FREE Age of Sigmar 4 Launch Box What's the Catch?

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[@slthlrdz]

i am astounded that gw gave something away. i imagine them checking pockets as employees leave for the day searching for wayward paper clips.

[@malcolmcurrie7542]

two things to keep in mind: 1. GW give things away to content creators, albeit they still get a form of advertisement out of it 2. Depending on local tax law, prizes are deductible

[@SnowSmashin199]

That gray mini's insult cut me deep! Let me go wipe my tears with all these unpainted minis

[@andrewpearce6624]

As somebody who runs an after school club at a secondary school being sent one of these boxes would be bloody awesome!!!! Kids could work in teams to build, paint and then play AoS. The School Alliance isn’t very good. It’s free and I’m not knocking that. But kids can’t play a game of AoS of 40K with the contents of SA stuff. The paints you get with it is pitiful. All they can do is build and paint a Space Smurf and Orc thing. That’s it. They just hope that the parents will go out and buy stuff for the kids. Schools would love to receive a launch box that the kids can properly use and properly experience the world of Warhammer and the hobby that we love. Lost opportunity for a great bit of PR.

[@n3dstark]

I'm in a similar situation and you are 💯 right. Often have to bring in my own models to demo a game. Getting your first model is cool and all but a lot of kids see that as the end point because they aren't getting proper games in.

[@AcheronBlade]

It’s really simple - GW made more than people are willing to buy. So either it sits on shelves sucking up warehouse space and looks bad on their balance sheet / cash flow or they push it out as a marketing expense rather than have it sit or shipped somewhere else. Nothing altruistic about this, it’s pure financial self-interest on GWs part. Great for tournament goers though, happy for them.

[@halflifeger4179]

that's quite strange, I assumed that Skaventide was a success

[@matthewdobson100]

@@halflifeger4179 both things can be true

[@eewweeppkk]

Not to be too generous to GW (lmao) but if this was at all a pre planned strategy or one they're willing to look into more going forward than it's a win-win. It doesn't really matter if they can write it off as a marketing expense if players are still getting free boxes - at least, hoping it continues moving forward.

[@charles7928]

​@@halflifeger4179 I think Skaventide was a success, but it hasn't sold out. Selling 90% of 100,000 copies is a success but that would still leave the other ten thousand filling up space in a warehouse. Giving them away makes sense. Also if some of those people then go and build Skaven or Stormcast armies, they'll more than make the money back.

[@halflifeger4179]

@@charles7928 seems like the most likely scenario

[@tiananxie8897]

I am in China, and even with the downgrading of the economy, more and more people joined AoS, and there are many of them are from 40k. People have had enough with 40k now and they really love AoS.

[@PhantomSt4gg]

I’ve played 40K ever since 6th edition. Recently started playing games of spearhead in AOS and now I much prefer it.

[@tiananxie8897]

@@PhantomSt4gg I feel like spearhead exceeds everyone's expectations especially in drawing players from other games such as 40k. AoS team really hit this one.

[@slackeratlarge575]

GW must have really over produced skaventide, but they made a ton of the dominion box too. Great deals in the long run

[@sub-optimalwargaming9311]

I got my own Skaventide box.....to build TWO Spearheads!

[@CrowziYT]

It's a little more than 2 spearheads ;)

[@sub-optimalwargaming9311]

@@CrowziYT oh i know. I also enjoy hoarding lol

[@NikkiAnnMarie]

Australians pay ~30% more because their boxes are shipped from the other side of the world so there's freight + import tax on every product. Larger boxes are typically sent back from stores to be broken down and reboxed but I can totally see this being too expensive to justify for Skaventide if it had to go back to HQ, so it ends up cheaper to give them away for free/get some PR use from them as the alternative is to just bin them (which given the amount would probably incur some fines for waste)

[@VeloVios]

As someone thinking to get into aos with skaventide in Australia. I can honestly say that I will not be spending more then 150aud on the box. If I can't find one that cheap then its not worth it for me to buy something that the company is giving away. Now if they gave it to struggling shops or schools and children programs, then it would be a completely different story. But I missed an event and also missed out on saving $350. It just doesn't feel right buying this product anymore

[@EarlofChutney]

the most plausible explanation is that they are just a really generous company that can't wait to show it.

