Yes, Fantasy had some issues with this as well. 5th was dubbed Herohammer. It wasn't an issue in 6th and 7th (can't say much of 8th) but now in Old Word it seems that monsters are a tad too strong and heroes riding monsters even more so. But at least it still goes back to rank and file and away from skirmish.
Warhammer 40K Lore Discussion
- Thread starter ObsidianJones
- Start date
I really mean WFB here. Back in the 80s, models were much smaller, and it wasn't that hard (expensive) to amass a substantial amount of miniatures. We're still talking low hundreds, but significantly more than many players seemed to favour in the mid-90s when I started to move on. 40k was always a skirmish game.
That was when they were all metal, though? Wasn't that more expensive than when they brought out plastic sets for everything?
(I thought WHFB started off as small skirmishers, but don't really know anything about it before about 4th)
WHFB 3rd edition til death! DEEEEEAAAAATHH!!!! 2nd Edition Epic til death! DEEEAAAATTHH!!!!, Rogue Trader til...*cough*, you get the picture.
No idea what happened after 3rd rules wise, I just remember 4th having some much better sculpt/mould quality but at the same time some utter atrocities in terms of model design (although a lot were very good too). I think the change in painting styles in the RT/2nd ed 3rd/4th ed crossover early 90s also put me off. Plus puberty, can't blame everything on GW.
I remember seeing a battle report of Empire Vs wood elves and Karl Franz died with an army of maybe 50 dudes backing him up in a minor spat over an old burial mound.
Obviously you need to take inflation into account, but metal blister pack miniatures usually worked out at less than £1 each, boxed sets would have been cheaper I imagine, although the only ones I remember for Fantasy Battle were the regiments of renown packs.
Trouble with the plastics troops was, they generally looked shit. RTB01 beakies looked alright but that's all IIRC.
EDIT: Incidentally, if anyone's not seen it, Rick Priestly on WFB 1st-3rd ed...better audio than the 40k one
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Well metal was vastly more expensive than plastic when both were offered. But overall the prices in the 90s and 00s were way lower than the prices now even after inflation.
This might be one of the main challenges for Old World. Students might be outpriced from it unless their local circle allows proxies.
They were 40p per miniature for basic lead alloy models (non-mounted, human-sized basic troops) when I started collecting. Around 60p each at the time I stopped.
I think they're something like £2-3 now - that's a big increase even factoring in inflation. When you consider that they're now resin with lower production costs, it's even worse.
It is way more complicated
You get resin models like this basic infantry hero
for £23
At the same time you get 38 plastic Orcs
for £47.50
And you get a starter box (64 infantery 16 cavalry, 3 chariots and a dragon and a rulebook)
for £ 175 , but that is obviously uncommonly cheap to get people hooked as buying all of that separately would be £282.50
Overall it is way more expensive than it should be. There seems to be a tendency to make weaker models cheaper and every faction has either a batallion box or a starter box that gives some discount.
But you can get models from competitors for basically half price. Or you can print your own.
I think they were at 2.99 per blister pack of 3 by the time I stopped around the end of Rogue Trader, 1993ish. Not sure how they sell them now but I remember things like the metal special weapons troopers, apothecaries etc, the standard size troops but "special" being about 7 or 8 quid about 10 years ago.
The WFB models I was picking up had 5 models per pack, £2 somewhere late 80s. I'd stopped buying about the same as you about '93-4, they were £3 then. I carried on buying models (although usually not GW) just because I occasionally still painted them, up to the late 90s.
I carried on collecting Epic a bit longer into 94, but by that time I had really become far more interested in adult pursuits, of which rock and roll is just one. I still have so many unpainted but I just don't have the motivation the eyesight for it anymore.