Did you think new Starters Set will have SC?

[Galas]

Hi all!

 

The question is simple. One of the things that I loved of WFHB is that every new edition starter set had 2 different races, where in 40k its alwais Space Marines vs Something.

Did you thing that this will happen in Age of Sigmar? 

Personally, I prefer variety, but I can understand that if the most selling army are the Stormcast... from a economic level its the most reasonable approach for GW.

What do you think?

(The ones I remember from memory): 

WHFB:
4th Edition: High Elves vs Goblins
5th Edition: Lizardmen vs Bretonia
6th Edition: Orcs vs Empire
7th Edition: Dwarfs vs Night Goblins
8th Edition: High Elves vs Skaven

But in 40k we had...
3th Edition: Space Marines vs Dark Eldar (I can't find a photo)
4th Edition: Space Marines vs Tyranids
5th Edition: Space Marines vs Orks
6/7th Edition: Space Marines vs Chaos Space Marines  (Double the marines, double the fun!

[Saproling]

I'd say hopefully not, and given the release of the Spire of Dawn (totes not repacked 8th ed boxes) there's Aelfs vs Skaven. Hopefully we see some variety between them as there's many an opportunity to flesh-out a faction through a starter box. Personally hoping for a Death vs Destruction set sometime soon to balance out the SC v BB and Aelfs vs Skaven sets as they're both Order vs Chaos. If they re-released the old 6th starter box orcs, that'd be sweet as there's no way to get arrow boys without conversion and I'd love to get my hands on those orcs

Stormcast seem fully fleshed out now as a faction, besides going Full Marine (and you don't ever go Full Marine) and giving the stormcast guns, there's not much room besides fleshing out Devoted of Sigmar and such.

 

4th ed WHFB was High Elves vs Gobbos! Looked it up and there were cardstock placeholders for griffons and such!

[Galas]

 

Yeah, they where! Ill add it to the original post. I'm the only one that miss cardboard scenery?  Really GW, it will only cost you, like... 10$ to desing it and add like 0,10€ for box!

[Professor Clio]

That box was my first war hammer edition. I may still have that cardboard stuff somewhere. 

And I hope to god they don't do another stormcasr starter. variety is good for the hobby.

[MrCharisma]

No... but I do think each box set will probably have a Chaos variety in it. 

[bottle]

I'd hope that they follow the 40k set up of doing limited run campaign starter sets. The 40k ones still all involved Space Marines, but this could be a good opportunity to include other armies whilst keeping the basic starter set as Stormcast vs Bloodbound.

 

For reference, 40k had:

Space Wolves vs Orks

Blood Angels vs Tyranids

Deathwatch vs Harlequins

(all released during 7th edition.)

 

I want to see one that is Light Aelves vs Shadow Aelves.

 

[ZealousJ]

I'd say with age of sigmar still developing and fleshing out the worlds and factions a new starter set would be an ideal way for GW to show off one or two new factions before the main release.

In a similar way to how a fair bit of new Tzeentch stuff was showed off in Silver Tower it seems like a canny opportunity to have one of the two forces represented to be part of an upcoming release.

For example, I could see the new set being Stormcast vs a new death faction of perhaps nurgle rotbringers. If I were GW I'd certainly consider including say one new unit (marauder equivalent a la blood reavers and acolytes) a new monster or character (GW have a history of releasing larger models in boxed sets that they won't sell separately in order to artificially boost sales - eg Khorgorath, new rat ogres sculpts, deff koptas, hellbrute) and then a unit of bligh kings.

Keeping the other faction as Stormcast would keep it attractive to new players and encourage people who just want the nurgle (or whatever else) bits to buy it knowing Stormcast shouldn't be difficult to sell or trade.

That's what I'd do anyway.

That said it could also be a good opportunity to feature two otherwise barely touched upon factions, say realm of shadow elves and a mortal death faction. They could balance the risk of having two less 'heroic' forces by including more miniatures exclusive to the set.

