Age of Sigmar Range Rotation

[Overread]

Range Rotation, a method of restriction which models are currently in production for a model line, has been used by GW for some years with Middle Earth; began earlier this year for 40K (predominantly finecast models); and now has come to Age of Sigmar. A bit of a surprise, esp as the models chosen are plastics from the Underworlds Model line so far.

 

Right now the models listed are predominantly all of the previous seasons of Underworlds:

Stormcast: Stormsire's Cursebreakers
Stormcast: Steelheart Champions
Stormcast: The Farstridres
Khorne Garrek's Reavers
Fyreslayers The Chosen Axes
Skaven Verminus Spiteclaw Swarm
Ironjawz Ironskull's Boyz
Gloomspite Gitz: Mollog's Mob
Gloomspite Gitz: Zarbag's Gtiz
Slaves to Darkness Godsworn Hunt
Tzeentch: Eyes of the Nine
Rippa's Snarlfangs
Nurgle: The Wurmspat
Morgwaeth's Blade Coven
The Grymwatch
Mayari's Purifiers
Hrothgorn's Mantrappres
~Grashrak's Despoilers
Morgok's Krushas
The Dread Pageant
Korne Bloodbound Magore's Fiends
Deathrattle Sepulchral Guard
Skaeth's Wild Hunt
Nighthaunt: Thorns of the Briar Queen
 

Remember all these sets have rules in their respective Battletomes for their factions and they are legal in games. In addition they are some great creative models and can be just as good as a counts as leader or their own unit. They are also not being removed, range rotation comes with the expectation that GW will put them back in stock in the future, if only for short print durations. 

 

 

So if you want these models I suggest hunting them down; if you are lucky some might still be out there with their respective card sets if you want them for Underworld. 

[Nezzhil]

A bunch of resin models are being gone in recent months

- Aspiring Deathbringer (resin model)

- Maneaters are being removed from stores one to one.

- Saurus Scar Veteran On Cold One (today)

[novakai]

Possibly some inventory issues going on for GW

[Clan's Cynic]

I'm surprised to see the Beastgrave Warbands go. The Wurmspat Sorceress is a better model than the new plastic.

[Overread]

I'm surprised to see plastic going en-mass like this. Perhaps the situation at GW's factory isn't as good as we might think*. Then again they've got this big 30K release coming up so that might be in anticipation of that going utterly bonkers in terms of ordering volume. 

 

 

*in terms of power supply issues and worker issues with regard to covid safe work practice

 

[novakai]

8 minutes ago, Clan's Cynic said:

I'm surprised to see the Beastgrave Warbands go. The Wurmspat Sorceress is a better model than the new plastic.

Basically they choose everything that went webstore exclusive and their cards have been discontinued.

the Direchasm warbands minus the starter one are still avaliable in retail  

Edited April 22, 2022 by novakai

[HollowHills]

Have they announced this as range rotation?

Maybe they are just going to repack all the old warbands with "rivals" style decks?

I don't really follow underworlds but it seems odd.

[novakai]

12 minutes ago, HollowHills said:

Have they announced this as range rotation?

Maybe they are just going to repack all the old warbands with "rivals" style decks?

I don't really follow underworlds but it seems odd.

The email I got said range rotation, anyone else can confirm?

[Overread]

Yep this came from a Range Rotation Email. The news isn't yet live on the community site

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

I was surprised normal to see the Crimson Court (the vampire warband) on the list, but it seems to already be gone. I suspect it was just very popular and went out of stock.

[Overread]

Crimson Court is in stock on the main GW site in the UK. It's also still sold with cards, whilst all the others are sold without cards. 

[Baron Klatz]

Whew, thanks for the heads up lads!

Just now put in orders for those Stormcast warbands before they bolt back up to Azyr.  

Luckily already got the Chosen Axes last week with my Fyreslayers Battletome order.

speaking of which makes me a bit more okay with this on a lore level since it’s part of the continuity that the Shadespire curse is over so these retired warbands can now back home after more than a century of battle.

