On Monday, Games Workshop revealed the contents of the latest Warhammer 40k Chapter Approved mission deck, providing the new default set of missions that will feature in organised play and most pick-up games. Fans in the r/WarhammerCompetitive subreddit have raised concerns that the stock level they're seeing coming to their local game stores simply won't be enough to meet demand.
'Warhammer 40k fans are unhappy with Warhammer 40k' isn't news in itself, but this time we think it's worth reflecting on. If you want to play competitive games, you need access to a copy of the latest Chapter Approved mission pack - is that the right way to design the game?
Last year's Pariah Nexus Chapter Approved mission cards did suffer from stock shortages. These weren't so terrible that they drove the scene to a grinding halt, and it's perfectly possible that GW has done a better job predicting how much stock it needs this time around. Still, the fans in r/WarhammerCompetitive who are worried about this have reasonable grounds to be cautious.
Games Workshop has been ramping up production and trying to improve forecasting for the miniatures that accompany major Warhammer 40k faction releases, and we haven't seen any massive day-zero sellouts for new models in a couple of years. But whereas GW can't distribute its models digitally (at least not at its current scale, quality standard, and profit margin), it likely could for the Chapter Approved cards
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This brings us back around to the perennial question of whether or not Warhammer 40k's rules should be free. Should rules primarily be a product that Games Workshop sells, or a marketing expense it uses to encourage people to buy more toy soldiers?
As products, Chapter Approved cards (and Warhammer 40k Codex releases, for that matter) are high-spec enough that you can see where your money goes. But they throw up a barrier of cost - and in this case, a question of stock availability - between fans and the game. In an age of digital distribution, can be overcome by a firm willing to give up on those sales - and Warhammer 40k would remain enormously profitable even if its rules were free of charge.
What do you think? Are there downsides to going digital that I haven't covered? Are GW's printed rules so good that they're worth the occasional stock shortage? We'd love to hear from you in the official Wargamer Discord community.
Any time I discuss the cost of Warhammer 40k rules, I have to point out Warmachine, which has had a better app than 40k for longer than the 40k app has existed. It provides way more functionality for free, and in its Adepticon previews it dropped a real doozy of a sweetener for the annual app subscription: you get a free model that retails for as much as the annual sub.