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See title.

Hatchette's Combat Patrol magazine has quite a bit of stuff. It's tempting... But I'm not new to the hobby.

Has anyone else subscribed, and if so, was it worth it?

Sorry to be a cop out, but only you can answer that question.

Sure, the price can be a bargain. But if you’re paying a bargain price for something you don’t want and/or will never use (or paint in this specific example), you’ve not got yourself a bargain.

What is it good for? If you’ve a club, and fancy some Combat Patrols for newcomers to try out. It’s particularly handy dandy for school or youth clubs, as there’s a tangible saving, good variety, and usable forces at the end, with the cost spread out, making it (arguably) even more affordable.

For this set in particular, you have to want to play the armies that are being offered. If you have no interest in one of the nine, you might still consider it... But if you have no interest in two of the nine, it's definitely not worth it.

My philosophy of 40k is that I'd rather have ten 500 point armies than two 2k armies... And if that's your philosophy too, then this is a great deal.

But if you're only interested in having one or two big armies, this probably isn't for you.

Earlier versions of Combat Patrol had some insanely good deals within them.

I feel like they have come down a little, but there are still some very good deals to be had.



Collecting the whole series is worth it IF you want all the stuff it offers. At worst you'll get a deal as good as most 3rd parties offer; at best you'll get some big savings here and there.

Some stores sell issues on order (eg in the UK Forbidden Planet does it). These can be well worth it if you only want select models and then you'll have to price up the issue cost VS the price you can buy things for. Eg some troops can seem like a good deal until you realise they are spread over several issues and the price might not be all that much different to 3rd parties.
On the other hand some heroes can be a single issue and that's a nice big saving.


So yeah it IS worth it if you want the models and only you can really answer that.

It is also still a pretty good deal if you are doing the premium kits and just flip the ones and issues you don't want on ebay - given increasingly they are the older, good combat patrols the ebay value of those kits is going up, and the premium kits are genuinely cheap. Sufficiently so to even cover the costs of the paint issues if they aren't very useful to you.

It depends on how much work you want to do for that.

I'm probably after about five and a half of the patrols, so it works, but your milage may vary.

Now that there are Combat Patrol rules for Armigers. I am awaiting the day for that magazine release.

I'll probably be waiting a very long time.

I didn't want the nid or marine stuff as i already had it. I have a friend who wants the ork stuff and another who is after the world eater stuff. The rest I want. I have subscribed from 22 onwards as the remainder of the collection looks a good deal. Technically you can cancel your subscription at any time so you can just subscribe for the bit you are after.

Rumoured order of releases.
1-20 Nids and marines
21-40 Chaos and Aeldari
41-60 Votann and Orks
61- 80 Guard and Genestealer cult
80-90 World Eaters

I don't think it's worth it at all, since you're basically just getting combat patrols with small extras, but who is going to want to have 9 different combat patrols?

if combat patrol was like spearhead then id say yes definitely but as it is now combat patrol is just kind of lacking.

I've never subscribed to one, but i had a buddy who did, and I've followed along with them, and I really think, at least in the US, they're kind of a novelty. I mean, sure, they do provide a lot of models at a discount, but it's a fixed list, and also includes a pretty long list of paint. If you're a veteran hobbyist, you probably don't need more paints. They also start with the launch box models, so if you bought that, you're getting doubles. LIke with anything GW related, the exchange rate to USD was... generous, and the UK version has no shipping/handling while the US pays $2.50 an issue or $10 per month.

So, the same thing that the UK gets delivered for ten pounds each (currently $12.60) the US pays $17.50 for. If you look at combat patrols, they are 100 pounds ($126) vs. $168 USD. So we currently pay a 33% kicker on combat patrols bought retail, while the magazine has an effective premium of 38%. Five percent isn't much, but it starts to eat into the savings of buying in bulk and on subscription.

Without the premium, 90 issues is going to run you $1350. The core of 9 combat patrols alone gets you to $1510 in value, and there is extra stuff in there, so you have some wiggle room. Each combat patrol seems to get one mid sized bonus kit: chaplain on bike, paraiste of mortrex, chaos terminators, hearthguard, atalan jackals, maulerfiend, ork buggy, autarch, commisar. These vary in cost but add up to $509. there are also 31 paints, with six being washes, for around $160 in paint.

So, bottom line is $2000 in models for $1350, which is a great price for new product. You also get paints, some brushes and other adds on. You also get the ability to buy the premium upgrades, which is an extra $3 an issue or $270 and nets you a Bruatlis, a hive tyrant, a demon prince, howling banshees, Killa Kans, thunderkyn, A rogal dorn, and a broodcoven. Those add up to $585, so you're getting almost half off an honestly great selection of units. If you are trying to maximize the value, premium is the way to go.

Here's the problem: you're tying up $82 a month for two years to get a a good deal on a pupu platter of kits. For the same amount of money you could just buy a complete army. $1620 will build you even an admech or GSC army!

There are some intangibles each way:
Pro:
-These are the 9th edition combat patrols and many are already off the shelves, meaning the practical savings is actually even higher than just pricing a combat patrol.
- everything in this is pretty resellable aside from the paint, and even then the washes are always useful to somebody.
- While there are a few duffs, nearly all the additional kits are very good choices.

Cons:
- a weak exclusive mini. We joked about too many primaris lieutentats but that was before we got a special infernus sargenat. He's cool, but, you know, infernus.
- Even if you want nearly all of this stuff, you'll be waiting for a year plus for some of it.

I dunno. I was very much against it, and then I did the math and saw what was included, and I think there's something there. The way to think of it has to be this: you're spending $82 a month (gotta go premium) to get a box of warhammer every month, and a bigger box every five months.

If you have a few friends in your gaming circle that are interested in the armies and want to split some of the loot it can have some huge value and savings - but like mentioned already only really if you actually want everything on offer.

If you're more of a hobbyist and enjoy painting a little bit of everything from each faction I think it can be very much worth it.

Either way, it's not available in Australia (yet.. maybe one day) so I'm spared the burden of making the decision lol

Auspex Tactics on yt has a video analysing the value/savings. If you can cherry pick single issues with the stuff you actually want, absolutely.

This Spanish site has the whole run set out. It’s been 100% accurate so far.

I picked up the Marine issues as singles from Forbidden Planet for my son. Even with postage, it’s great value for the character models and those issues where a full £50 box set fits in one issue, such as wraithguard, wraithlord and chaos terminators. It’s ok value where the box is split across 2 issues, and not great value for the paint issues.

Even if you can’t get singles directly, I have found that eBay gets a dump of the relevant models around the time as scalpers running multiple subscriptions try to get their cash back. The deal isn’t quite as good, but better than discount stores sometimes

https://www.goblintrader.es/es/27813100-Combat-Patrol?fbclid=IwY2xjawGa2rBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHalgQO-ZTsbqE84DRQ_jBWIb3zoDPNtURujraol7q3tU0wfgyCHKo9XKRw_aem_PUtwJFHyJUL7sROgJKFcWw

I find it good value. I don't NEED any more figures, but I like having them.

I don't buy the paint issues. I wouldn't blow £100 on a combat patrol, but £10 a week on individual models I like but not enough to pay full whack? Sure...