Dispatches from the Middle Circle

ultramarine what

The lowe.

Well, well, well.

A PSA for all you still buying Citadel products.

man, warhammer is expensive as hell

Bryan Ansell has passed away at age 68 (11 October 1955 -- 30th December 2023).

Bryan Ansell founded Citadel Miniatures in 1978 in partnership with Games Workshop, and co-wrote the original 1983 Warhammer Fantasy Battles first edition rules with Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley. He became managing director of Games Workshop in the mid-1980s, and was primary owner of GW until selling his shares in 1991. He also founded Wargames Foundry / Foundry Miniatures, which continues to produce many older Citadel figures among many other ranges.

(Top: Bryan Ansell from Warhammer Armies, 1988; Bottom: Bryan Ansell (Left) with artist Tony Ackland at the 2017 Bring Out Your Lead oldhammer event at Wargames Foundry)

I used to like 40k as a game. (See profile pic)

But I'm begging 40k players, play other games.

Particularly historical rules.

You are in a abusive relationship with games workshop and you need to get out

No models should not cost $5 per infantryman

No they are not "better models worth the cost"

No a new edition should not fundamentally change how the game is played. It should just fix errors, and smoothen things out.

The card system is terribly done compared to other companies that have been doing it for years longer.

No, armies should not be horribly unbalanced at release.

Yes it is the job of the company to play test there rules before release.

When major tournaments have to make fundamental changes to a rule set to make it work, it's a bad rule set. They wrote bad rules and did a bad job.

Alot of articles covering 10th edition feel like they are written by hostages in games workshops basement.

Please play other no GW games. You deserve better.

If history isn't your jam, Battletech is a lot like a historical game but about the future. Also, you can tear off an enemy's arm and beat him with it.

It bugs me the most.. that GW is so intent on pushing out more and more AND MORE Space Marine lieutenant models, out of all the changes to the Primaris Marines.

This is the problem with monopose kits. If you're a good converter and kitbasher, it's not a problem, but if you know that's not your audience, then that means you need to put out a new kit every time to fit the need and niche that people will create for a model.

And guess which model kit DIDN'T have that problem?

This model was the GOAT of the Space Marine range. Perfectly showcasing the modularity of the whole range, as long as the models were the basic Space Marine style, standard power armour not Terminator, loyalist or traitor, it would go together into literally ANY configuration and style you want it to.

More Space Marine character nonsense?

Nothing changes.

It's just more lieutenant models. And we don't need more of them. We really do not.

There's five models currently, six if you include the new one, plus the one that was included in the intro game box that introduced the Primaris, so seven in total.

And they still cost more than 5 times their weight in silver, I bet.

I remember that post you did. That's.. that's still nuts.

And the hardline fans were so mad at me.

I even got screenshot and mocked over at Sigmarxism lol

Nigel Stillman, where are you now?

Learns about an audio drama where Malcador reveals the Heresy was planed to cull the Primarchs and Legions.

...

I am going to ignore that.

Yeah but he reveals it to a dying loyalist I'm her last moments so it could be construed as a "yeah sure buddy. Now you can rest easy"

Yeah, rest easy knowing your leader planed a galactic civil war that fucked up everything.... But hey, we planed it, so not all bad?

I take this with a heavy grain of salt, like the Primarchs mother that Dan Abnet pulled out of his ass at the last hour.

Every new thing I learn about the Horus Heresy sounds dumber than the last one.

I'm glad I decided to ignore the entire thing and pretended it doesn't exist. It just sounds so... Uninteresting.

I think it suffers from several problems.

No core story bible.

To many cooks.

Lack of continuity.

But then it is what.... Been going for two decades?

That last paragraph makes absolutely no sense. Unless you want to break into a new army, what are you going to buy for your list? Maybe two boxes of the new unit you want to try out, maybe a character, or a vehicle you want to try painting.

New player meanwhile: is aiming to build a 2k army. Why pester 10 existing players to spend a little more when you might as well get a single new player who will spend just as much AND who might become part of the "existing players customer segment".

Not to mention that one entirely new player might drag their friends into it as well.

I don’t see how this is confusing for you.

A potential new player is not guaranteed. Especially in this current economic climate. You say a new player needs to buy a 2k army, but that requires convincing a new person to wholesale buy into the hobby

A previously invested player is much more likely to spend money, especially in short bursts, in response to alterations to the game state. This is true across nearly every single game, physical or digital, with short term monetisation cycles. They prey on prior investment and microtransactional mindsets (a few new purchases at a time, ad infinitum) to make money.

It's not guaranteed but the new player has such a massive more spending potential than the entrenched audience, ESPECIALLY when they don't even really know what to get yet and are just running in blind. The fact that you need several entrenched players in a quarter-year to make you the same money as ONE new player who sticks around still remains.

And let's be real, when is the economic climate not absolute garbage anyways? It's always a crisis followed by a recession then numbers go up but no one gets any of it then its a crisis or recession again and then five years down the line they say "actually this was an age of economic boom but NOW its all gone to shit sorry no wages for you".