[@deadmo8425]

gonna be seeing 133 new skaventide boxes for sale on ebay

[@AthenaKipen]

I was there for the oceanic championship tournament. It was a concurrent tournament for all the different systems and they gave away boxes for all of the different systems. So all the WHU players (me and seven others) got one. And I believe the 40k, AoS, Kill Team and Warcry players all got one too. So it was a lot more boxes than just twelve. None of us could quite believe we were getting the box until we had it in our hands. I suspect what happened was that in Australia they are not moving anywhere near as much as they thought they were. Considering its a 450AUD box and the economy here is... not great, that sounds like a reasonable explanation. And given the reputation Warhammer has in Australia (something that can genuinely financially devastate you), I wouldn't be shocked if the prices here have finally hit a breaking point that Aussies just can't stomach anymore.

[@AndrewMcColl]

I look forward to GW, once again, considering NZ part of Australia (for everything except pricing) and them not doing the same thing on this side of the ditch. Honestly, I'm actually surprised they were providing official support of any kind. I thought they'd long ago washed their hands of getting involved in events down this way. Or maybe that's just in NZ.

[@thespiritofel522]

When they don't give stuff away they lose , when they give stuff away they lose, mountain out of molehills

[@benwood1977]

Sydney GT price was $165 not $85. Doesn’t make any difference in the marketing / profit argument but now the GT ticket paid for itself. 😊

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Ty! I was told on stream it was 85

[@benwood1977]

@@thehonestwargamerstreams probably £85. As a Brit living in Aus I definitely make the most of any trips back with an extra suitcase of grey plastic. :)

[@leew6537]

I thought GW keep these sprues to pass onto Hachette at a later date. Which made more sense to me

[@Zabzim]

Yeah but that’s in the UK mate this is in Australia. Basically no one bought the box because AoS just isn’t very popular but that didn’t stop GW from over producing. It’s costing GW to store the boxes and it would be too expensive to send them back so GW just gives them away and they they can write it off as a loose for it’s over inflated retail value

[@imthelizardking]

100% of the cost in the model boxes is the people handling them. It's not worth the wages and opportunity cost to ever do repackaging or even recycling. It would be significantly cheaper for GW to landfill these than do this, but it's a good opportunity to build repore and get more new intro product into people's hands. I imagine that the bean counters are able to write the cost of these specific pallets as promotional/organized play material instead of flopped product. "No investors, we didn't have Skaventide flop, we just made a bunch to give away as marketing". Corporations aren't hard to figure out guys. They aren't evil, but they also aren't your friends. I know you all circle 🤜 🥩 to how GW ruined your childhood and relationship and finances or whatever, but by keeping production almost exlusively in the UK, they are more morally altruistic than 99.99% of other companies; especially the one that you work for 😂😂😂

[@chitzkoi]

The economics are simple: they would have been pulping/shredding the boxes otherwise. This way they might stimulate more AOS players in the long term.

[@DaigotsuSoetsu]

Wait, other people aren't watching just because Rob is charming?!?

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

I know!!!

[@DaedalusShard]

I'm kinda sad that I'm missing out but man Oceania players really needed this. Awesome!

[@jazzailsteinigen939]

Happy for those people. That is nice. This should be celebrated!!! Hope we get more skaven players from just that. Skaven Clan WARS!!!!

[@SamuraiMujuru]

"They gave a bonus!" Sure. And the bonus of EVERY ELLIGIBLE EMPLOYEE COMBINED was still less than the cut of profits that went to any one shareholder.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Say it Louder

[@marcbowling6451]

...and?

[@tuned_tv]

Running a 60 player event in Melbourne 2 weeks, hope we get some Skaventide boxes for free randomly.

[@markcox913]

Well Rob those rats do breed at a rapid fashion…maybe there was just to many for GW to handle? 😂

[@Nexagon42]

I'm located in Germany and was surprised to see that my flgs has three Skaventide boxes left on the shelves although we do have a rather large AoS-community. On the other hand most (or even all?) people split their boxes so maybe that reduced the volume of sold boxes by some degree...

