How expensive is too expensive on the new HH 2.0 Launch Box?

[Marshal Mittens]

Current rumor is £240 or $400+ for the launch box.

 

Rumors could be full of :cuss, of course.

 

If their right, that's a LOT more than I was personally expecting, with $300 USD being up upwards guess.

 

How much would the box have to cost before you were not interested in getting one, if you were interested before?

 

At $250 to $300 it looked like an amazing deal, but at $400 a huge amount of the potential "savings" evaporates, and most of the "savings" is book and character tax.

 

I was thinking of getting at least 3 at the $250 to $300 range, but at $400-450 range that's either 1 or none for me, personally.

 

I think charging that much, out the gate, is minimal savings, and it's going to keep a lot of folks who would have otherwise jumped in out of the pool, so to speak.

[Beerhammer]

GW normally has some "special" item in the box that they do not sell right off the back and they think people would buy the box no matter the cost to have those special items early. Example: In AoS Dominion you got a bunch of stuff that was not sold separately but in a bundle later on. One bundle for the Stormcast and one for the Krul'boyz. Both Dominion was only $200 and then the bundles were sold at $115 each.

 

Hope that makes sense. 

[Marshal Mittens]

Dominion can be bought on Amazon for $114 now, new. I think they over estimated its appeal. I think Dominion comes with more models than this box too :/

 

Not sure what the special stuff is in this box. Honestly a little surprised they didn't contain more character type models.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Marshall Mittens

[Axineton]

I won’t be paying £240 or the twenty percent discount I can get that would take it down to £192. I guess I’m not to worried then. But if it is these prices then it’s ridiculous in my own personal opinion. 

[TheFirstKnight]

It’s a launch box; I’m not too worried at this initially high price. It’s been said there’ll be smaller boxes soon enough, and the stuff like the rulebook etc will be sold seperately anyways.

[Slave to Darkness]

But people will get the bigger box for the 'savings' made over buying the smaller boxes or stand alone kits, even though they dont 'need' the big box... 'But muh savings!!' 

 

I thing GW is hitting breaking point for their prices now, this box might sell, hell even Im interested IF I can get it at the right price, and even with discount I think £200 ish is a bit naughty. I am curious how well this sells. 

[Slave to Darkness]

I won’t be paying £240 or the twenty percent discount I can get that would take it down to £192. I guess I’m not to worried then. But if it is these prices then it’s ridiculous in my own personal opinion. 

Even 192 is a tad pricey, yes yes I know GW have super detailed minis but that price can get me a huge ass army from literally any other company. Tbh I dont even think GW sculpts are that good, so I dont see how they can say they sell the best minis in the market. Too much detail for details sake... 

[MARK0SIAN]

The box is both a high price and good value (in the context of GW) if you actually want the stuff in it. I know that sounds obvious but that’s not always the case with GW.

 

Basic estimates of the plastic kits alone makes it about £370-£380 in terms of models (it’s hard to gauge how much they’ll want for the Spartan). My usual bench mark for GW boxes is “can I buy the separate components at a third party retailer for the same price as GW wants for the box”. Here, even if you could get the stuff separately from a third party with a discount, you’d still be saving about £60 over buying it all separately. Plus everyone who wants to play will probably want the rulebook on top of that.

 

It largely comes down to whether you want the stuff in the box. All of its pretty useful. Most lists will want 2 HQs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a HH game that didn’t have at least 1 dread in it, the Spartan is a good and popular unit and so are terminators. The only real question mark is if you want 40 tacticals but hopefully they’ll be easy enough to convert into tactical/heavy support squads or veterans. Granted if you’re thinking of using it purely to bulk out an existing collection it might be a bit much though.

 

I do think the box is a very high price but I also think it’s worth it because I’ll use everything in it.

