Why are the new army books so expensive?

[HOGGLORD]

I just decided to start playing Fantasy (though I've played 40k for a good 6 years) and I'm gonna make an empire army. I thought that 10 handgunners for £15.50 was pretty good, then I saw the army book was £25! Why is it so expensive? I am under the impression that the only reason it's so expensive is because of loads of colorful pictures purely put in place to add to the price and the fact its a bloody hardback! Why do they need that? I found the fact that they were paperbacks to be helpful, it makes them more portable, if that's their newest excuse to squeeze a little more cash out then they are stooping to an all new low.
Don't get me wrong, I like the GW artwork and fluff, it makes the game more interesting, but I hope it's not the only reason they added to the price.

[Ville]

I like the fact that my new armybook is hardback and pretty. What I don't like are the recycled artwork (albeit in colour) and stories from the previous book.

[vinush]

The hardback army books are great. They feel much sturdier than the old softcovers did, and hardback allows for better binding compared to the softcovers, which I understand a lot of people have had huge issues with.

I myself went through two copies of 6th edition VC army book due to the binding falling apart, and the same of last edition's empire book, and almost had to consider a third if the new book hadn't come out as it was falling apart. this means that if they last a full cycle in hardback, then I'm quids in compared to having to buy three copies of an army book over the lifetime of the cycle.

THE \/ince

[EmperorNorton]

The hardback army books are great. They feel much sturdier than the old softcovers did, and hardback allows for better binding compared to the softcovers, which I understand a lot of people have had huge issues with.

I myself went through two copies of 6th edition VC army book due to the binding falling apart, and the same of last edition's empire book, and almost had to consider a third if the new book hadn't come out as it was falling apart. this means that if they last a full cycle in hardback, then I'm quids in compared to having to buy three copies of an army book over the lifetime of the cycle.

THE \/ince

This pseudo-argument is a pet hate of mine.
It's perfectly possible for a softcover to have good binding. GW chose for their softcovers to have poor binding, most likely because it was cheaper for them. The obvious solution to this issue would have been to use proper binding, but instead they switched to more expensive hardcovers - increasing their profits in the process - and there actually are people who are thankful for it.

When I bought the last edition of the Empire army book, it cost me 18€ (and I suppose the writers were living in a developed county back then, too). The new one is almost twice as much at 32,50€ and it has exactly the same function and, in fact, a lot of the same content.

[Lord Dan]

This pseudo-argument is a pet hate of mine.

So tell us how you really feel.

I have to agree with EmperorNorton on this one. Short of the Lord of the Rings price gouging this is one of the more obvious profit ploys on GW's part in the last year. The new books are pretty, but they're certainly not $41 pretty, especially given that just 3 years ago I was paying $20 for almost the same content.

[enyoss]

This pseudo-argument is a pet hate of mine.

Agreed.

Admittedly, I'm very careful with my books, but I never had a page fall out of my 4th-7th edition softback army books. The spine on my 8th edition hardback, however, has already split, so it's going to be a tough job keeping the pages in there from now on.

The problem is that if I want to replace the hardback it costs me twice as much (and weighs a tonne more when carrying my stuff on the tube to games).

I don't really see any improvement in the quality of the product for the extra price (I don't really class colour as added quality: I much prefer the black and white artwork), so this time around I guess I'll only buy the one or two books that I really need and give all the rest a miss.

[Malorian]

Poor people are typically uneducated and have no grasp of tactics. GW makes their products expensive for the good of the game.

[DaemonReign]

GW stuff is 'expensive' mostly because the folks writing these rules, making these models, are real people living in a developed country with bills of their own to pay. The fact that they try to give us something extra, like real hardback quality, is really nothing we should be pissy about.

[Dranthar]

GW stuff is 'expensive' mostly because the folks writing these rules, making these models, are real people living in a developed country with bills of their own to pay.

Very true, but GW should really be saving on costs by moving their operation to a 3rd world country with lower wages and less stringent labor laws.

Like the US...

Seriously though, as someone living in Australia the cost of the army books seem pretty excessive. I like the bump in quality (lets face it - it was needed when you compare it to other wargames companies), but if it wasn't so expensive, I would have rebought my O&G and VC army books without hesitation, despite not having played in almost 2 years.

[decker_cky]

Isn't the empire new book largely new art,and true full colour unlike the O&G book?

[loveless]

GW wanted to revitalize Warhammer Fantasy. They did this by making the core rulebook massive and more expensive and by making the army books full-color, hard-backed, and more expensive. Clearly this allows them to attract far more players into the game - after all, if the rules cost that much, the game must be amazing!

[MooseOnTheLoose]

GW wanted to revitalize Warhammer Fantasy. They did this by making the core rulebook massive and more expensive and by making the army books full-color, hard-backed, and more expensive. Clearly this allows them to attract far more players into the game - after all, if the rules cost that much, the game must be amazing!

