Saturday 28 September 2013

Comparing..

Just a quick comparison.

Dark Eldar Wyches. A 92 piece plastic kit that makes 10 models, you've got options for the sergeants different load outs and the different special weapons for the squad.
Currently retails at £18

Dark Elf Witches. A 67 piece plastic kit that makes 10 witch elves OR WITCH ELVES WITH DIFFERENT HEADS AND ARMS!! WOWSERS! Sorry, I mean 'or 10 Sisters of Slaughter, the totally different unit'.
You've got the components to make a champion, musician and standard bearer.
Retails at £35



Wait

What!?

7 comments:

  1. It's all about the number of sprues they put them on. The Dark Eldar fit on one double sprue with lots of parts for each model tightly packed. The way they designed the Dark Elves they have spread them over 3 double sprues and GW seem to be running a roughly £15 per double sprue system (adjusted for popularity of course). I agree it seems rediculous to price Warhammer models like this as in the WD battle report they have units of 30 & 40 models. Just another reason why Fantasy is going to have to change or die off as for the cost of one usable core unit in Warhammer seems to in excess of the cost of a whole board game (£80 for for the 40 Dark elf Spearmen, £105 for the 30 Witches).

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    Replies
    1. I wasnt expecting them to be cheap, especially when it got revealed that they were going to be a duel kit. I hadnt twigged that there was an extra sprue over the wyches though, so that explains some of it, but 1 more sprue doesnt seem to make the kit almost twice the price.
      Another mild justification could be that theyre not a standard core choice, but A)theyre still REALLY expensive, and B) they CAN be core, with the special character theyve finally released a model for (albeit bundled in with the cauldron of blood)
      The cynic in me wonders if this has come from some sort of thought process along the lines of 'WHFB has a dwindling fanbase, but the people who are left clearly love it, so wont mind us rinsing them for as much cash as possible before the game finally dies on its arse'

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    2. Also felt like mentioning, i (well, technically, its brennas) have a smallish dark elf army at home and have been waiting for plastic witches for some time. got a few metal ones, but i decided against picking those up when they jumped the price of the box set form £12 for 5 to £20 for 5 about 18 months ago. Was looking forward to plastic ones hitting eventually and anticipated them being about £25 considering the lack of bulk to them meaning theres not that much plastic invloved. That wouldve put them around the same price point as lizardmen temple guard, tomb kings tomb guard, empire greatswords, lots of similar units.
      Maybe £30 tops as that was the price of the high elves special slot dual kit.
      But no, theyre even more expensive than the high elves dual kit.

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    3. UPDATE: looking at the webstore, it looks as though the sisters of slaughter are a rare choice but witch elves are now regular dark elf CORE. As the standard unit size for core choices seems to be about 30-40, thats £105 for a 30 (wo)man core choice.
      wowsers.

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    4. Does make you wonder where they think the future of the company is heading as surely there will become a tipping point. For example, I keep using the price of models as an excuse to avoid buying more before I paint what I have/start new armies, despite the allies rules making it super easy to start a new army. There is no chance of me playing Warhammer given the number of models you need, no matter how much I love the look of some of the models.

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    5. i cant dispute that at all, im lucky enough to have managed to get in on it while battleforces were still good value (and maybe had a bit of a discount?) and also was somewhat lucky (?) to have chosen an unpopular army and managed to pick up a fair whack of extra core troops cheap on ebay.
      I do kinda think ive hit my tipping point though, ive still not picked up the space marine book, despite having an army list for it ready.
      And theres a bunch of stuff i need to get for Eldar, but i just cant be bothered.
      I need at least a wave serpent and a squad of dire avengers, but that gives me 1 list, and im really getting the feeling with 40k of late that youve just got to mix it up a lot as theres such a creeping element of rock-paper-scissors in the game to the point where youre better off having a few lists built around different themes to just have fun with.

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    6. Thug crazy elements of 40k have somewhat levelled the playing field for people who just want to have fun but there is definitely a rock/paper/scissors element to the game. As Will says we are heavily invested and it would be interesting to see if we would be into it as much if we were just starting out now.

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