2025 Battleforces (EC / LoV / Nids / Tau / LSM / CSM / Krieg)

[TheVoidDragon]

37 minutes ago, Redcomet said:

Has it occurred to people that the sales volume needed to sustain being able to sell items at 15-20% isn’t there anymore? That the general economic downturn mens people aren’t buying as much? 

 

Everything else is still at the 15 - 20% discount.

 

But if the issue was people aren't buying as much, then taking away the main advantage of buying it from that place by making them more expensive than previous isn't going to help.  

 

Edited Sunday at 04:45 PM by TheVoidDragon

[Flaherty]

Kind of surprised the Emperor's Children box didn't sell out. The Lords of War Games and Hobbies YT said that the demand for fulgrim was lighter than they expected, that Prince Vhordrai sold better, so not out of the blue, but still unusual. I thought they did a great job with the EC line – it's thinner than I would have hoped, but at least as good as the World Eaters range, the Battleforce for which sold out instantly. 

[Emperor Ming]

Surprised if the Kreig box sells out, its not great

[DemonGSides]

13 minutes ago, Emperor Ming said:

Surprised if the Kreig box sells out, its not great

It's a fine box if you have the Krieg Release box and not much else.  Otherwise yeah, not great.

I opted for none again this year.  Two years in a row without pulling the trigger on any of the christmas boxes.

[Larkhainan]

21 hours ago, ShibeKing said:

Will probably change my tune if I see it at my LGS. My monkey brain activates if I see these things in person.

I think all our brains are like that. It is so much harder to resist big boxes if you see them in store.

[Frogian]

15 hours ago, Redcomet said:

Has it occurred to people that the sales volume needed to sustain being able to sell items at 15-20% isn’t there anymore? That the general economic downturn mens people aren’t buying as much? 

 

my understanding is its less the volume has declined and more that the general costs of running a business have gone up too much (and faster that GW prices have increased) that if you're not somewhere with a warehouse full of it, you need a better margin on it than you used to to justify the floor space/keep the business going. let's not forget GW upped their wholesale cost without increasing RRP a couple of years ago too, so squeezed even more out the independents. 

 

if its stuff that is going to sell out on very limited runs it makes sense for FLGSs to make the money where they can - I'd still personally rather get it from them and help them out rather than go direct to GW

[lhg033]

£155/£124 discount for these is too rich for me for 'nice to haves'.

I would have possibly paid that for something I really, really wanted (crux terminatus) but these boxes were not that.

[Valkyrion]

17 hours ago, Emperor Ming said:

Surprised if the Kreig box sells out, its not great

 

I bought the krieg box because it didn't have any horses and I'm toying with the idea of using them as auxilia/militia in 30k as I prefer the models to the 30k Auxilia infantry. 

I can't speak to the quality of the 40k rules, but I like big guns and I cannot lie. 

[Kyari]

18 hours ago, Emperor Ming said:

Surprised if the Kreig box sells out, its not great

I honestly think GW over estimated how popular the Krieg would actually be in the current climate. 

The battleforce didn't go as instantly as people expected it to at the weekend, and the supposedly limited Krieg combat patrol has only just gone out of stuck presumably because people bought the two together.

 

The launch box is STILL in stock online and at LGS.

[Burni]

My local FLGS seems to have everything still available apart from the SM box, which surprised me. They do 15% off retail as well.

[Galron]

Have you guy's Christmas boxes already been released? They were just pre-order last week.

[Halandaar]

1 hour ago, Kyari said:

I honestly think GW over estimated how popular the Krieg would actually be in the current climate. 

The battleforce didn't go as instantly as people expected it to at the weekend, and the supposedly limited Krieg combat patrol has only just gone out of stuck presumably because people bought the two together

 

Think it's more to do with overlap between the three sets and the short time span between them, to be honest. Three army bundles in the space of ten months is a lot when there's only seven kits in the range (one of which is a special character you wouldn't want a second copy of). It means none of them are different enough from the others to feel particularly compelling.

[Karhedron]

I agree. People have been clamouring for great-coat Guard in plastic for several editions. I think @Halandaar is probably on the money in that this is the third bundle this year and the market for people buying a whole army is probably a bit saturated at the moment.

[Marshal Mittens]

On 11/16/2025 at 11:53 AM, Flaherty said:

Kind of surprised the Emperor's Children box didn't sell out. The Lords of War Games and Hobbies YT said that the demand for fulgrim was lighter than they expected, that Prince Vhordrai sold better, so not out of the blue, but still unusual. I thought they did a great job with the EC line – it's thinner than I would have hoped, but at least as good as the World Eaters range, the Battleforce for which sold out instantly. 

