Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Geifer wrote:

Cronch wrote:
I'm just saying expecting every product ever produced by GW to be available in perpetuity because "some day i might want it" seems...a little out of touch with reality.

You know what's out of touch with reality? Investing in a shifting mess like that because everything will be OK and GW surely won't invalidate your collection.

GW is actually nice about it. Malifaux skipping from 2e to 3e pretty much invalidated my whole army by mixing it's allegiances around.
Corvus Belli squatted multiple armies at this point by just pretending they either don't exist (frenchies, space artichokes), moving them out of their initial army (Japanese), or outright killing the model line (exrah).

Then there are the games that just went and died on me, like Spartan Games' multiple games- I woke up one day, and find out the company went bankrupt.

So yeah, GW carrying multiple old kits for 4 years since the game they were designed for died, and trying to find a way to work them into their new product, only to end up cutting SOME of them is kiddy gloves treatment.

Also, I do kind of agree with you, you had to be a special kind of ...stubborn or oblivious to keep buying legacy models and hope for the best.

I suspect people would be a lot more understanding of GW's stock and range management woes if their concept of "warn in advance" wasn't "tell people a week beforehand, when half the items being removed are already out of stock and unavailable to order".

If GW had come along and said hey, look, we're going to be merging these ranges soon for AoS, so we're putting all the units that are going away into a special category on the website, and after 6(?) weeks of taking orders, we'll take them down permanently and begin running up stock to fulfill those orders, although obviously that might take us a while depending on the volume of sales - there would be a lot less frustration. Hell, if they simply can't manage that now, they could have done exactly what they have done, but also make a public commitment to do a Made to Order run for these kits next year once their new warehouse and production space is up and running.

Sad times, some of GW's best work is in the WFB range and its a shame to see these excellent models get retired.

Bring back the old days where you could not only order individual models and poses, but even individual bits of models through the mail order catalog!

 Slinky wrote:
Lots of things going away, it looks like, quite a few already sold out:

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/searchResults?N=647457687+3155674414&utm_campaign=adbe9d723e-GW_3rd_August_Shattered_Stormvault_EN_EU&utm_source=GamesWorkshop.com&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6e14e39d2-adbe9d723e-114137241

RIP WFB

Didn't they literally just get a battletome? Like 8 days ago?

Will the Swordmasters of Hoeth be available in the new Free Cities book?

 Togusa wrote:

 Slinky wrote:
Lots of things going away, it looks like, quite a few already sold out:

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/searchResults?N=647457687+3155674414&utm_campaign=adbe9d723e-GW_3rd_August_Shattered_Stormvault_EN_EU&utm_source=GamesWorkshop.com&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6e14e39d2-adbe9d723e-114137241

RIP WFB

Didn't they literally just get a battletome? Like 8 days ago?

Who?

We got the announcement for the Free Cities stuff. 33 items are going away, there's still a decent chunk staying. But it obliterates Wanderers(Wood Elves) in a disgusting way.

I wouldn't worry too much about Wood Elves old models going away. The new Warhammer Underworlds war band looks like Satyrs and Centaurs with the old Wood Elf stylings. About 100% of the time, when you see a new Shadespire faction that is not represented in an existing army book, a new army book for that faction is just around the corner. With what is left from Wood Elves, Sylvaneth, and now this new faction, I bet you will be able to make a kick ass Wood Elf army.

Smellingsalts wrote:
I wouldn't worry too much about Wood Elves old models going away. The new Warhammer Underworlds war band looks like Satyrs and Centaurs with the old Wood Elf stylings. About 100% of the time, when you see a new Shadespire faction that is not represented in an existing army book, a new army book for that faction is just around the corner. With what is left from Wood Elves, Sylvaneth, and now this new faction, I bet you will be able to make a kick ass Wood Elf army.

Except thus far Shadspire has never had a unique army that isn't represented with an army book. The only one prior to this has been Dark Oath. Otherwise they are all regular AoS armies

All the stuff that made Wanderers a unique and interesting faction(their Waywatchers and the Wayfinder and Waystrider) is gone now. Glade Guard were wildly mishandled at launch("units of 20 or more" got bonuses--they shouldn't have) and were overshadowed by the Sisters of the Watch that got jammed into the faction(and now can't be battleline since they're removing the Waywatcher).

The Kurnothi(the new warband) are their own thing. The Sylvaneth are their own faction. Wanderers were their own faction(and for the past 2 General's Handbooks) with their own relics, command traits, allegiance abilities, etc.

I was a bit sad so see so many Elf kits go, if only because they've been a good source of base models for plastic Eldar to me. GW's concept of times for pre-orders and especially retiring kits baffles me. For new stuff they tease it, reveal it, then harp on about it for months. Then they give you a week to know the actual price and find the money for a pre-order. Obviously not usually an issue as new stuff can be got later down the line, if they do more than one run of it, but they don't always. Then when they get rid of stuff they might tell you after it's already marked for removal and most of the stock is gone.

