This deserves to be pulled out and looked at, even though we had it rather clear yesterday. The new Combat Patrol boxsets are here to start replacing the Start Collecting boxsets that existed before to get new players into an army or to jumpstart someone into the hobby.
Quote from WarCom
For a long time, the Start Collecting! boxes have been a great way to begin a Warhammer 40,000 army or to add to an existing one. Now, as new codexes and codex supplements come out, they will start to be replaced with Combat Patrol boxes instead.
8th Edition
Here is what it costs before Combat Patrol Boxes. Quite a few of the start collecting boxsets were $85-90 without a codex which would cost you $40
Codex $40
Start Collecting Box $85-95
Core Rulebook $60
So overall it was just under $200.
9th Edition
Codex $50
Codex Supplement $30
Combat Patrol $140
Core Rulebook $65
It may not be a fair comparison as the point values of the Start Collecting Boxsets looks lighter than the combat patrol boxes. For a new person though its important that they are told its a $250-300 starting investment to jump into Warhammer 40k depending upon which army you get.
Thats still a rather big jump and I think the next question is whether or not this is cutting out a group of younger hobbyists. Yes there are smaller games like Kill Team, but I think the hobby feels like it's getting harder and harder for new blood to enter the scene.
What do you think? Where is this going? Justified in today's climate? I still remember the days when I owned most if not all the codexes, something I would never do today.