Emperors children might be more of a niche legion, and they are somewhat difficult to paint well. I think its a legion many people are interested in, but not enough to play. 

[HeadlessCross]

4 hours ago, Marshal Mittens said:

Emperors children might be more of a niche legion

No, it's the fact that they're actually a boring army due to the fact they have zero units and the big rush of excitement of their reveal wore off. 

[Jukkiz]

EC is same kinda boat as TS was at start and how WE are now.

No terminators and not enough units before looking kinda samey. 

[Casual Heresy]

For me the EC box had no appeal because I already have the max number of Noise Marines I can put on the table and no real interest in Fulgrim currently (and no easy way to transport a model like that to the club...). It's a sure sign that the faction needs a few more options. But the box would have been perfect if I hadn't already bought the rest of the army after the launch box.

 

This years boxes on the whole weren't overly tempting and couldn't justify the spend right after Crux Terminatus. Release day is right after pay day for me though and I have a voucher to use so may try and pick up a space marine one if my local Warhammer gets one in.

 

 

[Orange Knight]

6 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

No, it's the fact that they're actually a boring army due to the fact they have zero units and the big rush of excitement of their reveal wore off. 

 

But if they sell well then they'll get more support in the long run. When we hear that even Fulgrim didn't sell particularly well, even if anecdotally, that isn't a great portent for the future of the range.

We can't ignore the fact that the people who do want to collect this Legion probably own all of the units, but there's nothing wrong with making a box that functions as a starter for a faction.

[DemonGSides]

3 hours ago, Orange Knight said:

 

But if they sell well then they'll get more support in the long run. When we hear that even Fulgrim didn't sell particularly well, even if anecdotally, that isn't a great portent for the future of the range.

We can't ignore the fact that the people who do want to collect this Legion probably own all of the units, but there's nothing wrong with making a box that functions as a starter for a faction.

 

I think Headless is a bit crass with the diagnosis, but I do think the EC are especially restricted in what they have available to a position of "Well unless you were already a fan, I'm not sure what would compel you to buy into this army."

 

They really need to rethink how they apportion units for these Chaos Legion spin offs. DG have lots but are still missing things (Lack of generic units, no Havoc or Obliterator or really any heavy weapons wielded by infantry), both 1kSons and WE are anemic (And 1kSons were the first and are still missing so much), and now EC showed up and basically immediately went out of the zeitgeist because they were also lacking.

 

I get they want to expand the ranges, but something different has to be done. It shouldn't take three years to get a fully realized faction (Votaan, and they're still missing some things).  There's gotta be a better way (I think granting some of the CSM units the ability to work within these factions like how Space Marines work would go a long way, as would changing how demons work within these armies to be more permissive).

[01RTB01]

18 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

No, it's the fact that they're actually a boring army due to the fact they have zero units and the big rush of excitement of their reveal wore off. 

 

In fairness, for those that were waiting for the army, probably already have maxed out already. As such, we don't need the box.

 

Orks have been my main army forever. Their choices vast. However, despite the constraints of the Emperor's Children, I've actually enjoyed playing them more in 10th edition than my orks. 

 

Army box, CP and Christmas battle force as I've said before is a sold army. However, anyone with sufficient noise Marines or already having a fulgrim won't be buying the box. That isn't to say the box is bad. 

 

[Karhedron]

I think they missed a trick by not doing an Eldar box as they didn't get an army box on release. There are several new and fairly pricey squads of Aspect Warriors which would make a box a good value proposition.

 

Ah well, maybe next year.

[Matcap86]

Might also be we're getting to the actual saturation point. People's budgets have been under pressure for years now, and GW is becoming more expensive every year. I usually was very tempted by Christmas boxes as the savings usually put kits under my "ooh... for that price, why not" levels. But nowadays I only get stuff I REALLY like. Buying these biggers sets and kits has become a 'financial decision' for me, which curbs the FOMO and impulse buy effect, real hard. 

[Dark Shepherd]

26 minutes ago, Matcap86 said:

Might also be we're getting to the actual saturation point. People's budgets have been under pressure for years now, and GW is becoming more expensive every year. I usually was very tempted by Christmas boxes as the savings usually put kits under my "ooh... for that price, why not" levels. But nowadays I only get stuff I REALLY like. Buying these biggers sets and kits has become a 'financial decision' for me, which curbs the FOMO and impulse buy effect, real hard. 

Theres possibly a big chunk of people whose army have had minimal releases for a while so theyre kinda maxed out?

