Warhammer 40K: ‘Imperium’ Subscription Comes To The US
Want to slow-grow your Warhammer 40,000 collection with a subscription service? Games Workshop has you covered with ‘Imperium’ coming soon!
Fans outside the UK have been waiting for this to launch and it’s finally happening on January 26, 2022. Here in the US, we will be able to sign-up for the “part-works magazine” that is Warhammer 40,000: Imperium.
What Is Warhammer 40,000: Imperium
“Imperium is a perfect starting point for newcomers to the hobby, featuring guides and tutorials aimed at getting you acquainted with everything Warhammer has to offer, while building up two seriously impressive armies as you go.”
That’s all fancy marketing speak for “we ship you stuff on a regular basis and you’ll eventually end up with two good sized forces plus extras.” Just how large of a collection of miniature are we talking about? Take a grainy look for yourself:
I’m not 100% sure why GW didn’t take a higher rez photo of this collection but it’s a large amount of stuff. The Necron part appears to be a lot of the miniatures from the Indomitus boxed set and more. That’s not a bad thing! On the Imperial side of things we have a mix of Space Marines, Adeptus Mechanicus, and Adepta Sororitas. There’s some heavy hitters in there including Guilliman himself!
There’s also a bunch of terrain kits included as part of the collection, too. The idea is that eventually you’ll have a nice collection of these two forces and can actually play some decent sized games with some good terrain to match.
But let’s back up a bit. You know that you’ll receive these miniatures, but how does it all work? And what’s the price? Good questions. You can find all your answers at their website here. But we’re going to break it down a bit and answer those questions.
How Does Imperium Work?
Starting on January 26th fans in the US will be able to purchase issues of Imperium. You’ll be able to buy these from Warhammer Stores as well as other stockists that carry it (like newsagents or big box stores like Barnes and Nobles). You can also sign up for a subscription via their website.
What’s included in these issues varies from week to week. It’s a “part works” model which isn’t something that’s hugely popular here in the US. But the idea is sound and it’s a good way to get a constant stream of miniatures to collect, build, and paint. If you’re interested in either of these two forces that is. You can “go premium” for some more diverse models but those come later on.
The collect is 80 issues in total — so that’s 80 weeks of releases! That’s a lot of stuff. If you want to get all of them you’ll want to get that subscription. Otherwise, you can hunt them down individually. Subs work slightly differently. From what we gather, instead of a weekly shipment, you’ll get 1 pack a month that contains 4 of the Issues (plus any gifts you might have ‘earned’ at that point).
How Much Does Imperium Cost?
The pricing is a little confusing. The first issue costs $6.95. But they get more expensive after that.
We’re not going to calculate taxes but the basic pricing is $13.95 after the first issue. And remember, that’s not a monthly price, that’s every week if you’re buying these from your local stockist or store. It’s not a bad way to grow your collection — but it will add up quick.
If you’re doing the whole subscription thing you’re going to get charged for 4 issues per pack. After the first month that’s $13.95 x 4 = $55.80 per pack of 4 issues. So a little bit less than a box of Primaris Marines per month.
One of those issues does have a Guilliman in it and that’s a $60 model though…
Look, we’re not 100% sure on if this is a good discount or not — it’s kind of hard to tell exactly what all you’re getting from the zoomed in picture above. But what we can tell you is that it’s a good way to slowly grow your collection. It’s a whole lot less overwhelming to get a miniature or 5 a week to build/paint than boxes and boxes all at once. It’s also got the magazine info inside each issue which has more useful info.
Eventually, you’ll end up with a lot of stuff. That’s over an 80 week period though. So if you’re looking for a weekly Warhammer boost this seems like a neat way to do that. Personally, I’m kind of thinking of hunting down individual issues from FLGS/Stockists. I don’t need 3 random Marines. But a character here and there might be cool.
Just sayin…cool random one-off minis are cool with me!
If you’re interested in this service then you might want to check out all the fine details on their site. We covered the highlights and it does seem like a decent deal overall. The biggest thing to me personally is the fact you’re getting a few minis every week or month if you subscribe. By the time you finish those up, the next batch arrives. That’s a nice way to keep pace with your hobby without getting overloaded.
What do you think of Warhammer 40,000: Imperium? Are you going to start collecting them?
