually do something with him.

Oh, and I've bought the Omnibus of the original 3 Gaunt's Ghosts books for, er...background research.

And ordered a couple of Ghosts that I was missing off ebay, as well as the Schaeffer's Last Chancer with the missile launcher.

And I have the classic Techpriest (the one that's still available in metal) in my basket on GW.com, as well as the awesome looking Wordbearer's Dark Apostle, because my Gaunt's Ghosts are going to need some opponents. (I'm the only enthusiastic wargamer in my gaming club, so I often provide minis for my friends to use. They don't have the time and inclination to collect and paint their own miniatures, but they're often happy to play using mine).


Shadow War: Armageddon is exactly the sort of slippery slope that Gamesworkshop needs, an entry drug. I haven't even't played Warhammer 40K in half a decade, but its gotten me enthusiastic about the prospect of playing it again one day.

HBMC, you're not reading very carefully. As I framed my point at the outset: Mainstreaming successful FW products into GW plastics is a good thing. Marginalizing successful GW products into FW resin is a bad thing. "FW is doing fine" is not a counterpoint. People are buying more FW resin? OK but its still a boutique. It's still comparatively inaccessible. It's still comparatively expensive - even when the lines we're comparing it to are themselves very expensive. And yes that makes FW a ghetto. It's really not a hard concept: just imagine what would happen to sales volume for, say, AdMech if GW decided all AdMech should be resin sold through FW. Not really a matter of arbitrary personal preference. Maybe it is a factor of the Australian perspective, where paradoxically FW can be more accessible than GW, but you don't seem to savvy that I'm distinguishing between sales channels instead of, for example, resin versus plastic.

As to a Shadow War/Necromunda binary - uh no ... I am no more saying that GW has to choose one or the other than I would say that GW has to choose 40k or Epic. I said what I meant, that the correct lesson to draw from the success of Shadow War is NOT that Necromunda would also be a big hit.

 Talizvar wrote:
I would say that what GW has done is sucked people like me even further into the 40k universe: I want pretty much everything.
I want [...]
What I listed is over $300 above the two SWA boxes I got (just bought another yesterday, they STILL have some!).
This is the most excited I have been with GW product in a while (new faction model releases excluded).

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Prior to Shadow War, I bought NOTHING from the 40k line. Absolutely nothing. Upon purchasing Shadow War, that has quickly changed.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Shadow War: Armageddon is exactly the sort of slippery slope that Gamesworkshop needs, an entry drug. I haven't even't played Warhammer 40K in half a decade, but its gotten me enthusiastic about the prospect of playing it again one day.

 Necros wrote:
A game like this encourages you to to collect a lot more and check out some other releases you might have missed out on because it just wasn't for the army you played.

Yes, this is the correct lesson to draw from Shadow War. There is a lot of pent up interest in existing 40k lines that can be accessed by creating a ruleset people want to play, which in turn acts as a "permission slip" to buy the models. Go figure!

GW is recovering from its own Dark Age of Technology and has to re-learn things it used to know ...

 Manchu wrote:
That's pretty limited thinking, Yodhrin. There are ways to get around the high price of many character models (e.g., start collecting boxes) that are especially cost efficient in the context of Shadow War being ancillary to 40k proper - which ties back to the problem of Necromunda being truly "specialist" (i.e., narrow) by comparison. Also, a gang is not going to be priced at special character prices per fig unless it is sold via FW.

Again, I concede that FW could do resin Necromunda gangs for Shadow Wars - that would be a better use of FW considering such gangs are not going to be a competitive mainline product, unlike bells and whistles for the Legions. But that's also what I mean by FW being the appropriate channel for experiments and a terrible channel for supporting major successes. (Which in turn is why the HH stuff is so ambiguous.)

But again, FW will not be doing Necromunda if it gets done, just as FW didn't do Blood Bowl - Specialist Games division will be doing Necromunda, meaning they will have a plastic allocation for a core box, a couple of plastic expansion boxes, and a couple of plastic blister packs, and then the system would be supported by either FW resin or plastic releases going forward based on demand for the initial product, just like Blood Bowl. Under that model, the difference between a plastic gang with resin addons and an all-plastic gang isn't as big as you seem to think it is, because the addons would be priced as expensive single blisters, as evidenced by the Ogre & Troll.

Even if this were the days of yore and GW were doing Necromunda themselves, they'd still be producing a handful of core plastic releases supplemented by metal or finecast kits at relatively inflated prices, that's their core business model - having the overpriced addons made by FW in resin rather than GW in plastic/resin/metal isn't as big a difference as you seem to think.

As for my "limited thinking" - hilarious. Start Collecting boxes? Maybe it's just me, but I don't consider "pay for a lot of stuff you didn't actually want and get this character essentially free" as a particularly "innovative" solution to plastic characters being expensive. Start Collecting boxes are a great deal, providing you want enough of what's in them to make a saving over just buying what you wanted separately.

The Specialist Games were always going to be more expensive. With Adeptus Titanicus, where going FW resin for all the Titans would have meant paying hundreds of quid for a basic force, FW producing a significant portion of the range would indeed be exclusionary and make the game's audience "narrow", but Necromunda is a different beast - they don't need to produce terrain for it, so the whole plastic allocation can go into producing a proper boxed set and some extra core gangs, and even though you're still talking about FW pricing being expensive(say, 50 quid for a gang rather than 25 - 25 for a character model/expansion blister rather than 15-20) the total outlay is far, far smaller than an all-resin AT force would be.

