Newton's Law

I was looking at what models I had bought this year…..mainly as my bank balance seemed unusually healthy.

Since the turn of the year I have purchased the following stuff:

• Clampack Grey Seer (new) 
• Clampack Warlord (new) 
• Stormfiends box (new) 
• Metal White Lions (subsequently sold) - used 
• Metal/Plastic Chaos Dwarf army – used but unpainted 
• Metal Archaon on Foot –used 
• Metal Shorgar on Foot –used 5 
• Metal Phoenix Guard and Eagle Bolt Thrower - used 
• Tabletop World Bridge 

The great thing is that I have sold off more than enough to cover those purchases plus new airbrush(es), air brush paint set and weathering powder set. There have been less than 5-6 GW paints purchased in the year so far.

So I guess the Games Workshop premise that veterans don’t buy is at least partly true. However I would say that that is also – in part – self-imposed. Typically in the past I would spend $2-3,000 net on product each year. This is my main hobby and pastime. In addition to product spend I would have outlays attending events, many overseas. The local GW pricing policies have removed virtually all my local spending – apart from immediate requirements – because I don’t like being played for a fool. I therefore use a UK supplier such as Element Games or Firestorm Games and the Youshop service provided by NZ Post. This has in the past given savings of up to 40%. With the recent fall in the NZD this has diminished somewhat.

The other thing that curtailed my GW spending was the past year’s “cloud” around releases. GW has had in place a “no forward promotion” policy for the past 3 years – which I find ludicrous as it goes against pretty much every tenet of marketing. Compounding this we had the “End Times” and the wait for "9th".

 The ET release galvanised parts of the community who did not like the fluff direction. I enjoyed the story progression but felt the model/rules release –particularly in retrospect having seen the entirety – lacked the support and commitment that I would have expected from GW. In light of subsequent events it is hard to see it as anything other than a money grab from the company.

And this is probably what annoys me the most and has definitely factored into my buying habits.

Games Workshop knew 12-18 months ago that there was no “9th Edition”. They knew they were discontinuing the game and yet they sold expensive sourcebooks with rules they knew would be invalidated in 4-8 months. IMO that was a kick in the balls to the people that bought them. The target market was hobbyists/veterans and they sold them to them knowing full well they were shitting all over the very world they were shilling.

Yes you can use the models in the new game. But it is a new game. It was a radical departure from their behaviour of the past thirty years and they deliberately kept it hidden while they squeezed the last juice out of the orange.

Now I’m lucky. I hate the aesthetic of the new Stormcast models. I’m not looking for a new skirmish game. That makes it easy for me not to give Games Workshop my money. In effect, they have created the very situation of reducing a veteran’s hobby spend to zero. I appreciate I’m not their target market anymore….but you know what? I’m not sure I want to be the target customer of a company that treats its customers as GW has done over the past 18 months.