Well, this one is going to be a bit of a health check. Nine months (give or take) down, where are we at?
First up, Age of Sigmar. What a great turn of events. I know that this has been discussed, and speculated on by just about every man and his dog, so I'm not going to get too carried away, but we finally have Points on the horizon! This is great news, and the last piece of the puzzle to make a truly enjoyable game that celebrates the hobby in all its aspects!
The main point that I think was lost in recent months, is that we currently play a Beta-test of a brand new game. This is not in any way connected to the Old World as we knew it (in a gaming sense), and while characters and armies from Warhammer Fantasy have rules, and are still for sale (for the most part, but we'll get to that,) the thing to remember is that things are starting from scratch and the new factions are evidence of that. Stormcast and Bloodbound led out the gate, and while Chaos was the same old entity we know and love, Sigmarines (as they have been labelled) were a huge shift in both story and model aesthetics. The imagery was less real, and more exaggerated than it had been in the past. Then came what many players had been crying out for since Dwarfs first arrived.
Plastic Slayers.
But not just plastic slayers. Plastic Slayers riding Fire Lizards!
These followed in the new aesthetic, with ridiculously wild beards and mohawks, and having a distinctly "high-fantasy" spin, veering away from a world that was almost trying to convince you it could have been real once upon a time.
Most recently, Orruks, as they are now called, have been the most recent faction to get an injection of new life, with new characters, armoured warpigs that put Chaos Knights to shame, and the biggest angriest Rhino-toad you've ever seen! The last nine months have seen some of the most spectacular kits released, and there appears to be no signs of slowing down, with even Forge World releasing new Age of Sigmar models. What a time to be part of the game!
This leads me to my next point that I'd like to discuss with you, my dear reader. The recent culling of a large number of kits and individual models from the Fantasy range, Bretonnians and Tomb Kings being the main victims. A lot of people were pretty cranky that their armies were being shelved or that models they didn't already own were no longer available, and to them I can sympathize.
But here's the skinny. The models that got canned were the models that either didn't sell or were so old as to be obselete in the current age. The selling issue was by no means an Age of Sigmar problem. This goes back to the Warhammer Fantasy days, where the old guard (myself included) simply didn't touch Bretonnians or Tomb Kings because they were not that great. That's not to say the armies weren't ever used, but they didn't have the popularity or selling power of, say, Chaos or Elves. And when something doesn't sell, from a business perspective, you have two options. Either cut your losses and drop the product or inject money into the product to make it viable and relevant again.
Games Workshop has chosen to cut the products that were unpopular and didn't sell. For more reasons than just that. The company creates and distributes more and more new models each year. At some point, there has to be a limit to how many different items one company can stock before it begins to buckle under its own weight. So what they've done is quite normal for a business and is actually not the first time GW has done this. This just happens to be the most public (thanks to the "Last Chance to Buy" campaign) and most widespread and simultaneous. Throw your mind back, if you will, to when Warriors of Chaos got their most recent army book in 8th Edition. Previous to that release, the Warriors range was very character-heavy, having a multitude of different heroes, wizards and exalted champions to pick from; some of them were average models, but most were amazing for their time. These all just vanished and the wheels kept rolling.
The same thing happened with Beastmen. a good half of their range (mostly characters and a few select other units such as Razorgors) evaporated. This happens when a model sells slowly, and the warehouse runs out of stock. The company could make another batch, package them, ship them and have them take up space in the warehouse again, but the cost is great, and with some of the more obscure models, often only collectors want them, and often those collectors only want one. From a business perspective (and GW is, after all, a business to make money), it's simply not worth the outlay of cash for questionable and very slow return.
That was a really long winded statement, but the short version is, "To continue to create new, amazing models, older, less amazing models have to be retired to make room".
This took me a long time to come to grips with, as I also missed out on a lot of those classic models, and I'll be honest, I was not happy about it. But then I realised that if that's the price we have to pay for the mind-blowingly good models that are coming out of the company today, then I'm in...
Exciting times are ahead for Age of Sigmar. It's gonna get crazy...
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
