Wayland

Friday, May 25, 2012

Moving to Privateer Press?

I've been talking about it for a long time, but this might be when I finally jump on to the PP bandwagon (or us it a ship?).

It's coming up to that time of the year when Games Workshop bumps up all it's prices and, if the figures that have been published for American sets are to be believed, this year is going to be a whopper.

I'm not even going to bother trying to understand why they do it. I know it's about making profit and the final prices are decided on by people far removed from the actual costumers. But it's just getting ridiculous.

A couple of years ago, when I walked back into a GW for the first time in twenty years, a boxed starter set cost £50. Now some of them cost £65. It is likely then that these same boxes well cost over £70 in a month's time. Warhammer is now approaching absolutely laughable, insane, prices for a hobby product intended for a mass market.

There is a tipping point for the price if these models, after which, it is no longer sensible to buy them. The value-added which GW beings to it's products - the great background lore, the supplementary products (books and CD's), it's retail network and associated gaming clubs, will just be outweighed by the fact noone can say with a straight face they paid nearly a hundred pounds for twenty models and a vehicle and then another twenty for a crappy finecost commander, and forty more for the rulebook.

I think we are there, or thereabouts. The competition is circling, waiting to snap up all the customers. I bet they can't believe how easy GW is making it.

On that note, PP is doing a 'summer sale' thing. Importantly for EU customers, there is free worldwide shipping on Warmachine and Hordes starter sets (if you live in Essex, it's still slightly cheaper to collect it from Wayland Games though). They are also doing army bundles for around £75. Each one is, the site says, 25 points and you get a rulebook too. I did a quick comparison of the contents of the Cryx and Retribution sets and their prices at Wayland and it looks like you basically get the rulebook for free - a saving of around £20.

So, my only real dilemma is which to go for -Cryx or the Retribution?

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