Surely giving longer time scales for these would get them more sales? Everyone who has an item they'd like one of, or an army they're slowly building and need a couple more kits to complete could jump on the old favourites as well as the new shiniest, and given maybe a month or so notice could get their orders in. Do a last run of the mould and guarantee it, kind of like the made to order stuff where you know you'll get it eventually but still have to pay up front.

It 'might' be a ways off yet, but they're going to stop reprinting Old Marines at some point. Imagine the whining if all of a sudden something like a Devastator Squad just sold out overnight and never got remade? Give enough notice and even folks who might not have the kits as a priority will still manage to sneak a few into their budget for the month.

While LCtB sucks for people who don't have the kit yet, I think it really stings in combination with "No Model, No Rules". That's where GW really falls behind M:tG; okay, sure, you can't buy the card new anymore, but at least it still functions. With the way GW handles Sigmar, any and all of these models/armies are now on the clock. One of the selling points from the old days was that your collection never truly became invalid for gaming. I really think it's a shame that they took away that feature of their games.

The LCtB models aren't losing their rules completely, though. They moving to the Legends rules. They'll still have points and everything. They definitely won't be competitive choice, but you're crazy if you think a model will be competitive indefinitely.

One of the selling points from the old days was that your collection never truly became invalid for gaming.

Zoats and Squats and Pygmies for WFB would like to object. Squattenings always happened.

Hell, you could find out your unit doesn't exist from edition to edition, anyone remember the Necron Pariahs?

Aye but barring the closure of specialist games; we've never had a 40K or Fantasy army get gutted as much as AoS has gutted armies over the last 5 years. 2 full armies were squatted and right now high elves are basically akin to squatted and we've lost a chunk of models in a fell swoop.

Heck several armies got messed around being fragmented up first.


So this period has been quite unprecidented in GW's general production history. We are more used to losing the odd model here and there, but typically when a codex/battletome got updated. So we lost some, but gained some replacements. In addition some armies - like Tyranids - got messed around with legal weapon options on multi-arm models (which is why so many use magnets). But still that was again a sideways change not an outright removal.

AoS has given big sweeping removals without replacing models with new sculpts or new ideas as well as several armies being removed. Many times with very limited warning- even this Free Cities removal was done over just 1 day of stock lasting, 2 in some regions. Meanwhile losing things like Greenskins happened without any heads up.
At the same time GW isn't appearing clear in themselves; their marketing photos for Free Cities showed multiple Wanderers models which got pulled this weekend - that's the kind of thing that shouldn't happen; the photo and display and markeitng teams should have known the list well in advance so that they could plan displays that would have shown only models that were 100% confirmed to remain.


AoS has been, in a word, MESSY. The hope is that once we are past this messy phase things will get back to normal. We'll see no more sweeping removals; we will see updated rules and new models; replacing old sculpts and the occasional loss of some models with the addition of others. The general churn of things as we expect it along with one or two getting bigger here and there (compare the old carnifex or hive tyrant to the new ones - the new are huge).

Cronch wrote:
Squattenings always happened.

'Always' is a generous way of describing this phenomena.

craggy wrote:
I was a bit sad so see so many Elf kits go, if only because they've been a good source of base models for plastic Eldar to me. GW's concept of times for pre-orders and especially retiring kits baffles me. For new stuff they tease it, reveal it, then harp on about it for months. Then they give you a week to know the actual price and find the money for a pre-order. Obviously not usually an issue as new stuff can be got later down the line, if they do more than one run of it, but they don't always. Then when they get rid of stuff they might tell you after it's already marked for removal and most of the stock is gone.

Surely giving longer time scales for these would get them more sales? Everyone who has an item they'd like one of, or an army they're slowly building and need a couple more kits to complete could jump on the old favourites as well as the new shiniest, and given maybe a month or so notice could get their orders in. Do a last run of the mould and guarantee it, kind of like the made to order stuff where you know you'll get it eventually but still have to pay up front.

It 'might' be a ways off yet, but they're going to stop reprinting Old Marines at some point. Imagine the whining if all of a sudden something like a Devastator Squad just sold out overnight and never got remade? Give enough notice and even folks who might not have the kits as a priority will still manage to sneak a few into their budget for the month.

Thing is, it would be a longer time scale but everyone rushes in and picks them up.
At this point they aren’t producing any more. They are just selling through all of the already produced frames a particular model line had. Which is why many sell out quick. They probably didn’t have many left by this point to begin with..

nvm.

 Yodhrin wrote:


If GW had come along and said hey, look, we're going to be merging these ranges soon for AoS, so we're putting all the units that are going away into a special category on the website, and after 6(?) weeks of taking orders, we'll take them down permanently and begin running up stock to fulfill those orders, although obviously that might take us a while depending on the volume of sales - there would be a lot less frustration.

Yeah this would certainly be a best practice.

