Imperial Service Expansion Pack Beta [JULY PRE-ORDER] – Warsenal Okay, Corvus Belli, we need to talk. This box is absolutely horrific value. The Shenji isn't a terrible unit, and I'd love to have two of them, but; The Yaozao is an ancient sculpt with fairly low detail and terrible attachment joints. The Shenji can only deploy one of these two turrets All four miniatures are in the grand scheme of things fairly small and uncomplicated The turrets are very basic. From the preview image, they don't seem to offer a significant improvement over the turrets I can mass-produce in my FDM printer. The sum total is that this product offers very poor value compared to the rest of your product line, almost down right predatory, and there's no justification for this, either. Shenji can't use both turrets and given the recent nerf to how turrets are used, there is very little value for the player to have an excess of turrets. While it is probably far too late to correct the core issues with this box, at the very least I hope that in the future you will take more care to make sure the content of your products better match what we have come to expect from your products. I do welcome that there's only one Zaozao type unit in this box, after all while veterans will be swimming in Yaozao, the same is not true for new players so it is still an important include. However, at the very least the remaining miniatures shouldn't be mutually exclusive to this degree where turrets aren't reloadable or the unit not having an increased availability to better match the content of the box. That is to say, if turrets were reloadable or if Shenji had two uses of their turrets, this would at least make some in-game sense.
Small note: the price on Warsenal's store might not show the price you expect when clicking the link. For me it shows an MRRP of 70 Australian dollars because at some point I wanted to check Australian prices, though I can't find how to change back now.
I think the same here. The Drummer Box was already not a user-friendly package. You can use only one of the two Drumbots and when you want to play two at once you have to prox or buy two boxen which will result in two drumbots without any use. Now we have one Shenji an old helperbot (most of the YJ players have already two from the support box) and two turrets … while one is an alternative … for only the Shenji (Normal Engineer use combi only).
If you have Adil Mehmut MI version, you now own a Shenji with a fancy fur colar. You can even replace his sword by a stick if you fancy so.
I was looking forward to this but now i'm not sure I can afford it. As mentioned, I have plany of the bots. I have turrets. $50 for a single figure is just stupid if I can proxy. It costs more than the Nomads Booster pack that has a S5 troop! And, all three usable figures at one time too. Sorry but big FAIL CB. Edit: I will add that some of the price might be US Tariffs. But that still doesn't explain why it costs more than the Nomad and Yu Jing sets with a larger figure. Something to note to, the re-packs are cheaper than new figures in general. Look at the Nomad and YJ sets compared to the TAK and IS sets.
In add, they should have made a generic box of turrets, or none at all, given that there are some in the ITS pack. This would have made it possible to make a blister pack of two miniatures.
I agree. There's many ENG in each faction that can have them. I pack of turrets and Deployable Cover would be great.
CB explained that the Essentials line use miniatures that are already paid off, reason why they can sale them at a cheaper price.
That was just an example. Drummer box is 41€ (1 drummer, 2 bots, no profile allows sole drummer or two drumbots, AVA4...), the same as this box that has 1 S2 metal model, 1 S1 metal model (I think, it could even have been downgraded to siocast) and 2 siocast turrets... As for the "cheaper" options for Essentials, Joanne Spitfire has gone down exactly 1.5€ Sure, GW heroes cost 50% more and are made in plastic. But...
I'm not sure it's a good excuse though. I don't know. What I do know is that I have a very limited amount of money right now and that figure is going to last on the list of Need to Get. So far they have been mostly a fail for me with Yu Jing. I have not gotten the IS box because it's super expensive and I have old figures I can use. That's the case for the Wu Ming and Zhanying. The only figure I bought since the new IS is the Long Wang. The next set better be good. I just hope it's 2 Vanguard and 1 Jinwe, but knowing them and my luck it will be opposite.
Weird, because I'm seeing price increases on reboxed items (maybe conveniently there's been a price increases everytime I check, who knows). Sure, I know prices change over the years, but seeing the latest single model Krakot being more expensive than dozens of the 4-model or remote boxes I've bought is quite an eye opener (sure, it's metal, but it's also hitting GW pricing for single models, ouch!). I've diminished my purchases by a significant amount now, thankfully this and the krakot are not on my list, so an easy pass and proxy for me.
Seems like CB are trying to become a premium brand or what? "You have Rolex, you wear Armani, you ride Ferrari. Now it's time to play infinity in elite club with your friends." Indeed, no wish to buy this miniature for such a price. Could we compare this with what happens in video games industry? One person said about 80 dollars price for the game:" If you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make it happen." I was not happy about "you can proxy" in the past, but now I am doing it more and more.
I also to testify that I'm shocked by the recent price increase in CB miniatures. When I started infinity 15 years ago, a single miniature would be less than 10€, and a starter with 6 mini 35ish€. Now we have single miniature for 18€, or even more than 20€. Inflation can't alone explain this price increase, at least not in Europe (I know inflation is more important in the US). I personally refrained from buying several miniatures (Mirage 5 and Jacques Bruant new versions, the Redeye for Pano, and a few others) I was fancing, not because I can't, but because I'm unwilling to pay this kind of price for miniatures. The same goes for Warcrow miniatures. I'm not buying the new mounted miniatures for this crazy 60€ price. And I know a lot of people who are now refraining from buying CB miniatures because of the price, when it was a positive or neutral argument before. I don't know what is behind these price increase (US inflation, increase cost for raw metal, other) but it's definitely harmful to the number of sales.
While I am disappointed CB chose not to resculpt the yaozao I still think this configuration of box contents is fine. Some people won't already have yaozao especially if they are new to Yu Jing or only play ISS. Tokens for Turrets are probably acceptable but miniatures are preferable. If you don't think this box has value for you then just don't buy it a Mech Engineer is a perfectly serviceable proxy for a Shenji and if you buy the YJ support box you get 4 models which incidentally costs you €31.95 a similar issue if you only want a single doctor for some reason. If you don't have a Mech Engineer sitting around you could just use a monstrucker or something.
I think it is not only useful but also our good right as customers to give a voice when beeing unhappy with the configuration of box contens, While proxing is allowed, some people do not like to do so. The box also suggest not to do it for game elements like turrets. So it is not a satisfing solution for some, while others just prox and give it a go. In the end - CB has to know what people like and what not, If they care or if they react is another issue. So not buying is a good solution for sure, but some like to have the correct miniature just without some bloat that pump the price up or in the case of the Pan O Drummers, to play two at once …
I too consider the pricing for this set to be excessive. One S2 metal model, one S1 metal model, two de facto counters (Deployables) made of siocast, and all that priced more expensive, than a box of 3 proper metal models, one S5 HI and 2 S2s? That doesn't hold water, CB...
We know one of those models will not see the table because you can only have one turret. Then there's always the chance the Shenji goes down before putting on the one they do have, and then, I don't know about you guys but I like the Shenji in a fireteam so he can't take the Yaozao! So, $50 for one figure. Not worth it. I'm also hesitant to sometimes get camo troops. I don't know how many times I go to the trouble of buying and painting one, and they NEVER leave camo/Hidden Deployment/Combat Jump/etc.
Well a least in the store the repacked booster boxes are cheaper than the new boxes. https://store.corvusbelli.com/en/coming-soon And if we take the Nomad booster pack as an example: it costs 30€. About ten years ago the HMG Taskmaster alone did cost me about 20€ in my FLSG (don't know exactly but it was without any discount) thus I'd say the essentials boxes are cheaper.
If it is metal, then we have another problem. We have JSA with siocast backpacks, but CB are using metal for tokens. Sounds also not as an excuse for this pack.