Edited April 27, 2022 by MARK0SIAN

[Halandaar]

Not sure how you've come to the conclusion that there's a very minor saving on offer here. Assuming that these kits have the following RRP prices:

• Praetors - £36 (£18 each as per Fafnir Rann and Dominion Zephon)
• Beakies - £144 (£36 per squad, as per Intercessors)
• Terminators - £72 (£36 per squad, as per their latest price)

Those things alone come to £252 meaning that if the rumoured box price of £240 is true then what you're actually getting for "free" is the Rulebook, most of a Praetor, the Contemptor and the Spartan, which is not insignificant at all. (Yes obviously this is GBP vs USD but all the prices will be inflated by the same degree so it's still valid)

 

Obviously the headline price is still very high, and it will represent a significant barrier for entry to a lot of people, no doubt. But in terms of value, it looks pretty excellent even at that high price and if you're going to be buying all those things anyway, this is absolutely the best way to do it.

[Spagunk]

One thing I noticed. GBP to USD conversion has dropped considerably in the past 2 years. It is now ~1.25 USD per GBP which is very low. However GW NEVER adjusts pricing as they go through a cycle and that cycle was pre-pandemic GBP converstion.

So on a lark I went through and calculated what conversion rate GW is at for some brand new things and I am getting anywhere from a 1.46 to 1.65 approximate conversion rate. It's a range because all the new stuff vary so much where certain boxes like the latest Tyranid combat patrol is about 1.68 from the GBP version while other new kits are only in the 1.4 range.

If we go with a 1.65 conversion rate (Much higher than the GBP to USD conversion at this time), we're going to see anywhere from 375USD to over 400USD. That is wild since I can probably order this from the UK, pay to have it shipped and it will STILL be lower than this hypothetical amount.

But all of this is pure speculation at this time since it assumes 240GBP initially and also assumes a supposed GW conversion rate.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Spagunk

[Marshal Mittens]

Not sure how you've come to the conclusion that there's a very minor saving on offer here. Assuming that these kits have the following RRP prices:

• Praetors - £36 (£18 each as per Fafnir Rann and Dominion Zephon)
• Beakies - £144 (£36 per squad, as per Intercessors)
• Terminators - £72 (£36 per squad, as per their latest price)

Those things alone come to £252 meaning that if the rumoured box price of £240 is true then what you're actually getting for "free" is the Rulebook, most of a Praetor, the Contemptor and the Spartan, which is not insignificant at all. (Yes obviously this is GBP vs USD but all the prices will be inflated by the same degree so it's still valid)

 

Obviously the headline price is still very high, and it will represent a significant barrier for entry to a lot of people, no doubt. But in terms of value, it looks pretty excellent even at that high price and if you're going to be buying all those things anyway, this is absolutely the best way to do it.

240 pounds is 301 USD. I would be happy at $300. But we are apparently getting hit hard with the "not in UK" tax. $400 is an extra hundred over the exchange rate.

[Excessus]

How expensive is too expensive?

 

That differs from person to person, some find it reasonable and some find it too expensive.

[Halandaar]

240 pounds is 301 USD. I would be happy at $300. But we are apparently getting hit hard with the "not in UK" tax. $400 is an extra hundred over the exchange rate.

 

 

I even specifically said this:

 

(Yes obviously this is GBP vs USD but all the prices will be inflated by the same degree so it's still valid)

 

Let me Americanize my initial post for you:

• Praetors - $67 ($33.50 each as per Fafnir Rann and Dominion Zephon)
• Beakies - $240 ($60 per squad, as per Intercessors)
• Terminators - $120 ($60 per squad, as per their latest price)

Those things alone come to $427 meaning that if the rumored box price of $400 is true then what you're actually getting for "free" is the Rulebook, most of a Praetor, the Contemptor and the Spartan, which is not insignificant at all.

 

See? Yes, the overall price you have to pay is higher than it "should" be if prices in the US were based fairly on the exchange rate. But the proportion of savings you make is exactly the same, because the price of the standalone kits will be inflated too.

