Horus Heresy Horus Heresy Combat Force Boxes

[roryokane]

Having just finished assembling my sixth plastic leviathan (and my… 8th? Plastic Contemptor - discounting two of the old Betrayal At Calth simpler ones), I won’t be picking this up, I don’t think. I have enough Mk VIs to be getting on with, and the thought of assembling more of those blasted pauldrons fills me with dread.

[N1SB]

For the Space Marines Combat Patrol Force Box, why this mix?

 

On 8/18/2025 at 11:34 PM, StraightSilverMK2 said:

My only gripe is with the marine one. Why have 20 marines and 1 rhino....? I would have preferred to either lost the dread and have 20 marines and 2 rhinos or lose 10 marines and have 10 marines, a rhino, a dread and then something else - maybe rapiers or something similar.

 

I totally hear you, so this isn't to contradict, but I JUST went through this exercise (thanks to Brother Shard of Magnus).

 

The piece of that jigsaw puzzle is the Heavy Weapons upgrade, yeah?  10 Heavy Bolters and/or 10 Missile Launchers.  You have 10 Marines in a TacSquad in the Rhino, they're rushing ahead.  You got 10 Marines or so on your own home Objective, they have the Heavy Weapons of your choice.

 

It uses the Prime Advantage mechanic.  The 1st HQ AND the 1st Troops you take both offer it.  The HQ one can unlock an extra War Engine slot for Leviathan, while the Troops one can unlock the Heavy Support Squad WITHOUT taking an extra Auxiliary.  You know the rules, but it happens I'm leaning towards this.  Edit - I'll use both the Logistical Benefit prime advantage and the funky Iron Hands Iron-clad rules that gives an extra Dreadnought, so mine is a special case.  Now I'm not sure how all this fits together for other Legions tbh.  It just happened this Combat Force looked so much like mine, I thought it made sense at the time.

 

(I'm opting for Plasmaguns I'm going to convert myself with Mechanicum bits, but same difference.)

 

All that said, I agree, 20 Marines + 2 Rhinos, best bundle.  And that might be why, because then who'd buy single boxes?

 

On 8/19/2025 at 12:10 AM, twopounder said:

This isn't about providing a discount on something you need, its about moving inventory. The 2.0 box sold like crazy, so nobody is buying the separate mk6 boxes, especially with MK2 released. Rhinos are another thing that didn't move much, considering they were easy to pop and only carried 10 models. The leviathan is an interesting choice, but a powerful entry as an ally for sure. I think ad mech is the best value for someone just getting started or building a new army. Could easily snag two of those and then a magos to make a solid beginner army. Solar is weakest due to leman russ getting nerfed and needing a lot more infantry. Seems like they would have been better with two cohorts, command, and a leman russ (or ogryns). But again, its about moving models. 

 

You might've explained a detail that's been bugging me from GW's financial reports, the "write downs":

 

 

(Excerpted from the Half-Year Report about 7 months ago, "our write downs of the stock in our warehouses...")

 

What's a write down?  It's not a write off, which is something you might've heard of in office jargon.  It's when goods drop in price, and the example used in business classes is usually products past the Best Before date.  The example I use is graphics cards, like for my fellow Techpriests building their own gaming PC rigs.  The highest end GPUs go for like US$1000 to $3000, but wait a couple of months, they fall to $300 to $500.  It's the exact same card, it's not falling apart or expired fruit, but they just made something better, and that becomes the new highest priced item.  That same GPU that sold for $1000 to $3000 and now sells for $300 to $500 got written down.

 

So I used to think it was that Imperium Magazine.  But these Combat Patrol Force boxes is exactly a typical write down.

 

And more importantly, I think none of this should be seen as a problem.

 

For the manufacturing team, it delivered record volumes, that'd be like me complaining "I've been painting TOO much, I cleared my Pile of Shame, whatever am I supposed to do now?"  For GW, it might have seen the initial success of HH 2.0 and thought that was a sales trend, so they kept sending them out, to avoid ppl accusing them of FOMO; when it turns out that wasn't the case, they repackage it into a bundle.  Even for shareholders for whom GW maximises value, GW tried not to leave money on the table, now they're adjusting to the situation, because optimisation IS maximisation.

