Warhammer 40K: New Space Marine Vanguard Task Force – The Same For More
Games Workshop has a “new” Vanguard Task Force box in stores this weekend. But this release is more than a little disappointing.
Last week GW put up their regular Pre-Orders and one product kind of jumped out at me. That product was the “new” Vanguard Task Force. This one had me scratching my head because, like many folks online pointed out, wasn’t this already a “thing” from GW? So I’ve been stewing on this one for about a week because I wanted to come at it from a “just the facts” perspective. I dug around our archives and just want to lay out some receipts really quick.
“New” Vanguard Task Force – $140 (2023 Release)
Contents:
1x Lieutenant in Phobos Armour (not currently available individually but estimated at $40)
3x Eliminators with bolt sniper rifles = $60
3x Suppressors (not currently available individually but estimated at $60)
10x Infiltrators = $60
Total Individual MSRP: $220
Total estimated savings: $80
Again, it’s a little hard to price out because some of those options aren’t available anywhere else. So what’s so “wrong” with this boxed set? Well, it’s the fact that it’s basically replacing the previous options…which is a hard pill to swallow. Here’s the previous two examples:
Combat Patrol: Space Marines – $160 (2021 Re-release/Price Update)
1x Lieutenant in Phobos Armour (not currently available individually but estimated at $40)
10x Primaris Infiltrators $60
3x Suppressors Not available separately – closest unit used ( Primaris Aggressors $60 )
3x Eliminators $60
1x Primaris Impulsor $80
Individual MSRP $300
Total Savings (at the time) $140
This box is no longer available but there are still a bunch of Combat Patrol Boxes out there ready for purchase. The fact that GW pulled this box also leaves a bad taste in our mouths because Combat Patrol is one of the new ways to play 10th edition. So now we can’t even buy this box for the game mode that GW was pushing as a new, balanced way to play. Instead we have to buy this Vanguard Box and then an Impulsor. But let’s go back even earlier…
Start Collecting! Vanguard Space Marines $95 (Re-released 2019)
Hey, look at that! It’s the same exact miniatures in a different box and the cost was $95 for all of them — that’s $45 cheaper than those same miniatures today. I mean, the box is different…so I guess that’s where the markup comes from. But seriously, I know that GW has those yearly price updates and they ARE a business so they kinda want to make money…And also some weird stuff happened to the markets in 2020. I get that. But looking back at the price jump from 4 year ago to now( a $45 increase on a $95 product) makes me wish I could find stocks with that kind of rate of return.
You know what, I’ll even go one more step further…
Shadowspear Boxed Set $175 (Released March 2019)
Contents:
Vanguard Space Marines
– 1 Captain in Phobos armour, equipped with a master-crafted instigator bolt carbine and a camo cloak
– 1 Librarian in Phobos armour, equipped with a force sword, holstered bolt pistol, camo cloak and psychic hood
– 1 Lieutenant in Phobos armour equipped with a master-crafted occulus bolt carbine, grav-chute and pair of combat knives
– 3 Suppressors (including a Suppressor Sergeant) equipped with accelerator autocannons and a grav-chutes
– 3 Eliminators (including an Eliminator Sergeant) equipped with bolt sniper rifles and camo cloaks
– 10 Infiltrators (including an Infiltrator Sergeant and Infiltrator Helix Adept) equipped with bolt carbines
Daemonkin Chaos Space Marines
– 1 Master of Possession equipped with force stave and holstered bolt pistol
– 1 Venomcrawler equipped with a soulflayer, two excruciator cannons, tendrils and eviscerating claws
– 2 Obliterators equipped with fleshmetal guns and crushing fists
– 2 Greater Possessed equipped with a variety of daemonic mutations
– 10 Chaos Space Marines (including an Aspiring Champion with chainaxe and plasma pistol), 3 with boltguns, 4 with bolt pistol and chainsword, 1 with plasma gun, and 1 with autocannon
I’m not even going to do the individual math because I think you get the point. $175 for what was essentially TWO Start Collecting! Boxes. And that’s counting all the extras. And yes, we know that GW typically does big discounts on boxed sets (which is why they sell out so fast). And again, this was back in 2019. Oh how times have changed. (More like how things have gotten more expensive…)
I realize this is going to come off a bit as an “old man yells at cloud” moment but I don’t feel like those previous releases were that far in the past to really justify that price hike over time. I also realize that the Vanguard units in this box were never really the most popular option either. Still, it’s the only place you could get those Suppressors, so there is that. All that to say this release just feels bad, man.
Maybe GW just had to put out an emergency release because Legions Imperialis got delayed? Whatever the case pulling the Space Marine Combat Patrol for this New Vanguard Task Force isn’t a good move.
