twopounder

There is QC in the design process, not just production. And yes, they let things go intentionally to save time and money on the design. It's not just the quality of finished product. When you have guns that are melded into each other, that's an intentional design choice. I've seen fallout from a product that was 100% on spec for manufacturing, but turned out to be highly toxic because QA allowed formaldehyde in the mixture and it off gassed. Just because QC in production did their job, doesn't mean QC in design did theirs.

My assessment comes from experience 3d modelling for printing, and manufacturing with laser cutting and PVC extrusion, and an elp company with hundreds of mills. These all involved dedicated QC departments. What backs up your assessment that my opinion is daft?

Sadly they seemed to go very fast

Just discovered this and was able to grab one today - https://www.target.com/p/games-workshop-dawn-of-war-onslaught-board-game/-/A-94739548#lnk=sametab It has a heroes of the chapter sprue ($170) in a $50 box. Only catch is that they seem to be very limited. It was the last one on the shelf when I grabbed it and another guy got there a few seconds after me and asked if it was the last one. We looked around and didn't see any else. The store only started with 4 in stock. When I got up to checkout, the girl literally said "oh, are you the one that keeps calling about this?" Apparently its so hot that even random cashiers know the box by name. I checked stock online and there was nothing left within 100 miles of me. As a bit of a funny side story, I told her I only wanted the sprue and was going to toss the rest, since I don't care about it (I mean, its Blood Ravens). She asked if I'd give it to her instead. I was surprised and told her its basically just a bunch of cardboard, but she insisted she wanted it. I pulled the sprues and gave her the rest of the game. Maybe it will get her into 40k at some point. Not sure if this is US only, but it seems to be a Target and Barnes and Nobles exclusive.

MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price). How and where there are enforcements is a bit convoluted though. Some places seem to have perpetual sales (like Costco) while others are held to rigid price models. I think, generally, larger retailers have more leverage to discount than smaller stores that don't want to risk getting blacklisted. Last sales data I have for GW is that they sell 2:1. So you would pay $60 and get 2 kits that you could then sell for $60 each. That was a while ago though. Not sure how its done now, especially with larger chains that couldn't care less about the handful of GW products they carry. I've been able to get a lot of stuff on 50% clearance from Barnes and Noble, Target, etc.

Shapeways seems to have made a return, though they were hugely expensive the last time I checked (but that was before their bankruptcy) They removed UFD for powder based printing, so there is nothing better than FDM. I wouldn't recommend this for helmets unless you want a goop head. You could also check with some of the members here that do 3d printing. I'm currently taking a break from it, or I'd offer to help. Cults does partner with 3d printing services, so check that as well. No idea how good they are, but they advertise that you can contract for a print from various providers.

Odd question - is there a US based shop that's good for brushes? Amazon seems to only stock the knockoffs and my local shops only sell Army Painter. The non-gaming hobby stores sell the cheapest of the cheap brushes that are only really suitable for terrain. I keep getting burned on bad brushes that literally curl right out of the package.

The pricing is very interesting. MSRP at $315, ebay is selling for ~$260. This seems like a lot compared to 299 from 2.0, but the Konflikt 47 box is debuting at $330 and looks to be around the same content (including hardbound rule book). The GW box actually looks slightly better content wise. No idea how it stacks up in terms of points, as I don't play, but I don't think I've ever seen an indy game MSRP above GW like this. I don't think I have any interest in playing the game, as it looks like a train wreck of rules. I might pick up the box for collection purposes and have MK II for Dark Angels. Reading the leaked rules feels like trying to read local ordinances. Overly wordy, dry and really disengaging.

Despite this, they could have made it DA themed. There are no power swords, plasma, chaplain, terminator, etc. Why even have a chapter at all? Could just make it completely generic or just stick with ultramarines if its just bolter marines.

It makes sense that they would focus on generic plastics for the different marks first, as about half the legions don't have very distinct aesthetics as a whole (salamanders, ultramarines, SoH, Iron Warriors, Word Bearers, White Scars, etc) are mostly just a different color scheme with maybe a unique unit or two. DA, SW, IH, BA, TS, etc are going to take longer and ship fewer units because they are legion specific. Plus you can still do a lot with 40k kit bashing, since the iconography is mostly the same. Not saying other legions shouldn't have more unique geometry, but they don't have the precedence from their 40k counterparts to work with. I imagine with all of the marks rescaled and released, they'll start focusing on legion upgrades/units.

I've seen a lot of negative reactions to anyone who is critical of GW stuff, even when its justified. Kind of crazy that people aren't holding GW to the price point of the models and game. I mean, we pay a fortune for this stuff, so getting stuff that is sub par should burn everyone. Everyone is free to like or dislike it, but I think the point is more that (for its price) it seems like a step backwards from kits that came out a decade + ago.

I just drove through Texas. Twice. Didn't see a single cactus until I made it to Arizona. Joking aside, the scaling is really giving me inquisitor vibes and wondering if it wouldn't be cool to 3d print a larger scale for a 6x4 squad based game. That would actually be pretty fun.

As I've said before, this comes down to their constrained manufacturing. Artists are under pressure to create models that are easy to cut molds for and can get into the timeslot on the machines. GW has an insane production schedule. They could fill in for out of stock stuff if its slightly, but there is no way they could afford a delay of weeks. It would throw off their entire schedule. I know I'm going to get a bunch of downvotes for this, but for those that are still sane, I've worked in a factory that did extrusion (similar to injection molding but not. If you know you know). This has clearly been an issue for a long while because their vehicles are all so poorly designed to fit into this schedule, Like laughably bad designed. How do I know? Because I've done 3d art and also was able to start 3d modelling a Sicaran from the 2d artwork. I'm not a great 3d modeler, but this was really easy. I even modernized the tracks You can hate me all you want, but is your money. GW is cutting a lot of corners to make the deadline and they are charging a premium for it.

This makes plasma complete trash. We're also assuming that Breaching also becomes AP2. They could have changed it to AP 3 for all we know. But it loses instant death, doesn't disrupt FNP, and doesn't really provide a reason to use it above almost any other weapon upgrade. I get it, in a game that is just space marine vs space marine, they didn't want plasma spam, but they've made it utterly useless now. Sucks to be a DA player now, I guess, as all the special units use plasma without any ability to swap them out.

It still surprises me that they won't resolve the full turn sequence issue. Even Andy Chambers stated that they really wanted to get rid of it in 3rd edition, but just didn't have the time with a full game overhaul that required new plastic molds and entire revision of all the army books. Its the #1 biggest issue with the game and a lot of the problems would go away if it wasn't possible to wipe half an opponents army before they even get a chance to move on the first turn. It also looks like there are a lot of new rules that could offset anything they try to do with the stat simplification. Plus they did it a really roundabout way. For example, Melta gives armorbane at 6". Okay, so instead of just saying a melta weapon has the Armorbane rule, you have to lookup what melta does, and melta tells you to go look up what armorbane does. Its these kind of details that pile on and make the game a slog. I'm interested in how they tweaked vehicles to not be one hit kills and seeing if that didn't make them way overpowered. In terms of the new FoC, I hesitantly like it. Its a modified version of Legions Imperialis, which I quite liked. But it also stacks a bunch of rules that aren't present in that list building system.