And others who already have a giant pile of primaris :)

[Flaherty]

4 hours ago, Karhedron said:

I think they missed a trick by not doing an Eldar box as they didn't get an army box on release. There are several new and fairly pricey squads of Aspect Warriors which would make a box a good value proposition.

 

Ah well, maybe next year.

Either Eldar sells so well they don't feel the need to discount it, so poorly (Blood of the Phoenix flop PTSD),  or someone on the merchandising team hates them. Craftworlds last had a box in 2018, Drukhari in 2019. GW should create battleboxes with a couple of aspects and their Phoenix Lords with a legacy unit or two for the next few years as penance!

 

[LSM]

Specifically to the Emperor's Children box, I'll echo what other EC players have said: I have four full units of Noise Marines (more than are legally fieldable) - and that's counting the fact that I already turned three Noise Marines from the launch box into Obsessionists, and three into Flawless Blades. Add those latter three to the handful of old Dark Apostle/Lords that can proxy another trio, and then the six other Flawless Blades I have... and I need neither more Noise Marines nor Flawless Blades.

 

Fulgrim is a triple whammy:

• He's a big centrepiece model, which in general is not my style.
• He's not very good/hard to get value out of on the table. (Which is true of a couple other Emperor's Children datasheets, resulting in the army's generally few units being further whittled down to a tight core that forms 90% of lists: Daemon Princes with Wings, Lords Exultant with Infractors, Noise Marines with Rhinos, Tormentors, Maulerfiends.)
• Personal taste-wise, I find the model incongruous with the rest of the range. No spiked/studded leathers, no straps or chains, no drug dispenser feeds, no superfluously implanted vox-amplifiers, etc.

//

 

My FLGS had one round of boxes (at 15% discount) which have (mostly) sold out. (Farsight Cadre and Cthonian Prospect are the two still available.) They have subsequently put up a "Wave 2" of some of them (I don't know if they actually got more, or if they pulled the popular items when they realised other places weren't giving a discount) but it looks like only the Crusher Stampede isn't still available.

 

//

 

On 11/18/2025 at 10:53 AM, DemonGSides said:

...DG have lots but are still missing things (Lack of generic units, no Havoc or Obliterator or really any heavy weapons wielded by infantry)...

 

This is likely on purpose.

 

In their 3rd edition Index Astartes list, Death Guard didn't have any Heavy Weapons either (and they had a whole unique "Death Guard Havocs" squad... which were just a Heavy Support slot'd Plague Marines squad that could take three Plasma Guns or Meltaguns). The fluff went out of the way to mention that they "have shown little regard for heavy weaponry", and that Mortarion's tutelage in war (amongst the poisonously-misty mountains of Barbarus) gave him a penchant for tough infantrymen wielding short ranged guns. This fed into his Legion's expertise with TDA, and their renown for clearing space hulks (and other such places - one assumes like trench lines, bunker networks, etc.) Even when they fought open battles, they saturated the field with chemical weaponry (limiting visibility).

 

The 2002 Codex then allowed units to be Marked for the first time (previously Marks were something Characters took, and Cult Troops/Terminators had). The Mark of Nurgle gave a unit +1T, Fearless, True Grit (wield a Bolter as a Bolt Pistol in melee), and... forbade any model Marked by Nurgle from the standard assortment of Heavy Weapons.

 

At this point, Obliterators (and Raptors) were still their own Cult(s), and could not be Marked (anything but Undivided). Bikers could also not take the Mark of Nurgle.

 

4th edition then removed most restrictions (and bonuses) for Legions and let players (essentially) Mark any sort of unit that they wanted via Icons. (Though Obliterators lasted awhile longer as their own Cult, not being able to be Marked until 6th.)

 

The Horus Heresy series/game also started to redefine a bunch of things (ie. making the era's Plasma Cannons and Thunder Hammers wieldable by individuals smaller than Dreadnoughts, not conforming to the Raptors' old lore of Jump Packs being extremely rare and only used by the most elite of assault specialists - who began to associate with each other cross-Legion in lieu of any ties of brotherhood within their own Legions, etc.)

 

When the Death Guard got their new range, they did get some new infantry Heavy Weapons... but in the form of a ~Heavy Flamer and a Grenade Launcher, keeping on (old) theme.

 

Things can change, but whereas 4th-9th swung the door open for Marks, the Cult Legions' Codexes seem to have started the arc back to that older paradigm, and now in 10th we've gone back to Marks not being a common thing in Codex: Chaos Space Marine armies.

 

(Having said all that: I'd love a Death Guard Havocs equivalent, with the option of either Heavy Bolters or Entropy Cannons.)

 

Edited 2 hours ago by LSM