The community really showed their anger at the release of Charadon Book II, will GW finally start to change after the response?
GW has just been so tone-deaf lately that people are obviously getting upset. They are just leaving so many factions (mainly Xenos) in the dust while making Imperial content over and over. Not only is the content, similar, they are also constantly throwing in paywall releases for a tiny amount of rules or minis.
Visibly shaken hosts, quickly rolled into Sisters presentation, while forgetting to preview the Chardon Terrain…
The team who revealed the news actually seemed quite flustered by the response they were receiving. Like they almost had no idea people would be upset by a second Charadon release before a dozen factions don’t have a codex.
Not to mention the fact that if you play Ad Mech, you would need to buy 3 books and spend $170 just to have all the rules for your faction. All within 3 months of the codex release.
Let’s first take a look at the reveal and then talk a little more about the community response and what GW could actually do to regain the trust of the hobbyists.
GW Refuses to Change, After Yesterday They may Want to
In a rather unexpected reveal, the second Charadon book was previewed, which will focus on Be’lakor, the Legions of Shadows, Chaos Space Marines, Adeptus Mechanicus (again…), and the Sisters of Battle. People weren’t too happy with the reveal, as another paywall stylebook is preceding an insane amount of codexes.
For Ad Mech players out there, within 3 months they will have to buy 3 books ($170 total) to just have all the rules for their army. This seems strange because everyone thought they were finally about to get all their rules in one place.
Book of Fire
This book will give Be’lakor full rules along with a new way to take a Chaos army, The Legion of Shadows, where you can take both Daemons and CSM in one force. Be’lakor will give buffs to both sides of the faction and they say his combat ability will be on par with a Knight.
On top of that, Sisters of Battle and Ad Mech will also be grabbing some new rules, but if it’s anything like the first book, we assume it will be about 4 pages of rules and a new way to build your army.
They are also coming out with a terrain box along with the release, which they seemed to have forgotten till halfway through the preview due to the commotion in chat in response to the unveiling of Charadon II.
Don’t forget after allocating only TWO models of Be’lakor to stores, the chances of folks even being able to get this model when the book drops are pretty low currently.
Community Reaction
To say the least, people were not happy with the Chardon preview, and you can’t really blame them. It looks to be coming out before so many other codexes and putting a very small amount of rules for several factions behind another paywall.
It really sucks for Ad Mech players, but even Sisters players are going to have to spend $110 on just rules within 2 months to get all the rules for their army. Also, this was a sub-only chat, meaning the people commenting were those who actually paid to support the channel, not just random viewers full of vitrol!
So if this is only what the subbed people thought, who knows what an open chat would have been like.
We’ve said it before, but this is just such a strange idea, there is becoming less and less value in every codex release and more and more rules creep if these supplement offerings continue. To play Ad Mech, who don’t even have their book yet, you’ll need three books and spend almost $200 on just rules to play them…
We saved the best for last, this comment was just really funny and we had to showcase it!
Oof tough crowd, but as we say, always vote with your hobby dollars. If Charadon II isn’t for you- don’t buy it.
Regaining the Community’s Trust
While we GW to change and start building in more value for their products, it wont be that easy for them to be fair.
Even if they wanted to change after yesterday’s shameful display, at this point they would almost have to let everything in development run its course.
Meaning change could take at least 18 months. So we hate to tell you, it’s not going to be very soon either way, unless they totally change their business strategy. Most likely because of this, GW won’t even address their incessant lack of value and paywalls, just like they didn’t with Cursed City.
At this point, we feel like a tipping point was hit yesterday, and GW has to do something to regain the trust of the community, because people may not be willing to wait for them to change up their business strategy over the next 1-2 years.
After something like yesterday, GW may not have the luxury of time to wait for their development/ business cycle to end. If they keep this type of thing going, we feel that they will either drive people to other games or just stop hobbying altogether.
Hopefully, the terrible reception opened their eyes a little. But the strongest thing you can do is vote with your hobby dollars. If their low-value/ paywall product offerings don’t sell, they won’t continue to produce them!
Are you going to buy the new Charadon book? Do you think yesterday was a breaking point of sorts?
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About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