[@Val4394]

Probably simply the logistic and the repackaging of the Skaventide sprues cost more then selling them, so they just threw them away to some Australian event because In Australia GW miniatures cost more then in the other countries. Here in Italy we have good discounts (25% or 30%) so official stores went bad while independent stores went good.

[@markpandelidis2079]

Rob you're always hilarious to watch! Personally, i think this is it. Thr Skaven battletome preorders and sales are SO sh*t that they think guving out free boxes will entice people into buying the tomes. Think about it, if you save a couple hundred bucks on a box of minis and it entices you to buy the tomes, their margins on the battle tomes is like 90% right? Books are cheaper than models. So that makes sense to me. Their strategy of locking all the content behind the tome is horrible. The Skaven battletome is probably losing them tons of money.

[@0AbsolutZero0]

My LGS gave away a free Krondspine to all attendants of the last 3rd edition RTT

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Mad!

[@earnestwanderer2471]

If GW really needs to shift this box, they can send me a couple. I’ll gladly cover the postage.

[@mistformsquirrel]

Main reason I didn't pick up Skaventide (well other than being broke due to health issues atm) is just... I like both Skaven and Stormcast, but neither are my primary thing by any stretch? And if I'm spending money on Warhammer atm it's going to be on my current army. The sculpts are honestly great; but what's an Idoneth player (me) gonna do with Stormcast and Skaven? < . .> If I had infinite time and money? Yeah I'd buy 2 boxes of Skaventide because I'd absolutely rock all those minis in their respective factions; they look great. I just... don't have infinite time or money so I can't. But then this is the same reason I didn't buy Leviathan for 40k - Yes it's a great deal if you're a Marine and Tyranid player, and a decently OK one if you play one of those... but I play Guard. So wtf do I need Marines and Nids for? Though at least in AoS I like almost every faction and could see playing them all at some point, time and money permitting. That's just my perspective on them anyway. I just feel like big vs boxes are of very niche interest in a game where even the 'poster child' faction isn't omni-saturated with players. So there's no way to guarantee that any two factions you put together are going to move. Now, if you put out say... something akin to the Christmas battleforces at edition launch - pick 6 factions, bundle up some of their nicest units and the new edition book, and let the players pick? *That* would sell I think. I dunno, YMMV but that's how I see it.

[@hickdead6188]

Improving public perception of the brand before all the TV stuff launches, or could it be that it's cheaper to do this Vs advertising?

[@xfatFlashx]

I’m part of the schools program and while it is great, if they’d given us 2/3 boxes of Skaventide, with the terrain and two armies so many more kids would be able to play. 20 Vindictors and stabbez is crap. Give me something I can play games with.

[@lukedodson6378]

Consideration both incidents are in Australia who is known for being massive upcharged for warhammer. I think GW saw sales for AOS in that region being very very low and instead of adjusting prices they gave away free product to try and hook more players in the region or hook players already in to start new factions.

[@Soulchant]

Hi Rob, I’m in NZ and as far as I know the skaventide boxes have sold well. I hope my up coming AoS events give boxes away so I can help grow my club and local community

[@dalmont8099]

The Australians pay enough already. GW returned some appreciation.

[@hugheja89]

I bought skaventide and I’m fine if they wanna give it away to some tournament players.

[@spiritofgroot1999]

Also with the bonus that you should add on each time you mention it. ‘It’s just for 1 year!’ It won’t be there next year, when after inflation their real wage decreases even further.

[@Drew-p7q]

I've talked with 3 LGS owners in the US and they've all got a lot of excess inventory for the Skaventide boxes. I'm also getting ads on FB from GW to win free Skaventide boxes as well. In terms of the economics, there are two hypotheses in my mind. The first and most likely is that they have a lot of inventory and right now it's a cost of inventory that they're weighing against their sales forecasts. If they think the sales horizon eats to far into their mandated profit margins, they're willing to eat the loss up front to save on warehousing costs. The other option is that it could be a loss leader to get people into the game so they sell more specific army products later. This seems less likely since normally you'd just price them lower up front and they're targeting people who are *already going to tournaments* so these are not the folks that they need to get into the game.

