Are the Hardback Army Books Worth the Price?

[The bearded one]

Doth your awesome-ness know no bounds?!

I heard it stops at the tip of his facial hair.

I'm feeling so loved right now.

[Commodus Leitdorf]

Given their size they are not worth their current price.

That being said, none of the ones I have have fallen apart yet. So at least they have that going for them!

[mdauben]

Too expensive.

I just bought the new Hardcover big rule book and the Hardcover Ogre Kingdoms army books. Over $120 to get into 8th ed, without even buying one miniatures.

[The bearded one]

I just bought the new Hardcover big rule book

Weren't the BRB's always hardcover? The previous one certainly was.

So with that in mind, how much would it have costed to get into 8th with a hardcover rulebook and a softcover armybook? Still something like $107?

[EmperorNorton]

Reading the argument that the hardback books are worth it because the softbacks fell apart makes me so mad I just might start pulling out my own hair. That's just bass ackwards. The only thing that says is that the softbacks were shoddy quality and not really worth the price. It is perfectly possible to have softbacks of a decent quality. When I think about the softback books I have (not just GW, but all different publishers), less than one in a hundred had the binding fail.
The easiest solution for this problem would have been for GW to spend a couple pennies more per book to increase quality.
Instead they found a way to charge considerably more for a product fulfilling the exact same role. And people are lapping it up. It just baffles me.

I don't think the books are worth it for several reasons:
- They are too expensive for the role they fulfill, i.e. they raise the barrier of entry.
- They are too expensive because comparable books are sold much cheaper (and don't even try to argue with allegedly small print runs; GW's print runs must be in the tens of thousands, that is not small).
- They are too expensive because they offer very little in the way of new content, just recycled material for the most part. Printing is not what makes books expensive, content is (except for some extreme examples the Army Books don't come anywhere close to), and they rely on copy & paste instead of producing new content.

Arguably they look nicer on the shelf than the softbacks do. But that's the same as saying that a picture of dogs playing poker looks better than the doodles of your four year old niece. Neither is art nor will it earn you respect from unsuspecting visitors.

[Urgat]

Weren't the BRB's always hardcover? The previous one certainly was.

The previous one was, but not the ones before.

[Lord Dan]

Reading the argument that the hardback books are worth it because the softbacks fell apart makes me so mad I just might start pulling out my own hair. That's just bass ackwards. The only thing that says is that the softbacks were shoddy quality and not really worth the price. It is perfectly possible to have softbacks of a decent quality. When I think about the softback books I have (not just GW, but all different publishers), less than one in a hundred had the binding fail.
The easiest solution for this problem would have been for GW to spend a couple pennies more per book to increase quality.
Instead they found a way to charge considerably more for a product fulfilling the exact same role. And people are lapping it up. It just baffles me.

I don't think the books are worth it for several reasons:
- They are too expensive for the role they fulfill, i.e. they raise the barrier of entry.
- They are too expensive because comparable books are sold much cheaper (and don't even try to argue with allegedly small print runs; GW's print runs must be in the tens of thousands, that is not small).
- They are too expensive because they offer very little in the way of new content, just recycled material for the most part. Printing is not what makes books expensive, content is (except for some extreme examples the Army Books don't come anywhere close to), and they rely on copy & paste instead of producing new content.

Arguably they look nicer on the shelf than the softbacks do. But that's the same as saying that a picture of dogs playing poker looks better than the doodles of your four year old niece. Neither is art nor will it earn you respect from unsuspecting visitors.

I was wondering when our resident literary scholar was going to show up!

[Commodus Leitdorf]

Well I don't mention the "they haven't fallen apart" bit as a way to defend the cost...mostly just pointing out that GW finally fixed that problem (not in a good way mind you).

[Brother Haephestus]

Weren't the BRB's always hardcover? The previous one certainly was.

No. 6th was softbound. All the previous down to 3rd were multiple soft books. 3rd was hard, and I've never seen the previous two editions.

[sulla]

They are good value for the army you play compared to the previous books and their poor binding.

But... they are a little too expensive to buy just for the background.

[The bearded one]

They are good value for the army you play compared to the previous books and their poor binding.

But... they are a little too expensive to buy just for the background.

Especially in those cases where the background is copy-pasted ( * cough * , Empire and VC * )

[I3uLLioN]

I like them. They look good, feel good and will be used for years to come. I had steak for dinner tonight. It was poorly presented, over-cooked, finished in 20 minutes and cost the same as my recent Empire book purchase. It is all relative. I like them and wil continue to buy them .

[Lordsaradain]

I like the new books, but they're too expensive.

[Cragum]

From a quality point of view. I love the books. i have two for them now, ogres and orcs while i have the old skaven book still. The hardbacks are so much better and durable where as the softbacks just get damaged too easily.

Inside is superb, I think they really thought well when designing the books and the layouts are great and simple. Plus having it all in 'colour' is a nice change.

[Petey]

As with anything games workshop produces these days, I think they are overpriced, but they are still quality items.

QFT

words for the word god

[EmperorNorton]

Inside is superb, I think they really thought well when designing the books and the layouts are great and simple.

What does that even mean? What did they design? And isn't the layout the same it has been forever?

They even appear to have dropped the helpful feature of printing the pages of the corresponding unit descriptions in the army list section.

[logan054]

Weren't the BRB's always hardcover?

Nope, 6th ed certainly wasn't.

As for the question, price has been to high on the books for sometime, its just they don't look as overpriced now because they made them look all fancy.

[The bearded one]

Nope, 6th ed certainly wasn't.

Thank you, we've gone past that already

[logan054]

Thank you, we've gone past that already

good thing that isn't all I posted then hey

[The bearded one]

good thing that isn't all I posted then hey

Don't be fooled, I saw you edit it ( I actually pressed to quote when there was only 1 line, and then the second line was there in the edit box)