I do kinda hope Steelheart’s Champions will get a thunderstrike upgrade in the future for their next foray into Shadespire to collect more glass to help store lost souls.

would love the stylized Liberators seen in the Orruks tome with the bigger fan-halo helms and spikier heads going with the baroque sculpture armor. Really feel otherworldly and their warband could be design Forerunners for the next edition wave as we see Grungni has more time to add the eccentricities back in like the first waves where he had 500 years to go ham on the details.  

 

Also not on the rotation list(probably because of the Tome incoming) but ordering Ylthari’s Guardians too for some Ghyran allies. Really love their look and hope we can see more Revenants with less humanoid forms.

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Baron Klatz

[yukishiro1]

It's a terrible idea to have rules for models you can no longer buy. It's one thing to have rules for units that never had models; it's something else to have rules for units that used to have models but no longer do unless you pay an ebay scalper. It's especially odd from modern GW given how much they have tried to move the hobby away from kitbashed conversions. And it's especially, especially bad with stuff like these warbands where each model may have different weapons, different rules, and different base sizes, as it makes it especially difficult to kitbash them in a way that is WISYWIG and doesn't confuse your opponent. These units are frankly already confusing to use and to face in a lot of cases, and this just makes it worse. 

Range rotation has zero upsides for the consumer. It's another short-sighted decision aimed at boosting their margins ever so slightly more. 

 

 

[Baron Klatz]

39 minutes ago, yukishiro1 said:

It's a terrible idea to have rules for models you can no longer buy.

Well you heard ‘em, GW. Time to torch those Legends PDF’s. 🔥🔥🔥

But seriously that seems overblown. The UnderWorlds warbands have hardly ever seen much Matched Play use even with the current ones who have nicer rules, so it’s not like GW just made some meta void full of demand.

Majority of players buy them for the sidegame, for new alternative hero models/kitbashes or just for a really fun painting session with the variety they have.

With how relaxed that is them popping up every few years while UnderWorlds keeps cranking out even more warbands doesn’t really seem like a heel move here. More with what Overread said about the productions since the world’s topsy-turvy now and they had to find more vents for their older lines. 🤷‍♂️

[yukishiro1]

Legends is Legends. If they had current matched play rules for e.x. Tomb Kings it'd be a total mess if you couldn't buy them. If they want to move those warbands to Legends that's fine I guess, if still lame. But it's a bad idea to have parts of the range you can't buy except from scalpers. 

In 40k they started with "just" a bunch of old space marine named heroes nobody used. Now they're "rotating" like a third of the Drukhari codex. 

And while it may not be a huge deal for AOS, it's a big deal for Underworlds. What if you get into the game and want to play one of those warbands? Again, Ebay scalpers is your only solution. 

It's just not good for the consumer no matter how you cut it. 

 

 

[novakai]

I don’t think you can play them in underworld anyway since they don’t sell the warband stats card anymore, all you get is the miniature and that’s it. You have to basically find the card by other means because they discontinued them when the warband are sold separately 

unless you bought them when they first release.

Edited April 23, 2022 by novakai

[yukishiro1]

Yeah, but that's hardly difficult. Not having the miniatures is a much bigger barrier than having to print out some cards. 

The old warbands are still legal in the common Underworlds formats. People gripe about the cards but honestly if you play with people who are like "you don't have the original cards? then you can't play!" you probably aren't having much fun anyway. 

[Gitzdee]

4 minutes ago, yukishiro1 said:

People gripe about the cards but honestly if you play with people who are like "you don't have the original cards? then you can't play!" you probably aren't having much fun anyway. 

I dont like playing people with printed cards. It takes away the the effort and money i put in the game myself in a way. Its like playing someone with printed cardboard minis on stands. I try to get everything original and get stuff on the secondhand markets. I think its normal that if u want to play a game that u buy the stuff required to play the game. I dont get how this makes me a not fun person to play a game against.