[@wokehammer40k]

I remember they did this as well with Dominion, giving away boxes by the stack at events, when they price these boxes so high no wonder they don't move. After getting burned by dominion I held off on skaventide just picking up the spearhead bits second hand. Boxes were going for 40% off at NOVA, we'll see how low they get in the future.

[@Harby000]

GW tried to upsell every store on more Skaventide when placing their launch orders after the order cut off date, where normally if you don't place your order on the Google sheet by 5:30 PM on a Tuesday you don't get anything. Lots of stores got burned by Dominion, so didn't take as many, but it feels like GW made maybe just as many this time around too. So that means a lot more sitting in their warehouses around the world. They need the shelf space for all the other new model kits and lines they are releasing (or re-releasing in the case of Old World), so not having shelf space could legitimately be costing them more? Hard to say for certain without someone at GW confirming this is the case, but it feels very much like it's a logistics issue.

[@pinktehbeast]

They gave away a free box to members of the ITC/gw tournament organizers. I bought 2 boxes and a month later I got a 3rd for free. Likely to give mine away as prize support

[@pancakemogul]

And then you go the Kill Team aisle and pay £48 for an A4 sprue of Mandrakes, knowing it had the same production costs as 1/24 of this box. Life is good.

[@197mmCannon]

I got two Dominion boxes for back to back adepticons. I paid for the “VIG” package but it’s telling that GW threw that in the swag bag two years in a row.

[@Shinonvrakking]

I might have a big pile of shame, but ive also painted about 9k points of models this year between 40k and AoS. I am working in the pile

[@roguedm6523]

I'm probably one of the people who benefits the most from this. Skaven is my main army. I did buy the box on launch day. I am in a team with 5 players attending the event so we're taking home 5 of these and my second army i've decided to pick up is ruination chamber Stormcast. So take it from me this is pretty great news :)

[@martyntemple9135]

It costs a lot to ship product around Australia, and given that they would probably do container drops for the launch e.g.40 foot containers to each state port, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth. That's around 67 cubic meters of space in each container. As it was a launch product it's unlikely that they did mixed container drops, hence it's cheaper to fill the container than it is to send a half load or to spend money filling the container with other product. In a country of only 26mill spread across a continent the size of Europe, they are probably writing off the stock as a bigger picture strategy to get AOS 4th in place to boast sales of all the other faction packs / Spearhead. GW have probably logged the cost as a "marketing expense". As for product cost I would estimate that the Skaventide box is costing them between 30 - 40 pounds to produce at the production volumes they are making given the prices they are selling it to the retailers, enabling them to give discounts of up to 20% on GW's RRP.

[@awesomemusicstudio]

Maybe GW is considering being more pro-active with a bit more of a generous PR image to help entice more people into the game, and hopefully supporting tournaments worldwide with more prizes and give-aways. That would entice more people to join more tournaments. Hopefully it is the start of a good trend.

[@RybackStun]

AOS Coach repping AEW, love it.

[@thesoothsayer9223]

Can you imagine how different this story would be if they gave them to local schools and after school clubs? It's wild how such a successful company has no idea how to operate

[@ryanglessner8626]

I could be wrong, but I believe they already have a program to give Warhammer to clubs and after school clubs.

[@wanderinghoosier2730]

As some who works at a LGS and runs a Warhammer Alliance (youth club at a middle school) the boxes are not selling shops have lots of them sitting on the shelves Your idea of give them to schools etc would be an awesome idea and would help our clubs out so much

[@halflifeger4179]

that's really sad, it's honestly a great box

[@phillipjames2671]

Not sure how tax works in Australia but maybe if they ‘donate it’ to grass roots organizations they can write it off their Taxes and clear warehouse space at the same time? They have all those Kill Team and LoTRs boxes coming after all. Good for the players though, am definitely not jealous!

[@Vin_Venture896]

It’s totally possible that they are going to be giving out spare stock to schools, events, etc. I just imagine they wouldn’t want to publicly yap about it so paying customers aren’t too pissed.