Actually, the current "bad" situation is actually a boon for 40k, because as far as "adult" hobbies go, it is dirt cheap in comparision. People no longer have the cash for eccentric travel all around the globe, specialized sporting gear/expenses, or stuff like Oldtimer parts - but a combat patrol and some paints? That's attainable when before there were other costly things hogging the budget.

Back to new players, to bring in the ultimate point: GW can only sell most product to people a limited amount. You can only field one Angron, so 99% of people buying will only buy one. Entrenched players, unless they want to go into a new army, already have "maxed out" on a lot of the stuff, a new player meanwhile is a blank slate of spending potential in addition to being a potential regular customer down the line.

Alright, let’s break this down.

A potential new player does not have “massively more spending potential” unless you are looking at sales on a person to person basis. Companies of GW’s scope do not sell to the individual; they sell to consumer groups/demographics to meet margins and fill up percentiles. In fact, a potential new player is the hardest kind of sale for GW, and many companies, to make, because that additional upfront entry cost that you’re leaning so heavily on is a genuine roadblock for a very, very large number of people. That is without factoring in the additional costs of tabletop/modelling peripherals, time investment learning the game and assembling/painting minis. 

You also go on to say that  you need several invested players in a quarter to make the same money as one new player. Yes. But those invested players are far more lilkely to make those purchases than a single new player is to get into the game. I really don’t understand how that isn’t clicking for you.

Your comments about the economic climate are, forgive me, fucking silly. Yes, the economic climate is never good, but it’s been rapidly getting worse. Inflation is utterly fucked. People can no longer afford things they could before to a degree that hasn’t been felt for a long, long time. Even adults who are into, as you put it “adult hobbies” are feeling the fucking strain.

You then say that a combat patrol and paints are cheaper than international travel as a hobby. Firstly, no shit. Although this only applies to a very small customer base because the majority of people don’t live like that. Also, using a combat patrol as an example when you’ve been going on about the upfront value of a new player’s 2k point army is incredibly inconsistent. Pick one. Yes, companies are currently raking in good money because they’re charging excessively in the midst of an economic crisis, but that hasn’t made 40k more accessible to new people. It means that the current people who can afford to maintain it as a hobby will cut back on other things so as to keep with it. And some people who can’t afford it will do so, too. GW knows this. It’s accounted for.

Your last paragraph is just... incredibly out of touch with the way GW operates, and the way companies of this ilk operate. People don’t “max out”. They will always have something else to sell. They have analysts and teams who work this stuff down to a science. Maybe they shift the meta to make something else more tempting. Maybe they release new, cool, powerful units for your army. Maybe they nerf existing units so that units you don’t have, or a whole other entire army, look appealing. Maybe they shift half your stuff’s competitive viability to only exist in the Horus Heresy so that, with a few more purchases, you’d be able to play them in that. Maybe they retire your stuff so you need to buy new stuff.

And, if you’ve truly “maxed out”, truly bought everything. Then guess what? You’ve spent way, way more than any theoretical new player statistically ever would, and made GW far more money.

Dear fucking God, the list of Space Marine units being retired from GW…

Even the Scouts?!

Ah crap I gotta order some stuff sooner than I expected

Not long before they retire Tactical Marines too…

oh nevermind it’s all just gone with zero notice

typical GW

OH FUCK.

Although… how much of it is people panic buying and also just GW being GW?

And it’s extra annoying since they’ve announced a new update on Warhammer Old World and it honestly sounds encouraging. 

Hard to say, I’m trying to panic buy too

I’ve given up ages ago.

I gave up Warhammer years ago for earlier and milder manifestations of this precise behavior

I’ll be honest, I’ve pretty much completely pivoted to Battletech. So far, I’m having a simply marvelous time.

Thank you @hausofdecline for my new favorite template

Tbf, if you had to give each faction their own version of a Horus Heresy, I find 80 years quite realistic. I mean, we are only just finishing the HH and heading to the scouring after 30-40 years.

You right

John Blanche has officially Retired from Games Workshop after 39 years. Here’s hoping he enjoys the golden years

Holy shit, how did I miss this news?

Enjoy your retirement, you deserve it man.

They should invent a 40k that is not priced by madmen this shit drives me insane

Make things cheaper, these prices are utterly detached from your audience’s material conditions!!!

Look at other competitors and you see that GW has their mad pricing enabled by fanatical fans that lap it all up and make excuses that GW hasn’t even put out as to why it is priced the way it is.

I'll say it again. Five GW minis: $100+. Five Battletech minis: $25, and that's all you need to start playing if you actually want minis to play.

Preach it.

And Wargames Atlantic routinely have kits in the 24-32 model range for 35 dollars. You want an Imperial Guard army (or better yet for any other 28mm game), or even skeletons, goblins, spiders, halflings, AND WW2 historicals, you should look there first.