 

And MOST importantly, for us Hobbyists, now WE get that write down, as a discount.  GW famously never offers a discount in the same way there are no wolves on Fenris.  These bundles ARE their way of discounting, so is the Free Mini of the Month, which is a 100% discount.  You may see this as a marketing initiative, Try Before You Buy...not the way I use it.  I just get free AoS minis that I'll never buy an AoS army for...but I'll use them for D&D bwahahaha, freeloading ho!

 

It's like for once the free market is (largely) working as intended.  I know, I know, it's so rare it looks out of place, but it's a good thing.

Edited 7 hours ago by N1SB

[Larkhainan]

The numbers don't really add up on this theory.

 

Take the Venerable Dreadnought in the recent GK combat patrol that was taken as a sign they needed to move old stock. Such a theory is describing the idea that GW looked at this ancient, tiny smol dreadnought and manufactured more of them in one run than every single store in the system would take. They're desperate for more production, products are out of stock all the time, slots vying for new releases which come out constantly, but someone got on the injection moulding machines and made thousands of Venerable Dreadnought sprues and then they all went to live in the back of the warehouse. Not that they produced roughly to demand, producing around the minimum run before cycling to another oos product and sending out copies to the stores that want them, but enough for all of the stores.

 

That's how many combat patrols or these combat force boxes will go out. A copy or so for every store, if not more. Certainly they are looking at mould wear, recouping R&D cost, how long a given box has before it is refreshed and certainly GW is a silly company but this kind of inventory mismanagement just seems like a numbers mismatch.

Edited 11 hours ago by Larkhainan

[Doobles57]

7 hours ago, N1SB said:

It uses the Prime Advantage mechanic.  The 1st HQ AND the 1st Troops you take both offer it.  The HQ one can unlock an extra War Engine slot for Leviathan, while the Troops one can unlock the Heavy Support Squad WITHOUT taking an extra Auxiliary.  You know the rules, but it happens I'm leaning towards this.

 

The Logistical Benefit Prime Advantage can only be used once per detachment. So you'll still need to use an auxiliary detachment to use that set of units.

[N1SB]

You're right, thanks for the correction, I got confused because I use Iron Hands and I use my HQ for the Iron-clad extra Dreadnought, which is different, it doesn't count as an Auxiliary, it's just an Iron Hands thing.  I'll amend my post for that.

[Urauloth]

The Solar Aux set is really nice. If these boxes are still around when I come to start my allied detachment, that's what I'll get.

[ZeroWolf]

11 hours ago, Larkhainan said:

The numbers don't really add up on this theory.

 

Take the Venerable Dreadnought in the recent GK combat patrol that was taken as a sign they needed to move old stock. Such a theory is describing the idea that GW looked at this ancient, tiny smol dreadnought and manufactured more of them in one run than every single store in the system would take. They're desperate for more production, products are out of stock all the time, slots vying for new releases which come out constantly, but someone got on the injection moulding machines and made thousands of Venerable Dreadnought sprues and then they all went to live in the back of the warehouse. Not that they produced roughly to demand, producing around the minimum run before cycling to another oos product and sending out copies to the stores that want them, but enough for all of the stores.

 

That's how many combat patrols or these combat force boxes will go out. A copy or so for every store, if not more. Certainly they are looking at mould wear, recouping R&D cost, how long a given box has before it is refreshed and certainly GW is a silly company but this kind of inventory mismanagement just seems like a numbers mismatch.

But (according to ex staff) that is what happens as its cheaper than paying staff to rebox things (especially since there might not be enough stock of everything that'll be in the CP so printing will have to be done one way or another).

 

Only way that the reboxing idea works is if the sprues are redirected before they even see the inside of a box (assuming GW is just a mess of sprues waiting for a box)