Too much of a good thing?

[Grantholomeu]

I view pumping out a ton of releases as a different story between 40k as a casual player, as a competitive player, and as a YouTuber.

40k as a casual player, it isn't that bad. They probably don't feel pressured to buy a new box because it's good, only because it looks cool and it's in their faction. They don't have every model's abilities memorized anyways, so adding a couple more to the mix isn't a huge deal.

40k as a competitive player is significantly worse, a bit because you have to learn what new units can do, but more so because of GW's power creep, and if a competitive player wants to stay competitive, they're probably going to have to fork over some money for those amazing new units, only for another new and shiny unit to come out next month.

Do 40k YouTubers rely that heavily on showing off new releases? Personally I think more releases would only affect a small percentage of hobby YouTubers, but what do I know.

[Jye Nicolson]

40k as a competitive player is significantly worse, a bit because you have to learn what new units can do, but more so because of GW's power creep, and if a competitive player wants to stay competitive, they're probably going to have to fork over some money for those amazing new units, only for another new and shiny unit to come out next month.

Competitive players have a different - and funnier - problem.

New models are a coin toss as to whether they're any good, but a Codex or Dataslate can take any old model and push it to the moon, so you're suddenly trying to track down nine of something you've passed over on the shelves a hundred times.

The most competitive armies in 9th barely got any new models between them.

Drukhari, probably the longest at the top, got Lelith who is average at best.

Tyranids, who were stronger and maybe even better at eluding nerfs, got the Parasite.

Harlequins, probably the craziest thing we saw all edition in the hands of a skilled player (ie not me) got nothing. But that book sure as hell sold a lot of Voidweavers A lot of the new Craftworlds stuff in that book was very strong but a lot was average, their most meta stuff was Dire Avengers and Support Weapons, and none of it was really as good as Harlequins (admittedly a high bar).

Custodes got a decent character model, Tau I think got nothing?

Sisters got some great stuff but like Necrons, their time in the sun was more driven by secondary objective changes than the Sacresants and Paragons.

Votann nearly made the new model === busted meme true all by themselves but the premptive nerfs have made them a good competitive option rather than a compulsory upgrade.

Guard look to be a mix, with new horses and characters very good, Sentinels getting a glow up (but the old models should still work?) but Russes pushed as much as ever. Guard players do need a Kill Team kit right now but that might be more about literally broken rules (as in a bug) than new model push.

Chaos got some good stuff and arguably you do want a lot of the new Possessed but the Terminators were a late 8th refresh and the Noise Marines are still an old upgrade kit.

So it's a real adventure but driven by the publishing schedule (the time of the Voidweavers!) or the balance cadence (why I bought more Primaris tanks that are *finally* good now...but also more Devastators and another Drop Pod), not plastic releases. If it was new model releases at least you could predict it and I would have been able to enjoy a brief period where the Hamerfall Bunker and the ATV were any good