[@TheD20Speakeasy]

It's so weird. Alot of big what ifs. Did they outprice the Australian market? Did they ship an extra container and it's to expensive to ship back? My local flgs ordered only enough to complete pre-orders, no extras.

[@donjardine8734]

They would be better off giving the new MESBG box as a prize to broaden the add on sales!

[@mattp6953]

Are they doing this outside of Oceania? Maybe it sold like shit there

[@earnestwanderer2471]

People are still saying that, at least in Canada 🇨🇦, Spearhead is still a thing. I’m going to check out the FLGS and see if it’s seeing any play in this neck of the woods.

[@DNolan1919]

You may already know of him but I feel like you'd be a fan of Gary economics

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

I do!!

[@DNolan1919]

@@thehonestwargamerstreams tax the assets!

[@lestrike2707]

It’s sickening that a CEO once sgain raises his own pay (his job is too close to unskilled labour) while underpaying staff. That should be illegal. Srsly fire that ceo, get chatgpt pro and save millions. Just disgusting.

[@JamesParks-h2e]

It's probably just accounting. If they've got record profits it would be handy to hedge with a 'big loss' to avoid the tax bill. Plus with the crazy pacific mark up (is it tariffs?) I imagine they didn't move a lot of product in that region.

[@markyp9215]

Make the Sydney GT online so they have to furlfill it for 999 people 😂

[@ccgear4367]

GW acting like a business -> "GW are greedy jerks, their prices are too high!" GW gives away products to support the community and tournaments -> "GW IS DOOMED!"

[@michigan_joe]

They may have had unused marketing dollars allocated in their "Australia marketing budget" that they needed to use before the end of the fiscal year to maximize tax incentives and since the value of the box is so much higher in Australia, some accountant may have teamed up with the marketing decision on this one.

[@auretioustaak6579]

I suppose the logical explanation is that GW overproduced the Skaventide box and because they don't just keep it as their tippy top starter box and instead want to phase them out for the far more expensive tiered starter sets overall - essentially if they give away the excess skaventide boxes to existing players and more importantly, to tournament players who probably already have the box anyway, they're getting rid of the excess stock instead of just throwing them out which is what they have done in the past for over produced stuff. Essentially, it gets rid of the bargain skaventide starter box and makes way for the more expensive overall tiered starter sets. People forget that new gamers constantly are coming into the hobby, and ultimately GW doesn't want to be selling the bargain launch box over those less valuable starter boxes. That's what it feels like overall.

[@assistantref5084]

It costs them zero dollars, because they wouldn't have sold any of them otherwise. In fact it probably saves them money as they can write it off as a business expense. Paywalling scrolls is a totally different issue that is just stupid all-around and actively costs them money rather than making them it.

[@collywwob]

It’s a weird one. Don’t remember anything like this ever happening in warhammer… also. And maybe more importantly. I’ve never really called Ron a Silver Fox before. But he definitely is. A majestic silver fox. Lush.

[@Pootleflump]

I'd be fuming if I was an FLGS in Aus trying to sell Skaventide while GW are giving them out free 😅

[@HughMann-wx4so]

I had to fight with GW customer service for an entire month with hundreds of photos and dozens of emails to get them to replace the damaged sprues. No one is buying locally; most of us got broken models

[@joemagill4041]

If this starts happeniong outside Australia, Ill pay proper attention. I assume what happened is that they sent way, way too many to Australia, no one bought them down there because the price is absolutely ludicrousand it's just not worth shipping them the whole way back to Nottingham. As such, they are dumping them in the easiest way they can. Hopefully this means that a significant price decrease is coming for Aussies.