And good point about Marines Secundus... their time may come sooner than we think.

I think the problem there is GW is hooked on the big sell of new things on launch day. It's why they are nuts about leaks as well; they don't want anything to harm launch-day sales for new products. And with new product coming all the time they don't want people panic buying old product; they want you buying the new stuff.

I think this is also why "old print runs" are only one week long, which is a tiny period of time.

I hope not. I don't yet have enough Ravenwing upgrade sprues. I'm not sure I'll ever have enough Ravenwing upgrade sprues.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I hope not. I don't yet have enough Ravenwing upgrade sprues. I'm not sure I'll ever have enough Ravenwing upgrade sprues.

Yes, this. How will I build Imperial Battleships without Ravenwing sprues?

So this is my wake up call to snag as many Black Templars sprues as humanly possible?

So what's on everyone's short list of what will go away in the next year?

Metal Sisters of Battle, any doubters?

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Warhammer-40-000?N=2562756967+3639190268&Nr=AND%28sku.siteId%3AUS_gw%2Cproduct.locale%3Aen_US_gw%29&Nrs=collection%28%29%2Frecord%5Bproduct.startDate+%3C%3D+1565120820000+and+product.endDate+%3E%3D+1565120820000%5D

Anything with a square base. Some might be repackaged but don't count on it.

Catachans, I figure a 90% chance. Might be replaced. Surely good looking Jungle Fighters would outsell most Necromunda gangs.

Cadians, 75% chance? One of the oldest kits still on the shelves and never that great to begin with. Either refreshed or replaced with a new regiment becoming the 'default'.

Craftworld Eldar, 50% chance? After a decade+ of neglect I can see the existing infantry being dropped or drastically reimagined.

After Sisters of Battle I'd fully expect GW's next big 40K project to be Eldar. Replacing all those aspect warriors with new plastic kits and updating the core infantry to a more modern plastic kit. I can't see them retiring them without releasing a massive update of new model concepts to replace them. Plus 40K isn't into AoS's widespread model removal phase, 40K where it removes still adds in general barring the odd model here and there.

 Overread wrote:
After Sisters of Battle I'd fully expect GW's next big 40K project to be Eldar. Replacing all those aspect warriors with new plastic kits and updating the core infantry to a more modern plastic kit. I can't see them retiring them without releasing a massive update of new model concepts to replace them. Plus 40K isn't into AoS's widespread model removal phase, 40K where it removes still adds in general barring the odd model here and there.

I thought Jes had gone on record pretty much saying outright that there's no desire or enthusiasm at the Studio for redoing Craftworld Eldar, and that if Eldar do get a big range revamp it'll also be a pretty big redesign, Primaris-style?

They'll probably do "new" Aspects that could kinda-maybe-sorta-if-you-squint-a-bit be used to represent older ones, but will be different in aesthetic and mechanics even if there's not a huge difference in effect and role. Which for me is a pass - new stuff in addition to them finally making modern versions of the classic range is great, but just flat out replacing them with not-This and not-Thats? I could just buy third party or 3D print stuff.

 Overread wrote:
After Sisters of Battle I'd fully expect GW's next big 40K project to be Eldar. Replacing all those aspect warriors with new plastic kits and updating the core infantry to a more modern plastic kit. I can't see them retiring them without releasing a massive update of new model concepts to replace them. Plus 40K isn't into AoS's widespread model removal phase, 40K where it removes still adds in general barring the odd model here and there.

Apparently xenos are getting something later this year. So it could be Eldar but I've literally heard that from a friend of a friend.

Cronch wrote:
Hell, you could find out your unit doesn't exist from edition to edition, anyone remember the Necron Pariahs?

To be perfectly fair, at the exact same time Pariahs were removed, unit with identical loadout was added so you could still use your old models...

 Yodhrin wrote:

I thought Jes had gone on record pretty much saying outright that there's no desire or enthusiasm at the Studio for redoing Craftworld Eldar, and that if Eldar do get a big range revamp it'll also be a pretty big redesign, Primaris-style?

They'll probably do "new" Aspects that could kinda-maybe-sorta-if-you-squint-a-bit be used to represent older ones, but will be different in aesthetic and mechanics even if there's not a huge difference in effect and role. Which for me is a pass - new stuff in addition to them finally making modern versions of the classic range is great, but just flat out replacing them with not-This and not-Thats? I could just buy third party or 3D print stuff.

... that thought has the alarm bells utterly screaming in my head if what your saying is correct- because i could believe it, considering the way things are currently going. considering what happened to what i use to like in WFB (Bretonnians, Tomb Kings, wood elves, dwarves) the best one cna hope for is increasingly looking like a slower transition than an explosive rewrite.

as for these models... well, it makes me sad. Wood elves is a faction i quite enjoyed, and i like the high elven models also on this chopping block as well... but hey, the you-know-whos need more space.

Started a new guesswork threat on what might be next to go.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/778914.page#10532698