New GW rulebook

[Cfury]

Cheap is 45 quid, special is 75 and super special is 80 pounds! Justified, or exploitation?

[BigMike]

They do do very nice presentation rulebooks - for me, a very lapsed 40k player, i'm going to have a word with the guys in store about the changes, see if i want to start playing again, and pick up the softback rulebook which will be in the boxed game.

Unless you're a massive 40k player -playing every week in GW i think this is the way to go!

(Or buy it from an independent who offers a discount - also an option)

[King Tiger]

Depends on what is inside for 45, and the quality of the book (allot fall apart these days at the spine) and quality of the rules (if I see matt ward or jervis Johnson they can shove it) , but at 75-80...gw can keep it

Especially if its not in the starter set as some believe, as gw can earn more £££ that way.
I also have next to no interest in anything gw does these days, and even if the rulebook only costs 45, its still £20-30 for 10 plastic men

[Cfury]

It just seems a bizarre business model. Why make it so expensive to get started? They could put out a cheap PDF version to download and the kids will spend that extra money on the miniatures.

[mikeland]

£80 is a lot of money for a book in most peoples estimation... But I bet there are plenty of kids who spend more than that in a weekend going out clubbing. And compared to the price some of the publishers charge for delux edition graphic novels £80 is about par for the course for a delux hardback.

And let's be honest there is something appealing about a really well produced slip cased volume like that. And I'm sure there is some fun and will be massive GW street cred in having the deluxe edition.

As for the £45 version, this is pretty reasonable, at 400+ pages full colour Hardback it is on a par with warlord, saga and other quality rules, plus you can get it a lot cheaper on line.

I like the aesthetic and backstory of 40k far more than Warhammer FB but cannot ever see myself buying these sorts of things... Doesn't appeal to me as a painter or collector plus there is just too much other stuff out in historicals.

So as usual it is GW doing what they do best, selling a quality product for the maximum they can. If I were a shareholder I'd be happy.

[mikeland]

It just seems a bizarre business model. Why make it so expensive to get started? They could put out a cheap PDF version to download and the kids will spend that extra money on the miniatures.

It does but I think the model is built around the retail store. You go and play there at first so don't need your own rules, then you are hooked and buy your own. Also once you have invested £45 in the rules you are more likely to stay!

[redben]

Comparing page count it seems of comparable value to Warlord's rulebooks. Bear in mind that many people will get the smaller rulebook that comes with the boxed set instead which can be picked up on ebay for less than half that.

I'm no GW apologist but I understand why their pricing strategy is what it is and why it works for them. New and/or small minis companies gain a lot by making quickstart rules available for free but GW don't need that and the rulebook for them is an additional revenue stream. Given the typical GW consumer is a pre-teen to young-teen boy who will buy GW product for a maximum of three years (something which GW will never be able to change as that demographic's buying habits are well-known in the toy industry) then their best strategy is to sell as much stuff to them at as high a price as possible for as long as they've got them.

[Parus Ater]

There is "more" book with the WFB book than with the War of the Ring book which is seen as being "on the money"
As Mikeland says, the business model of GW is based around two facts - firstly you're paying for time you get in the shops to play games , attend the games nights and just use the place to sit and paint with other people (and often not even using your own paints!).
Secondly, if any of you have a specialist hobby and go to a specialist shop two things are apparent. One is that the place is almost always empty for most of the day and the other is that the prices are "a bit steeper" than you could find it online and that's because the income has to be reflective of the shop's running costs.

The issue with the GW business model is that it has to take into account the very real top limit on how many people will be playing and collecting their products based on interested demographics, how interested they remain in respect to "production value", the running costs of the shops....

The share price tells us that they aren't laughing at their customers and I think if they spent less on R&D and business overheads the product would be less omnipresent and attrective. basically, if the prices were lower then GW would have folded years ago.

[grant]

Cheap is 45 quid, special is 75 and super special is 80 pounds! Justified, or exploitation?

Canadian prices don't line up with US prices, which don't line up with UK prices. And the Australian prices are INSANE.

I gave up on GW a long time ago. The book looks pretty, the bag and extras would be what I would normally buy (the Full Monty for $350 Canadian would be usual way to go for me). I used to love playing all the GW games, they were light hearted and fun. Had multiple armies for every system.

But whatever. I gave up on it. All ding-dongs around here are Warmachine players, and hard-core competitive at that. They always place in the final group at the big Privateer Press Hardcore Tournament in Seattle - one of the locals has been 3rd or so a few years running. They are all about the "DICKMOVE" - to orient the opponent to be able to drive it home, with as much as pain and internal bleeding as possible, involving derision. "PLAY LIKE YOU'VE GOT A PAIR".

Wow, how did that turn into a rant?

[RoughRider]

They do do very nice presentation rulebooks - for me, a very lapsed 40k player, i'm going to have a word with the guys in store about the changes, see if i want to start playing again, and pick up the softback rulebook which will be in the boxed game.

Unless you're a massive 40k player -playing every week in GW i think this is the way to go!

(Or buy it from an independent who offers a discount - also an option)

This is my feeling on it- alythough I haven't played 40K for a while now I do play occasionally, but I will by the box set for the rulebook and then sell the plastic online.