Will the FW-produced all-resin gangs(again, for Naffy - assuming it does end up happening) end up with a lower share of the playerbase than the three or four core plastic gangs? Almost certainly, but as long as the plastics exist to provide a baseline having a portion of the range be FW-produced isn't going to kill it off. EDIT: And if you're going to try and argue that conclusion, you'll have to explain why it works for 40K but wouldn't work for Necromunda.

And again, the org chart question is beside the point. The GW/FW distinction is real in terms of materials, price, and most importantly sales channel.

As you concede, Start Collecting boxes are a great deal. Another advantage to GW (as opposed to FW) is that you can get Start Collecting boxes for even cheaper through retail channels. And that obviously applies to figures not included in Start Collecting boxes, as well. But that wasn't the larger context I have been referencing - which is that, Shadow War and 40k are parallel lines. That's why I was talking about Start Collecting boxes. The crossover potential (very probably) wouldn't hold for Necromunda.

As a LotR/Hobbit fan, I'm very much aware of the difference in cost between GW FC versus FW. As explained above, RRP is not the sole (or even most important) consideration. Of course, that doesn't mean you can shrug it off.

 Manchu wrote:
HBMC, you're not reading very carefully. As I framed my point at the outset: Mainstreaming successful FW products into GW plastics is a good thing. Marginalizing successful GW products into FW resin is a bad thing.

Your point is predicated on the assumption that successful GW products having FW elements to them is a bad thing, that it marginalises them, or that they would move from GW to FW wholesale. You have not proven this assertion, and I doubt you can.

 Manchu wrote:
"FW is doing fine" is not a counterpoint.

That which is presented without evidence, etc., etc.

 Manchu wrote:
People are buying more FW resin? OK but its still a boutique. It's still comparatively inaccessible.

By what standards is it inaccessible? It can't be ordered to stores? I live on the opposite side of the planet. I can have a FW order here in 2 weeks. There's nothing inaccessible about it. It's certainly not the endless tide of relentless production that GW proper has become, but as I said we have long since moved beyond the days of FW being boutique.

 Manchu wrote:
It's still comparatively expensive - even when the lines we're comparing it to are themselves very expensive.

I'm willing to concede that it's not cheap, but nothing about this is cheap, and I don't see that as a barrier to entry, so to speak, for people starting FW. When I first started buying Forge World units it was an oddity. My resin Baneblade was something special. Now a conversion kit here or a character model here is old hat. It ain't no ghetto.

 Manchu wrote:
It's really not a hard concept: just imagine what would happen to sales volume for, say, AdMech if GW decided all AdMech should be resin sold through FW.

For a time that's all we had. The Tagmatah was the closest thing we had to Ad Mech. It's not as if GW is shifting entire product lines across to FW. They're doing what FW has always done - filling in the gaps. If anything, their inclusion in the latest success for Blood Bowl makes them even more mainstream.

 Manchu wrote:
Not really a matter of arbitrary personal preference.

Considering you're the only person I've ever heard express these views I'm gonna say that yeah, it kinda is.

 Manchu wrote:
Maybe it is a factor of the Australian perspective, where paradoxically FW can be more accessible than GW, but you don't seem to savvy that I'm distinguishing between sales channels instead of, for example, resin versus plastic.

Aside from price, which is neither here nor there to a lot of us as we don't buy retail from GW anyway ('cause that's just dumb!), it's neither more or less accessible than one another. I can order anything at any time, and have no trouble getting it.

HBMC, you say I am the only person who has ever pointed out that products sold only through FW have a lower sales volume than products sold through the regular retail channels? I guess you have never seen anyone else point it out because it is obvious ... except perhaps to you? I mean, this is why FW exists.

Also - why is it hard for you to understand that a true direct-only boutique is less accessible than global retail? I smell bad faith. Unless you really believe "product accessibility" is strictly a matter of how easily you personally, a long time fan heavily invested in the brand, can push Add To Cart on the FW website.

 Yodhrin wrote:
And if you're going to try and argue that conclusion, you'll have to explain why it works for 40K but wouldn't work for Necromunda.

Easy. Because 40k is a flagship product line continuously supported by mainstream releases, including discount bundles. As I understand it, your vision of Necromunda is an initial mainstream plastic release subsequently supported by FW releases.

In hindsight, you can see why they broke contact on making these boxed sets.

1) The book, website, etc. Can be developed into an ongoing product with expansion potential. The base rules set is exceptionally simple, and the plug and play aspect to use it in other venues makes it easy to sustain.

2) The boxed terrain sets are some of the best that I have ever seen from GW. To see this in plastic, it is not going to be easy to not gather up around 2-3 of these for bitz-box parts alone. Add in plastic card, and foam board, and you will have a full 4X 8 table in no time.

3) The gang/ squad concept is easy to manage, and the campaign style can be developed for numerous additional content that then can be expanded on and engaged without taking your wallet out for a new pair of cement work boots.

All in all, GW crapped themselves, but they seem to have bounced back over the issue that they created.

What do you mean by "broke the contract"? Sorry misread your post!

Do we have any news or rumors to report on future releases perhaps?

Hm... so, my brother is starting a CSM killteam, and we noticed something strange - the chain fist seems to be a way better option than the powerfist, considering the PF is more than three times as expensive and is only available on Aspiring Champions.

I mean, to compare:
Chainfist:
S8, D3 damage, -7 save mod, noisy,
vs power fist:
S+2, D3 damage, -3 save mod.

The chainfist is just a lot stronger, cheaper, and the downside is only relevant in a single scenario. Or am I missing something?

The chainfist is only available to Chaos Terminator special operatives. It's not on the equipment list.