Today the guys take a break away from the game and talk about GW’s business practices surrounding the release of 9th edition. Including the Indomitus box set release controversy, discussing the new GW app, and talking about the effect 40k’s growing popularity will have on the hobby.
Chapter Tactics is (usually) a 40k podcast which focuses on promoting better tactical play and situational awareness across all variations of the game.
- Head on over to 40kstats.com for more faction stats for all major ITC tournaments!
- Support us on Patreon this month and get a chance to receive random stuff from us!
- Click here for a link for information on downloading best coast pairings app where you can find lists for most of the events I mention.
- Check out the last episode of Chapter Tactics here. Or, click here for a link to a full archive of all of our episodes.
- Check out Skari on Skaredcast, for excellent 40k tactics videos and Monday Meta analysis.
- Commercial music by: www.bensound.com
- Intro by: Justin Mahar
What controversy? The leading miniatures producer in the world releases a box during Covid-19 when their factory is running at reduced output after a lengthy lock-down.
They sell out.
Now they’re making more.
And the starter sets are still to come.
Now California, Texas and Florida are locking down so no more tournaments for even longer.
Done.
You could at least listen to it, they explicity addressed COVID stuff
Why did FLG take down the article titled ‘In Defense of Scalpers’?
We took it down because while in normal circumstances I think it would have generated an interesting discussion, given what hapenned over the weekend with lots of folks missing out on Indomitus (which the author wasn’t aware of when he wrote it) it was really upsetting some folks. So we decided to pull it as the timing of it was just really bad.
“””””””””””””””””””””””””””””interesting discussion””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
There’s a reason it was upsetting folks. It’s an extremely bad take coming from a company like FLG. You need to address this directly.
If you have a stance to take, and it seems to be “free market is fine”, then don’t be cowards and own up to your opinions, and the consequences of those opinions.
If you now believe that stance was wrong, you need to come out and say so. Until then it really just looks like you got caught with your hands in the cookie jar.
Well, a few things. For one, the writers are independent. I don’t censor them and they don’t work for FLG. Rhys didn’t bounce the idea off of me before writing it, he just wrote it because he thought it was topical. I saw it when everyone else did. However, how would you (or almost any reader) know that? It also sounds like a cop out to try and throw Rhys under the bus, so we don’t. We take responsibility for every word that is printed on FLG’s blog. He and I talked about it once I was actually awake and saw it, and I explained that over the weekend a lot of people got a raw deal with the Indomitus boxes not being available, etc. and that that is why what he felt was a pretty lighthearted article generated so much negative emotion. It wasn’t meant to be controversial, it’s just that the timing was really bad.
I don’t personally think scalping is a good thing but it is a part of the hobby for better or worse. And again, if that was written a month ago it likely would have flown under the radar and generated only a small amount of buzz.
I wanted a chance for an angry echo chamber! You OWE me that, explain yourself! I am owed!!
I just wanted to join in ?
Now here’s the real complaint, “Australians are pommies”
Insane. Aussie or ozzy you mad man.
Frankie was complicit as well.
Lol, you done showed us, sir! =P
The author clearly wasn’t aware of what scalping even *is*.
Folks necessarily have to miss out on something for scalpers to make a profit.
This is some pretty wild logic.
Yeah, his point of view on it was different but he really wasn’t trying to cause people to get upset, he was really apologetic about the unintended response in communication with me.
It was just a bad call for a topic at this time, but that happens some times. He’s a very good writer and produces quality content consistently, this was just an off week for him.
Are you guys allowed to release the quantity of box sets you received for release for 8th and 9th edition? I think it might shed some light on how bad of a mess up this was and how much 40k has grown this edition. They aren’t 100% comparable since this one was promised to be limited and the contents aren’t exactly equal, but it might help us understand GW’s thought pattern in all of this.
We’re still working out what we actually will get this time, it’s all a bit confused. But I do know this, Indomitus sold significantly more in the first hour than the 8th ed starter set sold in all three years of 8th ed. It was wild.
On the pre-orders from a user experience standpoint. The website traffic spike wasn’t an unexpected event and GW’s backend could have been better prepared to handle the increase. It is one thing to sell out of a hot product but the entire website being unresponsive isn’t an acceptable event in 2020.
My concern about the app and GW attempting a living ruleset stems from playing Slaanesh Daemons in 40k. Every time GW has reprinted the 2019 Slaanesh Daemon datasheets four times now and each time there has been trivial and nontrivial changes done. Unless you eyeball the old and new rules, line by line, you won’t notice the changes.
GW would need to both
A) Work on their editing discipline to stop making trivial changes to avoid rules churn.
B) Publish a “changelog/patch notes” so that players are aware they changed something.
As a new person who is getting into this hobby right now, I can attest that it’s kind of a pain in the ass. There are a lot of getting started guides and stuff out there but they are almost all written by people who have been playing for many years and are lacking context for those of us who are complete newbz.
If I wasn’t such a bulldog about learning new things and diving in to join Discord groups, subreddits and ping some of my friends that played long ago, I feel like I would have given up a while ago.
I get questions from my friends who are almost as new as I am (I’ve played four total games on TTS, all 8th edition) and they have questions like “what the hell is the difference between Space Marines and their chapters?” I know it seems absolutely ridiculously obvious to anyone who has played for a while but he was completely lost. Hell, I’m still not even sure what a “Battle-Forged Army” even is, but I am assuming I am building lists that match that criteria because I’m following along with armies built on detachments.
It’s a mess for a new person. TTS makes it easier to get my friends to try it, since they don’t have to dump a bunch of money into models for a game they might not even like, but even then explaining the rules and the nuisances of army building and the gotchas of things like what Warlord to bring really make it difficult for a casual new player to come to the game.
There is a part of me really looking at making some “let’s learn this goddamn game together” YouTube videos where experienced players can tell me how I messed up one thing or another in the comments as I try to comically explain how I am learning the rules, picking my army, painting models, etc.