Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University. This week, Thorne discusses the process for Warhammer 40,000 Armageddon preorders.
Games Workshop solicited preorders for the Warhammer 40,000 Armageddon boxed set (see “New Edition of ‘Warhammer 40,000’“) this week after soliciting preliminary numbers a week or so before. From what I was told, the preliminary numbers were not a hard and fast order but rather a gauge to see how much we thought we might want. Unfortunately, the first number given did turn out to be a hard cap on the quantity a store could get.
I know of several stores which saw increased customer interest after submitting their preliminary numbers; however, when the call came for final orders they were told that the store could not raise its numbers higher than the original number. Stores could still cut their preorder numbers, which given the demand we’ve seen for this set, even at a MSRP of $295, I doubt very much any store is willing to do.
GW also changed the ordering method for this release. As I have noted before, stores usually get the order form for new releases emailed sometime Sunday evening and have until 5:30 PM Tuesday to submit it. This makes it rather hard to gauge customer demand since GW reveals its customer-facing announcements of new releases on the following Saturday.
With Armageddon, stores got the request for preliminary numbers, then an email that the store’s GW representative would call for numbers, then the call from the representative on their regularly scheduled order day. I heard of several stores scheduling to make sure their buyer was available to take the phone call for the sales rep. No store stocking GW wants to miss out on this release. Much like Leviathan, the Warhammer 40,000 10E set (see “‘Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan’“), there is a lot of customer interest in this set, and stores were worried a missed call from the buyer would mean no copies and the loss of thousands of dollars in sales.
Given that the announcement was this past Saturday and the release date is scheduled for June 20, 2026, and that the time frame for the production run is about one to two years out, there is no way GW can scale up the production to meet any additional demand. The company estimated how large the production run needed to be and hopes it has made enough to satisfy the demand. Unlike with Leviathan, I have not yet heard of any stores getting allocated lower quantities, though, as I noted above, stores were not able to increase orders above their preliminary numbers.
Several stores also noted the lack of promotional materials provided by GW for the release. Typically, GW ties the release of a new edition of one of its flagship games to the receipt of in-store promotional material or a demo copy of the release to open to show to customers. There was no mention of such during last week’s sales call though GW did offer extended dating through August on orders. Instead, stores were offered the opportunity to purchase bundles of Combat Patrols or other figures in order (as GW said) to have a good in-stock position at the time of the release. Most stores, from what I’ve heard, opted to pass on the bundles, but I do see, at least according to the invoice we received, stores should get some form of Warhammer 40,000 promotional standee. I am not sure what we did to get it, though.
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The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
Source: ICV2
