Warhammer 40K Tabletop Thread XL: Bloated Rules

[Avaris]

The large majority of people (myself included) do not want new UNITS though; we want plastic non-ugly non-finecrap non-old and janky metal versions of existing units. Yes there are a few glaring holes (Tyranid LoW when?) but for the most part its less about new things and more about making existing things better / easier to find / prettier.

As for the update cycle, I sincerely hope you're wrong. The new standard for 9th means that armies without a new codex will work all wonky. I wish they had a release schedule similar to PA: Updated Codices for 4 or so factions every month; tie new plastic releases or vs boxes to them if you want, but be done with it in like half a year.

Honestly, I hope I'm wrong as well! Getting regular updates to armies would be a good thing, which is why I'm hopeful the app is going to lead to that sort of change.

It's that easy. GW does not have to make new models, in order to sell existing models.

The thing is, old models aren't an internal driver. They're a sunk investment. The internal driver (and projects that get approved) is the new models, so that's where the focus is.

Is it stupid? Yes. Does it mean their operating model should change? Also yes: there should be more focus on existing product lines and getting the most possible value out of them. But it's really going against what we know of how GW operates, and a ship/corporate culture that large takes time to change. I think they're shifting though.

This all ties back to why I don't think 40k is a good place to look if you want a good game for tournaments: it's really not set up to support it. The rules are written to provide a reasonably satisfying experience as a way of using the models players have invested in, but they aren't going to win any awards for game design!

Edit: also, as far as I can tell, GW doesn't actually keep all that much stock: if something starts selling loads, they're having to make more of it. Old stock that doesn't sell isn't actually that much of a cost to them.