Just some thoughts. Sorry for the rambling:)

Cheers

Johnny

[Wraith01]

I think they will. 

The Stormcast Eternals will most probably attract more new people into the hobby than anything else. And if they are consistently in the spotlight they will be the equivalent to the Space Marines. Eventually everyone will have at least one Stormhost in their collection.

[shinros]

Okay I am going to be the odd one and say they should do a devoted of sigmar starter set they can go the high fantasy angle more to differentiate them from the free guild and stormcast. The online game of warhammer online the art work for the warrior priests is how I would imagine GW would possibly make a heavy armor squad of warrior priests. Plus the sliver tower war priest has great themes going on his gear and it being a new setting we have legit reasons to have female members now. The set would be them vs Undead or a chaos force. 

Also I feel it would fit this phase of the fluff. 

Plus I think it would suck in some of those who are on the fence. Just put more motifs of the sliver tower priest on these guys along with the new scrawl the stormcast and sliver tower priest have they would look amazing. 

 

[Galas]

Hmm... the problem I see with it is... why exactly will the Stormcast attract more new players to the hobby?

My opinion is that this (Same with the Space marines) is a circular problem: Everyone had space marines because they are the posters boys and sell tons, because GW gives them all the shiny toys and exposure, because everyone had space marines because... etc...

 

Bottle, your idea is pretty good. I'll be sad because I had the bad luck of never having spare money when limited-run stuff is on sale, but something like that will add a ton of variety to the starters sets!

[KillagoreFaceslasha]

I certainly hope not, that we get other races. But for one I won't go crying if the next one is stormcasts as long as the other race isn't bloodbound, mainly because stormcasts have a fairly large range so you could safely, say, make a starter focused on a vanguard chamber rather than a warrior chamber.

[SuperHappyTime]

I see no reason to assume GW would put anything other than SC as one of the two armies. 

[Tanka]

The question to also consider is why did GW make Space Marines the poster boys...I would imagine it was because they sold well.

 

Makes sense doesn't it.

At worst it is a chicken or the egg argument.

Another thing to consider is that when Space Marines were first conceptualized they were re-imagined chaos warriors from warhammer fantasy.

A final consideration is what becomes iconic and recognizable as a "brand" outside of the hobby community- Space Marines achieve this to some extent and I would say they want Stormcasts to do the same- why else would they put a 10 foot tall stormcast statue out the front of HQ?

But these musings are not rumours- alas and since we are wishlisting starter sets I want a starter set with Fish men fighting dogs of war with scenery made out of carbon fibre so it is lightweight and easy to transport in the future when we have flying cars and robo-girlfriends.

[wayniac]

I hope they do more like the Spire of Dawn.  Keep the "main" starter box as Stormcast and Bloodbound, and then release extra sets for different armies as fits the fluff.  They don't need to worry about the rules and such because its freely available, so they have IMHO more flexibility to expand sets.  The problem, as with much anything GW does now, is that they are likely to be limited edition and not available after a month or so, because GW for whatever reason seems to consider impulse buying a viable selling tactic for an expensive hobby.

[Aeryenn]

Exactly what Galas said. They have a great opportunity, because of the AoS reset, to run things equally, omitting the "Marine poster boys trap". I don't see how dragging everybody to buy Stormcasts is better than buying any other GW AoS army?

For me the deal is simple - if they put SE in the new starter set I'm not buying that. I don't need more retributors or any other unit I already own. Starter set should be what it is suppoused to be - a starter. Something that gives you the incentive to start that army. I might be a hard target cause my conditions are as follows:

1. New, post-Old World minis. OK, those great Rotbringers or Nagash style&quality minis fit as well. That's why I passed on Isle of Blood I see them a bit obsolete.

2. Preferably new factions. Well if they release Fyreslayers and Ironjawz I happily buy it. But. If they release Malerion vs Slaanesh I'm preordering the box the same second. No need for rethinking.