[@jamess405]

Yeah that might be the idea. Make sure there is a heap of spearhead out there since their current model seems to be new players only. Backed up by their stores who are only meant to be doing intro games

[@doctorjohn7156]

My guess is this is a marketing ploy to get more people at events. Events can drive the economy of a game system and the more people that attend them the more people feel pressured to by the latest and best units for the competitive edge but many collectors never get involved with the competitive scene so maybe there trying to ramp it up in aussy land

[@Malllttt]

The event sold out before they announced this. 😊

[@doctorjohn7156]

@@Malllttt Ofc it was the capitol of AUS GT but the participants will go back to smaller Aussie communties and say "hey look what I got for competing" Then smaller events like the previous mentioned one with only 12 players suddenly get a few more players and ofc thats great for GW ofc I do except i could be wrong here but GW ain't giving money away out the goodness of there heart there has to be a long term plan :D

[@kookieslayer]

My LGS still as 70 copies of Skaventide. They had 15 copies of Dominion left when Skaventide came out. (They sold out of Leviathan in 2 days and they had close to 200 copies) Skaventide was clearly overproduced.

[@datsundes]

I suspect the VIP ticket at LGT this weekend will include skaventide, they’ve already said it comes with a box worth £160.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Yeah they confirmed it

[@Katastrofsenap]

Third party company in Australia won’t be to keen on this, is my guess.

[@sleeplessknight99]

Imagine if you own a flgs and GW convinced you to load your store with tones of copies of skaventide. The release day comes and goes and the game bombs and you're still stuck with tones of copies of skaventide. And then 3 months after the release, GW suddenly floods the market with tones of free copies of skaventide driving the perceived value of the box down even further. That would probably make a business owner exit the gaming industry Kurt Cobain style.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

thats super rough

[@RealmDesigner]

12 boxes? This is what this is about?

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

129 boxes of you watch

[@manapause]

@@thehonestwargamerstreamswatching is hard bro…😅

[@alonghallway]

When you apply for a mortgage they are looking at your total income from the past year including any bonuses. It might be different across the pond but that's how it works in the states.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Different here

[@YetMoreCupsOfTea]

GW is GW. This decision will have been based on numbers. I think they over-printed Skaventide, and it was going to cost them more money to store 120+ Skaventide boxes in Australia than give them away. I'm one of the Syd GT players, so I guess my third army is Skaven now. You're going to have a crazily high level of SCE and Skaven expertise in Sydney in 12 months.

[@reubenmccallum3350]

I'm here for wages and stuff. Unionise GW now!

[@piotrjeske4599]

In no industry anywhere did unionisation help the growth of the company or generating extra revenue. Like ever, in history of humanity. It did kill multiple companies, even whole industries , that is including ones dominated by monopolist companies.

[@reubenmccallum3350]

@@piotrjeske4599 I'll continue enjoying my weekends, penalty rates, and worker protections thanks

[@brentlucas731]

Maybe they over shipped to Australia.

[@markpandelidis2079]

Thanks!

[@jamie6091]

Don't worry us Australians are just as confused as everyone else. Most people at the GT are keen gamers so they've already bought Skaventide or splits, it's a nice bonus for some people but ultimately does nothing for GW PR. I would guess GW are simply way overstocked and did their normal thing of getting forcasts wrong.

[@krelekari]

Not going to lie If I got that box for free I'd be both a skaven and stormcast simp for life and commit to consistently buying models. But for now I can only afford to go halvesies on the new killteam box with my roommate

[@sane329]

This warm my heart.

[@Peter.B.S]

And here I am, a sucker who purchased not one but TWO Skaventide boxes for full retail price. I guess I'm the idiot here :p

[@theaussiemen_]

Dont worry you are not the only one :)

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

This is what I was wondering? How do people like you feel about it all

[@LCDupuis]

I'll admit, you did get me with the thumbnail. Commenting before I finish the video, but my avarice got the better of me here

[@peteorfanos]

Everyone who plays this game should buy GW stock instead of buying a 3rd army, then they'll have a say in what happens going forwards

[@jasonbrown2674]

Hey Rob Why is Spearhead not real ?