 

You can't buy at "fair" (i.e. exchange rate linked) prices anyway, so I can't understand why you'd suddenly expect GW to undercut their entire US pricing model to release this at a cost way below what they already charge you for similar kits.

[Cris R]

The real question is how much would all this cost in FW resin - save for the Terminators, which we have in plastic - and whether the new box set would offer a better value compared to those prices.

 

I’m also sure our Australian and Canadian friends have choice words about inflated GW prices as well.

[sarabando]

I want it all for £100

[Excessus]

I want it all for £100

I want it all for free...either is not likely to happen though...

[Tyriks]

If it's $400 I don't know if I can. I have some HH TS I was working on a long time ago, and I'd love to pick this up and add to that force. But $400 is a ton of money, and I've been buying a lot of the Eldar plastics, so I don't know if I want this badly enough. If it's under $400 I'll probably grab one.

 

The price rumors in the recent past seem to have been much less reliable than the rules releases they've come alongside, so I'm waiting to decide until we see something more concrete.

[No Foes Remain]

 

I want it all for £100

I want it all for free...either is not likely to happen though...

 

I want GW to pay me to get it, but that won't happen either. No one with any sense would pay someone and give them a Spartan with a Mk2 dude in plastic...

[Noserenda]

I mean... The savings are essentially irrelevant if the ticket price is too high, the only way id personally be able to manage one of these is a tax rebate/misc windfall (unlikely) or selling one of my existing armies (Painful) and as i talked about elsewhere its an awful incentive to a new player who may not even get on with the game and right now it has pretty poor crossover with 40k to boot which is going to hurt it, (though updating the Spartan's rules would go a loooong way to fixing that for minimal effort) for players who would consider that safety net.

Myself id have looked to match up roughly with Betrayal at Calth minis wise and released the Spartan separately, its still a powerful and popular kit, you dont need it in there driving up the price and being largely invulnerable in starter only games. Bigger isnt always better after all.

[Cris R]

I mean... The savings are essentially irrelevant if the ticket price is too high, the only way id personally be able to manage one of these is a tax rebate/misc windfall (unlikely) or selling one of my existing armies (Painful) and as i talked about elsewhere its an awful incentive to a new player who may not even get on with the game and right now it has pretty poor crossover with 40k to boot which is going to hurt it, (though updating the Spartan's rules would go a loooong way to fixing that for minimal effort) for players who would consider that safety net.

 

Myself id have looked to match up roughly with Betrayal at Calth minis wise and released the Spartan separately, its still a powerful and popular kit, you dont need it in there driving up the price and being largely invulnerable in starter only games. Bigger isnt always better after all.

 

The thing is that it's likely we'll get something along those lines down the road. It's just a matter whether a large box like that is the best way to launch 2.0 so new players can begin entering the system and keep established folks happy with new additions to their forces or a foundation for a new army. That's part of the argument that's raging right now in the Necromunda community around the purported price of the new Ash Wastes starter.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Cris R

[Marshal Mittens]

 

 

I mean... The savings are essentially irrelevant if the ticket price is too high, the only way id personally be able to manage one of these is a tax rebate/misc windfall (unlikely) or selling one of my existing armies (Painful) and as i talked about elsewhere its an awful incentive to a new player who may not even get on with the game and right now it has pretty poor crossover with 40k to boot which is going to hurt it, (though updating the Spartan's rules would go a loooong way to fixing that for minimal effort) for players who would consider that safety net.

 

Myself id have looked to match up roughly with Betrayal at Calth minis wise and released the Spartan separately, its still a powerful and popular kit, you dont need it in there driving up the price and being largely invulnerable in starter only games. Bigger isnt always better after all.

The thing is that it's likely we'll get something along those lines down the road. It's just a matter whether a large box like that is the best way to launch 2.0 so new players can begin entering the system and keep established folks happy with new additions to their forces or a foundation for a new army. That's part of the argument that's raging right now in the Necromunda community around the purported price of the new Ash Wastes starter.