[chord]

The Blue/Gold Stormcast are dead simple to paint for a new player which may be why they are in the start set.

[Hollow]

I think it is pretty clear that GW is trying to emulate the success of Marines with the Stormcast. However, I think they really need to make sure that the other Grand alliances are sufficiently fleshed out before really going to town on them (Different "Chapters") Therefore I think, as others have suggested, that keeping a main "starter set" with SC v Chaos with "Campaign" style boxes every so often to showcase the different realms and their inhabitants. 

I'd love to see boxes sets within the various realms. Allowing for new models for existing units and for entirely new and unque ideas to appear within the Age of Sigmar. 

[Lucio]

I hope we don't see a new starter set, what I would like to see is an additional Storm of Sigmar style set featuring two new factions and billed as an expansion to Storm of Sigmar.

The reasoning behind this is that the hobby lives and dies by new players, and since the switch to AoS, and the release of the Build and Paint ethos, it's been fantastic to see all the new players at my local store.

[AGPO]

 

On 05/03/2017 at 6:02 PM, Galas said:

Hmm... the problem I see with it is... why exactly will the Stormcast attract more new players to the hobby?

My opinion is that this (Same with the Space marines) is a circular problem: Everyone had space marines because they are the posters boys and sell tons, because GW gives them all the shiny toys and exposure, because everyone had space marines because... etc...

 

Bottle, your idea is pretty good. I'll be sad because I had the bad luck of never having spare money when limited-run stuff is on sale, but something like that will add a ton of variety to the starters sets!

It's a cycle yes but it makes a lot of business sense to have a poster child faction in any mini based game. Most people who play 40k have a space marine army, therefore any new space marine release can be sold to the majority of players. In contrast, let's say 5% play Eldar - if you release some plastic aspect warriors you're limiting your sales to that 5% plus anyone you can get to jump in with hobby butterfly syndrome.

Grand Allegiances mitigate this somewhat in AOS, as do the changes in ally and force org rules that came with the last couple of editions of 40k.

If there was a new starter set, I'd love it to offer a similar jumping in point for death and destruction. The one piece Goblins from skull pass still stand up in my opinion. Something similar for skeletons or zombies, a couple of characters and a monster per side and you're cooking on gas.

That said, I can see a new starter set with some other cheap Stormcast units not available in the first one doing very well. A vanguard themed starter box facing orruks would be perfect!

[Praecautus]

My heart says Death and Destruction but my head says stormcast will be. The objective of a starter set is to try in new players, SC are straight forward for a newbie to paint and there are a ton of options to expand the starter army

[Galas]

Yep. I totally understand that from a economically standpoint, having all the starters sets being 50% Stormcast is the most reasonable thing for GW to do.

I was just wishlisting for a more Fantasy approach with the starters  

But the thing that someone says, that starters will be Stormcast vs Chaos (Or just Stormcast vs Bloodbound) all the time. I see that very unlikely, they didn't to something like that in 40k.

[Praecautus]

It would be great if the continue to release additional add on smaller box sets similar to Storm of Sigmar and Spire of Dawn. If they are clever about it they can function as add on scenarios to the main starter and also tie in with new releases. 

For example, when Tzeentch was released they could have done a small Tz vs SC set that could tie in with starter SC army like SOS. This could have a book of scenarios that uses that small sc vs Tz set but also expanded scenarios that include the starter set SC army as well as a wider Tz force you can buy. This could be the Start Collecting box or a couple of boxes of units.

There are benefits for all here - GW attract new players who learn how to play and build an army which means more sales with natural next steps laid out and scenarios to know how to use the new units. Finally, A taster set like sos is also a way for all to trial a new army which also fits into a wider narrative.

I have used sc as an example army to expand, but it could just as easily be the other army or involve another existing army outside the starter set. The main point is that the add on kits introduce a third army to the mix and show how to expand it.