A couple of years back Ben wrote an article looking at how much it costs to collect a number of the armies in the 40k universe. Given Games Workshops recent changes in pricing strategy you might wonder how the cost of the armies have changed. I was recently looking through an old rouge trader era White Dwarf, which is always a recipe for a trip down nostalgia lane and a sure way to be shocked at the change in the prices. How does £60 for a 2000 point Space Wolves army sound? What would be your guess at the price of a 2000 point force today, £300, £400?
.
Well the 1st thing you have to bear in mind is the points values were completely different in rogue trader and this army also contained 3 special characters. The rest of the army comprises a single Grey Hunter, Blood Claw, Long Fang pack along with four Wolf Guard in Terminator armour. It hardly sound like 2000 pints by today’s standards does it? So out of interest I’ve added up the points for this army using Gareth’s 7th edition Space Wolves codex, the points cost comes in at just over 1400 points (if you only take the available upgrades, e.g. one power fist for the blood claws). I’ve also totalled this up using the 5th edition codex. It comes in at about the same amount. Including all the power fists and cost the hand flamers as flamers add another 100 points to the total. So this is about 1500 points of space wolves.
So what would the purchase price now be?
Ragnar Blackmain £12 (Rouge Trader price £5)
Njal Storm Caller £12 (Rouge Trader price £5)
Ulrik the Slayer £12 (Rouge Trader price £5)
Grey Hunter Pack £23 (Rouge Trader price £12.99)
Blood Claw Pack £23 (Rouge Trader price £12.99)
Long Fang Pack £22.50 (Rouge Trader price £9.99)
Wolf Guard Terminators £28 (Rouge Trader price £11.96)
Total Price
£132.50 (Rouge Trader price £62.90)
The battle report in question is from 1993 over 21 years ago. So in 20 years Games Workshops prices have gone up by over 100 percent. I don’t know about you but I was a bit surprised it wasn’t more than that. If I had managed to invest £62 in a 8%pa investment bond over the last 20 year the investment would now be worth £280.
The current Global economic climate makes Games Workshops prices look totally unreasonable, but it appears the truth is the core model range hasn’t gone up that much.