These models imo are mostly being used as alternate sculpts. They have also been around for a while and have never been very usefull in AoS. There a many warbands left and still being released for underworlds for me to not care about these being gone. For the few people who really want to collect everything they just need to get it from somewhere else.

[yukishiro1]

I guess I shouldn't project. I wouldn't find it fun to play a game with someone with that attitude. And it doesn't seem even remotely like playing against someone with cardboard minis to me. But if you feel differently and you have a group of people who feel the same way you do, knock yourself out. 

If you don't care about range rotation that's fine too, it's up to you. I think it's a bad move both for the consumer and in the long run for GW itself, but then they obviously don't ask me. 

 

[zilberfrid]

Oof, that's a lot.

For someone in Europe, I have the following card sets that I could send for shipping costs:

- Thundrik

- Both Nightvault teams

- Godsworn Hunt

- Eyes of the nine

- Zarbag's

I'm not going to play it anyway and was just there for the models.

Do note that they probably don't hold up due to planned obsolescence in this game.

Edited April 23, 2022 by zilberfrid

[EccentricCircle]

Yikes, thanks for bringing this to our attention, there are a couple in there I'll want ti get. I'd hoped they wouldn't need to do this, as they're quite happy to just squat fantasy stuff they no longer want to make, so I thought everything in danger of being rotated was probably gone already. I guess not...

 

With LotR amd now 40k they always set a deadline for When the models will go, and honour orders up to that point even if it means casting a few more. Did they specify that in the email you got?

 

[Gotz]

52 minutes ago, EccentricCircle said:

Yikes, thanks for bringing this to our attention, there are a couple in there I'll want ti get. I'd hoped they wouldn't need to do this, as they're quite happy to just squat fantasy stuff they no longer want to make, so I thought everything in danger of being rotated was probably gone already. I guess not...

 

With LotR amd now 40k they always set a deadline for When the models will go, and honour orders up to that point even if it means casting a few more. Did they specify that in the email you got?

 

nope the email just had a short text (I've machine translated it since I got it in spanish):

"The impending range rotation means a few warbands from past seasons of Warhammer Underworlds are leaving stores. Get your favorites while you can."

[EccentricCircle]

11 minutes ago, Gotz said:

nope the email just had a short text (I've machine translated it since I got it in spanish):

"The impending range rotation means a few warbands from past seasons of Warhammer Underworlds are leaving stores. Get your favorites while you can."

Thanks for confirming. Hopefully they stick around till payday. I've just been planning to try out the warcry rules for these, and as a xenos player over in 40k thus could be a pricey month. At least I think I'm close to having all the AoS finecast I'm ever going to want at this stage, so they can do what they want with that!

[elfhead]

Was there an email about the 40k rotation, before it was announced on warhammer community? It seems weird they would announce the 40k rotations on the site, but not for AoS. 

[EonChao]

35 minutes ago, elfhead said:

Was there an email about the 40k rotation, before it was announced on warhammer community? It seems weird they would announce the 40k rotations on the site, but not for AoS. 

I believe I got the recent T'au, Necron, Ork rotation e-mail before the article went live. That said in general it's not unusual for War Com posts to follow e-mails.

 

Overall this is kind of a shame as the Underworlds models are some of the best out there. I was just telling a co-worker the other day that Zarbag's Gitz might be one of the best ways to get a nice little set of goblin figures plus a pair "cave monsters" for a D&D campaign. That said I've felt for a while that these kits were bound to go at some point. Removing them from general sale like this is awkward but I fully expect GW to continue to use them here and there in other boxed games like some of the Blackstone Fortress and E2B kits have been.

In terms of the models not being available for casual Underworlds play where you print your own cards to play with friends, well it's not exactly difficult to make up these Warbands from existing AoS figures with sometimes a little conversion work. And if you're already playing with printed/proxied cards then I'm sure no ones going to get upset if Angharad is proxied using a standard male Liberator, if the Fleshhound standing in for Riptooth has an oval (or rectangular) base instead round, or if Rippa's Snarlfangs are converted out of old wfb Wolfriders.