I wonder if Ashe Wastes will be like dominion, sales wise.

[Arkhanist]

If it is £240, that's me out - with the cost of living spike, I can't justify that to the missus, no matter how much I love these new mark VI. Yes, it's a saving over the retail cost, but that's only because the standalone prices have gone up so much! For me, I really don't like the praetors, nor do they fit my legion (WE). Nor do I need the bundled rules right away, as it's going to be a good long while before I have an army painted. I already have enough cataphractii. So that leaves 40 tacticals, the contemptor and the spartan. I definitely don't need 40 more tacs (I haver B@C + BoP to assemble and paint!), but I could use the bodies with alt arms and bits, so I could probably find enough use for them. And I doooooo love beakies.

 

So let's say the spartan is between a knight (£100) and a land raider crusader (£65), let's say £80, and ~£40 for the new dread. (natfka has them at £60 and £35 respectively - I don't believe either)

 

So that's £144+£80+£40 list price for the stuff I actually want @ £264, vs £240 for the box. Sure, I could probably try and sell the rules, praetors and terminators on ebay, but I've been screwed by that before, so it's not much of a saving for me personally. About £150-170 after retailer discount, and I'd be *much* more interested.

 

The subsequent 'split' release boxes ain't much use for me either if leaks pan out either; they cost more than the bits I'm after!

 

big intro box, £180

- 30 MkVI Marines
- 10 Terminators
- 1 Contemptor Dreadnought (the Monopose one)
- 2 Characters (not same as launch box)

- small softcover rulebook

 

medium intro box, £100

- 20 MkVI Marines
- 5 Terminators
- 1 Contemptor Dreadnought (the Monopose one)
- 2 Characters (not same as launch box)

- small softcover rulebook

 

So if you want all the stuff in the launch box, I'm sure it's gonna be great, and I'm genuinely happy for you. But me, I guess I'll be waiting until August/September when the individual boxes come out; and if other costs haven't jumped even higher by then. Sucks that I'm finally getting priced out of a hobby I've been doing for 30 years, but c'est la vie.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Arkhanist

[MARK0SIAN]

I do find myself in the rare position of sympathising with GWs dilemma on this kind of box. Heresy has been around for a long time and existing players have built up quite large armies. To generate enough sales from existing players there’s got to be some draw to the launch box because, even though the new beaky kit is great, I’m sure a lot of existing players would find adding 30-40 more tacticals to their force would be hard to justify. This is why I feel they opted to put the Spartan in it. It attracts existing players because it’s a cool unit, it’s new in plastic, it’s a big tank and couple with the Dread, the termies and the HQs it also easily amounts to a solid core of a brand new legion for existing players.

[WrathOfTheLion]

From the 30k perspective, basically the Spartan and two squads of Cataphractii on their own added up to the contents of this box in USD for instance (180 + 140 -> 320). Add the rulebook and all, and even at $400 USD, basically all of the tactical marines, characters and dreadnought are on top of just what a minute chunk of this box costed just 2 months ago.

[Marshal Mittens]

I do find myself in the rare position of sympathising with GWs dilemma on this kind of box. Heresy has been around for a long time and existing players have built up quite large armies. To generate enough sales from existing players there’s got to be some draw to the launch box because, even though the new beaky kit is great, I’m sure a lot of existing players would find adding 30-40 more tacticals to their force would be hard to justify. This is why I feel they opted to put the Spartan in it. It attracts existing players because it’s a cool unit, it’s new in plastic, it’s a big tank and couple with the Dread, the termies and the HQs it also easily amounts to a solid core of a brand new legion for existing players.

The launch seems aimed at drawing in new players who avoided resin and its high costs and difficulty in working. Not sure such a huge entry cost is going to be appealing to many players, especially new players. Something like Indomitus would have been nice.