Despite your sarcastic joke with this post, isn't kinda ironic this is the best set of core and so far army book additions for gameplay...

[Wakerofgods]

Maybe it helps them get a leg up against the 'up and comers'? Like mantic (with Kings of War) or warmachines and hordes?

GW obviously can't compete with the cheap price or balance of KOW - but they can overshadow KOW with pretty books, deep lore and variety of options (magic items/ect).

GW is probably just becoming slightly more 'niche' in the market that it has previously just dominated.


This is just a theory, I already see several holes in it so I'm just throwing it out as a random idea.

[scarletsquig]

Maybe it helps them get a leg up against the 'up and comers'? Like mantic (with Kings of War) or warmachines and hordes?

GW obviously can't compete with the cheap price or balance of KOW - but they can overshadow KOW with pretty books, deep lore and variety of options (magic items/ect).

Not for much longer they can't.

Deep Lore? Yes, definitely on that point. Not on the other points though.

http://www.beastsofwar.com/kings-of-...ges-kings-war/

Mantic are, next month, releasing a high-quality hardback rulebook containing the main rules, background text, extra rules for campaigns and sieges, and 8 army lists (with a good variety of magic items!) Artwork for it is looking rather nice, too, much better than the recent warhammer army book covers.

The price? £20. Or free as a .pdf download from their website.

...also, all the rules have been throughly beta-tested for the past 3 years with lots of input from the community and tournament players to identify and fix broken builds and loopholes in the rules, the points values in the army lists are well-balanced, and kept updated online. Smaller softback rulebooks (IoB style) also come free in every army box, or are buyable for £5.

*That* is how you release a set of rules when you take them seriously as opposed to a chore that has to be done to allow you to sell more miniatures.

To put it bluntly, there is no real physical reason why GW needs to price the books this highly. They do it because they know that their target market is price insensitive. If the army books were £40, people would still buy them because they need them to play.

I will personally be grudgingly buying the new (and incredibly shoddily-written by Cruddace, to the point where 1/3rd of the units are literally useless) Empire book from a discount retailer, and nothing else. Already got the IoB book off eBay.

Why? Well, everyone and their dog plays warhammer, and that is extremely difficult to change. If I want to game with those people, I'll need an army book. Maybe in 5 years time things will be different and I won't have to buy the 9th edition empire book for £50, but for now, that's the way things are. £45 for rulebook and £25 for army book is a spit in the ocean for most of the people who play, because they have an extremely large amount of disposable income.

No point complaining about it, because that is the fact of the matter and it is not going to change. Just gotta deal with it.

[loveless]

Maybe it helps them get a leg up against the 'up and comers'? Like mantic (with Kings of War) or warmachines and hordes?

Less "leg up" and more "catch up" I'm afraid. Privateer's books have long been full-color affairs, available in both hardcover and paperback. Quality of the art included is going to vary based on personal opinion. Privateer books also tend to include rather useful painting guides and actually progress the story, so outside of an edition reboot you're not going to end up with much repeated information. I don't know the page counts on the Privateer books off the top of my head - I think the faction books are rather hefty in comparison to a GW army book while the expansion books might be closer in size to a GW army book.

GW also falters a bit in getting their rules out there. I can direct people to start-up rules (or complete rules) for Warmachine, Hordes, Kings of War, Malifaux, and several other games for free. GW games require you to scour eBay for the starter rulebooks or spend $60-75 on a core rulebook and $33-42 on an army book. GW "starter sets" are laughable as anything other than an army springboard due to a lack of complete unit rules.

Short version: GW overcharges for rulebooks, which makes their start-up costs even higher. If the rulebooks were largely optional, the increased price wouldn't be as big of a deal.

[DaemonReign]

I'm not getting all the irony.
Everything in the Western Hemisphere is 'overcosted' for crist's sake.

[The Low King]

The new books are much better than the old ones, both because of the book and the rules (wich are more balanced).

If GW want to charge more for this then im fine with that.

[dimetri1]

First let me say the new books are great for the hobby. I don't think they are to expensive(unless you live down under, you are getting ripped off). Many people enjoy fluff, art and pictures. For me I find fluff painfully boring to read and I don't pay attention to the artwork. I would much prefer a small book with just the rules. That is just me though.

[Why]

Yeah I will just wait until they come out on Scribd, unless it's a new wood elf book, if we ever get one

Most of the same content for almost double the price, I think I have a good reason to be angry. They just decided to be cheap and use bad binding with the old books. Not much has changed because my 8th edition hard cover BRB has been repaired twice because the binding is falling apart, so I guess they are still using cheap binding.

[Lance Tankmen]

my 8th edition BRB has its bindings falling apart too... makes me sad