First, they did it with Chaos Havoc Chaincannons, and now Sisters of Battle Retributors only come with two of each heavy weapon. Why?
Is it time to buy a 3D printer or more bits for your next army?
You might remember the drama with the Chaos Havoc Squad and the Chaincannon back with Chaos Space Marines dropped after Vigilus. TL;DR Chaincannon was the obviously better weapon at the time and only one weapon came in each kit.
This forced players to shovel money into GW’s pockets and really seemed to cause an outrage in the community, and perhaps a spike in 3d printer and bits sales.
This whole model was printed using the Anycubic 3D Printer.
This Chaincannon was spotted on eBay from Kojo1231 going for $4 per bit.
Well, Games Workshop just did the same sort of thing with the Sisters of Battle Retruibtor Squad.
Chaincannons & Havoc Squad Drama
We talked about it previously above, but in essence, the OP weapon of the time for Havocs was the Chaincannon. And unfortunately, the $50 kit only came with one bit That meant to have a single Havoc Squad full of Chaincannons would cost $200 and an abundance of extra models you didn’t really need. This led to an outburst of 3D printing bits of alternate versions of the Chaincannon that were MUCH cheaper. POP Goes the Monkey has a ton of these that fit almost any Chaos theme army.
GW Pulled the Same Stunt With Retributor Squads
Moving onto the Sisters of Battle, the near-equivalent unit to Chaos Havocs are the Retributor Squads. The Retributors are a five-man unit of girls with a Sergeant and four heavy weapons. However, looking at the kit, you’re only getting two of each weapon option (the same as the  Space Marine Devastator kit).
While the SM Devastator kit has existed for years and nobody has ever batted an eye (even though it comes with more copies of each weapon that this), what really costs the player running Retributor Squads comes from Stratagem support.
Looking at Storm of Retribution, it’s a costly 2CP Strat that allows you to pick one of the three choices. Each option solely focuses in on a certain weapon that Retributors can carry. But in order to gain full value for the Strat, the entire squad needs to have all of the same weapon.
In short, it’s strictly not worth 2CP to have two weapons of an Infantry Squad gain a one-time bonus when they shoot. This prods the player into kitting each Retributor Squad with the same weapon. With the kit costing $55 a pop, that means a player has to spend $110 in order to gain the full benefit of a single Stratagem out of their codex.
Luckily, the 3D printing/alternative bit-making trend has steadily been increasing and companies like POP Goes the Monkey may be saturating the market for Sisters-themed weapon alternatives soon.
With the pattern of GW purposefully reigning back weapon options in their newer kits, has 40k ever been more expensive to jump into?
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