Tau at last but at what price!

[The Other Dave]

I do not ever see myself giving my son so much pocket money that he can buy a playable, "full size" (1500pts) 40k army, never mind one that contains all the models in any given army book.

Do you?

Over the course of as much time as it took me to collect my first army? Sure.

[Primarch]

To be honest, if I have a child I am not expecting them to pick up my hobby, but if they do so, buying an army unit by unit over a couple of years (including birthdays and xmas) doesn't seem like such a stretch. Of course, if they want to play apocalypse or have enough minis to field every combination of every unit, then that is another discussion entirely. Plus, I already have a tonne of minis to play with so that makes things easier.

My post above wasn't meant as a criticism of GW per se, (though I'm certainly not defending them), but more as support for Badruck's point of view. Most hobbies cost money, so long as you are happy with what you get for the money you spend then you are fine. Once you feel dissatisfied with what you get you should probably start looking around for something new.

Going back to the original topic in this thread, I think the new flyer and the riptide look pretty cool. IF I was going to collect Tau, I would probably buy them and feel happy about what I had bought. The repackaged battlesuits still look kinda bad in my opinion, so spending money on them would be less appealing overall.

[job]

Personally I am in complete agreement with Prim, Badruck, and ToD. While I have no love for GW as it now stands, it is true that most other hobbies can and often are just as expensive if not more.

In my pee wee years of Middle and High school, I saved diligently, scraped the bitz box and borrowed from time to time (but avoided proxying generally) for 4 to 5 years. I had no allowance and I finally built an army after learning a lot patience, knowledge of bargain hunting, planning with pitiful finances, and being wise with the few dollars I had.

(Anyway, might I add that the models seemed to be just as expensive then? Haven't GW prices kept pace with the cost of gasoline, food and other commodities?)

I think the hobby may be a bit more expensive, but I think it just takes a different approach to collection, maybe more on the lines of those money hard years of high school and college. Thinking about it makes me feel even a little nostalgic.


PS: good for the Tau! Of course you always have to pay the Devil's toll when you want a GW codex update.

[me_in_japan]

Re-reading my previous post, I think my fatigue is beginning to show (been very busy of late.) It's different strokes for different folks, so all is well and good. I mean, I'm happy to pay 10, 15 quid for a one-off resin model for display (studio McVey, etc) but many would consider that a daft purchase. Still, I'm happy with it, and folks seem to be fine with that. Likewise, I shall endeavour to achieve karmic peace with the notion that some are ok with GWs sales policy, and happily continue to buy their stuff.

OoooooooooOOooOoooooommmmmm...

[Miguelsan]

And if the Tau suits don't fit you I just went through Yamada Denki where you can get all the gundam suits you might want to proxy for 970Y a piece

M.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I think it's interesting to read both Badruck and Prim's comments on this. Both are eminently sensible, fairly well thought out opinions. The key difference is that Badruck's largely defends the game known as 40k. Prim's is a (mild, granted) criticism of Games Workshop. These two entities are not the same thing. Clearly, looking around my room I am a chap who has no problem with miniature wargaming. 40k vs Warmafaux is not the issue here. What I do have a problem with is GW. The way they promote their products, their attitude to consumers, the sense of being taken advantage of every time I buy one of their products (which I haven't done in a long time, I might add.) The article that Konrad posted from uncyclopedia was a spoof, of course, but its description of GW wasn't too far off the mark. I simply can't believe that GW need to charge so much for their models. Nobody else sells such expensive pieces for a game that requires so many components.

I think the change in attitude can be summarised thus:

When I was a young teenager, I could go into town and buy a blister of minis with my pocket money. I could probably buy a couple of chocolate bars with the change, too. In this way, supplemented with birthday and Christmas presents, over a couple of years I collected an Eldar army large enough to contain all the models needed to play at any points level that I would reasonably be called upon to, including plenty of variation.

I do not ever see myself giving my son so much pocket money that he can buy a playable, "full size" (1500pts) 40k army, never mind one that contains all the models in any given army book.

Do you?

The entire point of a any company is to make money. You present some rather personal opinions. When I was a teenager $30 was like $100 today. I can still go down with my pocket money and get a model or two and then I get a Kaababe and go home.

Kenya has a 1500 point nid army that I will gladly add too from the new stuff that comes out.

Robi has a 1000 point ork army that I will gladly add too if she ever asks me.

Miki had a 1000 point necron army that I would love to add models to but she never seems to want to.

If anyone is just getting in to the game thy can by two starter sets and have more than enough to play and paint that would last them for at least a moth then the can buy a box set a month. In a year they have a great army.

[Spevna]

The entire point of a any company is to make money.

It is possible to make money without overcharging for your products, alienating your existing customer base, and forgetting the core principles that your company was based on.

[Admiral-Badruck]

They are free to do business as they see fit. And they cand live with the fall out....

[Eigen]

While it's off topic, I love reading the views on GW. It's love-hate with me. I love the model designs and the new kits are very intuitive in their construction (the Valkyrie model was really impressive for how it came together!). But I hate how the company handles international markets.

I think one key thing for me is the Bunker Store concept and community...when I move home to Canada, there's a great bunker store with constant no-admission events and free access to boxes of bits for their various modelling workshops. They have about 8 tables and a whole selection of terrain models to use anytime we want. It's a great environment and we don't have that with other indi games. There isn't easy access to a bunker store here but, until such a time comes until I'm close to one again, there's great people like Badruck that plays and is "only" about 2 hours away! haha

Most other minis I've played have been come-and-go affairs that left me with boxes of stuff that rarely gets used. It makes me want to listen to My Chemical Romance and start a blog on how sad it is.

Some games I really want to try (and hope to at Nagoya Hammer). But when I leave the region/country...these games don't carry over well in other parts of the world.

Back on topic: this is a bit of a negative observation...but that Tau flier. Top-down it has lines strikingly similar to other models in the line (Valk). Do you think GW is making the (erroneous imo) approach of design sharing between Xeno and Imperial races? I'd really REALLY have loved to see a completely unique flier concept for the Tau. We're talking advanced skimmer technology and shields...certain aerodynamic qualities could be ignored for the sake of awesome, or advanced and unique lines could be employed (loved the look of the Barracuda/Tiger Shark looks). Creating the love child of a Valk and DFish seems kind of cheap to me.

I could have totally envisioned them reapproaching the sea-life concept ideas...there's a multitude of them around the web: http://www.psychoform.com/htmlgallery/spaceship.htm

Or even going more in line with their ubersuit: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-conte ... 4_0012.jpg

[The Underdweller]

I could have totally envisioned them reapproaching the sea-life concept ideas...there's a multitude of them around the web: http://www.psychoform.com/htmlgallery/spaceship.htm

Or even going more in line with their ubersuit: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-conte ... 4_0012.jpg

The Manta ray ship would make a pretty cool Tau Flyer!

Apparently the Tau codex is coming out a week earlier than anticipated, March 30th

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/03/ ... video.html