[@RyanGates-kq9tu]

personally i don't think the box sold that well, the shop i work at it sold poorly, i think they have a ton of sitting stock. Well no one is buying it now, it will look really good, lets give some away. Thats my thought

[@arthusii3024]

Just to set the record straight for the first 2 mins of the video. You absolutely CAN put down bonuses on your mortgage application. You also could back when I was renting but it's been a few years so maybe that's changed? The renting scene is toxic af these days.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

I couldn't when I rented this year but ty

[@yellonnoctra9164]

How much could it possibly cost to manufacture? Maybe they just have extra stock and need to get rid of it or the playerbase in australia isn't growing as fast as they want, so what do you do? Give away some stuff for free, get some press, and those boxes are going to go out and people will be incentivized to buy either skaven or stormcast minis to fill out their armies. If you don't need it you are going to sell the box and use that money to buy more models. The people you sell it to are going to also buy more models. This is basically just turning players into mini dealers. And why would you give it away to schools? If you are a ruthless capitalist, do you give your free crack to the poor kids who can't buy more, or the adults who already can afford your stuff and are more likely to get hooked and return for more? It is at least several hundred more dollars to finish a 2000 point army, so even if a fraction of the people getting those boxes go on to build an army, they are winning. This is just basic marketing and doesn't really devalue anything by giving it away for 'free' it results in those people buying your paints, brushes, and other minis? But most importantly, this stuff is probably costing them two pennies to mass manufacture. It is mass manufactured plastic and paper. Also, realistically, most people aren't even going to care or think about it for more than a day except for the people who got it all for free.

[@Husker44g]

This feels like a passive aggressive way to market?

[@JohnR1298]

It's obvious that GW have seen the error of their ways and had a complete change of heart. DERRR!! As f@@kin if! Seems to me they've really screwed up with pricing in Oz and the punters have voted with their dollars by not buying the stuff. Giving it to these select peeps probably a congrats to them for their loyalty and enthusiasm, even if they did already have that grey plastic mountain of shame in the cupboard (in the loft, under the stairs, in the cellar.....) First time here, liked and subscribed 😊

[@Zabzim]

This is just games workshop dumping stock in Australia in the most economical way, that all. There warehouse is in Sydney, the tournament are in Sydney so basically costing them nothing to get rid of all that excess stock because they overproduced Skaventide (they alway overproduce the AoS starter sets) and the demand is less than normal as the models in this vision just aren’t as popular as past editions as most Stormcast fan boys will already have the old chunky liberators so they won’t be in any rush to go buy some more. (I actually prefer the old chunky models) so you have two factions which aren’t very popular in a box that that isn’t needed and they wonder why it didn’t sell. If people are hoping for a repeat of this in America then remember that the American warehouse is in Memphis, Tennessee so attendance events local to that state.

[@JanBaucke]

I've bought 2 boxes of Skaventide myself one in German from a local store, one in Englisch direct at GW (I wanted the tokens) and I feel a bit betrayed by GW. I would take a 3rd or 4th box for free any time - it's a great box and I don't understand why it isn't sold out by now. I just hope, this is only a thing down under.

[@VeloVios]

I'm an Australian and I was going to buy this box. Now I cannot justify spending anymore then 150aud on it, even then it kinda feels wrong to spend anything on it now

[@adamjackson260]

Clear it will cost more to keep in inventory or send back to base. Reminds me of US weapons in Afghanistan. Must have overproduced

[@voice9893]

They overproduced skaventide as much as they overproduced dominion

[@mikegrant8031]

Did not sell well. Gotta dump them for a marketing write off.

[@Trolleri87]

Such a stupid move to lock the rules behind a double paywall (WH+ and Battletome)

[@cloraformsgood5340]

Of course im really happy for those people who basically beat the odds for winning the national lottery and got given a box for free .. but i am left questioning why i had to buy both of my boxes? Although if anyone deserves free stuff from GW its the Ausies.

[@mangoman9290]

Overstocked and better to give away product at events and retain the high retail price point vs drop the price and piss off all of the indi retailers who are still fuming after selling the last edition below cost just to clear them out.

[@roguedm6523]

My personal theory is that there's something about the Australian market that they're addressing. Pure speculation but I think maybe there's no budget armies and they are trying to create budget / intro armies to hook people in. The average price of entry to the hobby compared to the income we earn here is pretty crazy so maybe that's it. Still this theory has holes. Why give them to the grand tournament players. No idea. Maybe they're they're trying to make us into advocates instead of grumblers.

[@cooljoe500]

Guess there will be no 5th edition :(

[@Centurion_of_Terra]

Wait... free? GW? Surely not