Hey everybody! Adam, from TFG Radio, here to bask in the glory that is the releases from Games Workshop for 40K
There is a lot of hope for the new year. On the tabletop we hope to see what new stuff that Games Workshop has in store for us. They showed us some of what is coming up for the game, among others. We don’t care about that though as we just received a new power armor codex and are just getting ready to preorder for another power armor army. I am not going to lie, I am a bit thankful that the pace of releases has slowed down a bit.
Back in the mists of time the release schedule for Games Workshop was as slow as a turtle in molasses. You maybe had 1 release a month for your game system, if you were lucky, and many times they would alternate each month between Warhammer Fantasy and 40K. There would sometimes be additional releases, especially if a codex was being released, but that didn’t happen often and you didn’t know when your codex would be updated for the latest edition or even if it was being updated at all. There used to be times when some codexes wouldn’t be updated and would go a whole edition with an old codex. It allowed one to leisurely build a new army, paint it and then, if they wanted to, sell it in order to get funds to build the next army coming up. Even then, there were times that the only way we new something new was coming was either when the local store got the black box of new stuff or read about it in White Dwarf. That all changed however.
Around late 7th edition there seemed to be a need to offload the remaining codexes. I mean we were already seeing releases every week from Games Workshop but now instead of just models we were getting new codexes about every week. It made it difficult to keep up with the changes and especially for those that would chase the meta. This continued somewhat in 8th edition when we would sometimes get codexes back to back and even got 2 codexes released on the same day. The issue continued somewhat but seemed to slow down a bit so that we would get maybe a codex a month but is still a bit of a fast pace when previously we got a codex every few months, if we were lucky. It did cause a bit of exhaustion for some people, even if they didn’t buy the codexes, as they would have to play and adjust to the new armies at a pace they weren’t used to.
So what do I think now? I actually like this new pace. Not too much too fast but not the slow drip that there used to be. I am not sure if Games Workshop will return to the frantic release rate as before but I hope not. I need the time for my head to wrap around the latest, and greatest, codex and at the same time I need my wallet to recover also.
That’s all for this week. Hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think, and if you enjoy the slower release pace, in the comments section below. Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!
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Ah the sound of a man who already has his codex. This pace is death and it’s boring as hell! The idea that some of us will be waiting 1-2 years into 9th Ed for a book when the be Codices are vastly more powerful than 8th just drives fomo and gets players thinking they should just start an army of whatever is hot right now. I think it’s bad for the game, bad for business, and bad for me personally.
Why bad for business? Back in October I wanted to start a CSM army, well if I’d gone on my hype back then (and a codex was available) I’d be sitting on a mountain of plastic. At is it stands I’ve had four months to think about it, I’ve lost the momentum, and with the CSM codex “somewhere” in this desperately plodding release schedule in pretty much ready to give up on that project and just come back to it if I ever get the will again.
So by staggering the releases to the inane degree, GW is out one chaos army. And more! Talk is identical around my gaming club: people interested in Tau or Eldar or Tyranids or Guard or Knights or (it goes on) are just left out in the endless boring space marine rain waiting for a book that may be too late to keep them in the hobby.
I’m one of the 40-50% new people in this club. I hadn’t played Warhammer since third edition. If GW wants to keep us they need to exploit our early excitement and pick up the pace!